Episode 3 chapter 17

Willow Reborn

As consciousness returned to Darth Traya, the first thing she noticed was her powers seemed to be gone. Bound by Giles more than likely, Traya thought. Fortunately for her, witchcraft was no longer the sole source of her power.

"Good morning," a familiar voice called out. "Or should I say good evening. Hard to keep track of time in space."

Traya opened her eyes and gazed upon the face of her - of Willow's - oldest friend. "Well, well, well. The whelp. They must really be desperate to send you in here."

"You'll have to forgive the restraints," he said, motioning to the straps that held her down, "but they thought you might try something if you were free. Oh your arm. If you behave, you might even get a cool bionic arm like Buff's."

"Joy," the Sith replied sarcastically.

Xander smiled tightly. "Thought you'd like that. Now, why don't you let me talk to Willow, mm-kay? "

"And why would I let you do that?" Traya asked. "Do you plan on boring us with your stories of our past life together?"

"Hey, they're good stories!" Xander defended. "I especially liked the one about the yellow crayon."

"Willow doesn't exist, you insipid moron," Traya ground out. "There is only Darth Traya."

"No… Darth Traya is an aberration," Xander shot back. "A figment of Willow's imagination that she conjured up to spare her the pain of what she was doing. Well guess what, Will - it's time to face up. Now, come on out and play."

Traya scoffed. "You just don't get it, do you? Willow was weak. A pathetic little slip of a girl who let others walk all over her 'for the good of everyone else'. She let Xiazan touch her, just to spare a few pathetic slave girls' lives."

"That's called 'humanity'."

"It's called 'stupidity'," Traya corrected. "Do you know how many times she – I – could have escaped? How much suffering I could have spared myself? But no - I had to worry about the others and in return I was whored out. And the truly ironic part - they all died anyways! I ask you, what was the use?"

"Willow was doing the right thing," Xander retorted. "Willow always did everything in her power to help others before she would even think of helping herself. That isn't a bad thing."

"Power. Ha!" Traya scoffed. "Her power was insignificant to what I am now capable of."

"Yeah, so I hear. You're big on the dark mojo now, aren't you? Big, bad Darth Rosenberg, terror of the galaxy," Xander shot back mockingly. "Still managed to get your ass handed to you… by a so-called Jedi."

Traya's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You have no idea what you are talking about, boy. You have no idea of the powers I now possess."

"What powers?" Xander retorted. "Were your new powers enough to beat Buffy? Huh? Were they enough to get you back home to Tara? You remember Tara, don't you? That girl you used to love?"

Traya flinched when Xander said Tara's name, but did her best to hide it. "Love is a weakness."

Xander wasn't fooled. "Is that what you tell yourself every night as you go to sleep alone? Is that what you tell yourself when you think of Tara?"

"Don't mention that name," Traya growled. "You don't have the right to say it."

Xander saw his opening. He realized the dangers, but if he could get her angry enough…

"What, Tara? Your ex-girlfriend? The love of your life? Oops, sorry. Forgot how you feel about love…"

"I spent years looking for a way back to her, that I might open the doorway home," Traya replied coldly.

"Then what - you decided the power was much more enticing than returning home to your soul mate?"

"It was so much more enticing!" Traya shrieked, her voice echoing in the cell. "Tara was as weak as Willow! The power Dooku and Sidious showed me, you have no idea how much better it felt! I was untouchable!"

"And it's better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven, right?"

"We were little more than grunts forced to fight the Slayer's war on a Hellmouth, Xander! Sidious showed me my true potential. I wouldn't be reigning in hell, Xander. I would be ruling a galaxy!"

"Yeah. Sorry that didn't work out for you," Xander replied. "Look where that power got you - missing a hand, tied down to a bed - say, did that Xiazan guy like to tie you down?"

Traya was shaking with barely suppressed rage. "Don't talk about it."

Xander waved her off. "You're right, none of my concern. And you know what - if you want to rule the galaxy, who am I to stop you? It's not as if you have anything to go back for now, anyway…"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing. Besides, you don't even believe in love anymore..."

"Tell me," Traya's obsidian gaze was cold, but there was something other than rage expressed in their endless depths. There was curiosity, longing, lust…

"Tara moved on," Xander said simply. "Got herself a new girlfriend. And a new everything else. Can't say I blame her, looking at you now, looking at how utterly pathetic you are. I mean, look at you! Not even a whole woman anymore, doing nothing more than sucking the life out of everything you touch! You're nothing more than a Vampi-ack!"

Xander's voice was cut off as an unseen force began to choke him. He stared in shock as purple bolts of electricity started to dance around and over Willows form, snapping the restraints one at a time. After only a few moments Darth Traya rose from the bed, her one good hand outstretched towards the horrified Xander.

"You dare judge me!" she screamed. "You dare to compare me to a vampire!"

She swung her hand towards the far wall and sent Xander flying into it. The young man's head impacted with the wall, opening a small cut on his forehead and causing him to see stars. He moaned as his feet hit the floor, the staggering affect of the blow sending him to his knees.

