Times of Darkness, Times of Light (completed 02/28/07)

[watty]

Lonnnnnng chapters, and full of action and information.

So, this is not the First, cos of the corporeal aspect. But something similar? It's always creepy to appear as a dead loved one, it's also telling how different people react to different visions.

When Cousin Beth appeared I thought she was here to reconcile, or warn Tara of some danger, but no, she's still as single-minded, brainwashed and misguided as before.

I'm that the girls can get back together quickly, but there're so many uncertainties,

She wanted to make up with Willow but there was something holding her back.

Oh Tara, Tara, I wish you'd talk to Willow about it. And now she's gonna feel even more guilty cos Willow is unconscious.

More soon I hope .

[viximon]

Cool. That getting really interesting.Truly. I enjoy this chap very much. The big bad seen as the people want or not want people who see it is a little confusing though.
Hope to read more soon. Keep your nice work up.

[justin]

Watson:

So, this is not the First, cos of the corporeal aspect. But something similar?

Also it doesn't just appear as people who have died. I'd say the only similarity is the shape changing aspect.

It's always creepy to appear as a dead loved one, it's also telling how different people react to different visions.

Definitely large with the creepiness. You're right that the way people react to it is telling of their personality, which is something I hadn't consciously considered.

When Cousin Beth appeared I thought she was here to reconcile, or warn Tara of some danger, but no, she's still as single-minded, brainwashed and misguided as before.

Definitely misguided still. Though the fact she was the only one in Tara's family wanting to pay her last respects is telling as well.

I'm Get on your knees and pray that the girls can get back together quickly, but there're so many uncertainties,

They need to get back together, STAT!

Thanks for the feedback

Viximon: I'm glad you liked the chapter Thanks for reading

Now the next part

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: I live off feedback, if I don't get any then I'll starve and die
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note 1: It'll be a while before Willow and Tara get back together, but don't worry they do
Note 2: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The Rapture
Part 4


Ethan and Amy were both standing within a study of the mansion. On a table nearby there were three similar looking books. Amy walked over to them and running her hand over one of the books asked, "So what's so special about these books?"

"Amy, my dear." Ethan answered in a patronising tone, "What makes these books special is that they each contain the spell to banish the great one."

"So what's so special about this 'great one'?"

"When it has completed it's plans it will grant us anything which we desire." Amy didn't look convinced by this, "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"It's just I don't understand what's so important about all this to make it worth Melissa's..." Amy stopped, looking down at the ground.

In an uncharacteristic gesture Ethan put his hand on Amy's shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze, "I know. I'm truly sorry that your cousin was killed finding the third book. I blame myself really." Ethan shook his head sadly, "Even after what she had done to Rack, I still didn't think she was capable of this sort of thing."

"Just promise me that Willow is going to pay for it."

"Oh she will. She and all her friends." Ethan promised. He gave the door a nervous look, "I think it's returning."

"Why does it have to look like that?" Amy asked, she was rather perturbed about having to deal with a monster that looked like her mother.

"It doesn't look like that we merely all see it differently. Believe me I don't particularly like having to deal with Ripper all the time but after seeing it's offspring I'm rather glad we can't see it's true form."

The door opened and the great one came in. "Do you have the books?" It asked.

"Of course, great one." Ethan said indicating the books.

"What did I tell you to call me?" The great one's tone was totally pleasant yet there was still something about it that Ethan found incredibly unnerving.

"Of course I have them, Ripper."

"Good." It walked over to the books and leafed through them, "You really are very loyal." It threw one of the books into the fire. "You'd do anything I asked." Another of the books went into the fire.

"Of course I would." Ethan answered, almost sounding sincere.

The third book joined the other two, then the great one walked over to Amy, "This is your protege, isn't it?" Amy winced at this. The great one had always ignored her before now, and that was how she liked it.

"Yes Gre... Ripper."

"Would you mind if I..." The great one placed it's hand on Amy's chest.

Ethan hesitated then surprised himself by saying, "Actually I would."

"Let me rephrase that. Would you try to stop me."

Ethan hesitated again then said, "No Ripper." The great one smiled and Amy felt her energy being pulled out of her. Panicking Amy punched the great one and she found there were advantages to the way she saw it. All the years of resentment towards her mother were packed into that punch. The great one was so surprised by the force of the blow that it lost it's connection. Amy quickly ran to the fire and gritting her teeth against the pain she grabbed the last book. Pulling down a wall hanging Amy wrapped the book in it in order to put it out

"Stop her Ethan." The great one said as she ran for the door. Ethan ran to stop Amy but she hit him round the face with the book. Amy ran out of the house as fast as she could, certain that at any moment the great one would stop her.

When Ethan recovered he found the great one standing over him with an annoyed expression on it's face. It then started hitting him.

After a few minutes it stopped and walked a short distance off to wait while Ethan recovered. When he had it said, "We're going to have to accelerate things."

***


When Amy had gotten away from the building she began considering her options. She knew her only chance was to get rid of the great one. Unfortunately, as much as it sickened her, there was only one group of people she knew who could do that.

***


"I hope you're not expecting me to repair that." Anya said as Buffy left the training room, having broken the fighting dummy.

"I'm sorry it's just I'm fed up of all this waiting. I want to kill something." As if on cue Amy came in.

"Looks like you got your wish." Anya pointed out.

"Amy I suggest you leave. We don't have time for you."

"But I can help you. With the great one."

"What would you know about that?"

Amy looked around nervously, "That depends, where's Willow."

"She's in hospital."

Amy smiled, "Good."

Buffy walked towards Amy, "That's it, you asked for this."

Amy quickly ran behind a table. "Wait, I really can help you."

"Go on. Just be quick."

Amy threw the book at Buffy, "There's a way to get rid of the great one in here." With that she dashed for the door.

Catching the book Buffy quickly set off after her. As she got outside, "Wait, is that it?"

Amy stopped a short distance off, "I'm sure you can figure it out. That is what you do, you and your wonderful scooby gang."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Ethan betrayed me. I trusted him, and he was going to let that thing kill me."

"So Ethan's working with the great one." Buffy muttered to herself, "I can't say I'm surprised."

Amy wiped her eyes, "I don't know why I still get upset, you'd think that I'd be used to this by now." With that she turned and ran off.

"It's almost dark, do you want to get yourself killed?"

Without stopping Amy called back, "Maybe I do."

***


Tara sat next to Willow's bed, not able to shake a feeling of helplessness. The only sound in the room was the slow beeping of a heart monitor. "I've been such an idiot." Tara said, half to Willow, half to herself. "Always pulling away, not letting you get close. If only I'd known then I..." Tara stopped, not able to go on. She took Willow's hand in her own and sat in silence a while. Then, suddenly growing angry, she almost shouted, "Damn it Willow, I didn't fight my way back here just to sit by and watch you die." Looking round Tara saw Dawn standing nearby, "Hi, Dawny."

"There's no change?"

"No."

"Oh. Buffy thinks she's got a lead how to fight this thing but we need your help."

Tara hesitated a moment, not wanting to leave Willow's side. Then, realising that they had to stop this thing, she said, "Okay, I'm coming."

***


A while later Tara was sitting in the magic box reading the book Amy had given them. This was made harder by the fact that the pages were badly burned. As she turned one of the pages, it broke into several fragments. Tara carefully moved the pieces onto the table and tried to put them together without causing any more damage. "How's it going?" Buffy asked loudly as she came into the main room. Tara jumped a little, losing a couple of the page fragments. "Sorry." Buffy said, apologetically, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Tara looked round for the pieces she had lost but soon gave up as from what she had read it didn't seem to contain anything useful. Looking back up at Buffy she said, "It's pretty badly burned, what happened to it?"

"I don't know." Buffy answered with a slight shrug, "Amy didn't say."

For a moment Tara couldn't believe what she had just heard, "Amy gave this to you?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah."

"How do we know we can trust her?"

Buffy frowned at this, "She seemed pretty genuine." Buffy started to wonder if it hadn't been a mistake to not force Amy to explain why she was helping. "Do you think it's a trap?" Buffy could almost kick herself for not thinking of the possibility, but she had been so glad to get some information on the creature she hadn't considered it.

"Maybe this is just to distract us. There doesn't seem to be anything about..." Tara stopped as her eyes fell on the next page.

Noticing her expression Buffy moved closer, "What is it?"

Tara read out from the book, "This thing has the power to pull the life energy from it's victims, killing them in seconds." Tara looked up and went on, "That sounds like what happened to Willow."

"So you think this might be our big bad. What else does it say?"

"I alone have seen it's true form and I wish to god I hadn't as I don't think I will ever sleep again. Yet now at least I know how to banish it." Tara carefully turned the page, "There's a spell here."

"That'll banish the great one?" Buffy asked.

"It seems like it." Tara read the spell then said, "Oh dear."

"What's wrong, can't you cast it?"

"It takes at least three experienced spell casters." Tara explained, "Anya can help but we need one more person."

Buffy hesitated a moment before suggesting this, since she didn't like the suggestion much herself, "Could Amy help?"

"She's certainly experienced enough. The question is will she want to, and can we trust her?"

"I don't know about either of those. Another question is who should ask her, I don't think she'd talk to me."

"What about me talking to her?" Tara suggested.

"I don't know. Amy seems to have a particular grudge against Willow for some reason. I'm not sure she'd talk to you either."

"What about me?" Dawn asked from the doorway. She smiled as they both jumped, "Wow, I managed to sneak up on the slayer. This must be a first."

Buffy gave her an annoyed look then asked, "What did you say?"

"I said I could ask Amy." Seeing that Buffy was going to refuse she protested, "It's only Amy."

"Yes Amy, and possibly Ethan, oh and let's not forget this great one."

Dawn's face fell at this, "I just wanted to do something to help."

Buffy could understand the fact that Dawn just needed to be doing something, since she felt the same way. After thinking about it for a few seconds she said, "Okay, you can talk to Amy, but I want you to be careful. If it seems that Amy isn't alone then get back here as quick as possible." Dawn agreed to this and they began getting ready. When Anya got back she began looking for Amy. While she wasn't as good with computers as Willow she was still able to effectively search all the local motels for Amy. While Anya was doing this Tara made a translated copy of the spell while Buffy and Dawn began collecting the ingredients.

***


When Dawn got to the address that Anya had found out she approached it carefully, making sure there was no one else about. She went to the door and knocked a little nervously. She was half expecting her mother, or the thing that looked like her mother, to answer. Instead it was Amy who opened the door. She seemed to be rather nervous, and it was obvious that she hadn't slept. She glanced about making sure there was no one else nearby. Finally looking at Dawn she said, "I'm not buying any..." She stopped and looked at Dawn closer, "You're Buffy's sister, aren't you?" Dawn nodded as she tried to peer round Amy into the room. "I'm alone." Amy assured her, "What about you?"

"I'm alone." Dawn answered.

"Well then you might as well come in." Amy held the door open for her. Dawn hesitated a moment then decided it seemed safe enough and went in. "So what's wrong, couldn't you figure out the book."

"Oh we have, it's just we need three people to cast the spell. Tara and Anya can cast it but we need another person."

"And you expect me to help?" Amy sounded as though she didn't believe what she was hearing.

"Buffy told me that you said that the great one tried to kill you. I'd have thought that you have more reason for wanting to get rid of it than us."

"What about Willow, or won't she even give up her non magic kick for this?"

"Willow can't, she's in a coma. I thought that you knew that."

"I knew that Willow was hurt but I didn't know it was that bad." Amy couldn't help smiling as she said this.

Dawn grew a little angry at this, "Just why do you hate Willow so much. I mean, I know you're angry about her taking so long to turn you back into a human but still this seems a bit too much."

"What about her killing my cousin?"

"You mean Warren?" Dawn was taken aback by Amy's comment. She was sure that she didn't mean Rack and Warren was the only other person Willow had killed. She hadn't had any idea that they were related.

"No Melissa." Not noticing the perplexed look on Dawn's face she went on, "Willow killed her because she was helping me. She was only about your age."

Suddenly Dawn realised who Amy was talking about, "You mean the girl we found the other day. Who said that Willow killed her?"

"Ethan told me."

"Oh the person who was going to sacrifice you to the great one." Dawn pointed out.

Amy was stunned by this. Until now it hadn't occurred to her before now that Ethan might have been lying to her. Until his betrayal she had trusted him implicitly. Now that she was starting to question his version of events it occurred to her that unless Willow had used magic then she probably wasn't strong enough to strangle someone. She knew someone else who was, and who was twisted enough to leave the garter, making Melissa out to be a traitor. Noticing Dawn looking at her impatiently Amy said, "Fine, I'll help."

***


Later that evening they all met up at the Magic Box and went over their plans. As she checked their stockpile of weapons Buffy asked Tara, "How long will this spell take?"

"Ten minutes and we need to be reasonably close to it." From the look Buffy was giving her Tara knew what Buffy was about to ask so she said, "We'll need to be within the mansion."

"So we need to keep it busy for ten minutes." Buffy said, "Should be easy." By this time they had everything ready. As they set out Buffy warned them, "Remember don't let it touch you." They made their way to the mansion. Checking the camera's they had seen Ethan leave a while ago but as far as they could tell the great one was still there.

When they got to the mansion they went in with Buffy leading the way, Xander and Dawn came next and Tara, Anya and Amy came last. They were no more than halfway in when the creature from Willy's suddenly appeared in front of them. "You were warned to..."

"We so don't have time for you." Buffy growled. Reaching up she grabbed it shoulders and pulled it forwards and down. Wrapping her arm around it's neck Buffy twisted it's head round till she heard a loud cracking sound. She then dropped the creature's body to the floor and they continued on. They were a few feet from the foot of the stairs when the great one appeared at the top.

As it came down it asked, "What have you done?"

"You need to get yourself some better minions." Buffy retorted. Hearing the others starting the spell, Buffy ran up the stairs towards it, but then felt herself freezing again. The great one smiled then walked down towards her but before it could do anything Xander ran past Buffy and hit it with the Axe he had brought. Suddenly freed Buffy Hit the great one before it could retaliate, then grabbed it and threw it down the stairs. Unfortunately it land near Tara and the others. Recognising the spell they were attempting it got up and started towards them, only to stop as a crossbow bolt hit it's shoulder.

Turning towards the source of the bolt the great one growled, "Bitch." Dawn quickly tried to load another bolt before it could come after her. Sprinting Buffy quickly closed the distance to it and launched a series of blows against it. The great one blocked all the blows then with a strike to Buffy's chest it sent her flying across the room. It started towards Dawns saying, "Your sister was warned that you would suffer if she interfered." It stopped as Xander sunk his axe into it's back. Turning it struck him across the face, sending him flying, narrowly missing Amy. The great one then turned back to Dawn, who gave up on trying to reload the crossbow and threw it at the great one before running towards the stairs. She hoped that it would be so busy with her that it would forget about what the witches were doing. This turned out to be the case as it came after her. Dawn was just starting to think that she might be able to keep it coming after her long enough for them to finish the spell when her foot caught the top stair and she stumbled. The great one was on her in an instant. It reached it hand towards her chest then, sensing the energy that was filling the room, it stopped and quickly ran back down the stairs.

Realising that there was still a few minutes before the spell was finished Dawn shouted "Buffy look out, it's coming." By this time Buff had picked herself up and quickly intercepted the creature. She rained a barrage of blows on it, not actually trying to hit it but just to keep it busy, while at the same time trying to avoid it's blows. After this had been going on a while it managed to hit Buffy and knock her aside but in the meantime Xander had managed to grab Dawn's crossbow and hit it across the head with it. It quickly knocked him aside but during this time Buffy had recovered and continued the attack.

Suddenly the great one stepped back and was surrounded by light. For a moment Buffy was worried that this might be some new form of attack but then realised that the others had finished the spell. She was about to make some remark when the great one beat her to it, "You think that you've won. The truth is you've already lost." With these words it disappeared.

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: yes please *makes kim possible-esque puppy pout*
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note 1: It'll be a while before Willow and Tara get back together, but don't worry they do
Note 2: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

Warning, danger Will Robinson danger, this part ends in a cliffhanger

The Rapture
Part 5

They headed straight back to the Magic Box. As Buffy opened the door and was about to go in she noticed there was someone missing. A quick check told her who that someone was.

"Where's Amy?"

Tara started to say, "She's just behind..." She stopped when she noticed that Amy had vanished, "She was there a moment ago."

"I guess that she left." Xander said, "She didn't seem to be too comfortable around us."

"I wonder why." Buffy said sarcastically, looking around to see if she could see any sign of where Amy had gone. Giving up she went into the shop.

As the others followed her in Xander said, "Well this I think calls for a celebration." Everyone had seemed to be rather down on the way back and he felt he ought to try lighten the mood.

"Didn't you hear what that thing said?" Buffy asked him.

"Yeah, but that was just your typical bad guy talk, wasn't it?"

"We still don't know what those spiders are." Dawn put in, "Or where they've gone." After defeating the great one they had searched the house, but hadn't found any sign of the spiders, save for a few shed skins.

As this discussion was going on Tara walked away from the others and sat down. She didn't really care whether the great ones words had just been an empty threat, she didn't really feel like celebrating. At the moment all she wanted to do was be with Willow.

"I'm sure she's going to be alright." Anya said, approaching Tara.

Tara jumped a little as she hadn't noticed Anya coming over, "Who will?"

"Willow of course. That is who you were thinking about, isn't it."

"Was it that obvious?"

"I just wondered what I'd be thinking about if I was in your position. I still don't know why that thing went after Willow."

"I do." Tara said, "It was probably going after anyone who could cast the spell to banish it."

"But Willow had stopped using magic."

"It probably didn't want to risk her starting again, especially since it would have probably have come after me at some point."

***


As Dawn got home from school she noticed that with the excitement of recent events they'd left Willow's computer running. She went to shut it down but as she did she noticed something strange moving across the display from one of the cameras. She looked closer trying to work out what it was. Then as a second moved past she realised that it was the spiders, though were larger than before. She also noticed that they were heading towards a man who was walking in front of the house. "Buffy." There was no sign Buffy had heard, so Dawn went to the door and shouted, louder, "Buffy!" She went back to the computer and watched anxiously as four of the spiders approached the man. Dawn wished there were some way that she could help him, but she knew that there was no way she, or even Buffy, could get there in time. The spiders jumped on the man and forced him to the ground. "BUFFY!" Dawn shrieked, as a halo of light rose up from the man then dissipated. Finally there was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Dawn what is it?" Buffy asked as she came charging into the room. She had been expecting to find Dawn being attacked and was surprised to find nothing there.

Dawn pointed at the screen and said, "I saw some one being killed by those spiders."

Buffy glanced at the screen but couldn't see anything. Realising that Dawn was rather upset Buffy held her saying, "It's okay now."

"No it's not." Dawn stated, "Not till we get rid of those things."

Buffy couldn't really argue with that so she asked, "How many were there?"

"Only four of them but they were larger than before."

"How much larger?"

"I don't know, it was hard to tell." Now that Dawn thought about it the fact they looked larger could have just have been an optical illusion.

"Well I'm going to go and have a look around."

For a moment it seemed that Dawn was going to either argue against this, or suggesting coming along but instead she just said, "Be careful." Buffy nodded then left.


Buffy quickly made her way to the mansion. She soon found the body but as with the cultists there was no sign as to how he had died. Also she couldn't see any sign of the spiders, which she guessed was a good thing since she didn't know how she was going to kill them.

***


Willow had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten there. The fact that she couldn't remember the last few hours didn't help matters. The one thing she did know was that where ever she was it looked as though it had been bombed recently. She decided to look around a bit. Walking down the street she spotted something that looked familiar. Running up to it she found that it was indeed the Expresso Pump. Willow was shocked by the thought that she was in Sunnydale still. She made her way to the Magic Box only to find a hole where it was supposed to be. At first Willow thought she had made a wrong turn but a quick check told her that she was in the right street. Obviously something major had happened during those hours that she was missing. Sitting down she tried to figure out what she was going to do. She hadn't seen any sign of anyone or anything. It seemed as though the town were deserted. She realised that she had to find Buffy. Getting up she started towards Buffy's home. It was only then that she noticed that she was wearing a hospital gown.

***


Willow was relieved when at first sight Buffy's home seemed to be intact. Then as she got closer she noticed that most of the windows were broken. After a quick search she found that it was deserted, not only that but all the furniture had been taken save for a single chair that had been left in the middle of the living room. After going over the house again to see if there was anyone there, Willow sat down in that chair while she wondered where she was going to go next.

***


Tara was heading home after spending the day with Willow. As she passed an old house that had been deserted for several years she heard someone calling for help from inside. Checking the door Tara found that it was open. As she went in the floor boards creaked in an unnerving way. Tara made her way gingerly into the house as she called out, "Hello, is anyone here?" There was no response and the shouts had stopped. Tara decided to check upstairs. As she put her foot on the first step it broke with a large cracking sound. Tara jumped back, only to have the floor give way underneath her.

Tara landed in the basement with a thud. After taking a moment to get her breath back she picked herself up. Tara could only see a short distance from the light coming in from the hole in the ceiling and she couldn't see the extent of the room. Tara could hear a scratching sound coming from all round but she could see the source. There was a soft green glow seeming to come from the walls of the basement but Tara couldn't make out the source of that either. Then as her eyes began to become accustomed to the dark she could just about make out a light a short distance off. Walking over to it Tara found a chain next to it and pulled it. As the room was filled with light, she immediately wished that she hadn't. The walls were crawling with the spiders. She couldn't count how many there were, but Tara guessed that there had to be at least a couple of hundred. As if awoken by the light they started to moved towards her. Spotting a set of stairs out Tara dashed for it. Amazingly Tara made the stairs before the spiders reached her. Then the second step gave out, causing Tara to fall forwards. A moment later the spiders were on her.

TBC

[cperrins78]

Oh no poor Tara!!!! I hope she will be okay, darn those pesky spiders. The intriuge is on. Can't wait for the next update.



Christina

[cooper]

So Justin this is great. Its taken me a while to get to it and read it through, but now I am all caught up.

I am wondering if there is a connection in the Great One being banished and all the creepy stuff going on now.

Is it a dream world, or is it the Great One still messing with reality's perception? Hmmm

Can't wait to see what happens next

cooper

[justin]

cperrins78: Thanks. Read on to discover Tara's fate

cooper: I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Is it a dream world, or is it the Great One still messing with reality's perception? Hmmm

Good questions. Hopefully the next part will start to answer them.

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: yes please *makes kim possible-esque puppy pout*
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note 1: It'll be a while before Willow and Tara get back together, but don't worry they do
Note 2: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

I'm not entirely happy with Willow's conversation with Hecate. So I'd appreciate hearing people's views on it.

The Rapture
Part 6


Buffy and Dawn were discussing dinner when the door opened and a rather dusty and grimy figure entered. They both stopped and turned to stare at her for a while. Then Dawn went up to her asking, "Tara, what happened to you?"

Tara moved to a chair saying, "I just need to sit down a moment." She sat and tried to compose herself. Then, noticing the concerned look which Buffy and Dawn were giving her Tara said, "Firstly, I'm okay. Just a bit dirty."

"So what happened?" Buffy asked, clearly relieved to hear this.

"I was coming home when I thought I heard some one shouting for help from that derelict old house a couple of blocks away."

"So you went to investigate, by yourself?" Buffy sounded a little annoyed at this.

"Well there didn't seem to be time to get help." Tara responded, "Anyway there was no one there. As I looked around the floor gave way and I fell into the basement, hence the appearance."

"So nothing happened." Dawn said starting to think that she'd gotten worried over nothing.

"Actually something did. In the basement the walls were crawling with those spiders you saw."

"How many?" Buffy asked.

"There were too many to count but I'd say a couple of hundred."

"I think we might be in trouble." Buffy stated.

"There's more." Tara said.

"Good more, or bad more?" Buffy's tone suggested which one she thought that it would be.

"Actually more strange than anything else. As I was escaping the stairs out gave way. A couple of the spiders attacked me but then they just seemed to lose interest."

