"One?" Willow wrinkled her nose in puzzlement. Well this part was new. "One what?"
"One." The Force smiled, this time gently and released Willow's arm to place her hand instead over the witch's heart. A strange swarming power rushed into Willow's chest and she gasped for breath, some part
of her dimly analysing that she'd never experienced anything quite like this before. It was almost unbearable in its intensity. It was filling her up, rushing down, down, deep into her core and then extending out again, rushing through her being, extending out through her fingers and toes.
"Oh boy!" Xander had risked another glance and wasn't pleased with what he saw. "Hurry, guys! Willow's gone all 'hit-by-lightning' as well." At that observation Dawn stood to her feet, careless of the danger. What she saw was Willow and Buffy connected by Buffy's hand over Willow's heart, surrounded by the same strange throbbing, palatable energy. Willow's red hair was floating up and around her head like Buffy's and although Dawn' couldn't quite see the Wiccan's eyes from her angle, she imagined they were green fire.
"Wow," she breathed. "It's like watching the Matrix in real life." At that Xander popped up too.
"Get back down here!" Giles sounded furtive and worried. He made a grasp at Dawn's jean leg but she danced out of the way.
"Ooh," said Xander. "Ooh! Aah."
"It's about sodding time," muttered Giles, finally finding the spell he was looking for. "Anya, give me a hand here." But Anya was busy glaring up at her recalcitrant boyfriend.
"You're aroused," she accused. "You have that added thickness in your voice that you get whenever I talk dirty to you and call you my butt-monkey and ask you to pick the nits out of my..."
"Oh my God," gasped Xander. "Not out loud, honey and oh my God you have got to see this."
Anya and Giles both rose to have a look, curious beyond measure.
"Okay," Anya conceded, licking her lips as she stared at the scene playing out before her. "I'm aroused too."
Giles sighed. "If everybody could get their minds out of the gutter, could we just get back to helping Tara. Preferably before those of us who are currently possessed stop whatever they’re doing and decide to kill us all."
The Magick Woman opened her eyes and looked at the Force Of Goodness. She finally understood. The understanding filled her and warmed her and slowly, surely she reached out her left hand to gently lift the Force's chin.
"What must be will be," she said and her voice was different, honeyed and...ancient.
"We will be," the Force Of Goodness smiled at her, briefly, fiercely.
"We will be," the Magick Woman agreed and felt an instant of total peace. She ran her thumb over the softness of the Force's bottom lip and her own smile was secret, knowing.
"Oh my God," said Xander. "What will they do next? Dare I hope? Please, oh, please."
"Wow," Dawn sounded nervous. She glanced over at the couple next to her for reassurance. "Um I'm not sure I should be seeing this. I might be too young. Buffy will kill me, don't you think?"
"Yes," said Anya, "you are no doubt too young and innocent for such entendre. Fortunately I am not."
"Entendre?" questioned Dawn uncomfortably. "And I am not young and innocent!" she said as an afterthought.
Giles had decided to ignore the non-helpfuls around him and was busy chanting the appropriate spell over Tara. With a flourish he finished. "Release!" he declared and to his relief her body went limp instead of rigid and with a soft moan her eyes blinked open.
"G...Giles? What h...happened?"
The Force breathed out against the Magick Woman's finger before withdrawing a little. Both sets of glowing eyes closed in pure reaction. Xander gasped and Anya bit her own finger.
"To you, Magick Woman, I entrust The Prophecy. I must return now to the Slayer's being until such time as you call me out. Don't wait too long, or I will be lost forever. She will be lost."
"I will come soon." The Magick Woman said it seriously, like a promise, as her long lashes blinked slowly back open.
Slowly, as though with great pain, as though it cost her dearly to do so, the Force withdrew her hand from the Magick Woman's heart and let it drop by her side. As all of the Scoobys now silently watched, two sets of hair drifted back down according to the law of gravity to hang in their proper places.
Buffy's silvery eyes dimmed and the light they had emitted faded. Suddenly the Slayer was aware again. Greyness rushed past her behind her vision and power burrowed down deeply into her, out of her fingers and toes, out from where it had filled and engulfed her slight form. Deeper and deeper she felt it go until
she wasn't even aware of it anymore. Her limbs tingled with a sensation not unlike a severe case of pins and needles and with a gasp of pain and shock she fell facedown to the ground.
Willow blinked, blinked again and found herself wholly returned to herself. The strange thing was she could still feel the mysterious Magick Wo
man inside and knew that it meant that this was a part of her. Somehow she had accessed this self via the Force that had controlled Buffy. Yet she didn't think it was the same for Buffy. The Force seemed to be a Slayer attribute whereas the Magick Woman was just...Willow. Or was she? She wasn't sure. Her brain hurt from thinking about it so much. She stood there in a daze, her eyes closed in an attempt to sort her thoughts, unaware of the Scoobys rushing over to them. She didn't feel
it when Tara wrapped her in a fervent embrace.
"Buffy?" Giles was on his knees next to his slayer, combing her hair to the side and tilting her head gently so he could check her breathing. "She's alive," he told the Scoobys with relief.
"That was freakerini!" Xander eyed the others and waved his hands in the air to indicate what he meant. "Way out there on the freak-o-meter."
"Like a porn scene," analogised Anya, "without any actual porn."
"High class," agreed Xander than blushed firebrick red as he realised what he'd just said. "Wait, I take that back. No porn here. I don't even watch porn. Erm much. Hey is the Buffster okay?"
"Buffy? Buffy, wake up," Dawn was crying now, overwrought from all the excitement.
"Buffy?" Willow'
s eyes snapped open. She stared at her girlfriend in evident surprise then pulled away to kneel down next to Giles and Dawn. "Is she okay?"
With a slight moan, Buffy's eyes fluttered open and she rolled over onto her side and into a foetal position. Her hazel eyes were unseeing.
"Buffy?" Willow
put a tentative hand on the Slayer's shoulder.
This time there was no more reaction than a twitch.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Anya, looking down at the scene like she was looking at a particularly interesting bug under the microscope. "Has she finally cracked up?"
"Anya!" hissed Xander.
"She's j...just in shock," explained Tara, linking her arm through Willows and glancing at her girlfriend from beneath her lashes. "You both are. It's a s...side effect of possession. I remember reading about it."
"Quite right," said Giles. "Anya, go get that blanket I keep with the first aid supplies in the training room."
"You'd think I was his slave," griped the ex-demon but she went.
"Why isn't Willow more affected?" asked Dawn with typical teenage frankness. "She was all possessy too."
"Oh I feel all shaky," mumbled Willow and she did. She found that she was actually holding onto Tara so she could continue standing. Noticing this, Tara helped her over to a chair and sat her down. Willow smiled and kissed her girlfriend's hand gratefully.
Tara's warm brown eyes softened and she smiled her trademark half-smile. 'She's so beautiful,' thought Willow. 'My Tara girl.'
"I heard that thought," whispered Tara, her breath warm on Willow's neck as she settled into a chair pulled right next to the one Willow was occupying.
"Shakies," explained Willow with a grin and slight blush. "No mind-voice control left."
"Sweet too," said Tara and kissed Willow's neck gently. "Mmm."
TBC in 5/6