Jason- I understand what you are saying about different causes do not get the same effects, but I did think over this finale arc for months as to how it would go about without Tara's death and I believe this would still be the outcome. Consider the following:

Willow has an addictive personality and even with training from Giles, that addiction to magick is still present, still within her, wishing to be used and on some deep subconscious level she just wanted an excuse to use that power again. This is a partial explanation for why it happened in the original episode as well.

Also, fear has been known to effect people in different ways. Willow has spent six years of her life, coming face to face with death with her friends dying around her. However, when it was something mystical behind the deaths it somehow put reasoning behind it. After all, that was the life they led and you can fight against evil, gain justice. However, Warren shooting Buffy and Dawn was a shocking revelation for Willow as she realized the mundane can kill them also, which means they are not in the slightest bit safe, ever. They never know what day is their last because not only are demons going to kill them but humans as well. It is this fear that sends Willow into regression, and essentially a breakdown.

She flayed Warren for justice- or really, vengeance. Normal Willow would have gotten justice by perhaps having him sent to jail, or having the crap kicked out of him really, but when the magicks took her over, even just slightly, when she first saw Dawn had been shot, they immediately started to gain control. And since it was coming from a dark place, it fed and energized Willow's dark side which is why she had such a horrible death for Warren. It effects her in the same way, maybe with slightly different outcomes, as it effected Giles when he was in full uncontrollable Ripper mode. Ceasing to care for loved ones and morals as the lust for control and power grows stronger.

It is this reason that she would go after Andrew and Warren. Like Buffy said, she has an addictive personality, and after killing Warren she's greedy for that ultimate control. The control of life and death. But that is the magicks behind that. Her original fear-ridden reason for wanting to kill these two is because they worked alongside Warren and agreed with what he was doing so Willow is terrified that they may carry on where Warren left off and shoot her friends, but that time they may succeed in killing them. And since non Dark Willow always valued her friends and family above all else, this thought terrifies her enough to want to make it all stop for good.

However, the one deviation from the original Dark Willow storyline is the ending the world part. That doesn't happen as for one, Giles doesn't have the magicks to feed her that thought, and also that was powered purely and entirely from uncontrollable grief and couldn't come from fear and the desperate need to protect all she holds dear.

As for the drop in quality comment, I'm sorry you don't agree with how I deviated but I've explained my reasons, take them or leave them.

And on a lighter, more-my-personal-opinion note: Don't call Giles an idiot.

Rabidreject- Yes, another cliffhanger and guess what? There's another at the end of this one too. As for flatlines, the last one is in here- hope it shocks and surprises. Thanks for the review

zigpal- Thanks for claps and review and as for the big fight to come...well, Willow tries to fight, but...well, I hope you like how I dealt with it and hope you like this chapter.

A/N: One more chapter of season 6 to go after this.
No one could quite think straight as they saw Willow's form disappear before their very eyes.

"Oh goddess...Willow," Tara sighed in shock, "What has happened to you?"

"Giles what do we do?" Buffy asked, in the face of her best friend becoming one of the very things she had to fight, she was desperate for guidance.

"We need to stop her"

"Well done," Joyce said sarcastically from where she was sat up against the table on the floor. "Rupert, you can do better than that"

"I wish I could," He admitted, "But I truly don't know what to do. I don't understand how Willow could go so far in so little time"

"Draining all this might have something to do with it," Buffy pointed out, gesturing at the pile of blank books that had once been filled with millennia of arcane knowledge. "It seems to have...I don't know made her power mad." Buffy winced as she walked over to the others, "And wicked strong. And now she's gone after Jonathon and Andrew. We've got to figure out a way to get to Anya and Xander before Willow does. They, they don't know how far she's gone now- w-what she tried to do to Dawn... what are we supposed to do?" Buffy hated feeling helpless, no matter how rare she felt it but that was exactly how she felt right now. Helpless, lost and alone, no matter how many people were around her presently. With the Willow she had known and loved like a sister, almost as much as Dawn, gone seemingly forever Buffy's entire world was falling apart. Willow had always been there for her. Support when she needed it, sweet humor when things got too dark and now it was Willow she had to fight. Had to stop. God, how had things gotten so messed up so suddenly? "We have to do something. We have to do something fast," She stated almost pleadingly and Giles, having been looking at the blank books with intense concentration, turned around to face her.

