The Dark Rose

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Summary: An older and much darker Willow returns to Sunnydale after 19 years of searching for a way to bring Tara back from the dead.

AUTHOR: Dark Magick Willow
EMAIL: darkmagickwillow@yahoo.com
RATING: R - mostly for violence, no explicit sex
PAIRING: Willow/Tara
SPOILERS: All episodes through the end of season 6 though this story takes place 18-19 years after the end of season 6.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BtVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc.
NOTES: Magic, even dark magic, is not addictive in my universe, so there are no withdrawal symptoms and no dark magic dealers. Here Rack was a dark magic teacher who used his students, not a dealer. However, you can use too much magic and you can be corrupted by the power it gives you.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: First and foremost, I would like to thank my two beta readers, Amanda and Juli. Amanda, I can't thank you enough for spending five months helping me write this. Without your encouragement and feedback, I never would been able to complete this story. Juli, I've learned so much about writing from you. This story wouldn't have been half as good without your help. And many thanks for the cheerleading. Thank you, Xita, for creating Pens as a forum that gave me the courage to write. I'd also like to thank all the Pens authors whose stories I've read for lifting my spirits when I felt like I'd never finish this thing or was just too depressed to write.
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Chapter 1: The End of a Quest

The black-clad figure paused in her ascent up the snowy slope. The wind howled as she reached up with gloved hands to shake some of the snow off her cloak. Paying no more attention to the wind and snow, she looked up the slope at the ancient stone castle, its large sandstone blocks blackened with age and the pollution that reached even this Alpine fastness. The precisely placed stones without mortar told of Roman craftwork as did the impressive arched entrance protected by an iron portcullis. It had stood for millennia and it would have been a challenge even for her to storm had the curtain walls and gateway been manned.

But they weren't and snow had drifted up to the nearest corner of the wall and spilled over into the courtyard below. No sentinels were visible inside the walls either. Her magical senses felt the presence of magic in the keep. That meant she could finally use her powers once she was over the wall. The keep's inhabitants apparently relied entirely on the null magic area and the demons in the woods to secure their fortress, but as the dried blood on her cloak attested, demons were no match for her even without magic. She smiled grimly and set off towards the snow drift, her snowshoes allowing her to maintain a normal pace through the thick snow.

The dark witch climbed over the snow drift, crossing the thick curtain wall without incident. She quickly walked across the snow-dusted cobblestones of the courtyard and reached the iron-bound double doors of the keep. She removed her snowshoes and paused a moment to listen. She quietly moved her hands along the outline of the ancient oak doors, feeling for magical protections on the entrance. There were none.

It was time.

She raised one hand and exerted her will on the iron-bound doors. The foot-thick oak exploded into the keep as a hail of splinters. She heard screams from the inside of the keep as she strode through the ruins of the doors. Two black-cloaked figures were bleeding on the floor nearby as she entered the huge chamber. Rows of thick black stone columns lined the walls to her right and left, separating the chamber into a main area and two side walkways. A red-stained black stone altar stood near the end of the room. Behind it was a pool of water. A dark robed man stood at the altar, looking shocked as he surveyed the ruined entrance of the keep. In the center of the chamber, exclaiming at her entrance, were a dozen more dark monks surrounding a mystic circle engraved into the stone floor.

With a smooth gesture and a single word of Latin from the dark witch, the center of the room exploded in a sphere of white-hot fire, reducing the dark monks there to charred bone and ash. She walked without hurrying towards the far end of the room and the one remaining dark monk. He recovered from his astonishment and raised his hands. With an ancient arcane chant, he sent lightning cascading across the room towards her. Her magical shields absorbed the lightning with a small sparkling of brightness while she strode towards him, implacable as death.

"What are you?" he asked in quavering voice.

"I am death...unless you give me the Soul Gem." she answered coldly, crushing the charred bones of the monks under her black boots as she walked steadily towards him. The stone beneath her feet glowed red hot but it made no impression on her.

Looking at the black-masked apparition approaching him, he believed her, but his order had protected the gem for seventeen long centuries since Constantine had banished them from Rome. His vows would not allow him to simply give up their greatest treasure. Fates worse than death awaited him if he violated those vows. He grasped at the crystal that hung around his neck. "The order has many treasures that I would gladly give you, but that is not one of them."

Her black-in-black eyes flashed as she said, "Then die." Within seconds the dark monk withered to bones and then the bones crumbled into dust. She reached down to the remains of the monk and picked up a crystal on a leather thong, shaking a few particles of dust from it. She carried it in one hand as she walked to the pool at the end of the room.

Raising the Soul Gem high, she cried out to the pool, "Find me the soul of Tara Maclay!"

Half a world away, a young woman suddenly woke up to the sounds of a violent thunder storm outside her window. She was breathing hard and covered with sweat, but as she looked around the familiar setting of her dorm room she realized that it had just been a nightmare. She lay back in her bed, looking up at the twinkly Christmas lights that ran around the borders of the ceiling and consciously slowed her breathing. It must have been caused by the vampires we fought tonight, she thought, but all she could remember of the nightmare was a dark figure standing in a Greco-Roman temple.

She shook her head and smiled ruefully, thinking about how much her life had changed in a semester at UC Sunnydale. She certainly hadn't planned to spend her nights at university fighting vampires, but patrolling with the Vampire Slayer had become a routine for her most nights of the week, she fighting with her spells and the slayer fighting with her supernatural speed and strength. It wasn't the safest way to spend her time, but she knew that she was doing good, and she'd found a family in the slayer and her watcher to replace the one she'd lost when her mother had died at the end of summer.

Rolling over onto her side, she checked the time on her clock on the bedside table and realized that she had only been asleep for a couple of hours. Her last finals were tomorrow so she rolled back onto her back, worrying about how long it would take her to fall asleep again, and fell deeply asleep almost before she completed her thought.

The black-clad witch gazed intently into the Pool of Seeing as the calm surface of the water was replaced with an image of the familiar arid terrain of southern California. As the pool focused closer and closer on her heart's desire, she saw UC Sunnydale, then Stevens Hall, and finally a window in that same building, each image well known to her from the past. Without showing her the room hidden behind the window, the image faded from pool.

She removed her black cloak and mask, spilling long red tresses down her back, and leaned into the stone rim of the pool with both black-gloved hands as she gazed into her own reflection. Her face hadn't changed a bit in almost nineteen years, she thought, looking into the reflection with her black-in-black eyes. Magic had shielded her body from the years if not her soul. She still looked like the same old Willow.

It had been nineteen long years since she had returned to Sunnydale. The happy memories of love and friends were overshadowed by the tragedy of a death she still could not accept. It was a place she had intended never to see again. She sighed, resigned to the necessity of returning, and thought back to her last day in Sunnydale.

It was a beautiful day, the sun brilliant in a cloudless blue sky, and they had just put Tara into the ground of the too familiar cemetery. Willow thought how wrong it was that the sun still rose, that there were still beautiful days, as she shed her last tears.

Turning away from the grave, she looked at her friends who were waiting for her to finish saying goodbye. Their grief showed clearly in their faces and Willow knew that some of that was for her even after all she had done in the past few days. She remembered the time when they had all been so happy together, but it seemed like a dream now.

She shook her head. They didn't matter. Only Tara mattered. She told herself that nothing, not friends, not family, not anything, meant anything to her without Tara. Her emotions weren't entirely believing her about this, but she pushed them ruthlessly away, burying the feelings deep where they couldn't trouble her. She was resolved to follow her plan to bring Tara back. She didn't know exactly how she was going to do it, but she was determined to do it no matter what.

She walked over to her friends, Buffy and Xander and Giles with Dawn standing further away behind them, and looked at them for a long moment before speaking. "I have to go" she said. "I can't stay here where everything reminds me of her."

