Willow stood under the almost scalding hot water for another full minute before reluctantly turning the water off. The shower had been Kawalsky’s idea and she had to admit that standing under the spray for thirty minutes did make her feel more human. She still had a headache and she was beginning to think her eyes were going to perpetually feel like sandpaper, but she felt… human. At least human enough to face everyone.

She had no illusions that the next few days – three to be exact – were going to be difficult.

She had three days to prove to her commanding officer that she wasn’t a complete and utter screw up. She also had to convince said CO that he wasn’t making a mistake by not calling the SGC for back up.

After she had done all that, she had to convince her friends that they could trust her team.

The enormity of what she had to do was enough to make her want to crawl into bed and hide for the next three – no, seven – days. She honestly didn’t know what was going to be harder; proving herself worthy to her team or proving her team worthy to her friends. Both sides had already made impressions on each other. Hayes had tried to kill Angel; Grogan mentioned that Cordelia held more than a little animosity towards them…

And that wasn’t even taking their preexisting reservations into account.

All of them held firm reservations about her career with the military. Granted, it had been a while since they – Giles in particular – mentioned their misgivings. However, Willow wasn’t silly enough to think that they had disappeared overnight. No, her friends were still wary of the military… When they found out her team knew their entire Sunnydale history the proverbial shit was going to fly.

She prayed to God Kawalsky and Hayes didn’t mention anything while she was in here.

Right now, the two men were in the main bar area, probably talking to her friends. To Giles. Damn it. She should have told her commanding officers to wait in the bedroom instead of telling them she would meet them at the bar. At the time, Willow had been happy that the Major was willing to leave her alone.

With a curse, she reached for her towel and quickly dried herself. She had never felt so torn in her entire life. God, it was insane how things had changed in twenty-four hours. It was even more insane that she thought her life had been complicated BEFORE she came to LA. She had no doubt that it was going to get considerably worse.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Willow dressed with the speed that came with being on constant call. It was amazing how fast she could get dressed when she needed to. With a final glimpse in the mirror, she threw the bathroom door opened that connected to Lorne’s bedroom and stopped dead.

She hadn’t been alone like she’d thought.

Sitting on the bed she’d shared with Daniel the previous night was the LAST person on this planet – quite possibly galaxy – Willow expected to see. The fact that she was here filled her with dread. In fact, Willow was fighting the urge to turn around and walk back into the bathroom to hide, possibly forever. The only reason she didn’t was because she knew Kawalsky wouldn’t like it.

So, instead, Willow squared her shoulders and met Tara’s gaze.

Percy was silent for so long that, for a moment, Sam was scared he had changed his mind. In fact, it seemed like he had withdrawn into himself after she had told him she wanted to know the truth. It was clear that he didn’t want to tell them and, if it wasn’t so important, Sam would have told him to forget it.

Sam took a deep breath and cast a look towards Teal’c before walking to Percy and kneeling beside his wheelchair. “Percy…” she began, though she had no idea what to say to him. What did you say to someone you were forcing to relive their most painful memory? ‘Sorry to make you do this’ just didn’t seem adequate enough.

“I don’t know the full story.”

She started at his unexpected words. It wasn’t until she heard them that she realized she actually believed he wasn’t going to tell them anything.

“I only know what I saw and what Rosenberg told me.” His voice was firmer as he continued. “I didn’t fight with the main body of students. I was in the second line of defense”

“Second line of defense?” Sam couldn’t stop herself from asking.

Percy nodded. “We were there to take care of the vampires.”

Vampires? “Graduation was the result of a vampire attack?”

“No. Graduation was the result of the Mayor of Sunnydale ascending into a demon… and because of every fucking adult who ever turned a blind eye to what went on in Sunnydale.”

At least she wasn’t glaring at her, Tara silently thought as she stood up to greet the Lieutenant. To be honest, she was a little surprised the Lieutenant hadn’t screamed for her to get out. Considering what had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and the way Willow reacted to her the first time they had been alone, Tara had fully expected an irrational reaction to her presence.

