DISCLAIMER: I should've put this in the beginning but I forgot. In part one I used lines and scene descriptions from the actual Buffy episode "Family." I did not write those and intend no infringement by using them. In this section of the story, I'm using a large amount of lines and scenes from the episode "Tough Love." Again, no infringement intended. If I use lines from Buffy episodes for future chapters I will specify the episode.

Tara and Willow stood in Willow's dorm room having an argument about where their relationship was going. It was becoming apparent to Willow that Tara didn't trust her.

"I trust you. I just..." Tara began. She looked down at the floor. "I don't know where I'm gonna fit in...in your life when..."

"When...I change back?" Willow asked, not believing what she was hearing. She continued, her voice filled with sarcasm. "Yeah, this is a college thing. Just a-a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boys' town." She paused and tried to look Tara in the eyes. "Do you think that?"

"Should I?" Tara asked accusingly. Willow blinked back tears.

"I'm really sorry that I didn't establish my lesbo street cred before I got into this relationship. You're the only woman I've ever fallen in love with," she said, her voice trembling with anger, disappointment and sadness. "So how on earth could you ever take me seriously?"

She walked past Tara to the door and Tara called after her, "Willow, please!"

"Have fun at the fair," Willow muttered before walking out of the room and slamming the door behind her.

Tara remained in the room, not sure what to do. Part of her wanted to follow Willow, to stop her from leaving until they understood each other. Another part of her knew that they both needed to cool off, and then they could get together and have a calm discussion about what had just happened. Then a completely irrational part of her thought about how she could make Willow come back with her powers. She shook her head when she realized how insane that idea was. Finally she decided to go to the fair. She hoped it would take her mind off the argument. They would see each other later and they would talk. She knew they could work it out.

* * *

She walked through the fair, past the booths and the people. She didn't look at any of them. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she just looked at the ground as she walked. Occasionally someone would bump into her. She wouldn't look up. She was preoccupied with Willow. She could feel Willow's sadness and confusion. She could also feel betrayal. It hurt her to feel that. She hadn't wanted to betray Willow. It was all a big mistake.

She sat on a bench and let her arms fall to her sides. She watched people walk by. She watched couples and parents with children. She watched friends and siblings laugh and enjoy themselves. She wished she could be doing that with Willow.

Tara smiled when she felt a hand touching hers and locking fingers, but her smile immediately disappeared when she saw the hand didn't belong to Willow. Glory smiled at her.

"Is this seat taken?"

Tara couldn't speak. She was frozen in fear. She had been training for a while, but it didn't feel like nearly enough. She couldn't fight Glory. She wasn't ready. She was nowhere near ready.

"This is nice," Glory said. "Just hangin' out. Just us girls." She looked down at their hands. "You like this sort of thing, don't you?"

She squeezed and Tara started to cry out as the bones in her hand cracked and snapped. But Glory held up her free hand.

"Don't...make a sound," she said. She noticed Tara looking at a couple of guys nearby. "Nah. They won't help you. I'd kill them. You know that." Tara glanced over at the police. "There's no one here that can stop me. I'll kill her. I'll kill him and her and her. And it would be all your fault."

"Kinda funny, isn't it? All these people here and no one who can do a thing," Glory continued. Tara looked over at her fearfully, whimpering in pain. "But that's people for ya. Pretty worthless."

She squeezed Tara's hand again and drew blood. Tara bit her lip to keep from screaming. Glory lifted Tara's hand up.

"Now keys on the other hand," Glory said with a smile. "Keys are worth a very lot."

She licked Tara's blood off her hand and moments later she spit it back out, her face twisted in a grimace of disgust. She looked at Tara angrily.

"You lying little tramp. You're not the key. You're nothing," Glory said. "I hate being lied to. It makes me feel so betrayed."

Tara looked at her fearfully. She had to get out of here. She had to do something, but she couldn't move. She was too frightened. Her mind kept shouting at her to do something, but her body wouldn't respond.

"Hey! You wanna make it all better?" Glory asked, her scowl quickly changing to a smile. "If you tell me who the key really is, I'll let you go."

Conflicting thoughts ran through Tara's mind. Part of her thought about how she would rather die before revealing Dawn as the key. Another part was still screaming at her to run or fight or do something other than just sit there. A third part was telling her to give up and tell Glory who the key was. She was in a panic and she didn't know what to do. She whimpered when Glory gave her hand another squeeze and cracked more bones.

"Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain." Tara said nothing, and Glory continued talking. "It doesn't kill you. What it does is make you feel like you're locked in a noisy little dark room, naked and ashamed. And there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad. Little pinching things that go in your ears and crawl on the inside of your brain. And you know that if all the noise and the crawling would stop, that you could remember how to get out."

