Tara lurched sideways as the Jeep swerved to follow Faith's pointing finger. As they careened closer, the smell of smoke grew – so did the crowd of gawkers.
"Fuck!" Faith growled. "We got trouble, Mrs. S. All them people… Gonna make it hard to do anything and not have 'em noticin' or talkin'."
"I don't think that's important right now, honey." Parking diagonally in front of the burning building, Mrs. Summers turned off the engine and they all piled out. "Right now, we need to find out if Buffy is inside."
The conversation faded in Tara's consciousness. Something wasn't right. Frowning, she tried to trace the feeling. She had to strain. Whatever had set off her senses was shielded. Tara tapped into her own power reserves, not trusting the ambient energy in the area to be untainted by the source of the problem. She was sweating and shaking by the time she finally located it. Under heavy shields, a faint magical signature colored the air with a wispy black cloud. "Goddess…"
When Tara opened her eyes, she found herself alone on the sidewalk. Panicking, she looked frantically around. She calmed slightly when she located her missing companions. Faith, flanked by Willow and Mrs. Summers stood under a series of windows set high on the wall of the building. Tara took one step in their direction. She needed Willow's help.
One step was all she managed, though. Eyes wide, Tara stared at the scene near the building. Bodies – human bodies – flew through the upper-story window, screaming and flailing their arms and legs.
That wasn't the most extraordinary thing happening, however.
As if the flying forms weighed nothing, Faith calmly caught each one and set them on their feet to be helped away from the fire by Mrs. Summers or Willow.
Enough was enough. Already keyed up from her discovery, Tara reached deeper into her personal well of power to do something she would normally never even consider without permission. Turning her Sight on Faith, she searched for answers. The moment Tara peered at Faith without her shields in place, all the answers to many of her questions came crashing in. Faith's golden aura, the weapons in the apartment, and the quickly cut off conversations…
Faith was the Slayer. The knowledge broke her out of her trance. Tara started running again, shoving the rest of her questions aside for the moment. "Willow!" she called out as she drew closer.
The other girl turned. "Tara? Are you OK? You just kinda froze back there. If you…"
Before another babblefest could start, Tara interrupted. "S-someone used ma-magic on the front doors. That's why th-they're coming out of the windows. It m-must be the only way out." Willow was, by her own admission, a novice witch. Tara seized on that. "I need your help."
The news caught Willow off guard. "What? Tara, we have to help Faith and Buffy get those people out of the building. See?" She indicated another person hurtling out of a window.
Buffy? How was Buffy…? Pushing that thought aside for later consideration, Tara gripped Willow's arm. "I th-think we can b-break the magical l-lock if we work toge-together." She saw Willow open her mouth. Not ready to argue or answer any more questions, Tara began dragging the reluctant girl toward the front doors. "Listen, W-Willow," she said intently. "The si-sirens are g-getting closer and there are a l-lot of pe-people standing around. S-Some of them with cam-cameras. Do you really w-want F-Faith on the evening n-news?"
The indirect threat worked even better than Tara hoped. Willow picked up the pace until they were both sprinting. When the stopped at the doors, Tara took several deep breaths to slow her panting.
"What do you need me to do?" For once, Willow wasn't bouncing with excitement. She met Tara's eyes solemnly. "I've never done anything big, you know."
Tara took her hand. "I n-need you to dr-drop your shields." She felt Willow pulling them down. "When I tell you," she said forcefully.
Willow's shields snapped back up as she stared at Tara, wide-eyed.
"Th-thank you." Tara didn't explain further. They were running out of time. Instead of talking, she lowered her own personal wards and probed the area for a safe way to expand her power. Other than a few weak and muddied puddles of energy, there weren't any. They were on their own.
Stifling a sigh, Tara stopped searching and simply tapped into her own reserves. Magic swirled through her channels and tingled just under her skin. "N-now, Willow," she ordered softly.
When Willow complied, Tara stretched out her aura, carefully merging their energies. It was tricky. Sweat poured off her body. Each time she moved too quickly, Willow's magic fluoresced and sparked. That meant starting over. By the end, Tara was gritting her teeth and shaking from the strain.
The effort was worth it. Willow might be untrained, but she was immensely powerful. Flushed with the influx of energy, Tara linked her hand with Willow's. Concentrating, she focused all their combined strength on their joined hands. She flung their hands up in the air, as if they were pushing the door open physically. At the apex of the swing, Tara released the magical energy in a sharp burst.
The doors shuddered in their frame; however, they didn't open.
Tara poured more and more power into her focus point. She dropped their hands and tried again. This time, the magic fluoresced visibly as it arc toward the building.
With a loud explosion, the doors flew open. Pieces of wood and metal rained down around them and black smoke billowed out of the entrance.
