Chapter 2

A.N. I forgot a disclaimer in the first chapter, so I will add one in now. I do not own any part of the Buffyverse.

"It's not about wishes, its about choices..." "Or about choosing a wish, if you're me" Buffy thought as she gave her last formal speech to the potentials. She had done it. She had gone back to the vineyard and taken the scythe from Caleb. She finally knew she was going to win. If Willow could pull off the spell, and Buffy knew she could, they had more than a chance. And, she was back in charge. For the first time in weeks she felt confidence returning to her. The potentials looked at her with renewed hope. Xander looked at her with love and forgiveness. Giles, Faith and Robin looked at her with support and respect. Dawn looked at her in awe. Willow looked...Willow just looked terrified. One glance towards Kennedy and Buffy knew the young woman saw it too. Willow was trying to smile bravely, trying to convince the potentials and herself that she was capable of the magick Buffy was proposing, but Buffy saw through her shaky smile.

A while later Buffy found Willow sitting quietly on her bed, a robe in her lap. "Hey." She said. Willow looked up.

"Hey."

"You ok?"

"No."

"Will, I know I placed a hell of a lot of responsibility on you, but I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't know you were capable of doing it."

"I know. I know I'm capable of it, I mean, if I can destroy the world I'm sure I can save it too right? Its just...that's a lot of power. I don't know if I can control that much energy. The last time I tried anything major, well, if you can call opening that portal major anymore, I nearly killed Kennedy!"

"You didn't nearly kill her. She was fine."

"Oh, yeah, fine, once she recovered from having her life force temporarily drained."

"Look, Will, I don't know much about magic but I know you can control it. It's just good energy or something right?"

Willow nodded. "It is. I just wish I had some kind of concrete reassurance that I'll succeed. If I can't do it, I don't want to think about what might happen to everyone. I suppose I could use some kind of divination, but I'm not very good at it. That was..." she looked away, a shadow of pain crossing her face. Looking back at Buffy she said, "I'm just no good at it."

"We don't need divination to know that you can do it. You have all the good energy inside you. It comes with your heart. Willow, you have so much love to give, and look at all the people who love you. They all have faith in you. Have some faith in yourself. I mean, not like, actually have Faith inside you, she isn't exactly a stellar example if you're looking to follow a model and I'd hate to see what she'd do to your look, after she turned me into slut-Buffy and made me all evilly and stuff." Buffy stopped babbling and looked at Willow. "See, I made you smile."

"You did. Thanks, and I don't plan on having Faith inside me, in any way. I have Kenne-" Willow stopped mid sentence at the look on Buffy's face. Her eyes widened. "Forget I said that."

"You bet.", Buffy looked for something else to say to keep the conversation from getting too awkward. She pointed to the robe in Willow's lap. "I haven't seen that around. Is it new?"

"No, it's old. Well, a few years old anyways." she paused, considering the cloth and running her hand over one of the sleeves. "It was Tara's."

Buffy just nodded. There wasn't really anything she could say. She sat down beside her friend and waited for Willow to continue.

"I've had it since before she died." Willow tried hard not to stumble over the words. "For some silly reason I was hoping it would help me. Buffy, I can still smell..." here, she did stumble. Her eyes widened and she fought the torrent of emotions that suddenly wanted to take hold of her. Buffy put her arm around her friend's shoulders, but Willow took a deep breath and calmed herself. "I'm sorry, its just all the stress from everything that's going on. Its been a year now, and I'm ok with her being gone. Ok, well no I'm not totally ok with it, I don't think I ever will be, but I have Kennedy now. She's been so good to me Buffy, even though she doesn't understand half of what's gone on. Besides, I have some other, much larger things to worry about now. No, I take that back. Not to worry about, to focus on. I have to focus if I'm going to succeed in awakening the slayer power."

Buffy gave Willow's shoulder a little squeeze and stood up. "That's right. You ok, now?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem." Buffy headed for the door, but stopped in the doorway. "Oh, hey I have news. It might cheer you up."

"Let's hear it."

"A few days ago, when I left here, I ended up in the cemetery. Habit I guess. Anyway, I ended up in some crypt, kinda looked like Spike's, before he added all the personal touches. This mystical force talked to me about power and my mission and how I'm some great warrior. And then they told me a story about how they used to grant wishes for these ancient war heroes, like, we're talking eons ago and that they'd decided to grant me one wish as well. To prove that they weren't kidding they send me this." She held out a stone, about the size of her palm. "It kinda just fell out of the ceiling."