Willow got up again. She was letting Riley stay in her place, but that was about it. Ever since Angel had come to talk to her, to tell her about Kennedy, she'd avoided everybody--even her boarder. She told the others about what happened, then left it alone
She walked to her shelf--again--the way that she had several times since she'd found out about the "dead-bodies-being-reflected" thing. There were things that Giles had read about--and none of them were good--that went along with what the others had seen.
Of course, there were probably things in her own books, but did she really want to try and go back to them? It was accepting something she didn't want to accept. Life would still go on, even though her lover was dead--again. Maybe she just had bad luck with love, like Xander.
"Willow?" She looked up. It was Buffy, in her doorway.
"Hey." She smiled, a little, for her best friend.
"How're you doing?"
"I'm good. I haven't tried to destroy the world yet--that's something, right?"
"That's something," Buffy agreed.
"It's just--I can't stand it. She trusted him! She trusted him, and she walked right into it. It isn't right, Buffy. Kennedy didn't do anything at all. Yeah, she was a brat, but she knew it. And--she was good."
"I know." Buffy walked into Willow's room and held her as she collapsed.
"I've been trying," Willow murmered. "I've been trying to get going again, and to look up things for the apocalypse--but then she's really gone, you know? Then I'm accepting that she's dead, and I don't want to do that."
"But you have to."
"I know."
"Buffy?" They both looked up as Riley came into the room. "Sorry," he said awkwardly. "But, there's someone on the phone for Willow."
"It's fine. Will?" She let Willow go, drying her eyes.
"Who is it?"
"Um.... Some very pissed off chick. She's threatening to mold my skin into something I can't even imagine, and keeps growling about how foolish mortals are, and how much she hates being like one."
"Oh. Illyria. She came from Los Angeles. Former demon, or goddess--I didn't quite get the whole story. Then she lost most of her powers, so she's good now. We think," Willow explained to Buffy.
"She says that they found something, and then told me that she doesn't want to return to the place of the shell's death."
"I'll be right there." Willow turned back to Buffy. "Thanks," she said to her. "For coming for me."
"Anytime, Will."
She leaned against the wall while Willow walked out to take the phone.
Riley came back into the room.
"Remind me never to piss off an ex-demon--or ex-goddess--whatever that chick is," he told her.
"What happened? Back in London," said Buffy bluntly.
"I was coming to find you. The covert ops team that I was with was almost entirely demolished. Sam and I survived, Buffy, but that was it. But once we got back to London, because she was still with me.... Drusilla killed her. I found that out later. I almost saved her, but I couldn't find out what was going on in time."
"I'm sorry," said Buffy, remembering the woman that she'd met only once.
"So, I still came to find you--heard that Spike got a soul, then died, so I thought that maybe we could do a comforting thing. I figured you'd be with Giles, or that he'd know where you were. But then Drusilla pulled me off into an alley--I know that it was her, now. And she managed to turn into Sam. I don't know how, but she did. She looked exactly like her."
"And then what?" Buffy was gentle, remembering when Riley had come back and comforted her, remembering that Drusilla had managed to do the same thing to Giles.
"Then she..... I don't know how she did it, but there was another woman with her that she seemed to know. And the two of them used some kind of magic to possess me."
"Did you recognize the other woman?"
"No, but Drusilla mentioned the Wolf, Hart, and Ram to her, and said that she was very sorry for the loss of Lindsey."
"Lindsey?"
"Yeah. A friend of hers, maybe."
"Maybe--or maybe something more."
"I don't know."
"We'll talk to Spike, Angel. Maybe even Illyria. We'll see if they know them. So it wasn't you trying to kill Dawn?"
"No. And not only that, but Drusilla seemed kind of upset--more than usual--when she discovered that it was Dawn she was trying to kill. I don't know why or who, but she was expecting someone else," Riley told her.
"Buffy?"
"Will." Buffy backed away from Riley a little.
"Yeah--listen, we need to get everyone together, and go to England right away. It's important."
"I'll get Faith and Spike."
"You'd better find Angel, too." Willow forced her issues with the vampire aside. This was more important.
"What is it?" asked Riley as the three of them started out.
"The end of the world."
"Again," they all groaned.
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