Rabidreject- You think you've got it? Hmmm...I don't know because what the real big change is in this arc is how it all falls into place and how the Big Bad is stopped. And as for flat lines...some are in this chapter, yes, so all should be answered there (at least partially anyway), but you may also realize my little trick. And thanks, glad you liked the chapter and how the Spike/Buffy storyline was played out. Thanks, and hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.
zigpal- I killed Dawn. Or did I? Haha. Well, either way it's Joyce who's getting the worse of it all, everything coming down around her, which, admittedly will set some things in motion. And personally, I'm hoping everyone's happy with this. Hehe. Thanks for the review, and my claps.
g120- Gotta love a cliffhanger, sorry! Haha. Glad you liked how the Spuffy thing played out, I had to really think over how I could still get Spike to get his soul whislt sticking in this semi-AU. Hence the Joyce talkage. She's such a catalyst. Thanks for the review.
A/N: Okay, this chapter and the three coming after it have been the hardest to write ever. To keep the storyline in tact, bu t deviate it enough without it being ridiculous and keeping it believable. Complicated. Hopefully, you will all like where it's going and the truth will be revealed about some flatlines (Love me or hate me for it...up to you). As for the next chapter- that's when things will reallystart to play out differently. Enjoy.
"Do you think Buffy will have stopped Warren?" Tara asked Willow curiously as the two walked along Revello Drive in the direction of Buffy's house.
"Totally," Willow smiled, "What's a little might in the face of Buffy? Plus," She added with a smile, "We didn't get a Scooby call saying 'more work to do'"
"Good point..." Tara agreed.
"Well, I always think positive," Willow told her with a broad smile which fell immediately when they heard the loud sound of a gun being fired numerous times. At Buffy's house.
"Oh my god," Willow gasped, changing her casual walk to a run within seconds and she and Tara ran over to Buffy's house, bursting through the front door in a panic. "Buffy! Dawn!" No body answered, and the silence that answered her was too eerie to comprehend. But as she herself fell silent she heard slight sounds from upstairs. With one quick 'you heard that too?' glance at Tara the two of them ran up the stairs taking practically three at a time.
"Giles?" Willow called, as she turned in the direction of the sound- Joyce and Giles' room. "Oh my god..." She gasped as she saw the horrific sight.
"What is..." Tara trailed off as she too walked into the room and first saw Giles on the phone, clearly talking to emergency services, and then she saw the reason why he was doing such. Dawn was flat on the floor, eyes wide and dilated and her body was quivering. She had a deep shot wound in her right shoulder and the blood was seeping out at an alarming rate, staining her green and white top. "Oh god, Dawn..." Tara rushed to Dawn's side, trying to remember all that she could of long-ago First Aid classes as she tried to find a way to stem the flow of the bleeding. She pulled a handkerchief off one of the side tables, covering the wound with it and holding down tightly, taking over from Giles and he spared a moment on the phone to give Tara a look of gratefulness and relief.
Willow however didn't go over to help. She just remained in the doorway, watching everything as though she wasn't quite sure how to handle any of it.
"There's been a call already?" Giles asked the person the phone, "Here? From a cell phone? For..." He trailed off as he fully comprehended what the woman at Emergency Services was telling him. An ambulance was already on it's way to this very address because someone had already called on a cellphone for the same reason Giles was calling right now. Which meant...either Joyce or Buffy had been shot also. And if it was on a cell phone...Giles scrabbled up for the kneeling position beside Dawn and hurried over to the window. The sight he saw in the garden chilled him to the bone.
"Buffy," He said, turning to the others, "She's...she's been shot also. I have to..." He looked at Dawn, not wanting to leave her but at the same time wanting to to go to Buffy and Joyce. Sensing this confliction, Tara told him what to do.
"We'll be fine here, go"
Giles nodded in acceptance of that instruction before rushing off out the room, and down the stairs.
"Willow we have to-" Tara broke off as she saw Willow heading after Giles, rather than remaining in the bedroom to help Dawn, "Will?"
"Buffy, Buffy, Buffy," Joyce just kept repeating the name as though that alone would keep her daughter alive, "Come on...just a while longer. Please, Buffy. Come on, come on, Buffy..."
