Buffy and I were pulling ourselves up from the floor after Giles had put Willow down with magic temporarily.

"Giles?" I asked.

Anya looked over, standing up.

"Giles," Buffy told him in relief.

Giles looked at us grimly.

"Uh-oh," Willow told us sarcastically. "Daddy's home. I'm in wicked trouble now."

Willow sat up, wiping her bloody nose with her hand, looking at the blood, wiping again. Her hair was still black, and her face was still covered with dark veins, although her eyes were normal.

"You have no idea," Giles told her. "You have to stop what you're doing."

Willow smiled fakely. "Uh, sorry. Can't do that." Giles walked closer. "I'm not finished yet."

Willow started to try to get up, somewhat shaky.

"Neither am I," Giles told her. "Stay down."

Giles gestured to Willow with one hand, using magic to make her fall back onto the floor.

Anya looked at Giles. "How'd you do that?"

Willow gave out a smile laugh. "That's borrowed power. No way is it gonna be strong enough--"

"I'm here to help you," Giles told her.

Willow rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I can kill a couple geeks all by myself. But, hey, if you'd like to watch... I mean, that's what you Watchers are good at, right? Watching? Butting in on things that don't concern you?"

"You concern me, Willow," Giles told her. "Stay on this path, and you'll wind up dead."

"Willow, listen to him," I told her. "I don't want to fight you anymore."

"I don't want to fight you either," Willow told me. She looked at Giles. "I wanna fight him."

Willow used magic to rise herself up to her feet without apparent effort.

Giles made his gesture again. "Stay down."

Willow made her own gesture that blocked his magic. "No." Giles looked a little alarmed. Buffy and I looked at them warily, worriedly, moving over to stand beside Giles. "Remember that little spat we had before you left?" Anya watched nervously. "When you were under the delusion that you were still relevant here?" Willow walked closer. "You called me a rank, arrogant amateur. Well, buckle up, Rupert." A magic light from nowhere began to light up Willow's body, her eyes going black again as a humming noise began to rise in pitch and volume. Willow spoke in a deep resonant voice. "'Cause I've turned pro. Asmodea, bring forth--"

Giles gestured toward Willow. "Vincive!"

Green magic energy shot out from Giles' hand, forming a band around Willow's torso, pinning her arms against her body. It glowed with a green light that made Willow's skin appeared green too.

Willow was confused and shocked, struggling to get free. "What? No. Get off! Solva libero--"

Giles continued holding out his hand toward Willow. Willow seemed to fall unconscious, leaning her head body, her body floating up into the air, hovering about a foot off the floor. The band of magic holding her changed to a more contained blue-gray color.

Anya, Buffy and I watched in surprise, warily.

"What did you do?" Buffy asked.

"Contained her and her powers within a binding field," Giles answered. "It puts her in a kind of... stasis for the time." He looked at us, pausing when he noticed Buffy's shorter haircut. "You cut your hair."

Buffy and I looked at Giles, getting teary eyed, hugging Giles tightly in relief, having missed him so much.

Anya watched us hugging, walking up behind us, fidgeting for a moment. "I'm blonde." We looked at her, still hugging. "I--I colored my hair. Again. I'm blonde."

"Yes, I noticed," Giles told her, holding out his arm. Anya joined the hug as the three of us girls hugged Giles tightly, finally pulling away after a moment. We all looked at Willow. Giles walked over to Willow. "I'm very sorry about Tara."

Giles looked sad, standing there for a moment, starting to walk away.

Willow started to wake up. "This..." Giles paused, looking at her in surprise. Willow opened her eyes a little, craning her neck toward him. "...won't hold me... forever."

Buffy, Anya, Giles and I looked at Willow grimly in alarm.

     ~~~~~~ 

Buffy, Giles and I were talking in the workout room at the back of the magic shop. Buffy was standing by the pommel horse.

I was picking nervously at the practice dummy in the corner.

Giles was pacing. "I came as soon as I heard."

"The Council?" I asked.

"The Council haven't a clue," Giles answered. "About much of anything, really." I walked toward them, leaning on the horse. "No, there's an... an extremely powerful coven in Devon. They sensed the rise of a dangerous magical force here in Sunnydale. A dark force, fueled by grief."

"Willow," Buffy told us.

"I'd so hoped it wasn't her," Giles told us. "And then a seer in the coven told me about Tara. That's when the coven... imbued me with their powers."

"And send you here to bring Willow down," Buffy told him.

Giles looked at us. "What's happened here?"

I sighed, starting to pace. "God, I don't even know where to start."

