Part Twenty-Eight

“They’re coming,” Willow said it again, but this time it was a whisper. They-they were coming.

No! It had to be some mistake, she was misunderstanding the link - that had to be it. Her power had never done this before, it wasn’t what it felt like.

Please god… please don’t let it be what it felt like.

She was almost too afraid to focus her power again, but her desperation for this not to be happening was enough to force herself past her fear. It had to be a mistake, it HAD to be.

Willow was NOT linked with the demons.

“Willow?” Daniel said her name gently. Willow didn’t need to look at Daniel to know he could see her fear. He knew her too well. “Willow, who’s coming?”

“The um, the - ” She couldn’t even say it. “It’s a mistake.” THOSE words she could say. Linking with someone - something - wasn’t an accidental process, it took concentration, focus. Willow knew for a fact she hadn’t linked with the demons, with ANYTHING.

She would NEVER link with demons. What she had felt a few seconds ago, hadn’t been a link! It couldn’t be.

“What’s a mistake?” Kawalsky asked.

Hearing her CO’s voice pushed down some of her panic and, to her amazement, she was able to focus on him. His voice was like an anchor to her… he was the epitome of everything military and a reminder of who she was.

She couldn’t… she couldn’t panic, even though that’s exactly what she was doing now. If she was right - which she wasn’t - she had to pull herself together. Her team… god, almost all of the people she loved were in this room, if she lost it, then she would be a liability and they would die.

If what she was sensing was really coming, they wouldn’t stand a chance. None of them -

“Rosenberg!” Kawalsky spoke sharply, pulling her mind from its panic and causing her to snap to attention. “What’s the problem? Who’s coming?”

Willow shook her head. “I’m… I’m not sure, Sir. I…it’s impossible.” It HAD to be a mistake. There were too many links, for one thing, and some of them were different. She didn’t understand her power enough to know what it was, or how this was happening. “It feels like I’m…like I’m… no, I’m wrong. I’m wrong.”

“Rosenberg, calm down. You’re not making any sense,” Kawalsky walked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just take a breath and relax.”

Willow almost laughed at the suggestion. “I can’t, Sir. We’re… they’re coming.”

“Who’s coming?”

Willow closed her eyes. If ever there was an opportunity to lie to her team and send them home… this was it. Logically Willow knew they wouldn’t leave her, but regardless of that, this was her last chance to try.

And, Willow realized, she didn’t want them to leave.

She wanted the exact opposite. She wanted them here, by her side. Every danger she had faced in the last year with the Stargate command had been with them and Willow realized she didn’t want to face ANY danger without them on her six.

“Rosenberg?” Kawalsky’s patience was running thin.

“Leave her alone,” Angel growled. “She doesn’t have to answer your questions.”

Willow’s head snapped up at the sound of Angel’s voice, and when she looked at him she was met with compassionate and understanding eyes.

He knew what was coming.

God! Of course he knew! Angel would be able to smell her fear. He probably wouldn’t even need preternatural senses - all of her Sunnydale friends would know what had her so scared. Faith and Cordelia were talking with Gunn in hushed tones, Faith in full Slayer mode, their game faces on. They didn’t need her confirmation, they knew - and they were already planning their next move. Some of Gunn’s men were already gathering weapons and preparing for battle.

Good to see some of them were on the mark… god, she was so far from the mark it wasn’t funny. Damn it! She had to handle this! Taking a deep breath, Willow pushed her fear down and faced her commanding officer. “Demons, Sir,” Willow answered finally.

Angel closed his eyes in what Willow guessed was frustration. Willow had heard some of the argument Angel had been having with Kawalsky. He wanted her team to leave, hell, he had been demanding that they leave ever since she had awakened. He didn’t want them here, and he sure as hell didn’t want them to know what was going on.

“Demons?” the Major repeated. “The demons who kidnapped Faith? They’re coming?”

Willow nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“How long do we have?” Angel asked.

Willow shrugged. “I’m… I’m not sure. A while, an hour at least. They’re not moving very fast, they don’t feel much closer than they were when I first felt them. We have some time.” Not all the time in the world, but more than enough time to get everyone out and to a safe place.

“Felt them?” Daniel repeated, alarmed. “You can feel them?”

Angel opened his mouth to say something, but instead he turned to Willow. “Don’t say anything to them, Willow. You don’t have to tell them anything. We’ll take care of this, just get out of here and take them with you.”