She heard the sound of someone running towards her and she looked up hoping to see a paramedic, though some distant and repressed logic remaining in her told her it couldn't be since she had yet to hear any sirens. Instead she saw Rupert rushing towards her followed by Willow, who didn't seem to be running but rather walking with a quiet menace.
"Rupert...Buffy- she's been..."
"I know," Rupert nodded, taking one of Joyce's hands that had been pressurizing Buffy's wound. He handed her a cloth not unlike the one Tara was using upstairs and Joyce pressed that to the wound instead.
"Who did this?" Willow asked, her voice low.
"Th-the boy...one of those three," Joyce told her, too shocked to be able to make complete sentences, "Warren. He, he had a gun"
"Warren," Willow said the name with such disgust and menace that her eyes seemed to crackle with dark energy. Without another word she walked out of the garden.
"Willow?" Giles called after her but the witch didn't stop for a moment, she just kept on walking, clear direction and purpose in her steps, "Willow?"
"Oh god, Rupert, the bleeding. It won't stop. I can't-" Joyce stopped talking abruptly as she saw Giles' hands were as blood soaked as hers even though he had barely touched Buffy's wound. "Rupert, your hand..how..." Her eyes widened in horror, as something deep down inside her seemed to tell her what had happened, "Dawn."
"Joyce-"
"Dawn," She repeated, looking down at the ground, fearful that if she looked into Rupert's eyes she would see an answer there that she didn't want to see, "Where is she?"
"She is...she was in our room when-" As Giles spoke Joyce looked up sharply in the direction of their bedroom window and saw the bullet hole there, cracks in the window veining around it.
"Oh god, Dawn," Joyce wanted to go to her, to make sure she was okay, but she had to stay here with Buffy...but Dawn could be and Buffy might be...and god, it was all too much. She felt a pain in her lower abdomen as though Lily were kicking her telling her to stay focused and not panic. She was right- panicking only made things worse. If she was going to help both her daughters, she needed to remain collected, calm. That was how she could help them. "Is anyone-"
"Tara's with her now," Rupert told her, "And-" There was the sound of sirens and red lights flashed across the lawn and over the wall of the house, "And the paramedics are here"
"Over here!" Joyce cried out and the men that piled out of the ambulance rushed over in her direction, "Sh-she's been shot...in,in th-the chest..."
"Accidental?"
"No," Joyce shook her head, "He was trying to, to kill her..."
"There's another upstairs as well," Giles informed them and two out of the four paramedics asked him to show them. As the three rushed off in the direction of the house the remaining paramedics helped Joyce with Buffy.
"Pulse is 100 and weak," One paramedic said to the other as he ran an initial check on Buffy, "Lung sounds are wet-"
"Wh-what?" Joyce asked, knowing that couldn't be good, couldn't be right, "What does that mean is she-?"
"Please, miss, just let us do our job," One told her while the other started talking to someone at the hospital.
"Sunnydale General, do you copy?" The tallest of the paramedics said into his radio, "We have a Caucasian female, around twenty years of age-"
"Twenty one," Joyce automatically informed them as though that little bit of information was going to be of any use to them.
"Uh, twenty one years of age," The paramedic carried on saying, "GSW to the chest-"
"Could you stand back miss?" The second paramedic asked Joyce as he and the other started to lift Buffy onto a gurney.
"Is she going to be okay? Is-"
"You have to let us do our job ma'am," The first paramedic told her, "Our first priority is getting her to the hospital safely, remember?"
Joyce nodded numbly, before something occurred to her.
"What about- Dawn? Upstairs...my other daughter. She's been shot too"
The paramedics briefly shared a look that showed they both thought that the woman in front of them was having a severely bad day if both her daughters had been shot.
"They'll come down with her in a minute. They'll bring to her to the ambulance," The second paramedic told her, attempting to sound comforting as they started to carry Buffy away towards the ambulance.
Almost at that exact same moment as though the entire horrific event had been choreographed, Dawn was brought out on her own gurney carried by the two paramedics that had been led upstairs by Giles, who presently was following closely behind with Tara.
