When she woke up, it was considerably worse than the last time
she'd
passed out. She was in the school's...Biology room, she figured
out
after looking around. And she was tied down...and there were
needles
sticking out of her...and Giles was reading something on Latin.
Something that roughly translated to "Death to Life." In a flash,
she
understood, and she started struggling against her ropes.
Buffy caught her movement and managed to hold her down until
both Giles
and the blood transfusion were finished. It ended, and Willow
promptly
passed out again.
Two hours passed, and Willow woke with a start, a look of terrified
confusion on her face.
"Wh...where?...how?...Oz?!" she asked.
"Willow?" Xander asked.
"Xander what's going on? Why am I..." she started to cry. "Please,
somebody? Did Angel kill him?"
"Who?" Buffy asked carefully.
"Oz! We were..uh.." she blushed furiously, "and then Angel attacked
us
out of nowhere! Please, is he ok?"
"He's fine. He's in the hospital." Xander assured her, as he
helped
Buffy un-tie her ropes. As far as any of them knew, vampires
didn't
blush *or* cry. Willow leapt up and hugged first Xander, then
Buffy.
Everyone surrounded her with a strong hug, fueled by bouth terror
and
relief.
So grateful were they that she was alive, none of them noticed
as she
smiled over their shoulders, and her face gradually shifted
into a ridge
of mountains, and her eyes began to glow with an eerie yellow
light...
"And I suddenly feel
like a different person.
From the root of my soul
comes a gentle coercion.
And I ran my hand
over a strange inversion.
A vacancy that just did not
belong....
The Child is Gone."
-Fiona Apple