Instead, the Lieutenant stood staring at her, shoulders pulled back, looking like she was ready to snap to attention any second now.

“Ms Maclay…” she began, as formal as Major Kawalsky’s had been when he’d greeted her at the bar. “What can I do for you?”

Tara smiled awkwardly, and tried not to blush. It would have been easy for her to claim she was here to deliver the tray of food Mrs Summers had prepared for her, but for some reason Tara couldn’t bring herself to do it. For one, it would have been a lie and it seemed important to her to be as honest as she could with Lieutenant Rosenberg. The lieutenant had enough issues with Tara as it was. Lying to her would only make things worse.

Though, the truth could make things equally as worse. In all honesty, Tara didn’t want to be here. If she hadn’t just spent an hour on the phone to the coven in New York, she wouldn’t be. It was on their assistance that Tara had sought Willow out.

The last time the two of them had been alone, Willow had accused her of being evil. Tara had no idea how she would react to her, especially since she was the one responsible for stripping her powers. Hence the reason she was here, to see how Willow was coping as a powerless witch.

In the magical world, draining a witch of their power was akin to a death sentence. There was no greater punishment. Even to a witch who hated magic. A witch’s power was as much a part of them as their soul. To take that away… It was unforgivable. It left a void in most witch’s lives, something from which they never really recovered. In others, it drove them insane. Not straight away, but slowly. While Willow appeared to be physically okay, Tara wasn’t fooled for a second that emotionally – spiritually – there would be no scars from this.

As Annabelle’s apprentice – according to the new High Priestess – it fell to her to ensure Willow survived.

The prospect of helping Willow through this was daunting. At least for her. If Annabelle were alive Tara believed the witch would embrace the job. Tears filled her eyes. God… She wished Annabelle was here. It hadn’t even been a day yet, and already Tara missed her dearly. Annabelle had been the closest thing she ever had to family. A real family. Not the people to whom she was related, aside from her mother. The people, like Willow, who hated magic. Though, thanks to Charles Gunn, Tara understood Willow’s hatred of magic and everything connected to it.

Willow had lost the people she loved to supernatural forces… Just like she had lost Annabelle.

Unable to stop it, a solitary tear fell down her face. Even though she had been with Annabelle for years, she wasn’t ready to –

“Tara?” Willow’s voice startled Tara out of her thoughts for several reasons. The first, was that it was gentle. More gentle than she ever expected to hear from the redhead. The second reason was that it was so close. Some time, while she had been lost in thought, the lieutenant had moved next to her.

It made her wonder how long she had been standing mutely, staring into space. She opened her mouth to apologize for getting lost in thought but the words became stuck in her throat when she met Willow’s eyes.

They were full of compassion… of understanding. Tara was a little surprised to discover she wasn’t all that comfortable with the lieutenant’s compassion. In fact, compassion was the last thing she expected from the redhead. She had expected a repeat of their initial meeting… or perhaps something worse. Tara wasn’t prepared for this.

Tara hadn’t been prepared for Willow from the first moment they met.

“I’m sorry about Annabelle.”

“We all knew something was up in Sunnydale, you know,” Percy told them almost conversationally. The tone of his voice, the way he was refusing to look them in the eye, made Sam wonder if maybe he was hedging. Trying to avoid telling them the grim details. “No one said anything, but everyone knew. I don’t give a shit what anyone says. You can’t live in Sunnydale and not know. We just… we just didn’t talk about it.”

“About demons, you mean?”

The brunette nodded. “Think about it. How can the cops NOT know something weird was up with THAT many missing persons? That many ‘neck ruptures’. They knew; they were just too shit scared to do anything about it.”

Sam maneuvered herself so she was in a more comfortable position. “When did you first realize something was wrong in Sunnydale?” She wanted to steer their conversation back to his previous comment, about the Mayor, but her instincts were still telling her not to push him.

Percy shrugged. “It wasn’t until my sophomore year, when my parents let me stay out late more. Well, they didn’t exactly give me permission. Like everyone else, I knew something was up, I just didn’t ask questions… I looked away, pretended not to see like the rest of Sunnydale.”

