As Willow walked into the kitchen she noticed Giles on the phone. He turned to her and mouthed Buffy's name before he was pulled back to the conversation. "Have you asked Anya about it?"
"…Well won't she be at the magic box"
"…No, I suppose not"
"…And it didn't dust with the vampire?"
"……Good Lord"
Unable to keep up with the conversation Willow searched the cupboards trying to find something edible, which turned out to be cornflakes. She grabbed a bowl from the draining board, wiped it and grabbed the milk from the fridge. As she was doing this she kept catching Giles' side of the conversation.
"....What happened to the fourth one?"
"…And you didn't think to run after him?"
"…Well no, her safety comes first""
Willow sat down with her breakfast, Giles looked at her and smiled, she smiled back. He turned back into the conversation
"…She's doing well, she's just walked in, would you like to talk to her?"
"…No, I understand. Get some sleep… Goodnight." The smile fell off Willow's face as Giles put the phone down. When she left Sunnydale all her friends had been supportive of her, but since she arrived in England she got the feeling they were angry at her, or maybe even scared. She couldn't blame them though, she managed to scare herself. Giles tried to re-assure Willow, "She needed some rest, she said she would talk to you later." Willow forced a brief smile as Giles sat down to finish his breakfast. "Quite an interesting night patrol by all accounts, Buffy and Dawn were accosted by four vampires, one of whom left some sort of mystical ring behind." He took another bite from his cereal
"Dawn was out patrolling with Buffy?" Said Willow, concerned.
"Apparently Buffy thinks Dawn is ready, you didn't know?"
"No. I'm kinda out of the loop at the moment." Giles nodded, he knew the feeling.
"She's going to take the ring to Anya in the morning, if they can't find anything she's going to send us a picture, see if we can find anything in the council library." Giles looked up at Willow who smiled and nodded. A concerned look appeared on his face, "I didn't want to bring this up, but are you sure you're ready for today?" Willow tried to hide her worry.
"I think so, I've known it was coming for a while"
"I can probably get them to postpone if you want?"
"No, I can do it. I'm not saying I'm not worried but I can deal." Willow looked down at her bowl and stood up. "If it's okay with you I'd like to go for a walk, clear my head"
"Aren't you going to finish your breakfast?"
"I lost my appetite." Willow said, looking down at the bowl.
"Would you like me to come with you?" Giles still looked concerned.
"No, I just need time to think, what time do we need to leave?" Asked Willow. Giles looked at his watch.
"We need to be gone by noon." He said. With that, Willow picked up her coat, checked her watch and walked out the door.
Giles stood up, took off his glasses and took out a handkerchief from his pocket to clean them. As he put them back on, he picked up the phone. He dialled and waited for someone on the other end to pick up. He cleared his throat. "I need to speak to Quentin Travers, it's urgent"
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"This was never meant to happen, there were only ever meant to be two"
Buffy opened her eyes to find herself standing in front of her own reflection. As she looked around she saw herself an infinite number of times. She was standing in a hall of mirrors with corridors going off to either side of her. Feeling something at her feet she looked down to find a small black cat sniffing around her heels. She looked up and noticed a figure standing behind her in the mirror. It was too far away to make out but she thought it was a woman. It was confirmed when she heard the figure begin to speak. Buffy thought she recognised the voice, but couldn't quite place it.
"The balance has tipped, it needs to be redressed."
"Balance of what? Who are you?" Buffy turned around to look behind her, only to find herself standing in the middle of a field. The cat stood beside her and looked around at its new surroundings. When it was happy they were both safe it sat down beside her and began to lick its paws.
The sky was clear and the sun was shining; a blanket lay on the grass before her. She looked up at the sun and shielded her eyes from it. As she looked down she saw a figure on the blanket and a picnic had been laid out. "Hey B." Said the figure. Buffy smiled when she saw who it was.
"So whose head are we in this time?" Buffy asked.
"Aren't we past asking that question?" replied Faith.
"We still haven't had an answer."
"Sometimes there isn't an answer, only more questions." Said Faith. Buffy accepted this and moved on. "So why are we here this time?" Said Buffy.
"You weren't supposed to come back again, the world's tipped in our favour now. The balance needs to be redressed."
