On the next Buffy:

           

            Willow, wearing a form-fitting black spandex-type thing and a ponytail, fights with Buffy.

           

            Giles returns - "We have to consider that she may be too far gone to save."

                       

            Rack (about Buffy) - "You slice her open, I wanna count the rings, huh?"

            Willow (smiling) - "Count on it."

           

            Buffy and Willow struggling with something black and writhing between them.

            The Gang disappears one by one.      

            Act V

            They arrived to find Spike lying prone on the ground, moaning softly, the crypt doors open wide.

            "Spike -" Buffy said, kneeling at his side, as Xander ran into the crypt to look around. "Spike, what happened?"

            He groaned, clutching the side of his face. "Quiet...just speak...softly.  She...I dunno, she screamed at me, bloody shrieked inside my head.  Hurt like hell.  Made the...bloody chip feel like a bloody goodbye kiss on the cheek."

            "She told you to let her go?"

            "Think so...Don't even...remember doin' it.  She gone?"

            Xander ran back up to them.  "She's gone."

            "She'll go after Jonathan first.  We've got to get back to the hospital." Buffy helped Spike to his feet. "Are you alright?"

            Spike nodded, though he looked no stronger now then he had a moment ago. "I'll be fine.  Just as well we're headed for a hospital - lend a bloke some Ibuprofen for his trouble."

              They arrived back at the hospital to find the police gone.  Jonathan's condition was unchanged.  Visiting hours were over, but Buffy checked, and made sure that a security guard was posted in the vicinity of Jonathan's room.

            "So now what?" Spike said impatiently. "We're not just gonna sit here, waiting on Red to make her move first, are we?"

            "We don't have any choice," Buffy said wearily. "We have no way of knowing where she is now.  And we're not going to just hunt her down like some animal.  Whatever...whatever she is, whatever she's gotten into, she's still Willow.  Deep down.  We have to believe that."

            Spike gaped at her.  "Are you bloody serious?  You saw that basement - that's what she is now.  What she's capable of -"

            "Which is why I'm not going to confront her again unless it's absolutely necessary," Buffy said firmly. "I don't want to fight her."

            "And if it becomes necessary?  What if she walked up to us right now?  Walked or floated or whatever the hell she's doin' to move around now.  Demanded that we let her have the boy?  You're going to stand in her way?"

            Buffy looked away from his penetrating stare. "I'll do what I have to do.  Like always."

            Spike smirked nastily. "Like always.  Only this time, pet, you're not waiting for me or Angelus or the Master or Anonymous Demon number 8 to come pay the dues.  This time it's your best friend."

            Buffy turned sharply to face him, angry now. "Willow would never -"

            "Willow killed two men, Buffy!" Spike almost shouted. "You saw her - she was going to finish Jonathan off without a second thought!  She watched her lover die at their hands...Christ, I don't even know why we're against her."

            Buffy stared at him in shock.  "What?"

            "Why we're trying to protect this boy.  What do you owe him?  He killed somebody you called a friend -"

            "Jonathan didn't kill Tara!" Buffy shouted back.

            "No, he didn't have the stones to," Spike answered hotly. "The demon they set loose on her did!  Try to imagine it, Buffy.  Put yourself in her shoes, without the Slayer strength, without the fancy fighting moves.  All by your lonesome out there, scared out of your head."
            Why was she here?  She frowned, looked over at Xander.  He was watching out the front doors, probably as conflicted as she felt.  Waiting on their best friend to come and commit murder.  Who were they to try to stop her?  Jonathan was an innocent - of that Buffy was certain.  Almost certain.  But Tara was innocent, too, and dead.

            "You don't know how it feels, luv.  To hold your lover's hand, to watch the life ebb from their body -"

            "I know how it feels!" Buffy screamed at him.
            "Yeah, I know.  Pain like nothing you could have imagined.  But you were the one that killed him, pet.  Imagine if it had been someone else.  Imagine if Faith had carried out her little plan to the hilt, and Angel had died before you could get the Slayer's blood in his mouth.  You had the stones to kill her even when he was alive.  How would his death have slowed you down?"