The self-disgust in his voice made Sam inwardly wince.

“But I didn’t ‘officially’ find out until Rosenberg approached me just before Graduation.”

She straightened up at the mention of the Lieutenant. “Willow approached you about Graduation?”

He nodded. “I was trying on my gown when she asked to talk to me. She told me what was going down, told us what the plan was and I agreed to go along.”

Frustration filled Sam. She wanted more detail, something more tangible than the hints he was dropping. It made Sam wonder if he really was going to tell them anything at all. “What did she tell you?” she took the risk to ask.

“I already told you. The Mayor of Sunnydale was ascending into a demon and he planned to eat the students at Graduation.”

“How did he ascend into a demon?” Teal’c asked.

Percy snorted. “Don’t ask me. Rosenberg’s the one who knows all that shit. All I knew was that Summers wanted us to help stop him.” His face changed when he said the name ‘Summers’. “You know, I still don’t know why I didn’t just jump in my car and get the hell out of dodge. I wished to God I had.”

“What was the plan?” Sam’s stomach was tied up in knots. They were getting somewhere. They had definite confirmation that the lieutenant had knowledge of the massacre prior to it happening. Sam also had a hint of understanding as to why she didn’t go to the police.

What she lacked was the ability to comprehend it.

As far as she could tell, Percy didn’t appear to be lying. Neither his expression or body language had changed since he began his recount. Nor had the pain in his eyes faded any. Sam just… Well, she still having trouble getting past ‘demons and vampires’. What Percy was telling them was consistent to the information she found on Iverson’s website. It was just something Sam hadn’t planned on.

“The plan was to form an army.” Percy’s eyes grew distant. “Summers and her friends armed the graduating class with flamethrowers, spear guns, bows and arrows, that kind of shit. The idea was to attack the Mayor once he’d ascended and piss him off to the point where he would follow Summers into the library so they could blow him up. At least that’s what I think was the plan. Like I said before, I wasn’t with them. I was with the second unit, as Harris called it.”

That was right. “You were there to take care of the vampires?”

“The Mayor’s lackey’s.”

Sam fought the urge to ask for more details about what he believed to be supernatural creatures. The scientist in her was rebelling at the idea and she wanted nothing more than to point out that what he was saying was impossible. Sam was convinced that what both he AND Rosenberg thought were demons were actually aliens, but she didn’t even consider correcting him. This ‘mission’ wasn’t about what Percy thought he had seen, this was about Rosenberg.

“What kind of demon was the Major ascending into?” Sam wanted to know. “Did his eyes flash?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention to his eyes. I don’t think anyone else was either. We were all too busy trying not to crap ourselves,” Percy confessed. “But he turned into a snake.”

Sam froze. She couldn’t help it. Whenever someone said ‘snake’ she thought Goa’uld. Percy wasn’t talking about a Goa’uld though. There was no way Rosenberg would keep that a secret, for any reason. Regardless, Sam couldn’t imagine a snake being responsible for the entire massacre.

“It’s not the kind of snake you’re thinking,” Percy said, as though he was reading her thoughts. “It was a… demonic snake, not the slithering kind. The biggest fu… damn snake I have ever seen. It was STOREY’S tall.” He shuddered at the memory. “Things would have been a whole lot easier if it had been. The weapons that we had… They didn’t do shit. It pissed him off like they’d planned, but it didn’t turn out like they hoped.”

“Why not?”

“They couldn’t control him.”

“Control him?”

The man nodded. “The entire plan was dependent on the Mayor following Summers and her friend into the library so they could blow him up. It didn’t work. He wouldn’t follow them. I…I didn’t see what happened but, from what I heard, when Harris tried to give the order to run, the Mayor started eating them… starting with him.”

Run.

That’s what her instincts were telling her to do the second she spotted the tear sliding down Tara’s face. She probably would have run if Kawalsky wasn’t nearby. In fact, Willow probably would have avoided the witch all together. Tara Maclay made her a little… uncomfortable. It had everything to do with her being a witch and nothing to do with the woman herself.

