DISCLAIMER: Xena versus Calisto. Buffy versus Faith. Ripley versus the Alien Queen. Tonya Harding versus Nancy Kerrigan. And now, Sara versus Pru in my attempt at the Best. Girlfight. Ever. Enjoy!

Before either of the women could make their next move, the front door of the shop burst open.

"Sara, we have a situation!" Julian called urgently from the doorway.

"I know!" Sara replied, the fresh wound fiercely stinging in her arm. But she remained focused on her target until she heard a familiar, pained groan. She turned to see Julian drag Shaun into the shop and lay him on the floor. Shaun was a distinctly whiter shade of pale, his limbs convulsing. When his eyes opened, they were bloodshot and an eerie, insipid shade of blue.

She started toward Shaun but stopped short, turned menacingly on Pru. "What did you do to him!"

"Absolutely nothing," the witch claimed, casually walking closer. "But frankly, I never thought he'd shut up."

"How did--?" Sara didn't have time to react before Pru landed a surprisingly forceful backhand punch across her jaw.

"Not so tough without your protection spell, are you?" she hissed.

Sara wiped a drop of blood from her lip. "Look, Mrs. Davies, I don't want to hurt you."

"Not a problem." A swift uppercut sent Sara flying across the room where she slammed into a bookshelf. Coughing, aching like mad, Sara determinedly got to her feet.

"I said I didn't want to hurt you." She spun and delivered a roundhouse kick to Pru's side, sending the woman stumbling backward. "Didn't say I wouldn't."

"Sara, I don't know what's wrong with him," Julian said in a worried tone.

"Julian, please do something!" Sara's voice began to thrum with worry; Shaun had begun to shiver and perspire, and he was beginning to look disturbingly like Frodo after he'd been stabbed by the Witch King. "Try to do something, I've got to deal with Witchy Pru over here."

At that moment, Witchy Pru took the opportunity to sneak up behind Sara and place a tightly wound scarf around her throat. Choking her, she elevated a few inches of the floor and spiraled them around wildly; Sara was hurled against a cabinet. She countered by thrusting her elbow backward into Pru's face. The witch loosened her grip and stumbled backward. Sara tried to throw a right hook but Pru blocked it and gripped Sara's fist hard until she screamed with agony. Furious, she spun around to kick Pru in the stomach, knocking her off balance.

Grabbing an iron candlestick from a nearby shelf, she tried an overhead swing at Pru's head but she ducked aside. Still Sara managed to connect an uppercut to Pru's chin on the second try. Shaking off the impact, Pru kicked the candlestick out of her hand, caught Sara's arm and flung her across the room, slamming her into another bookshelf.

Pru held out her hand, and an ornately carved walking stick flew into her grip. She swung it at Sara's head, but she dodged the blow. Catching the end of the stick, she thrust it into Pru's stomach. Wresting the stick from Pru's hands, she swung it upward and connected with Pru's jaw. Pru held up her hand again, commanding an amethyst bookend to fly across the room and connect with Sara's head, knocking her to the floor. Sara struck out with the stick, taking Pru's legs out from under her and she hit the floor as well.

Scrambling to her feet, Sara tried to make a run for her messenger bag but Pru moved just as quickly. She slammed into Sara's side and together they went tumbling over a display table of herbology books, crashing to the floor. Pru got the upper hand and placed her hands around Sara's neck, squeezing tightly. Sara struggled against her grasp, finally taking Pru by the hair and forcefully pushing her aside.

"A little help over here?" Sara called out to Julian.

"I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment," he replied, frantically trying to locate a healing spell in the Little Book of Really Useful Spells.

Sara unleashed the dagger from her leg holster and spun around to face Pru, but Pru held up a thick volume of 1001 Things To Do With Rosemary to block Sara's blow. The dagger embedded in the book, Pru tossed it aside and delivered a roundhouse punch to Sara's face. Grabbing Sara's arm and pinning it behind her, she spun Sara into another bookcase and then over to the candlelit altar. Laying a hand aside her face, she tried to push Sara down into a candle's flame.