"So they didn't hurt you?"

"No, they just crawled over me, which," Tara added in a disgusted tone, "was pretty horrible, then wandered off."

"But I've seen them kill someone." Dawn said.

"So why weren't they able to affect me." Then remembering something Tara asked, "Buffy when you first saw these things you said one jumped you, then the rest seemed to concentrate one Dawn."

"We thought they were targeting her for some reason."

"But perhaps it was because they can't hurt you for some reason." Tara said.

"So you're saying maybe we're both immune. But why?"

"I know something you've got in common." Dawn said. Buffy and Tara both turned to look at her, "Well you've both died."

"Could that be it?" Buffy questioned.

"I don't know." Tara admitted, "Though if that's the case then only a few people will be safe from those things."

"I think we need to find some way to deal with them, fast." Buffy said. Turning to Tara she added, "Though firstly, you need a shower." Looking down at herself and seeing the state she was in Tara decided not to argue this point.

***


Willow decided that whatever had happened here there was one person who had a reasonable chance of still being alive, or at least still being around, Spike. As Willow left Buffy's home she was surprised to find herself in the graveyard. "That was quick." Willow muttered to herself, as she wondered if she'd experienced another memory loss. Then she heard someone talking, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Relieved that she wasn't the only person still alive Willow quickly made her way to the sound. As she got closer she found Tara sitting in front of a group of grave stones.

As she saw Willow approaching Tara stood up saying, "Willow, you're alive." She took a step back, almost tripping on a stone.

"Of course I am." Willow answered, surprised by Tara's reaction, "What's going on."

"Don't you remember? You were in a coma, the hospital you were in was attacked, it was destroyed." As she said this Tara grew more and more upset, "We were sure that you were dead."

"Attacked?" None of this made any sense to Willow, "Attacked by what?"

"Do you remember the cult, the creature they summoned?"

"Yeah, the great one. Is that what did this?"

"It killed by draining a person of their life force. Every time it did that it created a smaller version of itself. That's how they reproduce. Then when it's children had matured, they began to reproduce. Within just over a month there were a million of them."

While she was saying this a spider crawled out from the bushes. "Look out." Willow called, pointing at it. Tara watched it with a bored expression as it jumped onto her arm.

"I'm immune. They can't affect people who have died before." Tara explained. The spider hung there for a few seconds then fell off and started to run towards Willow. Tara quickly stepped on it, pinning it to the floor. It struggled to get free, but Tara held it in place. "We tried everything to kill these things, magic, potions, nothing worked. Then it turned out to be something so simple.” Tara pulled a bottle out from her pocket, "Holy water." She said before pouring the contents on the spider. It began thrashing about for a few seconds, before dissolving into the ground. "By then it was too late."

"Why too late?" Willow asked, "Tara, what happened? Where's Buffy?"

"Every time one of these things killed it released some energy into the Hellmouth. Eventually it opened." Tara stepped back and pointed at one of the graves, "Buffy..." She had to stop a moment, "She was one of the first to be killed."

"So there's nothing we can do." Willow stated dismally, she couldn't believe that the world had ended while she had been unconscious.

"Willow, Wake up!" Willow looked around, trying to see where the voice had come from. There was no one nearby.

"Tara, did you hear that?" Willow asked, but Tara had vanished.


"So this is what the end of the world looks like." A familiar voice said. Willow spun around and found herself face to face with herself. "I still think my way would have been better."

Willow stared at her double a while then heard herself saying, "I always wondered what I'd look like with black hair." she shrugged, "Now I know."

"You don't seem too upset."

"I know what you are. You're that creature. Last time I saw you as Tara, now I'm seeing you as me."

"No, I'm not that thing. I'm a part of you."

"Oh." Willow considered this a while, she was surprised by the fact that she believed it. "The evil skanky part, I presume."

"No, you're mistaking me with her." Willow's double pointed behind Willow. She turned carefully, to find her vampire double. A moment later she vanished.

Turning back to the other one, Willow shuddered, "Don't remind me."

"You needn't be upset. It generally isn't pretty when a persons soul is replaced by a demon. Besides if it hadn't been for her then you might never have gotten together with Tara."

"So what part of me are you?"

"I'm your insecurities. I'm the part of you that can't go on without some kind of validation from other people. Be it your teachers, your parents, your friends or Tara."

"Then why try to end the world?"

"All our life we tried to help people, in order to prove that we were a good person. Suddenly we realised that all we were doing was prolonging their suffering. That the best way we could help was to kill everyone so no one would have to feel like this, ever again." Stepping forward she grabbed Willow's hand. Willow was overcome by pain. Falling to her knees as she cried out in pain. Then, as her double removed her hand, the ache subsided.

Recovering Willow asked, "What was that?" She tried to stand but nearly passed out. Crouching down she lowered her head between her legs.

"That's what I've been feeling ever since Tara was taken from us. Pleasant isn't it?"

"But Tara's alive again."

"That doesn't mean that you can't remember what it was like when she died in your arms and you couldn't do anything about it. That doesn't stop the fear when you lie awake at night, knowing that the universe doesn't care about you, or how much you love each other. It took her away from you once and it's going to do it again. It's not a matter of if, but when." Willow couldn't argue with this. She knew that ever since Tara had come back she had been expecting it to end. A part of her had believed that it wouldn't be long before Tara was taken from her again and had been anticipating the pain that would follow. As Willow admitted to these fears she began crying. After a few minutes, when she got the crying under control, it occurred to her that her double hadn't spoken for a while. Looking up she saw her double had vanished, not only that but she wasn't in the graveyard any more.

***


When Tara had gone up to have a shower Buffy went to call Xander. "Hello, Xander. It's Buffy, we've got a problem."

"Buffy, whats' up?"

"It looks like that thing wasn't just boasting when it said we'd already lost."

"What do you want us to do?"

"I think we should meet up at the magic box, in half an hour."

"Sure, I'll be there."

"Is Anya with you?"

"No, I'll call her to let her know what's going on."

"Okay, thanks."

***


Just over half an hour later they were at the magic box. Buffy had explained what had Dawn had seen and what had happened to Tara. For a while after she'd finished no one spoke. Finally Xander said, "When you said we had a problem? Hello to the understatement."

Buffy nodded to this observation then asked, "Does anyone have any ideas about how to fight these things?"

"Well if they're connected to the great one," Tara said, "then we might be able to use the same spell against them."

"But it takes ten minutes to cast it." Anya pointed out, "You might be safe from the spiders but the rest of us aren't."

"Maybe we could use a protections spell to keep them away while we cast it." Tara suggested.

"It still seems rather risky. How will we know if the spell works without trying it?" Anya argued.

"Besides we don't know where they all are." Buffy said, "Finding them all then casting this spell on them could take some time and we don't know how long we have." Buffy thought about it a bit more, "Though since it's the only idea we have at the moment, we shouldn't rule it out."

"I can try to find a way to speed the spell up, and increase the range." Tara suggested.

"Have you spoken to Giles?" Anya asked.

"I tried to call him." Buffy explained, "He wasn't in. I'll try again later. In the meantime I think we should try to find some other ways of fighting these things."

They all agreed to this plan and were just sorting out which books to research when the door bell rang. Turing angrily Anya said, "Can't you read, we're closed you..." She stopped when she saw who it was.

"It's nice to see you too, Anya." Giles said.


***


It took a moment for Willow to realise that she was in the kitchen of Buffy's home. Though, unlike before, it wasn't empty and it wasn't deserted. A short distance off she saw herself sitting at the table, with Tara sitting next to her. They were eating breakfast. As Willow watched them she got the impression that there was something wrong with Tara, it seemed as though she wasn't entirely there. "Hello, you're probably wondering what I'm doing here." Willow said to them. They both ignored her.

As Tara pushed her plate away the other Willow looked over and said, "You haven't finished."

"Really, I'm full."

"You didn't like it." The other Willow said in a tone which was halfway between being upset and angry.

"I'm sorry." Tara said, a scared look in her eyes. Willow tried to work out what had scared Tara. When she did, it was a shock to her.

"Tara's frightened of me. Why? I'd never hurt her." Suddenly Willow saw herself standing over a herb while saying, "Forget."

***


For a moment everything went black, then suddenly a soft light appeared in front of Willow revealing a young woman. She was about the same height as Willow. She smiled pleasantly and said, "Hello Willow."

"Um, hi."

Suddenly the woman's face began to blur. When it came back into focus she was now middle aged.
"We've been trying to speak to you for some time."

She changed again, this time becoming an old woman. "But it's been hard to get through to you."

"Oh,” Willow said, “Why do you keep changing?"

She became a young woman again, though while before she had been blonde her hair was now dark brown and her face was different, "We are the Hecate." She said before changing. "The three who are one." Change. "The one who is three."

"You're the Goddess of the crossroads."

"Yes, we see what can be."

"What will be."

"What would have been."

"It was you who showed me the vision of the future," Willow guessed.

"That is what will be if you do not stop the creatures."

"Okay so what was that other vision, why was Tara scared of me?"

Hecate changed to her crone form. "That is what would have been if Tara hadn't left you."

She changed to her mother form, "You have been asking yourself that, haven't you?"

"Yes." Willow was a little surprised by the admission. She realised that she had been wondering if things might have not gotten as bad as they had if Tara hadn't left, that part of her had been blaming Tara for what had happened.

"Every time you had an argument."

"Every time Tara was unhappy."

"You used the spell on her."

"No, I wouldn't." Willow protested.

"Piece by piece." Hecate went on, ignoring Willow.

"Little by little."

"You slowly chipped her personality away."

"She was afraid of me." Willow said. She didn't want to believe what she was hearing but she knew that it was true.

"Yes, she doesn't know why,"

"All she knows is that when she displeases you."

"She is punished somehow."

"When did this all go wrong?" Willow asked. She suddenly saw herself grabbing a book called Darkest Magick. "So it was when I started to use black magic."

"No it was when you took on Glory."

"You took on a Goddess and lived."

"That's when you started to think you were invincible."

Willow had to admit the truth of this. After they had defeated Glory, Willow had started to think that she could do anything, that she could handle anything. When, against all the odds, she had managed to bring Buffy back to life this feeling of invincibility had only increased. She knew that it had been this attitude that had caused her fall.

"Why are you showing me all this?" Willow asked.

"It is necessary."

"Will I remember any of this?" Willow asked thinking it'd be typical if she was given the secret to beating the big bad while in a coma then forgot everything when she woke up.

"You'll remember everything."

"That you need to remember."

"When you need to remember it." As Hecate said this the light went out and Willow was left alone again.

"Wait there's something I need to know. Tara's death, was that punishment for what I did?" Willow's vision began to fade.

Then just as everything went completely black a voice whispered, "No."

***


"Giles." Buffy said once they'd gone into the training room, "This seems to be becoming a habit for you."

"I'm sorry, what is?" Giles asked, not understanding.

"Well turning up just when we really need your help." Buffy explained, her tone and expression indicating her joy at this fact, "So what was it? Did some English coven give you a heads up or something."

"Actually I had been doing some research since returning to England and I had found some information which was quite worrying. Though I didn't think it'd come to a head this soon."

"Giles I know it's probably just you being all British and stuff but I think I'd say that hundreds of life sucking spiders is a lot more than just quite worrying."

"I beg your pardon? What has that got to do with Tara?"

"Nothing." Buffy said, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I take it then that you were referring to some other danger." Giles guessed.

"Yeah, seems we've got more than our fair share at the moment. That cult we dealt with summoned a creature called the great one that could kill by draining a persons life energy. We managed to get rid of it but not before it created a few hundred spiders that can kill in the same way."

"Oh. I hadn't known about that. I will of course help in any way I can."

"Actually at the moment I'm more concerned about what it was about Tara that had you so worried that you had to come back here."

"Well I don't have anything definite yet. It's just..." Giles thought about the best way to put this. Seeing as Buffy had over things to worry about he didn't want to add to her problems when he wasn't certain there was any cause for concern. "Shortly after you were resurrected, I had an argument with Willow. She claimed that she was the only person who could have done that spell to bring you back. I told her that there were in fact a few people capable of it and that she wouldn't want to meet any of them."

"So you're saying we're going to have to deal with whatever brought Tara back?" Buffy guessed, though she had a feeling that it wouldn't be anything quite as simple.

"Not precisely. You see from what I've read and what you've told me I believe that Tara in fact brought herself back."

"There are so many way's that this could be bad." Buffy grumbled.

"Which is why I felt I should come back."

"But this is Tara we're talking about. I can't really imagine her being dangerous."

"I would probably have said the same thing about Willow about a year ago." Giles pointed out. "However that isn't quite what concerns me."

"Then could you explain what is? Cause this conversation is making me nervous and did I mention not needing this?"

Giles was about answer when Dawn came in saying, "The hospital just called, Willow's woken up."

"Buffy, I think it'd be best if we didn't discuss this with anyone till we know exactly what's going on."

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: yes please *makes kim possible-esque puppy pout*
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note 1: It'll be a while before Willow and Tara get back together, but don't worry they do
Note 2: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The Rapture
Part 7


When they went to see Willow, only Tara and Buffy were allowed in, since the nurse said Willow needed rest. "So what's been going on?" Willow asked them as soon as they'd entered the room.

"The nurse said you needed rest." Tara pointed out.

"I've been resting for the last few days. Now I need to know what's going on with this new menace." Realising that Willow wasn't going to let this go they explained how they had beaten the great one and how the now had a problem with the spiders. When Tara explained about being immune Willow blurted out, "Oh that's because you've died before."

Tara exchanged a confused glance with Buffy then asked, "How did you know? I mean we had discussed it but we weren't certain."

"Well I..." Willow started. She stopped and frowned as she tried to think how she did know. "I don't know. I just knew it."

"Oh well I'm sure it isn't important." Buffy tried to reassure her. However Willow suddenly had the feeling that there was something very important that she couldn't remember.

"I think I'll try to find their nest. Since they can't hurt me." Buffy said.

"Maybe you should take Spike with you?" Willow suggested.

Buffy shot up at this and said angrily, "Why is it people are trying to match me up with Spike. Why can't you just accept that I don't love him, soul or not."

"I just meant that since he'd be safe as well, being undead and all." Willow explained timidly, surprised by Buffy's outburst.

"Oh right, of course." Buffy said, calming down a little, "It's a good idea, I guess."

"I'm going to stay with Willow a while longer." Tara said before asking Willow, "That is if you're not too tired?"

Willow, who had been about to yawn, managed to stifle it then answered, "No, I'm fine."

When Buffy had gone Tara looked at Willow sadly, "You know you really scared me."

"What? There's no need to be scared of me. I'd never hurt you." Willow protested, "You do know that right?"

"I just meant that I was scared you might not wake up," Tara said, a little taken aback by Willow's response. "not that I'm scared of you."

"Oh, sorry." Willow said, realising that she'd overreacted. "It's just I keep like almost remembering something but I can't quite remember it." Willow frowned, "I can't shake the feeling that it's something important."

"I'm sure it'll come to you."

Willow took Tara's hand and said, "I love you. I think I'm finally realising just how much."

Before Tara could say anything the door opened and Dawn came in. "I just wanted to see how you were. You don't mind do you?"

"Of course not, Dawny." Willow said smiling, though the truth was she wasn't entirely happy about the interruption.



***


"Xander can you take everyone back to the magic box when they're ready?"

"Sure thing Buffy."

"Right. I think I ought to warm up a bit before I go on patrol. Come on Giles you can help." Giles agreed. While they were heading back Buffy said, "Right so now you can tell me what you thinks wrong with Tara?"

"As I was going to say to be honest I don't know. It might be nothing to worry about."

"Come on Giles, you didn't come all the way over here for nothing."

"Well no. I just don't know at the moment. I just thought it'd be best to get here as soon as possible to make sure we're ready, in case they are consequences."

"Okay then, I think we need to get researching it." Buffy told him. She decided to ignore the surprised look he gave her.

***


When Buffy got to Spikes crypt she was annoyed to find that he wasn't there. "Where could he be?" She muttered to herself, "It's not like he's got a life or anything."

Buffy was just closing the door when a voice said, "You just don't seem to be able to stay away at the moment."

"Spike." Buffy said, turning towards him.

"Well this is my crypt. I wasn't expecting to see you here, I thought that we'd gone over everything last time you came."

"I need your help."

"Now there's a surprise."

"We've got a problem with a monster. Well lot's of them actually. It seems that we're both immune to them so I thought you could help look for their nest."

"Well you thought wrongly." Spike answered. Seeing the surprised look on Buffy's face he said, "What, did you think that you could go on coming to me for help indefinitely." With that he brushed past Buffy. He was about to open the door when he stopped and listened to Buffy walking away. Finally he turned and said, "Wait up, I'm coming."

***


Tara and Dawn were walking home when, looking behind her Dawn suddenly said, "Oh god."

"What?" Tara asked, also looking back. There was a sea of the spiders coming towards them.

"Quick." Tara said, "Run." They ran down the road, managing to stay just ahead of the spiders. Only to stop as they saw a second group in front of them.

"What are we going to do?" Dawn asked.

"Stay close to me." Tara drew Dawn closer to her while saying, "I walk through circles of light that none may pass or harm me." The spiders were almost on them by now, "I walk through circles of light that none may pass or harm me." A spider jumped at Tara but bounced off an invisible barrier around her. Another jumped but was also repelled. Finally getting the message the spiders stopped. They stood in a circle around Tara and Dawn, staring at them.

"Now what?" Dawn asked.

***


"So why are we here again?" Xander asked Giles. They were approaching one of Sunnydale's many motels.

"We're looking for Ethan."

"Okay, why?"

"Because he might be able to tell us something about whatever it is we're facing."

"But why here?"

"This place is closest to where you found that Melanie girl. Assuming it was Ethan who killed her then he might be staying here."

"You know I never really saw Ethan as a killer. I mean he was always annoying but..."

"Maybe that's because you didn't know him properly." Giles cut in.

"But of course you did, didn't you Ripper." A voice said from behind them. They spun around to find Ethan there. "You know I've been keeping an eye on what's been going on here so I know that you don't need dark magic or demonic allies, you just need one of these." As he said this he pulled a gun out from beneath his jacket. "In case you're wondering, I'm a much better shot than Wally."

"Um, it was Warren." Xander corrected him, The look Ethan gave him suggested that he didn't care overly much.

"So, you were looking for me."

"We know you were working with the great one, so presumably you know something about the spiders."

"You mean it's offspring? Every time it killed someone it created about ten of them. It started off slowly but after Amy decided to betray me, it went into overdrive. I'd say there are at least a few hundred." He paused a moment to let that sink in then went on, "Of course the real kicker is that when they mature those spiders will be able to start creating children of their own. At the rate the first one worked, it won't be long before you're knee deep in the things. That is, those of you who are still alive."

"What makes you think they won't kill you?"

"Nothing, that's why I'm leaving. Well it's been..."

He stopped as Beth walked round the corner. Her head was bowed and she was muttering, "Stupid jerk, stupid..." Beth stopped as she saw them for the first time. She looked at Ethan a while, turned to Giles and Xander then back to Ethan, "Oh this is just perfect." She muttered to herself.

"And who might you be?" Ethan asked, in a tone that might have been pleasant if it weren't for the fact he was aiming a gun at her.

Beth swallowed, then answered, "I'm Beth Maclay."

"Well you have very bad..." Ethan stopped a moment then said, "You said Maclay. Then you must be related to Tara."

"She's my cousin." Beth was really starting to wish that she hadn't come back to Sunnydale.

"Well I'm a friend of Tara's."

"Then how come you're pointing a gun at her friends."

Ethan stared at her angrily a moment, he had hoped that Beth wouldn't know that, "Okay you found me out. To be honest I can't stand the witch. She's much too nice for..." While he was saying this a figure crept up behind him and struck him round the back of the head.

"Amy." Xander said, as he saw who had come to their rescue.

As Giles walked over to Ethan he said, "I must say it was fortunate that you turned up when you did."

"Not really, I was following you. I was hoping that you'd lead me to him." With that she kicked Ethan in the side. "Is it true that he killed Melissa?"

"It seems likely."

Amy kicked Ethan again, "Bastard." Giles set about tying Ethan up.

Xander walked over to Beth and asked, "So Beth I thought you would have left by now."

"Believe me I would have if I could, but I seem to be stranded here."

"Perhaps you should come back to the shop with us, we can help you get on your way." Giles offered.

"Are you sure about this?" Xander asked, moving closer to Giles.

"Well we might not like the girl but she is Tara's cousin. Besides the fact she came proves that she can't be all bad." Xander shrugged then helped Giles stand Ethan up. When Ethan had recovered enough to walk they set off for the shop.

***


Willow was just starting to fall asleep when she remembered seeing Tara in a graveyard and pouring something on the spiders. Remembering what it was, Willow suddenly sat up. Getting out of bed Willow found her clothes then quickly got dressed.

***


Anya was counting the days takings when Willow came barging in. "Should you be out of hospital?" Willow ignored her and began taking bottles of herbs off the shelves. "Hey stop that!"

Willow turned to Anya, "What?"

"You're not supposed to be doing magic, remember?"

"Oh." Willow said, "Well this isn't magic so don't worry." Willow grabbed another bottle then walked over to the table. She poured some of a herb into a pestle and began crushing it. "See I'm just making some holy water, of the Wiccan variety."

"Well you're also not supposed to be stealing." Anya pointed out.

"Hello, I am trying to prevent an apocalypse." Willow said.

"Well as long as you're trying to prevent an apocalypse." Anya conceded. She then muttered under her breath, "And not cause one." As Willow worked on the holy water Anya stayed watching over her shoulder. "You know we've got plenty of this stuff in stock, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing." Willow hesitated, wondering why she hadn't thought of that, "It's just I thought we should make some more so..."

"You didn't think about it." Anya crowed, "Everyone's always going on about how smart you are and you didn't think a magic shop like this might have some holy water."

Willow spun round to face Anya, "You know I have just been in a coma so I think you could cut me some slack."

Anya was going to respond when Willow dropped the bottle she was holding, "Hey, that stuffs expensive."

Ignoring Anya's outburst Willow just said, "Tara's in trouble."

***


"Well this has been fun." Spike said as they walked towards his crypt.

"I don't understand it." Buffy said, "Tara said she saw a couple of hundred. Where could they be?" They had gone to the house where Tara had seen the spiders first but hadn't found anything. They had spent the rest of the night searching for them.

Suddenly Spike tapped Buffy's arm, "Wait up." He pointed over to one side, Buffy turned and saw one of the spiders moving away from them.

She immediately set off in a run after it, "Come on." After a few minutes they came to a hoard of the spiders. "Oh god." Buffy said seeing Tara in the middle of them.

"Why are they just sitting there?" Spike asked.

"They can't hurt Tara." Buffy explained.

"Then why are they circling her like that. Wouldn't they go after someone they can hurt."

As they got closer Dawn moved away from Tara and called, "Buffy."

"Well I guess that answers that one." Spike muttered.

"Dawn!" Buffy called, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am." Dawn answered.

"It's okay Buffy." Tara added, "I've done a protection spell."

"Okay." Buffy said, starting to calm down a little, "So how do we get you both away from them." She turned as she heard someone running towards them. "Willow..."

"We don't have time." Willow gasped, trying to get her breath back. A few of the spiders moved towards her. Buffy knocked a couple away while Willow opened a bottle and splashed some on the rest. They suddenly began writhing on the floor before dissolving. "Wow, it worked." Willow threw a couple of the bottles she had to Tara saying "Pour this on them." She handed a bottle each to Buffy and Spike.

Buffy turned to comply then as a thought occurred to her she asked suspiciously, "This isn't magic is it?"

"No, it's just holy water."

"Oh, how did you know this would work?"

"Buffy, please. I'll explain as soon as we get rid of these things." As soon as they had killed a few of the spiders the rest began to run away. They chased after them, trying to kill as many as possible, but a lot got away. When the street was clear they headed home.