Unfortunately, Willow didn’t have a choice in the matter. If she walked out of here and Kawalsky heard about it… She didn’t want to think of what the consequences would be. It was either suck it up or go to Colorado.

It startled her that she actually hesitated before making her decision. “I’m sorry about Annabelle.” Tara looked about as surprised as Willow felt. Not that she blamed Tara at all. The last time the two of them had been alone in a room Willow had been… not pleasant.

Tara cleared her throat. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Willow wished like hell one of her team was with her. With Kawalsky or Hayes here, it would have been easier for her to hide behind the ‘Lieutenant’. Without them, it was hard NOT to be Willow. Death was something she knew intimately. Too intimately. Seeing Tara deal with a loss that she had dealt with… It was hard.

Especially since she was directly responsible. Her order had led to Annabelle’s death and, because of that, Tara was now HER responsibility. Willow had put the devastation and loss in her eyes and it was up to her to make it better. She wasn’t even taking into consideration the fact that she’d almost killed Tara. She was going to deal with THAT another day. She had enough just trying to help the blonde witch. God, how the hell was she going to make it better? This was something you could NEVER make better.

“I think after everything you can call me Willow,” she said, finally.

Tara smiled weakly. “Okay… Willow.”

God, she really hated this. “How…How are you doing?” The question sounded so stupid, so insincere, but Willow didn’t know what else say to her. ‘I’m sorry I got your friend killed’ wasn’t going to make either one of them feel better. Besides, that wasn’t what Tara needed to hear. She knew exactly what Tara would say if Willow tried to accept responsibility and she didn’t want the witch trying to make HER feel better.

“I’m okay,” Tara told her. “How are you?”

She inwardly groaned. This conversation couldn’t get more awkward if they tried. “I’m good.” Neither could the silence that followed her reply.

Not knowing what else to do, Willow removed her hand from Tara’s shoulder and stepped away, giving her space. It was then she spotted the tray of sandwiches sitting at the foot of the bed. Tara must have followed her line of sight because she said, “Joyce asked me to bring you something to eat. Lieutenant Grogan mentioned, before he left for the hospital, that you hadn’t eaten in a while.”

The sight of food caused her stomach to tighten. “Thanks, but I’m really not all that hungry.”

Tara seemed alarmed by her reply. “You’re not?”

Willow shook her head. She really didn’t like the look on the witch’s face. “No. Is that a bad thing?”

She frowned. “I’m not sure.”

That wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting. “You’re not?”

“No. It might be normal, but I’m not sure if it’s a side-effect or not.”

Willow’s heart froze. “A side-effect of what?”

“Of losing your powers.”

“I think it was then things started going downhill. The Mayor…He annihilated us. Some, he ate whole, others, like Harris, he tore them in half. In the end, somehow Summers’ friend managed to lure the Mayor into the library and they killed him.” Percy looked at them with anguished eyes. “I was lucky. I didn’t see most of it happen. I went down before Summers’ friend managed to kill the Mayor, before the Mayor killed most of us. If I had seen it, I probably would have gone crazy like most of the survivors.”

Sam had no idea what to say.

“Did you know that over half of the survivors of the massacre are in mental institutions?” he told them. “That’s why no one ever believed us when we tried to tell the truth. Christ, there were corpses ripped in half lying all over the fucking school and no one mentioned it in the paper… and no one outside of Sunnydale asked any questions.”

If what he was saying was true… Then… Sam had no idea what to say or even think. Regardless of what they had actually dealt with, aliens or supernatural, that didn’t change the fact that they had been left to their own devices. “I know you mentioned that the police in Sunnydale turned a blind eye but… Why didn’t anyone go to the police in LA or the military?”

Percy stared at her incredulously. “And say what? ‘Hey, the Mayor of Sunnydale is going to turn into a demon at Graduation, want to help us out?’ No one, not the cops, the military, or government would have believed us.” He shook his head in disgust. “That’s why I was so surprised when Chase told me Rosenberg joined the Air Force, but then, I guess she would be safer there than she would be here. The Armed Forces don’t want to know the truth more than anyone else.”

