- Chapter Two -

They were meant to be

"Tell me a story," asked Willow sleepily as she lied in Tara's comfy double bed.

"Okay," she replied. They both were watching Miss Kitty Fantastico playing happily on the floor and privately they agree that she looked so cute. Tara thought for moment and a made up a little story that popped into her head.

"Once upon a time… there was … um… a kitty. She was very little… and she was all alone and nobody wanted her," Tara began.

"This is a very upsetting story," said Willow

"Oh, it gets better," Tara answered, grinning cutely, " 'Cause one day the kitty was running around on the street and a man came and swooped her up."

"And he took her to the pound. And at the pound there were lots of other kitties, and there were puppies, and some ferrets," she continued.

"Were there dolphins?" Willow asked eagery.

Tara grinned, "Yes. Many dolphins at the pound," she answered.

"Was there a camel?"

Tara thought for a moment and decided to go along with her. "There was the front of a camel. A half-camel."

"Did the kitty get chosen by some people?" Willow asked, as she slowly began to drift asleep.

"Well, now you've ruined the ending. There was a whole exciting middle part with the French-"

There was a gunshot, the glass cracked and a bullet went through Tara's heart. She fell slowly to the ground.

"Tara! Baby! Tara no! Please!" Willow screamed, weeping over her dead lover.

***

Willow awoke, tears were streaming from her eyes as she slowly got up and slammed the alarm cloak. She looked at the other side of the double bed, it was empty and Willow felt lonelier than ever. It had been a month since Buffy, the scoobies and a few slayers moved into a large detached house in a town called Clayton which was only a few miles away from where Sunnydale used to be.

After the battle with the First, Buffy decided that it would be best if the slayers split up and head to different downs to eradicate each hellmouth systematically. Faith and about twelve other slayers went to Cleveland while Buffy and the rest went to Clayton which apparently has a hellmouth underneath a football stadium. They figured that they will be staying there for a while so Buffy decided to rent a house but nobody had any money. Fortunately it turned out that Andrew and Anya robbed a bank after their visit to the hospital, Andrew said that Anya thought they may need the money should they be moving on to another place.

A few hours before Faith and her team of Slayers were due to depart, Willow had a bad surprise.

"I'm leaving," said Kennedy, "I'm going with Faith."

"But…" Willow protested holding back her tears.

"You're still in love with her Willow, I hear you talk in your sleep."

"I'm sorry that the image of my dead girlfriend still makes it's way into my dreams," wept Willow, her rage was building, "she was only the love of my life, she only died in my arms…"

"You still love her don't you Willow?"

"Yes, I do… I will always love her and there's nothing you or anyone can do about it."

"I know, that's why I have to go for a while… you need space to get over…"

"Don't say that, I will never get over it… we were meant to be forever… I…"

"Goodbye Willow," said Kennedy finally as she kissed Willow one last time on her cheek.

After a while, Willow chose to forget about her, to put her out of her mind and focus on helping Xander. Xander was possibly the only person who felt as bad and as depressed as everyone else. When Anya died, Xander took it pretty badly, he lost the brightness about him that Willow had always admired. The fact that he could make crude jokes in the face or death was one of his trade marks. The loss of his eye didn't help matters, he would occasionally make a hollow joke about his one eye but Willow could sense the feeling of dread that he carried with him. So she decided to help him, to find a spell that would heal his eye but so far she found nothing.

Willow decided to get up and get dressed and meet with the rest of the gang. When she was ready she trotted down the stairs and met them at the breakfast table. Andrew was cooking waffles in the toaster, Buffy was reading the newspaper which was rather odd, Giles was reading a book and Dawn was eating some cereal. Willow could see a few of the slayers lying outside in the garden giggling about something and eating sandwiches.

"Hi," she said as she helped herself to cereal.

"Hi Willow, you alright?" asked Dawn.

"Yep, peachy, why?

"Oh, I heard you, uh, talking… in your sleep."

Dawn suddenly became really interested in her cereal and started eating, throwing curious glances at her every few seconds.

"It was just a bad dream that's all."

Willow turned her attention to Buffy, "Buffy… Buffy!"

"Oh, sorry Will just reading the news," said Buffy who was slightly startled.

"You're reading the newspaper?"

"Yep… turns out there's been an increase in odd disappearances… three guesses why and… oh my god."

Buffy showed Willow a school picture of a girl and a boy, they looked about the same age as Dawn. Then Willow looked at the headline which said, 'female student brutally murdered, boyfriend suspect'.

"Oh… do you think that a demon…"

"I don't know, maybe, it says the girl was found in the graveyard so I suppose…"

Buffy placed the newspaper onto the table and began to eat her toast. The second the newspaper touched the table Dawn swept it off the table and began to read.

"Oh my God…" Dawn moaned.