He was protecting her.

Even though she had screamed abuse at him before, told him she had hated him and never wanted to see him again, he was still trying to protect her. The thought hit her like a bucket of cold water. Willow had been healed because Angel had been protecting her, she had been saved from the Mayor because he had been protecting her. How many times would protecting her cause trouble?

Too many, far too many.

Willow had had enough of Angel, of everyone, trying to protect her. All of this mess, everything that had happened, was because someone was trying to protect her.

Well, no more.

Willow was going to face the music for once.

She was going to tell her team everything - EVERYTHING. Not just about the demon, like she had planned, but everything about her life and she was going to face the consequences. Then she was going to do whatever had to be done to stop this, with the exception of using magic. If they needed to call in the SGC, then they’d call in the SGC. If they needed to use her power, then Willow would let the witches drain it out of her and do with it what they liked.

Willow was not going to allow any more decision to be made based around her well being. Christ, how fucked up were things now because she had been healed? She was… she was linked to the demons.

If that wasn’t a major fuck up, nothing was.

It wasn’t a mistake, no matter how much Willow wanted it to be. She knew what her links felt like, she had used them too many times not to, and what she felt before were links… links to the demons.

Willow turned to face her team, ready to give them a short explanation until she could speak to them at length, and found Kawalsky studying her thoughtfully. “Lieutenant, how do you know the demons are coming?”

“None of you’re damn business,” Cordelia told Kawalsky, moving away from Faith. “I thought I already told you you can’t order Willow around.”

That question hadn’t been an order, his voice was too gentle for that. No, that question was just a question… or a request for confirmation. After all, Kawalsky had seen her re-establish the link she unknowingly had with the demons. He knew HOW she knew.

He just wanted to hear it from her. “I’m linked to them, Sir.”

Her revelation caused everyone else to stop what they were doing. They stared at her in stunned silence, even Angel. “You’re linked with them?” Angel asked when he finally found his voice. “I thought that you were just sensing them because your magic wasn’t shielded?”

Angel’s words brought Willow’s anger to the fore but, before Willow could say anything to Angel, Kawalsky spoke.

“Rosenberg, you’re linked to THEM? As in more than one?”

The room was dead quiet. “Yes, Sir. I’m linked with a few of them… maybe all of them, I’m not sure… and I think I’m linked to other things as well. All of the links aren’t the same.”

“Wait a second!” Faith interrupted them. “You’re linked to ALL of the demons? How the hell did that happen?”

“I’m don’t know,” Willow answered, unable to keep the fear and anger from her voice. “I’ve never linked with more than one person at a time before. The links were there when I woke. I didn’t know what it was at first, I thought it was Annabelle and Tara I was feeling but then I recognized a link. When I re-established it…”

“You got your answer,” Kawalsky finished for her. “Wait, you said you the links were there when you woke, you’re telling me you linked with them without your usual ritual?”

“Yes, Sir.” And that scared her more than anything. If she didn’t know how she linked with them, how the hell was she supposed to stop herself from doing it again? “I scarcely recognized the links when I woke. They’re so different, Sir, so much stronger. I’ve never felt any like this. I don’t even know how I linked with the demons…” she shook her head. “I would never link with anything like that.”

Kawalsky swore. “Okay, we have a problem,” he stated the obvious. “What can you tell us about these demons? Do we have enough men to take them out?”

It was Faith, to Willow’s surprise, who answered. “With everyone here, we wouldn’t even make a dent against them. We don’t stand a chance.”

Willow watched as her CO went pale. “What about if we get the weapons Rosenberg ordered?”

What? How did he know about that?

“Won’t make a difference,” Rondell told him. “Rosenberg used a gun against one back when we went after Faith, the bullets had no effect.”

Kawalsky stared at her in shock. “So if they come here…”

“They’ll kill us all,” Angel declared grimly.

“Holy shit!” Grogan was as pale as Kawalsky. “Then how the hell is Rosenberg going to cut the links? She can’t cut the links unless she finds them.”

Willow felt all the air rush out of the room at Grogan’s question. In all her panic, she had forgotten about that. She had been so obsessed that she had gotten it wrong, that it never occurred to her… oh sweet Jesus.

She was dead.

“Whoa! What the hell is he on about?” Faith demanded.

“When Willow makes a link it’s permanent until she finds who is missing,” Angel explained. “And the demons can track her through the link as well… that’s how they found us here in the first place. Willow linked with you when you were missing and they used it to get to her.”