Glory paused and looked over at Tara. Tears streamed down Tara's cheeks. She closed her eyes and tried to will some kind of strength within herself.

"But you never ever will." She gave Tara's hand another squeeze, causing Tara to whimper again. She glared at her angrily. "Who...is...the key?"

Slowly Tara turned her head. She drew in a deep breath and looked at Glory with a sharp gaze. She concentrated on everything around her. She felt the breeze blowing against her. She heard conversations from the other side of the fair. She saw through Glory like she was looking through glass. Suddenly the ground started shaking. Glory looked around in confusion as the people started running and screaming in fear. While Glory was off guard, Tara balled her left hand into a fist and then swung with all the strength she could find. It startled Glory enough to get her to let go of her right hand. Tara jumped up and ran as fast as she could.

After a moment it felt like she hit something and fell backward. Glory towered over her, looking down on her. For the first time since Tara had first seen Glory, she actually looked like a god. Glory grabbed Tara by the arms and lifted her up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Glory asked in confusion. "You hit me."

"You…broke my hand," Tara shot back. She brought her right leg up and shoved Glory off of her. She knew running wasn't going to work, not yet. She took a defensive stance as Glory regained her footing. When she saw Tara standing there, ready to fight, she laughed.

"You're kidding, right?" Glory asked. "You think you can fight me, witch?"

"I'm not a witch," Tara said. She took a couple steps forward, jumped and hit Glory with a flying kick. The hellgod fell to the ground and looked up, shocked. "I'm a demon."

Glory stood and the fight truly began.

* * *

Willow sat in the Magic Box, feeling horrible. She couldn't get her mind off of her argument with Tara. What she had said about feeling like the junior partner was true, especially with Tara being a demon. Tara was more powerful than Willow could ever dream of being. Then Tara's doubts were revealed. Willow hadn't expected that at all. She thought Tara trusted her. In her mind, Willow heard what she had said to Tara the night before her birthday.

"Whatever it is that's inside you, I can't believe that it's evil at all. I trust you. I love you. It doesn't matter what you are, as long as we have that."

But did they have that? She wasn't sure. She was just so confused.

"I hope this isn't a return. Everyone wants petrified hamsters, but they're never happy with them," Giles said as he placed a box on the counter and cut the twine holding it closed. Willow walked toward the counter and leaned on it, looking extremely depressed. Giles noticed this. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Willow said quietly.

 "Ah, yes, because your good mood is both obvious and contagious," he said sarcastically.

"I had a fight with Tara. It was awful."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Giles said sympathetically. He turned to put some items on the shelves behind him.

"Me too," Willow muttered.

"You two don't quarrel much?" he asked.

"Never. Until today," Willow said sadly.

"Well, now it's over," Giles said. He returned some other items to the shelves, not noticing the upset expression on Willow's face until she started speaking frantically.

"Over? How can it be over? I just found her."

Giles smiled warmly and moved back to the counter. "The quarrel's over."

Willow looked down sheepishly. "Oh. Yeah."

A noise behind Giles caused him to look over briefly before he continued his discussion with Willow. "You'll feel better when you've made your apologies, and you'll know you can fight without the world ending." He started to move over to the door behind the counter. "I know it all seems bleak now, but as they say, this too..." He grabbed the doorknob, pulled it open to reveal one of Glory's minions before he slammed the door back, knocking the minion to the floor. "...shall pass."

* * *

Glory caught Tara across the jaw with a right hook, bloodying her nose and splitting her lip. Tara regained her footing and turned, hitting Glory in the gut with a roundhouse kick. She then followed up with a left backhand. Glory stumbled backward against a tree and Tara held out her left hand. The branches of the tree started to magically bend and grab Glory. Roots started to come out of the ground and wrap around her legs. But this didn't slow Glory for long.

The hellgod ripped the branch holding her right arm off the tree and swung it, catching Tara in the left side of her abdomen. She was thrown several yards and she slammed down hard on the sidewalk. She gagged and coughed, trying to catch her breath. She was certain she had felt things crack and break with that blow. When she looked up she saw Glory looming over her.

"You're not lookin' so good," Glory said with a smirk as she reached down and grabbed Tara by the throat, pulling her up to her knees. "I haven't even broken a sweat, sweetheart."

Tara held the palms of her hands toward the ground. Again, the ground shook and Glory looked around in confusion. But this time Tara didn't hit her. She concentrated on the earth and it started to change beneath Glory. The concrete cracked and stone started to grow upward around Glory's legs. She was startled and she let go of Tara. The stone was already up to her chest.