"Well, Willow's clearly been abusing the magics," Giles told us.

Buffy nodded. "She has. She was... and we barely even noticed. Giles, everything's just been so..." She sighed. "Xander left Anya at the alter, and Anya's a vengeance demon again." Giles looked shocked. "Dawn's a total klepto, because she feels left out whenever Zoey or Layla have to bail to go work. Money's been so tight that I've been slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace. And Zoey's been sleeping with Spike."

I gave her a look, speaking sarcastically. "Way to rat me out to Giles the first night he's home. Like, 'Dad, Zoey did something wrong!'"

Giles looked between us, suddenly starting to laugh, covering his mouth with his hand, but couldn't stop, trying to calm down. "Sorry."

Buffy rolled her eyes.

I smirked slightly in amusement. Giles was still laughing, and both Buffy and I started to laugh with him.

     ~~~~~~ 

We were still laughing.

"And a demon made you believe that all of this were just figments of your imagination?" Giles asked.

"All of it," Buffy answered. "You, Sunnydale, all our friends. And I was just some nutcase in LA." 

Giles smiled, laughing. "Of course. Why didn't we see it before?" We all slowly stopped laughing, becoming much calmer before. "Can you forgive me?"

"For what?" I asked.

"I should never have left," Giles told us.

"No, you were right to leave," Buffy told him. "We're just... stupid."

"I know you're all stupid," Giles told us. I smiled. "I should never had abandoned you."

"No, Giles, you were right about everything," Buffy told him. "It is time we were adults."

"Sometimes the most adult thing you can do is... ask for help when you need it," Giles told us.

"Now you tell me," I told him. We smiled, chuckling a little. I looked down. "I guess... I wasn't ready before. It took a long time for that feeling to go away. The feeling that I wasn't really here. It was like... when I clawed my way out of that grave, I left something behind. Part of me. I just... I don't understand... why I'm back."

Giles looked at me sympathetically in concern. "You have a calling."

I sighed. "Right. What's gonna happen to Willow?"

Giles straightened up. "Well, the coven is working on a... way to extract her powers without... killing her. And, uh, should she survive, you ought to know, that there's no guarantee she'll... be as she was." I looked at him in worried concern. "Willow has killed a human being. How will she be able to live with herself?"

We heard Willow's voice. "I wouldn't worry about that." We turned toward the doorway, seeing Anya hovering in the doorway, apparently unconscious. Willow stepped around Anya to come into view, her eyes black again. "Willow doesn't live here anymore."

Willow let go of Anya, letting her fall to the floor.

We looked at her in alarm.

     ~~~~~~ 

Willow stood in the doorway over Anya's unconscious body.

Buffy looked at Giles and me, running toward Willow to attack her. Willow raised her hand, sending a bolt of magic at Buffy, making her fly back and crash against the wall opposite, making her fall to the floor.

  Giles held a hand toward Willow. "Vincire!"

Giles' spell almost trapped Willow with another binding spell.

Willow waved her hand at the binding spell. "Solutum." The binding field dissolved. Giles lowered his hand. Willow took a few steps into the room toward us, smiling a small smile. "Fool me once..." 

On the wall behind Willow, there was a variety of throwing weapons hanging in a case, that suddenly lifted off the wall, hovering in the air. 

I looked at her nervously. "Willow..."

Willow shook her finger at Giles. "Shame on you."

The knives began to fly toward Giles and me. I jumped in front of Giles to kick or punch or swing the weapons away, catching two of them and discarding the rest before they could hurt me or Giles, tossing the weapons down.

"Impressive," Willow told me in amusement.

Giles used magic to make a ball of energy in his hand, throwing it at Willow. "Excudo!"

Willow flew backward into the brick wall and through it into the main Magic Box room behind. She slammed into a pillar that supported the upper loft, and fell to the floor in a shower of bricks, debris, etc.

     ~~~~~~   

In the main room of the shop, the pillar was lying on the floor and furniture, sparking occasionally with electricity, surrounded in wreckage of the shop, which had taken quite a beating from all the fighting. A bookcase was lying on its side, with books laying on the side, some of which were on fire. 

Willow's clothes were dirty, she still had black hair and veins, but her eyes were normal, and she had a bleeding gash on her cheek. She smiled at Giles. "That all you got, Jeeves? 'Cause, I could stand to go another ten rounds. Whereas... you can barely stand."

"Your powers... may be undeniably greater," Giles told her wearily. "But I can still hurt you if I have to."

