As if hit with a lightning bolt of energy, Buffy's head snapped up just in time to fight off some waxy demon with a spike sticking out of the fist aimed at her.

She rolled off the bench while kicking out and pushing the creature back far enough for her to get her feet under her before its next attack. They traded blows, and Buffy avoided the stinger of doom until the wax monster caught her off guard with another stinger in its other hand. The giant needle entered her skin as the world changed into the psych ward from when she first found out about vampires.

"You know you're nothing but a barmpot, don't you?" Spike asked as they rushed after the Glarghk Guhl Kashmas'nik that got away. At least she had fixed his knee making the chase possible. "Do you have a single fighting skill?"

"Spike, shut up." Willow pointed to the figure on the ground with the demon hovering over it on the edge of the cemetery. "You take care of the GGK and I'll take care of the casualty."

Spike chased after it, both out of sight before Willow found out the victim was Buffy. "Oh, Goddess." She felt a wet spot on the front of Buffy's shoulder.

Buffy muttered, unseeing as soon as Willow tried to move her. "They can never know. Never."

Since Buffy wanted to walk, Willow went with that and headed them toward home. If Buffy didn't know reality from whatever the heck was happening to her, she couldn't be at the hospital. They'd lock her in the psych ward, and the things she'd say could cause a recurrence of MOO. Willow shivered at the memory of her pant leg catching fire.

When the sun threatened, Spike hightailed it to the closest shelter.
"Bloody hell, did they carve a cross into every possible surface?" He settled down in the vestibule of the disused church where the crosses could be avoided. He used the remnants of the makeshift brace from his knee to form a makeshift brace for his useless wrist. At least now it didn't dangle in that obnoxious way.

He passed the time by playing count the crosses till he couldn't look.

After navigating the destruction left behind by the Hellions, Willow led Buffy into the wreck that used to be her home. Under her breath, Willow said, "Thanks for the heads up, Spike."

As she got Buffy upstairs and Willow sighed in relief upon finding Buffy's room intact. Willow didn't understand how they got across town without incident with the chaos and how people stared at them. And when she glimpsed herself in the mirror on Buffy's vanity, she jumped. "What the?"

Those were not her eyes. A green so dark it was almost black and claimed by Zeus with no whites of which to speak. Her skin had an opaque off white glass appearance. And her hair shimmered in the light like those women in the Pantene commercials. When she heard Buffy say her name, sounding lucid, Willow grabbed the only sunglasses there, a pair with a pink and orange floral pattern straight from the sixties painted on the plastic frames. She turned and Buffy looked at her as if she'd officially lost her mind.

"Really, Will? Those belong to Dawn. From when she was nine."

"Explains the tightness." Willow didn't take the glasses off, but instead sat on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Kinda freaked."

"You don't look freaked. You look bored."

Buffy shrugged. "How did I get here? Was I in a coma or dead? Or am I hallucinating and in a psych ward in LA?"

"You were attacked by a demon, they inject victims with a hallucinogenic poison thing to soften them up. I know how to reverse the effects. Think you can stay here till I get back?"

"You can fix me?" At last Buffy sounded affected.

"Yes, you just have to stay here. It'll take me a bit to make up the antidote. But I promise, I can fix this." Willow patted Buffy's hand when she nodded. "I'll be as fast as possible."

"Willow?" Buffy said before Willow made it two steps.

"Yeah?"

"Will it fix my eyes too?"

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Willow furrowed her brow, concerned.

"You're all shiny and lic- uh, shiny." Buffy flushed and looked away.

"Sure. It'll fix you right up." Willow hurried out of the house, still wearing the velvet dress from, was it two nights ago now? She didn't give two figs it was covered in dirt and grime. It could be deadly if she wasted time to change.

Dawn stretched out her neck, adding fingers to try to work out the kink there. She didn't open her eyes until she heard Giles hiss.

"Bloody juice! Can't even drink it." He pushed the tray away.

"Silly Giles. You've got a cut that will leave a bitchin' scar on your lip. Of course you can't drink juice. Especially citrus. What was that? Grapefruit?" She stood up and continued to stretch. "I'll get you some fresh water or some ginger ale if you want."

"Ginger ale. And check on your sister. She wasn't here when I woke up. And the nurse is a pillock that won't tell me anything."

"Ginger ale and neb nosing. I'm on it, oh Captain my Captain." She saluted him and skipped out of the room the way she knew annoyed him this early in the morning.

If she wanted to get the ginger ale to Giles cold then checking on Buffy first made the most sense. So she peeked through Buffy's open door. "Wha?" She grabbed the nurse passing by, grasping his wrist. "Where's my sister?"

