Chapter 6~

The ex-demon was not happy as she charged into the apartment, her arms laden with several bags of books. Giles came filing in immediately behind her, also holding bags of books. They both stopped dead in their tracks. The scene in front of them confusing and altogether concerning.

"What are we a hotel now? Cause that's not Willow or Dawn," she eyed Faith and then the unknown woman on the couch, also spotting Spike chilling at the kitchen island, "A murderer in the chair, an injured, blood covered person on my clean couch, and now the vampire has been invited in. That's what a girl wants to come home to after an already a terrifying day full of unhelpful research, no memories and scary, carrot addicted fluff demons."

"Anya…" Xander made his way over and lovingly took the bags from her hands, gently setting them on the floor by the counter before turning back to her, "We need to figure this out. Somethings of the way weird here."

Giles set his bags down slowly in the same place, his eyes never leaving the wound covered Faith, while trying to ignore Spike's presence. Finally he glanced over at Buffy, "Anya said you found Willow and Dawn?" he asked in confusion.

"Spare room. Tara's in there," Buffy replied from her stance by the couch. She saw Giles make a move to see for himself and quickly stopped him, "Giles," her eyes were a mix of serious, and deep sadness, "Before you go in there, something's definitely going on." The Slayer had no idea how she was going to describe it.

Giles looked over to her concerned, and Anya hugged Xander close fearing what was happening, "What's going on, Buffy? Are they… are they hurt?" Giles gentle tone soothed her slightly, even though it was full of worry.

"Willow's almost torn to shreds in scars, and Dawn… she's older…. I think," Buffy couldn't really get the right words.

"Older? What do you mean, Buffy? Like an old woman? And if Willow has wounds, why didn't you take her to the hospital?" All Giles wanted to do was go to the room now, to see both their faces. The Slayer's demeanor was making him start to panic a bit. This was his family, both Willow and Dawn were a part of it. He hoped this wasn't something Willow had done. She was too much like him, more than the others. He should have stopped this earlier.

Xander decided to help out his best friend, "We found all of them passed out under a tree on campus. Willow looks worse than Faith, but no open wounds like, uh, whoever that is," he pointed to the couch, "Buffy and I patched her up, though it seemed to be healing weirdly fast already. Dawn's not as bad as any of the rest of them, but…." He trailed off as lost as Buffy.

Anya had enough of the non description, and just charged to the doorway of the guest room. The first one she identified was Tara, the blonde witch having jumped at her sudden appearance. Then her eyes slid onto the redhead's still form next to Tara, and her eyes went wide at the scars, noticing they looked at least a day old, but they hadn't been there a few hours ago. Willow also looked different, much thinner and even in sleep, exhausted. Then she trained her sight on Dawn, who was definitely no longer a teenager. A cold chill went down her spine. The books weren't going to help.

Giles had followed her into the room, his hand now over his mouth, wide brown eyes took in the same scene, "What on earth?" He spoke after he lowered his hand, walking to Dawn, bending down to examine her face. His sorrowful eyes inspected the large scar on her cheek, as his hand made a fatherly move to swipe a loose a strand of hair from her face.

They both backed out of the room, but before she made it all the way, Anya turned to look into Tara's tired and worried gaze, "You may want to join us at the table." The ex-demon whispered.

Tara gave Anya a confused look, but carefully put Willow's hand to her lips, kissing it, before laying it softly on the bed. Getting up, she followed everyone out to the main room, "What did you find?"

"Nothing yet," Giles replied quietly to the young witch, confused as to why she seemed to think they had found anything, "but we brought the books I think will be most helpful."

Anya sat down at the table, heavily leaning her head in her hands, "None of those books will help here."

Everyone in the room looked directly at her, seeming to freeze in place, before Buffy went to stand in front of the woman, directly across the table, "You know what this is?" It came out more a statement then a question. Anya nodded, and Buffy looked at her expectantly, "Well?!"

Giles immediately took a seat at the table as well, signaling the others to join him. He could feel this may be a long discussion. Anya wasn't one to procrastinate, especially where she knew things others didn't. He knew she rather loved showing off her knowledge.

"I'll warn you now, this can't be good. I'm not a hundred percent that this is what I think it is, but everything kind of adds up," Anya began.

"Just get with explaining Anya!" Buffy's patience was wearing thin, this day just wouldn't end. Her best friend and sister were unconscious and torn up in the next room, while her darker half was in the same boat not ten feet from her.

