"Yeah it's me you bitch.", Warren spat at Willow, "You're responsible for how I look."

    "You killed Tara. I'm sorry for a lot of things that happened after you did that. I was even sorry for killing you. But seeing as how you're back and obviously not human, I don't think I have to be sorry anymore.", Willow stated as she fired a bolt of lightning at him.

    Warren managed to dodge at the last instant and tried to close the gap between them. He stopped a few feet from Willow and rose into the air and was violently thrown back. He growled and rose again.

    "I hate magic.", Warren said as he managed to get up. Boards and bricks flew through the air and connected with him. Willow was enjoying this immensely. She was giving that bastard what he deserved. She smiled evilly as she slammed him through a wall.

    "Willow let's go.", Kennedy pleaded.

    "You go you little coward! Go run to Buffy!", Willow snarled to Kennedy.

    Kennedy looked to the petite redhead in fear. Willow saw the fear in her eyes and felt immediate remorse. Her eyes returned to their natural color.

    "Oh God I'm sorry.", Willow said in apology.

    Warren rose and exited the hole he had made. He saw Willow hugging Kennedy.

    "What is this? Ellen?", Warren laughed. Willow looked to him in absolute anger and her eyes returned to their ebon shade.

    "Go Kennedy. Go to Buffy. Tell her I'll have some demon parts she can sweep up when I'm done.", Willow said smiling unpleasantly as she walked towards Warren. Warren smiled in response.

    "Yeah baby. Come to Daddy. You could use some straightening out. Let Daddy make it better.", Warren smiled at Willow.

    Willow simply laughed, "Least I could keep a girlfriend."

    Warren scowled, "Funny."

    Warren's back opened up and several arms came out of his back. Some had drills. Some had blow torches. Some had blades. Some had hooks. Some had guns. Some had three clawed hands that open and closed. All looked deadly.

    "Not so funny.", Warren replied.

    Kennedy didn't stay to see what happened. She just ran.

    Buffy sighed and walked downstairs to relieve some stress on the old punching bag. The last twenty-four hours had been extremely weird, not to mention stressful. Hell, it was stressful when it was just the Potential Slayers there. But now, Ethan had pissed off the wrong demons, Tara was back from the dead, and God knows what else. Buffy slammed her fist into the large body bag. She really needed a bigger house.

    She lost track of time as she pounded the bag. She hit it again and again, each time relieving a little more stress. Eventually she started throwing kicks at the bag and made it fly off its chain.

    "Nice work pet. You slayed the evil punching bag.", Spike mused as he came down and sat on his cot.

    "Well it shouldn't have mouthed off like that.", Buffy said as she put her hands on her knees and exhaled.

    "Should walk around while you cool down. Being still isn't good for you.", Spike said leaning back against the wall.

    "Yes Giles. Of course Giles.", Buffy smirked.

    "You wound me pet.", Spike replied with a smirk of his own.

    "Thought we were both past the wounding stage.", Buffy said as she sat beside him on the cot. She still kept a respectable distance.

    "Crazy day eh?"

    "You could say that. Yeah.", Buffy replied to the vampire.

    "I've had weirder.", Spike confessed.

    "Not possible.", Buffy replied.

    "That whole musical experience last year."

    "Okay so one day weirder. This is still pretty weird. Tara's back, not that I'm not glad but…", Buffy began.

    "But……..what?", Spike asked.

    Buffy sighed, "It's just that it seems like the walls are starting to close in. Everyday it gets closer."

    "The fight with the First?", Spike asked.

    "The fight with the First.", Buffy sighed again, "I'm not sure we can win this. It's not just a fight this time. It's a war. There's going to be casualties too. I can feel it. God, I wish we could just call the Justice League or the Avengers or someone else to handle this."

    "Then why don't we?", Spike asked.

    "Because. Because it FEELS like this has to be OUR fight. Throw in whoever else you want, it still comes back to us. I'm not sure if I'm ready though.", Buffy confessed.

    "You're never ready. Not when the big things happen. No one is. No matter how hard you prepare, you'll never be ready. That means the First isn't either.", Spike said in reply.

    "Yeah, the big ancient evil isn't ready to destroy everything. Really convincing Spike.", Buffy rolled her eyes.

    "I was never really ready to take you on, same as you were never really ready to take me on. You can prepare all you want, but you still got stage fright when it comes time to dance.", Spike explained, "Look at it though. How many big bads were you really ready to face? You beat the Master, me, Angelus, the Mayor, Adam, and Glory. You beat that Turok-Han and you told me you didn't think you could. You were never really ready, but you still won. And whatever this big evil is, it's afraid of the people in this house. Of all the people in the world, it's been revealing itself to us. That means something."

    "I'm still not ready to fight it. I'm not ready to lose people I care about.", Buffy said looking at him.

    "No one ever is.", was Spike's simple reply.

    Buffy looked at him and shocked him with her simpler reply. She put his hand over his.

    "I'm not ready to lose anyone Spike. I'm not ready to lose you.", Buffy said to him very simply.

    "What are you saying, Slayer?", Spike said playing it cool, though inside he was all butterflies.

    "I'm saying that when this is all said and done… if we win….. maybe we can…..", she trailed off.

    "Deal.", Spike said to her. And he tightened his hand over hers.

    Upstairs, the doorbell rang.

    "Andrew, can you get that?", Dawn called, "Willow probably forgot her keys again!"

    "Sure, sure. Send the ex-super villain to do ALLLLL the work.", Andrew said sighing as he got up from his comic book and opened the front door.

    Pinhead stood at the other side, dispassionate, calm, and cold as ice.

    Andrew slammed the door shut hard.

    "BUFFY! ITS FOR YOU!"