"Oz needs you."
The familiar voice broke through Willow's dream, and she became wide awake. At least she thought she did, until she realized that she couldn't have possibly heard the voice she thought she did. "Tara?"
Tara, or at least something that looked like Tara, was sitting on the end of Willow's bed smiling at her. "Yes baby, it's me."
Willow sat up and started sliding back until she hit the headboard. "How do I know it's you?" An edge of panic was in her voice. "Maybe you're the first, and you've come back?"
"If I was the first, why would I come to tell you Oz needs help?" Tara asked, still smiling.
"I don't know." Willow thought for a moment then pointed at Tara. "You're trying to divert my attention!"
Tara's smile grew bigger, "Divert it from what?"
"From…from whatever evil thing you're doing!" Willow said, stabbing the pointing finger in Tara's direction.
Tara's smile became more of a grin and she said, "Don't be stupid."
Willow froze at the familiar recrimination, tears in her eyes. "Tara! It is you! How is it you?! How are you here!?" Willow clambered over the bedcovers trying to reach Tara, but reaching out, her hand went through, unable to touch.
Tara's smile turned sad and she held her hand toward Willow's cheek. "I'm here to help. I had to come. They wanted me to come. They needed someone you would believe and would trust."
"They? Who are they? Help with what?" Willow searched Tara's face for the answers.
"The Powers." Tara, seeing Willow's confusion elaborated, "The Powers that Be…" She trailed off. "Talk to Angel. They need you to help Oz. There will be a time when you both will be needed. To help make things right, and Oz is in danger."
"Make what right? Tara? What are you talking about?"
"I don't have much time, they've given me so little, but they have shown me there will be a time when all of you, all the "Scoobies", will be needed to work together again, Oz included. But more importantly, if what needs to happen is to happen, a lot will depend on you and Oz. You and Oz will need to support each other; protect each other. I wish more than anything I have ever wished, that I could be there for you. But I can't. So, I have to believe in Them, the Powers I mean, and entrust you to Oz. And, in the short term, Oz needs you more than you need him. If something doesn't change, there won't be enough of Oz's spirit left to heal."
"What's happened? Where is he?"
"He's being held by a woman who was with the Initiative…"
After Tara told Oz's story and his location she faded and was gone, Willow sat on her bed for a few minutes absorbing this latest loss then she remembered why Tara had come to her in the first place. Jumping off the bed she went in search of her cell phone.
Several hours after Willow's call to Buffy, the rescue party was forming. Using the email address Sam, Riley's wife, had once given Willow, they were able to get in touch with Riley. Tara's spirit had been able to give Willow a general area location of where Oz was being held, but not a specific place. She had been able to narrow it down for them to an area of Maryland, which raised the question again as to a possible government connection given the fairly close proximity to D.C. Once they had contacted Riley, they were on their way to an extended stay hotel in Fredrick, Maryland. In addition to Buffy, Willow, Giles, and Xander were Riley, Sam (Riley's wife), and a select number of Riley's personnel.
Dawn had stayed behind with Andrew at headquarters. Buffy wondered what it would be like to work with Riley ,and Sam, again, but considering the opposition, Buffy had figured having the former Initiative golden boy might prove handy, and it didn't hurt that Sam was a doctor, just in case. Besides with a doctor, a witch, a soldier, a slayer, a watcher, and a Xander they couldn't lose. Right?
As they were settling in the hotel and setting up one of the rooms as headquarters, Riley suddenly turned away from the equipment he was arranging on the room's desk, and looking hard at Buffy said, "Let me get this straight. Willow has a dream where her dead girlfriend tells her that her ex-boyfriend, who as I recall, nearly ripped her heart out when he left her without a word, is being held prisoner by a scientist who used to work with the Initiative. And, based on that, you want me and my people to attempt a rescue?"
"Uhhuh. And it was a visitation, not a dream. And if you didn't believe it, then why did you agree to come?"
"Oh, I didn't say I didn't believe it, I just wanted to hear it out loud." Riley's look softened into a smile.
"So were you able to get any idea of what we might be facing?" Buffy asked.
"I wasn't able to do much without a name, but I have a couple of ideas of who she might be, but no real information. As far as I was able to find out, whatever it is she is doing is without official government knowledge."
"Which means nothing."
"Which means nothing." Riley agreed. "But if it is the government, and it is unofficial, then it gives us deniability and makes it hard for them to retaliate afterward. And if it isn't governmental..." He trailed off.
"Even though Tara's spirit wasn't able to give Willow an exact location, she did give us an idea of what this doctor has been up to, but not why, and not a lot of detail. Which may be just as well considering the impression she gave of what has been happening to Oz. But I don't like the idea that we will be going in blind." Buffy said.
