The ringing of the phone was an unpleasant sound at 7 a.m. in the Summers' residence. Buffy looked at her clock and groaned as she picked up the phone.

"This better be good," she said.

"Buffy, it's Giles."

"Too early. Beauty sleep is important," she said.

"Tara's back," he said. That got her attention. She sat up quickly.

"It's not my morning coffee, but it'll do," she said. "Did you just say Tara's back?"

"Yes. Anya and I just arrived to open the shop and she came out of the training room. She attacked me," he said.

"Are you okay? I mean…what did she do?"

"It appears she may have spent the night here," he explained. "She took the clothes off the attack dummy for herself and then made a bed out of the straw. She nearly killed me, but she stopped. I think she recognized me. When I said her name, she ran off."

"So she's running around town with a battleaxe," Buffy said. "Do you think she would hurt anybody?"

"I can't be certain," Giles replied. "You need to find her. I would guess that she would find someplace that she feels safe. I believe that's why this was the first place she came to."

"Get the tranquilizer gun and pick me up," Buffy said, her mind already picking a plan of action. "I know where she's going."

* * *

She walked down the hallway, looking at everything as if she had never seen it before. There was nobody around yet. This was a college dorm. All the students were still gone for the summer. Of course, she didn't know that. She followed her senses to where they led her and she opened the door to the room she was seeking.

It was empty. The walls were bare, the shelves empty and the bed without bedding. But she could still feel the familiarity here. There was a flash and she saw herself with a familiar red-head. "I'm so scared," she said. Then they were gone. Another flash and they were kissing on the bed. Gone again. She ran her hand over the mattress, trying to make sense of all these flashes. She could smell the red-head's scent in the room still. It was comforting.

"Tara."  She looked over to see Buffy standing just inside the doorway with Giles behind her. "You need to come with us."

She stared at them for a while, and none of them moved. Then she saw the tranquilizer gun in Giles hands. She raised the axe and swung at Buffy, and the slayer quickly knocked it out of her hands. She tossed Buffy over the bed and turned to Giles, but she was quickly knocked down as Buffy jumped and tackled her. She tried to struggle free, but Buffy had her arms pinned behind her back. The slayer stood her up on her feet and then looked to Giles.

"Now!"

Giles fired and she cried out as a tranquilizer dart was embedded in her shoulder. She continued struggling, but soon her struggling stopped as everything became hazy. She fell to her knees and then faded into unconsciousness as Buffy eased her to the floor.

"We'll take her back to the Magic Box. It would be best to chain her up until we know precisely how dangerous she is," Giles said. Buffy nodded her head and then looked to him in concern.

"Is she going to be okay?" she asked. Giles shook his head as he handed her the tranquilizer gun and picked Tara up in his arms.

"I don't know."

* * *

Back at the construction site something long, thin and dark crawled out from underneath the steel rubble of the tower. It looked around through it's bright green eyes and then slinked out of the site toward a nearby house. It crawled through the dog door and into the kitchen. It stopped when it heard footsteps. A woman carrying a basket of laundry walked out of the adjoining laundry room. It hissed, catching her attention. She screamed, dropped her laundry and tried to run, but it quickly jumped up and landed on her. Her screams quickly stopped as it tore open her throat and then began devouring her body hungrily.

* * *

The others all rushed back into the training room when they heard Giles and Buffy enter through the back door. By the time they were all in the room, Buffy was already looping the chains over a hook in the wall over the corner where Tara had made her straw bed. Giles set Tara down on the floor, and he and Buffy clamped the manacles around her wrists. Tara stirred slightly, but did not wake fully.

"Oh my god," Willow said, stepping forward instinctively. Giles held up his hand as he and Buffy backed away.

"Stay back," he warned. "She's starting to regain consciousness."

"Are the chains necessary?" Xander asked, not fully grasping the situation. He was too shocked to think clearly.

But they all got an answer to his question as Tara opened her eyes. She sat up, saw all of them, saw the manacles on her wrists and immediately became enraged. She jumped to her feet and shot a furious cry at them, causing them all to jump back in surprise. Then she turned and began pulling and thrashing her chains, trying to break them off the wall. They held fast. She screamed angrily and kicked the wall before she gave up and crouched in the corner, glaring at them like a frightened and trapped animal. She was breathing heavily from her outburst. It almost sounded like growling to the rest of them.

"Oh my god," Willow repeated, tears filling her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was Tara, but it wasn't Tara. The demon dimension had destroyed her.

"What happened to her?" Dawn asked, knowing the answer but not stopping herself from asking the question.

"A couple centuries of physical and emotional torment happened to her," Anya said solemnly.

"We sh-should talk out in the shop," Giles said. They had to figure out where to go from here. They had brought Tara back and now it was their responsibility to take care of her. Slowly they all filed out of the training room, Willow was the last one to leave as she shot one more look at Tara growling in her corner.

"What do we do now?" Xander asked. "I mean, it's pretty obvious the hell dimension drove her crazy. She didn't even know us."

"I think she does know us," Buffy said, shaking her head. "When we found her in the dorm, she just looked at us. I saw recognition in her eyes."