No, that wasn’t true. “You don’t know that.”

He laughed bitterly. “Bullshit! No one gave a damn about what the hell was going on in Sunnydale! No one STILL gives a damn. What the hell do you think happened at the hospital? Why the fuck do you think Rosenberg looked so shit scared on the news? It wasn’t because a gang of psychopaths decided to attack the place. There is only one thing that can put that kind of fear on the face of someone from Sunnydale and that’s a God damn demon.”

“Percy –”

“What?” he went on, ignoring her attempts to talk. “Do you think all the demons and vampires in Sunnydale disappeared after the massacre? They didn’t. They came here. If the military or ANYONE cared so much, then they would have done something by now. But they don’t give a damn. The only ones who give a damn are Rosenberg’s friends. They’re still fighting… and the fact that Rosenberg is here probably means that I should get the fuck out of dodge.”

She frowned. “What makes you say that?”

“Chase told me, when I ran into her a couple of years back, that Rosenberg turned her back on them after Graduation. Just like the fifty percent of survivors, she went nuts. But instead of going to a nut house, she went to the Air Force. Rosenberg doesn’t fight evil anymore. She’s shit scared of it. The fact that she’s here AND at the site of a demon attack means that it’s bad, really bad.”

Sam could not believe what Percy was saying. It bothered her more than she could say that he actually believed that. Rosenberg was not a coward. Yes, she had been terrified on the news, but he didn’t know the truth. That Rosenberg WAS actually fighting evil. Then again, there was a lot of things that Percy was saying that she was bothered with.

“Look, I know you mean well, but…” Percy shook his head. “You don’t understand, not unless you’ve lived through it.”

Sam knew what the end of a conversation sounded like, and this was it. They had gotten all they would get out of him. To Sam, however, it wasn’t enough. She wanted to know more, especially about demons. “Percy…”

“I told you everything you wanted to know and I’ve given you my advice. I still think you should leave town.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but was surprised when Teal’c beat her to it. “I believe it is time we leave, Colonel Carter.”

“Colonel Carter?”

Sam froze.

“COLONEL Carter?”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees in those seconds. It was psychological, Tara knew, but she couldn’t help but shiver under Willow’s cold stare. Whatever ground they had gained in the past few minutes was now lost. Willow was no longer the warm, compassionate woman she had been. Now she was… something else. Not exactly angry, more… emotionless.

To her surprise, Tara found herself relaxing at the invisible distance that seemed to appear between them. She felt far more comfortable with Willow when she was like this, devoid of emotion. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why, however.

“Side-effect of losing my powers?” Willow repeated, taking another step back. “Kawalsky never mentioned there would be side-effects.”

“Major Kawalsky doesn’t know,” Tara told her, stuttering slightly.

The Lieutenant held her gaze. “What kind of side-effects are we talking about here?”

“There might not be any side-effects. There have been circumstances where witches have adjusted quite well to having lost their powers.” She was rambling and her heart was pounding just that little bit. Tara found herself being reminded of the many confrontations she had had with her family, especially their last one. Although, on occasions, the looks on her family’s face was disgust and hatred.

Willow seemed unaffected by her nervousness. “What about the other circumstances?”

“It, um, depends on the witch. Some are able to function normally, others can’t function that well.” It was possibly the most vague description she could’ve given, but she didn’t know how Willow would react to the full answer.

The Lieutenant went silent for a moment. The blank façade replaced by contemplation. “I don’t feel any different.”

Really? “At all?”

“I can notice that the magic’s not there, but I don’t feel sick or anything.”

“Do you feel empty?”

After a few seconds, she shook her head. “No.”

Tara frowned. This wasn’t right. Willow should be feeling something, whether it was a feeling of loss or a sense of being out of sorts. “Do you feel restless? Sad? Irrational anger? Grief?”

The smile she received in response stunned Tara. It wasn’t an amused smile, but a resigned smile. “I always feel restless before a battle,” Willow replied. “As for sad, irrationally angry and grief? I’ve been feeling that for seven years now.”