A wave of protests erupted from her friends, Buffy saying "You can't," Xander saying "No!", and Giles warning her "You shouldn't go anywhere so soon after..."

She let the protests wash over her senses meaninglessly, like the crashing sound of an ocean wave. There was nothing they could do to dissuade her.

She touched Buffy gently on the shoulder and looked into her eyes, letting her see all the pain she was feeling. "Remember when Angel died and you had to go away?" she asked.

Buffy looked searchingly into her eyes for a long moment and Willow worried that she might somehow divine her true plans, but eventually Buffy looked down and nodded. "Come back as soon as you can."

Willow answered, "I will."

Xander interrupted, "You shouldn't go by yourself, Willow."

Giles added, "I think Xander has a point." He looked concerned for her despite the remaining evidence of his injuries. Injuries that she had caused.

Willow shook her head vehemently. "I need to be alone," she said. "That's the whole point. Well, that and getting away from all the memories here. I can't do that with someone following me everywhere and I don't know how long I'll need. " Her eyes pleaded with them to understand her.

Buffy nodded. "She's right. I knew how she feels. I don't want her to leave any more than you do, but she need some time."

"I still don't like it." Xander said. "The last few days where you were by yourself didn't go so well to say the least."

Willow replied, "I couldn't do anything like that now, Xander, even if I wanted to which I don't."

Giles nodded his agreement though his misgivings about her leaving were still evident in his eyes. She was glad he didn't have Tara's ability to see auras. The magic still ran strongly through her veins.

She could tell the Xander still wasn't convinced. "Look, Xander," she said. "I'd like you to be okay with this, but I'm going whether you are or not."

Xander looked down, gathering his thoughts. He looked up and walked over to hug her. "Okay," he said. "If you have to go, go, but come back soon." She hugged him back, thankful that they wouldn't try to stop her or follow her.

She looked over at Dawn, who had remained silent through the whole conversation. "Dawn," she began only to see the teenager turn away from her. She paused, trying to think of something that would make everything all right for her, but could only come up with "I'm sorry." It didn't matter for Dawn still ignored her.

Willow rode home with Xander while Dawn went back with Giles. By the time Willow got there, Dawn had already left to stay at a friend's house. Late that night once Buffy was on patrol and she was alone, Willow packed a small bag, taking a few clothes and some mementos of Tara--the doll's eye crystal, some photographs. She left behind most of the pieces of her everyday life. They wouldn't be needed where she was going. She walked to the bus station through the darkness and boarded the last bus out of Sunnydale.

As the bus passed the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign on its way out of town, she vowed "I will find you, Tara, no matter what the cost." As she said those words, her eyes became the black-in-black they would be from that day forward. She leaned back in her seat, waiting for the next stop where she would find less mundane transportation and begin her quest.

Willow shook her head, breaking away from her reverie. Tara came first. That was all she had to know. If she had to return to that cursed city she'd avoided so long to find Tara then she would. She didn't know how Tara's soul had come to be in Sunnydale, especially at the dormitory she remembered from her youth there, but she would find Tara and rescue her soul from whatever dark power held her.

She felt troubled by a sense of uncertainty that she hadn't felt for years. Sunnydale. Her friends and old life. Tara's grave. All those people and places that she had avoided for so long.

She reminded herself that she had defeated powerful dark mages from every part of the world and had made their knowledge and power her own. She had found the deepest repositories of dark secrets and learned their hidden lore. She had even walked into the Hellmouth itself searching for her love and had returned. What in Sunnydale could oppose her?

Willow turned away from the pool and walked out of the ruined dark temple to return to her beginning.

Chapter 2: A New Life

Tara hurried across campus through the darkness. She was going to see the red-haired girl from the Wiccan group about a spell. It was important. She looked back over her shoulder, expecting to see something she couldn't quite remember, and tripped. As she reached down to pick up her books, she heard chains rattling behind her.

Tara's alarm woke her from the dream. She blindly reached over the bedside table and turned off the alarm clock. Turning over, she sleepily thought back to her dream. It had been so vivid, so real, like it had really happened to her, but she'd never met anyone like the red-haired wiccan in her life.

She wished she had.

Tara wanted to return to sleep and discover what happened next, but she had promised to meet with the slayer and her watcher this morning at the library. Otherwise she could have slept in as she had finished her finals yesterday. Sometimes it was a lot of trouble being a cool monster fighter.

As she got up and found her robe and shower tote, she was still thinking about the dream. Tara wondered if it really felt so wonderful, so connected, to do a spell with another person or if there was something special about the red-haired girl. She could feel herself falling into those brilliant green eyes as she remembered looking into them, then shook her head.

It was only a dream.

She had to get moving if she was going to be there on time. She wondered for a moment if the watcher could identify the demons she'd seen in her dream, but then her mind returned to thoughts of red hair and green eyes, causing her to forget about the gentlemen before she even left her room.

Tara entered the school library and saw Spirit and Mr. Giles sparring in the center of the room as they always did in the early morning. Spirit was a marvel of fluid motion as she kicked at Mr. Giles's heavily padded hands then spun and launched a flurry of rapid punches at him. Tara was impressed as usual at how grey-haired Mr. Giles kept up with the young Asian woman even though Tara could tell that Spirit was always careful not to strike with her full strength. She'd seen what Spirit could do against vampires and knew that despite the watcher's deep knowledge of combat techniques, he wasn't a young man any longer.

Tara settled down in her usual chair to watch her friends. She always enjoyed watching them spar and wished she had someone with whom she could practice her craft like in her dream earlier this morning. There had been no one like her in high school. She had hoped university would be different, but so far it hadn't been.

At least Mr. Giles and Spirit knew about magic even if they didn't practice the art. She could talk with them about her spells and Mr. Giles was very knowledgeable, often recommending books to her though he never let her peruse his collection on her own. Her friends accepted her, magic and all, unlike the people she'd met at the campus Wicca group who thought she was strange even though she knew more about Wicca than any of them.

Still, it wasn't the same as having someone to share her art with. She had progressed so quickly after first meeting Spirit, expanding her command of her powers to fight the creatures of the night, but recently she felt like she was stagnating. She used the same spells over and over every night. She needed someone to learn from like Spirit had Mr. Giles, though she'd like someone more her own age like the redheaded girl from her dreams.

Tara wasn't sure how Mr. Giles had found Spirit, but she knew that he was now the slayer's legal guardian. She thought that was probably how all slayer/watcher relationships worked. It made a lot of sense. How could any parents let their daughter go out every night to fight vampires and demons? Still, Mr. Giles wasn't just Spirit's watcher--he truly acted as a parent towards her and to some extent even to Tara herself since her mother had died.

She wouldn't have made it through her semester without Mr. Giles and Spirit, emotionally or physically. She had started taking long walks at night after her mother had died to get away from everything. She could focus on school during the day but needed to get away from everyone at night when she would start remembering. At the time, she didn't know what Sunnydale was like.

Tara had been walking through the woods on campus that night as she had every night since her mother had died. It was a way to get away from everyone, to remember while surrounded by the quiet calming presence of the trees. She continued aimlessly through the woods, easily following the path with the aid of the light of the full moon above, as she heard rapid footsteps behind her.

She found it strange as there was never anyone else here in the woods this late at night. Tara looked over her shoulder down the path and gasped. The creature following her looked human until she looked up at its face. Its face was oddly ridged and worse, it was grinning at her, showing its fangs. Tara started running.

Her heart pounded out a panicked beat as she ran. Her mother had told her that the legendary creatures of the night were real, but that was quite different from actually being chased by one. Distracted by her thoughts, Tara tripped, skinning her knee. She quickly scrambled back up and started running again, but knew that the vampire, for that is what the creature had to be, was gaining on her. She also knew she couldn't outrun the monster for long.