"Dawn!" Joyce gasped in horror as she came upon the sight of her wounded daughter. It an injury almost exact to Buffy, except it was in her right shoulder instead of her left. She seemed so much worse than Buffy though. Quivering, convulsing, barely aware of her surroundings, "Dawn, honey..." She instinctively took her daughter's hand but immediately regretted it when she felt how cold it was becoming and mindless of the blood on her own hands, she rubbed her palms against Dawn's to try and keep it warm. Dawn wasn't even able to acknowledge she was there. "Dawn, it's gonna be okay sweetie"
"Just let us get her into the ambulance ma'am," One of the paramedics said, "And then you can ride with your daughters"
"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Joyce repeated over and over and over again in shock as Dawn was lifted into the vehicle. She couldn't even look at her own hands, they were covered in so much of Buffy's own blood, but she was too distracted, too concerned to even make the small effort to return to the house a moment to wash them clean.
"Where's Willow?" Tara asked, having assumed that Will had stayed in the garden to help Joyce with Buffy, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
"I-I don't know," Joyce told her, shaking her head in confusion, "She, uh, she, she left...I think. To find someone. I don't know..." She started crying, loud uncontrollable sobs that she wished she could stop, but found no possible way to. She wiped away the tears furiously off her cheeks with the back of her palms, but Giles pulled her hands away from herself as he saw how she failed to notice the blood this was transferring to her face.
"It'll be okay," He told her, holding her in his arms, "It'll be okay..." He didn't even know how he was able to form these words, when all he really wanted to do was collapse where he stood. He repeated the rehearsed phrase over and over again, not sure who he was trying to convince more- Joyce or himself.
BOOM!
The front door of the Magic Box burst open, flying off it's hinges so it crashed into a million stakes on the floor and Xander and Anya who had been doing nothing more crazy than chatting quietly in the store turned in the direction of the store front in shock. Willow was stood there, pure menace in her eyes.
"Willow, what-" Xander began to ask, but his best friend spoke over him as she walked past them, each light blowing out as she went.
"Anya, where do you keep the black arts books?"
"What?" Anya frowned, "Why? You know Giles doesn't want you going near those"
"Someone needs to stop Warren," was all Willow said in reply, speaking in that same low, fierce tone and Xander immediately picked up on that.
"Warren? What- Will, what's happened?"
"I need power," Willow said simply, but she did turn momentarily to explain to Xander though it was with minimal effort and information, "He came by the house. Dawn and Buffy have been shot"
There was only silence in reply, while Anya and Xander tried to comprehend the horrifying information they had just been told. Eventually, Xander amazingly found his voice again.
"Are they, I mean they're not-"
"They're dying," Willow said, almost without emotion. It was cold and unnerving to the couple; not their usual, lovable Willow. She didn't even give them time to respond to this news before she said, "Unless I do something about it" She turned on Anya, her look deadly serious, sinister and threatening all at the same time, "Now where are the black Magick books?"
Anya refused to tell her, choosing to remain completely silent in answer so as not to directly defy Willow, but also to not give anything away. However, for a split second she glanced up in the direction of where the books were kept on the second floor. It was only for a split moment, but Willow caught it and she grinned as she followed Anya's gaze. The grin was not a pleasant one. It was calculating and predatory.
"No, Willow you can't," Xander protested, going forward to intercept her, "We'll find another way to fix this but you can't-"
"Stop," Willow said simply without even looking back at him, her voice commanding and powerful and Xander stopped walking immediately. In fact, he found himself completely paralyzed, unable to make an movement except for what was required to breathe. He found he couldn't even blink, only look on at his lifelong friend in shock.
"Xander!" Anya exclaimed in horror, before turning on Willow with an accusatory glare, "What did you do?"
"He'll be fine," Willow assured her, but yet again she spoke without emotion, before returning her attention to the black arts books.
"Willow, no, you can't," Anya began to protest, but the redhead let her go no further.
"Quiet," She said, completely empowered and Anya found no sound came out of her mouth anymore; completely mute. Undeterred, she went to stop Willow physically, but the witch prevented her from doing that as well, "Sit" Anya automatically sat herself in one of the chairs at the large, round table the Scoobies had gathered around so many times to discuss the latest evil and no matter how much Anya tried, she could not get back up.
That dealt with in Willow's view, she turned to face the library like section of the store, her entire attention focused only on the most dangerous and darkest books. With the smallest and most direct of gestures from the witch, all of the books she wanted flew off their shelves, gliding through the air at alarming speed, before splaying themselves open at the table Anya had been forced to sit at.
