CHAPTER SIXTY
Reunions
Sometime just before sunrise, Buffy awoke. Spike was spooned behind her nudging and touching her provocatively. "Are you trying to tell me something," she asked over her shoulder.
"Just suggesting," he said nuzzling her ear.
They made love lazily. Afterwards, Buffy put her head across his chest.
"Do you remember anything?" she asked, as she ran her hand up and down his side. It was good to be able to touch him again and wind herself around him. How she'd hungered for the feel of his naked flesh against hers.
"Through a haze. But it got clearer as the days went on. God, William was such a wanker."
"I don't know. He was kind of cute. He reminded me a lot of Zachary."
"Yeah . . . they're both wankers."
"Spike! Zachary's been awfully supportive of Dawn."
"OK . . . OK. Gotta give him that. When Dawn was up against it, he was there."
"You remember what happened to Tara?"
"Yeah. But having William out there kept me from having to deal with it. Course, I was really flattered that I was the first person Tara visited after she got back."
"Got back? What are you talking about?"
"Tara is back. You do know that, don't you? She's the one who brought us together last night."
Buffy pulled herself up so she could look into Spike's blue eyes. He didn't appear to be joking. "What?"
"Last night. Tara put me to sleep and then walked with you into my mind and left you there. You told me how you needed me and loved me and then you fell asleep. But I came in here and woke you up and we . . ."
"Yes, I remember the rest quite clearly. But the part before that was a just dream."
"Which we both experienced. Did you or did you not say you loved me?"
"Yes, but . . ."
"How could I know that unless we were in the same dream, or under the same spell?"
"You mean . . . Tara was really here?"
"That wasn't the first time, either. Willow called her back in spirit form the night before last. Afterward she came into my subconscious and said she hadn't appeared to Willow because she didn't want her to get caught up in a God complex. She figured that would make Willow really go off her bird. She also said Willow had started in with Rack again."
"Then . . . last night by her grave . . . I didn't just imagine hearing her voice in my head."
"Nope. You were hearing the witch herself."
"You don't think she's still here, do you?" Buffy looked around half expecting Tara to appear.
"Right here? Not likely. Can't imagine Tara going in for peep shows. But she might be somewhere in the house."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Instinctively, Buffy jumped into a sitting position and pulled the sheet up in front of her. "Who is it?" she asked breathlessly.
"Who do you think?" Dawn's irritated voice answered from the other side of the door. "It looks like Willow's bed hasn't been slept in and William's not downstairs. And . . . I heard some strange noises coming from your room last night. Is Spike back?"
Buffy and Spike looked at each other sheepishly. "Oops," Buffy said.
"I think you should go out to your sister," Spike said. "I'll meet you in the kitchen."
"Right," Buffy said, leaping for her night gown and robe.
Dawn was waiting just outside the door when Buffy appeared.
"So, is Spike back?" Dawn asked.
"Yes. Last night."
"Thought so."
"Dawn, I'm sorry, I . . ."
"Don't sweat it. It's not like you two were ever quiet. It's just with William here I was getting used to the silence and . . ."
Buffy held her hand up. "Please. This is so not a conversation I want to have. We'll try and be more quiet from now on. I promise."
"Look, I'm happy about Spike. But where's Willow?"
"She's not here. I think she stayed over at Rack's last night."
This was something Dawn didn't want to hear. "Rack's?"
"Yes. Spike and I will try and find her today. Or rather tonight, before we go downtown. It'll be all right. You go get ready for school and I'll get breakfast."
Dawn did as she was told. But hearing about Rack didn't give her much confidence. Without thinking she rubbed her left arm. For her, the name Rack meant broken bones and attacking demons.
When Spike came down to the kitchen he found Buffy busily burning some frozen waffles in the toaster. "Hmm," he said disapprovingly, looking over her shoulder.
"This is where I miss sweet tempered William and his endless cups of tea. You don't think you could get in touch with your inner human and give me some help here?"
"I suppose." Gently but firmly, Spike moved her aside and slipped some more waffles into the toaster. "You get the butter and heat up the syrup."
"How do you think we contact Tara," Buffy asked as she pulled things out of the refrigerator.
"Don't know. But if it's like on the telly, all we have to do is call out for her. If she's in earshot she'll come."
"What if Dawn hears?"
"We'll give her some explanation. What do we have to lose?"
They gazed at each other uncertainly across the room.
"You want to do it?" Buffy asked.
"Not bloody likely."
"It was your idea."
"But she's more your friend than mine."
"She visited your head before she visited anyone else's."
"But you're the Slayer. It's your job."
Buffy pursed her lips. She felt ridiculous. This was right out of an old TV sitcom. "Tara," she said softly.
"Oh, come on," Spike said crossing his arms over his chest. "Is that the best the big bad slayer can do? Even with my vampire senses, I could barely hear that."
Buffy made a face at her boyfriend and ratcheted up her voice. "Tara!" she yelled.
On cue, a mist appeared at the center of the kitchen. It grew in size and then began to take on shape. A smiling Tara appeared in a shimmery frock of spring green. She was visible, but not solid. You could see through her to the counter island behind. She would eventually call this her visible format, where she could be seen but not touched. She could pass through walls and floors, but not so easily as when she was invisible. The more solid her figure, the more energy it required to maintain. In full physical form she could be touched, but she couldn't move through any objects. And like Spike, she had no heartbeat. Nor did she need to breath.
Buffy was speechless. Tara's name formed on her lips again, but it was hushed and barely uttered.
Spike was more accepting. He'd seen a ghost or two in his day. One in China and two others in Europe. "Hey. How ya doing?" he welcomed. "Where were you just now? In some ghost never-never-land? Or were you just invisible?"
"Neither, I was in Willow's room. It made me feel closer to her."
"Do you know where she is?"
"She went to Rack's last night. I tried to infer that to Buffy."
"Well, the Slayer here got your message, but she thought it was all in her imagination. It took a bit of convincing this morning before she would believe that you were back. Do you think Red is still at Rack's?"