Fear wasn’t a strong enough word to describe what she was feeling right now.

“Can’t the witches do a spell to cut the link?” Cordelia asked.

“No!” Willow said a little louder than she wanted. “No magic.” She glared at the witches. “Magic is what did this in the first place. I don’t know what the hell they did to me, but when they shattered my shields something must have happened with my magic or maybe shattering my shields is what did this. Tara said my magic is like an animal, without anything holding it in, it’s completely wild. I can’t control it… my magic must have established the links on its own. If they use magic on me, it might make them worse, make them stronger.”

“Willow, you don’t know that,” Angel pointed out.

“And you don’t know that it won’t,” Kawalsky retorted, ignoring Angel’s growl and Cordelia’s glare. “All right, magic’s out. We have to figure out another way for Rosenberg to disconnect the links.”

“After we get everyone out of here,” Willow told him. “Sir, the demons are about an hour away but I don’t want anyone to be here when they get here. We have to get out of here, once we’re safe, then we’ll decide what to do.”

“But there’s nowhere safe,” Daniel reminded them. “The demons will be able to track Willow wherever she goes. They’ll just keep on following us until…”

Oh god! Oh god! This couldn’t be happening!

“Then everyone else will get to safety,” Angel said. “I’ll take Willow somewhere safe.”

“Like hell,” Kawalsky argued. “You’re not going anywhere with my Lieutenant.”

“Then what do you propose we do exactly? Do you want to protect her?” the vampire challenged. “You don’t even know what we’re up against. I do. I know what they’re capable of, and I’m the only one who can protect Willow. These things can’t move fast, I’m a vampire - I can. The demons won’t get close to us.”

NO! That can’t happen! This was exactly what Willow couldn’t let happen! “No, Angel, you can’t protect me.”

He spun around and glared at her. “Yes, Willow I can.”

“No, Angel, you can’t,” Willow returned his glare. “Firstly, you’re too important to this apocalypse - ”

“Apocalypse?” Daniel repeated.

Shit! Not having any choice, she ignored Daniel’s question and her teams startled faces and stayed focused on Angel. “You and Faith are the only two strong enough to hurt these things, we need the two of you, and the witches, alive at the final ritual. None of you can be anywhere near the demons before then.”

Angel opened his mouth to argue but Willow went on before he could speak.

“Secondly, keeping me away from those things won’t help us. Sooner or later, they’ll get tired of chasing us and they’ll try to get to us another way and they’ll probably use my links to do it. I’m not just linked with the demons, Angel, there are others I can’t recognize yet. They’ll use those people to get to me. God, they might not even have to use the links, they’ll could easily find Giles.” Her thoughts focused solely on her injured friend when she said her name. She had forgotten about him. He was in danger! The demons could have already taken him for all they knew. “Oh god, Giles! He’s in the hospital unprotect - ” her words broke off with a startled cry.

Her cry grew louder as Willow felt power fire out of her. It felt like a stream of power pouring out of her. She tried to stop it, to rein it in, but she couldn’t. All she could do was grab Kawalsky’s arm and hold on.

“Rosenberg? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

She…she didn’t know. All she could feel was the stream of power and -

Willow let out another cry as she felt the power reach its destination. It flowed into whatever it was, connecting… oh shit… linking! It had linked with something, it had linked with….

Giles… she had linked with Giles.

“Willow?” Angel was at her other side. “Willow, are you all right?”

Willow shook her head and tried to catch her breath. The power was subsiding now that it had made the link. The almost painful feeling faded to a dull thud and she was able to regain the control she had lost.

“I’m all right,” she told them, unable to stop her shaking.

“What happened?” Kawalsky asked, clearly startled.

“A link, Sir,” she said breathlessly. “I… I was thinking about Giles and I linked with him.” Accidentally. Shit, she was dead. There was no way she could control the links… god, she hadn’t even been trying to link with anyone. “The demons can find him now… Sir, I…” Willow wanted to cry.

“Okay, that’s it,” Angel walked over to her. “Willow, I’m getting you out of here. Faith, Cordelia take everyone to Caritas - ”

“Caritas?” Hayes repeated.

“It’s a sanctuary,” Angel explained. “It’s a club protected by a spell, demons can’t use violence there. You’ll be safe.”