"I have a proposition you will all most probably detest," He announced.

"Where are we driving to anyway?" Jonathon asked as Xander sped up even more and they rushed down the streets of Sunnydale.

"Don't really know," Xander admitted, "Forward for now"

"You don't even know where we're going?" Andrew asked incredulously, leaning forward in his seat in shock, "Oh my god. If I die because of your lack of-"

"Oh shut up," Anya rolled her eyes, "No one cares you little weasel." She told him harshly, then seeing his truly hurt look at these words she caved a little and handed a blue bag over to him, "Have a potato chip," She advised him.

"That's not going to cut it," He told her with a 'superior' sniff, but nevertheless he still took the chips.

"Will you just shut up?" Jonathon asked in exasperation, fear for his own life making him find Andrew more frustrating than normal.

"Make me," Andrew retorted childishly, and within minutes the two were degraded to a childish slap scrabble in the back seat. That is until Xander shouted at them.

"That is enough boys! Carry on like that and you can just walk to your painful deaths from here!"

When the boys immediately fell silent at this threat, neither doubting that Xander would actually do what he said if needs called for it, Anya turned to her husband.

"What do we do if Willow catches up with us?" She asked him quietly, and as soon as the words reached him, he focused even more intently on the road as though looking at that was so much easier for him that having to face up to what Willow had become. He didn't want to face that. Willow was... Willow. His best friend since kindergarten, the girl who cried when she broke the yellow crayon, the girl who used to be able to nothing magically except float pencils. Was that really so long ago? It couldn't be.

"I don't know..." Xander finally replied, giving a truly honest answer, "I really don't know"

"Tara, you said yourself when you were searching for a way to cure Anya that Willow had left behind the books of white magic," Giles stated, obviously going somewhere with his point, but the others had yet to figure out what that particular destination was.

"Y-yes," Tara nodded, "She's only taken the ones that were f-for dark magicks..."

"Which makes perfect sense," Giles nodded, "Fear and anger come from extremely dark places in a person's psyche, so it would follow through that Willow, in that state, would only be intent on draining the resources from places meant to feed, to ah sustain those dark places. Now-" He went to walk off in the direction of the books he was talking about when Joyce cried out in pain and while his instinct was to stay with her, he knew he needed to get those books quickly before they wouldn't have any time left to stop Willow. He was torn, visibly looking from one to the other a moment, but he decided to go with his instincts and knelt beside Joyce taking her hand, no matter the risk to his finger bones he had already experience first hand.

"They're getting more regular now," Dawn told him, having been the only person able to stay with her Mother constantly since she'd gone into labor.

"I know," He nodded, understanding what Dawn was trying to calmly convey. He turned to Tara, "Tara, upstairs on the top shelf to the right, I believe, there are three matching volumes. Fairly large. Gold covers, with white embossed designs. They should be easy to spot, could you retrieve them for me?" Tara nodded and walked off to get them, "Thank you" He was then able, for a moment at least, to return his full attention to his wife, "How are you feeling?" He asked kindly.

"Every seven minutes, at least according to Dawn, I have this feeling akin to having my spleen ripped out, how do you think I feel?" She retorted harshly, but when she saw how genuinely hurt he was by that reply, she softened, but only a little, "Sorry," She apologized, "It was just a stupid question"

"I have them," Tara announcing, returning with three large and heavy-looking gold volumes in her hand.