On the way Buffy said, "Okay then Will, how about explaining?"

"Um, I'm not really sure I can. I mean I only knew that would work because Tara told me, or at least I dreamt that she did."

"Okay, I really didn't understand that."

"I mean that while I was in a coma I dreamt of what the future would be like if we didn't stop the spiders. In it Tara told me how to kill them."

"And you couldn't have told us sooner?"

"I only remembered it just now."

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: yes please *makes kim possible-esque puppy pout*
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note 1: It'll be a while before Willow and Tara get back together, but don't worry they do
Note 2: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The Rapture
Part 8


When Giles and the others arrived at the magic box everybody seemed to be busy. Tara and Anya were rapidly brewing and bottling holy water, while Buffy, Dawn, Spike and Willow were discussing plans. Looking up Buffy said, "Good you're back." Then seeing Ethan she asked, "What's he doing here?"

"I thought he might be able to help us."

"I won't tell you anything." Ethan stated.

"Wanna' bet on that?" Buffy asked, before she turned to Giles and said, "We may not need him, we know how to kill them."

"That is good news. How?" Giles questioned as he led Ethan towards a chair, rope in hand to tie him down.

"It seems that Holy water's their kryptonite. Willow knew, though don't ask me how."

While they were saying this Tara, noticing Beth, moved towards her. "Beth, I thought that you'd left."

"I tried but my car's broken down, I'm stranded here till I can pay to have it fixed."

"Surely my father will help?" Tara said, thinking he'd always liked Beth, a lot more than he'd seemed to like her actually. Beth shook her head so Tara went on, "Well then we'll help."

"Yes I brought Beth here so that we could help her get on her way." Giles said.

"You mean to help get her out of our hair." Buffy muttered, "Can we get back to the plan? We think we can trap them in the basement below Spikes crypt, then it'll be easy to dowse them with the holy water that Anya and Tara are making."

"That seems a good plan but how are you going to get them all there?"

"That's the problem, the only time I've seen them on mass they were going after Tara."

"They're attracted to people with magical abilities." Ethan suddenly said, an overly innocent expression on his face.

Buffy gave him a suspicious glance then turning to Giles asked, "Do you think he's right?"

"It's certainly possible. If it is true then with Tara, Amy, Anya, Ethan and myself it should be quite easy to draw all of them into the trap."

"I'm not sure I like using you as bait." Buffy argued.

"Besides you forgot me." Willow said.

"But Willow you can't use magic any more."

"I've stopped using magic, that doesn't mean that I can't."

"Willow's right." Giles said, "With her past abuse of magic it will have permeated her essence to a certain extent. I believe that Willow will be something of a beacon to these things."

"Then why haven't I been?" Willow asked.

"Now with the six of..." Giles started to go on, stopping when he realised that Willow had said something, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"You say I ought to be a beacon to these creatures but then shouldn't they be coming after me? The only time I've seen any was when they were going after Tara and..." Willow stopped and looked across the room, her gaze settling on Dawn, it wasn't long before the implications sunk in for the rest of the group.

"I suggest you move those eyes if you want to keep them." Buffy said in a dangerous tone.

"Buffy." Giles said, surprised by this threat.

"No, you cannot be thinking of using Dawn as bait." Buffy went on.

"Of course not." Willow said, turning back to Buffy. She was embarrassed to realise that was exactly what she had been thinking, "Of course it's a silly idea. I'd never think about putting Dawn in danger like that."

"Don't I get any say in this matter?" Dawn asked.

"No!" Buffy said.

"So what, we let those things kill everyone. I think I'll be in danger then." Dawn argued.

"She's kind of got a point." Willow added nervously, not wanting to irritate Buffy more than she already had. Buffy looked towards her friends for some support on this. When it came it was from an unexpected source.

"I can't believe you people." Beth said, "I admit I don't know much about what's going on but are you really considering putting this child in danger."

"I'm not a child." Dawn said angrily.

"Buffy, we might not have any choice." Tara said, "Besides you know that I can protect Dawn."

"You promise you won't let them hurt her."

"I swear that if anything happens to Dawn it'll only be because it happened to me first." Tara said.

Buffy debated what to do. She knew that she could trust Tara to look after Dawn but it seemed wrong to be putting her in the line of fire like this. Slowly she came to the realisation that she didn't have any choice if they were to stop the spiders. "Fine let's do it."

"Are you crazy?" Beth asked.

"Beth, firstly thanks for the support, secondly no one..." She stopped as a crashing sound thundered across the room. Everyone turned to see that Spike, who was kneeling on the floor, had knocked an urn over.

"Careful with those. They're expensive." Anya snapped.

"I saw one of those spider things. It got away though." Spike explained as clambered to his feet.

"Did you say one of them is in here?" Ethan asked, sounding nervous.

"What's it to you?" Buffy asked, moving to stand in front of him.

"They're telepathic." Ethan said.

"And we should believe you, why?"

"Okay, I admit I was mistaken about them being attracted to witches but I am right about them being telepathic."

"Why suddenly so informative?"

"Because now that one of them has found Dawn, they're all going to be heading this way. I'd rather not be tied to a chair when they arrive."

"We are so not ready for this." Buffy muttered. "This is what we'll do. Giles, you, Xander and Anya take care of Ethan. I'll stay here with Dawn the rest of you get the trap ready. We'll draw them to you as soon as they arrive."

"Buffy, it'd be better if I stayed." Tara pointed out, "I can protect Dawn magically."

"Fine." Buffy said after a moment's internal debate, "Well let's get going."

It wasn't long before Tara and Dawn were the only ones left in the shop. "I wonder how long it'll be before they get here?"

"I can't really say." Tara said absently as she looked around the shop for the spider that was already there.

"Shouldn't we go outside?" Dawn asked, "So we don't get trapped in here?" Tara agreed to this and they went outside.

After a couple of minutes Tara tapped Dawns arm and said, "Let's go." She pointed down the street where they could just about see a group of pale green lights. They set off towards Spikes crypt, slowly at first, but speeding up as the lights drew closer.

***

Arriving at the crypt Tara said, "They're behind us. About a minute."

"Okay, quickly into the hole." Buffy said.

Tara helped Dawn down then asked Buffy, "Where are the others?"

"I sent them to Giles'" Buffy answered. Tara nodded them followed Dawn down with Buffy close behind while Spike stayed at the door to act as a look out.

They had just got into place when Spike called, "They're here."

Tara closed her eyes and imagined a wall of energy around herself and Dawn while she chanted, "I walk through circles of light that none may pass or harm me." She continued chanting it as she heard the spiders landing close by. Opening her eyes she was relieved to see that the spiders were being kept away from them.

On the surface Spike watched as the spiders rushed past him and into the hole. When they stopped coming he waited for a few minutes to make sure that no more were on their heels then he climbed down the hole, closing it behind him. He and Buffy then divided up the holy water and began splashing it on the spiders. Within the confines of the room it wasn't long before they had killed all the spiders.

***


Arriving back at the magic box Buffy was going to ask Giles what they were going to do with Ethan when she noticed that Ethan was missing. "Where's Ethan?"

"I'm sorry to say that he got away." Giles answered, abashed.

"Oh well he's not a major problem." Buffy wasn't happy about Ethan getting away again, but compared to what they'd just faced he was a minor irritant at worst.

Beth walked over to Tara and said, "So you're okay."

"Yes. What about you?"

"Mr Giles has already sorted things out with the garage. I should be off by tomorrow. I wanted to see you one more time before I left."

"You did?"

"Yes, I wanted to see if you'd learnt your lesson."

"Lesson?"

"Yes. None of this would have happened if you'd come home when we told you to. But no you had to stay here with your weird friends. This is all your fault." She turned to sweep her gaze over the others before resting her eyes on Willow. "This is your fault as well. Tara was a good girl till you started giving her ideas above herself. You made her forget her place. Well I hope that you're happy with the results." With this Beth stormed out of the shop.

"Well she was pleasant." Amy commented. No sooner had she said this than Beth came back in.

"Um, Beth I don't know if you're aware of this but when you storm out of a place, it's not usual to come straight back in again."

"Four of those things are outside." Beth said.

"I thought we'd got them all." Buffy groaned, "How many more are there?"

"What are they doing?" Giles asked Beth.

"They're just sitting outside." Everyone went to the window to look. They were indeed sitting motionless, though their colour was shifting.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Tara said, "Ethan said they're like the great one when they mature, maybe that's what they're doing."

"Maybe now would be a good time to break out the holy water?" Spike suggested.

"We used it all." Buffy answered.

"The spell." Dawn suggested. Tara, Amy and Anya formed into a triangle in the centre of the room. Tara took Amy's hand, who took Anya's, who took Tara's. They began chanting the words to the spell, the air between them crackling with the energy that they were drawing. Watching them Willow felt her pulse quicken and breathing became ragged. At first she thought that it was a result of her addiction but she soon realised that it was something more than that. A part of her essence was responding to the magical energies that were being summoned. Willow began to wonder if this is what Giles had meant when he said that magic had permeated her essence. The moment was broken by the sound of the door closing.

Turning Willow asked, "What happened?"

"Buffy left." Dawn answered, her expression suggesting that she thought that her sister had gone insane.

***


Buffy carefully approached the creatures. While she had been in the shop she had gotten the impression that they had wanted to talk to her. Suddenly one of the spiders began to warp and change form. Buffy expected to be facing Willow again, but instead it turned into Dawn.

"Why are you doing this?" It asked.

"Doing what? Stopping you from ending the world?"

"Yes. We thought that you of all people would understand."

"Yes I often go along with monsters who want to end all life on the planet."

"But you've been there. You know what it's like. Why would you deny others from experiencing it." Buffy was surprised that it actually sounded sad as it said this.

"So you're saying that everyone would get to go to heaven?"

"Everyone who was judged worthy. This was to have been their time of judgement."

"And that's a good thing?"

"A glorious thing when the good are purified and the wicked punished. A thing that many people know as the Rapture."

"Right. Well maybe some day there will be an apocalypse and the world will end," Suddenly the creature and the three other spiders were bathed in light. A moment later they had vanished. "but not while I'm still alive." Buffy finished to herself. Before she turned and went back into the shop.

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Feedback: yes please *makes kim possible-esque puppy pout*
Summary: The Scooby gang must deal with the creature which was summoned in the last story
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The Rapture
Epilogue


Once Beth had left everyone began clearing up. While this was going on Amy crept out of the shop. As she was walking away a voice said, "So you're just leaving again."

Turning Amy saw Dawn following her, "I think it'd be best. I doubt if anyone wants me to stick around."

"You might be surprised." Dawn countered, "I mean you've been a lot of help."

"Why not try asking Melissa how much help I've been. You know she always used to look up to me. That's why she wanted my help and I got her killed."

"That wasn't your fault." Dawn said. Ignoring her Amy turned and continued off. "Maybe we can help." Dawn shouted after her.

"Maybe I just want to be alone." Amy shouted back.

***


"So those things thought that you would help them?" Giles asked as he and Buffy sat talking in the Summers' kitchen.

"Yeah, they thought that since I'd experienced heaven first hand I'd want to help other people get there."

"And?"

"And what? Believe me I'm totally over that."

"Well that's good." Giles said.

"So what about Tara?" Buffy asked, "Is there something to worry about or not?"

"At the moment I'd say there isn't any great worry."

"So why did you need to come back again? Not that I'm complaining."

"Well I read some texts that got me rather worried." Giles explained, "I guess I just needed to see for myself that Tara was still Tara."

"So the panics over then?"

"I guess so. Though it won't hurt to keep an eye on her. On both of them."

"I don't need to be told to look out for my friends."

"That isn't really what I meant."

"I know."

***


A while later Buffy went out into the backyard. She found Tara sitting on the bench, staring into space. "Penny for your thoughts."

"I was thinking about some of the things Beth said."

"Don't tell me you bought her line about it being all your fault."

"Not really, no. That isn't what I meant. The other day Beth said that I had abandoned my family. I was just thinking that she was wrong." Buffy gave Tara a questioning look. "Yes. I might have abandoned my relatives, but my family is here."

"You've only just realised that? It took you long enough."

"Beth isn't the only person who's said that this is my fault."

"Who else has? Was it Ethan, or Amy?"

"No, I don't know who it was. While I was in the basement of the magic box a voice spoke to me. It said if I stayed dead then none of this would have happened."

"And you don't know who it was."

"There was no one there. I did a reveal spell in case they were invisible but that had no effect. Maybe it was nothing, maybe I'm just hearing things."

"Well if it happens again, you tell me right away." Buffy answered quietly, a hardness to her voice suggesting that she didn't like people messing with her family and that she'd do anything she could to stop them. Tara gave Buffy a crooked smile, indicating the kinship she felt to the slayer, before pushing herself up from the bench and heading into the quiet house.

***


Buffy then continued on to Spike's crypt. Earlier she had told Spike that there was no hope for them but now she was having doubts about that. Given how much Spike had helped them lately it was obvious he had changed, so maybe it was time Buffy let go of the past. Buffy hesitated at the door wondering if she really wanted to do this. Finally resolving herself she went in. "Don't tell me there's another monster we have to deal with."

"No, it's nothing like that." Buffy assured him.

"Then what's up?"

"You've been a lot of help recently and you didn't have to."

"I just don't seem to be able to help myself." Spike said.

"I said before that there was too much history between us for me to ever be able to love you. That's over, From now on the past is the past and we start again with a clean slate."

"So you're saying that you love me?"

"No."

"But you're saying it's possible that you might come to."

"Yes, I guess that I am."

"Well I guess that's progress. You know since I got back, I've been writing some poetry, I could read it too you." He turned to grab some sheets of paper then, hearing Buffy leave, he said to himself, "Okay then, maybe another time."

"See, I told you so." Clem said. The demon was hanging by his feet from the far wall.

"I guess you did." Spike agreed as he grabbed his jacket.

"So when are you going to let me down?" Clem asked, not hearing any response he went on, "Spike, Spike!"

***


When Tara found Willow she said, "I've been thinking the couch is getting rather uncomfortable."

"Oh." Willow said, a little shocked, "You should have said. Well then I'll move down here, and you can have our bed."

"Actually I was thinking that I could sleep in our bed, you know, with you." Tara watched Willow nervously for a reaction, then asked, "If that's okay?"

"That's fine." Willow enthused, then sobering a little she went on, "But are you sure? I don't want to rush you, I mean there are nights when I don't want to sleep with me."

"I'm sure. I think we either accept that things are over between us and go our separate ways or we put the past behind us and make a fresh start. I'd really prefer to go with the second option."

"Me too." Willow said "I want you to know I'm going to do better this time. There'll never be any reason for you to be scared of me."

"I was never scared of you, Willow." Tara said, "Scared for you maybe, but not of you."

"Oh, well what I mean is if I start to mess up again I want you to tell me." Tara was going to answer but Willow was on a roll, "I know you did last time but this time I'm going to listen. I mean I know now that there are some things that I can't handle on my own. So if you tell me I won't be like 'La la, I don't need to listen because I can do anything.' you see?"

Tara, who had been waiting patiently for a chance to get a word in, answered, "I do see and I will tell you but I trust you."

"That's nice because I don't trust me."

***


When Anya and Xander got to his apartment Xander said, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about." Anya turned to Xander, "I got a call from my foreman this morning. We've been contracted to work on renovating the high school."

"Oh." Anya said, not particularly enthusiastically.

"Now there's a lot of work to do, so it'll involve a lot of overtime. I'll be away a lot."

"This doesn't sound like good news." Anya pointed out.

"The good news is that we'll get paid a lot of money for this job. The point is that if this job works out then, I don't know, I guess it'll prove that I'm not destined to be a failure. It'll prove that I've finally beaten the Harris curse."

"Well I guess that is good."

"What I'm saying is that if this job goes well then I'd like you to marry me."

"You mean it? You're not going to run out again?"

"Yes I do mean it, and no, I promise I won't run out."

"That's wonderful." Anya said, throwing her arms round Xander.

***



Tara woke up in the middle of the night. Rolling over to go back to sleep she was surprised to find that Willow wasn't there. Turning the light on this surprise turned into shock as she realised that Willow was pressed against the ceiling. As Tara woke up fully and she began to get a clearer idea of what was going on she noticed that Willow was still asleep. "Willow!"

Waking up Willow jerked her head about in surprise as she tried to work out what was going on. "How did I get up here?" She asked in a panicked tone.


"I don't know."

"Well how do I get down?" Tara stood up on the bed and reached up to grab Willow. As she did so whatever spell was holding Willow up broke and she fell into Tara's arms, causing them both to fall onto the bed.

"Oof." Tara groaned.

"Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"No, I was just a little winded." Tara assured her. They stayed in that position a while, staring at each other. Then Willow climbed off of Tara and moved to sit at the end of the bed, shaking violently. Sitting next to her Tara asked, "Are you okay?" Willow nodded though she was still trembling. Tara put an arm round Willow, trying to comfort her, and asked, "So has that ever happened before?"

"No, that was the first time." Willow frowned as she thought of something, "I've got a headache and I'm feeling a little ill." As Willow considered this she went on. "There have been a few mornings when I've woken up like that, maybe I've been doing it and hadn't realised it. I was having a nightmare, about that day, I've always felt this way when I've had that nightmare."

"So maybe it's that dream that causes it?"

"It could be. You do know that I'm not doing this intentionally?"

"Yes I do." Tara assured her.

"Maybe this is what Giles meant when he said that magic had permeated my system,” Willow guessed, “When you did the spell to banish those creatures I felt something. I can't really describe it, it was just this energy going through me"

"We need to discuss this with him." Tara said, "Until then do you remember how to ground yourself."

"Yes, but that's just for after doing magic."

"I think it might help stop this if you were to ground yourself every night, to get rid of all that excess magical energy you've got floating around."

"If you think it'll help." Willow agreed, "Though will it help with the nightmares?"

"I'm sorry, only time will do that."

"The problem with time is it takes so much, uh, time." Willow grumbled. Tara got back into bed while Willow crouched down and placed her hands on the floor. She envisioned any excess magical energy flowing out of her and through the house into the ground. "Hopefully that'll stop me from getting all floaty again tonight." Willow said as she got back into bed. "I'm glad you were here. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been, probably stayed up there all night."

"You could have always called Buffy."

"I think I would have been too embarrassed." Willow put her arms round Tara saying, "Actually regardless of what happened, I'm just glad that you're here."

"Me too." Tara agreed.

***


In a small, nondescript house on the other side of Sunnydale a man sat staring at the five tarot cards in front of him. He appeared to be a normal man in his early thirties, normal that is apart from the fact his eyes were completely white. The cards in front of him were the five of cups (a robed man staring down at three spilled cups, with two full ones behind him) reversed, the moon (a pair of dogs howling at the moon), the page of cups (a young woman holding up a cup with a bird sitting on the rim), the two of pentacles (a woman walking on a tight rope, holding a pentacle in each hand) and the ten of swords (a body with ten swords in it's back). He didn't even flinch as a demon, the demon that Buffy had seemingly killed before, materialised in front of him.

"The Leach and its offspring have been disposed of." The demon growled.

Without looking up the man said, "Which was to be expected. It served it's purpose though, didn't it."

"Yes. The Slayer and her," The creatures face twisted into the demonic equivalent of a sneer, "slayerettes believed that it was the being the cult had summoned."

"Good." The man smiled, "They couldn't have done anything but they would have been a nuisance. Soon I will reclaim this pitiful world." He finally looked up at the demon, "And you will be my emissary."

"I live to serve you." The demon bowed in an elaborate gesture, "Great One."

--

Given the lack of response I'm assuming that no one's interested in this story.

If anyone wants me to continue then let me know. Otherwise I'm going to end it here.

[cperrins78]

I would love for you to continue the story. I am anxious to know what is going on. Please continue, I am sure there are others that are interested as well.



Christina

[Maccoda]

I've really been enjoying it as well. I'm just not so good with the deep and insightful feedbacks and so I don't post often.

[LittleKitten85]

Hi,
I'd like for you to continue your fic, I think it's good but I'd like to read more of W/T action.
Please continue

[justin]

Thanks for all the responses, I'll continue with the story.

cperrins78: Thanks, I'm glad you're liking the story

Maccoda:

I'm just not so good with the deep and insightful feedbacks

Feedback doesn't need to be deep or insightful. Even a simple 'Nice fic' is greatly appreciated

LittleKitten85:

I think it's good but I'd like to read more of W/T action.

You're right that it has been low ong W/T action so far. This is because I wanted to explore them slowly redeveloping there relationship. Unfortunatlely, for reasons that will become obvious, there isn't a great increase in this next story. However after this story there will be a definite increase in

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: Presented for your consideration. Imagine if it was possible to kill death, what would the consequences be? Willow Rosenberg is about to find out.
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The man who killed death
Part 1

Buffy punched the vampire that she was fighting in the face, then sidestepped to avoid a return blow. Noticing that the vampire was off balance Buffy took a step beyond it then drove her foot backwards into the back of its knee. The vampire stumbled and Buffy used the opportunity to pull a stake out and hammer it through the vampires heart. Buffy gave the stake a quick twirl then put it back in her jacket before continuing through the graveyard. Buffy was feeling very happy. Things were quiet at the moment, but not so much so that it implied there was something big coming. They had all been worried a month ago when Willow had started unaccountably floating, but the meditation sessions she was having with Giles seemed to have stopped that. That and the fact that Willow and Tara's relationship seemed to be back to the stage it was just before Tara had been shot were both very welcome news. In all things seemed to be going well, but not too well, Buffy thought to herself, there was no need for the universe to overturn everything, as it had a tendency to do. Looking round the Pinewood cemetery, Buffy decided to do another circuit round it and another one before heading back.

***


"Willow I want you to focus on the crystals." Willow and Giles were sitting at opposite sides of the table. There was a pile of multicolored crystals in between them. "There is nothing in the room save you and the crystals."

"And you, or else how are you talking to me?" Willow pointed out with a slight smirk.

"Willow please, try to concentrate."

"Sorry. Okay, this is me concentrating." Willow focused her gaze on the crystals.

"She's even worse than Buffy." Giles complained quietly to himself. Then noticing the time he said, "Actually it's getting late. Maybe we should try again tomorrow."

"Good cause I need to go out." Willow jumped up out of her seat then stopped with a guilty look on her face, "I mean it's not that I don't like these sessions it's just I sorta had a surprise planned, for Tara, because it's our anniversary. I need to get everything ready."

Giles nodded then took his glasses off to clean them. There had been something he had been meaning to ask Willow all evening, but he'd been putting it off. "Well I hope you have a good time." He said, then deciding that it was now or never he asked, "Though Willow have you had any more attacks?"

"No, I've been staying firmly in bed all night, where I belong."

"That is good news." As Willow headed to the door he said, "You should probably take a..." He stopped as Willow showed him the crucifix and holy water she had with her.

"I'll be careful." Willow assured him.

***


After Willow left Giles sat down to read. He had just about finished the first page when the door opened and Buffy stomped in. "Good patrol?" Giles asked.

"Got three vamps and a hell hound." Buffy answered happily. "How's the training going with Willow?"

"Well Willow is making some progress with her meditation, though she does seem to have trouble concentrating."

Buffy smiled thinking she could have guessed that staring at a bunch of crystals for hours on end would be something Willow would find difficult. "Where is Wills by the way?"

"She went to the flower shop. She seems to be planning some sort of surprise for Tara."

"What's the occasion?"

"To be honest I don't know. She seemed to indicate it was some sort of anniversary."

Buffy thought about it a while, "Maybe I should meet her at the shop. I can ask her then." Just as Buffy had said this the phone rang. Grabbing it she said, "Hello. Yeah, How bad is it? I'm kind of... Okay I'll be there." Hanging the phone up she said, "That was Riley, he's in Sunnydale after some demon. He wants my help. I'd better go."

"Did Riley give you any details? I could do some research while you meet him."

"Riley didn't really say much. But I think that when Riley's told me what's the what then research will be a must."