“No,” Willow argued. “That won’t work. The demons will still be able to track you there, they might not be able to hurt you but they’ll know where you are and they can still hurt Giles and any other people I’m linked with.”

“Willow - ”

“No! Damn it, Angel, I’m not letting you protect me. You can’t, you’re too important. We won’t stand a chance of stopping the apocalypse without you.”

“Then what, Willow? How are we going to stop the demons?”

Willow didn’t say anything. She honestly had no idea what they were going to do. They were screwed. No matter what they did, they were stuck… unless… “I have an idea” It wasn’t exactly smart but since when did she do -

“No.”

Huh? “No?” Why was Angel saying no, he didn’t even know what she was planning.

“I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself to them.”

Willow stared at him blankly. “Huh?”

“I know you, Willow. You’ll sacrifice yourself so the rest of us can live. I’m not letting you kill yourself.” Kill herself? That was the second time today Angel had said something like that to her.

“I’m not either, Red.”

“Neither am I.”

Okay, what the hell were Cordelia, Faith and Angel going on about? “Guys, that wasn’t the way I had in mind.”

“It wasn’t?” Cordelia asked, surprised.

She shook her head.

“What’s your idea?” Kawalsky prompted.

Willow hesitated, now that she’d thought about it… maybe it wasn’t that far from what her friends had suggested. “I go to the demons, Sir, before they come here. It would give everyone time - ”

“Not what we had in mind? Willow, THAT is exactly what we had in mind,” Angel cut her off. “You’re not going anywhere near them.”

She didn’t have a choice! “I’m not surrendering myself to them, I just need to find them. It’s the only way I can disconnect the links.” She turned to Kawalsky. “I’m not suggesting that I engage with the enemy, Sir, but since my links are so strong, I might be able to disconnect just by seeing them. We could find an abandoned building, a place where they can come to me. It would give us a distinct advantage.” It did sound kind of suicidal, didn’t it?

“Red, if you think I’m going to let you do that, you’re insane.”

“No, Faith, I’m not,” Willow argued. “Once I’ve lost the links with the demons, I’ll form links with you and follow it to Caritas.”

“But what about Giles?” Cordelia asked. “They’ll know where he is because you’re linked with him too.”

She was right. “We’ll have to move him to Caritas as well.”

“He’s not well enough.”

God damn it! Willow felt something snap inside of her. They were wasting precious time arguing like this. “Then make him well enough,” she ordered. “Tara said she and Annabelle still had some of my power inside of them, use it to heal Giles. Once he’s healed, get him the hell out of there.”

“It’s still not going to work, I’m not going to let you go out there alone,” Angel told her. “What if you freeze up again?”

“I won’t freeze up, Angel, and I’m not asking your permission to do anything,” she told him in no uncertain terms. “This is the only way. I know it sounds dangerous, but we have to think of the big picture here. We need you, Faith, Giles, and the witches alive for the final ritual. The rest of us are expendable. If we do it this way, if I do die, then we still have a chance of winning against them.”

“No.”

“YES!” she yelled. “Angel, I’m not letting you screw up another apocalypse because of me. I won’t let this be a repeat of Graduation. Either you do this my way, or I walk out that door and surrender myself to the demons.”

“Willow, this isn’t Graduation.”

“You’re right, Angel, it isn’t Graduation. I won’t let it be Graduation. My plan is the only one that will work. If I don’t cut the links with the demons, we don’t stand a chance. It’s exactly the same situation we had with Faith and it worked then. It will work now too.” Okay, it wasn’t exactly the same… but it was similar.

“So I’m just supposed to let you go to them on your own?” Angel yelled back. “I can’t do that.”

“She won’t be on her own, she’ll have us,” Grogan told him. “You said it yourself, we know nothing about demons, so if we die, the apocalypse or whatever won’t be affected. Besides, we’re trained for situations like these.”

Cordelia snorted. “Not these kind of situations.”

“You’d be surprised what we’re trained for,” he said.

Willow wanted to argue with Grogan, tell him that she had to do this on her own but she knew there was no way they’d let her. All she’d be doing would be wasting more time. “It’s agreed then. Grogan, Hayes, Kawalsky, you’re with me. Daniel, Tara, Annabelle, Faith and Angel will go get Giles from the hospital, everyone else will grab everything we’ll need for the final ritual and meet us at Caritas.”

Willow didn’t even bother waiting for anyone to agree, instead, she turned to her team.

“SR-1, we move out in less than twenty minutes.”

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