Chapter 7~

A hollow silence seemed to fill the air at the apartment. Spike had left, as he didn't wish to be stuck in the cramped quarters come sunrise. With the Summers' home unfit for sleeping, everyone else had settled into Xander and Anya's place for a few hours of rest. It was clear to Buffy, however, that no one was going to be sleeping with the exception of the four unconscious time travelers. She zoned her Slayer hearing in on everyone else from her given area of rest with a pillow and blankets on the floor.

Xander and Anya were talking to each other in whispers. Anya making a heart wrenching point that they had not discussed earlier, "None of the rest of us came back, Xander. We must be dead. We're going to die in the next three years. I'll never get to experience having children with you, or an actual savings account with lots of money."

"First off, Hun, those two things don't usually go hand in hand. In fact, one of them pretty much negates the other," Xander answered her softly.

"Where did you learn the word 'negate'?" Came Anya's confused reply, though she knew it was probably from Willow.

Sitting up and leaning her head against the wall, Buffy really thought about it. There was no way Willow wouldn't have brought everyone who was still alive, back. Shaking her head of such thoughts for now, she tuned into the spare bedroom, only the soft breathing of Willow and Dawn signaling their still unconscious state. She could tell Tara wasn't sleeping simply by the slight erratic breath that joined them. Buffy could only guess, but Tara was probably in deep thought, possibly even shedding silent tears.

Finally her sight moved onto Giles. He had settled into the shorter part of the corner couch, with the unknown woman taking up the longer part on his left and Faith in the recliner a few feet to his right. The Watcher was also inside his own world, before his soft brown eyes finally wandered to meet hers.

"I'm only going to say this because I believe it's my responsibility to, even though I very well know you won't listen to me," Giles stated quietly, but she heard him clearly with her enhanced hearing, "You should be resting."

"So should you. Doesn't mean you will," Buffy quietly shot back, "Plus, isn't that why you're leaving? Because you feel like you're too responsible for me, and I need to grow up?"

He sighed, wondering if she'd ever understand. There was also the issue of him leaving now with all that had recently transpired. If the world were in such danger that Willow would take herself out of the equation just to reverse whatever was happening, then he was unsure his leaving was still in the best interest of his family.

"Well, it looks as though I'll be staying for the foreseeable future, as I'm almost certain that tonight's," he peered over to the digital clock on the microwave, "I guess last night's events, have shown that something big is probably happening. When it was just leaving you to normal, real world endeavors, I felt comfortable that you would grow to handle it. You're an extremely capable and intelligent young woman, Buffy. However, it was still an extremely difficult decision to make. As this has now turned into, what looks to be, a very serious supernatural battle of some sort, it's turned impossible to leave you with such a burden."

Buffy wore a look of anger and confusion on her face, staring at her Watcher for several minutes as she took in this new information. Finally, realizing she was too tired to be angry for awhile, her face formed a pout instead, "You mean I gotta keep finding a new apocalypse every time you feel like abandoning me? That's a lot of work."

"Yes, well I get bored easily. The regular vampires just don't hold the same excitement they used to," Giles answered dryly.

-X-

Buffy had been right. Tara was deep in thought, silently crying as she desperately held onto Willow's hand. She hadn't volunteered the information about the picture or the words she had heard in her head. Somehow she knew it was real, but she didn't think it was relevant to helping the situation. It also felt important to her, to keep to herself what could be the last words her love would ever say to her. A memory of Willow, their first year together, flashed through her head, "I- I just kinda, like, having something that's just ya know… mine."

Tara wanted to believe, more than anything, that this could be undone. That Willow could be saved. It wasn't that she disagreed with Xander, or that she didn't want to do everything possible to try. She was afraid. There was no excuse for all that Willow had done lately, but it didn't mean she deserved this. To give her life up so young to whatever madness now followed her in unconsciousness. Especially after all she had done for this world.

Tara also didn't know anything about THIS Willow, and Xander was right when he said she'd done some seemingly impossible things. Willow had gone to the ends of sanity to bring her back from the prison Glory had sent her to. Would she, herself, be able to do the same for Willow? Not 'did she want to', that wasn't even a question, but would she have the power, the control, to save her everything without causing more damage to either of them?

