Chapter Three

A frown settled on Willow's lips as her yellow eyes fixated on Buffy, who folded her arms in reply.

Riley stood looking distraught, "Oh my god... Willow..."

"Oh yeah you two haven't been introduced," Buffy said, her voice lightly laced with venom, "Vamp Willow, Riley. Riley, Vamp Willow."

"I'm lost."

"I'll explain later." Buffy turned to look at Vampire Willow who was circling the three of them looking distraught. "I thought you hated this world, what are you doing here?"

"I didn't ask to be brought here." Her face changed back to it's soft human appearance, fierce eyes fixating on Tara, watching her tremble as they locked eyes for a moment before Tara closed hers and glanced at the ground. "But I found one thing I like about this world."

Buffy brandished her stake, "Where's the real Willow?"

The vampire shrugged, "I dunno. I just woke up in her room."

Willow stared out in the distance before a light smirk found it's way to her lips, "Maybe she's in my world...that would be funny." A shudder of joy ran up her spine, tingling with the thought.

Buffy felt a rage bubbling up inside her, starting in the pit of her stomach. 'How DARE she talk about my best friend like that?' She thought of Willow in the world run by vampires Anya had been responsible for. Anya'd bragged about it in the past, how wonderful that world had been, how she'd wanted to stay there. And now her best friend in the whole world was trapped there with god knows what going to happen to her, and this bitch who just happened to be her best friend in another form, was laughing about it.

She raised her stake high ready to lunge when Tara grabbed her hand, "N-no!"

"Why not?"

"Cause if they really did switch worlds, we might... not be able to switch them back... if one of them is dead...um..." Tara looked at the ground.

"Bored now," Willow yawned, and blew a kiss at Tara before running off.

"Hey!" Riley took off running after her and called over his shoulder to Buffy take Tara back to her room.

Buffy folded her arms, her boyfriend was such a macho man sometimes, and since she couldn't very well stake her she decided she'd let him handle it and let Tara lean on her as she led her back to her dorm room.

Tara sat on the bed with her knees to her chest, pulling her jacket tighter closed over her bare torso. Miss Kitty Fantastico leapt up onto the bed next to her nuzzling her owner's hand gently. Tara slid her hand down scratching the soft fur behind her ear, the kitten let out a soft, sad mew. She knew her owner was troubled.

Buffy tilted her head at she looked at the cat, "I thought we weren't allowed to have pets."

"We're not."

"Oh."

Miss Kitty pushed her way onto Tara's lap and curled up there purring contently.

"What exactly happened?"

"I... I thought she was really Willow..."

"Don't worry...she fooled me and Xander and this guy Willow was tutoring last year too."

"I... we... she..." Tara looked at the floor.

"Syllables and sentences?"

Tara shook her head. Her mouth couldn't even form words anymore. Buffy sat watching her. There was not much she could do to console her without knowing fully what the problem was, though she'd had a few guesses from Tara's sloppy dressing. She could see the dismayed and distant look in Tara's eyes fighting back some kind of sorrow and pain, what kind of pain she could not truly identify.

"We will get Willow back. I promise." Buffy said, laying a hand on Tara's shoulder.

The timid girl flinched recalling the caresses of the girl she thought was the girl she crushed on, the girl she desired to touch her. But it was all lies, filthy lies. And she was filthy for being fooled.

Buffy drew her hand back.

"I-I-I'm gonna go sh-shower." Tara said, moving off the bed, Miss Kitty jumping and landing delicately on the floor.

"Alright. Will you be okay? I can stay here if you need."

Tara shook her head.

"Okay, well if you need me, beep me." She held up her beeper, yes it was old but it was also reliable. "I'm gonna go see if Riley found our undead friend."

Tara nodded slowly and grabbed her shower stuff before walking down the hallway to the bathroom.

Buffy walked out of the building and flipped on her flashlight, heading off to find Riley. She found him rather winded at the edge of the woods. "Got away?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, but I can... send my men after her... with orders to bring her back alive." Riley said between pants. "Damn she's fast."

The chains rattled around as they hung from the wall down to Willow's wrists. She gave a quick yank, hoping for at least a bit of crumbling stone, but nothing happened. She gave another tug, then one last final hard one, cutting her wrist on the cuff. Blood dripped down her wrist and arm.

"I got to get back to Tara before something bad happens to her." She muttered to herself. A brief thought of the possibility of a vampire Tara bolted through her mind. That was mildly hot, but scary and scary definitely outweighed hot in that situation. She shook the thought away.

"You're not from here." A voice floated in from the next cell.

"How could you tell?" Willow asked, she knew the voice.

"Because the last time I saw you, you were a vampire, dressed in leather, and throwing matches on me."

Willow looked down at herself; "Human, fuzzy, and I couldn't really light a match right now even if I wanted to." She gave another yank.

"Don't bother," Angel said, "Those chains don't come loose for anyone."

"Well I gotta do something, I can't sit here, someone else is in trouble... since the me from this world is really in my world. Have you ever tried a breakout?"

"Only all the time. I eventually just gave up. The torture is bad enough as it is, it's hard enough to be the only one with a soul among the soulless fiends."

"Well we can't just give up, there's gotta be some crack in the wall or something. If you apply the right amount of pressure at the right angle then...a brick might give way or something." She gave another hard yank, ligaments ripping in her arm as she pulled. She let out a whimper of pain then a sigh. "I remember when Buffy and Xander and I would hang out here... and... pseudo study." She let out a sigh.

"Why didn't they kill you already? The Master and Xander?"

"They think I'm the Willow from this world... they think Giles and Oz turned the vampire me human... and they're using me as bait... wait! Giles and Oz and the others, they'll come for us!"

"They won't live long enough to save us, let alone get near us."

"I bet they'll come up with a plan. Don't underestimate them."

There was a rumble, the walls of the Bronze shook, cracks emerged in the crumbling stone of the walls by the cell. One good yank and Willow freed her arms, chains dangling by her sides.

"What's going on?"

"You underestimated them." A smirk crossed her lips.

Walls continued to crumble around the Bronze and sunlight poured into the main room.