"I know honey it's terrible," said Willow.

"No, it's just that… I know them! They're in the same class as me. Oh my God."

She put wiped her eyes and dropped the newspaper.

"How can they say that about Sam, he would never…"

"Dawn, people can get really crazy about love. Remember, the guy who couldn't get the girl so he became Jeckel and Hyde."

"You didn't know them, Sam and Anna, they were just… so in love. Anna sometimes talked to me about him, I got real jealous when she told me about a necklace he bought her."

"I'll do some patrolling tonight then, see if I can get any info about the disappearances. I bet it's just another gang of vamps, no big. Giles could you… Giles, Giles!"

Giles snorted as he woke up suddenly, apparently he fell asleep whilst reading his book, "Oh, sorry, yes. It's just this books so mind numbingly boring I… yes well, you were sating Buffy."

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd finally get bored of reading books," said Buffy smiling.

"You try reading this… this drivel and see if you can stay awake."

Buffy looked at the cover and pulled a disgusted expression and pushed it away.

"One thousand and one uses for dung in magicks…" Buffy said, Willow raised an eyebrow.

"I'm looking for a spell to help Xander…"

"And you'll find it there because?" asked Willow.

"There is a certain spell somewhere inside this book, it's a powerful healing spell which should be able to…."

"… Grow Xander's eye back," said Andrew eagerly as he joined them at the table, "can I help? I can do a few spells…"

"No, Willow and I will be doing the spell, if I can find the bloody thing. Anyway Buffy you were saying."

"Do you think you could take over tonight, you know in training the girls, I think I'll be doing patrol for a long time tonight."

"Why can't they come with you?" asked Giles.

"I think they'll get in the way, there not exactly experienced, we've only just recruited a few of them, I don't want anymore casualties."

"Fine…" Giles mumbled.

Willow looked at her watched and suddenly realised they had to get Dawn to school.

"Buffy, we have to take Dawn to school, she's gonna be late."

"Oh, yeah, hang on," she said as she finished her toast and put her jacket on.

"Come on," Buffy said to Dawn. Dawn groaned, got sluggishly off the chair, picked up her bag and ran to the front door, Willow closely followed.

***

The moon became hidden behind the clouds and the darkness set over the graveyard. Sam was worried, he could feel that something wasn't quite right and he could sense the evil that surrounded where he and the girl were standing.

Sam turned to the girl and said in a faint whisper, "I think we should run, what do you think?"

The blonde looked at him, Sam could see the pure fear in her eyes, and he knew that she could feel the presence too. She suddenly grabbed his arm and they both started running as fast as they could. Sam knew this place, they were in Clayton, he knew this was where he lived though he couldn't remember his address. However, he knew that every night he came down here to hunt the monsters.

He didn't know how long they ran but suddenly the woman stopped abruptly which made Sam trip over and fall flat on his face.

"What's wrong?" he asked massaging his chin.

"Willow…" she whispered.

"Willow? What are you talking about?

She started running again, leaving Sam behind and he was certain nothing good could come out of this. He got up and started to run after her but she was really fast, he started to feel lightheaded and pain started to shoot through his legs.

"Wait!" Sam shouted helplessly, "Come back!"

He kept on running where he finally caught up to her and grabbed her arm tightly. She tried to squirm away but he gripped tighter.

"Stop!" she shouted, "I n- n-need to find her!"

"Find who?" said Sam who was slightly surprised, she hadn't spoken much if at all since he met her, and if she did say something it didn't make any sense.

"L-let go of me!" she screamed.

"I can't, you could get- ARRG!"

Sam was thrown off his feet and hit his head on the gravestone, stars burst before his eyes and he had trouble stopping himself from blacking out. Then a different slim blonde girl wearing jeans and a leather jacket walked up to him, she was feet from him when she sized him up. Somehow Sam knew this was a girl no one would like to get on the bad side of.

"So not a vampire eh? Hang on a minute, you're Sam aren't you? You murdered that girl, you know I actually thought that you might be innocent, that it was some vampires. But I'm telling you now; there is no way on earth that I'm going to let you hurt that girl. If you want her, you'll have to go through me."

She looked at the other girl who was crouched on the muddy floor and muttered, "It's gonna be OK, I won't let him…"

She stopped mid-sentence and stared at the girl and said, "Tara?"

"B-B-Buffy…" the girl called Tara muttered.

Sam tried to get up but Buffy kicked him hard in chest and went flying into another tombstone. He fought off the unconsciousness as stars buzzed before his eyes again.

He lost his strength and the darkness set.

***

He was in school, walking down the corridor. Sam guessed that he was fifteen at this time. He noticed someone, a girl and she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had long ginger hair that glittered gently, she had hazel eyes that sparkled and her smile was so warm and gorgeous that Sam almost fainted on the spot. Sam started to walk towards her to ask her name but he abruptly stopped when a tall muscular boy stepped in front of him and pushed him to the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted with rage, "She's my girl, stay away from her or I'll…"

He punched Sam hard in the stomach causing him to cough up blood. The girl looked terrified.

