Her eyes opened slowly and for a moment her vision was blurred. She tried to move her hands, but she quickly found that they were tied together behind her back. She was tied to a chair. Her vision started to clear and she saw she wasn't in Buffy's house anymore. There was one window in the room and the ceiling was composed of wooden rafters at an angle. If she had to guess, she would say she was in somebody's attic.

Amy's attic. She remembered now what had happened. Amy had used magic to put her to sleep. Amy had said that fate had given her a chance to kill her. Tara began struggling against the ropes that held her hands. She didn't want to stick around for whatever Amy was going to do.

"Now, now," she heard Amy's voice from behind her. "Struggling is just going to make things worse for you."

"Amy, you don't want to do this. Do you want to hurt Willow like this?"

"No, I want to hurt you like this," Amy said. She stepped in front of Tara, a look of pure anger and hatred on her face. "You're the reason Willow turned me away. You made her weak. You've got her obeying your little rules because you can't handle that she's a more powerful witch than you."

"That's not the reason she gave up magic," Tara said, defending Willow and herself. "It was destroying her. She nearly got people she cared about killed. She wanted to change."

"She changed all right. Changed into your little lap dog," she said. She grabbed a steel dagger off a nearby table. "But not for long."

"What do you think Willow will do to you if you kill me?" Tara asked. "You know what she did to Warren. It doesn't matter that you were once her friend. It doesn't even matter that you've got all these powers. If you kill me, you're only killing yourself."

"You think I haven't thought of that?" She placed the tip of the blade under Tara's chin and moved close so their faces were only an inch apart. "I've got a spell to fix that. She'll forget all about you. Everybody will. Your death will mean nothing to them. Just another murder in Sunnydale. Damn demons."

"You won't get away with this. Spells backfire," Tara said. "They always do."

"Maybe for you," Amy replied.  "But that's enough talk. Let's find out what you fear."

Amy put the dagger back on the table and placed both of her hands on Tara's head. She closed her eyes as if she was meditating. Moments later her eyes opened.

"Well, of course, that should have been obvious," she said. She said a few words in latin and waved her hand in front of her face. Her form changed and Tara blinked, trying make the image she saw go away. It was an image from her nightmares that she never wanted to see again. Pale skin, veins and dark eyes.

"You'll never change who I am," she said. "The power is in me. All I'm doing is suppressing it."

"This isn't real," Tara said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "This isn't real."

"You keep saying that," she said, leaning forward and supporting herself on the arms of the chair. "But this is the real Willow. You know the Willow you know is the result of a spell."

"I won't accept that."

"Accept it," she said. "This is my true nature. To torture, kill and maim." She reached over and grabbed the dagger from the table. "So let's get on with that. Shall we?"

* * *

"I just want to get one thing clear here," Anya said. She and Xander walked onto the porch of Amy's house, and Xander tried the doorknob to find it unlocked. "I'm only doing this for Tara. She's the only one out of the lot of you that never talked down to me or treated me like an idiot. The rest of you looked down your noses. Like you're better than me. I don't think so."

"Okay, Anya. I get it," Xander said in a hushed tone as they entered the house. "We're trying to be stealthy here."

"Why? What are we going to do?" Anya asked. "She'll probably turn you into a toad."

"She won't turn me into a toad. We're going to make sure Tara's still alive, and then we're going to wait for Buffy," Xander explained.

"Wait for Buffy. Excellent plan," Anya said, snidely. "In the meantime, Amy turns you into a toad."

"Let's try upstairs. I think Willow said Amy liked to do her magic in the attic."

Slowly they headed up the stairs, hoping to find Tara still alive.

* * *

Willow and Buffy burst into Rack's place. A couple of those waiting for Rack recognized Buffy immediately and ran out. Willow pointed to the door that led to the back room and Buffy kicked it in. Rack looked less than pleased as he stopped what he was doing.

"Excuse me. I'm with a client," he said sharply. The client also recognized Buffy and ran out. But Rack wasn't looking at her. He was looking at Willow. "I had a feeling I'd see you again. Back for more?"

She and Buffy stepped further into the room. "I'm not here for that. I don't do that anymore."

"Right," Rack scoffed. Finally he noticed Buffy. "Who's your friend?"

"Name's Buffy, but I prefer to go by my nickname, The Slayer," she said. Rack smiled and sat on his sofa. "Girl named Amy is a client of yours. Has she been in lately?"

"Last week she came in for a major boost. Had a nice wad of cash. So I gave her a boost."

"What kind of boost?" Willow asked.

"The kind that will last for at least a month," Rack said. "Probably longer. She said she needed to rid the earth of some pests."

"Did she say anything else?" Buffy asked.

"I don't do much talking when my clients are in here," Rack said. He leaned back and stretched his arms out across the back of the sofa. "I don't really care about the details."

"Okay, she's not here. We've gotta meet up with Xander at her house," Willow said. They started to leave when Rack called after them.