"I was hoping she'd come in last night or early this morning. But she didn't. I suppose I should have followed her last night. But I couldn't bear to see her do that to herself."
"Tara . . ." Buffy muttered again.
"It's all right," Tara said with a smile. "I'm real."
"No you're not," another voice sounded from behind them. The others turned around to see Dawn. The teenager had come down to breakfast smelling burned waffles and that was really all she had expected to find. "This can't be happening. It's not you."
"Yes it is," Tara said. "Willow did a spell to call me back, she just doesn't know yet that it worked."
Dawn walked up to the transparent Tara and put her hand through her arm. "How could she do that to you? You're here, but you're not."
"I'm here," Tara said. And with that her form began to become more solid, till it took on both shape and substance. She reached out to Dawn and took her hand. Her touch wasn't cool like Spike's. It was more neutral. As she squeezed Dawn's hand, the girl's eyes began to tear. "It's all right," Tara said pulling Dawn into her arms. "It's all right. I'm not going to leave you again."
Dawn held onto Tara tightly. Buffy stood behind them, wiping away a tear or two of her own.
Getting Dawn off to school that day wasn't easy. She wanted to stay with Tara. But Buffy was adamant. As soon as the teenager had gone, Buffy turned to Tara and Spike and said, "So, where do we go from here?"
"Well," Tara said, "I'm going to look for Willow. I'm starting to worry about her."
"We were planning on looking for her after dark," Buffy said. "Spike couldn't sense out Rack's place last time. But maybe if we ride through the streets on the motorcycle, we could cover more ground and . . ."
"I can go more quickly," Tara said. "I'll have to travel over the city bit by bit, but I can move very quickly when I'm invisible. And no matter how cloaked his place is, I'll be able to see it. In my present state I can see the shadows left behind by magic. I can even see the remains of the spell that Willow used to bring me back still up in her room. I will find her. And if I have to appear to her to get her attention, I will. I'll let you know what happens."
"What about Xander and Anya?"
"I'll let you tell them about me," Tara said. And with that, she disappeared.
As it turned out, Xander was already at work by the time Buffy called his apartment. But Anya was still there. Rarely had Buffy heard the ex-demon sound so joyous. "That's wonderful!" she exclaimed when she heard that their friend was now a ghost. "Really wonderful. That means Tara will be around with us as long as she wants to be. And ghosts are so handy to have around. Not the moaning, groaning, chain rattling, doom and gloom kind. They can be very tiresome. But of course Tara won't be one of those. This is a real step up for Tara in the world of the supernatural."
Buffy shook her head. Anya made it sound as if Tara had gotten a job promotion.
"You've got to call Xander right away. I've got his work number written here somewhere. Where is it now? It's not on the refrigerator. Now where did I put it? Oh yes, here it is, under the phone. I have it more prominently posted at the Magic Box." Anya gave Buffy the number and finished off by saying, "If they give you any trouble about talking to him, just tell them it's a family emergency. That always gets 'em. You wouldn't know it from looking at them, but construction guys can be very family oriented. Would you believe it? They're already hounding Xander about us having babies."
"Yeah, OK," Buffy said.
When Buffy called Xander's construction site, they hemmed and hawed about calling him to the phone. As per Anya's advice, Buffy said it was a family emergency and the man who answered the phone immediately went to fetch Xander.
"Harris here," Xander said after a bit. He had his macho work voice on. Evidently they hadn't told him the nature of the call.
"Xander, it's Buffy. I think you better sit down."
A flash of fear went through Xander. It sounded like bad news. And if so, why was Buffy calling instead of Anya? Spike had been zapped by Warren recently. Tara had been killed. Being superstitious, Xander was afraid that something terrible might happen to his significant other next. "Is Anya all right?" he asked.
"Oh, sure. She's fine. In fact, she sounds quite happy."
"Happy?" That didn't make sense. "So why do I need to sit down? Is Anya pregnant?" They had planned to wait a while. But accidents happen, of course. His heart started beating wildly at the thought. Should he be happy or sad about it? Whichever it was, he'd better work himself up to being happy before he got home.
"She's not pregnant that I know of. It's something else. Are you sitting down?"
Xander sat down in a dusty chair off in the corner. "All right," he said. "What's happened?"
"It's Tara."
Xander's mind raced ahead again. What about Tara? She was dead. What could be wrong with her? Was she a vampire? No, that didn't seem likely. A zombie? Or . . . "Did Willow try and resurrect her?"
"Not exactly. Willow brought her back as a ghost." Buffy did her best to explain what happened.
"A ghost!" Xander didn't like the idea as much as Anya did. He didn't have any experience with spooks and he wasn't sure this was a good thing. Although Buffy's tone made it sound like it was. "Do we get a chance to see her?"
"Maybe tonight. If we hear from her, I'll try and have her meet us at the Magic Box. Spike and I are going downtown tonight for that meeting with Ledic."
"Spike? Does that mean he's back to his old toothsome self?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot. That's the other news."
"Well, you tell old Captain Peroxide I'm glad he's back. I was getting a bit tired of William."
"Me too," Buffy admitted. "See you later."
"Yeah."
The rest of the morning Buffy and Spike just enjoyed being together. Tara's coming back had taken the edge off the last week for them. And they hadn't yet started worrying about Willow's return to Rack's. They put away William's clothes and contemplated sandwiches for dinner. And made out for a while on the sofa.
In the early afternoon a knock sounded at the door. When Buffy opened it, she found Giles with a beaten suitcase at his side. His face was pale and lined with exhaustion.
"Giles!" Buffy said, running into his arms. "I'm so glad you came."
"How could I stay away," he asked, "in light of everything that's happened?" He pulled away and looked at her carefully. "How are you?"
"Not sure," Buffy said. "Come on inside. I've got a lot to tell you." She took up his suitcase and led the way in.