Oh…

“The only emotion I’m feeling that you neglected to mention was relief.”

Oh? “You feel relieved?”

Willow sat down on the bed and stared into the air in front of her, her expression thoughtful. Tara hesitantly sat down beside her, not knowing what else to do. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke. “I almost killed you and Giles with my magic… I’d rather go insane from magic loss than the alternative.”

Tara winced at her words. They were a little too close to home.

The redhead looked at her then. REALLY looked at her. Tara felt her body go warm as Willow’s eyes went over ever part of her body, studying her thoroughly. “Are you all right? From the power drain? There’s no permanent damage, is there?”

She tried not to squirm under her gaze. “I feel a little tired, but aside from that, I’m fine. Mr Giles is fine, too.”

Willow, thankfully, looked away and Tara could breathe again. “I could have killed you.”

Tara wasn’t at all surprised to hear the guilt in her voice. One thing Tara was good at was watching, listening. People easily forgot that she was in the room, or regarded her as unimportant, so she had no trouble catching snippets of conversations. That was exactly what she had been doing over the past twelve hours. She learned more than she had wanted to know about Willow and her friends.

Willow’s confession that she felt grief constantly wasn’t that much of a surprise to Tara. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know what you were doing.”

She let out a small laugh. “I didn’t care about what I was doing or where the power was coming from. The only thing that mattered to me was the power.” Willow shuddered at the memory. “Tara, I’m not angry that you asked the coven to strip my powers. I’m not angry that there are going to be side-effects… I’m grateful.”

This was the first time Tara had ever heard of a witch being grateful that her powers had been stripped. But, then again, this was Willow… “You might not be in a few years.”

“No,” Willow said. “I’m never going to stop being grateful. I’ll never forget what it felt like when I had all that power…”

There was something in the way Willow spoke that sent chills down her spine. “Was… Was it bad?” she asked, curious. She had never met a witch like Willow. One with so much untamed power.

“It was the exact opposite. I loved it. It felt like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I… I felt like a Goddess.”

Tara froze. “You felt like a Goddess?” The inflection in her voice wasn’t awe, but fear.

“It was amazing…I…” Willow’s eyes were wide, bright. Hungry. “If you hadn’t stopped me when you did… I’m not sure what would have happened.”

Unfortunately, Tara did. “You would have become addicted.” At Willow’s startled gaze, she continued. “You were drawing magics from the demons as well as Mr Giles and me. That kind of dark magic, from the demons, is addictive. In most instances, it changes the witch. Regardless of how their intentions started out in the beginning, by the end they’re no longer the people they once were.” It frightened Tara that Willow had felt that kind of power inside her so quickly.

It was because she didn’t understand. Willow had never studied her craft, she had denied her power. As a result, it had left her vulnerable… or maybe it had saved her. There was no telling what Willow could have done if she had honed her power, especially if she was in a situation where she would have to draw upon dark power… like the one she was in now.

The redhead’s eyes fluttered shut. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

There was nothing that could be said to that.

The blood had drained from his face. Damn it! This wasn’t how Sam wanted this conversation to end.

“You’re…” Percy closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened them. “You’re a Colonel.”

Sam thought about denying it, but she doubted Percy would believe her if she did. “Lieutenant-Colonel.”

He let out a string of curses that would have impressed General O’Neill. “You’re Air Force, aren’t you?”

She didn’t need to answer that question.

“Oh Shit… I am such an idiot!” He swore again, and threw his glass of alcohol across the room. “You’re not a friend of Rosenberg’s boyfriend. You’re investigating her!”

“No!” It was important to Sam that Percy knew they hadn’t lied to him, not completely. “We are Daniel’s friend.”

“Yeah, sure you are!” He glared at the two of them. “The next thing you’re going to tell me is that you really do care what happens to Rosenberg and that you really are here to help her. God damn it, I’m such a dickhead! I can’t believe I fell for it!”

