Disclaimer: If any character or place or phrase or mythology is familiar to you (presuming of course, that you are a fan of the show, which if you're not then you're insane), then they did not come from me. They came from this wacky guy Joss Whedon, ever hear of him? He's great and he owns all the legal rights to these characters, places, you get the point!

"Giles!" Dawn exclaimed excitedly as she ran into the muddle that at one point used to be the Magic Box. "I think Willow's been stopped! All the dirt demons that she had raised to fight us magickally disappeared!" she continued.

"Dawn, calm down," Buffy added as she followed her sister at a slightly slower place. "It might just mean Willow has dedicated all her energy into raising that temple of Prosperity."

"Proserpexa," Giles corrected from his position on the floor. "And if all her energy was devoted into it, we would all be dead."

Dawn smiled happily. "So that means she's been stopped, right? I mean, we're all still alive and such."

"Either we've stopped her or something is distracting her," Buffy corrected her sister again. She admired Dawn's optimism and the last thing she wanted to do was to tell her sister there was no hope, but she had to play the odds. It was a possibility and there was nothing the Slayer could do about that.

Dawn sighed heavily, finally taking in what Buffy had said. As much as she might hate to admit, her sister had a point. And, more likely than not, something or someone was just up there distracting the evil witch. "But who could distract her for this long?" she asked in fear. "And where the hell is Xander?"

Buffy's hazel colored eyes widened with fear. "Xander! It has to be him. He bolted off as soon as Anya mentioned where he was." She frowned, fear for her friend's life shaking throughout her petite body. "Who else could distract her this much for this long?"

"Tara," Giles stated weakly as he propelled himself upwards a little, leaning his back against the counter, hoping the glass would not give in.

Confusion fell over the Slayer's body. "Giles, you are aware that Tara's dead, right?" Although the news regarding Willow's calmer half was heartbreaking, the fact still remained true. Tara Maclay was dead and there was nothing she could do about it.

Giles nodded. "Yes, I am aware of that." He frowned, feeling anger at himself. "It was my stupid idea. I thought it would work," he began.

"Thought what would work?" Buffy asked curiously as well as impatiently.

"Xander was in trouble. I sent Anya over to Kingman's Bluff, in the guise of Tara, hoping she could stop Willow."

"And no one's heard from either of them since?" Dawn asked, bringing things together.

"Oh god," Buffy stated as she ran out of the store, down Main Street on her way to Kingman's Bluff. Her heart pounded as she urged herself to move on, her both Willow and Anya's sake. The small group of well-armed green demons greeting her was not something she had time to deal with.

Hours had passed before Xander regained consciousness. He opened his eyes, squinting them against the overhead sunlight. What happened? Why didn't Willow kill me? He knew that the witch promised to start with him, but yet he still had a pulse, and was therefore still alive. But where was Willow?

Coughing lightly, he stood up. Sure, it hurt him like hell, but he had to find out what was going on. He quietly walked over to the other side of the temple. No Willow. Expected, but it was not a good thing. The thing he was not expecting to find was the body of his former fiancee.

He could barely recognize it as Anya. Her clothes were soaked in her blood, which covered most of her body. Various scratch marks and bruises covered her face and neck area. "Ahn?" he began in fear as he crawled up next to her, picking her head up and holding it in his lap. With his other hand, he picked up her wrist, checking for a pulse.

"Xander!" Buffy yelled as she ran up to her friend. "Xander, are you alright?" she asked as she collapsed next to him. "Sorry it took so long, I was attacked by this demon clan, probably summoned by Willow," she explained, still not wanting to fully accept that Willow was evil.

"I'll heal," Xander said sadly as he looked down at Anya.

Buffy caught Xander's line of vision. "Oh god," she whispered. "Is she--" she began, not wanting to speak the dreaded words. Sure, she and Anya had never been the best of buddies, but this. Just the thought that Willow had killed someone close to them. It was too much for the young woman to handle.

"She's alive," Xander said. "Barely," he added a moment later as he pulled his hand away from her wrist. The pulse there was weakening. "We need to get her some help."

Nodding rapidly, Buffy whipped out her cell phone from her pocket. She had not been planning to use it much until Dawn had started high school, since she had another one for her sister, but this was an emergency. She glanced over at Xander before dialing 911. "My name is Buffy Summers and I found my friend a few minutes ago. She's been really badly hurt by something, I don't know what. We're at Kingman's Bluff," she rushed out in one breath. "Hurry!" she yelled as she saw Xander cradling Anya's head in his lap from the corner of her eye.

"Ahn, you're going to make it through this," Xander told her comfortingly, despite the fact he knew that she could not hear him. "You're strong and you're going to make it," Xander said again as he tried to fight the tears dwelling up in his large brown eyes. Just the site of the former couple was enough to put tears in Buffy's eyes if she had not turned her back to them. "I'm not going to loose you again," Xander added.

