A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Eowyn315!!!!




“All violence, no magic.” Buffy smiled grimly as she assessed the situation, staring across the room at her former friend standing in the doorway. “Sounds good to me.”

Willow stalked into the room, her eyes blazing with fury, though they were their normal green in color, rather than the opaque black that signified her magical power. Within the walls of this house, with the wards in place, Willow could do no magic at all.

And she was clearly not very happy about it.

“Guys, get back,” Buffy snapped at the others, moving so that she stood between Willow and the two ordinary, mortal humans that could be so easily hurt by her. “This’ll just take a minute.”

“Feeling pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you, Buffy?” Willow sneered, a single eyebrow raised in a challenge as she stopped a couple of yards away from Buffy, watching her warily for a moment before trying to circle around her.

Buffy stepped deliberately into her path, unwilling to allow her any nearer to her Watcher or the gypsy teacher behind him. “Come on, Willow.” She shrugged. “Do we really have to do the dramatic wild west standoff thing? We both know I’m gonna kick your ass in about five minutes.”

Willow’s eyes narrowed in rage, and her pretty features shifted into the horrific guise of the demon beneath them, as she lunged at the Slayer with a roar of fury. Buffy was prepared for the attack and threw her to the ground with ease, relieved to find that Willow’s strength was like that of any other fledgling, and no real match for a Slayer.

Infuriated, Willow scrambled to her feet, hurling herself at Buffy again with a snarl, her hands twisted into vicious claws as she aimed for Buffy’s eyes. The Slayer dodged the blows easily, spinning so that Willow’s assault passed her by, then grabbing the young vampiress by the arm and slinging her back toward the front door. The force of the move sent Willow slamming into the wall, before tumbling and landing in a disoriented heap a few feet away from the door.

“I’ll kill you,” Willow snarled defiantly. “I’ll kill you, Buffy!”

The redhead stumbled as she climbed doggedly back to her feet, glaring resentfully at Buffy, but not venturing any closer to her. Buffy swallowed hard, steeling herself for what she knew she had to do, before starting across the room toward Willow, reaching into her jacket pocket for her stake.

“No, I really don’t think you will.”

Willow hurriedly backed away, closing the few feet that separated her from the front door before Buffy could catch up to her, stepping over the threshold and grinning at Buffy with triumph.

“I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you,” she sneered, her fingertips nearly meeting in front of her, electric sparks of powerful magic flowing between them as her jade eyes darkened to midnight black. “I *really* don’t think you wanna walk out that door.”

“Buffy, don’t,” Jenny warned her urgently. “We have to do the binding spell first. She’s too powerful right now; she’ll kill you!”

Buffy hesitated just inside the door, her Slayer instincts insisting that she rush forward and face the threat Willow posed; but wisdom dictated that Miss Calendar was right. Within a few minutes they would have her magic disabled, and then Buffy could face Willow easily, just as she would any other inexperienced fledgling.

“Good luck finding me.” Willow smirked as she backed away from the door, aware that she could not touch them as long as they were safely inside. “I don’t think your typical location spell is gonna do it. And while you’re having fun playing at magic you’re not ready for…” She gave Buffy a suggestive wink. “…I’ll be having fun playing with your vampire.”

Buffy was too dismayed and horrified by her words to even consider taking offense to Willow’s teasing reference to Spike as “her vampire”. A blind, possessive fury rose up in her, and she started toward the door again.

“Buffy, *stop*!” Giles cried out, and the intensity of his voice froze Buffy in her tracks. “She *wants* you to go out there; don’t take another step!”

“He’s right.” Willow shrugged, meeting Buffy’s eyes with a cruel smile. “I *do* want you to come out here…because right now, out here, you’re no match for me. But you know…I did mean what I said. So, you just think about that while you’re doing your little spell, and then for the next couple weeks while you’re trying to find me without the use of stupid little location spells that won’t work against *my* wards. Think about what your precious vampire’s going through, because you don’t have the guts to face me here and now.”

Jenny’s voice was hushed as she insisted, “Buffy…don’t let her do this. She’s just trying to…”

“I know,” Buffy snapped, her voice trembling, her eyes welling with tears, not making a move toward the door, though she desperately wanted to do so.

She was not stupid, and she knew that if she stepped outside the door right now, she would be dead in minutes, and there would be no one to help Spike at all. The only option was to wait until Willow’s magical power was gone before facing her…but that might be too late for Spike.

“See you soon…but not soon enough.” Willow smiled and winked as she backed slowly away from the door, gradually fading into the darkness as she teleported away from the house.

There was a weighted moment of silence as they all considered Willow’s sobering words.

“Buffy,” Giles began in a soothing voice.

The Slayer whirled around to face him, her jaw set with anger, her tear-filled eyes blazing with determination. “Start the spell,” she ordered in a voice made of steel as she made her way toward Giles’ weapons trunk. “Now.”

****************************************

Spike lay where he had been when Willow had performed her world-changing spell, chained to the bed in the upstairs room where she had been torturing him. The gypsy’s reversal spell had returned them both to this room, but Willow had immediately left, headed for Giles’ house in a furious attempt to punish those responsible for bringing the fantasy world of her creation crashing down.

