No, thinks Dawn. No no no no no no no.
Not again.
She's finished with death. No more. She's sixteen! She wants to gossip with friends and get caught for trying to sneak out late, not go through another cycle of death, mourning, and pain.
Instead she watches her sister bent backwards, glowing in a frozen mask of pain, while a god floats above holding her life in his hands. They've done this, literally, a year ago. If anything, fate is getting lazy. Desperately, she looks around for answers. Willow is equally afflicted, arched in a matching position of pain, glowing in Osiris' grasp. Tara's no help, clawing her way towards Willow and Buffy, looking as desperately terrified as Dawn feels. In a cold rush of awareness, Dawn realizes she's going to lose them all.
Spike stands motionless in doorway. Though if the way his fists are clenched and his jaw grits soundlessly are any indication, he's barely holding himself back. Xander's face is clouded in anger while Anya's arm snakes over to hold on to him.
It's all happening again and there's nothing Dawn can do to stop it. She can scream with the unfairness of it. The air feels thin, and despite gulping it down, Dawn feels like she's drowning. Her arms spasm, reaching out towards help that isn't coming.
Nononononono.
Her hands meet something warm and solid and she curls her fingers around it instinctively. Giles.
"It's alright," he tells her, squeezing her hand. Looking at her with gentle eyes that hold her and ground her ashore. "Breathe."
He seems calm and steadfastly faithful in this moment of tumult when her world is being unmade once more. She nods as if to convince herself, holding onto his confidence.
It'll be alright. It has to be.
Breathe.
This is all my fault, Tara thinks in a desperate panic, now more certain than ever that her spell was the wrong and selfish, unnatural thing that she feared it was. She has upset the natural course of things with her resurrection and now Buffy and Willow are paying the price.
There's always a price.
A trade, Willow said. Tara should have never allowed it. Life is not something meant to be sacrificed or traded for the sake of someone else. She watched her mother learn that lesson the hard way. Ran from home so it couldn't happen to her, too. Left Willow to make sure it wouldn't.
A just and equal exchange. There's nothing just about this, about Willow trading her life. Tara's come back from the dead and now the scales have been tipped again. She'd just gotten her back, finally and truly, after their reconciliation, Tara should have known better.
There's always a price.
Tears stream down her face as Tara leans forward, practically doubled over, reaching out towards them, begging, begging, begging to take it back. But before she can, Buffy and Willow are thrown back in a powerful burst of energy.
And then, it's over.