Her heart sank. “Percy, we’re telling you the truth.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

Damn it! “Percy –”

“GET THE HELL OUT!” he screamed. “Just get the hell out of here and leave Rosenberg the hell alone!”

Sam couldn’t move.

“Her friends will kill you before they’ll anything happen to her,” he said. “Just…Get out!”

“GET OUT!”

She didn’t even feel Teal’c’s hand on her arm as he pulled her out of Percy’s home.

“Is it possible for me to get it back, my magic?” Willow asked.

“No,” Tara replied. “Your power is trapped in a crystal back in New York. It’s heavily warded. There’s no way for you or any other witch to smash the crystal. The only way the crystal with shatter is when you die. Once you die, your power is released.”

Willow was going to ignore the small stab of disappointment she felt at the answer. She was no longer cursed with her power. All right, she was a little disappointed. Not so much because she would no longer be able to use it for Search and Rescue, but for another, slightly more important, reason. “Then we might have a bit of a problem.”

The blonde witch beside her stiffened. “What kind of problem?”

“When I was drawing power from you and Giles, and the demons, I wasn’t just doing it for kicks.”

“Oh?”

“I was killing one of the demons.”

The look on Tara’s face said it all, it really did. “You… You killed one of the demons? How?”

The method was not something she was eager to share with the woman next to her. “It’s not important.” She let out a small, self-depreciating laugh. “I guess Angel wasn’t wrong. I did have enough power – when juiced up – to take out the demons.”

“And now it’s gone.”

Guess this fell under the ‘side-effect’ category. As far as side-effects went, this was a pretty big one. “I shot one of these things in the face, point blank, with a rifle,” she said. “Granted, it wasn’t a P90, but at that range it should have killed it, or injured it at least. It did squat. The only thing that can hurt these things is powerful magic.”

Tara didn’t say anything.

Willow closed her eyes as she prepared herself for the next question. It was the question Kawalsky had asked her after Daniel and Grogan had joined the others. It wasn’t a question that she wanted to even utter. After what happened to Annabelle, it made her sick to the stomach to even be contemplating this but… It was her job.

“Tara, is there anyone in your coven, anyone you know, powerful enough to do what I did?” She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it didn’t work. “Do you know any powerful witches who will be willing to fight the demons?”

She shook her head. “Not in your realm.”

Willow really didn’t like the term ‘your realm’. “Is there anyway the witches can release my power? Not for me, but for another witch to use?”

Tara started to shake her head again, but stopped. “There… There might be.”

“Tell me.”

“The wards on the crystals are created by the members of our coven,” Tara explained. “Once the magic is contained, one witch alone maintains the wards on the crystal. The new High Priestess has already told me that you… your crystal is my responsibility. They thought…”

“That since my magic has already touched yours, it would be easier for you to do it.”

“The witch who maintains the crystal – ONLY that witch – is able to utilize the magic inside it. In most cases, they use the magic to reinforce the warding. We can’t ever destroy the crystal or give you back your power, but I can access it,” Tara said. “Crystals can be used as a source of power.”

Oh God! That was right! They could. Willow remembered some things from her studies of magic back in high school. She knew exactly where the witch was going with this. “Come on.” She grabbed Tara’s hand. “We need to see the Major.”

Percy buried his face in his hands, silently cursing himself a blue streak. Stupid! How the hell could he have been so stupid? He should have known something was up. ‘Friends’, real friends, didn’t go behind peoples backs to find out information, not like this.

God damn it!

Calling himself one final name, he maneuvered his wheelchair to the telephone. He had screwed up. The least he could do was warn Rosenberg that the Air Force was on to her. He owed her. Opening his address book, he went to the page for emergency numbers. For those who lived in LA and knew about the supernatural, the number for Angel Investigations was more important than the Police or Fire Brigade.

After a moments hesitation, he dialed the number. He waited impatiently for the phone to pick up, and when it did, he cursed again.

“You’ve rung Angel Investigations. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ll be unavailable for the next…”

“God damn –”

“However, if it’s an emergency, you can contact us on…”

Percy frantically wrote down the number, then dialed the phone.

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