"I am you know," Tara whispered into the air, staring into the beautiful face of her always. She prayed to every goddess on earth to see those emerald orbs open, to see that heart melting grin, her loving tone asking that question 'what?' Her prayers fell on deaf ears, fresh tears making their way down her cheeks.

"Yours." She leaned in and placed a soft kiss against Willow's lips, before leaning their foreheads together. Whatever it took, Tara decided, "I'll find you."

-x-

The sun finally crested the earth's surface, soft light making its way into the apartment. The scoobies finally able to give themselves an excuse to move about since sleep continued to elude them.

Xander made his way quietly into the kitchen area, grabbing some bread, he popped it into the toaster, before reaching for the fridge to grab the butter and some jam as well. He wasn't actually very hungry, but knew that he would need strength. While in the fridge he grabbed Anya's favorite cheese, scrunching his nose as he set it on the island by the butter. He started to slice through it to bring Anya a little pick me up, when Buffy rose from her area.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to wake ya, Buff," he gave an apologetic grin.

Buffy came up to the island and lent on it from the other side, "I don't think anyone slept except sleeping beauty contestants one through four. Giles is just doing his best to reboot his eyes for more reading."

"You guys too, huh?" His face tightened in a grimace.

Buffy stared out the window for a moment before looking back at him while he buttered his toast, "What do think it is?" She spoke softly.

Xander's warm, brown gaze lifted to her worried one, already knowing what she was asking, "I don't know. I'm not really sure we wanna find out what was so bad to bring them to this, but I guess we're going to have to," he shifted to grabbing the crackers from the cupboard. Anya liked them with her cheese. Finally spreading the jam, he spoke again, "Whatever it is, we'll fight it together. I know you always feel like it's your sole responsibility, your birthright, but we're here for you all the way. No power too great, no window too small for this carpenter."

She smiled slightly, before scrunching her face as her nose picked up a very unpleasant scent, "As long as Anya doesn't make me eat her cheese."

"Why does everyone hate my cheese? Have you even tried it? It's delicious and has lots of protein. I'm told that's important for me as a human," Anya came out looking offended at Buffy.

Tara soon joined them all in the living room, looking worse for wear. Her eyes were puffy, and it was clear she hadn't slept at all either. Even so, she gave Anya a small smile, "You're right. We haven't tried it. I think it's just a bit more… a-aromatic than most of us are used to for cheese."

Buffy was the only one to pick up on the quiet comment Giles made from the couch, "Or for sane human consumption of any kind."

She smirked over her shoulder before setting sights on Tara and shifted to care and concern, "How are you?"

"They're still out. I don't think they've moved even an inch. It's weird, cause Willow's usually a bit of a sleep talker and shifter, and Dawnie just likes to curl into a pillow," she glanced her blue eyes to Buffy's hazel ones.

"I know. No movement out here, either. But I was asking about you personally, Tara. It was a rough day for us all yesterday, but I think you were hit a bit more than the rest of us," she reached up to offer a comforting squeeze to the witch's arm. A hug was still out of the question for Buffy, as she was still having adjustment issues to being alive.

Tara looked towards the window, her sights set on the rising sun, "I, um, don't r-really know. Yesterday I was packing to leave our relationship, and t-today I feel like…. Like I'm the bad guy for having even started that."

"No, Tara. Willow was getting bad when it came to the magics. I don't know what else, if anything, was also behind your decision, but if you felt like you needed to leave," Buffy trailed off, trying to think of how to put it, "You're a part of this family too, Tara. You are your own person just like Anya is, not 'Willow's girlfriend'."

"I hope I'm not Willow's girlfriend. I'm pretty sure one of us would end up tying up and gagging the other, and not necessarily in a fun, sexy time way," Anya gave a reply before taking a bite of her cracker and cheese combo.

All eyes immediately turned to her, the rest of the group speechless as they tried to wrap their head around that comment. Buffy slowly came back around from her scary visual place, "I meant that you are a part of this family, too. Not just 'Xander's girlfriend', but thank you for the need to bleach my brain of that particular visual."

Giles took this opportunity to lean forward and rub his temples, "Anya, I'm going to pretend the last twenty seconds never happened, and instead ask you when you think our newest arrivals will wake up?"