Spike was leaning against the stair banister with a familiar smirk strung out across his face. "Rupert," he said.
One look and Giles knew. "I take it Spike has returned to his . . . uh, usual self," he said dryly.
"Just last night," Buffy said.
"You might say that Tara acted as our matchmaker," Spike said.
"Indeed," Giles said, with a raise of his eyebrows. "And how did she do that? Did Willow bring her back?"
"Sort of. As a ghost," Buffy said, offhandedly.
"I see." This wasn't entirely surprising news. Considering what Willow had done with Buffy, Giles had assumed something like this would happen. "Are Tara and Willow here?"
"No. Tara's out looking for Willow now."
Buffy and Spike took Giles into the livingroom and caught him up on everything: Tara's death and return, Willow's addiction to Rack's wares, the fires on Lindemann, and the alliance with the Shadows. Giles accepted it all with the occasional nod and several cleanings of his glasses. Every now and again he would shoot a suspicious look in Spike's direction. For him, this new relationship between Buffy and Spike was going to take some getting used to.
"Well," Giles said, "the alliance with the Shadows may turn out to be very beneficial. It was smart of you to make it."
"Told ya," Spike said to Buffy with a grin. She made a face at him.
"But I'm very worried over Willow," Giles continued. "And Doc's involvement downtown can't be good."
They discussed various possibilities. Giles felt a bit uncomfortable with Spike's easy input, but he didn't interfere. Somehow, Spike had started taking on the honorary role of Watcher in Buffy's life. That was obvious. He brought up ideas, challenged Buffy's, and pressed on doggedly toward a solution. He refused to allow Buffy slack, which Giles realized was probably good. The two sparred verbally, often childishly, but Giles could sense there was a real affection developing between them. As for the sexual attraction, he wondered how he had never noticed it before. The energy fairly crackled between them.
By the time Dawn and Zachary arrived from school, they'd had an early dinner and done much debating, but hadn't come to any real conclusions. When Dawn saw Giles there was yet another happy reunion. She was thrilled to have Giles back and proud to introduce him to her spanking new boyfriend.
Zachary tried hard to give this new man a proper greeting. He was obviously important in Dawn's life. But most of his attention was drawn to Spike. Once again the strange blond man was wearing basic black and sporting slicked back hair. The glasses they had helped him buy were gone. And he was slouching against a wall in the hallway looking like some sort of leather biker. Zachary had really begun to like the William persona, so he was sorry to see the return of Spike. He also wondered how he suddenly came back to himself like that.
Spike saw the uncertainty in the young man's eyes and the pleading look in Dawn's. To smooth things over, he piloted the young couple into the diningroom, served them sandwiches, and asked Zachary how his epic poem had gone over.
"The teacher thought it was overdone," Zachary answered.
"Overdone?" Spike asked. "What a load of rot! It was bloody brilliant. Don't care what the old teach thinks. And what about you, Niblet? How did your composition go over?"
"I actually think the teacher liked hers better," Zachary said. "She said it was from the heart."
Spike's eyes beamed with pride. "At least that's good to hear."
In the livingroom where Giles and Buffy were talking quietly, a mist started to gather near the entryway. Zachary's eyes were drawn to the movement. The mist took on a human shape and then developed into the recognizable form of Tara. Spike and Dawn were still discussing the composition about her mother when they both noticed Zachary's face fall into shock. They followed his gaze into the livingroom in time to see Giles and Buffy jump to their feet. They were visible on the other side of a slightly transparent Tara.
"It's Willow!" Tara said excitedly. "Rack and Doc are working together. They've got Willow and they're planning on using her powers!"
Spike quickly got to his feet and tried to block Zachary's view with his torso by bending over across the dining room table and endlessly rearranging Dawn's school books, one on top of the other. "Dawn . . . uh, maybe you should take Zack out to the kitchen and see if you can't rustle up some desert."
"Yeah," Dawn said. She grabbed her boyfriend's arm. "Come on, Zack, let's see what we can find."
Zachary didn't have the will to resist. In shock, he rose to his feet and let himself be led out to the kitchen. Dawn left him at the counter island while she rummaged in the refrigerator.
"We don't have much in the way of sweets," she rambled. "But we do have some really ancient frozen pops. I mean they're really old, but . . ."
"Dawn," Zachary interrupted. "That was Tara in there just now . . . Wasn't it?"
Dawn closed the freezer and steeled herself.
"And a few nights ago, your sister and Willow . . . I saw them come in with crossbows and this strange gun. I didn't say anything at the time cos that's when we had to tell them about Tara. But now . . . I just saw Tara in the livingroom . . . Didn't I? I mean, I sort of saw her, because I could see through her. And William . . . I mean, Spike . . . he's suddenly all better. What's going on around here?"
"Zack, what do they say about my sister?"
"What?"
"Please. Just answer. What do the not-so-nice kids say about her?"
Zachary shifted his sneakered feet back and forth across the linoleum as he processed her question. "Well . . . you know how strange SunnyD is."
"Yeah, but what do they say?"
He met her eyes and lowered them again. Then he put his hands in his pockets. "They say your sister is sort of like a groupie . . . to the weird people and stuff."
Dawn's eyebrows rose up in surprise. Then she started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"That people think my sister's a groupie. Like she picked this life."
Zachary didn't know what to say. It was all too strange. His family was boringly normal. His dad's hardware business was steady, but boring. His mom worked as an administrative assistant in an accountant's office. That also fell under the heading of normal and boring. His little brother did the baseball thing and that was about as much as you could say about him.
"My sister's the Slayer," Dawn said.
"The what?"
"The Slayer . . . The chosen one. She has greater than normal strength and she slays vampires and other demons. She saves the world almost on a daily basis."
"The slayer . . ."
"Yeah. And she didn't choose the job, it chose her."
"And Tara?"
"She's a ghost. She was dead, I mean we went to her funeral. But Willow brought her back. Willow's a witch. Tara was too before she became a ghost, though she was never as powerful as Willow is. And Spike, he's a vampire. He used to try and kill Buffy, but somewhere along the line he fell in love with her."