"Everything I did, I did it for her! That ungrateful bitch!" Once again she reached out with the Force and used it to fling Xander back across the room, where he impacted once again with the wall. "All I ever wanted was to go back, to share this with her! I spent years looking for a way!"

"She wouldn't want you now, Will," Xander sighed, forcing himself to his feet and meeting her gaze dead-on. "She loved you more than anything and never, never did she stop looking for a way to save you. But she loved Willow. She wouldn't… she couldn't love a murderer. You're a monster, Will."

"I'LL SHOW YOU A MONSTER!" Traya screamed, letting loose with a blast of Force lightening. It struck Xander squarely in the chest, sending him back against the wall where he writhed in pain. It only lasted for a moment before she ended it, a deeply satisfied look crossing her pale face.

"What happened to you, Willow? Why would you do this to yourself? Why can't you understand that Willow was stronger and more powerful than you'll ever be?" He cried out as he stood up, blood running freely from his face.

Willow blinked at him, her dark gaze penetrating. She didn't move nor did she release her powers again. She seemed to be listening to him. Feeling emboldened, Xander ploughed on.

"Is this what you want? Is this what you really, truly want?"

A painful look was crossing her face. As she struggled to take a breath, she felt her powers surging through her body, her mind screaming to kill the young man standing in front of her. But… did she want to?

"It's what I am," she said at last, her breath raspy and strangled.

"It doesn't have to be. Instead of using that power for yourself, you could use it for good, like the Willow I knew would have done."

"Then you didn't know me at all." The next blast struck Xander in the chest, throwing him back into a wall. But instantly she released it as she suddenly saw the man she was attacking…

"Xan-Xander? Oh, god...no…What …"

"Is that what you want, Will? You want to kill me? You're doing a great job with the torture just because I don't agree with you…"

"I…no!" Traya snarled, using the Force to lift Xander to his feet. "I spent years getting raped and tortured… no more! No man will ever touch me again without my consent! No one will dare lift a finger against me! I have the power!"

"At what cost!" Xander roared back. "Your humanity? Your life? No one has the right to touch you if you don't want them to, Willow… But nothing gives you the right to kill!"

"You don't know what I've been through!" Traya retorted, almost desperately. Xander could tell Darth Traya was starting to fade away as her voice slowly returned to normal. "You don't know the pain... the humiliation… the suffering…I couldn't deal with it…I couldn't….I couldn't…I had to push it away. It had to go away!"

"What about right now, right here?" Xander asked, coming to stand right in front of her. "What about me?"

"Xander…" The single word, his own name, broke his heart. It was the tiniest voice and with it came pain and the voice of a woman he knew and loved with everything he was. Her eyes gazed into his. The violent spark of black light was gone, replaced by her solemn green gaze.

"I see you, Will. I see you better than anyone."

Traya felt as though she were finally losing grip on reality. As she receded, a familiar thought crept into her head – the horror of what she had seen and the actions done by her own hands. At once, it overwhelmed her. "Oh, my God…"

"I'm here, Willow." She felt his reassuring hands grasp her shoulders. But she couldn't look at him. Wouldn't look at it. Everything she had been through… everything she had done… how she had hurt her friends, her sister, her soul…

How high the price had been… and how high it would be to reclaim the part of her soul forever stolen by the darkness of the power of the Sith.

"Oh, God…"

His strong arms wrapped around her shoulders as her face collapsed onto his shoulder. His bruised, bloodied fingers stroked her dark hair. "When it all comes down to it," he breathed into her ear, "love is never a weakness. Guess that's something the Sith didn't teach you."

She drew in a sharp breath, barely managing to raise her fingers to clasp his biceps as he buried his face in her hair. "What have I done?"

"Just let it out, Will. Just let it out."

At that moment, it was all she could do not to scream out as she collapsed in agony, her body shaking with sobs. Every face of her victims flashed before her eyes. Her mind taunted with the dark promises of both Sith lords who had her wrapped in their fingers. "What have I… what have I… what…?"

"I love you, Willow."

She heard the tears in his voice, felt the moisture in her hair. As she sobbed brokenly in his arms, she felt the warmth and comfort of her long-lost friend.

"I love you… I always have. I always will. You'll always be the sweet red who broke the yellow crayon and cried."

She struggled to smile through her tears as she raised her head. Xander's hand swept across her forehead, locks of brilliant red hair falling into her eyes; his smile softened as he saw the unbidden fear.

"No more hiding, okay? I love you just the way you are. We all do."

Willow felt the tears returned and bit her lip as they tricked down her cheek. "How can you love me?" she asked, a mere shadow of the Dark Lady she had been just five minutes ago.

"You're not a monster, Will. We slayed monsters together, remember?"

She moaned as she glanced away from him. His gentle hand took her face and tilted her gaze to meet his. "You're still Willow. You're still my Willow. I love you more than anything. And so does Tara."