The ex-demon nodded, sensing the waves of fear coming from the Slayer, "Time travel. I think… I don't believe those are the Willow and Dawn we had earlier. At least not as we remember them. If I'm right," Anya paused trying to figure out the best way to explain, "Well, I don't want to be right."

"Dear lord. What…how…." Giles couldn't even began to find the right questions. Removing his glasses, he began to furiously clean them.

Tara's attention was strictly on the knowledgeable woman sat next to her, the world shifting with every word she put to voice. There was no doubt in Tara's mind. If Anya was right, Willow had done this.

"Wait. Time travel? Why? And how are they this torn up? Oh God," Xander's eyes went wide and his fingers started tapping the table nervously.

Spike, who had not joined them in sitting but stood his arms leaning on the counter, lifted an eyebrow at him, still wondering exactly how the boy had managed to survive this long, "You just answered one of your questions with another question, Lackbrain. They're torn to shreds probably a reason for why they felt the need to go backwards, ya?"

"Spike's probably not completely wrong," Anya began again, "This spell has consequences, one major one specifically." She couldn't look Tara in the eye. She would cry. She didn't know why she felt like that, but she knew she would, "The scars first off. Most will hopefully disappear. They represent any injuries that have occurred since our time and theirs. The only ones that would remain are ones that actually left a permanent scar. Their present bodies had to catch up with the future ones. It's very painful, and probably why all of them are currently pulling a Giles with being heavily unconscious."

At this Giles sighed, giving the girl a dry look, while Buffy stood from her chair and started pacing. Anya continued, "They are all scars and not open wounds because in their time, they were probably all healed. Dawn may even be experiencing major muscle pain in her legs because she looks like she's grown a few inches."

Buffy clenched her fists and took a deep breath, "Growing pains on steroids. Will looks as if she lost weight, probably feeling that at hyper speed as well?"

Anya bit her lip at the mention of the redhead but continued explaining, "Right. They are probably going to be out for awhile. Teleporting from wherever they are, transforming into their future bodies, going backwards in time up to three years…" Anya ticked off the issues on her fingers, "It's a lot for the human body to handle. Not to mention the girl with the new wound. It may have been pretty new, but not immediate? Just started healing in her time. Hence the faster healing."

"Three years?" Tara finally spoke up herself, "How do you know how f-far back they came?"

Anya still couldn't look at the witch, "Up to. Up to three years. Several other people have done this. I even knew one of the groups. The longest traveled back was three years. Willow's powerful and intelligent, she would have probably managed the longest amount of time."

"Ok, so why don't a whole bunch of people just go and pull a Dr. Who? I mean, yea, ouch, and some unconscious adventures after, but that doesn't seem to be all encompassing of bad consequences," Xander wasn't quite sure why more people wouldn't try to change things in their past. Everyone had regrets. How had they not seen this yet in all their Scooby years?

Giles looked grim at the young man, "We aren't at the worst of it yet are we, Anya?"

Anya started to fidget, shaking her head and her eyes downcast at the table, "No one…." She sighed. Tara at least deserved to be looked in the eye. That's what humans did, they delivered bad news with clarity and eye contact, "Something really bad had to be happening. Cause I don't think… even with how she's been lately…" Anya was visibly shaking and still staring at the table. Xander immediately took her hand in his, gently, trying to soothe his fiancé.

Anya gave him an appreciative smile. This was going to be difficult. Tara was her best friend of the group. She accepted her for who she was. She never got angry like most of them with her ways, or even nicely corrected her like Xander did. She just gently explained what Anya was doing different, and then let her decide how she wished to move forward with that information.

She took a deep breath, looking into saddened sapphire eyes and as predicted, tears started to well in her own, "The spell caster has never woken up."

Tara's world felt like it was spiraling. Willow wasn't going to wake up? She may have been angry, even breaking their relationship due to the redhead's actions as of late, but her heart still belonged to her Willow. It always would. Her breathing started coming in gasps, tears streaking down her face freely.

Seeing the state the young woman was in, Giles quickly realized she was losing control, moving to her side. He encompassed her in his arms, rubbing her back, softly saying the word, "Breathe." Over and over.

The rest of the group weren't holding together either, Anya clinging to Xander's side, hugging him as hard as she could while the information was sinking in and tears also stained his face. Buffy had slid down the wall of the apartment, once again wondering if she was in hell. Willow had ripped her out of heaven, brought her back to the suffering that was her life as a Slayer. She knew the redhead had meant it in the best of intentions, but now having to do all this without her best friend by her side, giving her strength, was definitely the topping on the worst cake ever made. Even Spike was at a loss for what to do, his face saddened and shocked.