The heat on Sara's face grew unbearable as the flame came closer. But she used her free hand to grab another candle and thrust it at Pru's cheek. Screaming in pain, she released Sara. They continued to exchange punches, until Pru caught Sara's arm and flung her over the retail counter. For a moment, she lay there dazed until the sound of footsteps came around the counter.

Sara feigned exhaustion until the very last second…then grabbed a nearby box and chucked it at the approaching Pru, who dodged it nonchalantly. She latched her hand around Sara's throat like a vice and hoisted her to her feet, pinning her against the wall. "This is all pointless, slayer," Pru whispered. "You said it yourself, the wheels have been set in motion. The prophecy will come to pass, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Yeah, well, most prophecies aren't worth the papyrus they're printed on." Sara brought her knee up into Pru's side, knocking the wind out of her. She smacked Pru's hand aside, concentrated all her rage into her right fist and then delivered a powerful blow to Pru's jaw. The witch faltered, and she took the opportunity to grab Pru's arm and toss her back over the counter.

"Sara!" Julian hollered. "He's….oh, my God."

"Just hold on!" Sara shouted. Pru got to her feet again quickly, but Sara slid across and kicked at Pru's head. Unbelievable, she fought like a woman half her age, Sara thought. She grabbed Pru by the hair, smashing her face into the glass display and shattering it. Pru threw her head back into Sara's face, causing her to let go. She started quickly for her office door, but Sara tackled her to the ground. Pinning Pru to the floor with her knee, she used the scarf that she'd been choked with earlier to bind her captive's hands behind her back.

"This won't hold me," Pru spluttered.

Sara roughly pulled her up to a sitting position and kicked her against the counter. Blood oozed down her face from what might have been a broken nose.

"Prunella Davies," Sara began, in between struggles to catch her breath, "I am bringing you in for questioning in regards to the deaths of Carol Anne Barrett, Tara Farrell, Dana Jensen, and Emma…Emma…"

"You don't even know her name," Pru taunted.

Sara glared at her in order to cover the slight tinge of guilt. "You have the right to remain silent. I'd suggest you use it."

"I don't have anything to say. And I could use a rest. I just think it's amusing that you'd rather read me my rights than watch your boyfriend take his last breaths."

Sara spun around to where the men were huddled in the corner and rushed to Shaun's side. If anything, he was getting worse. "Julian, help him!" she pleaded.

"I've tried."

"We're in a magic shop! Can't you whip up a spell or something?"

"I can't if I don't know what's causing this!"

"Clearly he's been jabbed by a Velkor demon," Pru chimed in, recognizing the symptoms. "Shame I'm tied down, I could conjure up a potion that would save him."

Julian saw the hope in Sara's face and moved quickly to give her a reality check. "She's lying," he declared.

"What if she isn't?"

"She just tossed you like a rag doll around this shop. Do you really think she's trustworthy?"

"Jules, if you start up the counterspell again she won't…" Suddenly the truth dawned on Sara, and she turned back to Pru with an icy glower.

"You knew. You knew this would happen, didn't you?" Sara scrambled back over to the counter and slammed Pru's head against it.

"Sara!" Julian shouted. "That's enough!"

"Shut up, Jules!" She gripped the witch's face tightly, but Pru remained indignant. "You know everything else about me, like what happened to Will…did your little tarot tell you? Huh? That I'd track you down and you'd need leverage against me?"

"Mr. Riley had an accident…but a fortuitous one, nonetheless." Pru continued her diagnosis, nonplussed. "As it is, his innards will probably liquify in about fifteen minutes. That's the fast part; the bit where he goes comatose and starts to grow a whole new set of demon organs takes days upon days."

Sara removed her dagger from the book in which it was embedded and started to undo Pru's bonds, but Julian grabbed her hand. "Are you mad! We can't let her loose, she'll escape."

"I am not going to let Shaun die!"

"Sara, I know you don't want to hear this, but if his death is necessary to save the lives of hundreds of others, then you will have to deal with that."

"No, I won't."

"If you want to commit career suicide, that's fine. But you are not taking me down with you. Now I am taking Mrs. Davies into custody, and Shaun will just have to deal with the hand that fate has dealt him, all right?"

"You honestly think I'm worried about my career right now?"

"I think you should be."

