The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 24 (The Return of Amy Madison)

Willow and Tara walked hand in hand towards the old Gothic mansion. In her other hand, Willow carried the cocoon of magicks that contained the Heart of Corruption. Dawn, who they had found to help them remove the Heart from this world, walked beside them. Willow had felt it best to carry out the ritual at the old mansion where they wouldn't be disturbed.

Willow kept giving Tara oblique glances to reassure herself that Tara was really there beside her. She knew it was silly. She could have felt Tara's presence with her eyes closed even if they hadn't been holding hands. When Tara was near, she felt cherished and safe. Tara's love steadied her own tremulous heart. It just seemed too good to be true.

She'd been ready to die, to sacrifice herself for the future of Tara and the world. Then Tara had been there. The barriers between them had fallen. Unfettered by doubts or reservations, the magic flowed between them and created a miracle to save them, quenching the dark fury of the Heart of Corruption with the power of the love they shared.

Magic wasn't only about spells and rituals. It was also about feeling and emotion. That was something Tara had taught her long ago, but it was a lesson she was only beginning to understand now. If she had learned it sooner, she never would have fallen into the darkness.

Tara was acutely conscious of the sidelong glances Willow was giving her on their walk home. She squeezed Willow's hand each time she received one, reassuring Willow that they really were together. She understood how Willow was feeling, though, as she was feeling much the same. She couldn't quite believe that they'd safely make it through everything. In truth, they weren't done yet. They still had to get rid of the Heart of Corruption. But that seemed easy compared to what they'd gone through already tonight.

Looking at Willow, it was clear that the darkness was a thing of the past. Willow's eyes were bright green and the old lines of sadness had faded from her face. With every glance, Willow showed her that she accepted Tara for who she was, but more importantly, Tara now accepted herself, past and present. Her life felt in balance for the first time since she'd learned of her past.

Dawn watched Willow and Tara's interactions with a smile. It was good seeing them back together. She was unsure of what happened beneath the earth with the Master, but whatever it was, it had cleared away the shadows that had separated them. And Willow's eyes were green again.

She was more than a bit nervous about what was coming up though. She'd only used her power once and she had just been a kid then and hadn't been in control of what was happening. Dawn still didn't understand how her ability worked even though she knew what to do to activate it. That troubled the scientist in her.

At least this time she had Willow to guide her through the process, and she was opening a portal to save the world, not destroy it. Those were major differences, but she still wished it was over already.

As they reached the mansion, Dawn opened the door and let Tara, then Willow, through before going in herself and closing it behind her. The large entry chamber was lined with bookshelves, but there was no other furniture to clutter the room. The walls were bare of ornament.

"I think we-" Willow began, then looked over with surprise when she felt Tara release her hand.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Tara said with a sheepish smile on her face. She didn't want to let go of Willow any more than Willow wanted to let go of her, but she also knew that she didn't have to be afraid. Willow would be here for her when she returned. They wouldn't run from each other any longer.

Willow smiled back at her. "It's okay," Willow said. "We'll figure out where to cast the spell while were waiting."

"Could we go over again when I have to do?" Dawn asked nervously as Tara walked out of the room.

"Sure." Willow began to explain again to Dawn how to open the portal to the Void between Worlds. Dawn had a number of theoretical questions about how the process worked, which Willow had to think seriously about before answering. They were deep in conversation when they heard a gasp from the direction that Tara had gone.

Willow stopped in the middle of her sentence as she turned towards the doorway Tara had disappeared through. She only had time to take two steps before she saw Tara re-enter the room, a handgun pressed to her head, her face pale with fear.

Amy Madison pushed Tara into the room, holding the gun in her hand. She looked much older than she had when Willow had last seen her, unnaturally aged by dark magicks; but it was unmistakably her. Her eyes were cruelly triumphant as she looked at Willow. She was carrying a light crossbow in her other hand.