"Place them on the table Tara," Giles told and as she did so he began to explain exactly what they were, "Now these volumes are all part of the same book. It was written over a millennia ago, around the year 304AD, and was intended to be a collection, a resource, of all white magick known at that time, and considering that was a period where magick was highly regarded, it is suffice to say that was quite a lot. It contains protective spells, healing spells, good fortune spells, any spell directly related to that which comes from good magick." He looked at Tara directly, as he told her the most important point of all this, "Everything that can stop Willow"

"Everything?" Buffy asked sceptically, "These books...they have the power to stop Willow?"

"Well, not the books exactly," Giles said, "But someone with the entire knowledge contained within would have that power to stop her" He then looked back to Tara and suddenly everything fell into place and the young witch shook her head.

"This is good, g-great if it can help Willow. But I can't, I can't learn all this in time. Brief pages, yes, but not all of it. It's impossible"

"No it's not," Giles insisted, standing up to open each of the books to the center page, before turning to look at Tara kindly, "Just take the knowledge the same way Willow did"

"What?" Tara was seriously thrown, "I can't do that. It's...It's not the natural way"

"But right now it's the only way," He told her honestly, "It's the only way to stop Willow. To help her"

Tara seemed uncertain, as though she weren't sure she could go that far, even for the love of her life. It went against everything that was the natural order of things. It was doing this very thing, Giles was requesting of her, that had caused Willow to go so completely over the edge, despite all her training and despite how well she had been doing in it. The pure concentrated knowledge had taken hold of her, taken control and Tara wasn't sure she could handle that.

Yet, the magic that was being held open to her was of good origin unlike the black magicks Willow had absorbed so it wouldn't effect her in the same way. Would it? She was so uncertain as to what to do when the image of Willow came back to her. Willow with dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin and murderous intent. She wanted her Willow back and if this was the only way to save her, then she'd do it. Cautiously, she reached her hands out towards the pages, focusing on what she had to do, calling on numerous entities to help and guide her as her hands glided into the pages and the text started to roll up her arms.

The gold writing that traveled up her skin seemed to give off a white and gold light as it rushed up her hands, her arms, her neck, her face, eventually turning every strand of her light brown hair the same color as the white-gold text. Her eyes, unlike Willow's, remained the same hazel though the color seemed to burn so much brighter, almost shining with power.

She pulled her hands away from the now blank books and almost toppled over as the endless knowledge poured through her, reaching every cell, every sense. It was sensory overload, but after a minute she was able to slightly ground herself enough to be able to focus on reality.

"And now?" She asked, despite her immense power, still turning to Giles for guidance.

"Now go to her," He told her, "The same way she left here. You'll arrive very shortly after her, I'm sure"

"I should go with you," Buffy said, walking over to her, but Tara shook her head.

"No, you shouldn't," She told her kindly.

"I'm the Slayer," Buffy countered, "I have to-"

"This isn't your fight Buffy,"Giles told her, "Not this time. This is Tara's battle" There was finality in Giles' words that brooked no argument from Buffy and she stood aside to allow Tara to leave. She wasn't happy about not being able to be directly involved in the fight, but she also understood why Tara had to go alone.

"Erm...I guess it's your call then..." She nodded, feeling uncomfortable not being the one going for the big battle. Tara smiled slightly in reply, her nerves showing throw, before she disappeared from the store in the same way as Willow before her, though this was in swirls of glowing white lights rather than the storm of black that had enveloped her lover.

Once she was gone there was a sort of deathly silence left behind as the entire battle seemed to have completely moved away from the four remaining in the store. The silence was broken however when Joyce had another contraction and let out a yell of pure pain.

"O-okay they're like every five minutes now," Dawn said, panicking slightly.

"Okay, we've uh we've got to get you to a hospital. Now," Giles said to Joyce, kneeling beside her.

"Uh-huh," Joyce agreed weakly.

"Erm, don't get all offended, Mom," Buffy said, before turning to Giles, "But how exactly are we supposed to get her to the car? I mean she's not exactly in walking mode"

"Erm...I could ah, carry her I suppose?" Giles suggested.