She had to try a spell but what could she do that would stop a vampire? Suddenly Tara had an idea--if she could just change the fiat lux spell a bit, it would act just like sunlight. It was only a tiny tinkerbell light but it should at least slow down the vampire long enough for her to get away, at least if the legends she remembered about vampires and sunlight were right. Then she heard other footsteps coming from deep in the woods towards the path.

The situation was worsening. One vampire was dangerous, but two vampires would be too many to handle even if her spell worked. All she wanted to do was to run as fast as she could away from here, but she knew she would die if she did. She had to regain her equanimity and stop the closer one now.

Tara turned, startling but not stopping her pursuer, and gasped out "Fiat Lux!", casting the ball of light from her hand at the vampire who covered its face in an attempt to protect itself from the light. The small orb of sunlight struck the vampire's arms, causing them to burst into flame. The monster began running in circles, flailing its arms in a futile attempt to put out the fire. She had stopped one vampire, at least for the moment, but Tara knew she didn't have long before the other pursuer reached the path.

Tara glanced in the direction of the oncoming footsteps and saw a young Asian woman running towards the vampire, her black braid bouncing with her long stride. The tall slender woman performed an amazing flip, landing directly in front of the flailing vampire, and thrust a wooden stake through its chest. The vampire collapsed into dust, taking Tara aback. She hadn't read about that in her magic books.

The young woman looked up at Tara and smiled. "Hi, I'm Spirit," she said. "Neat trick with the ball of light there."

Tara was shocked by Spirit's nonchalant reaction to spells and vampires. She certainly didn't feel that calm. She was still panting from exertion and fear, but the other girl was already breathing normally. After a moment to regain her breath, Tara said "Thanks. I heard your footsteps and thought you were another vampire at first." Her mouth curled into a half smile as she added, "So you do this often?"

Spirit was clearly taken aback by the question she'd idly thrown out, meaning it more as a joke to lighten the mood than anything serious. "How did you know?"

Taking her own question seriously because of the other girl's reaction, Tara replied, "You didn't act surprised by my spell and you killed that vampire without a second thought." Looking closer at Spirit, Tara realized that the girl couldn't be old enough to be out of high school, yet she was clearly a vampire hunter of some expertise.

"You didn't look so surprised yourself," Spirit retorted.

"I certainly felt surprised!" Tara said wryly, then said "Ow!" as the pain from her knee finally registered as the adrenaline rush of the chase ebbed.

Spirit looked concerned, bending down to check out Tara's bleeding knee. "That doesn't look so good and I'd like to have you talk with Mr. Giles anyway."

"Who's Mr. Giles?" Tara asked.

"He's my watcher," Spirit answered. "A vampire slayer has to have a watcher." With that less than revealing comment, Spirit helped Tara walk through the woods to the watcher's house.

Tara's thoughts returned to the present as she saw Mr. Giles and Spirit finishing their sparring session. Mr. Giles hadn't been happy with Spirit for bringing Tara home initially and he'd had the oddest look on his face, like he'd seen a ghost, when she told him her name, but soon she was helping them researching prophecies and monsters.

Those sessions became the best part of her day. She had been so distracted with her mother's death that she hadn't made any friends at university, and to be honest with herself, she wasn't that good at making new friends anyway. It was good having not only friends, but also a job that provided meaning for her life again. That vampire attack had turned out to be the best thing that had happened to her that term.

While her friends were great, they didn't completely fill the emptiness in her heart. Spirit was too young and Mr. Giles was too old for her to talk about everything with them, and they were often so busy with the slaying to do anything but focus on the work.

The attack had also caused her to focus more strongly on her magic so she could help her friends more. Tara worked every night on her telekinetic control until she was sure she could stake a vampire. Then she talked Spirit into letting her go on patrol one night to observe and destroyed a vampire that same night.

After that night, she was a regular, going out with Spirit several times a week. Mr. Giles didn't think it was a good idea at first, but after Tara demonstrated what she could do with a stake in a practice session he quickly agreed that she could go patrolling with Spirit. Her train of thought broke off as she saw Giles walking towards the table.

Giles sat down at the table across from her, paused a moment to wipe his glasses, then asked "How did finals go, Tara?"

"I think they went really well," Tara answered. "I didn't think I was going to get any sleep after the thunderstorm woke me up Thursday night, but everything turned out fine."

He started to say something in response, but Spirit bounced down into the seat beside Tara and interrupted, "So are you still planning to stay with us over winter break, Tara? I've missed you since you've been all busy studying for exams."

"Sure, if it's still okay with Mr. Giles?" Tara said, looking uncertainly over at Giles. No one had ever invited her to stay with them for so long before and she wasn't sure that Mr. Giles really meant the invitation he'd given her when she let it slip that she had nowhere to go for Christmas.

"Of course it's still okay," Giles said. He looked warmly at Tara. "We'll be glad to have you for Christmas and not just for the help with research and slaying."

"Cool!" Spirit said excitedly. "It'll be great having a friend around all the time for a couple of weeks."

"Thank you, Mr. Giles," Tara replied, smiling. Tara knew that Spirit didn't have many friends at school either. It had to be hard being the slayer and having all that responsibility as a teenager.

Giles cleared his throat. "Now that that's all cleared up," he said. "Spirit discovered some worrying news on patrol last night. It appears that there's a master vampire in town. In fact, he calls himself 'The Master' though I don't think that can actually be the case as Buf...my previous slayer killed him and, well, smashed his bones to dust with a sledgehammer afterwards. Still, I think this vampire could be very dangerous and he appears to be gathering a following."

Tara saw that Mr. Giles was having trouble saying Buffy's name as he always did. He never mentioned anything about his former slayer. He'd only been able to say her full name once in Tara's presence. It had to be difficult being a watcher, knowing that your relationship with the slayer was only going to end one way. Shaking her head free of morbid thoughts, she asked, "So if he's not who he claims to be, who is he?"

"We don't know," Giles answered. "So we're going to be hitting the books this weekend."

"But I was hitting the books hard last week for finals...." Spirit grumbled.

"Don't worry," Giles responded. "We'll have time for some fun too this week, I know Christmas is important." He paused and looked at Tara before continuing. "And solstice too, but for now, the sooner we start the sooner we finish."

The three of them were soon buried in their research, oblivious to the outside world.

Chapter 3: Homecoming

After 19 years, Willow was going home.

She didn't want to return to Sunnydale, but she had to. When you lost something, it was always in the last place that you looked. She had looked for Tara every place in this world and beyond except for Sunnydale, and that was exactly what the vision had shown her.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but she felt that the warmth coming from the soul gem against her chest was gradually increasing as the plane crossed the Atlantic. She felt restless with hours of flight time ahead of her, but the thought that she was getting closer to Tara calmed her. Tara was her home. She'd been homeless for so long, but she was going home at last.

She had spent thousands of lonely nights doing nothing but remembering what she had lost that terrible afternoon. The time for that was over. Now she had to plan for the future, figuring out who or what held Tara's soul and how to kill it and rescue her love. Afterwards, they wouldn't need memories. They would have each other.

Willow started to smile at the thought, then felt her stomach left behind as the plane dropped through a pocket of air. She hated flying this way, under someone else's control, but it was still the fastest way to Sunnydale, especially when you were a witch and didn't need to worry about ordinary things like reservations or tickets.

At least she had her own row of seats in first class. There'd been someone else in her row, but he got up quickly after she'd pulled her hood back and stared into him with her dark eyes. He had departed for coach and she hadn't seen him since.