"I see." Zachary reached out and planted both of his hands on the counter island so that he wouldn't fall over. A ghost, a witch, a slayer, and a vampire. Well, the vampire he could kinda believe because of the way Spike looked at him sometimes. But . . . "What about you?" he asked.
"What?"
"You heard me. If your sister's this magical slayer, what are you? Are you a slayer too?"
Dawn closed her eyes. If Zachary stayed around after all this, he was going to find out the truth sooner or later. It was better for him to hear it now. "I'm not a slayer . . . at least not as far as I know. I'm a key."
"A what?"
"A key. Like to a series of dimensional portals."
"Dimensional portals . . ."
"You see, there was this hell god last year," Dawn said quickly. "She was trying to unlock the portals between these dimensions. And I was the key that could undo everything so that suddenly all these different worlds would come streaming into each other. This group of magical monks turned me from the key into a human and made me into Buffy's sister so they could be sure that she would protect me. Buffy died last summer to keep me and all the rest of us safe."
"Your sister died? . . . Is she a ghost too?"
"No. Willow resurrected her, body and all. Only, she used this spell which accidentally made her immortal in the process."
"Immortal . . ."
"Which doesn't mean she can't die. It just means she can't die easily. And she'll always look the way she does now until she dies . . . Which I guess means that she'll eventually look younger than me. I didn't think of that till just now. It's kinda weird, isn't it?"
"Oh, yeah," Zachary agreed. "Is that all?"
"I think so. Except that Anya was formerly a vengeance demon."
"A vengeance demon?"
"Yeah. And she lived for about a thousand years. Then Giles . . . he's that English guy you just met, he smashed her amulet and it turned her into a human. Then she fell in love with Xander."
"And what is Xander?"
"Oh, he's just a human," Dawn said with a wave. "And so is Giles. They all help Buffy. Right now, everybody's inside discussing this bunch of demons downtown on Lindemann Avenue. You know that place where they've been having all the fires? A group of demons have taken over a warehouse at number 666 and are planning some evil. My sister and her friends are going to stop them."
"I think I should go," Zachary said, turning away. "I'll . . . I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"Sure. If you think you'd better . . ."
By then, Zachary was already on his way into the dining room. He haphazardly gathered up his school books and started for the door.
No one in the livingroom was saying anything. They'd been listening to the conversation going on between Dawn and Zachary. Tara had gone to full corporeal form by then and was hiding behind Giles and Spike, hoping not to upset Zachary anymore than she already had.
"Good night," Dawn called to Zachary's back as he rapidly made his way down the block and into the gathering darkness.
"Dawn . . ." Buffy began as she approached her.
"It's all right," Dawn said, tears in her eyes. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. My life is over, that's all."
Buffy took her sister into her arms to comfort her. She'd scared off her own share of "normal" men. She knew what it was like. She'd hoped to protect Dawn and give her the normal life she could never get for herself. Maybe that just wasn't possible. Maybe her curse was her sister's as well.
"I'm sorry, Dawn," Tara said, coming forward and touching her.
"That's all right," Dawn said sniffing. "I should have known it was too good to last."
"Dawn . . ."
"I said it's all right!" Dawn pushed Buffy and Tara away and started waving her arms. "So . . . what's the plan? Willow's in danger. At least it's not me this time."
"Doc and Rack are working together," Tara said. "They've got her downtown in that old warehouse on Lindemann, under a mind altering spell. She's behind a magical force field. But being a ghost, I can get inside it. Only while being invisible though, because it's so strong. Once inside, I can appear in physical form. I tried touching Willow and talking to her. But I couldn't get through. Doc seems to have done a good job on her. Still, I think it's Rack's magic high that actually keeps her under control. I can hear her mind trying to question. It just can't focus because of what Rack's doing."
"Do you know what they plan to do to her?" Giles asked.
"I think they plan to undo Buffy's resurrection spell, as a punishment for undoing Glory's plans last year."
Spike set his jaw at this news. No way were they going to take his girl again. Dawn looked fearfully at her sister. Things hadn't been the best between them in the last year, but that didn't mean she wanted Buffy dead again.
"Doc seems to realize that Buffy's immortal now. I think he thinks undoing the resurrection spell is the most reliable way of getting rid of her. Then they're going to use Willow's power to help them open up one of the Hell portals they tried to open last year."
"And you know all this how?" Giles asked.
"I can hear traces of Doc's words in Willow's mind. He's got it so they repeat over and over again like echoes. And I wandered around listening to what some of the other people were saying. Rack was there. And so was Amy. So were several members of their coven. Doc was there for a while, but he left. That's when I tried to make contact with Willow. Rack comes to look in on her pretty often to give her regular highs. Like I said, I don't think they can maintain control of her without them. They're being too careful about the timing."
"Well, what are we gonna do?" Dawn asked.
"First, Spike and I are going downtown to meet with Ledic and the Shadows," Buffy said.
"I'm going with you," Tara said.
"Fine."
"And I'll go over to the Magic Box," Giles said, "and fill Xander and Anya in on what's been going on. Maybe we can come up with a plan of action."
"I'm coming with you," Dawn said.
"Oh, no!" Buffy said. "You're staying right here."
"No, I'm not!" Dawn insisted. "The Magic Box isn't a dangerous place. And I think tonight pretty much proves that I'm not going to be hanging around any malls pretending to be Miss Normal Teen anymore. If the life of a Scoob is the only thing left to me, so be it! I'm the same age you were when you got called. And Willow and Xander started helping you around my age too. I'm in, whether you like it or not!"
Buffy had never seen her sister so resolute about anything. There wasn't much she could say to argue the point. One way or another they did seem to be under the same curse. "All right," she said. "But you stay right with Giles every minute."
Dawn rolled her eyes.
"Spike, you ready to roll?" Buffy asked.
"Ready."
Reunions
Sometime just before sunrise, Buffy awoke. Spike was spooned behind her nudging and touching her provocatively. "Are you trying to tell me something," she asked over her shoulder.
"Just suggesting," he said nuzzling her ear.
They made love lazily. Afterwards, Buffy put her head across his chest.
"Do you remember anything?" she asked, as she ran her hand up and down his side. It was good to be able to touch him again and wind herself around him. How she'd hungered for the feel of his naked flesh against hers.
"Through a haze. But it got clearer as the days went on. God, William was such a wanker."
"I don't know. He was kind of cute. He reminded me a lot of Zachary."
"Yeah . . . they're both wankers."
"Spike! Zachary's been awfully supportive of Dawn."
"OK . . . OK. Gotta give him that. When Dawn was up against it, he was there."
"You remember what happened to Tara?"
"Yeah. But having William out there kept me from having to deal with it. Course, I was really flattered that I was the first person Tara visited after she got back."
"Got back? What are you talking about?"
"Tara is back. You do know that, don't you? She's the one who brought us together last night."
Buffy pulled herself up so she could look into Spike's blue eyes. He didn't appear to be joking. "What?"
"Last night. Tara put me to sleep and then walked with you into my mind and left you there. You told me how you needed me and loved me and then you fell asleep. But I came in here and woke you up and we . . ."
"Yes, I remember the rest quite clearly. But the part before that was a just dream."
"Which we both experienced. Did you or did you not say you loved me?"
"Yes, but . . ."
"How could I know that unless we were in the same dream, or under the same spell?"
"You mean . . . Tara was really here?"
"That wasn't the first time, either. Willow called her back in spirit form the night before last. Afterward she came into my subconscious and said she hadn't appeared to Willow because she didn't want her to get caught up in a God complex. She figured that would make Willow really go off her bird. She also said Willow had started in with Rack again."
"Then . . . last night by her grave . . . I didn't just imagine hearing her voice in my head."
"Nope. You were hearing the witch herself."
"You don't think she's still here, do you?" Buffy looked around half expecting Tara to appear.
"Right here? Not likely. Can't imagine Tara going in for peep shows. But she might be somewhere in the house."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Instinctively, Buffy jumped into a sitting position and pulled the sheet up in front of her. "Who is it?" she asked breathlessly.
"Who do you think?" Dawn's irritated voice answered from the other side of the door. "It looks like Willow's bed hasn't been slept in and William's not downstairs. And . . . I heard some strange noises coming from your room last night. Is Spike back?"
Buffy and Spike looked at each other sheepishly. "Oops," Buffy said.
"I think you should go out to your sister," Spike said. "I'll meet you in the kitchen."
"Right," Buffy said, leaping for her night gown and robe.
Dawn was waiting just outside the door when Buffy appeared.
"So, is Spike back?" Dawn asked.
"Yes. Last night."
"Thought so."
"Dawn, I'm sorry, I . . ."
"Don't sweat it. It's not like you two were ever quiet. It's just with William here I was getting used to the silence and . . ."
Buffy held her hand up. "Please. This is so not a conversation I want to have. We'll try and be more quiet from now on. I promise."
"Look, I'm happy about Spike. But where's Willow?"
"She's not here. I think she stayed over at Rack's last night."
This was something Dawn didn't want to hear. "Rack's?"
"Yes. Spike and I will try and find her today. Or rather tonight, before we go downtown. It'll be all right. You go get ready for school and I'll get breakfast."
Dawn did as she was told. But hearing about Rack didn't give her much confidence. Without thinking she rubbed her left arm. For her, the name Rack meant broken bones and attacking demons.
When Spike came down to the kitchen he found Buffy busily burning some frozen waffles in the toaster. "Hmm," he said disapprovingly, looking over her shoulder.
"This is where I miss sweet tempered William and his endless cups of tea. You don't think you could get in touch with your inner human and give me some help here?"
"I suppose." Gently but firmly, Spike moved her aside and slipped some more waffles into the toaster. "You get the butter and heat up the syrup."
"How do you think we contact Tara," Buffy asked as she pulled things out of the refrigerator.
"Don't know. But if it's like on the telly, all we have to do is call out for her. If she's in earshot she'll come."
"What if Dawn hears?"
"We'll give her some explanation. What do we have to lose?"
They gazed at each other uncertainly across the room.
"You want to do it?" Buffy asked.
"Not bloody likely."
"It was your idea."
"But she's more your friend than mine."
"She visited your head before she visited anyone else's."
"But you're the Slayer. It's your job."
Buffy pursed her lips. She felt ridiculous. This was right out of an old TV sitcom. "Tara," she said softly.
"Oh, come on," Spike said crossing his arms over his chest. "Is that the best the big bad slayer can do? Even with my vampire senses, I could barely hear that."
Buffy made a face at her boyfriend and ratcheted up her voice. "Tara!" she yelled.
On cue, a mist appeared at the center of the kitchen. It grew in size and then began to take on shape. A smiling Tara appeared in a shimmery frock of spring green. She was visible, but not solid. You could see through her to the counter island behind. She would eventually call this her visible format, where she could be seen but not touched. She could pass through walls and floors, but not so easily as when she was invisible. The more solid her figure, the more energy it required to maintain. In full physical form she could be touched, but she couldn't move through any objects. And like Spike, she had no heartbeat. Nor did she need to breath.
Buffy was speechless. Tara's name formed on her lips again, but it was hushed and barely uttered.
Spike was more accepting. He'd seen a ghost or two in his day. One in China and two others in Europe. "Hey. How ya doing?" he welcomed. "Where were you just now? In some ghost never-never-land? Or were you just invisible?"
"Neither, I was in Willow's room. It made me feel closer to her."
"Do you know where she is?"
"She went to Rack's last night. I tried to infer that to Buffy."
"Well, the Slayer here got your message, but she thought it was all in her imagination. It took a bit of convincing this morning before she would believe that you were back. Do you think Red is still at Rack's?"