"Okay then, I'll wait here to make sure that Willow gets back okay."

***


Riley waited for Buffy outside Expresso Pump. Buffy guessed that whatever he had called her about it must be pretty big. When she reached him she said "Hi."

Riley started at this, then smiling sheepishly he said, "I didn't notice you. I guess that I was lost in thought."

"So tell me about this bad."

"Straight to business, huh? It's been a while. Don't you want to catch up a bit?"

"Fine, how's Sam?" Buffy asked, not really feeling like pleasantries. She just wanted to deal with this, whatever it was, and get back home. Also she had the strange feeling that Riley was stalling for some reason.

"She was injured fighting a demon, not too bad but bad enough to not come on this mission."

"Right. Now tell me about the bad."

Riley sighed then said, "It looks human, but it's very dangerous."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Actually I just needed to talk to you."

"Come on if it's so dangerous I can help." Buffy couldn't understand why Riley had insisted she come if he didn't want her help.

"I'm not sure about that. You see it can use very powerful black magic. She, it has already tried to destroy the world once."

Suddenly Buffy knew whom Riley was talking about, though she hoped that she was wrong. "Please tell me you're not talking about Willow." Buffy realized why Riley had insisted that she come, so she wouldn't be able to help Willow. As Buffy sprinted home all she could think was that this was the same trick that Angelus had used.

***


Riley watched Buffy leaving with a pained expression on his face. He hadn't liked tricking Buffy but he didn't see how he had any choice. He had thought about explaining to Buffy what was going on, trying to get her to understand that Willow was gone and the thing that she thought was her friend was just a monster that was using Willow's body. Riley shook his head, he knew that Buffy was too close to Willow to ever see that. She had told him about the time when a vampire version of Willow had been summoned from an alternate reality and how she hadn't been able to stake someone, something, that looked so much like her friend. No, there was no way that he'd make her understand.

***


As Willow walked home, she smelt the bundled flowers she bought, hoping that Tara would like them. When she'd gotten to the shop she'd suddenly grown indecisive and had ended up buying little of almost everything. This meant there was quite a clash of colours but Willow was sure she could sort that out. Or at least she hoped so, today was exactly a month since she and Tara had patched things up fully and Willow wanted everything to be perfect. She glanced at the card with a faint smile on her lips. Then suddenly willow heard a small buzzing sound and felt a small bite in her arm. This was followed by a moment of intense pain throughout her body. Willow watched as the flowers she'd been holding slipped to the ground, before following them.

***


When Buffy reached the flower shop there was no one around. She tried to calm herself, thinking maybe Willow was already home, that everything was okay. It was then Buffy noticed the flowers, with a feeling of trepidation she picked them up, reading the card. A moment later she let the card slip to the floor. "Riley, you are so going to pay for this." Buffy whispered before she heard someone running up behind her.

"Where is she?" Tara asked.

Turning Buffy gazed at the blonde, "I'm sorry." Buffy stopped trying to work how best to explain what had happened. The problem was she didn't really know herself. Surely Riley wouldn't have told his men to hurt Willow, but then what did he want with her. Feeling she should say something Buffy guessed, "Willow's been kidnapped."

Tara looked as if she was going to collapse before struggling for control. "I thought she was dead. I felt something a short while ago. That's how I knew something was wrong. It felt just like when I was..." Tara stopped her hand moving unconsciously up to her chest. Buffy nodded in understanding. "Who took her?"

"It was Riley, they think she's a danger." Tara didn't say anything, not able to believe that Riley would hurt Willow as she waited for Buffy to continue, "We'd better get back." Buffy said, "Round up the gang." Tara nodded mutely and they walked back. Neither of them spoke on the way back unable to believe what Riley had done.

***


Riley answered his radio saying, "Finn here."

"We've got it sir." The response came.

"Good. Take it to the base." Riley ordered, "Make sure it doesn't wake up." Riley turned the radio off with a heavy sigh. A part of him hoped that they might be able to help Willow. He pushed that hope down, he'd seen this sort of thing happen too often. The best they could really hope for was that when what was left of Willow did self destruct, that she didn't take any one else down with her.

***


The mood was sombre at the Summers' house as the gang met up, everyone in shock over what had happened.

"What does Riley think he's doing?" Xander asked, "I thought that he was our friend."

"Yeah, we're all pretty surprised by what he's done." Buffy replied.

"So what are they going to do? Lock Willow away somewhere for the rest of her life?" Dawn asked.

"Considering what they could do that's probably the best alternative." Anya said matter-of-factly.

"What exactly is worse?"

"Well they could be planning on using her as some sort of weapon."

"You mean like a witchy Femme Nikita?" Xander asked.

"I was thinking more of them dropping her into a country they don't like and her blowing it to hell, literally."

"Riley wouldn't do that." Dawn insisted.

"Before today I would have agreed with you." Buffy said sadly, "Now I'm not so sure."

"It doesn't matter what they're planning." Tara said, "We need to find her."

"Easier said than done." Xander pointed out.

"I think I can use a locator spell. I know a couple."

"Then we just need to get past the soldiers who are holding her then make sure that they don't take her again." Buffy summed up. No one seemed to have any answer to this.

***


Buffy startled at a knock at the front door; an impassive frown tilting at her lips when she opened it. It took her a moment to process the tall figure of Riley Finn on her doorstep, a friendly smile on his face as if nothing had happened. Buffy raised her fists in a fighting stance forcing Riley to step back and raise his hands defensively."Easy." He said, "I'm just here to talk."

"Just how stupid are you to come back here?"

"Yeah I know. Believe me, I wouldn't have if I had a choice." Buffy didn't respond. "You have to know this is necessary."

"No, I don't. How could you do that to Willow?"

"Because it's not still Willow. Look can I come in. This isn't the sort of conversation we should have out here." Buffy frowned as she struggled with her conflicting feelings. Finally
after a long internal debate she let him in. "Willow escaped."

"Good, saves me the trip"

"Yeah, well it killed..."

"If you call Willow an it one more time then I am going to throw you out, from the second floor."

"Alright then, she killed the soldiers. She skinned them."

Buffy blanched a little when she heard that. 'Just like Warren.' a small voice said before she tried to tell herself that it couldn't have been Willow, surprised to find that she didn't entirely believe that it wasn't. "How do you know it was Willow? Maybe they were attacked by a monster."

"Whatever it was didn't hurt Willow. It killed everyone else, but not Willow."

"But..." Buffy stopped as she heard the front door slam. "Don't move." Buffy told Riley before running out the front door, soon spotting Tara, Buffy sped up after her. "Hey wait up." Tara stopped but didn't turn towards Buffy. Buffy hesitated a moment, trying to guess what Tara was thinking, "How much did you hear?"

Tara turned and summed up, "Something killed the soldiers, Riley thinks Willow did it."

"It's probably not as bad as it sounds." Buffy said.


"Isn't it? Whatever killed the soldiers probably has Willow now."

"Okay so it is pretty bad. I just meant it probably wasn't Willow who did it."

"There was never any doubt of that. Or was there?" Tara studied Buffy a while, "You think he's right. You think it was Willow don't you?"

"It's possible." Buffy admitted, starting to feel uncomfortable.

"I don't believe this."

"You weren't here the last time. You didn't see what she was like, what she did." Buffy almost pleaded, hoping that Tara would understand what she meant. When she saw the angry look on Tara's face that hope died though.

"I thought you'd forgiven her." Tara said this softly but there was an angry edge to her words. She couldn't believe that Buffy was saying these things about her friend.

"I..." Buffy didn't really know what to say to this.

"Goddess, all Willow's been saying is how great you are. How she might not have been able to get through this if it weren't for the fact that even though she couldn't forgive herself, her friends were able to forgive her. That wasn't true was it?"

"It's just..." Buffy stopped trying to figure out how she felt about Willow. She was surprised at how much anger she felt towards the red head. She wondered when she had started feeling like this. It was just after they had fought with the great one and it's children. Just after Tara had died Buffy had been too busy looking after Willow to think about the things she had done. Then with the cult and the great one things had been too hectic. After that though as Willow grew happier and seemed almost over everything that had happened, the resentment had started to grow. It had happened so slowly that Buffy hadn't noticed it, but as she studied her feelings she was shocked to find just how hurt she still was by Willow's actions. "It's hard to explain."

Tara sighed, "Well you need to get all the details from Riley, I'll be at the Magic Box." Buffy nodded, then sighed as she watched as Tara walked away, she had a feeling that this discussion was far from being over.

TBC

[cperrins78]

Wow there's a lot going on now. I wonder what could have killed those soliders and why it's trying to frame Willow. I can't wait for the next update.


Christina

[WillowRulez]

Ohmy, I just got caught up! Buffy is freakin unbelievable! Doesnt she know that this is the Kitten so it cant be Willow?
Anyhow... awesome story, keep it up!

[justin]

cperrins78:

I wonder what could have killed those soliders and why it's trying to frame Willow.

Those are the big questions, what is the monster and what does it want with Willow?

Thanks for the feedback

WillowRulez: (indeed she does)

Buffy is freakin unbelievable! Doesnt she know that this is the Kitten so it cant be Willow?

Well she has always been a bit unobservant so maybe she didn't notice.

Thanks, I'm glad you're liking the story.

Now for the update


Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: Presented for your consideration. Imagine if it was possible to kill death, what would the consequences be? Willow Rosenberg is about to find out.
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The man who killed death
Part 2


Willow walked slowly down the hallway, glancing at the pictures on the walls. Part of her wondered briefly what she was doing in her parents house, or why they had pictures of her and her friends on the walls, but mainly she just ignored these points. As Willow went into her room Tara stood up with a surprised expression, "Willow, we thought you were missing."

"I'm right here." Willow responded confused, not sure what Tara was playing at.

Tara took a step towards Willow, "But we thought..." Tara stopped, a pained expression on her face.

"Tara, what's wrong?" Willow asked saw as she saw a small patch of blood on Tara's chest, "No!" Willow gasped starting to panic, she tried to move towards Tara but she was fixed to the spot where she stood. Willow was finding it harder and harder to breath; her vision began to dim.

***


Willow woke up with a slight gasp with her heart pounding and though she couldn't remember what she had dreamt about she knew it must have been something terrifying. As Willow calmed a little she noticed that Tara wasn't next to her. She started to worry again a little, as she always did when Tara was out of sight, until she heard someone singing to themselves downstairs. After listening for a moment she guessed that it was Tara. Getting up, Willow grabbed a robe then stumbled blindly downstairs. Reaching the bottom she heard a cat meowing outside, and absently wondered if Miss Kitty was fighting with another cat. Making her way into the kitchen she said, "Tara I think..." She stopped when it suddenly hit her that the woman standing in front of her wasn't Tara. It was only then that she realized that she wasn't home. In fact she had no idea where she was.

"Hey, Willow, you're awake."

"Where am I?"

"I'm Kathy, this is my home." She explained, "I found you outside earlier this morning. You were unconscious so I brought you inside."

"Do I know you?"

"No, this is the first time I've met you."

"It's just you knew my name."

Kathy looked embarrassed, "Oh well I kind of went through your wallet. But I promise I didn't take any cash and I didn't buy too much with your credit card." She smiled at this last comment making Willow think of Tara. "You know you look kind of peaky, I think you should sit down." Willow gave Kathy a grateful look, she didn't feel like standing much longer, then started looking for a chair. Finding one she pulled it over, noticing as she did that her hands were shaking.

"Was it you who undressed me?" Willow asked finally as she sat down.

"Uh huh. But don't worry I'm a registered nurse, or at least I used to be." They both lapsed into silence, staring into space as they became occupied with their own thoughts. Snapping out of it Kathy blinked a couple of times then asked, "So do you have any idea how you came to be in my front garden? Those were some nasty scrapes that you had there." It was only now that Willow noticed that there were bandages round her left arm and her chest. "The cuts weren't too deep and I was able to clean them up reasonably well."

"I don't really remember what happened."

"Well it should come back, just don't try to force it."

Willow nodded then asked, "Can I use your phone. I really ought to call my friends."

"I'm afraid not. I kind of forgot to pay my bill and those Nazi's at the phone company cut me off. Which is why I didn't just call an ambulance for you."

Willow nodded again, she'd been wondering about that. "Maybe I should head back."

"I'm not sure, you need to rest."

"It's just my friends are going to worry. I mean I can rest when I get home. I'm sure they'll make sure that I do."

Kathy thought about it a while then said, "Why don't you give me the address, then I'll drive you home."

"You really don't have to."

"Now what sort of nurse would I be if I let you go off alone in this state?"

"Well okay then." Willow gave her the address.

"Wow, I'm surprised to say it but I don't know that street."

"Oh, well do you know the Magic Box? They'll probably be there."

"Sorry, never heard of it. Is it a pub?"

"It's a magic shop. What about the Expresso Pump?"

"Again wow. I thought I knew Somerset pretty well but I don't know any of these places."

Willow stared at Kathy for a few seconds, trying to grasp what she had just said, "Did you say this was Somerset?"

"Yeah."

"Not Sunnydale?"

"I'm afraid not. Exactly what part of the world is that in?"

"Southern California."

"Oh, well this is north California, we just a stone's throw away from Berkeley."

"Then I take it I won't be going home today."

"I'm afraid not. Look I need to go into town, while I'm there I'll call your friends, let them know that you're okay. You rest up and we'll see about getting you home tomorrow."

"Thanks. It's really kind of you to do all this."

"I'm just doing my good deed for the year." They were interrupted by Kathy's watch beeping urgently. She glanced at it a moment then said, "Excuse me a moment."

"I probably ought to get dressed."

"I put your clothes in that chest at the end of the bed."

***


"Yes, sir I understand that." Riley said into a phone, "I'll try to be finished here as soon as possible." Riley slammed the phone down, causing a few people to turn towards him. They had taken over some office space and filled it up with equipment. Riley knew that Buffy would be looking for Willow so he was keeping a close eye on her, in the hopes she would lead him to her. Noticing one of his men approaching Riley asked, "What have you got?"

"Sir, we just intercepted a call to the Summers' house. It mentions Willow."

"Did you get a trace?" Riley had a feeling what the answer would be, but he still had to ask.

"No it was too short."

"Okay then, let's hear it."

The soldier played the tape. "Hi, my name's Katherine Adams, you don't know me but I have Willow. Oh, that sounded bad. I mean she's with me and she's okay. She's a bit disorientated and she's not sure how she got here but she's not hurt. She's looking forward to seeing you all again. So there's no need to worry. Well, bye. Oh and Willow sends her love to Tara."

Riley looked hard at the soldier, "Why are you just standing there? I want everything you can get on this Katherine Adams. I want where she lives, I want to know where all her relatives live and I want phone taps on all those places. Also I want that message erased before they hear it."

"Yes sir."

***


As Buffy pushed her way into the magic box she scanned the interior. Seeing only Tara and Giles she asked, "Xander and Anya not here?"

"They had plans." Giles answered, "I believe that Xander wanted to show Anya the work he was doing on the school."

"He's such a romantic." Buffy said in a casual tone, trying to keep the atmosphere light. She was dreading the argument that she knew was to come.

"Yes, well Tara has filled me in on what happened."

"So the good news is Willow's no longer being held by the soldiers. The bad news is we don't know where she is. Also there's the possibility that..." Buffy stopped, glancing at Tara.

"Go on. You might as well tell him." Tara said.

"Riley thinks Willow killed the soldiers."

"That is a possibility." Tara turned to Giles, too stunned to respond. "As Anya suggested maybe they wanted to use Willow as a weapon."

"Yeah." Buffy agreed, "Maybe they did something that caused Willow to... revert?"

"No!" Tara said, "Willow didn't do this. She's not a killer."

"She has killed before." Giles pointed out quietly.

"So have you." Tara retorted.

"What?" Buffy gasped, while Giles just looked flustered.

"I know about Ben. I know that you killed him." Tara went on.

"You killed Ben." Buffy said. She didn't know why she hadn't asked what had happened to Ben and Glory. Probably because she knew what the answer was.

"Yes, well the circumstances were very different."

"I know." Tara agreed. "When Willow killed Warren she was just about insane with grief. When you killed Ben it was a totally cold blooded act."

"So you think that I acted wrongly."

"I don't know." Tara admitted, "I know why you did it and I understand but I also know you can't stand here now, judging Willow. You don't have that right." Tara turned back to Buffy, "As for you, I thought you'd want to help Willow not spend your time blaming her, some friend." With these words Tara walked out.

"Wow." Buffy said after a while, "She certainly told us."

"Tara's upset. She's not thinking about what she's saying."

"Oh I think she is." Buffy said, "I have one question though, who was that? Cause I'm sure that wasn't Tara."

"Tara does seem more confident, presumably because she is starting to put her past behind her. Also this is something of a sore point."

"You can say that again."

"There is a saying the lady doth protest too much. Maybe she was so angry at us because part of her agrees with us."

"Maybe or maybe she's right and I shouldn't blame Willow for my failures." With that Buffy followed Tara out.

***


Half an hour later Willow looked up as the door opened. "Hi." Kathy said.

"Did you speak to Tara?" Willow asked.

"There was no one in, so I left a message."

"Thanks." Willow realized that there was probably no one in since they were out looking for her. She just hoped that they got the message soon. She noticed that Kathy seemed to want to say something else so she asked, "What is it?"

"Well could you do me a favor, could you tell your friends that I'm not as much of a spanner as I sound on the message. I just hate answering machines."

Willow wondered briefly what Kathy meant, then deciding it was probably something bad she said, "Don't worry I'll tell them."

"Okay." Kathy glanced at her watch, "I need to get started on dinner. Do you have any preference?"

"No, I'm easy."

"Just no pork, right?"

Willow nodded. As they went into the kitchen she said, "I couldn't help notice you've got something of an accent."

"You've found me out. I'm English. I only moved here a couple of years ago." They started getting dinner ready. "So how's uni treating you?"

"Sorry?"

"Are you enjoying university?"

"Yes. It's a lot better than high school was."

"No argument here."

"It seems you know a lot about me, but I don't know very much about you, apart from that fact your name's Kathy and you used to be a nurse."

"Oh, well you know I'm sorry about the whole going through your purse thing. It's just I needed to know if you had any allergies. Plus I'm a nosy cow." She finished with a grin.

"It's okay. I'd just like to know your last name and what you do."

"Oh well my full name's Katherine Adams, though everyone calls me Kathy. I'm currently employed as a data entry clerk and as I'm sure you can imagine it's very stimulating work."

"Why did you give up nursing?"

"Well some stuff happened and I just needed to make a fresh start, which is why I came to America." Noticing the concerned look on Willow's face she went on, "Don't worry I didn't kill a load of people or anything."

"You don't seem the type. Anyway, I shouldn't pry."

"Why? I did." By this time dinner was ready and they went into the dining room.

"Well then I would like to know how you got into nursing."

"Ah well when I was eight I was diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes." She paused while she sat down then said, "Where was I? Oh yes diabetes, anyway I spent most of my childhood in hospitals so I guess that was how I got interested in medicine."

"I was really interested in medicine when I was younger. I used to play doctor all the time."

"Hey, me to. I used to get my friends to pretend they were ill, so I could diagnose them. But they kept saying that they had leprosy."

"Some of my friends told me a couple of years back that that's not how you play it."

Kathy frowned, "You mean there's another way?" They spent the rest of the evening talking about their pasts, with Willow being careful to not mention any of Sunnydale's stranger aspects.

***


Willow was walking to the Magic Box. As she got within sight of it she stopped as she realized where she was. "How did I get back here?" Willow asked herself. Shrugging she continued on, but noticed that her feet were sticking to the floor, and it was getting harder and harder to keep going. Looking down Willow saw that the ground was covered in black oil and that it seemed to be moving. Willow paused, and the oil began to spread over her feet. Willow tried to start moving again but her feet were stuck to the ground. Panicking Willow fought to get away from the oil but was firmly held in place. The oil began to move, spreading slowly over Willow's feet, then up her legs. As the oil moved over her waist Willow began screaming, not stopping till it had completely covered her. Willow woke up with a slight start. After a moments she realised she was till at Kathy's house though she was surprised to notice someone moving round her room. Then as her eyes grew used to the dark she called out, "Kathy?"

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you." Willow reached for the light, "No, leave it off." Willow stopped with her hand on the switch and looked at Kathy questioningly. "Come over here and look at this." Willow got up and carefully walked over to the window. At first she didn't know what she was looking for, then she noticed the silhouette of someone standing looking at the house from the path outside.

"So?" Willow asked.

"I noticed him an hour ago, when I got up for my blood test. He hasn't moved since then. I mean he hasn't moved a muscle. He's been standing in that exact same pose the whole time."

"That is kind of strange."

"Yeah, well I had this sudden urge to check that all the door's and windows are secure."

"So you think he might be a burglar, casing the place." Willow surmised.

"Actually I'm more worried that he might be a serial killer." Kathy sat down under the window, with her back to the wall, "I knew I shouldn't have watched Copycat the other week. I really really wish I'd paid my phone bill."

"I'm sure it's nothing." Willow tried to reassure Kathy. The problem was she didn't believe it herself. There was something very unnerving about that person, more that just the way he was staring at the house, without moving.

"Well, the house is all locked up. I should probably go." Kathy didn't make any effort to move. "Do you think it'd be alright if I brought some blankets in here and slept on the floor?"

Willow forced herself to look away from the figure, "Sure, that'd be fine."

"Thanks." Kathy went to get her stuff.

Willow glanced up at the sky and noticing a ring round the moon she whispered, "Blood on the moon."

***


"Blood on the moon." Tara said, gazing up at the sky. Troubled by the argument she had had with Buffy and Giles, Tara had gone out to think. Looking at the moon she shivered a little. The ring was a sign of trouble coming which was something they didn't really need.

***


When Willow woke up she was a little concerned to see that Kathy wasn't there, until she heard the sound of a frying pan and someone singing aloud. Grabbing a robe Willow went down.

"Good morning Willow." Kathy said in a cheerful voice.

"Hi. You seem very happy."

"Well it's amazing how much better things seem in the daylight," Kathy said, "and when there are no strange stalkers lurking outside the house."

"So he's gone."

"Yeah. So we need to think about getting you home."

Willow nodded as she considered her options. She thought about calling Giles up and asking him to come and pick her up but remembered that Kathy's phone was out. After some further consideration she thought about using the phone that Kathy had in order to call him, but that would all take time and Willow really just wanted to get back to Sunnydale as soon as possible. She realised that that would mean braving the buses but she'd faced worse things during her time at Sunnydale.
"Do you have a bus time table?"

"Bus? Are you mad?"

"Quite possibly, yes."

"I'll drive you back."

"But it's a few hundred miles."

"I know that. But it's Saturday tomorrow so this'll be my chance to see Sunnydale."

"There's not much to see. So what's the real reason."

"Okay, the truth is that after last night, I'd like to get away from the house for a couple of days."

"Oh, well okay, but I'll do some of the driving."

"Of course."

"Don't you need to go to work today?"

Kathy dismissed this with a wave of her hand, "No, I phoned in sick."

"Oh well if you're sick then..." Willow stopped as she realized what Kathy meant, "I mean okay then if you're sure about it."

***


As Kathy was drying up the dishes, the mirror hanging in the wall fell off it's hook. Kathy turned, seemingly in slow motion as the mirror slid down the wall. It hit the floor and cracked across the middle. Kathy put the towel down and went to pick it up.

"Is everything okay?" Willow called down from upstairs.

"Yeah, it's fine. The mirror just slipped off its nail."

"Oh, okay."

Kathy stared at the mirror and with a soft sigh she recited, "The mirror crack'd from side to side, 'The curse is come upon me' cried, The Lady of Shallot."

***


They set off soon after Willow was ready. They drove out of the town and onto the freeway. They had been driving for half an hour when Kathy suddenly slammed the brakes on. The car skidded to halt. "Oof" Willow groaned as she was thrown forwards into her seat belt. Kathy turned and looked at the back seat. "What's wrong?" Willow asked.