            She opened her mouth, closed it again, and then looked him squarely in the eye. "Yes, I probably would have gone after her."

            "Would've killed her?"

            She nodded reluctantly. "I'd have tried."

            "So how can you sit here and say that you're going to stop Willow from doing the same thing?"

            "I..." she started, and backed away a step.  She turned to look out the window at the parking lot.  She remembered the expression on Willow's face when she had first arrived at the awful scene of Tara's death, and realized the real reason she was protecting Jonathan tonight.

            "I've got to stop her.  I'm not protecting Jonathan from Willow - I'm protecting Willow from herself."

            Spike grimaced, shaking his head in frustration. "Why do I think Willow's got the least to worry about?"

            Buffy was silent for a moment. "What are you suggesting?"

            He looked at her steadily, unblinking, hard expression melting into something close to sympathy. "Be her friend.  Find her, cut her off, before she gets here.  You let her come here on her own, she's gonna build up a head o' steam, and nothing will stop her then.  Catch her, now, when she's still out there tryin' to make up her mind."

            It made sense. "But someone has to stay here and keep on eye on -"

            "I'll stay," Xander said quietly from the doorway.

            "No," Spike said quickly. "I'll stay.  You, Dawn, and Buffy go, she'll trust you three more then she will me."

            Buffy considered it, then nodded. "Where do we start?"

            Xander joined them. "Your house?"

            Buffy couldn't think of anything better.  Something tickled insistently at the back of her mind...

            "We'd better get there if we're going," Xander said.  Buffy tried to drag her attention back to the situation at hand, but the tickle nagged. "Start with Buffy's house, then go from there."

            Spike was nodding in agreement. 

            The demon...

            Willow was crying.  Stroking her lover's hair in the rain.  Behind, them Buffy could barely see the remains of the demon...

            "Buff?" Xander said, touching her on the shoulder. "You okay?  I think me and Dawn are ready to go."

            ...its ash outline, almost washed completely into the ground.

            Jonathan didn't kill her...

            The demon they set loose on her did!

            "Spike..."

            They were almost out the door, and he was turning to go back into the hospital - he glanced back at her, an impatient look on his face. "Yes, luv, what is it?"

            "How..." she stopped, her throat for no reason at all suddenly tight. "How did you know it was a demon that killed Tara?"

            Pure and unadulterated shock washed over his face for an instant, and was just as quickly stuffed back into hiding.  It was so fast that the others might have missed it, not knowing what to look for - but Buffy had seen it.

            "What?"

            "How did you know?" she said, a little stronger. "You came after I did.  After the rain had already washed the ashes away.  I don't think Willow told you.  How did you know?"

            "I..." he started, backing slowly away from them, toward the hospital doors. "I...didn't know it was a demon.  I thought one of the Trio -"

            "No," Dawn said darkly. "You said it.  Buffy said Jonathan didn't kill Tara, and you said, no, the demon they set loose did."

            Spike opened his mouth, as if to argue...and then shook his head sadly.  "Tried to give you a chance, Buffy -"

            The glamour fell away, and Willow was standing between them and the hospital doors.

            "- but so be it.  I tried to get you out of the way, but you wouldn't have it.  So be it.  I would have made it quick for him.  He would have gone in his sleep.  I don't want to kill him - I didn't want to kill any of them.  But justice demands it."

            Buffy held up her hands in supplication. "We don't want to fight, Will -"

            "Then don't stand in my way.  It's very simple, really - you're either with me or against me.  I'm not evil.  I'm necessary.  You held me back before, and that's fine.  She...she held me back, too, and I understood.  It was for my own good.  I wasn't ready.  I'm ready now.  If you can't handle that...then leave.  I'm going up there now.  I'm going to take his life, the life that's rightfully mine."

            She looked at each of them in turn as she spoke, as if gauging them, until finally she came back to Buffy.   They stared at each other across the space of ten feet, and found for themselves that the other was either unwilling or unable to blink.

            "I'm going to kill him," Willow continued grimly. "And anyone that stands in my way."

            To be continued.