Buffy nodded as the annoying voice of the emergency's receptionist droned on. She had memorized the speech years ago having had to tragically hear it so much. It all said the same thing. Help is on the way; do not hang up until you are told. Buffy frowned as she bit her lower lip harder, keeping herself from A) yelling at the woman and B) allowing the tears to flow from the sight of Anya and Xander.

"You can hang up now," the voice told her as Buffy instantly did such before rushing over to the fallen couple.

"Help's coming, they're very nearby," she let out in one breath as she sunk to her knees. She had nothing else she could say that could possibly make her best friend feel any better. "I better find Willow," she said as she stood back up, hearing the ambulance sirens. "I'll be back, I promise."

Xander did not say anything. Sure, he could hear Buffy's sweet and caring voice but he could not understand the words the Slayer was trying to get to him. Everything around him was a whirl. He could understand nothing except for the fact that Anya might soon be dead. Something he was not going to allow to happen no matter what.

He stood with her at her side at all times. The ambulance came and took her, Xander right behind. He hated these rides. The rides to the hospital during which a person has no idea if the patient is going to make it to the hospital. He had been through it with Buffy only two days ago. He was not about to loose Anya. He remained at her side as long as he could.

Evil Willow smiled wickedly as she magicked herself into the Magic Box, causing both Giles and Dawn to jump back in fright. "Which one of you did that to me?" she asked, her voice filled with anger and rage. "Which one?"

"My money's on the Watcher," she continued when she got no answer as she fearlessly walked further into the broken down shop over to Giles. "Rupert's a bad boy."

"Willow, you have to stop," Giles commanded. "It's not what Tara wants."

Evil Willow let out a small laugh. "Silly mortal," she said. "You are just begging for death. Like that little bitch you sent after me. That was not playing by the rules."

"Oh god," Dawn whispered as she sunk down to the floor. "Anya," she whispered in fear, wondering if Willow meant what she was hinting at. "Did you kill her?"

"It's an improvement, believe me," Evil Willow responded coldly. "She had it coming. If you were in my position, you would have done the same."

"Doubtful," Giles put in before he found himself being flung across the room, a result of Willow's power of course.

"Did I give you permission to speak?" Evil Willow hollered. When Giles did not answer, she smiled slightly. "Didn't think so," she mumbled. "Don't fear. I'm not going to kill you," she assured the Watcher. "Yet, anyway," she began. "I'm going to need your help with a little project and I can't get help from you if you're dead," she continued.

She smiled wickedly as another blast of magick flung from her hands over to the struggling Watcher. "But my needs can wait. You can sleep," she said as she saw his unconscious body falling to the ground.

"Willow," Dawn began. "This is terrible."

Evil Willow shrugged. "Really?" she asked in confusion. "It looks about right to me," she said as she walked over to Giles. "Oh, wait, you're still here," she said with a frown. "Sorry, you can't know about this and neither can your Making-Things-Right sister." Evil Willow bit her black-lipstick-covered lip as she thought for a second. "I suppose you could be sleeping," she said as she waved her hand down in front of Dawn, causing the teenager to instantly fall to the ground, fast asleep with a few bits of debris falling on top of her like a blanket.

"Leaving now," she declared as she walked out of the Magic Box, Giles's body tucked under her arm.

"Giles, we need help," Buffy said as she ran into the Magic Box, only to find it was in worse condition than it had been when she left, if such a thing was possible. "Dawn! Giles!" she hollered as she began to grow very afraid. "Dawn! Giles!"

"Hear!" Dawn called from her position on the floor beneath a bit of rubble. She coughed slightly as she stood up.

Buffy's face filled with relief as she walked over to her sister and hugged her tightly. "Where's Giles?" she asked, her face returning to the pallor of fear she had when she had first entered the store.

"Willow," Dawn began. "Willow has him."

"Oh god," she began, suddenly growing fear for the Watcher's life. "Did she say anything about what she was going to do with him?"

Dawn shook her head. "She didn't say much. All she said was she had some sort of project that would require Giles's help. She didn't say what, but I'm guessing she would keep him alive."

"Anything else?"

Dawn shook her head once more. "She magickally knocked the two of us out and presumably left with Giles."

"Right," Buffy said in fear. "We-we have to find them. Keep Willow from killing anyone else."

"Very well," the demon told Spike in his eerie mysterious voice. "You have endured the required trials.

"Bloody right I have," Spike told the demon angrily. He rolled over onto his side, pushing himself up to his knees. His face was swollen, bruised, with more injuries on his arms and chest. "So you'll give me what I want. Make me what I was. So Buffy can get what she deserves.

"Very well," the demon said, his eyes glowing. "We shall remove your chip. With that, the demon stuck his hand on Spike's head. Spike screamed as his chip was removed.