"I was hoping she'd come in last night or early this morning. But she didn't. I suppose I should have followed her last night. But I couldn't bear to see her do that to herself."
"Tara . . ." Buffy muttered again.
"It's all right," Tara said with a smile. "I'm real."
"No you're not," another voice sounded from behind them. The others turned around to see Dawn. The teenager had come down to breakfast smelling burned waffles and that was really all she had expected to find. "This can't be happening. It's not you."
"Yes it is," Tara said. "Willow did a spell to call me back, she just doesn't know yet that it worked."
Dawn walked up to the transparent Tara and put her hand through her arm. "How could she do that to you? You're here, but you're not."
"I'm here," Tara said. And with that her form began to become more solid, till it took on both shape and substance. She reached out to Dawn and took her hand. Her touch wasn't cool like Spike's. It was more neutral. As she squeezed Dawn's hand, the girl's eyes began to tear. "It's all right," Tara said pulling Dawn into her arms. "It's all right. I'm not going to leave you again."
Dawn held onto Tara tightly. Buffy stood behind them, wiping away a tear or two of her own.
Getting Dawn off to school that day wasn't easy. She wanted to stay with Tara. But Buffy was adamant. As soon as the teenager had gone, Buffy turned to Tara and Spike and said, "So, where do we go from here?"
"Well," Tara said, "I'm going to look for Willow. I'm starting to worry about her."
"We were planning on looking for her after dark," Buffy said. "Spike couldn't sense out Rack's place last time. But maybe if we ride through the streets on the motorcycle, we could cover more ground and . . ."
"I can go more quickly," Tara said. "I'll have to travel over the city bit by bit, but I can move very quickly when I'm invisible. And no matter how cloaked his place is, I'll be able to see it. In my present state I can see the shadows left behind by magic. I can even see the remains of the spell that Willow used to bring me back still up in her room. I will find her. And if I have to appear to her to get her attention, I will. I'll let you know what happens."
"What about Xander and Anya?"
"I'll let you tell them about me," Tara said. And with that, she disappeared.
As it turned out, Xander was already at work by the time Buffy called his apartment. But Anya was still there. Rarely had Buffy heard the ex-demon sound so joyous. "That's wonderful!" she exclaimed when she heard that their friend was now a ghost. "Really wonderful. That means Tara will be around with us as long as she wants to be. And ghosts are so handy to have around. Not the moaning, groaning, chain rattling, doom and gloom kind. They can be very tiresome. But of course Tara won't be one of those. This is a real step up for Tara in the world of the supernatural."
Buffy shook her head. Anya made it sound as if Tara had gotten a job promotion.
"You've got to call Xander right away. I've got his work number written here somewhere. Where is it now? It's not on the refrigerator. Now where did I put it? Oh yes, here it is, under the phone. I have it more prominently posted at the Magic Box." Anya gave Buffy the number and finished off by saying, "If they give you any trouble about talking to him, just tell them it's a family emergency. That always gets 'em. You wouldn't know it from looking at them, but construction guys can be very family oriented. Would you believe it? They're already hounding Xander about us having babies."
"Yeah, OK," Buffy said.
When Buffy called Xander's construction site, they hemmed and hawed about calling him to the phone. As per Anya's advice, Buffy said it was a family emergency and the man who answered the phone immediately went to fetch Xander.
"Harris here," Xander said after a bit. He had his macho work voice on. Evidently they hadn't told him the nature of the call.
"Xander, it's Buffy. I think you better sit down."
A flash of fear went through Xander. It sounded like bad news. And if so, why was Buffy calling instead of Anya? Spike had been zapped by Warren recently. Tara had been killed. Being superstitious, Xander was afraid that something terrible might happen to his significant other next. "Is Anya all right?" he asked.
"Oh, sure. She's fine. In fact, she sounds quite happy."
"Happy?" That didn't make sense. "So why do I need to sit down? Is Anya pregnant?" They had planned to wait a while. But accidents happen, of course. His heart started beating wildly at the thought. Should he be happy or sad about it? Whichever it was, he'd better work himself up to being happy before he got home.
"She's not pregnant that I know of. It's something else. Are you sitting down?"
Xander sat down in a dusty chair off in the corner. "All right," he said. "What's happened?"
"It's Tara."
Xander's mind raced ahead again. What about Tara? She was dead. What could be wrong with her? Was she a vampire? No, that didn't seem likely. A zombie? Or . . . "Did Willow try and resurrect her?"
"Not exactly. Willow brought her back as a ghost." Buffy did her best to explain what happened.
"A ghost!" Xander didn't like the idea as much as Anya did. He didn't have any experience with spooks and he wasn't sure this was a good thing. Although Buffy's tone made it sound like it was. "Do we get a chance to see her?"
"Maybe tonight. If we hear from her, I'll try and have her meet us at the Magic Box. Spike and I are going downtown tonight for that meeting with Ledic."
"Spike? Does that mean he's back to his old toothsome self?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot. That's the other news."
"Well, you tell old Captain Peroxide I'm glad he's back. I was getting a bit tired of William."
"Me too," Buffy admitted. "See you later."
"Yeah."
The rest of the morning Buffy and Spike just enjoyed being together. Tara's coming back had taken the edge off the last week for them. And they hadn't yet started worrying about Willow's return to Rack's. They put away William's clothes and contemplated sandwiches for dinner. And made out for a while on the sofa.
In the early afternoon a knock sounded at the door. When Buffy opened it, she found Giles with a beaten suitcase at his side. His face was pale and lined with exhaustion.
"Giles!" Buffy said, running into his arms. "I'm so glad you came."
"How could I stay away," he asked, "in light of everything that's happened?" He pulled away and looked at her carefully. "How are you?"
"Not sure," Buffy said. "Come on inside. I've got a lot to tell you." She took up his suitcase and led the way in.