"One moment." Kathy said. She started the car again then found somewhere to park. Once she had she took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then asked, "Are you alright?"

"Fine. What happened?"

"I saw someone. I looked in the rear view mirror and I saw someone sitting in the back seat. It really freaked me out." She looked back again, as try to convince herself there really was no one there.

Noticing the way Kathy was shaking, Willow said, "You don't look so well."

"If you look in the glove compartment, there's a bottle there." Willow found the bottle and handed it to Kathy. "Thanks." She took a drink from the bottle.

"Is it medication?"

"What? No it's just fruit juice. My blood sugar levels are a bit low, but this should help with that."

"Do you want me to drive?"

Kathy gave Willow a grateful look then said, "You're a star." They both got out and switched places. As they drove away Kathy said, "It's lucky there was no one coming up behind us, or it could have been nasty."

***


An hour later they reached a tollbooth. Just as Willow stopped in the queue Kathy glanced out of the left window then muttered, "Oh shit."

"What's wrong?"

"Look to your left." Willow did so and saw someone standing by the side of the road she saw a man standing in exactly the same posture as the man who had been outside Kathy's house. As she stared at him she grew more and more nervous. She got the feeling that at any moment he would come running towards them and try to get in the car. Willow's hand moved unconsciously to lock the doors. Willow jumped as a car behind sounded it's horn. Looking round she noticed that the car in front had moved on. Driving up to the tollbooth Willow threw some money in drove through.

"That was creepy." Willow stated.

Kathy leant forward and placing her hand on the dashboard said, "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"Not on your life. I'll be okay, I just need to rest a bit." Kathy sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. After a moment she said, "This is turning out to be a really crappy day." Kathy turned to reach for the back seat. Turning back she put a medical kit on her lap. "Now this is just a precaution. I'm sure that you won't need to know any of this."

"What is it?" Willow asked, growing concerned.

"Okay." Kathy opened the box and pulled out a couple of bottles. "Now these are both insulin. You won't need either of these." She put the two bottles back then pulled out another. "Now this one is the life saver. It's glycagon. If I go into a coma then I need a shot of this, um, stat."

"Um, okay."

"But like I said, it's just in case." A car swerved in front of them, forcing Willow to brake quickly. "Shit." Kathy said as the medical kit fell on the floor. "You bloody maniac." She shouted before bending to pick everything up.
***


It was about mid afternoon when Willow took the turn off the freeway towards Sunnydale. After they'd been following the road for about an hour Kathy asked, "Aren't we there yet?"

"I don't understand it. We should have reached Sunnydale by now."

"Are you sure that you took the right turning?"

"Yes, the sign said Sunnydale on it."

After they'd gone on another half hour Willow said, "I don't understand this. I was sure it was the right turn."

"Don't worry about it. It happens to all of us." Willow turned the car round and started back to the Freeway.

***


As it began to get dark Willow started to get worried. "Where's the freeway?" A sleepy voice asked from next to her.

"Hey, you're awake."

"Yeah." Kathy stretched a little then asked again, "So where's the freeway?"

"To be honest I don't know. It's really weird."

"Tell me about it."

"So what do we do? Keep going this way, or turn back?"

"Neither seems to be very productive."

"Well then, maybe we should think about finding somewhere to stop the night then."

"Probably be best. The question is where?" No sooner had she said this than they passed a large sign saying they were approaching the Overlook hotel. "Well isn't that convenient."


***


Pulling up outside the building Kathy said, "I'm still not sure about this place. Are you positive it's a hotel?"

"That's what the sign said. The Overlook hotel"

"It's just this place looks pretty dead."

"Maybe it's closed, still it can't hurt to check it out." When Kathy hesitated Willow suggested, "Well if you want to stay in the car."

"No, I guess this place will do." Getting out of the car, Kathy went to the boot to grab her bag. They then walked to the house. They rang the doorbell and waited. When no one answered they rang it again. "I don't think anyone's in."

"I don't think anyone's been in for a while." Willow tried the door and was surprised when it opened. Inside Willow quickly found the light switch and tried it, the room was filled with light. "Well at least they work."

"Um, you never said that Sunnydale was anywhere near Raccoon City." Kathy said.

"What?" Willow asked.

"Well look at this place. It's the Resident Evil mansion." They set about finding somewhere to have a fire.


Outside a figure had watched them as they went up to the house. When they went in he gave a nod of satisfaction, then disappeared.

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: Presented for your consideration. Imagine if it was possible to kill death, what would the consequences be? Willow Rosenberg is about to find out.
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The man who killed death
Part 3


Buffy and Tara sat in the Expresso Pump staring at each other. For a long time neither of them spoke. Outside groups of people went hurrying past in either direction. It was Tara who spoke first, "I'm sorry. About what I said. I had no right."

"Yes, you did." Buffy contradicted, "You were right about what you said. I do still blame Willow. We were her friends and she turned against us." Tara didn't respond. Even though Buffy had never spoken of it she knew how much it had hurt her to have to fight Willow. There seemed to be something Buffy wanted to say, but she was debating whether to say it or not. "Willow isn't the only person I blame."

"You blame me too." Tara said softly.

Buffy looked up, meeting Tara's eyes she immediately looked back down at the table, "Yes." The word was almost inaudible. Buffy thought about what it had felt like to return home, to find her sister sitting near Tara's body. Suddenly she found growing angry again. "None of it would have happened if you hadn't gotten yourself killed." Even as she said it Buffy knew how unfair this was.

"Believe me I didn't want it."

"Don't you think that I don't know that. But I can't help feeling these things." They both fell silent for a while. Gradually the other people began leaving and soon they were the only people left. "I blame myself as well." Buffy admitted.

"Seems there's more than enough blame to go around."

"When Angel left I was heart broken." Buffy went on, not seeming to have heard Tara's comment, "Willow was there for me. She helped me get through it. I should have been there for her. Why couldn't I have helped her?"

Tara reached across the table and took Buffy's hand. "You can't be expected to save everyone."

"Why not, I'm the slayer, that's what I do."

"You slay vampires, that doesn't mean you have to carry the weight of the world."

"Doesn't it?"

"Buffy, no one expects you to be perfect. Why do you think that you have to be?"

"Spike once said that I enjoy suffering. I'm starting to think he was right."

Tara glanced round the Expresso Pump then said, "I had no idea we'd been here this long."

"Time flies when you're having fun." Buffy said dryly. "We should probably get home." Tara got up and grabbed her jacket. As they left Buffy said, "Wherever Willow is we are going to find her."

"When we do find Willow, you're going to have to talk to her about this. You can't let it ruin your friendship."

***


"Well I guess this place is kind of homey." Kathy admitted as they went through a door into a dining room. "There are no zombies and look there's firewood. I guess at least we won't freeze to death." As she began piling the logs in the fire place she muttered, "It's almost as if we were expected."

"Do you know how to light it?" Willow asked. As she did her mind went back to a couple of years ago when she had used magic to ignite a barbecue. Of course that wasn't an option now.

"Don't worry, I used to be a Brownie."

"Oh, that's, um, nice."

Kathy set about starting a fire. "So what's the plan? Stay here tonight, then have another go at finding Sunnydale tomorrow?"

"Pretty much. Though that should have been the right turn. We should be there by now."

"Yeah, there's definitely something odd going on. Or maybe we're just being paranoid. I'm sure things will seem better in the morning." Having lit the fire Kathy went to sit at the table, "So tell me a bit about Sunnydale."

"There's not much too tell. It's just your average American town." Willow didn't like lying about it but she didn't really want to get into a long conversation about Vampires and Demons.

"Okay then tell me about Tara. I saw her picture. She looks nice."

"Oh she is." Willow agreed enthusiastically, "She's more than that, she's wonderful." Willow thought a moment for the best way to put this. Then remembering a fragment of a poem she had read she said, "Love shook my heart, like the wind on the mountain, rushing over the oak tree."

"That's nice. I'm like, totally jealous of you."

"Why?"

"Well I've pretty much given up on ever finding true love. Or even any sort of love."

"You're too young to be this cynical." Willow protested.

"Oh yeah? I'm twenty nine."

"I'm sure you'll meet the right person eventually."

"You mean someone who won't just jerk me about then dump me like..." Kathy stopped a moment then said, "I've just remembered something. About five years ago my boyfriend dumped me for my best friend. Anyway I was in a bar drowning my sorrows, when this woman comes up and starts talking to me. She's going on about how my boyfriend was such a jerk and how I should get back at him. At first I thought she was playing for your team."

"My team?"

"Yeah, I thought that she was chatting me up or something. Then I got this really strong impression that she wasn't human. That she was some kind of demon."

"Demon?"

"Yeah I know, mad. I'd probably just drunk too much. I wonder why that occurred to me now though." Willow was going to respond when they both froze. They could both sense something at the far end of the room. They turned to look, but there was nothing there. Standing they walked round to the opposite end of the table from the presence. They couldn't see anything in the room but they could feel a sense of hatred coming towards them. There was definitely something in the room with them and it didn't want them there.

***


Buffy lay into the training dummy with a vengeance while she tried to sort to sort her thoughts out. Just over a month ago Willow had asked how Buffy had been able to forgive her. Buffy had given some pat answer about knowing that it hadn't really been Willow she was fighting. The problem was it seemed that she she'd been lying, not only to Willow but also herself.

"Dammit Willow why couldn't you have let us help you." Buffy demanded of the Dummy. The question was what could they have done. When Giles had arrived Buffy had told Willow she didn't want to fight her.

To which Willow had responded "I don't want to fight you either. I want to fight him." Willow had wanted to fight Giles because he was a stronger opponent and would therefore make it easier for Willow to ignore her pain. After all her actions after Tara's death had just been her way of hiding from the grief she was feeling, so why hadn't she come to them? That still left the question of what they could have done? When Buffy had trapped Angel in hell she had run away because she had known that her friends couldn't have done anything to help her pain. Given that why did she think that she could have helped Willow? Buffy paused a moment and stepped back from the dummy as she realised that she didn't have an answer to that. That was the hardest thing to accept. That no matter how strong there friendship had been, no matter how much she had loved Willow, there was nothing that she could have done to help Willow through what she was experiencing.

"What exactly has got you so worked up now?" Anya asked.

"What?"

"Well you only work out that intensely when there's something really bothering you."

"I was thinking about Willow."

"Of course well I'm sure that you'll come up with a way to track her down."

"That isn't what I meant. I was thinking about what Willow did after Tara died."

"I thought that you were over that."

"So did I." Buffy admitted, "It turns out there's still all this unresolved anger towards Willow, myself, even Tara."

"The most interesting thing about that list is the one name that you don't mention. It starts with double u and ends in arren."

"You mean Warren."

"It was his inability to shoot straight that started the whole mess."

"I know. I know. It's just he was the bad guy so you'd expect him to do stuff like that."

"But not your friends."

"Yes, no, maybe. I'm not making much sense at the moment, am I?"

"No less than usual."

"Thanks, that helps a lot."

"I don't know what to say, except you're going to have to talk to Willow about this before it ruins your friendship."

"Tara said the same thing."

"Of course she did. Great minds think alike."

"Alright fine, I give in. As soon as we get Willow back I'll have a long talk with her and clear the air." Anya gave Buffy an encouraging pat on the arm then left her alone.

***


The presence crept towards them. Kathy and Willow were both paralysed by the feelings they could sense coming from it. Both wanted desperately to run, yet couldn't get their legs to obey. As it drew closer to Kathy she felt heat on her arm. This broke her paralysis and she turned and ran, grabbing Willow's arm as she went by. They dashed out of the room and up the flight of stairs. Going through a door they came to a corridor that they ran down. They went through another door and down another corridor. Another door, then another corridor. All the while they could sense the presence just behind them. Dashing down some stairs Willow almost tripped and in that moment the presence was almost upon her. Putting on a burst of speed she managed to stay ahead of it. Racing through a series of corridors they slowly felt the presence fall behind. When it had disappeared they stopped and went into the room they had stopped beside. It turned out to be a drawing room. Willow leant against a wall. Her legs and side were killing her and she was gasping for breath. Kathy sank down into a chair. As she did Willow noticed that she was a lot worse for wear. Her face was pale and streaming with sweat and she didn't seem to be able to stop shaking. "Are you okay?" Willow asked.

"Not really." Kathy answered honestly. She raised her bottle up to her mouth before throwing it across the room in disgust. "That thing, it was real, wasn't it? I mean it wasn't just some hypoglycaemia induced hallucination."

"No, it was real."

"God, what the hell is this place?" She thought about it a moment, "Not that it matters, let's just get out of here."

"You need to rest." Willow pointed out.

"What I need to do is get away from that... whatever it is." They left the room but no sooner had they taken a few steps than they sensed the presence again.

"Kathy can you..."

"I'm right behind you, go." They ran towards the nearest door and were relieved to find it led into the main hall. They quickly ran to the main doors and tried them. They were locked.

"Where's the key?" Willow asked as she looked round for them.

"We don't have time." Kathy said, "Come on." They ran across the hall back into the dining room. They then ran to the far door.


After going up two narrow flights of stairs and through several corridors they came to a small room. "I think we lost it again." She gave a small gasp of shock as she turned to Kathy. Kathy had sunk to her hands and knees.

"Oh god I... I can't..." With that she fell forward. Willow, racing to check her, was relieved to find that she was still breathing. She grabbed the medical kit and tore it open. There were only two bottles. Insulin, Insulin. Willow emptied the kit onto the floor and stared at the contents, two bottles.

"Where's the Glucagon?" Willow moaned. She looked through the contents again, hoping she'd made a mistake. Two bottles. "Come on Willow, you've got to find a way to help Kathy." Willow muttered to herself. Magic. The thought came almost immediately. No sooner had she thought this than a spell started to form in her mind. No! Willow shouted mentally. She couldn't use magic. Maybe she could find a first aid kit. But what was the chance it'd happen to have the treatment for hypoglycaemia, even if she did find one. Magic. She was smart. She ought to be able to think of a solution to this. Magic. Why couldn't she think of something? Magic! Anything but that. Kathy's breathing was starting to grow strained. "I'm sorry Tara." Willow whispered, then kneeling beside Kathy she started the spell.

***


As Kathy woke up it took her a moment to work out where she was. For one wonderful moment she thought it had all been a dream. Then as she realized that she was lying on the floor that hope faded. Sitting up Kathy noticed that Willow was crouched against the wall, her head resting on her knees. "Sorry if I scared you." Kathy said. Willow didn't respond. Kathy got up slowly and walked unsteadily over to Willow, sitting down next to her. "Okay, so are you going to tell me what's up?"

"There was no Glucagon. It must have fallen out when you dropped the medical kit."

"Oh, Then how did you wake me up?"

"I used magic."

"I'm rapidly forgetting what it feels like to be shocked. Okay let's say I believe you, I don't see where the bad is."

"I'm addicted to using magic."

"Oh."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Well given what's going on I'm finding it a lot easier to believe in magic than I normally would. Also I guess that if people can be addicted to sex then I guess it's possible for people to be addicted to magic."

"Then you see the problem."

"Not really. You know I could have died, or at least ended up seriously brain damaged. So maybe I'm biased but I don't see you as having much choice."

"Maybe but what happens now?"

"Oh. I take it you're recovering from your addiction, so you're worried that you're going to start again." Willow just nodded, "Well do you feel like doing any more magic."

"Not really, mainly I just feel scared."

"Well that's good." Willow just nodded, "I take it there's more to this."

"When I was addicted I hurt my friends. I hurt Tara. I'd promised to them that I wouldn't go back."

"Look, again I know that I'm biased, but I think they'll understand why you did what you did. Oh shit." The last was said as they both sensed the presence again. It was a way off but getting closer. Willow stood up and took a step towards the door. "I hate to say it, but I don't think I can run any more."

Willow nodded then said, "I'm going to draw it away from you."

"You know Tara will forgive you. There's no need to do anything stupid."

"I won't." Willow said, Then looking Kathy in the eyes she continued, "We're both going to get out of here." Then she turned and left the room and moved towards the presence. As soon as she was close she turned and ran away, being careful to let it stay close.

***


After leading the presence through a lot of the mansion, Willow found herself in the main hall again. Noticing a passage behind the main stairs. Going round it she found a doorway which led to a spiral staircase, leading downwards. When she reached the bottom she soon came to a crossroads. Willow chose a path at random. After she'd been following the passage for a while she noticed there were no light sources, soon she was in total darkness. Willow thought about heading back, but was worried about meeting up with the presence so she continued on, hoping to not trip on anything. As she did she noticed that the passage was sloping gently downwards. Then, after she had been following the passage for several minutes she saw a light up ahead.

***


When Willow reached the light source she found that it was a pair of torches hanging on the wall, next to a doorway. They cast enough light for her to tell that the floor fell away a few feet from the doorway. Grabbing a torch Willow walked to the chasm. Looking down she couldn't see the bottom. Suddenly overcome by vertigo Willow backed away from the chasm and knelt down. When the vertigo passed Willow looked round the ledge she was on. She soon found a bridge crossing the chasm. No sooner had she set foot on it than she saw that the middle section was missing. Willow walked slowly up to the gap to get an idea of how wide it was. She soon realized it was too far to jump, so she headed back to the ledge. Willow examined the ledge for another way across and soon found a narrow ledge running along the room. Dismissing it Willow continued searching. However she kept coming back to the ledge. Soon she realized it was a choice between the ledge and backtracking to the last fork. Either way had risks. It came down to which was the worse way to die. To fall into the unknown or to be killed by that thing. No sooner had Willow put the problem this way than she had discarded the torch and had started along the ledge. To her relief Willow found that it was just wide enough for her whole foot. Willow tried to slide her foot along the ledge, and found that she couldn't move. 'Come on this is easy.' Willow told herself, 'Just move one foot then the other.' Calming herself a little Willow managed to start moving along the ledge. She kept her eyes fixed on the light at the far side of the room, knowing that if she looked down, even in this faint light, she would surely fall. One foot, then the other. Willow's back was being scratched by the rocks in the wall but she ignored this. One foot, then the other. Willow tried to guess how far she had come. She was tempted to look back but knew she had to keep her eyes fixed ahead. Keep them fixed on the light. One foot, then the other. The other side wasn't getting any nearer. It seemed like she'd been on this ledge an hour at least, yet she was no closer. One foot, then the other. Willow's legs were starting to cramp from the unusual movement. As the pain in her legs and back increased, Willow realized that she wasn't going to make it. She should have risked meeting the creature. One foot... Suddenly she was there. Willow stepped off the ledge onto ground. Her legs gave out, almost sending her into the chasm. Willow had to twist herself to fall on floor. She lay there a moment, trying to get her breath back.

***


Tara threw the book that she had been reading down on the bed with a sigh of annoyance. She had been going through her spell books trying to find something that she could use to find Willow. Picking the book up Tara went over tot he shelf to put it away but as she did Tara noticed that a small book had fallen over, blocking the gap. Tara took the book out, intending to move it out of the way, but as she did she noticed that it was an old notebook she had used when she was younger. Sitting back down on the bed Tara began reading through it, her spell book forgotten. Tara had been reading for half an hour before telling herself that this wasn't helping find Willow. As she closed the book she saw a spell that made her stop. It was a form of astral projection and after reading over it a couple of times Tara realized that she could use it to find Willow.

***


After lying still for a while Willow pulled herself up, wondering how long she'd been in this place. At the same time it seemed be both hours yet hardly any time at all. There was one corridor leading away but it didn't seem to be lit. Willow went to take one of the torches from its holder then started down the passage. When she'd gotten about a hundred paces the torch went out. She took a step back and the torch lit again. "That's weird." Willow muttered, before starting off again. She'd only taken a couple of steps when the torch went out again. With a sound of annoyance Willow threw the useless torch away and continued on, keeping one hand against the wall. After she'd been going a while she slipped on something on the floor. Trying to not think about what it was Willow picked herself up, only to slip again.

***


Tara walked down the street, barely aware of her surroundings. The street was deserted and there were no, yet Tara didn't notice any of this. Suddenly, Tara was surrounded by children running past her, the air was filled with the sound of their voices. Just as suddenly they were gone. Tara kept going. After some time she reached her destination. It was a small park on the outskirts of town. Finding a particular tree Tara sat down beneath it and closing her eyes she began to meditate. After a few minutes Tara got up and walked away, leaving her body behind.

***


Tara looked round the landscape uncertainly. Everything was grey and lifeless. There was a faint rushing sound and everything seemed to be moving strangely. She was about to give up on finding anything amongst all this when she saw a patch of red in the distance, then it was gone. However Tara knew that it was Willow and started towards where she'd seen it.

***


Willow tried to get up then sank back to the floor, she just couldn't go on any more. What was the point of trying anyway? Willow didn't want to escape if it was only to have Tara turn away from her. After Willow had been lying still a while she felt a presence in the room. At first she thought it was the creature, yet she couldn't feel any hatred coming from it. In fact all she could feel was concern and love. Suddenly Willow realized that it was Tara. "Tara." she said

"Willow where is this place."

"I don't know. Tara, why can't I see you?"

"I'm not really here, I'm projecting. Willow we're coming for you."

"Tara, I'm so sorry. I used magic, but I didn't have any choice, please believe..." She stopped as she felt another presence.

"Willow you have to run."

"Tara, I can't." She felt the presence getting closer.

"Willow. Run!" Willow heard the last word being shouted in her ear. Almost without realizing she'd done it Willow got up and started running away from the presence.

TBC

[WillowRulez]

I was sitting on the edge of my chair reading this last update!
At first I got a creepy vibe from Kathy but thats probably just paranoia. I hope you are gonna update soon again!

[justin]

WillowRulez: (Indeed she does

I was sitting on the edge of my chair reading this last update!

Cool, that's the affect I was aiming for

At first I got a creepy vibe from Kathy but thats probably just paranoia.

Is Kathy a doughnut or a frog?

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you're liking the story

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: Presented for your consideration. Imagine if it was possible to kill death, what would the consequences be? Willow Rosenberg is about to find out.
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The man who killed death
Part 4


As Willow ran away Tara noticed that there was someone else in the mansion. Tara could tell that whoever it was was very weak. Tara moved towards her when everything went black.

"So you found her then dear." A voice said. When Tara was able to see again she took a moment to work out where she was. Finally she turned her attention to the young woman who had spoken. Hecate smiled at Tara in a kindly fashion before blurring and suddenly becoming middle aged.

Tara started a little at this change and was going to ask about it but she had the feeling that it might seem rude. Remembering that she'd been asked a question Tara answered, "Sort of but I don't know where that place is."

"Don't you? Think about it."

Tara did just that then said, "She's between worlds."

"That's right, the next question is do you know how to get there?"

Tara thought about it some more and said, "Yes I think that I do."

"It won't be easy."

"It seems that nothing important ever is."

"You're too young to be this pessimistic." Hecate, now a young woman again, said.

Tara studied the goddess for a few moments then said, "You're Hecate aren't you? Or perhaps Brighid."

"Right first time, deary." She changed to her mother form and asked, "You were expecting maybe, Aradia?"

"To be honest I wasn't expecting anyone. Though Aradia would seem to be more appropriate since I'm..."

"As you're a follower of the Dianic tradition, well don't worry we won't hold it against you."

"Um, thanks."

"Do you know why you were allowed to return to your previous life?"

"I was told I would be important in a coming apocalyptic battle. Which I'm rather nervous about."

"Good, so Cordy did tell you."

"Nice girl but she didn't seem to be entirely with it."

"As for being nervous, don't be, you'll do fine."

"Um, again thanks. Willow said she'd used magic is there any chance she'll relapse?" Tara hated herself for asking that, especially since she'd been so critical of Buffy, but she had to know.

"That's always a danger."

"Poor girl. She thinks that if she can stop using magic then it'll be as if none of the mistakes she made ever happened."

"But she can't stop."

Tara considered that, It was something that had been bothering her since Willow started floating. "But if she can't stop, what can she do?"

"The real question is what can you do?"