Sara sighed, reared back and decked him for the second time - this time knocking him out cold. "Like I said, you were more fun unconscious." She roughly pulled Pru to her feet and placed her dagger at the base of her spine. "You were saying something about a potion?" she demanded.

"Why should I help you?"

"Because if this blade were to slip about two inches, it'll sever your spinal cord and you will be doing your errands on the back of a broomstick, savvy?"

"You're bluffing."

She glanced at the prostrate form of Julian on the floor. "I just knocked him out cold, and he was my friend. What do you think I'll do to you?"

"Fine. I'll help your dying friend. But I want immunity."

"You get nothing unless Shaun lives. Do we have a deal or not?"

"We have a deal," she consented.

Pru moved to one side, a little too quickly for Sara's taste, and she grasped the witch's shoulder and pressed the cold edge of the blade to the small of her back. "Hey! This isn't a game…"

"I have to get to my supply closet," Pru stated flatly. "I can't just conjure the potion out of thin air. I'm not that powerful." Sara ignored the ridicule in her voice and allowed her to lead them slowly into the office in back.

Pru flipped on a dragonfly lamp by the door; Sara startled with every noise. The witch pulled a chain and a lone light bulb flickered on above; there were about a dozen shelves containing innumerable vials and flasks and jars and boxes, all marked with labels. Some of them in Theban alphabet, some in English...a few of them bubbling. Sara didn't even want to know. Pru filled her arms with items and retrieved a small, green velvet pouch from a bottom shelf.

"Groovy, is that it?" Sara asked impatiently.

"Yes."

"Fabulous…now move it." They re-emerged into the shop; Shaun was now doubled-over on his side, shivering. His skin had taken on a faintly blue hue; Sara pushed Pru over to her little Wiccan candle display, blinking away a tear, desperate to conceal her anxiety.

"Please relax, he will be quite alright," Pru said, back to the fake matronly tone of voice as she opened her spell book.

"Hello! Screen wipe, new scene. I'm not about to relax around a woman who wants me dead," Sara observed. "Anyway, I don't see how you can be so casual when this is all your fault." She watched as the witch removed what looked like a large suitcase from the cabinet below and took from it a portable gas burner.

Sara raised an eyebrow. "No more cauldrons? Not exactly practical for the Wicca on the go, I guess."

"It's not that I don't have an appreciation for the old ways, but this is much faster," Pru replied, turning it on. "And cleaner. We want it to work, he doesn't need an upset stomach on top of things." She began to grind what looked like a small, eggplant-colored root vegetable into a paste, scraping the result into the bottom of the beaker and pouring in a small measure of orange liquid from one of the vials.

"You know, I ought to take offense, Miss Wellesley…or should I say, Miss Cross?"

Sara's knuckles whitened on the blade handle. This stranger's insider knowledge was thoroughly unsettling. "Why is that, Mrs. Davies?"

"Because you are just as much to blame as I am for Mr. Riley's condition," she countered. "If you hadn't given in to your foolish desires and allowed him to come with you on your exploration of Evelyn's inn, you mightn't have found the chapel, hence you wouldn't have found the Velkor, Shaun wouldn't have been stabbed….none of it would have happened."

"Don't patronize me with chaos theory, Morgan Le Fey. Less chatting, more chanting," she advised. Sara pushed a jar of odd-looking mushrooms on Pru, who chortled and pushed them aside in favor of an indigo flask.

"I can't really say that I'm surprised, though. You've become very adept at shifting the blame for your shortcomings onto others. It's a well-honed defense mechanism."

"Yeah, well, I have some other defense mechanisms I'd be happy to show you," Sara muttered.

"Whether you believe it or not, I'm trying to save you from yourself. I know you think everything will change now that you've been…intimate with one another." It was clear now that Pru wanted her to lose her temper, but Sara was resolute. She couldn't go mental, for Shaun's sake. She pursed her lips and looked over at his quaking figure on the floor, letting the witch continue.

"You feel as though now you've revealed the extent of your love for him, that everything will fall into place. But let's be honest, Sara, your life experience in particular should have taught you that nothing is ever so simple. You don't find it the least bit disturbing how quickly Shaun has moved on from Emma?…"

"Very nice. Keep pushing my buttons," Sara chided. "I'll be punching yours later."