She looked out the window at the clouds they were flying above. Once they had been a mystery to her and she had dreamed of walking on them, hand-in-hand with Tara, drenched in sunlight. The clouds looked soft and comforting, a special place where she could be safe and happy. Now she knew better. She had flown through them alone and discovered their true nature. They were cold, wet, and empty.

She turned away from the window, closing it to shut out the sight of the world outside, and pulled her journal out of a pocket in her cloak. Looking around, she saw that everyone else in the dark cabin was asleep. In solitude as always, she began to write in her journal, describing the events that had brought her here.

Willow strode off the plane purposefully without acknowledging the farewells of the flight crew. She hadn't bothered with baggage, not wanting to waste time with anything unnecessary, so she was out of the airport in a few minutes. The heat of the soul gem warmed her as she entered Sunnydale.

Nineteen years of searching were almost over. She was going to find Tara tonight, but there was one place she had to go first.

Tara's grave.

She didn't expect to find Tara's soul there, but she hadn't visited the grave since the day of Tara's funeral. She felt guilty about that, but reminded herself that she had devoted her life to her quest to bring Tara back. Surely that made memorials unnecessary, she thought to herself, but the weight of her guilt could not be lifted so easily.

The cemetery felt familiar as she entered it despite all the years that had passed since her last visit. Even if she hadn't spent too many nights in Sunnydale's cemeteries, this one would be forever burned into her memory.

Her black leathers and cloak let her blend into the shadows as she walked through the cemetery. Her face was hidden in the hood of her dark cloak while her hands and feet were securely encased in black gloves and boots. The soul gem was tucked inside her shirt and she felt its reassuring warmth against her chest as she walked towards Tara's grave. It wasn't far now.

Willow reached the familiar grave site and gazed at the tombstone that she hadn't seen since the day it was erected. The site was undisturbed and the gem did not urge her downwards. Tara's soul might be somewhere in the cemetery, but it was not in her grave.

She sighed. It would have been easy to find but she was not sure if she could have dealt with the knowledge that Tara's soul had been trapped in the grave for all these years. She looked down at the grave, noticing long dead cut roses at her feet. Someone had been here within the past year, remembering Tara, and Willow felt her guilt increase as it hadn't been her.

With her guilt came an upwelling of grief, more than she thought she could bear. Her eyelids closed over eyes sparkling with unshed tears and her throat constricted, making it difficult to breathe, as she remembered how much she had lost. Willow reached out tentatively towards the grave, as if she could pull Tara back with force of will alone.

Then she curled her hand into a fist and jerked it back towards her. For all her knowledge and power, she hadn't been able to regain the one person in this world that mattered to her above all else. Forcing back her tears, she reminded herself that everything would change tonight.

The soul gem suddenly blazed with heat against her chest, causing Willow to look up. Willow spotted a figure moving stealthily towards her through the nearby trees. It was a young woman wearing a black leather jacket and dark blue jeans with black boots. Her blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail and she was holding a wooden stake in her hand. Several more stakes were attached to her belt.

Willow could see from her aura that despite all the accoutrements of a vampire hunter, the blonde was a witch focused on the magicks of light. Then Willow looked into her eyes. They were a brilliant blue that looked too familiar to be real.

Tara?

Could it really be her after all these years?

Her heart swelled with hope in defiance of the doubts that assailed her mind. The woman was too young, no more than 20 years old, but she looked enough like Tara to be her sister. While similarity didn't mean that she was Tara, what about the gem's hot insistence that the woman had Tara's soul?

Tara realized that she had been spotted by the black clad figure she had been stalking and froze. As the figure looked up from the grave, the blonde realized that the black-clad figure was a slender woman. As she looked at the curves revealed by the tight black leather, she thought how beautiful the woman was even though she hadn't seen her face.

Her rational mind woke up, reminding her that the woman was dressed all in black in a cemetery after midnight. In Sunnydale. Tara shifted her stance uneasily, unsure whether to approach or retreat. She didn't usually take on vampires by herself, but the woman didn't appear to be a vampire. And she wasn't doing anything except gazing at her, but she was in a Sunnydale cemetery after midnight.

Willow's mind was racing as she stood motionless, staring at the blonde woman. She didn't look precisely like Tara and she was too young, but the gem said that she was Tara. Even her aura felt similar to Tara's, but it was not the quite the same either. How could she be so much like Tara yet not quite Tara? Could the gem be wrong? What kind of warranty came with millennia-old magical artifacts anyway?

Yet the woman looked and felt so much like Tara. Her heart wanted to believe, but she was scared of risking her heart again. In her dreams Tara was alive, but she never was when Willow awakened. What they once had was a miracle, hot and passionate yet gentle and comforting at the same time. Tara had seen so much in her that she had never been able to see herself. She wanted to see herself like that again, but she was afraid it was too late. They had flown so high, but then she had fallen so fast and hard.

Could she expect another miracle without the dark price that such miracles had always cost her? It had cost her Buffy's life to get Tara's mind back from Glory. Then she had gotten Buffy back at the price of Tara's life. There was always a price.

What should she do? Willow hadn't felt this uncertain in years.

Tara was also thinking rapidly as she watched the other woman. She could feel the dark stranger's aura of tightly bound power, but she couldn't tell whether her source was light or dark without fully opening her senses and exposing herself. Still, she felt more puzzled than threatened.

Tara had so many questions. Who could this person be? Was she just visiting a grave or was she here to raise something evil from the beyond? Whose grave was she visiting anyway and why after midnight? Why was she attracted to her? Something about that last question didn't fit with the others--attracted to her? Tara hadn't even seen her face. They hadn't spoken yet. Then she saw movement behind the mysterious woman. It was a vampire and that she knew how to deal with.

Willow watched the young woman raise her right hand to throw the wooden stake she held. She was puzzled at first, then she heard the stealthy movement of a vampire behind her. The blonde witch threw the stake and as Willow watched, it carefully zigged around her in an impossible trajectory before embedding itself in the heart of the vampire behind her.

Willow was quite impressed as she turned to see the vampire dissolve into a cloud of dust. Unfortunately, there was another vampire behind the one who had just been slain. She sighed silently. Sunnydale hadn't changed.

Tara ran up beside the stranger and spotted the approaching vampire. Her blue eyes widened as she readied another stake, saying to the other witch, "Get behind me."

If this was Tara, she seemed unusually assertive. Willow brought the stake from the clump of vampire dust to her hand with a thought and said, "If you'll accept some help, I'll deal with the other two behind you." She turned around so that they faced their oncoming opponents back-to-back, not quite certain why she felt secure enough to expose her back to the unknown young witch.

Tara spared the two vampires behind her a fleeting glance before returning her focus to the vampire in front of her. She threw another stake, guiding it with her mind towards the heart of the approaching vampire, but this time the stake missed the heart, infuriating the monster rather than killing him. She briefly wondered if she should trust the stranger so soon, but she had no other choice with so many attacking vampires.

Unwilling to scare the blonde, Willow decided to destroy the vampires with the stake rather than spells. As the two vampires closed with her, she quickly staked the one on the left, her hand a blur of movement, while kicking the second vampire away to gain time.

Tara pulled a third stake from her belt as the second vampire closed with her. She heard the sound of one of the vampires behind her being destroyed by her companion then her vampire was upon her. As they traded a few quick blows, she realized that this vampire was a young one, newly risen from the grave with superhuman strength but still not in full control of his supernatural speed and agility. He left his chest exposed for just a moment. She quickly drove the stake into his unbeating heart, reducing him to a small pile of dust.