Willow moved towards the books, purpose and determination in her stride as she reached out with both her hands, sinking her palms into the pages of the books. She began to drink in the books, a supernatural wind whipping about her as the writing from the pages visibly flowed along her skin, up her arms, chest, face, until eventually they rushed across her eyes and hair turning them both jet black. Anya and Xander could only look on in silent horror.
Once there was nothing more to be absorbed, no more information to be obtained, Willow pulled her hands out of the texts and smiled a sinister smile.
"Perfect," She grinned.
Everything had just been a complete and utter blur. Joyce couldn't even fully remember how they had gotten to the hospital. She just knew that they were there now, and the doctors were doing all they could to save her babies, but she wasn't allowed anywhere near them. She had to resort to merely watching through a pane of glass. She wasn't even sure whether she should be watching anyway- see the doctors and nurses rushing, working so hard to save her daughters' lives was enough to make her vomit. And every now and then when she was just getting to the stage where she thought it all just too much, that she just wanted to collapse where she was, she would feel a sharp twinge in her stomach that would bring her back to reality. Fighting back sobs that would surely turn to hysteria, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself, waiting for Rupert, who had been forced to fill in forms of all things at a time like this, to come back to offer he real comfort rather than this faux hug she was giving herself.
As if on cue she felt him place his hands on her shoulders, looking over her head, through the window where they could both see the Doctors emergency operating on Buffy and Dawn.
"How are they doing?" He asked, wanting to turn her around to hug her, to give her comfort, but knowing she wouldn't want to turn away from the sight in front of her, no matter how horrific she continued to think it.
"I don't know..." She sighed, tears in her voice, "I wish I did but I don't...a doctor came out a moment ago and told me...told me th-that they're stable. F-for now at least but...and oh god, I need them to be okay." She rubbed her hands across her face, wiping away tears and pushing her hair back off her face. She forced herself to look away from the scene in front of her, and turned to look at Rupert instead, "I, uh, called the Magic Box," She told him, "While, while they were...seeing..." if her daughter had a chance of survival at all, that's what she knew but she couldn't actually say it, "But,erm, no one answered. Not Anya or Xander. I tried their apartment but they're not there either" She looked worried beyond belief and comprehension, "so...I had to. I-I sent Tara to see because...Oh my god, what if they're hurt too? What if...oh god, I can't handle this. I just can't. I can't do this anymore Rupert, I can't...I can't..."
Rupert was just about to comfort Joyce, to offer reassurances they both so desperately wanted to hear, when something in the operating room caught his attention. Willow. But not as they all knew her. Her hair and clothes were black, her skin seemingly paler than usual and her eyes. Her eyes were as though without pupils.
"Oh no," He breathed, realizing what had happened, how much she had regressed. Hearing his words and following his line of vision, Joyce turned to look in the direction of the operating room also.
"What's she doing?" She frowned in panicked confusion, but Giles was already heading into the room also and Joyce had no choice but to follow.
"Leave," Willow commanded the nurses and doctors and through the confusion, the sound of Buffy and Dawn's slowing heart rates could be heard.
"Willow-" Giles began, but she ignored it completely, speaking over him to address the medical staff fiercely.
"NOW"
As the staff rushed out in fear, Buffy and Dawn's heart rates both came to a seeming stop, the beats had slowed so much.
"Willow, we need them to...they're going to die," Joyce said desperately just as the dreaded sound of a long extended beep was heard. Dawn's heart had stopped completely and Buffy's wasn't far behind. "Oh god oh god oh god," Joyce repeated over and over again, barely able to remain standing, "Oh god she's..." Tears streamed down her face that she couldn't even try to control.
"No, she's not," Willow insisted firmly, "They're going to be fine"
She focused intently on the two sisters, drawing so much energy the lights in the room flickered on and off like a subway train, seemingly setting the atmosphere for the powerful magicks Willow was about to perform. The bullets in each of the Summers sisters drifted out of their bodies and hovered in the air above them. Willow held out her palm and the metal beads fell into her palm silently and she pocketed them, before returning her attention to the wounds the bullets had left behind. The blood that had leaked out of each of them,poured out without stopping, now started to be drawn back in, warming their bodies as the wound sealed and lost it's pink rawness, healing completely. The beep of the monitor resumed at a steady beat for both of them. Two healthy, steady, alive heartbeats.