"Also with the no offense clause also Mom," Dawn said, "But she's not exactly, you know, light right now, Giles"

"I'm not saying it would be easy," Giles said, and balked when Joyce glared at him, "I-I thought we agreed to not taking offense" He pleaded and she sighed, wincing slightly as she felt the build up of another contraction beginning, "But ah...if Kowalski can do it, it should be quite possible"

"Kowalski?" Buffy frowned in puzzlement.

"Streetcar Named Desire," Joyce managed to explain (though this made no further sense to her daughters) before she was overtaken by the pain of her next contraction.

"Alright that's it," Giles announced, "We're going now. Come on. Buffy," He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and handed them to her "Open the car, start it"

"But wouldn't it make more sense for me to carry Mom? Slayer strength and all?"

"Buffy,"Giles gave her a look and she sighed in resignation, taking the keys off of him.

"Fine." She agreed, walking off and mumbling 'no one needs the Slayer today...oh no'.

"Right, let's go," Giles said, picking Joyce up, admittedly strugglingly, in his arms and headed out the Magic Box with her, Dawn following closely behind.

They were just reaching the city limits, driving completely out of Sunnydale with Anya and Xander in silence and Andrew and Jonathon bickering in the backseats when the vehicle came to an unpredicted stop.

"What's going on?" Jonathon asked, "Why did we stop?"

"Traffic hold up," Xander gulped.

"'Traffic hold up'?" Jonathon repeated with a frown, "But this part of Sunnydale...there's no traffic...except us"

"And that's what being held up," Xander replied and puzzled by this both Jonathon and Andrew leant into the middle of the car to look past Anya and Xander and saw that Willow was magically holding up the car in the air, a twisted smile of determination on her face.

"Hello boys"

"I am never letting another man touch me again," Joyce stated in pain, as she finally found herself on a hospital bed in a room in the labor and delivery ward at Sunnydale General rather than the floor of the Magic Box. At this comment, Buffy and Dawn looked amused while Giles looked taken aback, insulted and also slightly worried. "I said 'never again' after Buffy and then look what-argh,god!"

"Joyce,"One of the nurses helping the midwife said, "You need to try not to scream. It takes up too much energy"

"Really not caring right now," Joyce retorted, taking hold of Giles' hand tightly as had become habit in the past hour. And every time she grabbed a hold of his hand, Giles braced himself for some finger crushing to point of which he was beginning to wonder whether this was simply caused by the pain of the contraction or in fact Joyce was a potential Slayer that none of the council had realized. It was most likely the former, but still, he doubted his hand would be back into good shape for a long while.

"It's okay Joyce, we can do this," He told her and since she was unable to retort that there was no 'we' in this particular situation she settled for a tight second-long smile.

"Right, right, we're almost there," The midwife announced, "Not too long at all..."

"Yeah, just three and a half hours," Dawn murmured.

"I think they're only counting the time she was here," Buffy told her.

"Without counting the time it took to convince them to let us in as well?" Dawn asked and Buffy nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, well they usually don't let like the whole family in, but we had to make sure everything was okay...you know after everything that had gone on..." Buffy reasoned as she began to frown at the situation.

"You wanna leave now too?" Dawn asked, reading her sister's thoughts remarkably well and Buffy immediately nodded sharply in answer.

"Totally," She agreed, grabbing her younger sister's hand and headed towards the door, "Mom, Giles- erm, see you on the other side" She called before they left the room to instead comfortably watch through the glass pane that, now Buffy thought on it, seemed like the incredibly wrong place to put a window. It was then, looking around, that she saw she and Dawn had not stepped out into the hall has she intended but rather into adjoining back room where all the doctors and nurses kept their equipment for c-sections, childbirth and god knows what else the instruments were used for. "Well, we're in here now..." Buffy murmured to herself, deciding that they wouldn't move until someone officially told them to.