"I have to help her control her powers."

"Right. Now what you should be asking yourself is why she was taken."

"And why now?"

***


After a while Willow came to a narrow passage that seemed to be sloping downwards. The walls seemed to be covered in a translucent slime and Willow kept her arms by her side in order to avoid touching it. After she'd been following the passage for several minutes it opened out in a circular room. There didn't seem to be any light source, yet Willow could see perfectly well. Walking round the walls she saw that there were symbols painted on them. She didn't know what the symbols meant, but she had the idea that they were telling a story of some sort. It soon became apparent that the story was split into two parts. The first was drawn in yellow paint while the second part was drawn in a dark brown liquid that Willow hoped wasn't blood, and seemed to be much more recent. Giving up on the symbols Willow walked to the centre of the room, wondering what she should do now. It was then that Willow noticed that she couldn't sense the presence anywhere. She hoped that this meant that she had lost it. The problem was Willow still didn't have any idea of how to get out of there. Hoping that they might offer some sort of clue Willow went back to the walls and tried again to decipher the symbols.

***


After studying the symbols for some time Willow began to understand the first part. It seemed to be telling the story of a time when people didn't die. However the world soon began to grow overcrowded since people were being born but no one dying. Eventually the people of the world prayed to the gods to do something about this. The gods responded by sending death down to the world. They told the people of the world that it was death that defined life and that without death nothing could live.

Despite this progress Willow still couldn't decipher the second part. There were a couple of symbols that didn't seem to make sense. Going back to the middle of the room Willow sat down and began thinking about it. While she was sitting Willow began to get the feeling that there was something important underneath her. Kneeling down Willow put her hands on the floor and tried to sense what was beneath her. She began to get the impression that whatever it was it was important and that it needed to be dug up. The ground was quite hard but after trying for a while Willow started scraping the earth away.

***


"So now we're missing both Willow and Tara?" Dawn asked.

"It looks that way." Suddenly the door swung open and Tara came in. "Tara where have you..."

Buffy stopped as Tara grabbed the phone and said into it, without dialling a number, "I know where Willow is." She hung up the receiver.

"What was that about?" Buffy asked.

"Do you really know where Willow is?" Dawn asked as well.

"Yes I do." Tara answered Dawn's question. She turned to Buffy and said, "We're going to need their help if we're going to get to her."

"They're the ones who caused this, you know."

"I know that. Willow's trapped and there's something hunting her. We're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to get to her in time."

"Fine, we'll deal with Riley once we've dealt with whatever's after Willow."

"I'm coming." Dawn said.

"No." Both Buffy and Tara said at the same time. Buffy and Dawn both seemed to be surprised by Tara's refusal. She normally went along with Dawn.

"Buffy, there's no need for you to come."

"What are you talking..." Buffy stopped, as she looked Tara in the eyes. Suddenly she understood. "I'm coming." She said firmly.

"Buffy..."

"I'm coming."

Tara nodded, "Why don't you start getting ready, I'll explain to Dawn." Buffy was going to argue, but realising she probably wouldn't be able to dissuade Dawn so she left with a curt nod.

"So what is there to explain."

"Dawn, the thing that's chasing Willow, Buffy can't fight it."

"What are you talking about, she can fight..." She stopped and stared at Tara a while, "You don't think that you're coming back do you?" Tara shook her head. Upstairs they heard the door thumping. "You can't do this to me again."

"I'm sorry but I have to try. I can't just abandon her."

"I know that, but take us with you. We can help." The banging was growing louder.

"Dawn, I will do everything I can to make sure we come back to you." She started towards the door. Pausing she said, "Tell Buffy I'm sorry." With that she stepped out. As Tara walked down the road she said, "I know that you're there." Suddenly she was surrounded by figures, all of them were wearing black.

One of them removed his balaclava and walked over to Tara, "Tara, it's good to see you alive."

"Riley, I would say the same to you but I wouldn't mean it."

"So do you really know where Willow is?"

"Yes. You know if you come with me, chances are you won't come back."

"I'm prepared for that."

"Good because I'm going to need your help."

"We can take the truck."

"No need we're almost there." Tara knelt down to draw some symbols on the floor. As she stood up she said, "There was someone in the house with Willow."

"I guess that must be Katherine Adams. She found Willow after she killed my men."

Tara was going to point out that Willow hadn't killed anyone but she realized that Riley wouldn't listen so instead she said, "She seemed to have been hurt so we better find her first."

"How do you know all this?"

"Magic." With that Tara began casting the spell to get them to the other plane.


When Dawn had let her out of the room Buffy had gone charging out of the house. Seeing Tara surrounded by a group of soldiers she ran after them. Then they weren't there. Buffy stopped and looked around, but she couldn't see any sign of Tara or the soldiers. "Dammit Tara, what are you playing at?"

***


Kathy awoke to the sound of the door swinging open. At first she thought that the creature had come for her. She told herself that was silly since it hadn't needed to open any doors before. Turning she found herself facing a group of identically dressed men. The most notable thing about them was that they were all carrying rifles, and aiming them at her. Then Kathy's eyes fell on the young woman leading them. "Tara."

"Katherine Adams I presume." Tara said. Crouching down beside Kathy she went on, "You don't look well."

"To be honest I don't feel well."

"What do you need?" Riley asked, walking over to join them.

"Right now I need to check my blood sugar levels. Then I can tell you what I need."

"I'm afraid we don't have the equipment for that with us."

"No big. It can wait till we get out of here. Um, we are leaving right."

"We need to find Willow first." Tara said.

"Damn. I was hoping you were going to say you'd already found her."

"Where is she?"

"There's this monster. You can't see it but it really scared me."

"I know about it."

"Oh well Willow left to draw it away from me. I don't know where she is."

Tara nodded. "Riley, tell your men to get Katherine out of the house. Then we can go after Willow."

"Tara, Earlier I went into a coma. Willow had to use magic to save me."

"I know. She told me."

"Oh."

"So Willow has started using again." Riley said.

"You don't understand. She didn't have a choice." Kathy protested.

"There are always choices." Riley said.

Kathy turned to Tara, and seemed to dismiss Riley. "Tara afterwards Willow was afraid."

"That she would lose control again." Tara guessed.

"Partly but she was mainly afraid that she had failed you somehow. That you wouldn't be able to forgive her for betraying your trust, but you do understand why she did it, don't you?"

"Yes I do."

"Good." Tara moved aside so that a pair of the soldiers could put Kathy on a stretcher.

When they had gone Riley said to Tara, "Well then let's find Willow."

***


As Riley and Tara entered the room Riley asked, "What is this place?"

"It's a graveyard." Riley gave Tara a questioning glance, wondering how she knew this. Ignoring him Tara walked to the centre of the room where Willow was kneeling in a small hole. Crouching down next to Willow Tara asked, "What are you doing?"

"Digging." Willow scraped up another handful of mud and dumped it on the pile at her side. Tara grabbed Willow's hands, as she did so she noticed that they were covered in mud and blood.

"Willow why are you doing this?"

"I think that I'm supposed to."

Before Tara could ask anything else Riley crouched down and asked, "Willow what happened to the soldiers?"

"Soldiers?" Willow gave Riley a confused look.

"Willow do you remember how you got here?" Tara asked.

"I was coming home from the flower shop. I think I must have passed out because the next thing I remember is waking up in Kathy's house."

"She's lying." Riley said standing up.

"I am not." Willow protested in an annoyed voice. Turning to Tara she asked, "You believe me don't you?"

Tara gave Willow a reassuring smile then said, "Of course I do."

Willow smiled back then a look of concern crossed her face, "Kathy! You need to find her before..."

Tara put a hand on Willow's shoulder and said, "We already have. Some of Riley's men have gotten her somewhere safe." Nodding Willow went back to her digging. Realising that he wasn't going to get a satisfactory answer Riley got up and wondered round the room. He didn't like the symbols that had been drawn on the walls. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever it was that Willow was digging up.

Walking back to them he said, "I think that you should stop." When Willow ignored him he drew his gun and aimed it at Willow saying "I said stop."

In a soft voice Tara said, "Disarm." The firing pin fell out of Riley's gun and hit the floor with a clank. Tara turned to give Riley a hard look, "I don't like guns. I'm sure that you can understand why."

Riley put the now useless weapon away and giving Tara his full attention he said, "Surely you can see it's a bad idea to disturb whatever's been buried here."

"Tara it's okay." Willow said. Taking Tara's hand she placed it on the ground "Feel."

Tara closed her eyes and sensed what was beneath them. "It's okay." Tara said, opening her eyes again, "Whatever's been buried here has been dead a long time." Turning to face Riley she went on, "Besides I don't think we'll be able to leave until we do."

Riley considered this and was forced to agree with her. Sighing he pulled some parts out of his pack and put them together to form a shovel. He said to Willow, "Move over." Willow climbed out of the hole and Riley began digging. Tara took Willow to the side and began cleaning her hands.

"What was that about soldiers?" Willow asked Tara, "I don't remember any soldiers."

"It was some of Riley's men who took you. I guess they shot you with one of their tasers."

"Riley? Why would he do something that mean?"

"Because of your using dark magic. Because of what you did after I died."

"I guess it is his job to go after monsters, I just never thought that he'd see me as being one. So how did I get away from them?"

"Something killed the soldiers who were escorting you."

"And Riley thinks it was me." Tara nodded. "Do you think that?"

Tara moved Willow's face so she was looking in her eyes, "Of course not."

"I've found something." Riley called. Willow and Tara went over. "Bones." Riley told them, "They look human." Riley kept digging and uncovered several skeletons. "You were right about this being a grave yard." Looking round he went on, "I wonder how many there are."

"I wonder how they all died." Willow added.

Riley climbed out of the hole and wiped his brow, "I wonder how long we've been here."

"I don't think time works the same here. Actually I'm not sure that it works at all." Willow answered.

"Well now what?"

Willow climbed down into the hole and knelt to brush away some of the dirt. "I don't know." She admitted. Suddenly a portal opened beneath Willow and she fell into it.

"Willow." Tara shouted. She and Riley, being further away, were able to grab something to avoid being sucked in.

"What is that?" Riley asked. Tara took just a moment to consider her actions then, letting go of the rock she'd been holding onto, she stepped into the portal. "Tara what are you..." Riley stopped when he realized that there was no point going on. Pulling the rope from the winch on his belt Riley tied it round a rock and started to move towards the portal.


As soon as Tara had gone through the portal she was surrounded by darkness and began falling. As she fell something brushed her hands and grabbing it she realised that it was someone else's hand. "Tara." Willow called grabbing Tara's other hand.

"I'm here Willow." Tara said.

"Where are we?"

"I wish I knew." After they'd been falling some time they came to rest on what felt like ground, though they still couldn't see anything. The only thing they could feel apart from whatever it was they were standing on was each other.

"A little light would be nice." Willow complained. As if obeying her command a faint light appeared. "Oh boy." Willow said. They were surrounded by translucent figures. The figures spread out to the horizon.

"How many are there?" Tara asked.

"A lot?" Willow guessed.

"I think that they are the spirits of those people we found in the graveyard."

"So what do they want with me... I mean us?"

"You were right the first time." Tara said, "It was you they wanted, I just came along for the ride."

"I'm sorry to get you caught up in this."

"Don't be. I couldn't let you go through this alone."

"Thanks." Willow turned to the apparitions and shouted," What do you want?"

"Free us." The words formed in their heads.

"Did you hear that?" Willow asked. Tara nodded. "How do I free them?"

"Free us."

"You're not helping."

"Willow their aura's."

"They don't have any." Suddenly Willow realised what she was saying, "Oh!"

"That's how they died. They had their magic, their life energy drained."

"That sounds like that great one. Could it have killed them?"

"I don't think so. I think that it was something different. I think they died at the same time."

"But there's millions of them,"

"I know."

"So how do I help them?" Suddenly a thought occurred to Willow. "I've been connected to the magic's maybe I can give them their magic back."

"No." Tara said, "All you could do is give them your own magic."

"So I can help."

"No, there's too many of them. Even if you gave them everything you could it wouldn't make any difference and it'd kill you."

"I just want to help them."

"I know that. I do too it's just there's nothing that we can do."

"If we can't help them the question is how do we get out of here?"

"Free us."

"We can't" Willow yelled at them "Don't you get that there's nothing we can do."

"Willow. That thing that was chasing you, do you know what it was?"

"It was just a presence and evil presence. Do you think that it killed them?"

"I don't know. What did you sense when you got near it?"

"Mainly just hatred and pain. Goddess."

"What?"

"I think that it's them. I think that what they were feeling when they died somehow became this presence."

"Because of how they died."

"Yes, however that was.” Willow considered the aspirations around her then said, "I need to check something." she closed her eyes. After a few moments Willow's legs gave way but Tara quickly caught her. Opening her eyes Willow said, "Oh goddess."

"What is it?"

"You were wrong they didn't all die at the same time. I think that they died in groups. Also there aren't millions but billions."

"How did they die?"

"I'm not sure how the first ones died. I do know something drained the life force from every living thing on this world instantaneously. Then someone tried to open a link to another world in order to draw some of the life force from that world I think to reverse what had happened."

"But that wouldn't work. In fact they'd be likely to just kill all the people on the other world."

"That's what happened. They kept trying though."

"How many worlds have they destroyed?"

"Tens, hundreds maybe. Each time they added to the number of souls trapped here."

"So why do they need you?"

"I guess whoever's behind this needs someone to help make the link."

"Someone who is connected to the magics."

"Free us."

"We have to get out of here." Tara said. As if on cue a rope fell down.

"I'd forgotten about Riley." Willow said.

***


As Willow climbed out of the rift Riley grabbed her and helped her away from the portal. He did the same when Tara appeared. "So what was down there?" He asked.

"Later." Tara said. "Right now we need to close the portal up."

"How, exactly?" Willow asked. Tara moved to study the portal. As she got closer she lost her footing and was almost pulled in, but Willow caught her by the arm, "Careful."

Tara gave Willow a grateful look then turned back to the portal. After a while she said, "I think that I know how to close it."

"Oh well that's good." Willow said. Tara motioned Willow over to the far side of the room, "What's up."

"Casting the spell will be easier with your help."

Willow looked at Tara aghast, "You can't be suggesting that I use magic."

"I know you cast that spell on Kathy."

"I didn't want to but I had no choice. I mean she was dying and if there had been any other way..."

"Willow I understand. The thing is your essence has become so strongly attached to the magical energies that you can't just give up magic, it'll always be there."

Willow looked round, an uncertain expression on her face. Finally she said, "I can't. Please don't make me."

Tara put her hand on Willow's arm. "Willow, no one's going to make you do anything. If you're uncomfortable doing this spell then you don't have to." Willow began to calm down a little and gave Tara a look of gratitude. "But some time, when you're ready you're going to have to learn to control this."

"Okay, just not now." Tara nodded then carefully made her way back to the portal.

"What was that all about?" Riley asked.

"Nothing." Tara said, "You wouldn't happen to have a knife would you?" Riley took a knife out from a sheaf then handed it to Tara. Bracing herself behind a rock Tara pointed the knife at the portal and drew a banishing pentagram, while willing the energy from the portal to flow into the knife, then through her into the ground. As she did this the portal faded, then closed.

"Now I get it." Willow said.

"What?" Tara asked, turning to her.

"The second set of symbols. The first one is about how death is necessary for life to exist. The second is about someone trying to kill death."

"Kill death?" Riley repeated, "Is that even possible?"

"It seems so and this person succeeded."

"But if life can't exist without death..." Tara started.

"That's how those people died." Willow finished.

"Wait a minute. Someone killed death, presumably in order to make everyone immortal, but instead it killed everyone?" Riley guessed.

"That pretty much sums it up." Willow answered.

"Ever since that person has been opening up links with other worlds in an attempt to reverse their mistake. Instead all they've done is spread the problem." Tara summed up.

"Like a disease." Willow added.

"Okay very little of this is making sense, but I take it we need to leave." Riley said.

"Pretty much." Willow agreed.

TBC

[Maccoda]

That was awsome! Can you please let Tara kick Riley's ass? He so needs it.

[justin]

Maccoda: Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last update

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: Presented for your consideration. Imagine if it was possible to kill death, what would the consequences be? Willow Rosenberg is about to find out.
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

The man who killed death
Part 5


As they entered the main hall they saw a man standing by the front doors. "That's him." Willow said, "That's the guy who was following us." Noticing the puzzled look Tara was giving her she went on "Which you don't know about because I forgot to tell you about him."

"You can't go now. You haven't done what you were supposed to."

"It was you who killed those people," Willow guessed.

"I was trying to help them, to stop people from dying. How was I to know it would kill them all."

"What about the other worlds you destroyed, were you trying to help them?"

"I know that if I can only find the right world to open a link to then the flow of life force will put right all my mistakes. I've waited so long to get you here."

"What do you mean waited?"

"I couldn't get at you while you were close to the hellmouth. Won't you help me correct my mistakes and help those people?"

"Don't you see you're not correcting anything, you're just making it worse?"

"Then I'll have to..." While they had been talking Riley had moved around to the man's side. Extending his night stick he threw himself at the man. The man slashed through the nightstick with claws made out of energy.

Recognizing the claws Riley said, "It was you who killed my men." He backed away, looking for a weapon.

Suddenly Tara and Willow felt a presence in the room. However the hatred was a lot more intense now and it seemed to be focused at the man Riley was fighting. "Do you feel that?" Willow asked.

Tara nodded, "Is this the thing that was chasing you?" The presence seemed to be moving towards Riley and the man, ignoring Willow and Tara. "We have to help Riley." Willow hesitated a moment, knowing that if she used magic again, that this time she would lose control. Then as the presence began to speed up she knew that, once again, she didn't have any choice. Willow gave a slight nod and Tara linked her hand with Willow's, intertwining their fingers. Willow felt the familiar magical energies flow through her. For a moment she felt as if she was going to lose control, then looking into Tara's eyes she knew that she wouldn't. They turned to Riley and he went flying out of the path of the presence. He flew into a side cabinet, breaking it. For a moment Tara was surprised by how hard they had thrown him. “I guess that'll teach me to use magic when I'm angry,” She thought.

As the presence hit the man he screamed in pain as it burnt his skin and flesh away. Tara was so busy watching this that she didn't notice the fact that Willow's eyes had gone black. As the man died a form began to appear around him. It glowed with a soft white light. Watching it Tara was struck by how beautiful it was, yet at the same time looking at it caused her whole body to ache. Tara remembered a description of death as being so beautiful that it could suck a person's soul from their body. Closing her eyes and turning away Tara shouted, "Close your eyes, don't look at that thing." As she felt it leaving Tara opened her eyes and was glad to see that both Willow and Riley had followed her instructions.

"Where was that thing going?"

Turning to look in the direction it had gone Tara said, "I think to free those spirits we saw."

"You mean bring them back to life?" Willow asked hopefully, then as she realized what it was she went on, "Probably not." Tara put her arms round Willow and held her close. She stroked Willow's back, whilst gently kissing her neck. After a few moments they noticed that Riley was staring at them. "Why not take a picture, it'll last longer." Willow suggested.

"I just realized what an idiot I've been."

"No argument here."

"When I heard what had happened I thought that you'd been consumed by dark magic. That the person I knew as Willow Rosenberg was gone. It's obvious that I was horribly wrong. It probably doesn't mean much but I'm sorry."

Willow shrugged and said, "You're forgiven."

Riley gave her a grateful look then turned to Tara, "Okay." She said after a while,"I forgive you. You might want to stay away from Sunnydale a while though."

"Good idea." Riley agreed thinking that Buffy might not be so quick to forgive him.

"I've got another one." Willow said, "How about getting out of here?" After meeting up with Kathy and the rest of Riley's men, Tara opened up the rift back home.

***


"They're back," Dawn shouted from her post by the window. She squinted at the people who had appeared then said, "Willow's with them." A moment later she heard the door slamming as Buffy ran out to meet them.

"Tara, you are in so much trouble." Buffy said as she met up with the group.

Tara gave her an apologetic smile, "I didn't want you putting yourself in danger."

"I'm the slayer, I'm supposed to put myself in danger." Turning away from Willow Buffy put her arms round her, "Willow we were so worried about you."

"It's alright, Buffy. I'm okay."

Stepping away from Willow Buffy said, "Riley."

"Buffy." Riley replied. Turning to Willow he said, "We're taking Kathy to the hospital."

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"She's the woman who helped me after the soldiers were killed. Didn't you get her message?"

"No." Buffy said as Tara shook her head.

"That'll be because I had one of my men erase the message." Buffy turned to give him an angry look. "I think I'll make sure she gets to the hospital okay." Turning Riley quickly left with his men. They went inside.

"Willow." Dawn shouted as she ran to hug Willow. "I thought I might never see you again."

"It's okay, I'm back now." Willow looked away so that Dawn couldn't see her expression, she realized that she was a long way off being okay.

"So where were you both?" Buffy asked.

"Oh we were just trapped in an alternate reality where everyone had been killed because someone had tried to make everyone immortal by killing Death," Willow answered.

"Okay." Buffy couldn't think of any other answer to that."Well you're back now, and I'm not going to let you out of my sight, ever again." Willow gulped, hoping that Buffy wasn't serious. Looking in Buffy's eyes she realized that Buffy was being serious and gulped again. They went into the living room and Willow briefly explained what had happened to her since being captured by the soldiers.

When she'd finished Willow said, "I think I'd like to get to bed. I'm kind of tired."

"I can understand that. You should get some rest."

"I'll go up with you." Tara said.

When they'd gone Buffy said, "Wow, that's quite some story."

"Don't you believe her?" Dawn asked.

"Of course I do. I'm glad we don't need to worry about Riley trying to capture her again."

"It's good that we know that Willow didn't kill those soldiers." Dawn added, Buffy just nodded.

***


The next morning Buffy went to answer the door. "Hi." The woman there said, "I'm Kathy. Is Willow about?"

"She's just in the shower. You can come in if you want." Buffy moved out of the way to let her in. "I'm Buffy by the way."

"Hi. Willow told all me about you."

"She did?" Buffy said, wondering how much Kathy knew, "What'd she say?"

"Just that you went to high school together and you're her best friend. Don't worry she didn't tell me any of your dark little secrets."

They went through into the kitchen, where Dawn was waiting while Tara made breakfast. "This is Dawn." Buffy said, "Dawn this is Kathy."

"Hi, everybody." Kathy said, with a small wave. "Um, this might seem a strange question, what day is it?"

"Saturday." Buffy answered, giving her a strange look.

"That's what everyone keeps telling me. I'm just having trouble believing that all that stuff happened in one night."

"Yeah well time in alternate realities works differently from time in this one." Dawn explained.

"Right and you're the expert on alternate realities." She stopped as Willow came downstairs, "Hey, I just popped round to see how you are."

"Oh, I'm fine. How about you?"

"Better than I was last night. Thanks again for the whole saving my life thing."

"You're welcome."

"You see you didn't need to worry about your friends not understanding."

"Um, I haven't told them about that part."

"Oh, oops." Kathy said with an embarrassed smile, "Well I was just heading back home but I wanted to see how you were."

When Kathy had gone Buffy asked, "So what was it you didn't tell us?"

"Firstly I was going to tell you it's just it was late last night and..."

"Willow I understand, you didn't want to get into a long conversation last night. So what was it?"

"Well when Kathy went into a coma, we'd lost her medication."

"So how did you help her?" Dawn asked.

"I had to use magic." Willow answered, hesitantly. Buffy and Dawn stared at her a moment without answering, "I wouldn't have done it if I'd had a choice, but I didn't."

"It's okay Willow." Buffy said. Turning to Tara she asked, "Are you okay with this?"

Tara nodded, "Willow's not going to lose control again. I'm certain of that."

"Well you were right about Willow before." Buffy said with a shrug. She wasn't happy about this news but she'd just have to hope that Willow could control her powers this time. She promised herself that whatever was going on in her own life she wouldn't neglect Willow as she had done before.