Buffy blinked awake blearily at the exact same time Dawn's eyes fluttered open. They were both alive.
"Oh thank god," Joyce said, such intense relief rushing through her that she found herself beginning to cry again as she went over to her daughters, hugging them tightly, "Oh thank goodness you're okay." She hugged Dawn the tightest, unable to believe that for one brief moment she had actually lost her. She never wanted to let go.
"Thank the Lord, you're okay," Giles smiled his own British relief, "Both of you" He said and once Joyce had stepped back, he stepped in to hug the two of them himself, feeling overwhelmed by the utter relief he felt at their survival. He truly didn't know what he would have done if either of them had been lost to them all forever, and he knew that feeling could only be a half of what Joyce was going through. Which would explain why she was crying her eyes out right now, but thankfully smiling a relieved smile through the tears.
"What happened?" Buffy frowned.
"Yeah..." Dawn agreed, frowning in confusion herself, "Where are we?"
"You were both shot." Willow told them straightforwardly, "I saved you"
"You can't do this...either of you," Joyce said, still smiling as she hugged them again. She looked at Dawn, "Don't you ever, ever do that to me again you understand? Don't you ever scare me like that. Just because you're sister has died more than once does not give you permission to follow in her path." Dawn smiled back at that comment, but she was crying too- the only sign of how truly scared she actually was. Joyce seemed to be joking only to overcome that fear, "There will be no more dying in this family"
"Check," Dawn smiled herself, before being hugged again by her Mother.
"We've got to go," Willow said, cutting into the sentimental moment, "We've got work to do"
"No, Willow stop" Giles commanded, "Something has obviously happened to you here and it has to stop now, before it goes too far. This path your own, if you carry on like this, will only lead to your own self destruction...and destroying those around you"
Willow just gave him a look that very clearly said 'save me the speech'.
"We have to find Warren," She told him, "We have to stop him. Before he hurts anyone else. The time to put an end to this has long since passed. Now it ends. Now he ends"
Buffy looked at her Mom and Giles in confusion, whilst Dawn just looked worried.
"Will- what's going on?" Buffy asked.
"Where's Tara?" Willow asked the others in reply, ignoring Buffy's question entirely.
"Erm, she, I asked her to go get Xander and Anya. Or tell them..." Joyce answered, but she as too distracted by the disturbing image of Willow in front of her for her to answer properly, or to form coherent sentences, "Willow, what's the matter with you?"
"Nothing, I'll, uh, I'll explain later" Willow replied, sounding almost like her old self, but her eyes remained black and soulless and her hair remained dark.
"Willow, you have to explain now," Buffy insisted, jumping off the table she had moments ago been flat-lining on.
"After we find Warren," Wilow said simply, the menacing tone back before she turned on her heel marching towards the exit. She stopped a moment in the doorway to turn back to Buffy. "Come with me or stay out of my way. Your choice"
The entire group were too taken aback by this whole change over sweet Willow, that none of them knew truly how to deal with it or how to respond. They could only look at each other helplessly. Eventually, Buffy sighed in reluctant resignation.
"Fine, I'm coming with you" Buffy rushed after her, but she took a second to send a meaningful look Giles' way that clearly said 'help'. Once the two women left, everything set into motion.
"We need to get to The Magic Box," Giles stated formally, "Willow's crossed a line that she may not be able to come from- to regress so much...after how well she'd been doing..."
"It's not your fault," Joyce told him, a hand on his arm, sensing his guilt.
"Isn't it?" He asked bitterly and she shook her head in indignation.
"Of course not, you've done everything that you could. She's been doing so well, I think...I think she's just scared"
"Plus, she hasn't done anything wrong," Dawn added, trying to keep things as optimistic as possible, "Well, you know, magic for her is a bad, but she hasn't done anything evil. She just...well saved our lives. Maybe that's all she wanted to do. Maybe after she left with Buffy she went back to normal"
"I wish I could believe that," Giles told her, "I really do. But she's got immense power coursing through her and with her only thought being apparently Warren right now, I think we safely presume that she isn't going to end her magics with saving your life."