"Don't try anything, Willow," Amy said in a low, dangerous voice before either of them could do anything. "Even if you could kill me instantly, you wouldn't necessarily save her. Think what a few ounces of pressure exerted by a nervous spasm of my finger as I died would do. Are you willing to take that chance?"

Willow's eyes narrowed as she regarded Amy. It was only a chance, but not one she could take. There were spells that would obliterate Amy completely, even with the limited power she had remaining after the confrontation with the Master, leaving no finger to twitch, but she had left all that behind her. She had to find what Amy wanted while she searched for another way to deal with her.

Dawn fell silent at Amy's words though Amy had barely glanced at her. She looked over to Willow for an indication of how she wanted to handle the situation.

"Good girl," Amy said with a flicker of a smile. "Now give me the Heart."

"And you'll let Tara go," Willow asked, regarding Amy steadily. She refused to allow any of her feelings to show on her face, even though she felt her deepest fear tearing at her insides, frantically trying to get out. The sound of a long ago gunshot reverberated in her mind. She couldn't allow that to happen again.

Willow felt sick at her stomach and only an iron will prevented her hands from trembling. She couldn't give herself away to Amy. Many times in her past she had confronted this type of person and won, but never had the stakes been so high. She knew that she couldn't show fear if they were all going to make it out of this alive.

Tara stood frozen, hardly daring to breathe. The constant pressure of the gun pressed to her head reminded her with every heartbeat of how she had died before and how she might die again in the next few minutes. It was hard to think of anything but the gun with Amy's warning ringing in her ears. Tara looked desperately at Willow for help. On seeing the calm strength in Willow's eyes, she felt hope for the first time since she'd felt the cold metal of the gun against her temple.

"Of course," Amy nodded, her attention almost completely focused on Willow.

Dawn's eyes darted back and forth between Amy and Willow, watching the deadly contest of words and wills with fear in her heart. What could she do? Her power was only good for one thing. There was no way she could stop Amy before she killed Tara.

"Why should I believe you?" Willow asked skeptically. She glanced quickly at Tara's face, beautiful as always, though her eyes were wide with fear, and promised with her own eyes that she would get her safely out of this situation. She didn't want to trust Tara's fate to Amy's goodwill if she could help it, but she needed time to find another way. She had to keep Amy talking long enough to come up with a plan.

"You don't have much choice," Amy said, her expression hard and uncompromising. "Just like when I was a rat and had to trust you to turn me back into myself."

"And I did," Willow said evenly, her brain racing as she came up with scenario after scenario, rejecting one after the other as too risky. She didn't want to risk Tara, but she knew they wouldn't be much safer if she gave Amy the Heart.

"After years of leaving me as a rat," Amy pointed out angrily, her voice shrill. "You could raise the dead, but you didn't have time to cast an easier spell to save a friend."

"That's not Tara's fault," Willow protested. If Amy hated her this much, maybe she could get Amy to take her as a hostage instead of Tara.

"Amy-" Dawn began then quickly shut up as Amy shot her an angry glance, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the gun tighter. Tara trembled, flicking her eyes over to Dawn, as she felt the gun press harder into her temple.

"Like I said, I'll let her go if you give me the Heart," Amy said, staring hard into Willow's eyes. Only the clenching of her fingers revealed her tension. "Now quit stalling!" she barked.

Willow wordlessly tossed the cocooned form of the Heart of Corruption towards Amy. It was a dangerous action, but she could do nothing else with Tara's life in the balance. It would give her a little more time for Amy to make a mistake. The Heart landed on the floor midway between them. "There it is," she said.

Amy stared at the shroud of protections, searching for the presence of the Heart inside them. Her gun never wavered from Tara's temple for a moment. Finally, she nodded with satisfaction. "That's it," she said with a sly smile. Her smile hinted at dark secrets, known only to Amy herself. "Now there's one thing more I have to say to you, Willow."