Willow found her second vampire more of a challenge than the first. He carefully watched her stake and allowed her to score useless wounds on his undead flesh instead of exposing his heart. She heard the destruction of the vampire behind her and realized that the young woman was safe. Subconsciously, she had been listening to the other woman fight in case she needed help. Now with the blonde safe, Willow could bring her full concentration to bear on the foe in front of her.

After the destruction of her opponent, Tara turned to watch the fight between the mysterious stranger and the last remaining vampire. She admired the graceful movement of the dark witch as she dodged and flowed around her opponent, closing until she could quickly thrust her stake into its heart, destroying it.

Willow turned from the remains of the last vampire to find the blonde watching her with admiration in her eyes. She flipped the stake around in her hand and extended it to the other woman, saying "Your stake, I believe."

Tara took the stake from the mysterious woman's hand, her fingers brushing the black-gloved fingers of the other woman as she accepted the stake back. Her fingers tingled with a warm energy at the contact. She brought her hand back to her side and closed her other one around it. "So you've ... uh ... fought vampires before?" she asked, her voice not quite as steady as she wished.

"Yes," Willow answered, forcing her voice to remain calm after the amazing touch. She wanted to reach out and touch her hand again, but at the same time she was afraid to try to. Whether she was more afraid that would feel the same or that it wouldn't she wasn't certain. "It looks like you came here looking for them." She stared at the young witch, wondering if she really could be Tara after all these years. What had happened? Where had she been all these years? Why hadn't Willow known about her? Her stomach churned, upset by the tumultuous thoughts and feelings swirling through her.

Tara looked down at the stake she still held in her hands. "Yes," she said awkwardly. "Someone has to stop them." She was thinking about how to ask the stranger about who she was and what she was doing in Sunnydale when she heard a voice through the trees calling her name: "Tara! Where are you?"

Willow froze as she heard the name called. It had been so long since she had heard that name said by a voice other than her own in tones of deep grief. Years of disappointment had made her cautious so she asked the young woman to be certain, "Your name's Tara?"

"Yes." Tara nodded then asked, "What's your name?"

Willow's mind spun. Tara? It couldn't be a coincidence. Tara's soul. Tara's name. Tara's heart? All in this young woman. This Tara had to be her love but in a new body, a new lifetime.

She had spent all those years searching and failing time after time to bring Tara back. Now she saw the reason for her failures standing in front of her. How could you bring someone back who had already returned to the cycle of life? She would have screamed at her blindness if her frustration wouldn't have terrified the young woman in front of her waiting for the answer to a simple question.

She had so many questions. Had Tara returned for her, to love her? Even if she did, did she remember Willow and their love? Should she tell Tara about them if Tara didn't remember? Should she tell Tara anything about her past life, about herself? Suddenly, her quest was no longer a simple one.

Despite how well her theory seemed to fit the situation, a kernel of doubt remained. She had been disappointed before. This wasn't the first time she had thought that she had found Tara again. She shuddered as she recalled the horror in the mirror. It had looked just like Tara at first. She couldn't trust appearances.

She couldn't stop herself from hoping though. For now there was one decision to make--to say or not say her true name, the name she hadn't used since the day she left Sunnydale.

She decided to trust in life, in love, and simply said, "Willow."

Willow looked intently into Tara's blue eyes and her heart fell as she saw no sign of recognition. Her name didn't mean anything to Tara. How could it have? But she had so hoped that they could just be together now.

Tara noticed Willow's pause before answering and her intent gaze afterwards, but wasn't sure what either meant. Instead of commenting on Willow's reactions, she said, "I'd better answer her. Spirit gets cranky when she can't find me."

Tara turned to the trees to call back to Spirit. "I'm over here," she said. "I'm okay." As she turned back to face Willow, she did a double-take. No one was in sight. Tara wondered for a brief moment whether the mysterious witch had been real. Had she been a ghost?

With that thought in mind, Tara walked over to the grave where she had originally seen the stranger, half-expecting the tombstone to read "Willow." Her heart thumped heavily in her chest as she read the first name on the tombstone, but she relaxed as she finished reading the name. It wasn't her last name.

Chapter 4: Dreams and Revelations

"I-I think there's a way we can, hmmm..." Tara said to the red-haired girl, stuttering on the first word, and reached for a book on her cluttered desk. The curtains were tightly closed, leaving the softly glowing lamp on her desk and the tiny fairy lights along the walls as the only illumination. Finding the tome she was searching for, Tara continued, "The passage to the nether realm. There-there's a ritual. If you can find Buffy there, you should be able to see." Even as she said the words, she felt puzzled. Who was Buffy?

Tara woke up from her nap, murmuring a sleepy complaint at losing the amazing connection she'd felt in her dream. The intensity of sensation she'd experienced in her dream was almost unbelievable. Could casting together really be that good, that intense?

Did it create that soul-deep connection that she'd felt in her dream or was it the other way around, the love and the connection producing those intense sensations as they worked magic together? She wished again that she had someone to cast with, to experience that intensity of feeling, but everyone she'd met at the campus Wicca group was just a blessed-wanna-be.

More strongly than that, Tara wished that she had someone to love. She had dated a girl in high school, but she'd never actually been in love. There hadn't been anyone at university for her either. Was there something wrong with her that she couldn't find someone to fall in love with?

Of course, her nightly activities weren't the best social opportunities and they would make it difficult for her to open up even if she did meet someone. Maybe her dreams were a guide to the person she was meant to be with. She'd never seen anyone like the slender flame-haired girl of her dreams though.

She didn't feel as lonely here in Sunnydale as she had in high school. Here she had Spirit and Mr. Giles, but their friendship was all caught up in the slaying and she wanted something of her own, something like the connection of her dream, two hearts joined in perfect synchronicity. Making the world safer for humanity was great, but it didn't keep you warm at night when you lay awake in your bed wondering if anyone would ever come along to fill that empty space in your heart.

Tara shrugged off her blankets, yawning. She stretched like a cat then sat up. No more time for conjecture. Tara had to meet Spirit for patrol tonight.

Willow sat high in the tree, dangling her legs and thinking while waiting for Tara. She'd watched Tara every night this week and was beginning to figure out her schedule. She knew Tara would walk by the tree in the next few minutes. Watching Tara was a mixture of pleasure and pain.

It was wonderful to see her love alive again, but it hurt to see her without being able to talk with her or touch her. How could she recreate what they had lost? What could she say to her? "You don't know me but we were deeply in love in your past life" didn't seem to be the best way to start a conversation. Why did it have to be so hard?

It was still difficult to wrap her mind around the idea of Tara's reincarnation. She had read about reincarnation, but she had never studied it the way that she'd studied the magicks of the resurrection. Reincarnation wasn't something that she could command or control so it hadn't interested her.

Even in what she had read about reincarnation, she had never read about a case like this. Tara must have been reborn almost immediately after her death, and she was where she had died, looking almost the same and bearing the same name. Willow couldn't explain it. Despite all her studies, there was still much about magic that she didn't understand.

She saw Tara climb over the hill top she was gazing towards, a little earlier than usual tonight. Willow could make out every detail with her dark eyes that drink in every beam of light that struck them, allowing nothing to escape to betray their presence. Tara was dressed as usual in her black leather jacket and blue jeans, though tonight the jeans were stained with mud and grass. Willow felt a surge of worry, quickly glancing over Tara's body looking for injuries. She sighed with relief when she didn't find any.

Tara was accompanied as usual by a young Asian girl who Willow knew was Spirit the vampire slayer. She was truly the Chosen One. Both the slayers Willow had known were dead. She didn't care that Faith had died in prison, but each time she thought about Buffy's death, she wished that she had returned to Sunnydale earlier. Somehow Buffy's death hadn't bothered her before now. Forcing her thoughts away from her friends of the past, she looked at Tara again.