"Oh..." Dawn said quietly, realizing what he had said made sense and maybe she had just been fully embracing hopeful thinking. She didn't want it to be hopeful though, she wanted it to be solid truth. She wanted Willow back. Smiley, happy, bubbly Willow. The Willow she had seen only a moment ago had scared her. "...I guess it's the Magic Box then"
Before the three left the hospital, Joyce, unable to bear looking at the red stain that had spread across the top right of Dawn's top- a constant reminder of what had happened, had almost happened, took off her cardigan and made her daughter put it on. To keep her warm and to hide the stain. Out of sight, out of mind.
When they arrived at the Magic Box, they found every light bulb in the store smashed and Anya and Xander were frozen still at the far end of the store.
"Anya?" Giles called and the woman turned around, apparently not as frozen as she initially seemed. However, she did not get up from her seat and when she started talking animatedly to him, pure frustration in her expression, no sound left her mouth at all. "What happened?"
Anya just looked at him impatiently as though saying 'yeah, like I can tell you'. She then pointed to Xander urgently, mouthing 'help him'.
"Xander, can you move at all?" Dawn asked, tugging on one of his arms.
"Just...a...little..." He managed to say, taking a jerky step forward and Dawn pushed against his shoulder to stop him completely falling over as he started to get his feeling back. "You're...okay..." He smiled at Dawn.
"Yeah," She agreed, "Which is more than I can say for you. Can you move to...like a seat?"
"I...can...try," Xander told, stumbling a few steps forward as she led him to a seat next to his wife, who had discovered that while she hadn't her voice back, she could now get out of her seat.
"What happened here?" Giles asked.
"Willow," Xander replied, "Said Dawn and Buffy had been shot." Something occurred to him and his eyes widened in panic and worry, "Wait, where is Buffy?"
"She's fine," Joyce told him, as she looked at the piles of books on the table, "She's with Willow now...Rupert, all these books are blank" She said, flipping through the now empty pages.
"Pardon?" Giles frowned in utter confusion as he looked at the pages himself.
Anya tapped the books in front of her loudly, drawing the other's attention to her and she mimed placing her hands on the book whilst mouthing the name 'Willow'.
"W-Willow did this?" Giles asked, shock etched on his face as he flipped the pages, seeing not a single word was left. Hundreds of years of powerful knowledge gone forever, contained in one small, once peaceful, barely twenty one year old woman.
"She just sucked the text right out of the books" Xander explained, "We've been here ever since"
"Wait," Joyce said, "You mean Tara hasn't come by? I sent her to look for you two"
"Well, maybe she went to the apartment first," Xander reasoned, "She'll probably get here soon"
As if on cue Tara burst through the door.
"Xander? Anya? Are you here?" She called out, before spotting that almost the entire group was there, "You're here." She then caught sight of Dawn and immediately ran over to hug her, "Dawn you're okay" She pulled out of the hug to ask the others, "And Buffy?"
"is fine," Giles informed her, "But as to how...we have ah, something to ah..."
"It's Willow," Xander stated gravely and Tara understandably grew concerned.
"What is it? Has something happened to her? Warren didn't..." Tara's question trailed off as her eyes fell on the piles of books on the table. Books that had once contained pages and pages of dark majiks were now blank, "Willow..." Tara whispered to herself as the realization of what had happened struck her, "Oh god, what have you done?"
"Nothing yet, not really," Xander assured her, but when his wife slammed her hand down on the table loudly in annoyance he winced and amended his statement, "Except...well, she's obviously overdone the majiks...she's taken Anya's voice away and it's possible she may be on a vendetta for Warren. But that's not for sure. A-and Buffy's with her now so probably everything will be fine and talked through and-"
"Willow's lost it," Buffy announced, cutting into Xander's 'convincing' speech as she burst into the store, not even needing to open the door since it had been knocked off it's hinges by her best friend.
"What do you mean?" Giles asked as Buffy walked over to them.
"Exactly that," She told him, "Warren's a dead man if she ever finds him but..." She trailed off, "What's with all the books? They're empty"
"That would be what's, ah, powering Willow right now," Giles explained.
"She took all the black majik books?" Buffy asked in shock and Xander nodded.
"Yep, drank em all up like mystical Gatorade," He told her, "Then left Anya and I frozen here and Anya...erm, can't talk"
"What?" Buffy frowned.
