The phone woke Wesley up. He groped in the dark for the receiver, his eye still closed.
"Hello?" his voice was gravelly from sleep.
"Wes?"
The familiar voice made Wesley sit up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Buffy? What is it? What's wrong?"
There was a sob in Buffy's voice.
"It's Tara."
Wesley's mind struggled to remember who Tara was, before a pale face with kind eyes floated in front of his mind's eye.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked.
Buffy took a deep breath before he answered.
"She's dead. They shot her and she's dead. And Willow's gone, we can't find her anywhere."
It took a moment for that to sink in. Wesley reached for his glasses, jamming them on his nose and squinting against the sudden light of the lamp.
"Buffy, slow down. What do you mean, Tara's dead?"
"They shot her, Wes. They tried to take Connor so we went after them, and one pulled a gun and shot Tara. She's dead," Buffy's voice wavered, straining to the breaking point. "I just… I need help, Wes. I can't do this by myself."
Wesley was already on his feet, pulling his shoes on one-handed.
"I'm on my way," he promised.
The house was quiet when Willow slipped in. Completely avoiding the room she and Tara had shared, she made her way instead to Buffy's room. It only took a few minutes of digging through the closet, pushing aside Buffy's many pairs of platform shoes and leather pants, to find the bag. The stash was right inside, in a brown envelope. Buffy had never told them where her emergency fund was, but Willow had known anyways. Buffy was kind of predictable that way. Willow felt a pang of guilt as she grabbed several hundred dollar bills and stuffed them into the pocket of her jacket. Buffy, of all people, would understand how much she needed the magicks right now. Revenge didn't come cheap. Willow replaced the bag in the closet, slipping out of the room like a shadow. If the Scoobies couldn't help her track down Tara's killer, she knew someone who could.
Buffy was pacing up and down the driveway when Wes pulled his car in, holding a sleeping Connor against her shoulder. The baby had one hand curled into Buffy's hair, his thumb in his mouth as he slept. His mother's agitation hadn't seemed to affect him. Or perhaps it was that he was so used to her in an agitated state that he thought it normal and so slept peacefully on.
"What can I do to help?" Wesley didn't bother with preliminaries, but threw his car into park and hurried over to her.
"Xander's searching the streets to see if he can find Wil," she said. "And Dawn's gone to the Magic Box. I'm staying here in case she comes back." She ran a hand over Connor's back, soothing herself as much as him. "We can't find her anywhere, Wes. We think… we think she's had a relapse. Gone back to taking the magicks."
Wesley drew her onto the front steps of the house, sitting down at taking the sleeping child from her.
"Tell me what happened, from the beginning."
He held the sleeping Connor close as Buffy poured out the story to him.
"I'm so sorry," he said, when she had finished. "I didn't know Tara very well, but I know how much she meant to all of you. But we have to stop Willow from doing something she will regret later. We can't have a powerful witch like her acting in grief."
The phone rang inside the house. Buffy got up to answer it, leaving the door open and Wesley sitting on the front step with Connor on his shoulder. She said "OK" into the receiver twice, then hung up.
"That was Dawn. Willow's at the Magic Box. We have to go, now. We may not get another chance."
Wesley glance down at Connor, then back up at Buffy.
Buffy shrugged helplessly.
"You strap him into the car seat, I'll drive."
The streets were deserted as Wesley and Buffy drove to the Magic Box. Both were silent. The only noise was the soft sound of Connor breathing.
As they pulled up in front of the store, a frantic Dawn greeted them. Her pale face was tear-stained, her eyes red.
"I can't do anything to stop her," Dawn said, tears running unheeded down her cheeks "She's ransacking the shop. She's not even Willow any more,"
Buffy's jaw was set.
"Dawnie, I need you to watch Connor," she said. "Wes and I are going to try and talk to her."
For once, Dawn didn't argue. She just nodded, and headed for the car.
Wesley laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"Are you going to be ready, if we have to stop her?"
"There's a lot you can do to knock a person out that doesn't kill them," she replied. She took a deep breath, and then nodded. "Let's go."
