"Oh, goddess," Willow murmured.

Charlotte just smiled, because she knew the most magical moment hadn't even begun yet.

Moonlight flooded the volcano cone, and golden bubbles began rising from the churning water.

Willow had only experienced something like that only once, when she had activated the power of the scythe. Magic filled her body, lifted her spirit like the bubbles in the pool. She was pure, weightless.

Charlotte watched with happiness as the red-haired closed her eyes and experienced the magic of Mako.

Suddenly, Willow's hand gripped Charlotte's and the same magic began to flow through her as well. Suddenly, Charlotte felt warm and safe, and the feeling of soaring high filled her up. This was the power of magic.

"Charlotte, you need to jump in," she heard Willow whisper. "You need to get in the pool."

"What?" Charlotte asked, surprised at the strange request. "Willow, I can't-"

She never got to finish that sentence, because Willow just smiled, took her hand away, and firmly pushed Charlotte into the pool.

Within seconds, Charlotte was beneath the waves, the water filling her nose and mouth. With all her might, Charlotte kicked her legs up to the top of the pool, trying desperately to get to air.

When she finally succeeded, the moon was nearly past the cone. The warm feeling had yet to leave her, and Charlotte stared up at the moon, as if held the answers she wanted.

What was her place in this world? Why had she been unworthy as a mermaid, but she deserved to be a Slayer? Where did she belong? In the light, the dark? The water or the earth?

Finally, the moon passed, and the pool quieted. Charlotte shook her head and swam to the edge, climbing out and wringing out her clothes.

"Willow, why did you do that?!" Charlotte demanded angrily.

The witch shook her head, as if shrugging off a daze and looked at Charlotte in slight surprise.

"I'm sorry, Charlotte, really. I don't know what came over me."

"You looked like you were in a daze or something. You don't know why you pushed me into a pool?"

"No, I'm sorry."

Charlotte looked to the pool again, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"The last time I was in that pool during a full moon," she said quietly, "I was fighting the other girls. I tried to make them lose their gifts so that I could be the most special." Charlotte paused, and a tear ran down her cheek. "Instead, they worked together, lifted me up in the air, and dropped me into the pool. It was a special moon that night, if a mermaid was in that pool while it was overhead, they would lose their tail forever. And that's…" Charlotte couldn't finish her sentence, there was a lump in her throat, and more tears threatened to spill out onto her cheeks.

"That's what happened to you," Willow quietly finished for her.

"Yeah," Charlotte choked out, unable to pull her eyes away from the pristine blue water. She wanted to hold her hands out over the water, as if she was gonna control it, like before. But it would never work, because, like her grandmother before her, Charlotte would never have the gift again. But at least her grandmother had a choice.

Slowly, she lowered her hand, and rubbed her wet arms; she was still dripping and making a puddle around her. "We should get going, Willow," she murmured, shivering a little. "You have that plane in the morning."

"Alright, c'mon. You need to get out of those wet clothes, anyway, you're gonna catch a cold."

But it seemed like that wasn't something to be worried about, because as Charlotte rubbed her arms, the water on her began to heat and evaporate.

"Charlotte!" Willow exclaimed. "How are you doing that?"

She quickly lowered her hands, her fear tinged with guarded excitement. "I don't know," she whispered. "That's impossible."

Then Willow took another look at her, her brown eyes looking sharply over Charlotte. "Your aura is glowing, Charlotte. It's beautiful," she murmured.

"What does that mean?" she demanded, looking over herself, as if she was gonna see something horrible crawling over her.

Willow smiled broadly, and gave her a quick hug. "It means that you've been forgiven, Charlotte."

"Really?" Charlotte asked, looking at her hands in a daze. "That's… wow." Her mind had gone totally blank. How could she have her powers back? The full moon from before took her powers away for good. Then how…

The older woman smiled again and grabbed Charlotte's bag off the ground. "Come on, we need to get you home."