She brought to the crossbow up, aimed at Willow's heart. "The spell is complete," Amy said, her voice ringing with malicious triumph. "Willow Danielle Rosenberg, I name your true name." Activated by the act of naming Willow, the runes on the quarrel glowed a dull red.

As she pulled the trigger on her crossbow, Tara dove for the bow, heedless of the gun at her head. She pushed the crossbow downwards, but the bolt still fired, striking Willow in the stomach. Amy wrested the bow from Tara's grasp and smashed her across the head with it, knocking her to the ground, then quickly turned the gun on Dawn who had made it halfway across the room while she was distracted.

Tara lay stunned on the hardwood floor. Her world was still spinning as she touched her head gently where Amy had hit her. She winced as her hand came away bloody, but she struggled to get up anyway, determined to stop Amy before she could hurt Willow any more.

"You didn't save her," Amy gloated down at Tara. "The spell on the bolt bore her true name. It didn't matter where the bolt struck her." She pointed towards Willow's body on the floor.

Panickstricken, Tara looked over at Willow. When she saw Willow's unmoving form, the feathered end of the bolt sticking out of her abdomen, her vision blurred with tears. Her chest tightened and it felt like all the life was being sucked out of her. Willow couldn't be dead, not when she had just found her.

Almost immediately the self-recrimination began. She had seen those visions for a reason. Why couldn't she have been faster or done something sooner? She should've been more careful when they came home, knowing from what she'd seen of the future that it wasn't over yet. If she hadn't been a hostage, Willow would never been in a situation to be shot. She should have... Her thoughts were interrupted by sudden pain as Amy kicked her in the ribs.

"I said, break the spells on the Heart or I'll kill you," Amy said, her face flushed with anger from being ignored.

Tara looked up Amy numbly, unable to summon much fear at the idea of being killed. She tried to think of an appropriate response, but before she could come up with anything to say, everything in the room rippled as if it was merely a reflection on a pool where a stone had just fallen.

Amy and Tara turned to see Dawn pressing her bloody palm into the air as if it were a solid surface. Dawn slowly dug her fingers into the air. Gaining purchase, she pulled her clenched hand back. Reality wrinkled around her hand, and as she pulled the corners of the room lost their angularity, melting like a clock painted by Salvador Dali.

The muscles on Dawn's arm stood out as she pulled harder and the fabric of reality tore around her fist, opening a dark gash in the world. Dawn stumbled backwards, landing on her bottom, her hold torn free. Droplets of blood from her hand flew across from room to strike the white chrysalis enclosing the Heart.

The portal rapidly expanded until it was a rough sphere bigger than a person. It revealed wonders as it grew. Through it, they saw millions upon millions of tiny crystal spheres suspended in the absolute blackness of the Void, each containing a universe. The spheres glowed with every color of the rainbow as they floated in the infinite space of the Void. Larger than worlds and farther away than the stars, the crystal spheres still looked tiny and close enough to gather up in one's hand.

Wonder turned to alarm as they felt a wind blowing towards the portal, quickly growing in strength. Papers carelessly stacked on the bookshelves by the walls began fluttering in the gale. Soon, the top sheets of paper were flying through the air towards the portal.

Unnoticed in the commotion, each droplet of Dawn's blood stained the cocoon of protections wrapped around the Heart, creating expanding patterns of pink, like the rapid flowering of a rose. Under the surface, billions of living blood cells, each filled with pure green energy, swam through the protections, seeking to open. Inside the chrysalis, the purity of their living power found its twin in age and power enclosed in the lifeless form of a gem.

Seeing Amy momentarily distracted by the portal, Tara seized the opportunity Dawn had given her. She had nothing left to lose. She grabbed the newly pink chrysalis of enchantments enclosing the Heart of Corruption and leaped into the portal. Even if Amy shot her, she knew her body would carry the Heart into the Void.

