~*Part 9*~

Oz and Tara slowly opened their eyes, and found themselves in a black abyss.  Their surroundings twinkled with stars.  They stood up, and looked around.

"Willow?!"  Tara called.  Then she heard moaning.  Oz and Tara ran, but only took one step before their thoughts brought them to Willow and she suddenly appeared in front of them.

Willow was sitting down on blackness, on no visible feature.  Dust was swirling slowly from her, and she appeared to be getting smaller.  Tara closed her eyes and held out her hands  Energy started to accumulate in her hands, and she spoke.

"Magick mend and sickness burn, sickness end; good health return."  The dust stopped, and information from the astral spirits filled her mind.  Willow slowly began to grow back to normal size.  Tara opened her eyes.  "I know what's wrong.  There is a demon feeding off her life energy.  He's attracted to werewolves.  The bigger the werewolf, the more he's attracted, and the less it takes to kill them.  We have to get you out of here."

Willow slowly started to gain consciousness and disappear from the astral plane back to they physical one.  Tara blessed her spirit back to the physical plane.  The demon started to awaken now that Willow was no longer there for him to feed off.  His attention turned to Tara.

"Wait, Tara.  Why is he attracted to Willow?  She's not a werewolf."  Oz realized.

"I know.  Its.."  The demon launched itself in the form of a wolf at Tara.  She grabbed Oz's hand.  "Run!"  They ran together.  "Now count backwards from 10, and at 1 open your eyes."

"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2..."  The demon landed on Oz's back, and his grip on Tara's hand momentarily slipped.  Tara looked back and only saw Oz, she grabbed his hand again and pulled him to his feet.  "1..."

They opened their eyes to find themselves back in the hospital room.  Willow was just starting to awaken.  "O-oz?"

Oz grabbed her hand, "I'm here."  Everyone smiled relieved to see everything okay.  Oz breathed in and suddenly realized he couldn't.  He gasped for air, and fell backwards onto the tile floor.

Willow screamed his name.  "OZ!"

Devon ran out into the hallway.  "Nurse!  Nurse!"

Two nurses came in and hurriedly checked his pulse and breathing and started CPR.  They checked his pulse again.

The nurses stopped, and one of them looked up at everyone.  Buffy sat next to Willow, who had tears rolling down her face.  Devon was leaning against the wall for support.  And Tara sat down staring at Oz's body on the floor.  "I'm sorry.  He's dead."