"What do we do?!" Andrew asked Xander and Anya desperately, never taking his eyes off Willow for fear the moment he did so she would attack.

"You get to die horribly," Anya informed him straight-forwardly before turning to Xander, "But we go free right? I mean she's not gonna kill us. I mean she's certainly not gonna kill you."

At that moment Willow, whilst leaving the car in mid air, starting summoning pure magickal energy in the palm of hand creating what looked to Xander like some power-packing energy ball.

"Don't be sure about that," Xander said to his wife worriedly, before telling everyone, "Quick- everyone, out of the car, now!"

"But we're in mid-air," Jonathon pointed out.

"Then jump," Xander told him simply, but just as he was about to climb out the now open car door, a burst of bright amber light caught his attention and when his sight cleared he saw Tara was standing opposite Willow, and in front of the car. "What the...?"

"Willow," Tara called, taking her girlfriend's attention off the people in the car.

"Baby," Willow smiled, "Come to give me a hand?"

"You know I've not," Tara replied simply, "You have to stop"

"Man," Willow rolled her eyes dramatically, "Is that an overused phrase today. I'm not stopping till all three are no longer a danger to us"

"They're not a danger now," Tara pointed out, "They're just scared boys. You have no right to do this"

"Warren had no right to point a gun at my best friend," Willow countered, glaring at Tara and she nodded in acceptance.

"I know, I know he didn't, but he's gone now Willow. This isn't you, y-"

"Isn't it?" Willow frowned in mock-contemplation, "Feels a lot like me. In fact, feels better than me. Better than the geeky little computer nerd who let people walk all over her. I'm way better than that now"

"No, you're not," Tara told her straightforwardly, "This isn't better. How can this be better Willow?"

"You didn't know me then. You have no idea," Willow told her and Tara shook her head.

"No, I didn't know you then," Tara agreed, "But I can see that girl now. And she's so much better than this Willow. She's still there, inside of you, just listen to her. Does she agree with what you're doing?"

"Shut up," Willow told her angrily, "You don't know anything" The energy ball she had been summoning for Andrew and Jonathon, she now threw at Tara who with one effortless wave called up a protective shield that seemed to shine with a burning white light momentarily as it absorbed the energy ball, before it disappeared completely. "Interesting," Willow said to her, "Come here to tell me magics bad when you've done exactly the same as me. There's a word for this...what is it? Oh yeah," She looked over at Tara pointedly, "Hypocritical"

"It's not working Willow," Tara told her calmly, slowly stepping forward, "I know you're afraid. Terrified even. I know. You're scared you're going to lose us all." When Willow didn't have an immediate response, Tara stepped a little further forward but still remained cautious, "You've always been afraid of that though haven't you? Ever since Jesse"

"How do you...shut up!" Willow shouted loudly, casting an attack spell- one undoubtedly intended to maim permanently- at Tara but yet again she waved it away without concern.

"But that was a different kind of afraid. Demons, Vampires- you expected those dangers. Even when you lost, you were still prepared. But you weren't prepared for this. A simple bullet. Shot by a mortal man. Almost killed two people you love and I know that scared you so much and that was...I understand that's why you killed Warren. Why you felt you had to. I understand that. But this," Tara gestured back at the car in which Jonathon and Andrew were sat with the Harrises, "This isn't you. This need to kill them isn't about your fear anymore, it's about that power inside of you."

"What?" Willow smirked, retaining some of her twisted bravado, "'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?'"

Willow may have been mocking the phrase, but Tara nodded seriously.

"And your fear may be feeding it, making it stronger but it isn't you. This need to kill isn't you, it was never you. It's the power inside of you, it wants control of you and if you carry on like this you're going to let it. You have to find yourself again, Willow, remember who you are"

"Oh how very after school spe-" Willow began to retort but cut-off when Tara's magics bombarded her with memories.