"Stop it Mike!" she shouted grabbing his arm.

He looked at her with a maddening look in his eyes, "Are you going out with this loser behind my back!"

"I'm not going out with you and I never will just go away you prick!"

"No one talks to me like that!" He raised his arm and moved to slap her but before he could, Sam kicked the bottom his legs and Mike fell backwards howling in pain. They looked at each other for a moment, Mike scowled and then ran down the corridor. The girl helped Sam up and smiled at him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine, I probably shouldn't have done that," said Sam.

"Don't worry about it, he's a jerk. What's your name by the way?"

"It's Sam Redwood."

"I'm Anna Davis."

They smiled at each other and Sam walked her to class, occasionally they caught each other's eyes and blushed.

Sam and Anna were in a park, sitting under the shadow of a tree talking things like music, their favorite television programs and funny things that happened to them in the past. Then, out of the blue it seemed, they kissed. It was their first kiss. They put their arms around each other and they watched the dancing butterflies flutter over flowers nearby.

Suddenly they were somewhere else, in the middle of a forest at night. Anna was wounded, her shirt was torn and she was covered in small cuts. She was scared out of her mind.

"What are those things?" she said.

"Demons…" said Sam ignoring the look Anna gave him when he said it.

"What? You're kidding right, this is just some Halloween joke," she laughed nervously.

Sam gave her a stern and serious glare. It was important that she understood, otherwise she could end up dead.

"You're serious, you can't be… I mean, this isn't possible… I…"

The demon's were approaching, growling menacingly and slashing branches that got in their way.

They were in the graveyard, cornered by the armored demons. One of them stepped forward and removed it's helmet, and glared at him. He had a human face that looked as if he had been hit with spade and he had a broad chin, flat nose, no hair and pitch black eyes.

"Did you really think you could defeat me mortal?" shouted the man in a deep voice.

Sam looked up at him and pleaded, "Let her go, she has nothing to do with this…"

"Oh, I think she does. I sense that you feel for her. It's a pity really, she's such a beautiful girl."

"No… please…"

The man drew back his sword and lanced it though her stomach. Sam watched in terror as he saw the one he loved most in the world fall to the ground as the man withdrew his sword and laughed insanely. Her eyes were absent of the brightness that used to inhabit them. She was dead. Sam screamed.

***

He regained his focus devastated at what he just remembered. Buffy was walking towards him and he felt a sudden stab of fear, because just behind her, gliding eerily was one of the guards he and Tara encountered in Hell, with it's menacing sword raised. It brought the sword down and ran it through Buffy's stomach, the guard held it there for a few seconds and then drew it out of her, and she slumped to the ground while Tara screamed. The guard made towards Sam, but he was prepared, he held out his hand and a wave of flames struck the cloaked menace. It turn away, wailing as it dropped it's sword and tried pointlessly to put out the fire. It wailed once more and faded into the night.

Sam looked around for Tara and found her over Buffy's body with her hands on Buffy's large wound, there was a warm glow surrounding them. Sam figured that Tara was attempting a healing spell, David told him this was one of the hardest forms of magic which Sam never mastered, he only remembered being able to heal small cuts and bruises. He walked towards them and looked at Tara who he could see was being weakened by the spell. He looked at the wound in Buffy's stomach and to his surprise most of it had healed, there was only a small gash left. He looked at Tara, impressed and amazed.

"Hello Tara," said Sam.

She ignored him, apparently concentrating on healing the remnants of the wound on Buffy, which healed a few seconds later.

"Wow. Is she gonna be OK?" Sam asked.

"Y…yes she'll b… be fine. She's a f… fast healer so she s…should be awake soon," muttered Tara.

"What happened to you? You didn't seem to be able to…"

"I…. I was their so l… long, since I…"

She pointed to her heart and opened her shirt at bit so Sam could see a small scar. It looked like a bullet wound.

"I was in a place, it was so beautiful, so peaceful, I felt complete and I felt happy. B… but something happened, something bad and I woke up in t… that cell."

"I'm sure we can figure out what happened but I think we should get out of here incase there are more of those… those things," said Sam.

Tara agreed and together they hoisted Buffy over their shoulders and started to move as fast as they can to the nearest exit. Sam was wondering about something.

"Tara…" said Sam

"Yes?"

"Why did you say 'Willow', when…"

Tara smiled and stuttered, "S…she's my… my…"

Tara paused for a moment and then said clearly, "She's my everything."

Sam assumed that they were involved in someway and he knew how she felt. Anna was his everything, but that man took her away from him. Whoever killed her will have hell to pay.