He sighed. "We don't know. She disappeared sometime last night. We'll be waiting a while for the police."

"Why aren't they here now?" Dawn asked her voice raising in alarm.

"Sunnydale's a war zone. After that biker gang split, the locals went crazy out there. Continued looting and property destruction to name the little stuff. Sorry, but a missing adult isn't too high on their list of priorities when they have missing children." His expression sympathetic as he walked away.

"Fuck shit bitch." She glanced back toward Giles' room. No good would come from telling him that Buffy pulled a Copperfield this soon after getting her back. So she shouted into his room she needed something from home and ran down the hall. Dawn needed to find Buffy now more than she'd ever needed anything.

The upside of being part of the criminal element meant that she could run fast for long distances to avoid getting caught. She took ten minutes to get home rather than three times that. When she got there, she found Buffy sifting through the debris that used to be their living room. Dawn attacked Tigger style. "Buffy," she said with an out of breath gasp.

"Dawn?" Buffy looked at her sister a bit strange. "Ah, why are you soaking wet?"

After flopping onto the only intact chair in sight, Dawn held up a finger as she gulped down air. "Ran - here."

"From where? Maine?"

"Hospital." A few more lungfuls of air allowed Dawn a full sentence. "You disappeared, and I got worried."

Buffy shook her head like a haze had come over her she needed to disperse. "I went for a walk, got attacked, Willow thought home was the best choice."

"You saw Willow? Is she okay? What happened to her? Where's Spike?"

"Ah, yeah, Willow found me and got me home. She seemed strange even for her. I didn't see Spike." Buffy cleared off a space on the floor and sat down. "How's Giles?"

"Giles." Dawn said with trepidation. The image of Dawn in front of Buffy shifted to a much more innocent version, the Dawn she knew before Glory. "It's so weird. He, he left today. Because you were…" The innocent Dawn looked forlorn. But the image slid again this time to see her mother and father walking into the office at the institution. "Look who's here," the psychiatrist said. Her universe slipped to a desperate looking Spike in the bathroom of all places. "You should have let him kill me." Spike's disappointed voice struck her.

Back with the grungy goth version of Dawn, in the devastated living room with half smudged off eye makeup and the remnants of lip liner still visible, pulled a sigh from Buffy.

"Did you hear a word I said?" Dawn asked with concern.

Buffy stammered for a moment. "Ah, sorry. I phased out for a minute."

"Are you hurt? From the attack last night? If you're hurt, you should've gone back to the hospital." Dawn moved to kneel in front of Buffy and check her over for injuries.

Buffy took Dawn's hands before she found the shoulder wound. "I'm fine. Just a little acid trippy that'll clear up when Willow gets back."

"Yeah, real convincing. Now tell me the truth."

"I…" Buffy's explanation got cut short because her world shifted yet again.

Spike in a burnt out hole in the ground wearing the worst clothes ever, and she said, "I do want you." Another slip in the scenery and Spike was telling her. "I love you. You know I do." "Tell me you want me." "I always want you. In point of fact-" Spike ogled her. "Shut up." Buffy pulled Spike on top of her as she twisted so she lay on the beir, kissing and removing clothes. Buffy groaned in pleasure and then pain as orderlies held her down while someone else gave her a shot in her hip. Her vision and scream went from the institution back to her wrecked living room in Sunnydale.

"Buffy!" Dawn yelled as she held Buffy in place, so she didn't hurt herself. "What's going on?" But, Buffy didn't respond, but rather wept and gasping for air like she'd run her own marathon.

Dawn was about to slap Buffy but stopped when Willow crashed through the door with a thermos in her hand.

"Buffy!" Willow stopped short and turned to them. "We need to get this down her. Every drop."

They worked together to force Buffy to drink the entire potion. "Is this blood?"

"Er, not all of it."

"Have you seen Spike?"

"He's holed up for the day in a church, poor bastard."

With both of their hands on the thermos, Dawn's hand coming into contact with Willow's was bound to happen. But Dawn's reaction startled Willow enough she almost dropped the jug. "Holy shit! You feel like, like, like, porcelain, the polished kind, but I don't know, soft too. What the fuck happened to you and why are you wearing my old sunglasses?"

The last of the antidote in Buffy, Willow picked her up. "I'll be right back to explain everything. Everything fine, Dawnie. Perfectly fine."

No way did Willow pick Buffy up like she weighed nothing and carry her upstairs. Who did Dawn think she was kidding? It happened, and she sat there.