That had left him some time in which to do nothing but wait…wait, and think about the horrors he and Buffy had been through in that make-believe world that still felt so terribly real. He remembered the things he had done, the things that had been done to him, and how Willow had revealed them all to Buffy’s eyes.

And if he remembered…that meant that Buffy remembered, too.

Spike pulled against the chains that bound him in a vain attempt to escape, and then winced in pain as he remembered the real tortures to which Willow had subjected him before changing the world. She had taken her time, using both magic and more conventional methods to tear into his bound, helpless body; now, Spike could barely move without aggravating some vicious wound she had left.

She had drank from him, nearly draining him to increase her own strength, leaving him too weak to break the bonds that held him, even had he not been in so much pain.

Spike allowed his bound arms to collapse against the bed, gasping for breath, fighting back despairing sobs as he remembered the horrified look in Buffy’s eyes, the way her shoulders shook with sobs of anguish at the knowledge of what he had done. It had not been reality – not really – but something told him that wasn’t going to matter to her. She could not unsee what she had seen; those horrifying images would be in her mind from now on.

Every time she looked at him, she would see him hovering over Giles’ still form, his mouth stained with her Watcher’s blood.

“Hey, Spikey. You miss me?”

He jumped at the sibilant whisper near his ear, as the witch materialized inches from the bed, her cold smile widening with pleasure at his reaction. He strained against the chains in an instinctive attempt to place some distance between them, though it was a useless effort.

In one smooth motion, Willow swung her leg across his body, straddling his waist and putting painful pressure on the magical burns and deep, vicious cuts that marked his torso. Spike bit back a groan, his back arching before he collapsed against the bed again, shaking in agony.

“Awww,” Willow smirked. “Did I hurt you?”

Spike did not respond, turning his face away from her in disgust.

Willow’s smile faded, her eyes narrowing in anger. “You’re lucky I don’t have time to deal with you right now,” she informed him imperiously. “I’ve only got a few minutes before they’ll manage to bind my powers…which means I’ve got to do one last spell…”

With an impatient sigh she got up again, deliberately dragging her nails across the ragged flesh of Spike’s stomach and visibly relishing his choked cry of anguish as she did. She crossed the room to the doorway of a small adjoining room, possibly another bedroom, though Spike had not seen inside it. She lounged in the doorway, her back to her own room, smiling at something she saw in the next.

“They think they’ve got me beat…they’ve just got to find me,” she observed softly. “But we’re not finished yet, are we, baby?”

Spike looked toward her, frowning with confusion, unsure whether or not she was talking to him, and if she was, why she would be talking as if he were on her side. He didn’t respond, just waited to see what else she might say, raising his head slightly, straining to see past her to whatever it was she seemed so pleased to see.

“We’ve still got a few surprises up our sleeves…don’t we?” Willow continued in a soft, distant voice, speaking mostly to herself as she stood up straight again and disappeared into the dark room.

Spike could not see what was happening in the adjoining room, could only make out a faint glow as Willow began to work her magic, chanting in Latin that rose in volume and pitch as the spell intensified. The light gradually grew brighter and brighter as Willow’s power surged, and Spike felt an ominous chill go down his spine at the dark magic she was using.

An electrical sound like a charge of lightning echoed in the darkness, and the room went painfully bright for an instant, before the light from Willow’s magic faded completely, and all was as it had been before she started. Both rooms were silent for a few moments, and then Willow slowly moved to the doorway again. As he strained to see past her, Spike noticed that the light in the other room had not completely gone out. There was still a faint glow, shifting and moving slightly, in the room behind her.

He turned his apprehensive gaze to Willow, noting her disheveled, exhausted appearance as she ran a shaking hand through her damp, auburn hair. Her eyes were green, and her skin appeared natural, unmarred by the veins that usually appeared when she allowed herself to be consumed by magic.

“Wow,” she gasped, sitting down on the edge of the bed, heedless of Spike’s whimper of pain at the jostling of his tortured body. “That was intense. But…it worked. They only *think* they can take my power from me. They’re wrong.” She met Spike’s eyes in a secretive smile as she added mysteriously, “They can’t take what I don’t have.”

She rose from the bed again, heading toward the doorway, making a beckoning motion with her fingertips as she stood to the side, turning her eyes on Spike gleefully to watch his reaction as the source of the faintly glowing magical light within the other room moved slowly closer to the doorway.

“And I know you’ll take good care of it, won’t you?” She spoke with affection to a dark figure who appeared in the doorway, looking a bit disoriented, blinking into the dimly lit bedroom with dark golden eyes under a shaggy mop of dark hair.

Spike drew in his breath sharply as he recognized the remnants of human features beneath the vampiric mask that was now in place, and his horrified gaze was drawn to the boy’s hands, which were surrounded by crackling magical energy that was not his own. Spike’s heart sank as he realized what Willow had done, and the devastating effect it was going to have on the already heartbroken Slayer he loved.

“I know I can trust you…” Willow went on, speaking to the fledgling, though her eyes were still focused on Spike with malicious pleasure, taking in his reaction. “Xander…my childe.”