It was six years ago. So very long ago. High School. The library. Her red hair was long and they were talking about the first ever vampire she had seen. Jesse had been taken. Buffy was going to do it all alone, but she an Xander weren't going to let her.

"Buffy I'm not anxious to go into a deep dark place full of monsters, but I do want to help. I need to"

"Boy, Willow you've really got the teaching bug, taking over that computer class, tutoring.." Cordelia smiled over a year later after Willow had offered to tutor Buffy for her exams.

"I love it, I really do," She replied. It was all Willow wanted to do- to help, to teach.

"I think it's great to do that before you go out and fail in the real world," Cordelia replied, "That way you're not falling backward so much as well...falling forward"

Then a year later again. Willow had decided to stay in Sunnydale for university.

"There are safer schools," Buffy pointed out, "There are safer prisons."

"Actually, this isn't about you. Although I'm fond, don't get me wrong, of you. The other night, getting captured and all, facing off with Faith... things just got kind of clear. I mean, you've been fighting evil here for about three years, and I've been helping out some, and now we're supposed to be deciding what we wanna do with our lives and I realized that's what I want to do. Fight evil. Help people. I think it's worth doing, and I don't think you do it 'cause you have to. It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in"

Willow was back, standing opposite Tara on the road. She shook her head to clear it.

"Why are you doing that?" She asked Tara.

"To remind you who are, to show you that this isn't it," She replied, "Willow I know you're afraid, but you don't have to be anymore."

"I'm not afraid," Willow told her sounding bold, powerful and confident, "I have nothing left to be afraid of." She grinned, "Everyones afraid of me"

"Yes you are," Tara nodded sadly, "You are still afraid. After everything you have reason to. Jesse, Dave, Fritz, Kevin and all your friends in your high school AV room, even Principal Flutie. And that was all in your first year in this world"

"H-how do you know all this?" Willow sounded slightly like her old self again as she asked this question, the memory of each loss bringing her pain to the fore as each time Tara said a name, she flashed an image of their death, shocking Willow back to herself, forcing her face her emotions.

"I know you Willow," Tara replied, but continued to reel off the names, "Rodney, Debbie, Pete, Kendra, Ms Calendar-"

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Willow screamed desperately, the memories becoming too much for her as she broke down where she stood, "Why are you...just stop it" Willow collapsed into tears and Tara ran over to her, kneeling beside her, holding her tightly in her arms. The car Willow had been controlling moments ago dropped from it's great height but Tara held out her arms and it's pace slowed so it floated gently to the ground instead. She then returned her attention to Willow.

"It's okay, you have to be sad about it, cry about it...you can't spend your whole life living in fear of it Willow or it'll consume you."

"I'm so...I keep thinking if Dawn or Buffy had died. Or what if I'd lost you? Forever? I don't think I could have lived on, I don't know how I could," Willow cried.

"But you didn't," Tara told her kindly, holding her tightly in her arms, seeing Willow's hair color return to it's familiar red, "I'm still here. We're all still here. You didn't lose any of us."

"But-"

"The world is full of what-ifs Will," Tara told her calmly, "Just let it go...let it all go..."

Xander and Anya watched silently from the car as they saw Willow sobbing her heart out in Tara's arms.

"You're not losing any of us...we're all still here..." Tara whispered softly to her.

He should have been concerned the moment her grip on his hand ceased being so tight. That's when he should have said something. He knew deep down that something hadn't been quite right. Then the midwife, nurses, doctors- he couldn't even differentiate anymore- moved into fast action and he saw that Joyce was suddenly losing consciousness.

"Joyce?" He asked, concern in his voice and panic creeping in their also.

"Okay, it's ripped," One of the medical staff stated, "Inside not out unfortunately. We need..."

Giles didn't even hear the numerous things the nurse requested as he could only focus on the controlled and hurried panic the staff in the room seemed to have slipped into.

"Rupert..." Joyce said hazily, still partially conscious.

