CHAPTER SEVEN:

Willow looked intently at their joined hands, as if to draw strength from their connection.

“There was a girl,” she began. “She was Dawn’s age, a precog. Her name was Cassie Newton, and she had a premonition that she was going to die. We tried to save her, and in a way we did, but in the end we still lost her. Buffy says ( Read more... )

CHAPTER SIX:

Willow woke up to what was probably the happiest morning of her life in recent memory. Until panic set in. It was real, wasn’t it? It wasn’t some long, incredibly detailed dream?

She leapt out of bed and checked the other rooms, but even Dawn’s bedroom was empty. Nervously, she made her way down towards the kitchen.  No words ( Read more... )

CHAPTER FIVE:

Willow worked feverishly in the kitchen, washing dishes, scrubbing pans, anything to keep her from thinking of what was going on upstairs. The sink had never been so shiny, the cabinets so neat.

Two hours had passed since she’d left Tara. She’d eaten a quick, tasteless dinner. She had looked up hopefully as Dawn came down ( Read more... )

CHAPTER FOUR:

In the end, Willow’s careful preparations paid off and the spell went off perfectly.

There had been only one awkward moment. Right after Tara appeared and before they started the spell, the blonde had motioned Willow to one side.

“I-I need you to promise me something,” Tara said gravely.

Something seemed to coil ( Read more... )

CHAPTER THREE:

Tara’s eyes were wide with disbelief and hurt. “W-Willow?” She stood up slowly.

“But, but you just said - !” Dawn gasped in shock.

Willow did her best to ignore the stricken look on Tara’s face. As much as every fiber in her being wanted - actually told her that this was real, she couldn’t ignore the alarms sounding off ( Read more... )

CHAPTER TWO:

Willow leapt from her chair.  “That’s not funny, Dawn!”

“I’m not -”

“You don’t joke about stuff like that!”

The girl stood up, mainly because the witch looked like she was ready to bolt, and now that Dawn understood why she was here, she was ready to chase after her if need be.  “Willow, listen to me, okay?  I’m not ( Read more... )

The redhead took a calming breath. “I always wanted to thank you for that,” she continued more quietly. “Next to hurting you guys and trying to destroy the world, I hate thinking about the way I left Tara alone.”

“I understood, you know. What you did.” Dawn’s voice fell to a whisper. “Destroying the world maybe went a little too far, but ( Read more... )

CHAPTER ONE

Sunnydale was no more. It was worse than a ghost town, because there wasn’t even a trace of the town any longer, only a black crater that stretched for miles.

There were no attempts to resurrect it, no misguided bureaucratic efforts to fill in the crater-deep gouge in the earth. The highways that used to pass through ( Read more... )