Tara entered the portal headfirst, but her plunge was stopped with a sudden jerk as she felt strong hands grasp her ankle. She turned her head back to see Amy standing at the edge of the gateway, her gun discarded as she focused all her strength on pulling Tara back and retrieving the Heart. Tara struggled to escape, but Amy drew her back out of the portal, her grasp on Tara's ankle as implacable as death.

Knowing the she little time to spare, Tara hurled the Heart into the depths of the Void with all her strength. Amy shrieked with unbelieving fury as she saw the Heart fall into the Void. She released Tara's leg and dove into the gate, reaching for the Heart with both hands.

Tara shivered with cold she fell free of Amy's grasp into the darkness of the Void. She grappled with Amy, trying to stop her from reaching the Heart, but was pulled back once again by strong hands on her ankle. She turned to see Willow bent halfway over, holding desperately onto her leg.

Willow was alive.

Tara didn't know how it could be. Amy had been telling the truth about the true name spell; she had seen it in her eyes. It didn't matter though. She didn't care how it had happened as long as Willow was alive, but her joy turned to fear as she saw the dark stain in Willow's leathers around the bolt grow with every inch she pulled Tara out of the portal.

Willow's face was pale with pain and blood loss, but her determination never wavered as she slowly pulled Tara out of the Void. She yanked the rest of Tara's body out of the portal with the last of her strength, the two of them collapsing to the floor. Willow gave a strangled cry of pain as the impact opened her wound further. Tara shivered, her skin blue with cold, and wrapped one arm protectively around Willow while holding onto one of the heavy bookshelves with her other hand to prevent them from being sucked into the portal.

Seeing her friends safe, Dawn raised her hand to close the portal, standing in front of the gateway but somehow unaffected by its consuming power. As she looked into the Void, she saw Amy hurl vitriolic black magicks at the pink chrysalis. The chrysalis tore, revealing pulsing green energies inside.

The Heart was active, but not as before. There was nothing cold or malevolent about the light it shone with now. As Amy reached for the incandescent gem, the gossamer web of spells erupted in a blinding flash of pure green brilliance. The three of them were forced to look away from the titanic explosion that filled the portal.

When they could look into the portal again, a new world floated in the darkness of the Void, enclosed in a sphere of crystal made effulgent by roiling clouds which glowed with a pure green energy. As they watched, the luminosity of the sphere began to slowly dim as the furious energies of its creation cooled. The clouds condensed into a denser oblate agglomeration of matter that rotated around its own center.

As the nebulous shape spun, it slowly flattened until it looked like a pancake with a roundish hump of denser material in the middle. Smaller spheres of denser gas and dust began to form in the outer areas of the disk as gravity brought together the small fragments of matter. All was calm until critical pressure was reached deep in the central core, and thermonuclear reactions ignited there.

In a flash of brilliant green light, a new star was born.

The power of the newborn's solar wind blew away the thin clouds of dust and gas, leaving behind scores of planetoids in eccentric orbits. At first Dawn looked unbelievingly at the green star, then she suddenly understood how such a thing could happen. It was a star of a generation not yet born in our own universe, its mass full of heavy elements that were abundant in the matter from which it had been formed.

Dawn wanted to watch as planets grew from planetoids, then cooled enough for oceans and continents to form. It was a unique opportunity to watch a world being born. Would stars form elsewhere in the little crystal sphere so the new star wouldn't be alone? She had so many questions, but as she turned her head to look at Tara and Willow, she realized that she didn't have time, so she checked the Void for one last thing before closing the portal.

There was no sign of Amy Madison.

The new world disappeared from view as Dawn's touch caused the portal to shrink. The hole in reality diminished as fast as it had expanded, folding in on itself at the last to leave the room unchanged as if nothing of consequence had happened there. As Dawn pulled her hand away, she looked at it in wonder and saw that the cut on her palm was healed without a scar to mark what happened.

Tara gasped as she felt Willow go limp in her arms, slipping into unconsciousness. Dawn rushed over to join her.

"Willow!" Tara cried frantically, shaking her still form.

Continued...