"Boy, you just don't get it, do you?" Willow asked. "Nothing can hurt me now?" She lifted her hand to indicate her bleeding cut on her cheek. "This?" She waved her hand in front of her face, using magic to heal herself. "Is nothing. It's all... nothing."

"I see," Giles told her. "If you lose someone you love... the other people in your life who care about you... become meaningless. I wonder what Tara would say about that."

"You can ask her yourself," Willow told him grimly, lifting her hand, sending a bolt of magic toward Giles.  I ran forward, pushing Giles out from under the loft, just in time as the magical blast destroyed the loft's stability, and the whole thing came tumbling down. Giles and I fell to the floor in a heap, books and rubble raining down around us. I lifted myself up on my elbows to look at Willow. Buffy ran closer to make sure we were all right. "You two are always saving everyone. It's kinda pesky." Willow looked down at the burning books next to her, bending down to pick up a ball of flame in her hand, standing. "You probably even think you're buying escape time for Jonathan and the other one. Well, I got a little secret for you. I can kill them from anywhere I want." She looked at the ball of flame. "With this." She waved her other hand over the ball of flame, making it grow in size. "It'll find them. It'll bury them." Giles lifted his head painfully. "Along with anyone helping those dead men walking." 

I stood.

Buffy gave Willow a look. "Don't."

Willow gave us a mocking look. "Unless... somebody, somehow... can get there in time to save them. Huh. Oh, well." She threw the ball of flame up into the air, making it burst through the ceiling, leaving a large hole. "Fly, my pretty, fly." The ball of fire disappeared through the hole. We could see stars above. Willow looked at us, smiling. "See what I did there?"

I looked at Buffy. "Stay with Giles."

Buffy nodded. "Go."

I ran past Willow toward the door.

"Good luck," Willow told me.

I ran down the street, looking up, seeing the fireball flying away several dozen feet off the ground, running after it at Slayer speed to keep up so it could lead me to them.

     ~~~~~~   

I followed the fireball to the cemetery where it was aiming right for Jonathan, Andrew, Xander, Dawn and my mother. "Get out of here!" I leaped over the headstones to get to them faster. "Move!" I grabbed both Jonathan and Andrew, pulling them to the ground. The fireball hit the ground between us, and all six of us were thrown to the ground. Xander hit his head on a tombstone. Dawn fell down, but immediately started to try and crawl toward me and Mom. The earth shook, making Mom stagger as she was trying to get up. "Mom! Dawn, hold on."

I stood, trying to reach Dawn and Mom, but suddenly a huge hole opened up in the ground, right underneath Dawn. Dawn screamed as she fell into the hole. I tried to grab Dawn as the large hole started to get bigger, making me fall down into it, too. We landed on a dirt floor some twenty or thirty feet below, underground. Dirt from the hole rained down on us.

Mom couldn't do anything but watch in horror and worry. "Dawn! Zoey!"

I looked up, just in time to see one of the geeks' swords falling at me, rolling out of the way just in time. The sword landed with its point in the ground. Dawn stared fearfully. I stood. The second sword fell next to the first. I brushed the dirt off of me, looking around.

We were in some sort of cave with uneven rock/dirt walls. Sections of coffins protruded from the walls in various places.

Dawn and I both looked up at the hole above us. It did not look easily climbable.

Up above, Mom was looking around for something to help us out, but there was obviously nothing in the cemetery that could help us get out.

Jonathan and Andrew walked up next to Mom to look down at us. 

Jonathan turned to Andrew. "Mexico, huh?"

Andrew looked at him. The two turned and ran off.

Mom turned after them. "Hey!" She obviously couldn't stop them from making a getaway, sighing. "You little fast bastards."

"Mom, where's Xander?" Dawn called.

"He's unconscious," Mom answered. 

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"I--I'll make sure," Mom told us, walking out of view of the opening toward Xander.

Dawn and I looked at each other, sighing worriedly.

     ~~~~~~   

The sun was starting to rise. I was standing on a coffin, attempting to climb up the side of the hole, while Dawn stood below, watching anxiously. The roots in my hands gave way, making me fall back onto the top of the coffin.

"Zoey!" Dawn told me worriedly. I quickly scrambled off the coffin, brushing myself off, looking up at the hole. "Are you okay?"

I sighed, shrugging. "We have to get out of here. Mom!" Mom looked over the edge of the hole to look at us. "Is Xander okay?"

"He hit his head, and he's bleeding," Mom told us. "I'm trying to wake him up to make sure he doesn't have a concussion."