The Magic Box was dark as they entered. To Buffy, who had always seen the place of safety and security after their beloved school library went boom, it felt all kinds of wrong. As she and Wesley crept forward, it became noticeable – the frission of the magicks in the air. Willow was definitely here. From the back of the store, they heard a mild curse.
Buffy laid her hand on Wesley's arm.
"Let me deal with this. Maybe I can get through to her."
Wesley nodded, and Buffy stepped forward, towards the pool of light created by Willow's flashlights. She was a dark shadow against the light, searching through one book after the other.
"Whatcha doin, Wil?" Buffy asked, in her most casual tone.
Willow jerked away from her book, lifting her face to the light. Buffy had to stifle a gasp – Willow's usually expressive hazel eyes were black, and cracks radiated from her once-smooth skin, the magicks within her were barely contained behind her china-thin exterior. She sure would shatter at any moment.
"Stay out of my way, Buffy," she warned. Her voice carried a strange echo of authority.
"You can't do this, Wil," Buffy said, inching closer to her friend. "I know you're upset. We all are. But you need to calm down so we can deal."
Willow's black eyes seemed to burn like coal, the deep flame of them ready at any second to burst into a roaring fire.
"Nothing can stop what I've started," she said. "I brought you back from the dead. I can do it with Tara too."
"Willow, no," pleaded Buffy. "Not again, not like that."
"Osirus has already promised it to me!"
Buffy took a deep breath, knowing the answer but needing to ask anyways.
"And what did you promise him?"
Willow bared her teeth at her once-best friend.
"A life for a life. Those that took her will pay for their crime, and open the door for her return."
Buffy took another step forward. Only a few more steps and she would be within arm's reach of Willow. Maybe then she could physically restrain her friend, before the witch could cast any spells. It was only a little ways now. She just needed to keep Willow talking.
"Is that what Tara would have wanted, Wil? She wanted you off the magicks. To see you relapse like this would hurt her."
"You don't get to speak for Tara!" Willow shrieked. "She's my heart! I know her!"
Buffy inched forward, and the movement caught Willow's eye. With a flick of her hands, she sent the slayer flying through the air, crashing into the bookcase across the room. Books showered down on top of Buffy in a hail. She was trapped under a mountain of heavy spell books.
Wesley, who had been very quietly skirting the pool of light until this moment, reacted on instinct. He moved to pin Willow's arms behind her back. But the magicks had given her strength as well as power. She broke away, wielding magic wildly like a circus master wields his whip. Wesley was caught unawares, and was knocked against the staircase. His head connected with the wooden stairs, and he saw stars.
"Don't get in my way, Buffy," Willow warned. She picked up the spell book she had been reading, and vanished.
Buffy struggled to her feet, and went over to Wesley.
"Well that went just great," he groaned, taking her offered hand.
"So we don't know what she's going to do with that book?"
Buffy shrugged, stretching her feet out in front of her onto the step below. Xander came to sit next to her on the front steps of the house.
"Wes and Dawn are on it. She was talking crazy talk about Osiris and bringing Tara back from the dead. It was like Willow wasn't even home."
"This isn't like her," Xander said, rubbing the back of his neck. "At least, not the Willow I've known since grade school."
Buffy looked down at her hands, twisted together in her lap.
"She's on the magicks, Xand. It's worse than any of us thought. The power it's giving her…. It's messing with her head. She really thinks she can make some deal to bring Tara back. We have to stop her before she does something we'll all regret."
Xander put his arm around Buffy's thin shoulders, and she leaned against him. He was solid and sure, and right there next to her when she felt alone.
"We'll figure it out, Buff. We always do."
A pounding of feet on the sidewalk made them both look up. Dawn was sprinting towards them, her face as white as milk beneath her windblown hair.
"Buffy," she panted.
Buffy was on her feet in a second.
"What? What is it? Did you find Willow?"
Dawn shook her head.
"We found something so much worse."
In front of the twisted remains of the flayed corpse that used to be Warren, Wesley pulled out his mobile phone. It was new, a gift from Angel should they need to contact one another. Wesley typed a few numbers, and pressed the call button.
"Hello, yes, I need to speak to Rupert Giles."