Willow fingered the soul gem as she regarded Tara and thought--there was a solution. She could remove Tara's soul from her current body and restore it to her old one. Willow knew the spells of protection and preservation she'd placed on Tara's corpse so many years ago were still active. She had known that Tara's body might be necessary for her resurrection so she'd layered it with her strongest protections before departing Sunnydale.

Willow shook her head as she watched the young women carefully walk through the maze of tombstones and monuments that made up the cemetery, looking carefully for lurking vampires and commenting to her friend. How could she think such things? Transferring Tara's soul wasn't just another spell. There were consequences. It would kill the beautiful woman she watching.

That was Tara there before her eyes, not a pale substitute for her love.

She couldn't do anything that would harm her.

If anything, Tara had a better life than before. Willow had done a great deal of hacking and investigating to learn about Tara's new life, past and present. She hadn't had an abusive father and brother telling her that she was evil all her life. She had friends. She could fight the dangers of the night herself as she'd demonstrated so dramatically in their first meeting. Did she even need or want a partner? But even if Tara's new life hadn't been better, Willow still couldn't take it away from her.

Willow's interactions with people for the past nineteen years had been very intense though usually rather short. She thought back to her experience with Wolfram and Hart. She had learned about how they had brought back Darla. After failing with rituals that weren't as dark as theirs, Willow had gone to them for help.

Their price had been high, but she would've paid anything to have Tara back. Everything had gone fine in the dark crypt where they were performing the ritual of resurrection until a brilliant flash of light following the sacrifice of the five vampires.

Willow rushed to the crate where Tara was supposed to appear. It was empty. She turned to Lilah, her dark eyes flashing with fury. "Where is she?" she demanded.

Lilah, the law firm's special projects agent who was working with Willow, appeared calm in her expensively tailored suit. She looked at the Vocah demon beside her, shrouded in shadows that even Willow's eyes could not pierce. "Well," she said. "What happened?"

"Her soul is not available to be returned," it answered in a deep, hollow voice.

"What does that mean?" Willow asked in a cold voice, full of barely repressed anger.

"She cannot be resurrected," the Vocah said from the shadows. "My job here is complete." The shadows dissipated, revealing nothing but empty air with the demon had once stood. The crypt was now empty save for Willow, Lilah, and her security team.

"I paid your price," Willow said softly as she stepped closer to Lilah. "I want my resurrection in return as we agreed."

"We performed the ritual as agreed," Lilah said. She made a gesture with her hand and the six members of the security team brought their guns up, ready to fire. They were well protected against magical attack, physical or mental. "I'm sure you don't want to argue with that."

"Don't I?" Willow asked with a grim smile. Then she dissolved into a cloud of thick, black smoke that exploded outwards to fill the entire crypt.

Shrieks and screams followed by gunshots filled the darkness as Lilah rushed to the exit. Nothing could be seen in the darkness as the sounds faded away. The black cloud swirled around her, then coalesced into the form of Willow, blocking the exit. Six thuds as bodies hit the stone floor confirmed the death of every member of the security team.

"Now," Willow said sweetly. "What were you saying about our agreement?"

Lilah had been exceedingly helpful after her little demonstration, providing Willow with a number of books and artifacts that had proved useful in her search. However, that experience like most of those of the last 19 years didn't offer any ideas on how to go about meeting Tara.

Willow couldn't imagine simply walking up to Tara's room and asking to see her. For one thing, Willow would be terrified. For another, Tara would be terrified too as black clad witches at your door generally didn't mean well. And Willow definitely was not ready to reveal her face and let Tara see her inhumanly dark eyes.

She watched as Tara and Spirit strolled out of sight and sighed. If she couldn't meet Tara at home, she'd have to meet her at work. Willow jumped gracefully out of the tree. She landed on her feet, absorbing the impact of the thirty foot drop without a sound, and began her walk home. She had research to do.

Tonight had been another bust.

They hadn't been able to find anything about the new Master vampire in any of Mr. Giles' books. He kept complaining about the small size of their library compared to the Council's library in his early days as a watcher. Tara didn't think that would matter as she wasn't sure that there was a new evil to discover. She and Spirit had been encountering fewer vampires rather than more in their nightly patrols. Shouldn't there be more vampires if a master vampire was in town?

Tara heard footsteps behind her. She thought, Of course, maybe I'm wrong and there's a group of vampires was following me right now, as she readied a stake. Glancing over her shoulder, Tara could only see a small figure shrouded in shadow walking towards her.

She increased her pace to reach the street corner just ahead of her. The footsteps behind her sped up to match her pace. Tara darted around the street corner and raised the stake in her right hand, ready to strike the vampire's heart the moment it rounded the corner.

As the black-clad figure rounded the corner, Tara swept her stake towards its heart, stopping at the last moment as she finally recognized who her stalker was.

It was Willow. She was dressed in black leathers as she had been the night that they had first met. Her face and hair were hidden under the cowl of her cloak. Tara could only make out the pale shadows of a face, but she couldn't discern any color of eye or hair under the cowl. Perhaps it was because of the darkness of the alley way they stood in.

Tara swallowed, thinking that that had been too close. She had to watch her reactions after spending too many nights hunting vampires. Willow didn't seem to be perturbed by her near-impalement though Tara wondered if she could tell with Willow's face hidden in the shadows of her cloak.

"Feeling nervous?" Willow asked, looking down at the stake hovering over her heart. She didn't feel nervous about the stake. It couldn't hurt her. But she was nervous about the person holding the stake. Tara could wound her deeply with a few simple words. This conversation had to go right.

"Sorry, yes," Tara said. "Good things don't generally follow me at night in Sunnydale." Realizing that she was still holding a stake over Willow's heart, Tara flushed with embarrassment and lowered her hand to her side. This wasn't the way she'd envisioned a second meeting between them beginning.

"I understand," Willow said. Inside, her heart leaped at Tara's words. So I'm a good thing and we've barely talked? Then she worried. Maybe she was a good thing because they hadn't talked much. What if she babbled? What if she couldn't think of anything to say? She'd only practiced the conversation a few...dozen times this evening.

"So I haven't seen you since that memorable meeting in the cemetery," Tara said. Great. That's original. Come on, Tara, you can come up with something more interesting to say to keep her around longer this time.

"I have news for you about the Master," Willow replied. "I found out from one of his vampires that he's sending a large group of vampires to kill the slayer at the school library while she's training tomorrow ... at noon."

Tara was intrigued then puzzled as Willow spoke. "At noon?" she asked, cocking her head. "But they can't go out during the day."

"There are ways to travel below the city without seeing the light of day," Willow said. "Be ready." She was pleased as she turned away, swirling her cloak dramatically around herself as she had practiced, and began walking down the street away from Tara. She smiled giddily, the expression hidden under the hood of her cloak where no one could see. She had the cryptic warning down. It had worked for Angel with Buffy, hadn't it?

Thoughts of Angel and Buffy sobered Willow. She had seen how well that had worked out, and she wanted more from a relationship than mysterious warnings and dramatic appearances to save Tara. She had to find another way to connect to Tara, but even as she thought that she wondered if she should forge a connection with this new Tara.

Tara was such a bright soul, and Willow carried so much darkness within herself. What right did she have to bring all the darkness down upon Tara's light? Angel had a terrible darkness within him, and Willow had seen how that had poisoned his relationship with Buffy. Willow didn't want that to happen to her and Tara, but what could she do about it? The darkness was who she was.

Tara raised her hand and started to say something to stop Willow but couldn't come up with anything. This was so frustrating. How could she talk to Willow when she was always disappearing? She shook her head and turned back to the library. Mr. Giles had to know about this tonight though he didn't have to know where the warning came from.