"But, you said—"

"I know what I said," Xander said, keeping his hand on her tear-stained face. "She may have moved on, but her heart still belongs to you. It will always belong to you. How can love be a weakness when so many of us love you enough to save you from yourself?"

"You risked your life to come in here," Willow murmured, the guilt pouring from her pained words. "I could have killed you."

"I know. But I also knew you wouldn't. We've been through so much together. You're my girl."

She felt the guilt rise up within her again and fell to the ground, Xander's arms wrapping against around her shoulders. "What do I do now?"

"Now… things are going to get hard. I won't lie to you… but there's a lot to face, a lot of pieces to pick up. And yes, there's even Tara."

Willow flinched as though she'd been burned. "How can I face her after all I've done? How can I—"

"You'll find a way, Will," Xander said, the old confidence in his voice, his single eye gleaming with great effort. "You have to find a way."

While the twins slept, Padmé dreamed.

She dreamed of the plains of Naboo, where Sola had her home. She watched in awe as a grown Ryoo and Pooja walked out of the house, with who could only be Leia between them. She looked to be barely twenty, her long brown hair trussed up into two elegant buns set on either side of her head and dressed in a simple white gown. The three were talking amongst themselves, though Padmé couldn't hear what they were actually saying. Nonetheless, they were all business talking in such a way that reminded Padmé of her times dealing with the other Senators in the Senate. In an instant, the scene shifted to a familiar, sun-baked planet as a young boy, no older than twenty sulked out of a hut and stood on a sand bank, staring out at the land as the twin suns set. She looked closely at the boy, and gasped in recognition. He had his father's hair, his jaw, but her eyes… it was unmistakably Luke, as he would be in the future.

"You got a couple of good-lookin' kids there, Senator."

Padmé started at the voice, and turned to face a garishly dressed man standing next to her, looking at the boy impassively.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What am I seeing?"

"My name's Whistler, doll. And I think you already know what you're looking at."

"Whistler… I know that name…" Suddenly, she turned to glare at the balance demon. "Buffy mentioned you. And how cowardly you were in not breaking the news to her yourself."

Whistler just shrugged. "I'm a lover, not a fighter. And I ain't crazy, either. I know when to avoid the Slayer."

"So what're you doing here, Whistler?"

"I'm here with a message from the Powers."

Padmé looked at the balance demon in confusion. "I think you have the wrong person."

Whistler shook his head. "No, I really don't," he replied. He snapped his fingers…

And suddenly, they were standing in space above Tatooine as a small Corellian Corvette, much like Bail's ship, sped past, firing on a massive triangular-shaped vessel that was mercilessly pounding the smaller ships shields. Padmé thought it vaguely resembled a Venator-class Star Destroyer, but it was much more massive and gleaming white.

Images started flashing past more rapidly now. A huge, planet-sized space station let loose with a blast of brilliant green energy that annihilated the planet below it. Huge capital ships, that were dwarfed by an even larger blue and black painted ship, chased what appeared to be the Millennium Falcon into an asteroid belt. Mon Cal Starcruisers, converted to battleships, engaged the white capital ships at point-blank range as dozens of starfighters of configurations that looked vaguely familiar, but that she had never seen before.

The views suddenly changed from ships to people as she saw her daughter being tortured by some kind of probe droid as a terrifying man in black armor and a mask that she knew would give her nightmares for weeks to come. She saw her son facing off against a woman whose red hair and green eyes instantly reminded her of Willow… and there was Willow, fighting the same girl in pristine white halls, even as Buffy desperately fought off a crazed man with a red-tinted lightsaber and flowing white beard...

She watched as that same armored (man?) faced down her son on a catwalk, high above a seemingly bottomless pit, his red lightsaber clashing with Luke's blue blade…

She saw Leia, standing next to a tall Wookie and a dark-haired girl who looked slightly like Dawn cry as a scruffy-looking man was lowered into a carbon-freezing pit…

She saw Luke again, facing off in a darkened room against the masked man…with Anakin?

The hair was a bit shorter and there were a few more lines around his eyes, but it was unmistakably Anakin, still in his prime, fighting side by side with his son…and then she saw herself, only looking a few years older, fighting side by side with Leia, holding off Clone Troopers at the entrance to a bunker while Dawn plunged her blue lightsaber into the door, slowly melting it away, even as the Troopers overran their position…

"What is this?" Padmé demanded. "What are you showing me?"

"The future, sweetheart," he replied calmly. "This is what may happen. What probably will happen. Most people don't get heads up like these, Padmé. But the Powers felt that you needed one."

"And why is that?" Padmé asked, already sensing the answer.

"Because," Whistler continued calmly, "in order to save the future and the Republic you hold so dear, you and Anakin need to leave. And where you're going, you can't take your children with you."

TBC


A/N: 226 reviews... and I'm not even done yet. I just may make 250 before this is all over. Even though I haven't responded to everybody since the ban on story-printed replies, I do want you all to know that I have read every review, and I thank you all for your support.

Next chapter- the final Council convenes and decisions are made- as are sacrifices.