Spike was leaning against the stair banister with a familiar smirk strung out across his face. "Rupert," he said.
One look and Giles knew. "I take it Spike has returned to his . . . uh, usual self," he said dryly.
"Just last night," Buffy said.
"You might say that Tara acted as our matchmaker," Spike said.
"Indeed," Giles said, with a raise of his eyebrows. "And how did she do that? Did Willow bring her back?"
"Sort of. As a ghost," Buffy said, offhandedly.
"I see." This wasn't entirely surprising news. Considering what Willow had done with Buffy, Giles had assumed something like this would happen. "Are Tara and Willow here?"
"No. Tara's out looking for Willow now."
Buffy and Spike took Giles into the livingroom and caught him up on everything: Tara's death and return, Willow's addiction to Rack's wares, the fires on Lindemann, and the alliance with the Shadows. Giles accepted it all with the occasional nod and several cleanings of his glasses. Every now and again he would shoot a suspicious look in Spike's direction. For him, this new relationship between Buffy and Spike was going to take some getting used to.
"Well," Giles said, "the alliance with the Shadows may turn out to be very beneficial. It was smart of you to make it."
"Told ya," Spike said to Buffy with a grin. She made a face at him.
"But I'm very worried over Willow," Giles continued. "And Doc's involvement downtown can't be good."
They discussed various possibilities. Giles felt a bit uncomfortable with Spike's easy input, but he didn't interfere. Somehow, Spike had started taking on the honorary role of Watcher in Buffy's life. That was obvious. He brought up ideas, challenged Buffy's, and pressed on doggedly toward a solution. He refused to allow Buffy slack, which Giles realized was probably good. The two sparred verbally, often childishly, but Giles could sense there was a real affection developing between them. As for the sexual attraction, he wondered how he had never noticed it before. The energy fairly crackled between them.
By the time Dawn and Zachary arrived from school, they'd had an early dinner and done much debating, but hadn't come to any real conclusions. When Dawn saw Giles there was yet another happy reunion. She was thrilled to have Giles back and proud to introduce him to her spanking new boyfriend.
Zachary tried hard to give this new man a proper greeting. He was obviously important in Dawn's life. But most of his attention was drawn to Spike. Once again the strange blond man was wearing basic black and sporting slicked back hair. The glasses they had helped him buy were gone. And he was slouching against a wall in the hallway looking like some sort of leather biker. Zachary had really begun to like the William persona, so he was sorry to see the return of Spike. He also wondered how he suddenly came back to himself like that.
Spike saw the uncertainty in the young man's eyes and the pleading look in Dawn's. To smooth things over, he piloted the young couple into the diningroom, served them sandwiches, and asked Zachary how his epic poem had gone over.
"The teacher thought it was overdone," Zachary answered.
"Overdone?" Spike asked. "What a load of rot! It was bloody brilliant. Don't care what the old teach thinks. And what about you, Niblet? How did your composition go over?"
"I actually think the teacher liked hers better," Zachary said. "She said it was from the heart."
Spike's eyes beamed with pride. "At least that's good to hear."
In the livingroom where Giles and Buffy were talking quietly, a mist started to gather near the entryway. Zachary's eyes were drawn to the movement. The mist took on a human shape and then developed into the recognizable form of Tara. Spike and Dawn were still discussing the composition about her mother when they both noticed Zachary's face fall into shock. They followed his gaze into the livingroom in time to see Giles and Buffy jump to their feet. They were visible on the other side of a slightly transparent Tara.
"It's Willow!" Tara said excitedly. "Rack and Doc are working together. They've got Willow and they're planning on using her powers!"
Spike quickly got to his feet and tried to block Zachary's view with his torso by bending over across the dining room table and endlessly rearranging Dawn's school books, one on top of the other. "Dawn . . . uh, maybe you should take Zack out to the kitchen and see if you can't rustle up some desert."
"Yeah," Dawn said. She grabbed her boyfriend's arm. "Come on, Zack, let's see what we can find."
Zachary didn't have the will to resist. In shock, he rose to his feet and let himself be led out to the kitchen. Dawn left him at the counter island while she rummaged in the refrigerator.
"We don't have much in the way of sweets," she rambled. "But we do have some really ancient frozen pops. I mean they're really old, but . . ."
"Dawn," Zachary interrupted. "That was Tara in there just now . . . Wasn't it?"
Dawn closed the freezer and steeled herself.
"And a few nights ago, your sister and Willow . . . I saw them come in with crossbows and this strange gun. I didn't say anything at the time cos that's when we had to tell them about Tara. But now . . . I just saw Tara in the livingroom . . . Didn't I? I mean, I sort of saw her, because I could see through her. And William . . . I mean, Spike . . . he's suddenly all better. What's going on around here?"
"Zack, what do they say about my sister?"
"What?"
"Please. Just answer. What do the not-so-nice kids say about her?"
Zachary shifted his sneakered feet back and forth across the linoleum as he processed her question. "Well . . . you know how strange SunnyD is."
"Yeah, but what do they say?"
He met her eyes and lowered them again. Then he put his hands in his pockets. "They say your sister is sort of like a groupie . . . to the weird people and stuff."
Dawn's eyebrows rose up in surprise. Then she started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"That people think my sister's a groupie. Like she picked this life."
Zachary didn't know what to say. It was all too strange. His family was boringly normal. His dad's hardware business was steady, but boring. His mom worked as an administrative assistant in an accountant's office. That also fell under the heading of normal and boring. His little brother did the baseball thing and that was about as much as you could say about him.
"My sister's the Slayer," Dawn said.
"The what?"
"The Slayer . . . The chosen one. She has greater than normal strength and she slays vampires and other demons. She saves the world almost on a daily basis."
"The slayer . . ."
"Yeah. And she didn't choose the job, it chose her."
"And Tara?"
"She's a ghost. She was dead, I mean we went to her funeral. But Willow brought her back. Willow's a witch. Tara was too before she became a ghost, though she was never as powerful as Willow is. And Spike, he's a vampire. He used to try and kill Buffy, but somewhere along the line he fell in love with her."