***
Buffy picked up a wiggling and panicking boy and heaved him toward the window. He screamed the entire way, and she grunted in satisfaction as the annoying sound faded once he began his descent on the other side of the wall. "Who next?"
No one stepped forward. Clustered together in the middle of the barroom, the five remaining patrons and Jack stared at the growing wall of flames nearly surrounding them.
"Who next?" Buffy shouted again. Her inner voice demanded she save everyone. Now! When there were still no volunteers, Buffy growled and stalked forward. She would simply pick someone. Grabbing the nearest college student with both hands, Buffy dragged him back to her launching point.
Before she could throw him to safety, though, a cavernous boom sent them all cowering to the floor.
Covering her head with her hands, Buffy waited for another bang. Nothing happened. Slowly and cautiously, she climbed to her feet. The air… Sniffing, Buffy caught the distinctive odor of fresh air. "Out!" Tossing her "volunteer" over her shoulder, Buffy waved her left arm at the others. "Out!"
None of them looked eager to run into the flames until two new figures ran into the room from the direction of the front door. "B-Buffy! Hurry up! The d-door's open and the f-fire tr-trucks are pulling up outside," one of them shouted.
The words didn't make sense, but Buffy recognized the girl. With a happy grunt, she carried her cargo in that direction. "Out!" she stated one more time. Jogging through the spreading fire, Buffy headed for the exit with the rest of the stragglers rushing behind her.
As soon she cleared the bar, Buffy tossed the man over her shoulder to the ground. People. Lots of people. She spun around and around, staring at all of them.
***
Tara dodged the body Buffy had unceremoniously dumped on the ground. Sucking in deep gulps of the smoke-filled air, Tara coughed and blinked burning eyes. She didn't have long to recover. The bystanders had moved closer. Now, they pressed in, pointing and murmuring. At first, Tara was too busy struggling to breathe to notice.
A loud growl snapped her head up, and breathing took a backseat to concern.
Buffy stood a few feet away, arms raised and hands outstretched. Her fingers were curled into a claw-shape. The growl emanated from her throat as she appeared to keep the crowd from getting any closer.
Without thinking, Tara threw herself across the intervening space and wrapped her arms around Buffy. "It's OK, B-Buffy." The body under her quivered and twitched. "C-Come on. Let's g-go fi-find Wil-Willow. Sh-She was w-worried about you."
Buffy didn't seem ready to move. The growl had lessened some, but the other girl remained frozen in place for a second before settling into the embrace.
"B-Buffy?" Tara tried again. Was she hurt? Nearly grunting from the effort, she managed to turn them around so Buffy had a good view of the side of the building where Faith and Mrs. Summers continued to help the people who had exited through the windows. Tara kept looking. She needed Willow's help with Buffy.
Unfortunately, Willow was surrounded by another group of gawkers on the other side of the front doors.
Persevering, Tara let go of Buffy with one arm and pointed at the rescue efforts on the side of the building. "L-look. I'm su-sure your mom c-could use our h-help."
She hit a chord. "Mom?" Buffy parroted. Her voice sounded odd, deep and rough. Almost guttural.
Probably from the smoke, Tara supposed. "Yes, sw-sweetie. Your m-mom." Releasing Buffy completely, Tara began to walk backward in that direction. "W-we need to he-help them."
Buffy's eyes widened and she…grunted? "Buffy help."
Before Tara could comment on that, Buffy took off. Running past Tara with frightening speed, she headed for Faith and Mrs. Summers.
Tara followed much more slowly. As she jogged after Buffy, she tried to make sense of what had just happened. Why was Buffy acting so strangely? Had whoever locked the door also cast a spell on the people inside? Tara picked up her pace. She was scanning Buffy and the fire survivors before she even reached them.
"Hey, B. Nice idea – tossin' 'em out the window," Faith said as Tara got closer. "Just hope one of them people over there didn't get nothin' on film. I'm thinking Jeeves won't be real happy if you make the news."
The only response from Buffy was another hair-raising growl.
Mind grappling with what she'd just seen with her Sight, Tara staggered to a stop and planted herself between the two. She was getting answers – soon. Until then, Tara made sure to block Buffy's access to the other girl. "Faith," she warned softly. "D-don't talk to Bu-Buffy right n-now." Keeping a close eye on Buffy, Tara tried to explain part of what she'd glimpsed in Buffy's aura. "The ma-magic on the d-door wasn't the only sp-spell." She had to pause as Buffy moved. Tara moved with her in a disjointed dance. There was too much potential for violence if Buffy and Faith faced off. "I th-think Buf-Buffy's under a sp-spell, too," Tara finished.