"It depends on the person, I think. I've only met the one group. As far as I know, they were all regular humans except the one who cast the spell in the first place, obviously," Anya munched another cracker and cheese before continuing, "There were four of them, plus the witch. One woke up in a little over a day. The last one to wake took three days, but he was actually very sick so that could have had an effect. None of them were Slayers. So the murderer may wake up any minute. I don't really know."

Xander hung his head and sighed, "Ahn, honey, she has a name. We don't know her involvement, but we agreed to assume she isn't currently crazed, psycho Slayer. Hence why she isn't tied up."

"It's also why I didn't go patrolling last night," Buffy added in, "So if she was to wake up, at least I would be here to kick her ass if we were wrong."

"Fucking hilarious coming from someone who's now on life number three. I'm still working on the first one, B," Faith's eyes were focused on Buffy as the entire gang shifted their focus to the recliner. The Dark Slayer's trademark smirk firmly in place, she still looked as though she hadn't slept in a year. Though some of the scars seemed to be fading, Faith's attempt at moving herself caused the smirk to drop and a very painful look to cross her face, "Well shit. I feel like I got hit by a Mack truck. Don't think you have to worry about me right now anyway, B. Don't look like I'm partying anytime soon."

Buffy took a step forward, making sure everyone else was behind her. Despite Faith's words, she still had a hard time trusting her, "Well, that's different. Used to be nothing could keep you from a good party. I guess you're getting old, Faith."

Finally managing a comfortable position after painful moments of moving her very sore limbs, Faith took in the scene around her. She didn't recognize the place, but she saw Melody laying across the way on the couch. Then she slowly started identifying the surrounding people behind Buffy, "Red did a good job at least. We got all three of you back, and… wait, is that demon girl back there?"

"And you said we had to use names, Xander," Anya gave him an annoyed look before turning her eyes to Faith, "Yes, I am here. Xander is mine. No sex for you."

Faith's face became one of confusion, as this was impossible. Then she remembered Dawn saying the word Sunnydale before she once again fell unconscious, "Holy shit, that's," once again she fell silent as her gaze came to land on Tara, the utter shock of seeing Red's lost love practically causing her brain to implode, "Well I'll be fucking damned! What year is it?"

"It's 2001, Faith. Well, near the end of it. I assumed you knew what Willow had done," Giles filled in trying to understand the woman's reaction.

"I know what the fuck she did, Giles. I fucking told her not to and so did Mermaid and D. We didn't wanna lose Red too. Except Mermaid went and fucking gave in. Speaking of which, where are Red and D at? Are they alive?" Faith's expression changed from anger to panic at lightening speed as her brain was finally catching up to what was going on.

Everyone's faces were full of surprise and slight confusion both at Faith's apparent anger at the spell and also her very real worry for both Willow and Dawn.

Tara decided to come forward at this moment, her demeanor calm and understanding, "Faith," she grabbed the Slayer's attention and kneeled in front of her, "They're fine. W-well, unconscious, but they're only in the other room. Just take some deep breaths, and tell us what's happening. We've already gathered the time travel part, and Willow casting it."

Faith couldn't help but feel a bit calmer around Tara. She'd only met her once, and she really hadn't been in a great headspace being in Buffy's body, not to mention that the witch apparently had grown out of her shy period she was in at the time. Dawn had always talked about how wise, reassuring, calm and strong she was. Even Willow had opened up about the amazing aura that Tara had. How just being in her presence made the world disappear. It was rare for the redhead to talk about her lost love with anyone, except if Dawn asked of course. 'Red would do anything for, D,' Faith thought as she started to breathe slower and took a moment to calm down.

"Hell, T. One minute with ya, I finally believe years of stories. No wonder Red went… sorry," Faith shook her head. If Tara was alive, it meant Willow hadn't done her rampage. No one here knew, and she sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to fill them in. It wasn't her place. She hadn't even been there, "Look, it's been a shit ride the last few years, especially this year. Or… uh, I mean the year we came from."

"You seem shocked to see some of us," Tara filled in, "That's why Giles said what he said." Tara's brain started to work. Willow didn't do something like this without mountains of research. They would have known how long they could go back, that three years was the max. Which meant that either Willow managed more time, or Anya and herself were very close to their timeline of death. Her hands started to shake, but she gripped her knees, once again giving eye contact to Faith and calmly asked, "What year did you come from, Faith?"

Faith took another deep breath, trying to ignore the pain in every inch of her body that moved in doing so, "2009."