"I only think it's fair, since you want me to help him, that you be prepared for the consequences." Pru sprinkled a handful of herbs into the boiling antidote and clucked her tongue. "A few orgasms at long last won't prevent him from doing what all men inevitably do. He will tire of you, no matter how spectacular and fulfilling a life together you promise him. And he will move on. I can only hope that one day, saving his life won't prove to have been a waste of your time and energy."

Now Sara was just sick of hearing this twat flap her lips; she whipped Pru around to face her and lodged the blade of her dagger directly under the witch's jugular. "Y'know, for such a 'girl power' feminist, you don't seem too guilt-ridden about the deaths of four innocent women."

"As I said, their deaths were accidents." The witch lifted the green velvet sachet and leered back, unfazed. "And unlike some people, I learn from my mistakes. Mr. Riley abandoned you once. Are you really foolish enough to think he won't do it again?"

"Shaun isn't like other men," she insisted.

"Such blind faith. I'm very much looking forward to the day when you learn you've misjudged him." The two women glared at each other for what seemed like forever, until a pained and mournful sound escaped from the corner.

"Shaun!" Sara held the dagger firm but her voice wobbled. "Babe, it's going to be okay…"

"If you insist on saving him, might I be allowed to finish?" Pru inquired, coldly. Sara stifled her ire and turned the witch back toward her rumbling concoction. Turning off the burner, she opened the green pouch and carefully poured a thimble full of shimmering, iridescent crystals into the mixture; under her breath, she began to chant. Sara couldn't quite make out the words, but suddenly there was a burst of light, a plume of silvery smoke. The liquid turned from a bubbling sludgy goo to a clear, still liquid instantaneously. Too clear.

"How do I know this isn't an elaborate hoax and that's tap water?" Sara asked.

"I suppose you'll just have to trust me, slayer." Pru lifted the beaker and handed it to Sara, who flinched. "It's alright, you'll find it's quite cool."

"You give it to him," she instructed with a nudge of her blade. They walked over to Shaun and, each cautious of the other, kneeled before him on the floor. Pru continued to chant, quietly, turning him over onto his back. She opened his mouth; lifting his shirt, she tore gingerly through the bandage and revealed his wound. It had swollen and turned a violent purple, pulsing like a cocoon; Sara sniffled and looked away.

"Trust me," the witch repeated. She placed one jeweled hand on Shaun's wound and slowly lifted the beaker's spout to his mouth. The liquid went in; without warning, she fixed both hands on his face, pinching his nose and mouth shut.

"What the fuck…Stop!" Sara exclaimed.

"He has to swallow it!" The witch held firm as Shaun struggled and at last ingested the antidote. Immediately, the convulsions stopped; his limbs went slack. Overwhelmed with relief, Sara rushed forward and pushed Pru out of the way.

"Shaun? Shaun, can you hear me?" He groaned; Sara snatched the scarf from where it had fallen on the floor and mopped the sweat off his brow. She didn't like it that he wasn't opening his eyes. "Come on, you have to wake up now, Riley. Wake up, please wake up…"

And then, at last, he opened them. And Sara wished he hadn't.

"Oh, Jesus….NO!"

Sara hardly had a moment to react to the blueness – complete icy-pale blueness, save for a pinpoint of a pupil – of Shaun's eyes. Nor the spike-like protrusions that ratcheted up the sides of his face in seconds, or the almost instantaneous deepening of his skin tone to a sickly familiar shade of blue. No time to react because with a hollow roar, his body launched off the ground and gripped her tightly by the throat.

"Sh..Shaunn…nggghgh….p-p-lease!" Sara's feet kicked out, pinned against the book stacks, her hands tearing at his hand; she felt his fingernails lengthen, sharpen, and dig into the back of her neck. Every emotion surged through her – shock, fear, anger at Pru who she could no longer see but who was probably in the corner loving every second of this. But mostly sadness… that with tears streaming down her face, she looked into those eyes and didn't see a shred of recognition that he knew what he was doing. And that meant Shaun – her Shaun – was as good as dead.

His literally demonic smile was the last thing she saw before it all went black.