"What balance?" Said Buffy, puzzled. Buffy noticed the cat suddenly stopped licking its paws when it became aware of all the food on the blanket. As it moved away Buffy looked back to Faith to see she was playing with something in her hands, Buffy recognised it as the ring she took from the vampire earlier that night. Faith looked puzzled as she tried to put the ring on her finger but never seemed to get it past the tip. "It won't fit our fingers." Said Faith, "there's not enough room," she put the ring down as a shadow was cast over her and she looked up at the figure standing at her back. Buffy recognised the figure instantly. It was Spike. The sunlight almost glowed off his bleached hair. He was in his vampire face, eating from an apple, blood pouring from the core. He held it out to Buffy, "Hey Goldilocks, want a bite?"
Suddenly Buffy heard a thunder clap behind her and she turned around. The sky was dark, bolts of lightening flew from the sky and looming over her were four men on horseback, dressed in black suits. Their faced morphed to show their vampiric form. The cat leapt to Buffy's side and hissed loudly at the men. Buffy turned to Faith for help, but only found an empty blanket. As she turned around to face the horsemen she found herself back in the mirrored room.
The shadowy voice began to speak again. "They're coming, she's sent them to stem the tide. She's hiding behind them, when she opens the gate the old ones will return." This time Buffy couldn't see the figure, but she noticed the cat walking away to her left so she turned and started to follow it. As she walked she started talking to the mysterious woman again. "Who is she?"
"She is a vessel of hate and pain." Came the reply. Buffy watched the cat turn and walk through one of the mirrors and vanish. Buffy pulled her attention back to the voice "So I have to help her? Or… am I supposed to kill her?" The figure stayed silent so Buffy repeated her earlier question "Who are you?"
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'TARA'. Willow sat on the stone ring around the Trafalgar Square fountain and read the shaky word on the crumpled paper over and over. Pigeons gathered around her feet looking for food, but were quickly moving on to passers by. She felt tears begin to form behind her eyes but they didn't have a chance to appear as she felt water begin to splash against her back and the ground begin to shake. The man standing next to her was caught off guard and lost his footing, falling into the water. Other people grabbed on to anything they could close at hand, others fell to the floor. Willow saw a man grab onto a young girl, to protect her from the quake. The shaking grew stronger until she was forced to clutch onto the stone wall for safety. Her surprise caused her to lose her grip on the paper, and the wind sent it into the fountain. Willow noticed it begin to float away and reached out for it in desperation, but as the paper floated over the crest of the water away from her, a stray splash from the fountain hit it and sent it to the bottom and out of her reach.
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As Faith heard the thunder she jumped up ready to face the horsemen, only to find herself within the confines of the drab grey walls of her prison cell. She quickly became aware of the sounds of sirens and shouting coming from outside of her room. She was surprised to see her cell door was open but more surprised when the shaking from the earthquake caused her to be thrown from her bed. She managed to land on her feet only to be pushed to the floor by her cellmate, Sarah, running for the open door. "Later Faith" she waved, and within a second was out of sight. Through the door she spotted a couple of guards trying and failing to control the chaos. Two more were running after a rather large woman as she headed down the steps in pursuit of another rather small guard. As the quake subsided Faith sat down on the bottom bunk and heaved a sigh until the image of the horsemen flashed before her eyes. "Buffy" she said to herself and stood up. Running out of her room, Faith realised one of the guards was holding onto the balcony about to fall. She wasn't sure whether one of the other inmates had tried to throw him over, or he'd just managed to fall during the quake. Either way she didn't much care. She ran past him but then stopped and turned to look at him again. There was no way he could hold on much longer. She thought about it for a second, and then ran back and reaching over grabbed his wrist. She grunted under his weight, but pulled him up and over the side, and then dropped him to the ground. He stood up and patted himself down, then realising where he was he became as official as he could under the circumstances. "Why are you out of your cell?" He took the baton from his belt. "Get back there and wait for all this to be over." She looked over her shoulder at the stairs down to the next level and then back at the guard and back behind her. "There's no way you can get out of here, the quake shorted out the inside doors, but the outside ones are still locked." Said the guard, Faith turned back to him
"Thanks for the tip." She said, and hit him square in the face. He fell straight to the ground. With some effort she managed to take the keys from his belt and ran down the steps.
Amid the confusion Faith managed to get to the exit, she was surprised to find there was no guard at the post but she didn't question it and fumbled with the keys until she got one to open the bars. As the door slid open she heard a voice behind her "Hey Faith! Wait for me!" Turning, she saw Sarah running through the crowd towards her. Quickly Faith went through the bars and slid them back into place, locking them behind her. "Sorry, I gotta take this call." Faith smiled and ran beyond view of her cellmate. She'd caused enough suffering already without letting another convicted criminal loose. "Damn it!" Sighed Sarah. She turned and ran back into the chaos.