"Willow," he said. She looked over her shoulder. "You know you're kidding yourself. You can't suppress your true nature forever."

"Come on, Willow. We've gotta go," Buffy said. She took Willow's arm and dragged her out of Rack's. They just had to hope that they would make it to Amy's in time.

* * *

Xander leaned with his ear pressed against the attic door. Anya waited impatiently behind him.

"Anything?" she asked. But Xander just shushed her.

"I hear someone moving around in there," he whispered. "Nothing else."

Suddenly a scream of pain caused them both to jump back away from the door. Xander grabbed his axe.

"We've gotta get in there. Stand back," he ordered. Then he swung the axe, the wood splintering as the axe struck it. He tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. "What the…"

The door started to glow and then an unseen force threw Xander and Anya backward. They tumbled down the attic stairs and landed at the bottom in a tangled heap. They separated and looked up to see Buffy and Willow approaching them.

"Xander, are Tara and Amy here?"

"They're in the attic," Xander said. He and Anya stood. "It sounds like she's hurting Tara, but we couldn't get in."

Another scream came from the attic and Buffy led them up the attic stairs. She didn't hesitate as she kicked the door in, giving Amy no time to magically attack. Except what they saw wasn't Amy. It was Willow. A scary, pale, veiny Willow.

"Oh hey, you're just in time for the grand finale," Amy/Willow said.

Willow's gaze went immediately to Tara. She didn't have any visible physical injuries. But Willow of all people knew there was a lot of pain magic can cause that you can't see. The look on Tara's face was a look of extreme pain. She winced as Amy/Willow grabbed her hair and pulled backward, placing the dagger against her kneck.

"You know what, Amy," Buffy said. She quickly raised her crossbow, her arrow striking Amy in the right arm and causing her to drop the dagger. "I liked you better when you were a rat."

"You think you can stop me, Buffy?" Amy asked. She stood and moved away from Tara to the side of the attic. "What are you going to do? Kill me?"

'If I have to."

"Amy, why are you doing this?" Willow asked. She moved over to Tara, who was slumped over in the chair, unconscious. She started to untie Tara's hands.

"Jonathan didn't tell you? He told you about everything else," Amy said. She quickly yanked the arrow out of her arm, cursing under her breath as she did.

"Actually, we figured most of it out on our own," Xander said.

Amy glared at them and Buffy moved forward, putting herself between the witch and her friends.

"They're holding you down, Willow," Amy said. "You and I. We have the real power. And you let them hold you down. You let her hold you down."

"How about I hold you down?" Buffy asked.

"You can die with all of them, Willow," Amy said, ignoring Buffy's comment. She held out her left hand and started chanting in latin.

"Oh no you don't," Buffy said. She moved to hit Amy with the butt of the crossbow but an invisible field threw her backward across the attic. Willow was sitting on the floor, holding Tara. She moved Tara over to Anya and stood. She approached Amy her left hand outstretched. She could feel the pressure of the magical shield as Amy continued chanting, the walls of the attic starting to blur and shift around them.

The house began to shake as Willow pressed against the shield, slowly pushing her hand through it. She had a look of fierce determination on her face, not losing eye contact with Amy. Finally she made it through and the shield dropped, her hand closing around Amy's kneck and squeezing firmly enough to interrupt the chanting and the shaking of the house. They held their gaze for a moment and then Willow quickly punched Amy, knocking her out.

"Ow," Willow said, shaking her hand as she turned back to Tara and the others.

"Nice punch, Will," Xander said with his usual smirk. Buffy agreed.

"Couldn't have done it better myself," she said. "How'd you get through that force field?"

"It's all about emotional control," Willow said with a smile. Then she knelt down next to Tara.

"I think she's starting to wake up," Anya said. She was right. Tara's eyes opened slowly. At first she seemed disoriented, but then she looked at Willow and was frightened. She tried to scoot herself away, cringing in pain with every move.

"No. Please, no. Get away," she said fearfully. Willow tried to calm her.

"Tara, it's okay. It's me. It's Willow," she said. "I won't hurt you. See? No veins."

Tara stared at her for a moment, seemingly confused. "Willow? My Willow?"

"Always your Willow," she replied with a smile. She moved forward and wrapped her arms around Tara, the two of them just holding each other, feeling safe. They remained like that for several minutes until finally they separated enough for Willow to help Tara stand. Xander moved over to assist when he saw Tara could barely stand.

"We should get Tara to the hospital," Buffy suggested.

"What about Amy?" Anya asked. "What are you going to do about her?"

"I don't know," Buffy said. She really didn't. "She's human. I can't just kill her."

"The police won't be able to hold her," Willow said. "She's too powerful."

"Make a wish, and I'll take care of her," Anya said with a devious smile.

"I can say the word 'no' in five languages," Xander said. "Which one would you like to hear?"

"Okay, Anya, please help Willow get Tara to the hospital," Buffy said. "Xander, we're tying Amy up and we're taking her home. We'll figure something out."