Willow returned, and Dawn noticed for the first time that her dress had rips, blood, dirt, and grime all over it. A few of those tears in embarrassing locales that Willow didn't notice. Grabbing a blanket, Dawn wrapped it around Willow. "So what happened?"

"I'll tell you, but you can't tell Giles or Xander-or even Buffy. They'd super freak the hell out." Willow held out her pinky finger and Dawn hooked her own pinky with it and pulled up and down.

They sat down as Dawn said, "I swear. Now spill."

"Bringing Buffy back took more than a spell. When we got all the ingredients together she'd been dead a long time… restoring someone that far gone takes sacrifice. So I sacrificed my humanity," Willow realized what she said and rushed to add, "but not my soul! I'm a demon. There's no way to reverse it, but it's not so bad. I've got cool new strength, and a glossy new makeover."

"Take off the sunglasses," Dawn said, her skepticism showing.

With her head down she removed the glasses. "This is the kooky part so don't spazz, okay?"

"Okay. Just show me." Dawn thought she was prepared but Willow's eyes looked like an active plasma lamp, mostly green with bolts of various colors shooting through them. She couldn't tear her gaze away from Willow's. "Holy crap! Those are so fucking cool."

"Dawnie." Willow warned.

"Sorry but Will have you looked at your eyes? They're psychedelic, the cool kind, not the cheesy kind. I love all the colorful electricity." Dawn giggled and rolled her eyes at Willow's perplexed expression. "Oh come on, I'm a former mystical key, my sister's the Slayer that resurrected by my favorite witch, and we live with a vampire. Did you really think I'd spazz out from a little more paranormal stuff in my life?"

"Good. I figured out the personality stuff but I have to work on glamours. Wanna help?" Willow quirked a smile. "Wait. Colorful? They were one color earlier."

"I want to know more about the personality stuff?"

"Long story, just don't be too shocked if I talk in demonic tongues or something." Willow stood up. "First, I need to get cleaned up. Keep an eye on Buffy for me?"

"Sure." Dawn ran up the stairs and tiptoed into her sister's room. Buffy looked so young when she slept, almost as young as Dawn. She heard the shower and Willow's relieved, "Thank Goddess." So they must have hot water. Dawn toed off her shoes and curled up next to the real Buffy. One with a pulse and body heat. It had to suck being removed from heaven, but Dawn could only feel so bad. They'd all been so lost without Buffy. They were nothing more than rocks without her to make them planets.

Xander groaned when some asshole tried to shake him awake. "Go away."

"Xan, you gotta get up. Some demons wanna use the bathroom. Vacating would be a good idea."

"Willy?" Xander asked, eyes too bleary to make out details.

"That's my name, don't wear it out. But seriously, kid, you need to get out."

Xander stumbled out of the cool comfort of the bar into the blazing heat and light of the sun. "When'd day happen?"

"Why not?" Anya asked, the demon that Tara assumed was Torg. His build and piercings intimidated Tara.

"You have the nerve to ask me that?" Torg replied his rejection clear to Tara.

"Come on, Torg, that was like a lifetime ago."

Torg looked sad yet nostalgic. "Three, but who's counting. You broke my heart, Anyanka."

"Don't be so dramatic, Torg. You don't even have a heart." Anya laughed. "Six spleens, two stomachs, half a brain maybe, but no heart."

"Don't mock this. The night we spent together was...important to me."

"It was one date. And it wasn't even a date." Anya laughed.

Tara had to interrupt, her annoyance bolstering her confidence. "Either open the portal or we'll have the Slayer come by and see what she thinks of your business."

Torg raised his fist in front of Tara's face, but she held her ground. He looked impressed and pulled on a claw sticking out of the back of his hand until it broke away. He flung the blood from his wounded hand toward the back of the alley, creating a white glowing portal. "Ek'vola mok't Beljoxa do'kar. Don't pull stunts like that." He stomped back into his restaurant.

Anya glanced at Tara. "This is going to suck." The two women pushed forward through hurricane wind to get through the portal. They had just gotten there when this huge caged ball of eyes told them to "Ask the Loa," and ejected them back into their own dimension.

"I swear Bel thinks he's so great being an Oracle. Forgets about the little guy trying to save the world." Anya dusted herself off.

"What's the Loa?"

"I only remember that it's in LA."

Tara picked scraps of paper out of her hair. "LA's not so bad."

"Never been there have you?" Anya asked as the walked toward her car.

"No."

"Obviously. Let's get there and get it over with." Anya opened the car door. "Did you leave a note?"

"Of course." Tara got into the passenger seat.

With a satisfied smile Anya got behind the wheel. "That's good enough for both of us."