***


Later that morning Willow and Tara were alone in the back yard. "So are you okay?" Tara asked.

"I'm a bit shaken but I'll live." Willow hesitated then asked, "Did you mean what you said?"

"When I said what?"

"That you didn't think that I'd lose control again."

"Yes I did. You're not the same person you were before."

"How can you be so certain?" Willow asked, wanting to believe Tara but not sure she could.

"Because the person you were a year ago wouldn't be asking me these things. You would never have believed that you could have lost control."

Willow nodded to this. She was more aware of the dangers that came with her power than she had been before. She just had to hope that this was enough to make sure that she didn't repeat her mistakes. "You'll help me, though?"

Tara put her arms round Willow, "Of course I will. Whatever happens we're going to get through it together. At some point you're going to have to learn to control your abilities."

"But not yet."

"Only when you're ready." Willow nodded again. She had hoped that if she stopped using magic then she could go back to being the way she had been before she'd starting using magic but she was starting to realize that that wasn't possible. There would always be times when she'd be tempted to use her powers and unless she learned to use them responsibly then it would just increase the chance of things going wrong.

As they went back inside Buffy said, "Hey you two, Giles just called. He's had this idea that we could all go off on vacation. He's booking a cabin out in the sticks somewhere. It'll probably be really primitive but it'll make a break from the hellmouth. So what do you say?"

"Sure. Now I don't have to worry about strange men whisking me off to alternate realities, It'll be fun. Are Xander and Anya going to be coming?"

"Giles is calling them now."

"How big is this cabin?" Tara asked.

"Don't worry, it should be big enough for the seven of us," Buffy reassured her.

"Actually I was thinking we could ask Kathy. She seemed nice."

"Oh yeah." Willow agreed. "I mean she did almost get killed because of me, so I think it's the least we can do."

"Well I'll let Giles know."

As Buffy left Willow turned to Tara and said, "Well this should be fun. I was thinking we could take advantage of the solitude to start practising."

"You're sure you want to?" Tara asked, not wanting Willow to rush into this if she didn't feel ready.

"Yes. You're right, this is something that I'm going to have to do, so the sooner I start the better."

"I'm really proud of you, you do know that, right?" Willow smiled, hoping that Tara comment wasn't premature.


TBC in Reflections and Introspections

NB I'm going to be moving into a new flat over the next couple of weeks and after that it'll be a while before I have internet access up and running, so it might be a while before the next update.

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: The scoobies go for some R&R
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways


Reflections And Introspections

Day 1

Tara walked quickly away from her home. Her father was in one of his moods. She didn't know what had caused it, she rarely did, she just knew that when he got like this it was best for her to get away until he could cool down.

When Tara reached a small meadow, one she often came to at times like this, she sat down and gazed up at the moon. She wondered if she would make the same mistakes that her mother had or if she would find someone who truly loved her.

***

Willow lay on her bed feeling sorry for herself. She had spent most of the day thinking about Xander. She considered the fact that at some point she'd have to give up this obsession with Xander. She thought about what sort of person she'd want to spend her life with. Whoever it was would have to be kind and honest. They'd be clever and brave. They'd always stand up for the people that they care about. Willow decided to stop, realising that she was in danger of describing someone who couldn't possibly exist.

***

The Summer's household was a hive of activity, with everyone hurrying from room to room getting everything packed up. Buffy stopped in the hallway to drop off a couple of bags. After pausing a moment to figure out how she'd been conned into brining Dawn's things down she bellowed up the stairs, "Are you two ready yet?" Giles was going to arrive at any moment and she wanted to get going as soon as he did.

Willow, who had been coming down them at the time, answered, "There's no need to shout, I'm right here."

"Sorry, but Giles is going to be here soon. Where's Tara?"

"She'll be down in a moment."

***


Tara pulled the bag shut and struggled with the zip, trying to close it. After a few hard pulls she was just about able to get the bag sealed up. Tara took a step back with a sigh of relief, she hadn't been sure she'd be able to get everything in, when someone came up behind her and put their arms around her waist. Thinking that it was Willow, Tara leant back into the embrace while saying, "I've finished packing."

The person kissed Tara's neck then whispered, "You're not leaving again are you, little witch?" Realising her mistake Tara pulled out of the embrace and spun around to see who it was. There was no one there.

"W-who are you? Why do you keep talking to me like this?"

There was no answer. Tara wandered what to do. Buffy had asked to be told if she heard the voice again but Tara didn't want to spoil the trip and she wasn't sure there was anything they could do about it anyway. Deciding it could wait till they got back Tara grabbed her bag and went out.

***


A car drew up outside and a horn sounded. Dawn came running in from the living room, apparently about to explode with excitement, "Giles is here."

"Tara." Willow called.

"Right here." Tara answered from the top of the stairs.

As they went out to the car Tara asked, "Are we all going to fit?"

"It might be a bit of a squeeze." Willow answered, putting her arm round Tara and drawing her close, "But we should be okay." After packing the car up they set off for the cabin.

***


"So is this everything?" Xander asked. He had a case in each hand and a bag slung over his shoulder, and was clearly being burdened down by the weight.

Anya came out after him carrying a small overnight bag, "Yes that's it. Are you sure you know the way?"

"Yes, I've got the route mapped out." He checked his watch then said, "The others have probably set off by now."

"Well then we'd better get a move on." As they got into the car she asked, "So what's the name of that friend of Willow's again?"

"Kathy Adams, I think. Why?"

"I've met her before."

"You have? What's she like?"

"I only met her the once. It was when I was a vengeance demon."

"So it was a business meeting."

"Yeah. Her boyfriend had left her for her best friend.” Anya's face wrinkled with displeasure as she said, “It was not a pleasant job."

"Why? what did she wish for? That is if it wasn't something too gross."

"She didn't wish."

Xander looked confused at this, "Then why unpleasant?"

"Well firstly I had to spend the evening listening to her whining about her boyfriend then when I mentioned getting revenge do you know what she said?"

"No."

"She said that she was flattered and even a little curious but that she didn't swing that way."

Somehow Xander managed to stop himself from laughing out loud. "You mean she thought that you were hitting on her?"

"Yes. It took quite some time to live that one down. It's only recently that the other vengeance demons have stopped talking about it."

"So what do they talk about now?"

"Oh nothing interesting, you know demons, boring really." Anya said quickly, not wanting to explain that the current talk of the demon world was the way that Willow had killed Warren. "So why's she coming again?"

"I'm not sure." Xander admitted, "It was Tara who suggested we invite her, maybe she was just grateful because Kathy helped Willow after she was kidnapped by Riley's men."

"Well it means we're going to have to be careful about what we talk about."

"You mean no mentioning Sunnydale's many secrets or the fact that Buffy's the Slayer? Thanks, I'd already gathered that much."

***

Leaving the highway they came to a narrow road surrounded, on either side, by tall Poplar trees.

After they'd been following the road for half an hour without seeing any other cars Willow asked. "Are you sure we're still on the right road, cause I've had my fill of freaky alternate realities."

"Yes Willow, I'm sure. In fact we should get there any moment..." Before Giles could finish they reached a break in the trees. A short distance off they could see a medium sized wooden building set into the trees. Buffy's first thought was to be relieved. When Giles had said he was renting a cabin she had pictured a small hut, but it turned out it was a lot larger then that. Then it occurred to her that this building didn't seem to have been touched by progress in any way.

As they pulled up at the cabin Buffy said, "Is this it? When did we get transported back to the eighteenth century?"

"Yes well while it might not have all the modern conveniences that you're used to, I'm sure that you'll be able to survive one week here."

"Just tell me one thing. Does it have running water?" Buffy didn't sound too hopeful about this point.

"Yes there is water, and even electricity."

"Oh Giles, you're spoiling us." Willow said from the back of the car.

"Yes, well it's not me. I told the Watcher's Council that this was a training exercise and got them to pay for it."

"If the council are paying for all this then why couldn't we have a five star hotel?"

"Because there are limits to how much they're willing to pay, even for a training exercise." They got out of the car and began unpacking their bags. As they did a car pulled up next to them and Kathy got out.

"Wow, I actually managed to find the right place." She looked over at them and asked, "So is this everyone?"

"No Xander and Anya haven't arrive yet," Willow answered.

Going round the car Giles said, "You must be Katherine."

"I must." Kathy answered, "And you must be?"

"Rupert Giles." Giles said extending his hand, "Though most people call me Giles."

"Okay." Kathy said as she took his hand, "Most people call me... Well I won't say what most people call me but my friends call me Kathy." Getting their bags together they went into the cabin.

***

When they got inside a quick survey of the cabin revealed a problem. "Okay so Dawn and I can take the twin room." Buffy decided, "Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya can have the two double rooms, but that just leaves the one single room."

"That can't be right, I made sure that there would be enough rooms."

"Unless there's another room that we haven't found then there isn't."

"Oh well perhaps I neglected to take Kathy into account when I was booking the place."

"Well that makes me feel appreciated." Kathy said, though her expression indicated that she wasn't too upset. Putting her bag down she went on, "I'll fight you for it."

Taking his glasses off Giles said quietly, "Okay."

Kathy thought about it a moment then said, "Then again, you're old. You probably need the bed more than I do. I mean we don't want you to put your back out or anything."

"Quite, well perhaps we should get unpacked before my bones completely give out."

***

After everyone had unpacked Buffy, Giles and Kathy started getting some lunch while Willow, Tara and Dawn went off to explore the local area.

"So Willow tells me that you're a data entry clerk." Buffy said to Kathy.

"And she's right, I am."

"I'm still trying to work out whether that's better or worse than my job. I work at a fast food place."

"I'd say better since at least I don't have to deal with people all the time."

"And you've recovered from last weeks events?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. I got a bit of an ear bashing from my doctor about not taking proper care of myself but I'll live." Kathy gazed off into space a moment then said, "Of course it would have been a lot worse if Willow hadn't made with the mojo."

"And you're okay with that?" Buffy asked, "I mean with magic and stuff."

"Pretty much. I've got a couple of friends from university who were pretty heavily into Kabbalah. So I'm not entirely inexperienced when it comes to magic."

Buffy turned to Giles for an explanation, "It's a branch of Judaism with strong mystical leanings."

"Oh yeah, I knew that."

***

It was late afternoon when Anya and Xander pulled up at the cabin. "It's looks like everyone else is here." Xander commented as he got their bags out of the boot.

"Of course they are. They've probably been here hours."

As they went in Buffy said, "Hey you're here at last, what took you so long?"

"We got lost." Anya answered.

"I kind of took the wrong turning off the highway." Xander added.

"We got to see some nice parts of California on our little tour."

"Well, hey at least you didn't end up in some weird demon dimension." Kathy said as she came into the room, "I'm Kathy, by the way."

"Xander, and this is Anya."

"Hello." Anya said, relieved that Kathy didn't seem to recognise her. Noticing that someone had left their bag in there Anya said, "Who's the poor sap who's sleeping on the couch."

"That would be me." Kathy said, raising her hand.

"Come on," Buffy said, "I'll show you to your room."

***

Late that evening they all got together in order to have dinner. Tara, Giles and Kathy had spent the last hour or so preparing it. At least Giles and Tara had prepared dinner while Kathy had hovered round them nervously watching what they were cooking. When they'd been eating a while Anya pointed out, "I noticed that Willow and Tara's room is larger than ours. How come we didn't get the large room?"

"Because we got here first?" Willow suggested.

"Only because beady eyes got lost. I don't see why I should suffer just because of that."

"Hey you should just be glad that you got a room." Kathy pointed out.

"And that you're not being forced to share with your sister." Buffy added.

"Hey!"

Deciding to change the subject Kathy said, "So Anya I hear that you co-own the Magic Box."

"That's right. Though I mainly run it, Giles just interferes now and then."

"I am right here." Giles pointed out.

"So what do you sell there? Since I get the impression it's more than just sets of Paul Daniels' magic kit."

"We sell a variety of things. Spell ingredients, mystical tomes and rare artifacts." Giles explained.

"Wow. That sounds cool. Have you thought of opening up branches anywhere else, 'cause I reckon Somerset could do with one."

"We're not ready to start expanding just yet."

"Though maybe in the future..." Anya said, looking as if she really liked the idea.

"Anyway I'm definitely going to have to visit at some point." Kathy went on.

***

It very rarely snowed in Sunnydale. Today like most days was no different, with bright Sunshine and hot weather. That is apart from a small area on the outskirts of the town where it was freezing cold and snowing heavily. The Great One was standing, naked, in the middle of the snow storm on one foot. The demon approached and stopped at the edge of the snow, not wanting to interrupt its master's asceticism. Turning to the demon the Great One said, "You have something to report?"

"We have the prisoners that you requested." The Great One nodded and walked out of the snow storm, as it did a set of robes appearing around it. Pausing a moment he said, "I have been thinking of what the humans have made of this world they've been given. They have made quite a mess of it. It seems that whenever they're not trying to kill each other they're trying to kill themselves." The demon led it into a small room where a young woman was waiting.

She was crying and begging, "Please don't hurt me, don't hurt me."

The Great One walked over to her and taking her face in it's hand turned her to look at it. "Oh what brave new world that has people such as this in it."

"Please." The woman repeated.

"Why waste your energy pleading against what is inevitable?" The Great One asked. Pulling a knife from its robe it ran cut open the palm of its left hand. It did the same to the woman's hand then grabbed hold of it while saying, "My blood to your blood. My essence to your essence." Then it threw the woman across the room. She hit the wall then fell down to the floor. After lying motionless for a while, she jumped up with a snarl, her face transformed into that of a vampire.

Watching her with a bored expression on its face the Great One said, "Bring in the next one."

TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: The scoobies go for some R&R
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways


Reflections And Introspections

Day 2


Tara watched nervously as Sarah approached her. The moment she had been worrying about had come. For the last year Tara had been in love with Sarah but hadn't the nerve to tell her. In a week though she was going to set off to California to start college so if she didn't tell Sarah now she might never get a chance. "Hello." Sarah said she sat down next to Tara, "So are you excited about college?"

"Sort of." Tara answered giving Sarah a weak smile, "I'm a little nervous as well."

"That's probably because you've chosen one so far away. What's wrong with the closer colleges?"

"Well I wanted to see somewhere new." 'Tell her.' A voice said in Tara's head. "I mean it is a time to meet new people." 'Tell her.'

"I guess so. Though I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." 'Tell her.' "I love..." Tara hesitated a moment, "that top."

"You do?" Sarah said with a happy smile. Tara nodded dumbly. "Well I just got it. I wasn't sure that it went with the skirt." Sarah glanced at her watch, "Oh well I've got to go. Good luck at college."

"Maybe I could write her a note." Tara muttered to herself as Sarah walked off.

***


Buffy woke up several times during the night. Each time that she did she found it took ages to get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a while she would lie and watch Dawn, who was sleeping peacefully, with equal amounts of annoyance and jealousy. Finally, as it began to grow light Buffy gave up and got up. Seeing Kathy sitting in the kitchen Buffy said, "So I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep."

"Actually I had to get up for this." Kathy tapped her blood test machine.

As Kathy got a small needle out from the machine and pricked herself on the finger Buffy asked, "Do you have to do that this early every morning?"

"No, I have to take a test at different times every day."

Kathy pressed her finger against a pad on the machine a moment. "Now what?" Buffy asked, curious about what was happening.

"Now we wait."

Buffy yawned and said, "I get the feeling I'm not going to get much sleep here, it's too quiet. Well it's a good thing I'm used to late nights because of patrolling."

"Patrolling?" Kathy asked with a bemused expression. Buffy cursed herself for her slip, though part of wondered why Kathy had to be there, since it made things more complicated. Then Kathy came to her rescue by saying, "Are you part of some sort of neighbourhood watch scheme?"

"That's right, I have to go out every night checking for burglars." Buffy answered, trying to stop her relief from showing too much. After a few seconds the machine beeped.

Kathy read a number off the machine then noting it down said, "That's it."

"That's it?" Buffy repeated.

"I'm afraid it's not very exciting." After cleaning the machine she said, "Well I'm going to see if I can get some more sleep."

"Right, I think; I'll go and claim the showers."

***


When Buffy came back into the kitchen she found Tara sitting in the same spot that Kathy had been in earlier. "So did you sleep well last night?"

"Like a log." Tara answered, "Probably because of all the fresh air."

"So what do you think of this place?"

"It's nice." Tara studied Buffy for a moment then said, "It's a shame we couldn't bring Spike along."

Buffy jumped a little as if shocked, "What makes you say that?"

"Well you have been patrolling with him a lot lately."

"True but we've just been patrolling. I mean I think I could fall in love with him but I've done the whole being in love with a vampire with a soul bit before, and that didn't exactly work out well."

"Buffy, my mother always had a saying, 'Keep Rosemary by the gate, plant Lavender for luck and fall in love whenever you can.'"

"Your mother said that?" Tara nodded. "Cause I was sure that that was actually from the film Practical Magic."

"Oh well either way I think it's good advice."

"Okay I'll keep it in mind."

***


"So you're sure that you want to do this?" Tara asked.

Willow nodded, "That is if you think that I should."

"I do, but I don't want you to feel like I'm pushing you."

"I don't."

"Good. Well we're going to start slowly."

Willow waited a moment then asked, "Slowly, doing what?" Tara smiled then held up a rose. "Oh, but that went wrong last time we tried it."

"I know but I think as long as no evil magicians turn Mr. Giles into a demon then we should be okay." She put the rose on the floor then sat down opposite Willow. They both concentrated on raising the rose picturing it being surrounded by magical energy. Slowly the rose began to float up into the. "Now for the hard part." They concentrated on intensifying the magical energy round the first petal, gently plucking it from the stalk, then letting it drift down to the floor. The did this with the next petal, then the next. Guiding them down to form a small circle. When they had finally removed the last petal they let the stalk slowly fall down to land in the middle of the circle.

"Wow, that was cool," Willow said. Turning to Tara she was surprised to see a disturbed expression on her face. "What's wrong?" Tara nodded towards the mirror. Going over to look at it Willow was upset to notice that her eyes had gone black. Turning back to Tara she said, "But I wasn't doing dark magic, why has this happened?"

"You've still got the dark energy from before in your system. Sometimes when you use magic it's going to come out."

"So this'll happen every time that I use magic?"

"Not every time."

"Just most times."

"You just need to learn how to control this."

"Right." Willow still looked rather worried by the prospect.

***


About mid morning Buffy had suggested that she and Willow have a walk so that they could talk. As they walked along a trail into the woods Willow asked, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I just wanted to talk. It's been a while since we've done that."

"I know and I've missed us talking. We need to talk more often," Willow agreed. "This is a nice area. Lots of trees and stuff."

"Oh yeah, got to have trees." Buffy hesitated a while then said, "Actually there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

Noticing the hesitation Willow got the idea that she wasn't going to like whatever this was about. Still she said, "Go on."

"You remember just after Tara came back."

"Of course, it was only about a month and a half ago."

"Right, well I meant after you told Tara about what had happened, and you asked me how I'd been able to forgive you so easily."

"You said it was because you knew it wasn't me you were fighting."

"Well I wasn't being entirely honest with you, or myself for that matter."

"Oh." Was all Willow could say.

"I'm sorry I mean I should be able to forgive you but I just can't."

"No, I understand. Having your friend attack you isn't something you just get over right away."

"But I want to get over it. I don't want to keep feeling these things. I mean I know what you were going through."

"Do you?"

"Well yeah. I mean I went through the same after trapping Angel in hell."

"I seem to recall you handled it rather better than I did."

"Did I? Running away wasn't exactly the best thing to do. As you all told me afterwards."

"Maybe but it still rates as a lot better than what I did."

"Well I didn't have anyone to blame for what happened to Angel except myself. I mean it was with me who trapped him in hell," As a thought occurred to Buffy she added, "With you all cheering me on."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you remember telling me to kick his ass?"

"I never said that." Willow frowned as she tried to remember exactly what had happened that day.

"But Xander told me that that's what you'd said."

"No, he was supposed to tell you I was going to retry the soul restoration spell."

Buffy thought about it a while, with an annoyed expression, "So Xander lied to me. I should have known."

"Buffy."

"I mean he always hated Angel and he didn't want you to try the spell."

"Buffy!"

"What?"

"Would you have done anything different if you'd known?"

"Well I wouldn't have been trying to kill Angel."

"I mean do you think you could have stopped Angel from starting the ritual if you'd known?"

After thinking about it a moment Buffy had to admit that had she known then she probably would have held back a little and that Angel would have found it easier to start the ritual, "Alright so I probably wouldn't but still I can't believe the jerk lied to me."

"Buffy, it's me that you're angry with."

"What?"

"Well okay so Xander told a little..." She'd been going to say white lie but that didn't seem right, as truth be told she was annoyed with Xander as well. After considering it she went on, "black lie but I'm the one who went all dark phoenixy on you."

"Will, I'm not angry with you. Well not really. I mean most of the time I'm okay it's just sometimes when I remember what happened I just want to hit you."

Willow turned to face Buffy and straightening her back said, "If you think it'll help."

"What?" Buffy said in shock, "No! I'm not going to hit you."

"I just want the air cleared between us."

"I know, but this is going to take time." Willow nodded, looking a little worried, "But I want you to know you're still my best friend and no matter what happens nothings going to change that." Willow smiled at this, obviously relieved. As they walked back Buffy asked, "So how are things between you and Tara?"

"Um..." Willow said, a little uncertainly.

"What? Don't tell me you've fallen out."

"No. Of course not."

"Then what is it?"

"Well we did a spell this morning."

"I think that falls under the heading of too much... Oh, you mean a spell spell. Didn't it work?"

"Oh it went perfectly except for the whole my eyes going black thing."

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, it's not. I mean Tara tried to make out that it was to be expected but I know it worried her."

"I'm sure that you'll be able to sort it out." Buffy said thinking that she was going to have to discuss it with Tara.

***


When Buffy got back to the cabin she quickly found Tara, "Hi. Willow told me that you tried a spell together earlier."

Tara nodded then asked, "Did she tell you about her eyes?"

"Yes. How big a deal is this?"

"When Willow absorbed the magic from those magic books then drained Rack's power, she absorbed a certain amount of their energy into her system. Until she learns how to control it there's a chance of it showing itself like that every time she uses magic."

"So maybe Willow shouldn't use magic."

"If Willow stops again then the energy will just build up, so if she ever does lose control it'll be a lot worse."

"Well is there any way of removing this power?"

"Not that I know of no." Tara said with a shake of her head.

"Maybe we should ask Giles."

"Ask me what?" Giles, who had just come in, asked.

"If there's anyway to remove to remove Willow's powers."

"Well not remove them but there are spells that will bind them."

"No!" Tara nearly shouted. Buffy and Gile's both turned to her, clearly surprised at this outburst.

"Why not?" Buffy asked, "It might be necessary."

"Do you remember why I left?"

"Yeah, because Willow cast that memory spell on you."

"Well doing this to Willow would be a lot worse than that."

"I think that you're overstating things a bit." Giles said.

"I'm not. Buffy if we do this we will be destroying a part of Willow's personality. There's a chance she won't be Willow afterwards."

"That definitely sounds bad. I vote no to doing this."

"Perhaps we should ask Willow. Since it is her who'll be affected." Giles Suggested.

Tara considered it then said, "I'll ask..." She stopped as Kathy came in.

"Hey, I was just going to go for a walk. Anyone else want to come along?"

"I will." Tara said. As they set off she asked, "So was there anywhere in particular that you wanted to go?"

"No I just felt like exploring." A trail led away from the cabin so they followed that. "I don't mean to intrude but things seemed to be rather tense back there."

"How much did you hear?"

"The others want to do something to Willow but you don't. I take it, it has something to do with her addiction to magic."


"Willow told you about that?" Kathy nodded, "And you believe it?"