"She attacked us," Giles said, not understanding what Buffy was talking about.

"She attacked us because she saw you holding the tranquilizer gun," Buffy argued. "She was defending herself. And you said when she first attacked you this morning, you thought she recognized you."

"Yes," Giles agreed. Thinking back on the attack in the dorm, he felt Buffy was right. "Yes, perhaps she does recognize us."

"This is a good thing. If she recognizes us, we can probably get her to trust us again," Buffy continued. "The sooner the better."

"But what about what just happened back there?" Dawn asked. "It looked like she wanted to kill us all."

"She's confused and frightened," Giles said. "She doesn't understand what's going on so she's lashing out. It's the only way she knows how to react after what she's been through."

"So how do we get her to trust us?" Xander asked.

"Maybe she's hungry," Dawn suggested. "Maybe if we give her food and water it'll prove we aren't going to hurt her."

"Good suggestion, Dawn," Giles agreed. "I can't imagine food and water would've been in abundance in the demon dimension."

"There is no food in the realm of eternal torment," Anya said. The others looked at her, confused.

"Well, she's lost weight but she doesn't look emaciated," Giles said. "She must have eaten something."

"Something," Anya said. Again, everyone was confused.

"Honey, speed this up and tell us exactly what you're talking about," Xander said.

"There's nothing to eat there. There's no plants or animals. Only sand and rocks," she explained. "And people and demons."

"Wait, are you saying…?" Buffy began, but she didn't finish the question, too apalled to say the words.

"What?" Dawn asked, not jumping on the realization train just yet.

"You're saying she ate people," Willow stated. Her heart ached, thinking about the possiblity of Tara turning to cannibalism.

"Or demons," Anya finished. "It's the only way to die there—to be eaten."

"This just keeps getting worse," Xander said, his stomach turning at the idea of eating people.

"God," Dawn said. She kept thinking of the night Tara saved them all, saved her. She kept trying to think of ways she could've changed things, kept Tara from being sucked into the demon dimension. The one obvious way leapt out at her. She almost wished she had jumped off that tower. It would be easier to die than to feel responsible for her friend's suffering.

"She probably tried to avoid it for the first year or so. But when the hunger doesn't kill you, you have no choice but to give in or completely lose your mind," Anya explained. "Since the realm made her immortal, she didn't have much choice. Eat or be eaten."

Everyone remained silent for several minutes, all of them wishing they had done something different the night that Tara disappeared. Most of their scenarios ended with one of them dying.

"Okay," Giles said, breaking the silence. "Dawn's idea still sounds like a good way to earn Tara's trust."

"I'll get the food," Xander said. "What should I get?"

"It would probably be best to start her with things like bread and rice," Giles said. "She may not be able to handle anything more."

"Got it," Xander said. He immediately stood and headed out the door, feeling better now that he had something to do. Willow stood soon after him.

"I'll bring her some water," she said. She grabbed a pitcher and a glass, and she was about to go fill it when Giles grabbed her by the arm.

"Be careful, Willow," he said knowingly. "I understand how you feel, but you can't get too close to her. Not yet."

Willow simply nodded her head and continued back toward the training room. She moved to the sink, filled the pitcher with water and turned to Tara.

She was watching her intently. She was kneeling now, leaning against the wall. Willow walked forward until she was about two feet away from Tara. She knelt in front of her and filled the glass. Tara kept watching her.

"Tara," Willow said cautiously. She set the glass on the floor in front of Tara. "I brought you water."

Tara stared at the glass, looked to Willow and then grabbed the glass quickly. She drank the water greedily and then set the empty glass back on the floor. She looked to Willow and then looked to the pitcher. Willow started to fill the glass again, but Tara reached forward suddenly, grabbing the pitcher out of her hands. She drank the water directly from the pitcher, being careful not to spill any. She wanted every last drop.

"I guess you were pretty thirsty," Willow said quietly, watching in awe. As Tara drank the water, Willow studied the physical changes. As Giles had mentioned, she was a lot thinner. She had a prominent scar on her neck. It looked like teeth marks. Something had got to her throat and had a taste. It wasn't a vampire bite. Willow could tell because there were teeth marks on both sides of her neck, like something had wrapped its whole mouth around her throat. Tara's hair was a lot longer. It had grown down to her waist and it was stringy, hanging loose in dirty strands.

When she was finished, Tara set the pitcher on the floor and looked to Willow again. She closed her eyes when her mind flashed again. Willow's voice. "Strong like an Amazon?" Her own voice. "Right. Strong like an Amazon."  She shook her head. Willow's voice. "Joyce liked the blue."

Willow watched Tara, not sure what was going on when she closed her eyes and shook her head. Slowly Willow reached her hand out, ignoring Giles' warning. This was Tara. They trusted each other. She had to know that she would never hurt her. But just as Willow's fingertips brushed Tara's shoulder, Tara cried out and lashed out, causing Willow to fall backward in surprise. Tara sat back against the corner and glared at her. She was growling again.

"Oh god, baby, I'm sorry," Willow said, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry."