After The End Of The End

Willow hit the fire escape with a small grunt, just barely wrapping her arms around the railing in time. The whole thing creaked, sending shudders through her, but she knew she needed to hurry. She could hear harder knocking on the door and voices calling her name. It wouldn't be long before Buffy had kicked the door in. It took a lot of effort to climb onto the fire escape and took most of Willows little energy and strength, but she heard wood splinter and knew the door was done for. She started running down the stairs of the escape, flinching at each clank and creak, sure it would drop any minute. When she came to the end of it, the ladder wouldn't go down to let her the rest of the way to the ground safety. Cursing quietly, she kicked at the rusty ladder, flinching when it shook nearly the whole fire escape. She heard the gang calling for her and knew she didn't have time to find a better way. Cursing her luck again, she pulled herself to the outside part of the ladder, climbing down as far as she could before pushing off to fall the rest of the way. It wasn't that far, and after a stumble she was able to get back up and keep moving, but she was pretty sure she twisted her ankle. She half-limped half-ran away from the sound of her friends voices, just managing to slip into an alleyway as they burst out the doors of the complex. Though her ankle was begging her to stop, her chest and abdomen hurt from both her run, hitting the railing and using her upper body strength, and she had been weak and tired /before/ this, she knew she still had to keep moving. Limping down the alley, she looked for potential hiding spots. Seeing a small space behind a dumpster, she grimaced and squeezed into it, pulling a piece of cardboard she had found over the crack to hide herself the rest of the way. She had made it just in time, the gang rounding the corner into the alley. Willow squeezed her eyes shut anxiously, glad for the noisy air-conditioner that was above the dumpster, or else she was sure Buffy would have heard her pounding heart with her slayer hearing. As it was, Willow was holding her breath as best she could. 

"Willow?! Willow, please!" Willow tensed more, hearing the tears in Taras pleading call. Tears formed in her eyes too as she remembered how Tara had cared for her after everything that had happened. 

"I'm so sorry Tara.." She whispered, freezing when Buffy stopped abruptly, 

"Did anyone else hear that?" Blood rushed in Willows ears as everyone paused to listen. Buffy clenched her fists in frustration, "Shit. I thought i heard a voice." Xander and Dawn came back into Willows hearing, calling to the others, 

"Its a dead end! Shes not here." With low spirits, the gang continued on to search somewhere else. 

***

Buffy stopped searching with a frustrated grunt, hours after they had left the alley. Tara looked to her in concern, looking down when she saw a slight shimmer of tears. 

"We've searched everywhere in a ten mile radius. Shes gone." Tara looked back up at that, shaking her head viciously, 

"We cant give up! We /cant/!" Xander stepped over next to Buffy, kicking a rock and looking down at his shoes. 

"Even if we were to find her.. What if she went dark again? We couldn't fight her a couple years ago when she was like that, and we cant now. We need to be more.. Prepared." Tara sank down to sit on the curb, trying to hold tears back, 

"Prepared for what, Xander? Prepared to fight her? Prepared to kill her?" 

"Tara.. You know I don't want.." Tara jumped back up, turning to Xander. 

"No! Thats the thing Xander, all I /know/ is what you're saying! And you're saying we need to kill Willow!" Tara screamed furiously, the rest of the gang stunned by the sudden outburst. "She's your /best friend/ Xander! How can you say - how can you even THINK-" 

"You dont think i /know/ that?!" Xander cut her off, "Well Anya isn't here to say the tough stuff anymore, so I guess that falls to me, cause no one else will do it!" Xanders voice cracked slightly on the name of the ex demon, but he pushed on, "Willow has gone dark two times - that we know of - and both times she has killed someone! And now someones murdering people who look like Kennedy - one of the people she killed - with MAGIC and I dont think it's a coincidence! We barely get her back every time she goes dark, and then it happens again! Even when we do, shes left super depressed and guilty, so are we really doing any good by it?! As horrible as it is, it might just be better to put her out of her damn misery! Because I know I dont like seeing her like this. Do you?!" Tara couldnt get herself to respond and he looked about to snap again so Buffy got between them and started calming Xander down. Dawn came over to Tara but she couldnt comprehend the words coming from the teen. Xanders words had made sense. But they /couldn't/ at the same time. {Are you only so against it because it's Willow?} A voice in her head hissed, {Had this been anyone else, would it be this hard? Would you have accepted it easier? Is your hold on Willow selfish? Should you let her go?} Tara couldnt answer the voice. She couldn't even if she knew the answer. She just… couldn't.

***

Ace stalked through the demon bar with his head high. He knew he could easily wipe them out with a flick of his wrist if he wanted to, and they knew it too. He had always been powerful, ever since his father started teaching him the dark magicks as a boy. Power was strength, his father had said, Power was everything in this world, and Ace had it. He hadn't met anyone who could take him down. As soon as he sat at the bar, the bartender rushed to take his order with trembling knees, 

"Get me a scotch, and turn the damn tv up." The demon nodded skittishly, rushing to obey. Ace smirked. The bartender had made the mistake of seeing Ace as lower than he was. Needless to say, Ace had wiped the floor with him in front of all his 'loyal' customers. He had never made the mistake again, but Ace had to give him a small beating every now and then to make sure everyone knew who was boss around here. Ace was the king around here. He was their fucking /God/. The brunette kicked his feet up onto another barstool, watching the news with a grin. They were talking about his little projects. A tall glass was set next to him and he turned to glance at the demon, 

"On the house as always, sir. Is there anything else I can get you, sir?" Ace curled his lip, 

"If you could shut your fucking mouth and screw off that'd be wonderful." The demon trembled as it nodded fearfully, 

"Yes of course sir, sorry sir." Ace rolled his eyes, looking back to the tv, his hands clenching around his glass when they showed the face of his latest project. He would need to hunt again if he was to stay merciful to those around him. 

((And we have a new character! Yay! Or maybe not yay…))