"Well I like to think of myself as being open minded, in a skeptical kind of way. Willow also said that she hurt her friends, that she hurt you." Tara nodded, a sad expression on her face. "Is that what Buffy was talking about when she said Willow had cast a memory spell on you?" Noticing Tara's expression she said, "You know just tell me if I'm being nosy, 'cause I have a tendency to be."

"No, it's okay. It's just I don't know what to do. Mr Giles thinks that Willow is going to lose control again."

"But you don't."

"No. I'm just worried that I might think that because I don't want to think otherwise."

Having reached the top of a hill they stopped a moment. "I wish I could offer some advice but I really don't know the best thing to do."

"That's okay. It's helped to talk about it."

Kathy gazed out over the landscape a moment, "Quite some view isn't it?" Tara nodded in agreement. "I used to live in the Peak District and basically when you got out of the city everywhere you looked you had views like this."

"It sounds nice."

"It was. Lot's of beautiful scenery, well the parts that hadn't been developed anyway."

"Do you ever miss England?"

"Sometimes I guess. But, you know, one country's pretty much like another." They both watched the view a moment, "I think that you should ask Willow."

"I know. It's just..." Tara hesitated, "I'm worried that if I do then she'll agree not because she wants to but because she thinks that she should."

"That is a problem." Kathy agreed.

***


Tara woke up in the middle of the night. For a moment she didn't know what had woken her up. "No don't." Willow moaned, kicking Tara in the leg as she did so.

Tara lifted herself up slightly and murmured "Willow, it's okay, shh" As she did so she gently caressed Willow's am. After a while Willow began to quieten down. Resting on one arm Tara gazed at Willow for some time, thinking about everything that they had gone through, in the past, and all that they would most likely go through in the future. Tara realised that none of that mattered and that there was nothing that she wouldn't do for Willow.


Day 3


As the train made it's way to Sunnydale Tara stared at the note in her hand. She had written it out ready to give to Sarah but hadn't had the nerve. The problem was she hadn't had a chance to see Sarah and had been afraid that if she gave it to someone else they might read it. Putting the note away Tara tried to convince herself that it was better this way. That she was about to start a new life with new people so it'd be best to make a clean sweep of things. Somehow it didn't work.


***


Willow was woken by the sound of birds outside her window. Rolling over to look at time she grumbled, "Stupid birds, couldn't they have waited another hour." Feeling Tara wake up beside her she turned to look at her girlfriend and said happily, "Good morning."

"Morning." Tara replied sleepily, "What time is it?"

"Early." Willow said, "Too early, stupid birds." Willow stopped complaining as Tara leaned over and kissed her. "Well I guess there are advantages to waking up early. I love you."

"I love you too." Tara said. "I always will."

"Will you? Whatever happens?" Tara nodded uncertainly, not sure where this was going. "Even when I'm like this?" Willow closed her eyes and sensed the magical energies flowing around her. Drawing some of the energy into herself Willow opened her eyes again, knowing that they would have gone black.

Tara shuddered a little, then pulling Willow into an embrace she said, "Willow this isn't you."

Willow pulled away then said, "I've heard that before. Well fine if it's not me then who is it?"

Tara considered her answer awhile before saying, "You're right this is a part of you but we all have our dark sides."

"Most peoples dark sides don't make them kill people or attack their friends."

Tara studied Willow a while, noting the worry on her face. She didn't want to bind Willow's powers but she knew that it would be wrong to not let Willow have that choice. "Willow there is a way to remove your powers." She said carefully.

"There is? Why didn't you tell me? Let's do it."

"Willow slow down. You have to think about this..."

"What's there to think about? I can't risk hurting my friends again. I can't risk hurting you again." Willow said the last part more forcefully.

Tara tried to think of the best way to put this that would make Willow understand exactly what she was suggesting, "Willow you could hurt people with your hands. Would you agree to have your arm's cut off?"

"Nu huh." Willow answered forcefully, "Will this spell be like that?"

"Maybe or maybe worse. You see in some ways this spell is like a magical lobotomy. It's possible that you won't be you afterwards."

"I can see that being bad."

"Think about it." Tara said, "But only do this if you're absolutely certain that this is what you want." Moving away from Willow Tara went to get a small notebook. Coming back she handed it to Willow saying "The spell is in here."

"What do you think I should do?"

Tara kissed Willow then said, "This isn't about what I think."

"Okay. Well I guess I should get ready." Willow got up and went to the bathroom. When Willow had gone Tara prayed that she wouldn't have to cast the spell on Willow.

***


Willow walked out to the copse of trees where she'd spoken to Buffy the day before. Sitting down she thought about what Tara had suggested and the consequences. Opening the notebook that Tara had given her she began reading the description of the spell. Willow was just thinking that it didn't seem too bad when she turned the page and found a warning that the spell could have dire consequences. The warning said it should only be used in extreme circumstances.

"I guess the question is, does this count as being extreme enough?" Willow wondered to herself.

Just after they'd gotten back from the alternate reality Willow had decided that she wanted to learn Tarot. The next day Tara had bought her a set of cards. Getting those cards out Willow began to clumsily shuffle them. They were larger than normal playing cards and Willow kept almost dropping them. After shuffling the cards for a while Willow cut the deck and took the top card. It was the page of cups. This didn't really help much. Willow was about to put the cards away when she decided to do a five card spread. The first card, in the past position, was the five of cups, reversed. The card in the present position was the moon. The card in the hidden influence position was the page of cups, the advice card was the two of pentacles while the final outcome card was the ten of swords. Again Willow wasn't sure how these cards related to her problem.

Deciding that the cards weren't going to help her Willow put the cards away with a sigh, she was going to have to come up with her own answers. The question was would she ever lose control of her powers or, perhaps more importantly, of herself again? Hecate had said that the reason for her downfall had been her pride and her overconfidence in her abilities. Right now she was more away of the dangers but would that always be the case. If she began using magic to help Buffy again and it worked out, would she ever start believing that she was infallible again? Then, remembering how it had felt when Tara had left Willow realised that as long as she remembered that, that would never happen.

***


When Willow got back to the cabin Kathy was in the front room, reading. "What's that you're reading?" She asked. Kathy held the book up so Willow could read the title. "You know witches don't actually ride broom sticks."

"What, not even silver ones?"

Willow sat down before answering, "'Fraid not."

"Oh." Kathy glanced at the page she'd been reading then said, "There's a bit in here about magical names. Have either you or Tara got one?"

"We talked about it but there didn't seem to be much point." Seeing the look Kathy was giving her and guessing what she was going to ask Willow went on, "That's because when a witch chooses a magical name they'll often name themselves after a sacred tree, like the Willow, or a goddess, like for example..."

"The Goddess Tara." Kathy finished, "I see what you mean about there being no point." She put the book down then said, "You know I've been thinking about what happened, you know in that other place. That did really happen, right?"

"Yes it did."

"Oh, it's just I can't get rid of the nagging feeling that I dreamt it or it was all just a psychotic episode. Well that was all pretty weird, wasn't it?"

"Yes it certainly was that."

"Well it was nice of you to invite me. You've got some cool friends, in a dorky kind of way."

"They are pretty amazing, though it was Tara's idea."

"It was? Well, you know, I like her a lot, she's got a level head on her shoulders."

"Actually I was looking for Tara."

"Oh well she's round the back."

***


Willow found Tara on the back porch sitting on the swing chair. Willow went and sat next to her. "Tara I need to ask you something and I need you to be totally honest with me."

"Of course." Tara answered, trying to not sound as nervous as she felt.

"Do you think that I'll ever lose control, that I'll ever be a threat to my friends?"

Tara turned to look into Willow's eyes and said, "No, I don't."

Willow studied Tara for a while then took the notebook out of her jacket saying, "Then I guess that I don't need this then."

Tara smiled as she put the book away then said, "I was hoping that you'd say that."

***


A vampire was walking into the compound with a bag of blood in its hand. It was about to open the bag when a second vampire grabbed the bag while knocking it down. It jumped up, its face transformed, and jumped at its attacker, only to stop in mid air. Both vampires turned and saw that it was being held by the Great One, though it hadn't been anywhere nearby a moment ago. "I will not tolerate fighting." The Great One said. Throwing the vampire across the room it went on "And I will not tolerate troublemakers." the second vampire ran towards the exit, on the opposite side of the room, stopping as it saw the Great One standing in the doorway, holding a sword. With a flick of its wrist the Great One sent the vampires head tumbling to the floor.


TBC

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: The scoobies go for some R&R
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

Day 4

As Tara made her way to her next lecture she paused to glance at the notices posted on the wall. There was nothing interesting there so she was about to go, when she spotted an advert for a Wicca Group. At first Tara thought she'd misread it and it would be about making furniture but rereading the notice she saw it did indeed say Wicca. Both Tara's mother and grandmother had been practicing Witches and Tara had developed a strong interest in Witchcraft in general, And Wicca in particular. However her father had never liked magic being performed in the house so with a sigh Tara turned and continued on towards the lecture hall. She'd gotten a few paces when Tara reminded herself that the reason why she'd chosen a college so far from home was that she wouldn't have to obey her fathers rules. Turning back Tara went to get the details from the notice.

***

Xander walked out to back porch and swatted at the insect that was hovering around him. He wondered what it was about him that made him so attractive to all the local bugs. Noticing Willow sitting quietly on the bench he said, "Hey Willow, you alright?"
"Fine. I was just thinking. What about you? It's not often we see you without Anya."
"Well we have been kind of busy, planning the wedding and all."
Willow nodded earnestly, "True you don't have very long."
"Well it's going to be a lot smaller this time, with less demons."
Willow looked at Xander innocently, "You mean that your family's not going to be there?"
"Funny Will." Xander hesitated then ask;ed, "Have I done something to upset Buffy?"
"Has she said anything?"
"No, it's just a few times I've noticed her frowning at me."
"Xander, we know."
"Know what?"
"About Angel'."
"I'm still not sure what it is you're supposed to be knowing."
"That you lied to Buffy. Told her that I'd said to kick his ass."
"Oh, that. You do know why I did it, don't you?"
"Because you hate him?" Willow suggested.
"Well, um yeah." As Willow got up and walked over to him he said, "I really am sorry."
"Thanks but I'm not the one you should apologise to."
"I know." Then as something occurred to him Xander went on, "But I don't think that I was talking about Angel'."
"Then what?" Looking into Xander's eyes she suddenly realised, "Oh, that wasn't your fault."
"Wasn't it? You won't believe the number of times I dreamt about that day, that I just..."
Willow reached up to put her hand on Xander's arm, "Xander, don't. It's okay now."
"Is it?"
"No but it's going to be." As she said this Willow moved closer to Xander and they both hugged each other.
Buffy had been about to go out the back when she had seen that Willow and Xander talking. A broad smile had slowly appeared on her face as she'd watched her two best friends embrace each other. She was starting to hope that Willow might be right.

***

When Willow got to their room she found Tara sitting on their bed reading a book. "What's that you've got there?"
"I was just reading my old journal. It's the one I told you about."
"The one where you found the spell to find me?"
"Yes. I don't remember writing most of it."
"Well you wrote it a long time ago."
"Also I had a bad case of flu when I was writing it, so some of it doesn't make much sense."
"I can understand that. I had to write an essay while I had the flu and a lot of that was nonsense. Which is probably why I only got an A minus." Looking up Willow noticed Tara had a surprised look on her face, "What's up?"
Without looking up from the book Tara said, "Listen to this 'One is for the key, weak, yet strong; two is for the slayers, doomed to die young; three is for the witches, doers of good; four is for the vampires, drinkers of blood; five is for..."
"For what?" Willow asked, wondering why Tara had stopped.
"I don't know it stops there."
"And you wrote that when you were twelve?"
"Yeah. I wonder what made me write it."
"I wonder why you found it now." Willow added.
"Well I was going through all my books to try to find a way to find you."
"I know but with everything that's going on, it seems like more than just a coincidence." Willow stared at the book a moment, then said, "I think I'll read through it, see if there's anything else in here. That is if you don't mind."
"No I don't mind." Tara said closing the book and handing it to Willow. Noticing the way Willow was staring at the cover she asked, "Is something wrong?"
"It's just that for some reason this book looks really familiar."

***

"I just spoke to Tara," Giles said.
"Oh yes?" Buffy responded dreading what Giles was going to say next, worried that Willow might have decided to have the binding done.
"It seems that Willow does not want to do the binding."
"Oh, well I have to say I'm relieved, I mean I didn't like the sound of it."
"Quite."
"I suppose you're going to say that this is a bad thing."
"To be honest I'm not sure. Tara was right when she said it could have a profound affect on Willow. I guess we just have to hope that she's right about Willow being able to stay in control this time." Buffy nodded to this while thinking that this time, whatever was going on in her own life she wouldn't lose track of what was happening to her friends, as she had done too many times in the past.

***

Tara slowly brushed her hair as Willow read through her notebook. Pausing a moment Tara glanced at Willow in the mirror. As this went on for several seconds it amazed Tara that she still felt so much happiness and love just from watching Willow studying something. This happiness faded as Tara remembered what she was going to do the next day. She began to grow nervous and wondered what Willow would say. Tara tried to push this nervousness down telling herself that she had decided to spend the rest of her life with Willow and that it was time to let the rest of the world know this.

TBC

[watty]

I'm trying to catch up, cos there's so much to read! yay!

The Rapture -- so much happened, and the threat of the spiders and this great one ... to me, it represented the physical manifestation of the threat. The inner threats, the insecurities, they're so much harder to fight. For this reason I don't think it's as simple as killing those spiders and the Big Bad will go away, each Scooby must face their own demons.

I still don't like Beth, she represents the people who refuses to see what is happening around her. After all the proof, after seeing what she has seen, why does she still think Tara brought this upon herself by leaving?

Buffy and Spile. Argh! I don't like this pairing, but they seem to have reached a compromise.

Xander and Anya. I'm glad they're coming to an understanding.

Willow and Tara. Sigh. Oh my. When will they take the doubts away and act on the love they say they have for the other? Even after Tara dying and Willow in hospital do they not realise they are stronger together? Willow ending up on the ceiling, being affected by the magic ... this to me shouts a warning that she cannot stay away from magic, it is in her and she needs to use it and control it, not ignore it.

The Man who Killed Death -- I found it creepy when I first read it, and it's still very creepy this time round. Being lost in a mansion in the middle of nowhere with a scary evil presence after you, that's one of the reasons why I don't watch horror films.

I guess this episode is needed to show Willow how the magic will always be inside her and with her living on the hellmouth, she cannot deny it cos there will be circumstances where it is absolutely necessary.

Tara did good with her astral projection and finding Willow, though I don't get the sense that they're back to where they were in terms of their relationship, there's a lot of talking, but not much loving and emotions. Heehee, that's just me complaining that there aren't enough kisses and gay lovin'.

The idea of

Someone killed death, presumably in order to make everyone immortal, but instead it killed everyone

is so icky, how can that guy be so stupid?

Reflections And Introspections - I like how you've included snippets of Tara's earlier life and thoughts, we see few enough of those already. I'm thinking this part is more Tara focused, after the last part which was Willow focused. Still, Willow's dark magic is the overriding fear factor. And they still don't seem to be displaying the little PDAs that they used to. The B/W/X conversation was necessary too.

This happiness faded as Tara remembered what she was going to do the next day. She began to grow nervous and wondered what Willow would say. Tara tried to push this nervousness down telling herself that she had decided to spend the rest of her life with Willow and that it was time to let the rest of the world know this.

Letting the rest of the world know that she wants so spend the rest of her life with Willow is good, but why the nervousness? Now you are tempting me, cos i have like 2 shelves of binders with printed fics ... ... no, I'll wait for the update.
[br]

[justin]

The inner threats, the insecurities, they're so much harder to fight

This is certainly true, which is what makes the big bad in Mary's latest story so scary

I still don't like Beth, she represents the people who refuses to see what is happening around her. After all the proof, after seeing what she has seen, why does she still think Tara brought this upon herself by leaving?

I think the problem Beth has is that by accepting Tara isn't to blame she needs to accept that almost everything she knows is wrong. I don't see her as having the strength of character to do that. Though if it's any consolation her punishment is being stuck with the Maclays for the rest of her life.

Buffy and Spile. Argh! I don't like this pairing, but they seem to have reached a compromise.

I don't like Buffy and Spike either (I much prefer Buffy/ Faith but even Buffy/Riley is better than Spuffy) I mainly went towards them getting together because Lainee, my beta, was a Spuffy fan. Figuring out how to handle their relationship did cause me a lot of trouble, which is partly why I killed Spike off so quickly in The Cathedral and The Bazaar.

The Man who Killed Death -- I found it creepy when I first read it, and it's still very creepy this time round.

Good, that's what I was going for. I found it creepy when I was writing it so I'm glad people reading it are finding it as creepy.

Tara did good with her astral projection and finding Willow, though I don't get the sense that they're back to where they were in terms of their relationship

I think this is more due to poor writing than any actual distance between them. To be honest I think my weakest spot is emotional scenes... and descriptive writiing

my two weakest spots are emotional scenes and descriptive writing and coming up with character names

my three...

okay, enough with the Monty Python homage

I suspect that the lack of kissing and gay love has been one of the main things that has put people off this story (at least I hope so since that's so much better than it being rubbish)

is so icky, how can that guy be so stupid?

We don't find out the reasons for his acts but I'd guess he probably lost someone close to him and was maddened by grief.

no, I'll wait for the update.

About that. I wll probably post the remaining parts of this story but it's doubtful that I'll be posting the remaining stories of the series.

To be honest I think posting the series was a mistake. I probably should have learnt my lesson after The Cathedral and the Bazaar but *shrugs* I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

[justin]

Title: Times of Darkness, Times of Light
Author: Justin
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting.
Distribution: Anyone can take it, just let me know
Summary: The scoobies go for some R&R
Note: If the story seems familiar, then tha's because it was origionally posted on the Wiccan Ways

Day 5


Tara approached the meeting room with a certain amount of trepidation. She had no idea who these people were or what they were like. As her imagination began to run wild Tara wondered if they were really Satanists and the adverts were just a ruse to lure people to be used as human sacrifice. Tara was on the verge of leaving when she stopped herself. She told herself if she was going to give in to silly worries like this then she might as well go home and resign herself to being her father and brother's slave for the rest of her life. Going into the room Tara was relieved to see that the group was made up of girls who were all about her age. In fact she recognised a couple of the girls from her classes. As she sat down on the floor next to Maria, a girl Tara had spoken to a couple of times before, Maria said, "Hi Tara, I didn't know that you were into the whole Wicca thing."

Tara nodded and said, "My m-mother was..." She stopped as she noticed that Maria had turned away from her and was listening to someone else.


***


"Are we almost there yet?" Willow asked, sighing with exertion and wiping her brow.

Tara smiled at Willow's antics then assured her, "It's just a bit further. Though we haven't been travelling that far."

"Maybe you haven't, but then you haven't been carrying this heavy basket."

"I did offer to carry the basket, besides we're here."

Looking round Willow said, "Oh, wow." They were standing on the small hill that Tara and Kathy had found earlier. "That's quite some view."

"I thought you'd like it." Getting a blanket out of the basket Tara lay it out on the ground then they both sat down on it and started getting the food out.

When they'd finished eating they sat in a companionable silence. After a while Tara reached out with her left hand to take Willow's. Stroking the back of Willow's hand with her thumb she said, "There was something that I wanted to ask you."

Turning to her Willow smiled and said, "Actually there was something that I wanted to ask you as well. But you go first."

"No, you can go first."

"Well okay then. I spoke to my mom earlier. We're going to see them tomorrow for dinner."

"We are?" Tara said, a little shocked. She hadn't met Willow's parents yet and was starting to think that she never would.

"Yes we are. I'm not taking no for an answer." Willow thought about it a moment then added, "That is unless you really don't want to. I mean I'm not going to force you."

"Willow, I'd love to meet your parents."

"Really?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" As she said this Tara thought that no matter what Willow's family had to be better than her own.

"Well I'll remind you of that after tomorrow. So what was it you wanted to ask?"

"Oh, well maybe this is a little early. Then again we have been together for going on three years now and you only live once." Tara paused a moment then corrected herself, "Well twice in my case."

"Tara you can ask me anything."

"I hope I can.” Tara stopped and corrected herself, “I mean I know I can." She then surprised Willow by getting up on one knee. This surprise grew as Tara pulled a ring box from her pocket and opening it said, "Willow Danielle Rosenberg, will you marry me?"

"Oh my." Was all Willow could say. Then without any further hesitation she said, "Yes, yes, yes. Of course I'll marry you." Willow threw herself at Tara and started kissing her.

***


When Willow and Tara got back to the cabin they were both in quite a state. Seeing Buffy laughed and asked, "Have a good picnic?"

"You could say that." Willow answered holding her hand out so that Buffy could see it.

After a couple of moments Buffy grabbed Willow's hand saying, "Oh my god Willow." Willow smiled at her friends reaction, though it faded a little as Buffy went on, "Where did you get this nail polish?"

"It's one I just had lying around." She glanced meaningfully at her wedding finger.

After awhile Buffy realised what she was supposed to be looking at, "Wait, you're engaged?"

"That's right."

"How? When?"

"Tara asked me just now and just now."

"Oh my, that's wonderful." Buffy hugged Willow then went to hug Tara.

"I'm just going to tell Xander." Willow left with a large, relieved smile on her face. Shed been a little worried that Buffy might be a little jealous now both Willow and Xander were engaged while she was still single. Well there was Spike but Willow didn't really see there being any weddings in their near future.

"So it was you who proposed?" Buffy asked Tara when Willow had gone.

"That's right." Like Willow, Tara didn't seem to be able to stop grinning.

"Wow. I'd always imagined that it'd be Willow to ask."

"You mean you've thought about us getting married." Tara definitely hadn't expected this.

"Yes. It was just we found out about Xander and Anya, I thought a few times about how great it'd be to have a double wedding. Are you going to?"

"We decided against it. I mean when Xander and Anya marry they should have all the attention."

"You're worried that he's going to run out on the wedding again, aren't you?"

"Well we don't think he will but if he did..."

"It would kind of ruin your wedding. Though what about Willows parents, I mean you haven't even met them yet."

"I'm going to tomorrow. Willow had already arranged it."

"Well that's good. Hopefully Sheila will manage to get your name right."

***


That night there was celebratory mood to the group. Everyone was overjoyed by Willow and Tara's news and told them so many times.

Anya had gotten Tara off on her own and was saying, "Now I'm sure that Willow won't ditch you the way Xander did me, but in case she does, I'm still friendly with a few vengeance demons, who'll help you in an instant."

"Thanks but I'm sure it won't be necessary."

"No, it probably won't." Anya was going to say more when Willow approached them and said, "We should probably be getting to bed." Tara nodded and they both left.

In their room Tara said, "So this is our last night here, this week seems to have gone quickly."

"Yeah holidays always do." Willow agreed.

"I like Kathy, she seems very friendly."

"She said that she likes you too."

"She did?"

"Yeah. She said you've got a level head on your shoulders, or something like that."

"It's weird, when I just felt this connection to her." Tara shook her head, "It's probably nothing."

"Maybe not, you do seem to be a good judge of characters."

"Maybe."

***

"This human wishes to speak to you." The demon said.

The Great One looked the human up and down before asking, "Why should I want to talk to you?"

"I understand that you're some sort of netherworld bigwig."

The Great One didn't seem particularly impressed as it asked, "How do you know that?"


"I work at Willy's Place, I hear things."

The Great One gave the demon a questioning look, "A local bar where demons hang out."

"You still haven't told me why I should listen to you." The Great One said to the human.

"I can help you. With the Slayer."

"The Slayer is irrelevant."

"Yeah well, you're not the first person to think that."

"True. But why do this? You do realise I intend to kill all humans on this planet."

"Yeah but I thought that you might make exceptions if someone had been helpful."

"Just how stupid are you?" The Great One asked. The demon grabbed the human and held him in place as the Great One went on, "You don't get it. There will be no exceptions. You either hang together or you hang separately." It turned and walked away as the demon snapped the human's neck.

TBC