"No. I don't accept this," Xander's voice broke the silence, sounding hard, "We can get her back."

"Xander, it takes a lot of power to enact a spell such as this, and as with all spells, it takes a choice to do so," Giles's voice was soft and filled with grief, "There's no way Willow didn't know the consequences." He was still holding onto Tara, wishing he had more arms, as Buffy looked as though she needed him at this moment as well.

Xander looked to the older man, anger filling his eyes, "What does that matter?! We change it. We always find a way to change it."

Anya pulled him closer, "We can't always change everything. There's some things we just can't control."

"No!" Xander let go of her and stood up, both hands now placed on the back of Anya's chair as he addressed the room, "This isn't like someone died. I get bringing Buffy back wasn't our call, and while I want to say I'm sorry, I'm not. I love Buffy. Having her back, it makes this world better. I AM sorry for what it's put you through though, Buffy." He looked over to the Slayer, his voice wavering.

He looked to the rest of them before continuing, his voice strong again, "Willow has a pulse. We have to bring her out of this! She's done things no one has ever thought could be done. Buffy was in a catatonic state, Willow went in to get her. Tara was brain sucked from Glory, Willow faced that hell bitch one on one to bring her back. No one thought that could be done! Giles thought we had to kill Dawn for God sake! We figure stuff out. I get the resurrection thing was a one off, but Will's not dead and we need to stop acting like it! She found a way out of whatever hell they were going through in the future, we can find a way to bring her out of the hell she put herself in doing so! We can do this!" His eyes were desperate, seeking any hint that someone agreed with him, "We can get her back." His final words a whisper.

To everyone's surprise, it was Spike who spoke next, and in defense of Xander, "Well, hell, Red hadn't done a single spell ever, before successfully getting Captain Forehead a soul back. That's not newbie stuff. 'Course her easier spells never seem to work out, spending the night running around as Randy Giles isn't exactly going to be my favorite memory to look back on." The vampire stated as he started the process of lighting a cigarette.

"HEY! No smoking in my house!" Xander looked offended, "Go on the balcony! And don't put it out on my railing or throw the filter on the ground."

Spike rolled his eyes again, "It's an apartment, not a house, and I was coming to your defense, you moron. How 'bout a bit of appreciation?"

"We appreciate you for your input, but not for attempting to give us lung cancer or make my apartment smell gross," Anya piped up.

"That's a laugh, I've now smelled the cheese you have in your fridge. My smoke smells better than that. A rotting body smells better than that," he made his way to the balcony door and unceremoniously let himself out, leaving the door open to hear the discussion further.

Buffy finally stood back up, having gathered herself, she put back on her Slayer persona, "Xander's right. Willow's alive. We can find a way. Whatever brought them back to this time, we can deal with it as well as find a way to wake her up."

Giles had finally let go of Tara, seeing as she seemed to have calmed a bit, "I'm not saying we don't try, but neither of you two seem to understand that magic isn't the fix all. Haven't you been paying attention today?"

Tara stared at the wall, she knew what was coming. If they did find something, it was going to be up to her to do the spell. She wasn't Willow. She didn't have the power the redhead had. Not to mention she had never tread the line of dark magic that her love was always prepared to walk.

Until recently, the younger witch had always walked that line unafraid simply because she would do anything for the ones she loved. Now it seemed as though it was to get whatever she wanted. At least, for the Willow she had been leaving. The one in the next room may have gotten better…. Or worse. One thing was still very clear, Willow Rosenberg was still willing to risk everything of herself for the people she cared about, or else they wouldn't be having this discussion.

The conversation seemed to have reached an impasse. They all looked between each other, not sure what the next move was. Buffy, once again, took the helm, "We're all exhausted, and none of them are waking up right now. I also need to get my house cleaned up, there's more room there." She looked to Xander's chocolate eyes, still red rimmed from tears, "While it's a nice place, you two might feel a bit cramped with all this."

"Anyone inside this apartment right now is always welcome as long as they like," Xander gave a small smile, grateful Spike was technically still outside with his cigarette.

Anya gave him wide eyes, then turned to the rest of the group, giving her cheeriest fake smile, "Yes! You are welcome here and will not burden or annoy us in any way."

Giles smirked at her, "I'll help Buffy with the cleaning tomorrow and we will move everyone in the evening." Anya looked visibly relieved.