Reset

By PSUBrat

- Prologue -

In the Beginning...

Once Willow yelled at Xander to stop, she began beating on his chest with her small fists, the pain coursing through her as fresh as the day before. She hadn't wanted him to stop her. She just wanted to end this pain that was consuming her. The loss of Tara was just too much to bear. Finally, slumping to her knees, she felt Xander place his arm around her comfortingly.

"I love you," Xander whispered to her, holding her tightly to his chest.

As she sobbed into his chest, she felt the dark magic recede from her body, the veins in her face returning to normal as well as her hair; the ebony color being replaced by her natural fiery red.

Across the hill in the cemetery, the monsters that Buffy and Dawn watched as the monsters they had been fighting against stopped moving and crumbled to the ground. The sister looked at each other in amazement and climbed from the chasm that had held their fate, looking towards the sunrise. It was not the most stunning sunrise, as sunrises go, but it took on a whole new meaning this morning. Things were going to be better from now on. They had each other. They were stronger. Willow would be fine, eventually; they would all make sure she was. Okay, so she had tried to destroy the world, but she was in pain and wanted it over, not that that made what she had done justifiable, but who was Buffy to place judgment? Ever since her friends pulled her out of heaven, all she had wanted to do was die, and not so long ago she had tried to kill her friends and Dawn.

"Come on," Buffy said as she tugged on Dawn's arm. "We should go check on the others." Slowly they made their way towards the Magic Box, hoping beyond hope that Anya, Giles and Xander were all right. At the moment, she didn't much care about what had happened to Jonathan and Andrew but she knew that they had gotten away...at least she thought they did since there weren't any bodies around to say otherwise.

Dawn gasped, bringing Buffy out of her thoughts. The two girls stood in stunned silence as Anya and a very battered Giles emerged from the ruins of the Magic Box. Buffy quickly ran to help her Watcher.

"Is everyone okay?" Buffy demanded as she reached Giles side and placed one of his arms around her shoulders, bracing the rest of his weight against her right hip.

"For the most part," Anya answered in a somewhat shaken voice. "I mean, we're not dead or anything so I guess that always a plus."

Dawn looked around the debris and then turned to the others. "Where's Xander? Is-Is he still in there?"

"No," Giles replied. "Xander is the one who stopped all of this."

"Xander?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"I said the same thing," Anya chimed in. "And in the same tone."

Giles smiled softly and looked down at his Slayer. "Yes, Xander saved the world. It is as much of a surprise to me as it is to everyone else." He paused a moment and then continued, trying to straighten up. "I suppose we should make our way over to check on the two of them. I expect that Xander will need our assistance with Willow."

Within a few minutes, the small group of bruised Scoobies reached the summit of the hill. Buffy glanced up towards where Xander had been holding a limp Willow as she sobbed. They were getting up now. Xander was holding Willow close to him as they walked down the slope towards their friends. Buffy turned back to Dawn and gave her a hug while stroking the young girl's hair. Things were definitely going to be better now.

Anya quickly made her way up the hill and reached out to assist Xander with his broken friend; he gave her a slight smile and an appreciative look. Her hopes soared when he didn't pull away from her touch. Maybe, just maybe things would now be better between the two of them.

The three of them made their way towards where Buffy and Dawn were standing, still watching the sunrise. Meanwhile, behind them, Giles just surveyed the damage. "Bloody hell," he thought taking off his glasses to clean them. How were they ever going to make this right?

Suddenly Willow began sobbing again. Her pain was like a sharp knife through all of them. It took most of Xander's remaining strength to keep him and her from falling to the ground again. Buffy moved to help them, when suddenly Willow cried out, "I wish Tara had never died!!!!"

Before anyone could contemplate the consequences of her words, Anya morphed into her demon self and simply stated, "Done!"

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