I sighed, walking over to a wall, starting to tug on a wooden coffin that was sticking out of the wall.

"This looks a little like Spike's place," Dawn told me. "You know, under his crypt." I nodded in agreement, still tugging frantically. "What are you doing?"

"If we can pull these out, we can use the coffins for height," I told her. "Maybe get out of here."

I looked around, picking up one of the swords, trying to use it to pry the coffin loose.

"Maybe one of the tunnels Spike uses is around here," Dawn told me. "Uh, we could use it to get to his place."

"Dawn, I've already looked around," I told her. "There's no exits out of this cave into any tunnels around here. We're trapped. The only way out is up."

"You're right," Dawn told me. "We're trapped in here. Willow's killing, and people I love keep dying. And you cannot keep protecting me from that."

I sighed sadly as I realized she was right. "Dawn..."

Mom looked down at us. "Zoey! Dawn! Xander's awake."

Dawn and I looked up in relief.

"Xander?" I called.

Xander knelt by the edge of the pit next to Mom, looking down at us. "Guys, are you okay?" The ground beneath Mom almost gave way because she was too close to the edge of the hole. Xander stood, helping Mom back away from the hole without falling into it herself. "Whoa!"

"You've gotta find some kind of rope or something and get us out of here," I told them.

Xander looked around sarcastically. "Right. Okay. Yeah, we'll, uh, we'll take a look around and find some nonexistent rope in the cemetery."

"I'll go home and get the rope from the garage and be back soon, I promise," Mom told us. "I'll hurry and--"

Anya appeared in front of Dawn and me in a shimmer of magic, making us all jump as she looked around. "Holy frijole."

"Anya," I told her in relief. "What are you dong here? Where's Buffy and Giles?"

"Giles?" Dawn repeated.

"They're still at the magic shop," Anya answered.

"Giles is back?" Dawn asked. "You didn't tell me that."

"Well, I've been kind of busy," I told her with honest sarcasm, turning to Anya. "Did he stop Willow?"

"No," Anya answered. "And things just got a whole lot worse."

"How worse?" I asked.

"End of the world worse," Anya answered. "Willow's going to destroy it."

"She can do that?" Dawn asked.

"She can, and she will when she gets to where she's going," Anya answered.

"Where's she going?" I asked.

"Big old Satanic temple," Anya answered. "Kingman's Bluff."

Dawn and I frowned in confusion.

"There's... no temple on Kingman's Bluff," I told them. Anya was explaining about the temple and the goddess or devil that was on the side of it. "Proserpexa? Who's she?"

"Uh, way up there in the hierarchy of she-demons," Anya answered. "Her followers intended to use her effigy to destroy the world. They all died when the temple got swallowed up in the big earthquake of '32."

"So now seventy years later, Willow's going to make their dreams come true?" I asked.

"She's going to drain the planet's life force, and funnel its energy through Proserpexa's effigy and--and burn the earth to a cinder."

Dawn looked at me in alarm.

I shook my head. "Not if Buffy or I can help it."

"You can't," Anya told me. We looked at her in confusion. "Something else Giles said. No magic or supernatural force can stop her."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Don't know," Anya told us. "He--he said 'The Slayers can't stop her'. And then he said a bunch of other stuff. He really wasn't too clear."

I looked at her in concern. "Anya, what are you--"

"Buffy's staying with Giles, but she needs help with him," Anya told us. "So I should get back to them."

"Is he okay?" I asked worriedly.

Anya fidgeted nervously as we watched her anxiously. "Don't think he... has a lot of time left." Dawn gasped quietly in shock and worry. "I'm sorry."

Anya disappeared, leaving Dawn and me both solemn and worried.

I looked upward, calling out. "Mom! Xander!"

"Zoey..." Dawn trailed off.

"They're gone already," I told her. "They must've gone back to the house to get the rope."

Dawn looked at me sadly, upset. "You heard what Anya said. You heard what Giles said."

"I heard," I answered, upset. "And I don't care. I have to try..." I began trying to move one of the coffins. "I'm not just gonna sit here while Willow incinerates the world. I have to stop her."

I heard Willow's voice in my head. "Always the Slayer. Right to the last."

I stood straight, surprised. "Willow?"

"And it is the last, you know? For all your fighting... thinking you're saving the world..."

"Zoey?" Dawn asked.

I put up a hand to tell Dawn to hold on.

"And in the end... I'm the only one that can save it."

"By killing us?" I asked.

"It's the only way to stop the pain. I can't take it anymore. But I know you, Zoey. You're a warrior. You won't go out without a fight. I don't really have time for one. But you should go out fighting."