"What the hell?" Glory asked. Then she glared at Tara as the stone covered her arms. "This won't stop me. I'll go through each of the slayer's friends until I find my key. Starting with you."

Finally the stone worked its way up around Glory's head. Tara didn't hesitate as she stumbled to her feet and forced herself to run.

Moments after Tara left, the stone shattered and exploded, allowing Glory to step out. She turned to give chase, but before she could take a step she stopped and shook her head. She could feel it happening.

"No, you little creep. Not now," she said angrily. She fell to her knees as Glory's presence slowly disappeared and Ben's took her place. He looked around and saw that he was now kneeling on the ground in public, wearing a dress. He stood and ran, trying to get away from the confused looks of all the people around him.

* * *

Willow stood, startled, and Anya hurried over from the other side of the shop.

"Wow," Anya said as Giles dragged the minion over and shoved him in a chair.

"Now, what do we have here?" Giles asked.

"Oh! He's one of those things that work for Glory," Anya said excitedly.

"Yes. How helpful," Giles said smugly, staring at the minion.

"I do indeed work for the god," the minion said in his raspy voice. "Let me go if you do not wish to incur her wrath."

"Well, she's not here," Giles said. "What a marvelous opportunity for you and me to talk."

"I will not betray Glorificus. I will never talk, no matter what heinous torture—"

"Actually, you're talking quite a lot," Giles interrupted. "Just not about the right things. Tell us why you're here."

"No words shall pass my lips that will bring peril to Glorificus."

There was a pause and then Giles pointed to the counter. "Girls, get the twine that's on the counter. Let's tie him up."

The two of them turned to retrieve the twine, but they turned back when they heard a cracking noise shortly before the minion started shrieking and begging.

"No, no! I'll tell you! Anything. Please! Whatever you want. Just...I'll...anything!"

"What happened?" Anya asked in surprise and confusion.

"He changed his mind," Giles said dryly.

"I'm...I'm supposed to watch. We're watching the slayer's people...while Glory fetches the key."

That got their attention. They all looked alarmed at the thought of Glory heading over to Buffy's house at that very moment.

"Glory knows who the key is?" Willow asked fearfully.

"Oh god," Giles said as he removed his glasses.

"We've gotta call Buffy," Anya said.

"Too late, too late," the minion said with an enthusiastic smirk. "Glorificus will find the witch and there's nothing you can do to stop her."

"Witch?" Anya asked, confused.

"Tara!" Willow exclaimed, realization and fear hitting her like a Mack truck. She turned, grabbed her jacket and headed for the door. She stopped short when the door burst open and Tara rushed in. Tara slammed the door shut behind her and turned, falling to her knees in exhaustion and pain. "Tara, oh my god. Glory—"

"She thought..." Tara began, gasping for breath and cringing in pain as Willow helped her stand and walk over to the table. "She thought I was the key."

"We know," Giles said. He gestured to Glory's minion.  "We just found out she was coming for you."

"We fought," Tara said weakly. The others had already deduced that by her appearance. She had a bloody nose, split lip and a her left eye was starting to swell. She was also being very careful about her right hand, which was covered with blood. Her jacket was torn and her clothes were covered with dirt and blood. They were almost certain she had other injuries that they couldn't see.

"You escaped," Giles said, both relieved and surprised. He had hoped to have every confidence in Tara's powers and fighting skills eventually, but he felt now was a bit soon for her to be fighting Glory.

"Barely," she said, cringing when she accidentally moved her hand, causing a surge of pain. She stood slowly, ignoring Willow's attempts to keep her seated as she turned to the front window. "I know I only slowed her down. I didn't stop her."

"Do you think she's headed here?" Anya asked nervously. Tara shrugged her shoulders and turned back to them. She stumbled a little, but Willow caught her.

"We need to get you to a hospital," Willow said, filled with concern.

"Dawn," Tara said worriedly, shaking her head. "Glory said she's going to go through all the slayer's friends until she finds the key."

"Anya, call Buffy," Giles instructed. "Tell her what's happened. Where's Xander?"

"He's at work," Anya said. "Glory won't find him there. I'll call him."

"Willow, get Tara to the hospital," Giles continued. He turned to Glory's minion. "I'll take care of our friend here."

Willow helped Tara toward the door. "Willow, I'm sorry I—" Tara started to apologize. Willow just smiled and shook her head.

"We'll apologize later when we're not dead," Willow said. Tara smiled and they made their way out of the Magic Box, keeping their eyes open for a red-headed god-type in a stunning evening gown.