"She took a leaf out of the Gentlemen's book," Xander elaborated, pointing at his wife and to emphasize the point, Anya tried to talk, but was able to do nothing except move her mouth silently.
"I may be able to fix that," Tara told her as she headed up the ladder to where the remainder of the books were kept and Anya's eyes filled with pure hope, "That is as long as Willow didn't take all the books" She started looking along the shelves, "She's taken none of the white magick books," Tara informed them all, "They're all still here. Intact and uh, r-readable"
"Right," Buffy nodded, trying to regain focus and form a plan, but her whole world was coming apart around her. Willow couldn't be like this, Buffy wouldn't let her be. She wouldn't let the majiks grip her any further, corrupting her, making her everything Willow wasn't. "Well, while Tara's doing that...I, we need to find Willow. Before she finds Warren. I mean when I tried to talk sense into her before...she just cut me off, out of the scenario. She sent me flying with a single wave of her hand," Buffy told the others in complete disbelief. "But where would she be? I mean-" Buffy broke off as she saw her Mom wince slightly in pain, "Mom? You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine, just a twinge..." She told her, "I'm fine" She repeated for Rupert's benefit who was presently looking at her in deep concern. When no one resumed the conversation after her reassurances she sighed in exasperation. "Buffy, you were saying?" She prompted.
"Right...erm, yeah- Willow. She's looking for Warren, right? So we find Warren..."
"You find Willow," Giles completed, "We'd have to do a locater spell."
"Tara," Buffy said just as the witch in question returned to the table with several books in her arms, "You up to it?"
It was a little while on and Buffy had left with Xander to find Willow after Tara had cast a spell to show them the estimated location of Warren. She had wanted desperately to go along with them to find Willow, but she was needed at the Magic Box and she respected that and so instead focused on restoring Anya's voice,
"What if this doesn't work?" Dawn asked her Mom quietly as she watched Tara mid-spell. Unfortunately she didn't ask the question quietly enough and Anya threw her an expression of horrified panic.
"I'm sure it will work Anya," Joyce reassured her, wincing slightly again as another pain similar to before twinged again. It was as though Lily were kicking extra hard at certain intervals for emphasis after the events of the entire day, making each kick slightly harder than the last. If she didn't know better she'd described it as early...but no, she was only thirty-six weeks. She tried to work out if she could recall what the intervals of these painful 'kicks' were.
"Yes," Giles nodded in agreement, "Tara looked into this very well in a remarkable amount of time"
"Well, it'd better work," Anya said to him snappily to find actual sound came out of her mouth and Tara had finished her spell. "Hey it did! Work!" She exclaimed with a wide smile, "Yes! Yes! I can hear me!"
"Thank you Tara," Giles smiled warmly, "I'm sure Anya is grateful even if she doesn't say it-"
"Oh yeah," Anya said as though just remembering, "Totally grateful. Utterly."
"You're welcome," Tara told her, blushing slightly at all the compliments and thanks.
"Now, I can say what I wanted to say before," Anya informed them all and once she was sure they were listening she exclaimed, "What the hell were you thinking sending Xander off with Buffy?! I thought my silent expressions of anger might've told ya I didn't like the plan! He's gonna get killed"
"Hey," Tara said, her tone uncharacteristically confrontational, "Willow isn't going to hurt Xander. She's not a bad person"
"No," Anya agreed in a voice that revealed she had more to say on the matter, "She's just a powerful witch with vengeance on her mind. Vengeance does things to people, changes them. Believe me, I should know"
"Then let's hope Buffy and Xander can help her before then," Giles concluded and Dawn nodded in worried and eager agreement.
"They will though right?" She asked, pleading for him to agree and say 'yes', "Help Willow? They'll be back with her and everything will be okay?"
Giles didn't want to answer her heartfelt questions with a lie, so he opted to say nothing at all, which seemed to effect her as badly as if he had answered her honestly.
Joyce felt another painful extended twinge and grimaced silently, while looking at the clock. Ten minutes had passed since the last one. Crap...but it couldn't be, it couldn't be.
"No, no. It's too early," She murmured, "It's too early..."
At sound of these mutterings, the group looked over at Joyce and saw her wincing in pain, a hand on her abdomen and it all seemed to fall into place immediately.
At the worst possible time she had gone into labor.