"Remind me again why I agree with the more nonblood shed version of 'operation go gut the sons of-" A loud mew from the tabby now lounging behind Willow's head on the back of the sofa stalls the obvious swear word, but Anya doesn't stop beyond that. "—for taking my sister who I haven't seen in person in centuries away before I can beat her adorable butt for not getting in touch after that crazy stunt, she pulled in Chicago in 1871?"

"Because we can't just charge in like we did last time. They'll be expecting that." Buffy reminds

"As in the Great Chicago Fire?" Xander clarified the same instance causing the two to talk over one another.

"You're telling us Tara started it?" William finishes

"That's the one." Anya nodes "Heard little sis ran into a shall we say an 'old acquaintance' in a barn outside the town and things got violent hence the barn catching fire and well-history knows the rest of it." She goes on after passing over the honing stone Xander had just finished using to William's impatient hand while Willow's fingers once again fly over the laptop keys.

"Gez Spiky boy no need to go all 'Grr Arg' on us. Save some of that pent-up venom for the real baddies huh?" Xander jokes setting his chosen blade down to rest against the side of the desk he was sitting beside.

William rolling his eyes while Buffy presses her hand over her mouth trying not to giggle. "One time I decide to dress as a vampire for Halloween and you're never letting me live it down?"

"Come on that dye job made your hair look white." Xander reminded "and also even in Sunnydale if you're going to be a vamp you need a much better name than just calling yourself 'William the Bloody? Not that much of a stretch considering your name really is William."

"It was belched blonde." William argues getting to work on once again sharpening the edge of the battle-ax someone had thought to bring along. "and that hair jell I borrowed from you by the way was worse than having my hair permed for that revenge thing Angel and Dru pulled on me for tattling about them plagiarizing their end of term papers that got them both kicked out of school. I mean honestly what the hell was that stuff?"

"It was white." Buffy confirms "and yes it was horrible, but I have missed the spikes." She adds running her hand in her boyfriend's short wavey dark chocolate-colored hair.

"Still have time while Red over there hacks the surveillance." William muses looking between the two as he spoke. Willow's teeth still nashed together in determined concentration while Gaea's tail remains curled around the back of her neck in a small attempt to calm the angry Wicca hacker. "We could run to that strip mall up the road. Bring back the spikes before we go save Red's girl." He goes on enjoying the way Buffy's eyes light up at the offer.

"You find anything before we get back call us aspa okay?" Buffy demands her hand sliding firmly into William's as she jumps to her feet her eyes finding Xander's rather than Anya's seeing as the former demon was now leaning over the back of the sofa at Willow's shoulder watching every mashed hit of computer keys she made.

They'd only made it as far as the threshold of the apartment before a garbled mew has Buffy turning back into the room.

"Whatever you end up getting. Mother wants to pay for it." Anya translates from the sofa the same time Gaea the cat was padding over to them a thickly packed coin purse between her teeth that she pressed into Buffy's hand when the Slayer knelt to ask what she'd wanted.

"Thanks, Mrs. Maclay." Buffy smiles earning an upset mew from the cinnamon furred tabby.

"Nope sorry Buff but you're part of the family now." Anya also helpfully translates after another huffed mew sounds from the motherly tabby "She's your honorary Mother too."

"But wait wouldn't that make us adoptive siblings now?" Xander pales

Anya rolls her eyes reaching over to smack him in the back of the head "Mother only adopts girls Xander. Boys are just too much of a hassle." She jokes

A trilled mew of laugher sounds from the tabby as she jumps back onto the sofa at Willow's side the same time the front door clicks closed behind the retreating couple.

"I've cracked several firewalls, but I haven't been able to find anything useful yet." Willow tells her noting the light brush of fur against her wrist.

A light mew follows as Willow angles the screen in the tabby's direction.

Xander needing to remind himself that despite her current appearance that was no ordinary tabby cat when pawed hands start batting around at the computer keys.

"Hang on what's that?" the auburn-haired woman asks suddenly tapping at something on the right corner of the screen. "Reincarnate Subject W-4014?" she read out. "That might be something."

"Must be really important look how encrypted that one file is." Anya joins in ignoring the tabby's sudden flurry of upset trills and mews. "We can't just not look in the file Mother. This might be why they are so interested in keeping Tara." She argues passing over the now greatly upset feline to her puzzled boyfriend.

"Why do I feel like I should go make popcorn or something?" Xander wonders aloud doing his best to hang onto the struggling tabby.

"If your hungry sweetie I can always make you pancakes." Anya offers without taking her eyes from the computer screen.

"Just one more firewall." Willow grins cracking her knuckles in anticipation "take that Initiative." She smiles when the telltale green band baring the letter 'Access Granted Commander Flynn' flashed across the screen. Her first real smile since her connection to Tara had been so painfully snapped apart.

Gaea the tabby jumps up onto the laptop in her last attempt to stop the file from being opened but she jumped too late considering that half a second later a mixture of data files and digitally uploaded images all obviously from different time periods and some of them even artistically drawn appeared on the screen and all of them pertaining to one single subject.

"Wow Willow. You sure do get around huh?" Anya teases once again tugging a hissing insistently mewing Gaea from the keys.

"But these…." Willow stammers clicking through the images of someone who was more of less herself.

"Dang girly how many times are you gonna get married?" Anya questions spotting at least fourteen different digitally saved marriage certificates all of them carrying Willow's name among the data files.

Willow didn't answer too busy staring at the other name over half the licenses carry.

Tara.

"Dang, Riley boy's family sure doesn't like you very much huh Wills?" Xander points out scanning a few pages himself from his spot behind the couch. "Look at how many times one of his ancestors crossed paths with yours."

"That's the thing Xander none of these other Willows are from my family tree." The redhead informs them once again clicking through several of the files a second time.

"That you know of." Anya mutters "Remember the title of this nifty little file?" she reminds when the other more human of the remaining four looks toward her as she taps a finger to the name in question.

"But there's no such thing as reincarnation." Xander argues

"Says the boy-man in love with a former demon and best friends with a witch and a girl who's more or less a superhero who I might add has already saved the world at least once and also died in the process?" Buffy cuts in as she and a now leather jacket clade, belched blonde-haired William rejoin the group.

"Hey, Spike. Welcome back."

William refrains from flipping the other man off only because the warning glare he gets from the anxious tabby pacing the length of the kitchen table behind the trio by the sofa.

"What'd we miss?" Buffy probes joining the other three at the sofa while William tries his best to soothe the anxious cat now hiding away in the kitchen.