"If we can get the position pin-pointed exactly, then Sam can take a couple of our guys on recon."
"It will have to be someone you trust not to act alone. I'm not risking Oz's life. I don't want him to have gone through what he has, just so that he can get killed because some soldier boy gets all macho and loses sight that this is a rescue mission and not an assault."
"On behalf of all soldier boys - Hey!"
"You know what I mean." Buffy crossed her arms, slightly shaking her head.
"I do, and trust me our guys are soldiers, not Rambo wannabes, and Sam will be in charge. No one will make a move until you're ready..."
Buffy sighed, "I just hope we're not too late."
Using the information Tara's spirit had provided, and a locator spell from Willow, it turned out to be fairly simple to find the house where Oz was being kept. Willow's knack for guilt didn't let it pass unnoted that if only they had known sooner they could have saved Oz months of pain.
However, following Tara's advice, as soon as Willow had gotten off the phone with Buffy, she had called Angel, who although he was still bitter at Giles' lack of help when Fred had been dying, explained as much as he could about The Powers that Be. And, after finding out how vague, unspecific, and all-around useless they could be, Willow felt lucky that they had actually been given any useful information at all. Even if it hadn't been as timely as she would have wished. If it hadn't been for the Power's intervention, they might never have known that Oz was in danger in the first place.
When they found the house, it was located outside of Walkersville. The house was in a vaguely rural area in a small development. The house, though small, had its own circular gravel drive in front, rose bushes in the yard, and a white picket fence. Sam sat in a phone company van across the road and down from the house thinking that she had never trusted white picket fences. She felt they were overrated as a symbol of domestic bliss, and usually were a front for sinister things behind closed doors. This time she knew she was right. Although she had never met Oz, she knew and liked Willow and her friends, and it angered her that someone who might be from her own government and who had worked with her husband, even if they had never met, was responsible for causing them pain.
She and two of their personnel had been outside the house now for a couple of hours, but so far nothing was moving outside the house and of more concern, her equipment was only picking up one life reading inside. Which meant either their Intel was wrong and Oz wasn't there, or he was in an area shielded from their equipment. The third option didn't bear thinking about. Suddenly her radio came to life with Riley's voice.
"Sam, report"
"I'm here. Still no change. Do you want us try a look inside?"
"If you think your cover will hold closer scrutiny, see if you can use it to get in."
"Gotcha and out."
Sam picked up a clipboard and pulled the "phone company" hat down further on her head. Then, slipping a small device used to read and record heat signatures into her pocket, she jumped out of the van and headed toward the house.
The house didn't look any less cute from the porch. All of the curtains on the front of the house, as well as the one side she could see, were drawn. She had just raised her hand to knock when the door opened and a small blonde woman appeared. Sam, who having met Buffy, knew that that didn't mean the woman wasn't dangerous, didn't relax her guard.
"May I help you?" The woman asked.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm with the phone company and we have had customers in this area complaining there has been intermittent disruption of their service. Have you noticed any problems?"
The woman never opened the door more than a crack and answered, "I don't have a landline phone."
"Oh," Sam said smiling, "well that explains why we couldn't find a name at this residence in our files. Ms. ..."
"I'm sorry, may I see your I.D.?"
"Of course." Sam pulled out of the rapidly obtained credentials, hoping they would pass and handed them over.
The woman looked at the I.D. closely before handing it back. "As I've said, I don't have a phone, so therefore I do not have a problem."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your time."
Sam stepped off the porch as the door closed behind her, then with a litany of "stupid, stupid, stupid" under her breath, as she berated herself for her performance, she made her way back to her way back to the van.
She picked up her radio, "Riley?"
"I'm here."
"I think I'd better pull out. She seems suspicious and I don't want to flush her before we're ready."
"Copy. Were you able to see anything?"
"Negative, but I am looking at my hand-held and I see a faint reading for a second signature. I think he's there"
"Ok, we'll see you in a few. Out."
Riley looked up at the others from the chair where he was seated at the desk in the hotel room where they had made their headquarters. Buffy looked back at him, hands on hips. "Suspicious? Of course she's suspicious. Phone company? Please!"
"It was short notice!" Riley protested. "Besides, it's a classic."
Buffy rolled her eyes and turned to Willow. "Will, I think we need to move now. If we wait there's a chance they'll move, and now that she suspects someone's on to her, there's also the chance that she may kill Oz. Is there anything else that Tara told you that might give us any idea of what we are walking into security-wise?"
"No, I've told you everything. She really didn't have anything to tell me about the layout, just mostly what that bitch has been doing to Oz."
"Then," Buffy said looking around the room at the others, "I guess we'll find out when we get there."