"Willow, what are you--"

"It was me that took you out of the earth. Well, now... the earth wants you back."

The ground around Dawn and me began to rumble. Suddenly the walls themselves started to turn into monsters, earth creatures made up of dirt and rock and vines, which detached themselves from the walls, moving toward us. Each one had large blades/claws on each hand.

Dawn and I looked around worriedly.

     ~~~~~~   

As the monsters got closer, I picked up one of the swords that had fallen down here with us, swinging it at two of the monsters that came at me, clashing it against their blades/claws, kicking the first one back.

Dawn backed away from one that came after her. "Zoey!"

I kicked Monster 2 away from me, spinning around to cut its arm off with the sword, turning to Monster 3, the one coming after Dawn, kicking it in the head, pushing him away, making it fall.

More monsters were being formed out of the walls.

"They just keep coming," I told her, shaking my head worriedly. "I can't take them all." I turned to Dawn worriedly. "Dawn, will you help me?"

Dawn looked nervous, but determined, nodding.

I put the sword into Dawn's hand.

"I got your back," Dawn told me.

I turned, picking up the other sword from the ground, kicking one of the monsters back.

Dawn set her jaw, running closer into the fray.

     ~~~~~~   

The cave around us started to shake all around, rumbling, as it made me, Dawn and the monsters all stagger backward.

I looked up nervously. "Willow..."

     ~~~~~~   

I slashed my sword into a monster, while Dawn was flinging hers at another twice. The monster hit Dawn's hand, making her drop the sword, slashing her upper arm with its claws. Dawn grabbed her arm with her other hand, taking a hit to the face, going down with a yell of surprise and pin.

I ducked underneath a monster's arm, swinging my sword at another, kicking it down. "Dawn! I'm coming!"

Dawn looked up with a determined expression as her monster prepared to attack her again, ducking as the monster grabbed for her, doing a somersault roll past it, landing by her sword, grabbing it, standing, stabbing the monster in the chest.

I watched her in shock and amazement.

 Dawn swung the sword again, slicing the monster's head off, letting it fall down dead, turning to me, holding up the sword, giving me a tiny smile. "What? You think I never watched you?"

I was still amazed and even proud from watching that, unable to help a small smile.

There was a very brief moment of quiet.

Then more monsters started to appear.

Dawn and I backed up, back to back, facing the monsters, each holding up a sword, continuing to fight the monsters surrounding us, stabbing and slashing.

     ~~~~~~ 

  The earth monsters suddenly stopped moving, crumbling into dust, falling to the floor.

Dawn and I didn't know that Mom was back until we heard her call out from above. "What happened?"

Dawn and I looked up at Mom, seeing that the cove started to light up as the sun began to shine again.

     ~~~~~~ 

Mom had tied a bunch of rope together so that Dawn and I could climb up to the top, reaching the ground up above with Mom's help. Mom pulled both of us into her arms when she finally could, holding us tightly, and we both returned the embrace just as tightly, all of us relieved and content.

"Did you see that, Mom?" Dawn asked. "Did you see us fighting?"

"Yes, I did," Mom answered. "Both of you were very..."

"Awesome?" Dawn suggested.

Mom smiled. "Amazing. I... I think it's over. The world's still here."

I looked at them, sighing. "You know, it hasn't been okay forever."

"But it's gonna be, though," Mom told us. "I see it."

"See what?" Dawn asked.

"You," Mom answered. "Things have really sucked lately, but it's all gonna change. And we are all gonna be there when it does. I want to see both of you happy again. And I want to see you grow up into the amazing women you're gonna become. Because they're already beautiful. And they're already powerful." 

Mom, Dawn and I all had tears in our eyes, but they were happy tears. 

I turned to Dawn. "I got it so wrong. I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you. There's so much that I want to show you."

Mom, Dawn and I were all smiling, embracing tightly and happily for a long moment. We pulled away, looking around at the world, the cemetery more accurately, smiling. I stood between them, having an arm around either of them, while they held their arms around me, as we walked away through the cemetery to go home.

Because, yes, Spike had disappeared, and yes, Tara was gone, the second which devastated us. But Giles was here, and he was okay, with Buffy and Anya. And Xander had found Willow and he had talked to her and brought her back to herself, and he had saved her, and all of us. 

It would be a long and hard road ahead of us because of everything that we had gone through, and everything that we had lost, but we were still here, alive, and we had to keep on living to honor those that we had lost. 

It was the only way to do so.