"I see." Zachary reached out and planted both of his hands on the counter island so that he wouldn't fall over. A ghost, a witch, a slayer, and a vampire. Well, the vampire he could kinda believe because of the way Spike looked at him sometimes. But . . . "What about you?" he asked.
"What?"
"You heard me. If your sister's this magical slayer, what are you? Are you a slayer too?"
Dawn closed her eyes. If Zachary stayed around after all this, he was going to find out the truth sooner or later. It was better for him to hear it now. "I'm not a slayer . . . at least not as far as I know. I'm a key."
"A what?"
"A key. Like to a series of dimensional portals."
"Dimensional portals . . ."
"You see, there was this hell god last year," Dawn said quickly. "She was trying to unlock the portals between these dimensions. And I was the key that could undo everything so that suddenly all these different worlds would come streaming into each other. This group of magical monks turned me from the key into a human and made me into Buffy's sister so they could be sure that she would protect me. Buffy died last summer to keep me and all the rest of us safe."
"Your sister died? . . . Is she a ghost too?"
"No. Willow resurrected her, body and all. Only, she used this spell which accidentally made her immortal in the process."
"Immortal . . ."
"Which doesn't mean she can't die. It just means she can't die easily. And she'll always look the way she does now until she dies . . . Which I guess means that she'll eventually look younger than me. I didn't think of that till just now. It's kinda weird, isn't it?"
"Oh, yeah," Zachary agreed. "Is that all?"
"I think so. Except that Anya was formerly a vengeance demon."
"A vengeance demon?"
"Yeah. And she lived for about a thousand years. Then Giles . . . he's that English guy you just met, he smashed her amulet and it turned her into a human. Then she fell in love with Xander."
"And what is Xander?"
"Oh, he's just a human," Dawn said with a wave. "And so is Giles. They all help Buffy. Right now, everybody's inside discussing this bunch of demons downtown on Lindemann Avenue. You know that place where they've been having all the fires? A group of demons have taken over a warehouse at number 666 and are planning some evil. My sister and her friends are going to stop them."
"I think I should go," Zachary said, turning away. "I'll . . . I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"Sure. If you think you'd better . . ."
By then, Zachary was already on his way into the dining room. He haphazardly gathered up his school books and started for the door.
No one in the livingroom was saying anything. They'd been listening to the conversation going on between Dawn and Zachary. Tara had gone to full corporeal form by then and was hiding behind Giles and Spike, hoping not to upset Zachary anymore than she already had.
"Good night," Dawn called to Zachary's back as he rapidly made his way down the block and into the gathering darkness.
"Dawn . . ." Buffy began as she approached her.
"It's all right," Dawn said, tears in her eyes. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. My life is over, that's all."
Buffy took her sister into her arms to comfort her. She'd scared off her own share of "normal" men. She knew what it was like. She'd hoped to protect Dawn and give her the normal life she could never get for herself. Maybe that just wasn't possible. Maybe her curse was her sister's as well.
"I'm sorry, Dawn," Tara said, coming forward and touching her.
"That's all right," Dawn said sniffing. "I should have known it was too good to last."
"Dawn . . ."
"I said it's all right!" Dawn pushed Buffy and Tara away and started waving her arms. "So . . . what's the plan? Willow's in danger. At least it's not me this time."
"Doc and Rack are working together," Tara said. "They've got her downtown in that old warehouse on Lindemann, under a mind altering spell. She's behind a magical force field. But being a ghost, I can get inside it. Only while being invisible though, because it's so strong. Once inside, I can appear in physical form. I tried touching Willow and talking to her. But I couldn't get through. Doc seems to have done a good job on her. Still, I think it's Rack's magic high that actually keeps her under control. I can hear her mind trying to question. It just can't focus because of what Rack's doing."
"Do you know what they plan to do to her?" Giles asked.
"I think they plan to undo Buffy's resurrection spell, as a punishment for undoing Glory's plans last year."
Spike set his jaw at this news. No way were they going to take his girl again. Dawn looked fearfully at her sister. Things hadn't been the best between them in the last year, but that didn't mean she wanted Buffy dead again.
"Doc seems to realize that Buffy's immortal now. I think he thinks undoing the resurrection spell is the most reliable way of getting rid of her. Then they're going to use Willow's power to help them open up one of the Hell portals they tried to open last year."
"And you know all this how?" Giles asked.
"I can hear traces of Doc's words in Willow's mind. He's got it so they repeat over and over again like echoes. And I wandered around listening to what some of the other people were saying. Rack was there. And so was Amy. So were several members of their coven. Doc was there for a while, but he left. That's when I tried to make contact with Willow. Rack comes to look in on her pretty often to give her regular highs. Like I said, I don't think they can maintain control of her without them. They're being too careful about the timing."
"Well, what are we gonna do?" Dawn asked.
"First, Spike and I are going downtown to meet with Ledic and the Shadows," Buffy said.
"I'm going with you," Tara said.
"Fine."
"And I'll go over to the Magic Box," Giles said, "and fill Xander and Anya in on what's been going on. Maybe we can come up with a plan of action."
"I'm coming with you," Dawn said.
"Oh, no!" Buffy said. "You're staying right here."
"No, I'm not!" Dawn insisted. "The Magic Box isn't a dangerous place. And I think tonight pretty much proves that I'm not going to be hanging around any malls pretending to be Miss Normal Teen anymore. If the life of a Scoob is the only thing left to me, so be it! I'm the same age you were when you got called. And Willow and Xander started helping you around my age too. I'm in, whether you like it or not!"
Buffy had never seen her sister so resolute about anything. There wasn't much she could say to argue the point. One way or another they did seem to be under the same curse. "All right," she said. "But you stay right with Giles every minute."
Dawn rolled her eyes.
"Spike, you ready to roll?" Buffy asked.
"Ready."