CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
LIFE CHANGING

IT TOOK A FEW DAYS, but finally Annabella's call came. She had done it. At least, she hoped she had done it. It took so much magic to accomplish what she was hoping to accomplish. Willow made her way nervously down towards the lab. She stopped in front of the door, staring at Annabella through the glass with her nerves getting the best of her. She almost turned around and walked away, planning to be busy, but it was too late. By the time she had went to turn away, Annabella had saw her through the glass, offering her a small smile and standing up straight, hands held in front of her as she patiently waited.

Now, Willow didn't have a choice. The dark haired woman glanced down the hallway, cursing the agents that were standing there talking, blocking her escape. She turned back towards the lab doors and finally took in a deep breath before reaching her hand forwards, clasping it gently around the handle of the door, going to pull it open only to stop when she heard approaching footsteps. She turned her head to look down the hall once again and relief washed over her when she saw Natasha quickly making her way towards her.

"You made it." Willow breathed, hand falling from the door in a forgotten manner, her attention sorely focus on the redhead woman that her heart longed for. "When Steve told me you had left for a mission early this morning and that you weren't back yet, I thought I was going to have to do this round on my own. Honestly, I don't think that I was prepared for that, so thank you for making it back on time."

"As soon as I heard I came running back." Natasha assured her. "My mission was long completed, but I promised Liliya I would get her some Chinese food so I had to stop there and then go to hell and back trying to find her. I must say, that woman is hard to find when she really tries her best to stay hidden." Natasha shook her head slightly and Willow smiled a small smile and her annoyance. "You ready for this? This is about to be life changing for you." Natasha gave her a concerned look.

"You don't know how ready I am." Willow replied, smiling as she nodded her head, feeling a lot more confident now that Natasha was there and standing by her side. "Hopefully this is life changing in a positive way and not a negative way. I don't know what I'm going to do if this thing Annabella made just makes it so much worse." She shook her head, closing her eyes as she forced all of the negative thoughts away. She trusted Annabella, and she trusted that the woman did everything in her power to make this necklace work. And if it didn't, then Willow would find a way to deal with it. She's lived with this alien inside of her for over two decades, she was sure that she would figure out how to continue living with it.

Taking another deep breath, Willow quickly grabbed the door handle, throwing the door open and pulling herself inside of the lab with Natasha following behind her. She immediately walked over to the table, hoping up to sit on top of it. She tried to hide her nervousness as she spoke. "So?" Willow asked. "Is it done? Did you do it?" Annabella nodded.

"I believe so." Annabella answered in that elegant voice of hers. No wonder she had managed to get Stephen Strange wrapped around her finger. Everything about this woman was simply graceful and elegant. Annabella spun around, her long ruby red hair following her in her movements. She reached over to the counter, gently grasping the necklace in her hands before slowly turning to look at Willow, taking a few steps closer to her so that she could see the necklace. "Wear this. What it does―︎ what it will hopefully do―︎is take away that alien, lessening it's abilities to control you. It will still be there but will be contained inside this necklace, once the necklace is off, the alien comes back."

Willow slowly slid off the table, her eyes never once leaving the necklace in Annabella's hands. The necklace was a beautiful shade of arctic blue with natural grey lines running throughout the entire stone. The strap for the necklace was leather, smaller so that it didn't dangle around her chest but clung to her neck instead. Willow carefully reached for the necklace, holding it and examining it in her hands. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen (well, besides Natasha that was).

"This. . . this tiny little gem is supposed to contain all of the powers that that alien gives me?" Willow asked, slowly taking her eyes off the necklace in order to look up at Annabella. The sorceress nodded her head. Willow frowned slightly, eyes dragging back down to the necklace that was still being held in her hands. Something inside her was drawn to it, absolutely desiring to be near that gem almost like it wanted to use it as a source of energy. "What if it doesn't work?" She knew she shouldn't think like that, but she couldn't help it.

"If it doesn't work, then we'll try again." Annabella answered. "I can't promise you that it will work all the time, but I hope that it works most of the time."

"Most of the time is good enough." Willow nodded.

Natasha walked over to her, holding out her hand, silently asking her for the necklace. Willow looked at her before handing it over to her. She turned her back to face Natasha, grabbing onto her hair and pulling it out of the way. Natasha reached around her, placing the necklace around Willow's neck. Willow closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. All she could do was hope that this worked. As soon as Natasha clipped the clasp, a sharp gasp fell from her lips.