"You're going to have to leave the room sir," One of the nurses told him, leading him towards the door.

"But, why? What's going on?" He asked, "What is happening?"

"Someone will inform you properly in a moment," She told him, "But right now we need you outside the room."

Before he could register anything more he found himself in the hospital corridor, only able to see what was going on through a window in the door, and hearing the muffled sounds from within. A moment later though both Buffy and Dawn joined him.

"We were in the back room," Buffy explained, "What's going on? They won't tell us. Is Mom okay?"

"I-I don't know," Giles told her, sounding panicked and frustrated as he began to pace. "They wouldn't say anything yet. She told me someone-"

A man stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Hi," He said to them, but the silence he was met with showed him the three didn't want anything resembling small talk right now.

"What is happening?" Giles asked and the nurse looked somber.

"Erm well," He began, "I have to tell you, she's...she's hemorrhaging."

"What?" Dawn asked, barely sound to her words, her shock taking away her voice. "But, but she's going to be okay. I mean, it's serious but you-you can fix it right?"

"We've expanded the medical team in there," The nurse explained, "We're doing the best we can." He turned to look at Giles, "Your wife's in good hands. I promise" And with that he walked back into the room, leaving the stunned, worried, terrified family stood in the corridor feeling very much lost and alone.

"I can't go back in there...after what I was like...what I did," Willow said as she was led to the once front door of the Magic Box. Andrew and Jonathon had bailed from the vehicle the moment Tara had brought Willow to the car. Where they had bailed to none of them knew, and if they were honest, none of them cared. "Oh god... I tried to kill Dawn..."

"No," Tara shook her head adamantly, "That wasn't you. I told you how the Magicks were the ones seeking that control, using you"

"But that shouldn't have happened anyway," Willow argued, "After everything that Giles has been teaching me..."

"If Giles hadn't trained you, things would have been a lot worse," Tara told her not unkindly, her arms still around her as Willow could barely stand up on her own, no matter how much healing magicks Tara poured into her.

"Yeah," Xander agreed lightly, "I mean you could have tried to end the world- gone all apocolypsy," The look all three women gave him for that comment made him realize that that wasn't quite the right thing to say, "Okay, little too early for jokes. I get that"

The group walked into the Magic Box, Willow planning to face everyone there, to find that in fact, they were at the hospital.

"They won't be here," Tara sighed, remembering what she had momentarily forgotten, "They'll be at the hospital- Joyce"

"What? No," Willow shook her head, "I can't go there while all that's going on...I c-can't...I don't...I have no right after..."

But Tara and Xander were already guiding her out, back to the car with Anya. They had to make these steps to repairing what had happened now or they'd never do it. Maybe things would never be the same again, but they had to try.

"All I can see is chaos," Buffy stated after peering in through the door window to where the medical staff were trying to help her Mom and Lily. It had been barely ten minutes, but her Mom has already completely lost consciousness and the doctors had yet to calm down or even look slightly relieved.

"I just wish they'd tell us something or at least let us..." Giles sighed. He didn't actually know what he wanted in this circumstance, except he wanted Joyce okay. As much as he worried over Buffy dying from supernatural causes he seemed to be constantly facing the possibility of Joyce dying from natural. It was an amazing feat that his blood pressure remained normal.

Suddenly, something in the room grabbed his attention. The doctors and nurses had picked up their pace, rushing around more than before, but above the sound of this was the beep of the heart monitor they'd hooked her up to. The beeps were beginning to have longer and longer gaps between, becoming too slow paced.

"Dawn," Buffy said, immediately picking up on what might be happening and not wishing her younger sister to be here for any of it, immediately handed Dawn five dollars, "Go, go get something from the machine"

"No," Dawn said firmly, standing ground, "No. I'm not going..." She trailed off as the sound of the heart monitor loudly overrode her own words. The beep they were all trying desperately to ignore had become long and steady, no longer having a heartbeat to read.