As Tara entered the school library, it was dark but she knew Mr. Giles was in from the light shining through the window in his office door. She walked to the door and knocked, saying, "Mr. Giles, it's Tara." It was always best to announce yourself at night in Sunnydale.

Giles quickly opened the door, immediately asking, "Tara, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tara replied. "but I found out something on the way home that I thought you should know about tonight."

"What is it?" Giles asked. "Something about the Master?"

"Yes," Tara answered. "He's planning an attack on the slayer here tomorrow at noon." The warning didn't make any sense to her but the Watcher had knowledge and experience that she lacked. Maybe it would have more meaning for him.

Giles looked puzzled. "At noon?" he asked. "I know that vampires can travel through the sewers or even through the streets if completely covered, but look at the size of those windows. Even on a cloudy day, it would be too bright in here for vampires."

Tara shrugged. "I don't know how they plan to do it," she said. "I just know that they said."

"Who did you learn this from?" Giles asked. "Are you sure the information's reliable?"

Tara swallowed. She didn't want to tell Giles about Willow and she wasn't sure if she could explain why even to herself. She wanted to keep Willow just for herself even though they'd only met twice. Somehow she knew Willow felt the same, that their midnight meetings were just for each other.

"I found it out from a vampire before I staked him," she said, feeling guilty about lying to Giles but at the same time hoping that none of that guilty showed on her face or in her voice. Hopefully, he would be distracted enough by the message to ignore its delivery.

Giles thought for a minute. "Well," he said. "It might not be the most reliable of sources, but we should be prepared tomorrow."

"You're still going to be here?" Tara asked in a surprised tone. She had expected that Giles and Spirit would avoid the library tomorrow because of her warning. Shouldn't you avoid a trap once you know it's there? Didn't he believe her?

"Yes, we'll be here," Giles answered firmly. "And we'll be well armed and prepared for anything that might happen."

Tara still felt a bit nervous but said, "Okay, I'd better get some sleep then. I'll see you here at noon."

"Goodnight, Tara, and don't worry too much," Giles said. "It's probably nothing."

Tara left the library and headed home for the second time that night. She started thinking of spells that might be useful tomorrow as she trusted Willow and expected the attack to happen on time, but her mind turned of its own accord to softer thoughts of Willow that had nothing to do with vampires.

Who was that girl?

Chapter 5: Shadows of the Heart

Willow awoke in the dark.

She was surprised by the absence of light as she normally woke late in the day. Surely, it had to be morning by now. She waved a hand, causing the blinds to open. It was pitch black outside and a heavy rain was falling.

Getting out of bed, Willow walked to the window and looked up at the dark sky. Layer upon layer of ominous black clouds covered the sky, completely blocking out the light of the Sun. Now she understood how the vampires were going to attack the Slayer at noon.

Willow was sure the slayer would be at the library. Slayers didn't avoid traps; they always walked right into them. She had planned to watch the encounter anyway since Tara was probably going to be there, and she wanted to be sure she was safe even if it was just some vampires.

Now the situation had changed. Only powerful dark magick could bring such unusual weather to Sunnydale and hold it over the city. Willow had to be there. There could be real danger. She couldn't let something happen to Tara so soon after she'd found her.

Looking over at the digital clock by the bed, she read "11:44." That didn't leave much time. Willow hurriedly dressed, picking up her leathers from the floor where she'd left them last night.

Tara had completed her circuit of the school, returning to the grassy field outside the library. She had found no way to reach Mr. Giles and Spirit in the library. At least, no way except those guarded by four or more vampires. She couldn't take that many at a time. Even Spirit would have trouble with those odds.

Water dripped from her wet hair onto her nose, causing her to shiver. Tara was soaked through to the skin from running here in the cold rain. She wished she had woken up on time, but she woke up with the sun and there hadn't been any this morning. If she had just arrived in time, she would be inside with her friends instead of being stuck out here.

Looking up at the black clouds that hovered motionlessly over Sunnydale, Tara knew that they were unnatural, but she couldn't imagine the power required to summon such weather and maintain it over one spot. Who could have created this darkness?

Vampires didn't tend to have much in the way of mystical power. An image of Willow's dark-clad figure flashed in her mind, and Tara remembered her aura of tightly bound power. She shook her head. It couldn't be Willow. Somehow she knew deep inside that she could trust Willow with anything.

If she could just dispel the clouds and expose the Sun, everything would be fine. The vampires outside the building as well as those inside the library with its tall windows would be destroyed. But she didn't know if she had the power to do this. Tara heard sounds of combat from the library and knew that she had to do something soon. Mr. Giles and Spirit couldn't hold out for long if the number of vampires inside the school matched the number outside.

Tara raised her hands to the sky and threw her head back, wet hair slapping against her back. Looking up she called to the spirits of sky and water to end this unnatural weather and restore the natural order. Tara felt her power flowing lightly through her as she pushed again and again at the spell holding the weather, but it felt like she was trying to move a mountain. The black clouds continued to sit eerily still above Sunnydale, showering her with cold rain. Finally, Tara lowered her hands and looked down despondently. She just didn't have the power to break such a spell.

Tara heard and the wet sound of footsteps approaching her. She quickly looked up, expecting to see a vampire, but saw Willow instead. Willow offered her a black gloved hand and asked, "Do you trust me?"

"What?" Tara asked, startled by Willow's sudden appearance. Hope rose in her heart. Together they might have the power to break the spell. However, she could feel that Willow was asking for more than Tara's trust with this spell. Somehow she knew that if she took Willow's hand, it would change her life forever.

"Do you trust me?" Willow repeated her question, her hand still extended.

Tara looked up and tried to find more than the shadows of a face in the depths of the hood of Willow's cloak, pondering for a moment. It was a scary decision to have to make so quickly. What did she really know about Willow? Despite all her questions and all that she didn't know, she knew one thing for certain. She trusted Willow. All her feelings told her that she could trust Willow with anything. Trusting her heart, she reached up and clasped Willow's hand, answering "Yes."

Willow felt the touch of Tara's hand like a ray of sunlight piercing the veil of darkness around her heart. She knew that Tara was accepting her into her life, not just trusting her for help with this spell. It was only the first step of many, but it felt so right to finally be on the path towards being together again.

"Ready to try it together?" Willow asked, clasping Tara's fingers tightly.

Tara was surprised by the heat she felt from Willow's gloved hand. It warmed her chilled flesh, evaporating the cold droplets of rain from her hand. The contact of their hands felt so right, like they had done this together so many times before. She nodded her assent.

In synchrony, Tara and Willow extended their opposite unclasped hands to the sky and gazed up at the dark unmoving storm clouds. Together they repeated the call to the spirits of sky and water. As they said the words, Tara almost gasped as she felt the warmth from Willow's hand surge upwards through her arm.

Her eyes fluttered shut and her surroundings fell away as the warmth filled her body. She opened herself fully to Willow, fiercely eager to feel the fire of their connection. She felt a certainty that she had never had before. Together they could do anything.

The clouds shuddered and began to move. First one shaft of sunlight speared through an opening in the clouds to the ground below then another sunbeam shot through a second hole followed soon by a third and a fourth. The vampires guarding the school's doors cried out in dismay and scrambled to find shelter.

They were too late.

Vast spaces opened in the clouds, revealing the full force of the Sun. The school was instantly covered in brilliant sunlight. The hapless vampires burned then collapsed into dust as the power of the Sun destroyed them.

Tara stared at Willow, lips quirking into her characteristic crooked smile, and said, "That was amazing!" She felt her body fully alive with magic for the first time. Her skin tingled and her blood sang to her. It was wonderful beyond anything she'd experienced before.

Smiling back at Tara, Willow thought how different their union in casting this spell felt than the dark rituals she had performed in the past. There was the warmth and love and their togetherness that she almost forgotten. She had cast much more complex and powerful spells, but they didn't compare to what she had just shared with Tara. The dark magicks left her empty inside. She thought back to the Ritual of Thirteen.

Willow stood in the center of a 13-pointed star made of colored marble tiles fixed to the otherwise bare grey stone floor. An adept in black robes stood at each point of the star, head bowed in a contemplative pose. The rest of the huge domed chamber was empty. Only two exits led out of the room. The one that they had all entered, and the huge gate of bone that she alone would go through.

"She is the darkness," the adepts chanted and 13 tendrils of dark power flowed from them, reaching towards the shadowy aura of Willow's own dark power. The strength of their magic began to trickle into her. They were fools, but she would open the gate as they desired. After she had absorbed all the power, that is.

"She is the darkness," they repeated and dark magic surged into her from each of them. The feeling of power was exhilarating yet also painful, like fiery ice flowing through her veins. The icy burning didn't stop her from wanting more of the darkness though.

As they repeated the chant the third time, she pulled the magic from them with all her strength, draining the dark adepts until they collapsed into unconsciousness. It didn't feel like enough, but she resisted the urge to pull for more, knowing that it would kill them.

Stepping over their bodies, she walked up to the gate of bone. The dark gate loomed over her like a mountain, dwarfing her tiny form. Hundreds had been sacrificed to seal this ancient Hellmouth. Their bodies and spirits had been used like bricks and mortar to make this gate and seal it, but she had more than enough might to open it.

Focusing all her puissance into her right hand until her body felt drained, her hand filled with such darkness that it seemed to suck all the light out of the room. She reached forward to open the gates of Hell.

All that she'd experienced in magic in the last nineteen years--the excitement of acquiring new skills, the thrill of magical combat, the rush of powerful magic flowing through her--none of it compared to this single moment of union. As she answered Tara, her happiness in their accomplishment together was evident even though her face could not be seen. "It was amazing."

"I've never cast a spell with another person. Have you?" Tara asked. She shifted to let her wet hair fall forward, shielding her face.

Willow felt a pang of loss as she remembered that this Tara had no recollection of their spells together. Even if she was able to share her life with Tara again, the memories of their past together would remain hers alone. No one would ever have them but her. She felt fiercely protective of those memories now, especially the important ones like how they had first met, the nether realms spell, and so many other moments of perfect connection. "I have," she answered.

"Oh," Tara said. She felt a little embarrassed. Of course, Willow had. Just because she was inexperienced didn't mean Willow was too.

Noticing Tara's discomfort, Willow attempted to reassure her, "But not for a very long time." Willow looked down at the ground as she thought about how long it had been. She wished she could tell Tara everything and reassure her that this togetherness was just for the two of them.

Willow's comment made Tara wonder about how old Willow was. She'd somehow just assumed that Willow was near her own age, but now she wasn't certain. "Why not?" she asked.

"You have to be very close to someone for casting together to work," Willow explained. She remembered their first spell together in the laundry room, moving the soda machine to barricade the door so the gentlemen couldn't get in. She hadn't even known Tara's name at the time, but the connection had been there, stronger and more wonderful than anything she'd felt before. It was here again today.

Tara looked down at their clasped hands, pondering Willow's words. Was she that close to Willow? She hadn't even seen her face. Yet somehow she did feel safe and sheltered when she was with Willow, even under the most dangerous of circumstances. She just knew that Willow cared for her deeply and would never hurt her. Their togetherness in casting the spell had felt like the connection she had shared with their redheaded girl of her dreams. Could Willow be that girl? If she was, why did she hide her face so carefully? What had happened to her?

Willow followed Tara's gaze and noticed that they were still holding hands. It felt so natural to her, but she thought Tara must be uncomfortable so she unwillingly released her clasp. "Sorry, I forgot."

"No," Tara said, shaking her head in denial, "That wasn't..."

"You'd better check on your friends in the library," Willow interrupted then started to turn away.

Tara had completely forgotten about Spirit and Giles in the aftermath of their spell. "Wait!" she said. "Before you leave, when can I see you again?"

Willow paused then said "I'll see you on patrol at the VanOlsen crypt." As she walked away, she felt a happiness as she hadn't experienced for so many years. Residual magic sang in her veins, reminding her of how magic was supposed to feel. It didn't have the sudden feeling of raging force that dark magic had, but it had a warmth and a light that made it infinitely better. Dark magic felt great when she was casting, but she felt so cold afterwards.

Tara watched Willow walk away, wondering if she could ever have a normal relationship with this person. The connection she'd felt wasn't just magical and the feelings she'd had weren't just physical. They had shared a deeper emotional and spiritual connection than any she'd experienced before. Tara wasn't sure what kind of relationship she wanted with Willow. It was all so sudden and Willow was so different than anyone she'd ever imagined meeting.

Was it love at first...well she hadn't really seen Willow, not her face anyway...so was it love at first spell? Not traditional, but maybe that was how it was for witches. Was she really thinking of love so soon? She wasn't ready. She didn't even really know who Willow was.

All she had were the stories she'd made up since their first meeting: Willow as a masked heroine, dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness; Willow as a princess under a spell, cursed to hide her face until she found her true love; Willow fleeing from a tragic past that she wanted to forget and coming to Sunnydale to start a new life and find a love. She could weave so many stories to explain her feelings, but she didn't know if any of them were true.

With a sigh, Tara shook off her thoughts and headed towards the library. She had to tell Mr. Giles something about what happened today, but she thought she could leave Willow out of it for now. She wasn't ready to tell anyone about Willow until she had a better idea of what Willow meant to her and why.

In a cavern deep beneath Sunnydale, a young vampire shrieked in pain, dropping a glowing green gem from his hand. The large uncut stone fell to the ground and rolled across the floor of the cavern, its cold emerald radiance scintillating on the smooth, slick stone ceiling overhead. He looked at his hand and saw terrible burn marks where he'd held the stone. Looking down at the Heart but afraid to touch it, he curled his hand around the pain and wondered how something that cold could burn him so terribly.

He glared at the witch who shared the cavern with him. "What happened?" he shouted. "What was wrong with your instructions?"

"Well..." the witch said, looking down at the stone whose radiance had dimmed to a faint glimmering of green.

"Don't even think it!" the young vampire said harshly, following her gaze. "I don't need to touch the Heart to burn you to a cinder with its power."

"Master, of course the Heart is yours," she said, bowing. Careful to keep any sign of her contempt for the vampire from her eyes, she continued "I was just thinking that the gem outputs more energy locally when it expends energy to change something externally."

The Master shook his head, confused, "What does that mean?"

"It means that you shouldn't hold the Heart while maintaining a long lasting spell like weather control," the witch answered. "Perhaps we can get a jeweler to set it so you can use it for spells without constant contact." She still didn't understand how a young fool like this one had found the Heart. It had to be luck. He didn't have the brains for serious planning and he certainly wasn't a master vampire except by right of the power he wielded with the gem.

"Then go and find one," the Master growled. "And find a minion to tell me how the attack on the Slayer went. I don't suppose it went well if the weather failed too early."

"Of course, Master, I will do as you ask," she said. "You will soon attain full mastery of the Heart's power."

The Master stared coldly at her, "I'd better, Amy."

Amy Madison turned away from the Master and walked out of the room. Once safely out of the vampire's sight, she smiled. She had spent her youth in search of dark magicks and her brown hair was heavily streaked with grey. But it wouldn't be much longer now. The Heart would likely destroy such a foolish user on its own and if it didn't, she wasn't above giving him a push. Then the Heart would be hers and so would everything she had ever wanted.