Buffy burst into the library. "What's going on Giles? Is there a
  vamp convention in town I don't know about?"

  It was after 10 p.m. and Giles was pouring over a stack of books.
  Ms. Calendar was on the computer typing away madly. And even Xander
  was struggling to decode some texts. Buffy realized suddenly that
  research mode was already underway.

  Giles looked up right, "Buffy, I'm glad you're here. It looks like
  we have a problem on our hands."

  "Isn't that what I've just said? So is the world going to end again
  or what?" Buffy sighed gustily. The number of vampires crawling
  around Sunnydale had dramatically risen almost overnight.
  Therefore, she wasn't at all surprised that something major was
  occurring. Without Xander, whose shoulder was not at all healed
  yet, Buffy was exhausted just trying to keep havoc from breaking
  out.

  "This is quite serious," Giles chided.

  "It doesn't look good," Xander agreed soberly, getting up to be by
  Buffy's side.

  "I don't know if you realize, but tomorrow there is going to be a
  full solar eclipse." Giles informed her.

  "And that's a bad thing, I'm guessing," Buffy said.

  "Actually it's not normally. An eclipse of the sun is a powerful
  mystical time. If this mystical energy were able to be used by one
  such as the master, it would prove to be quite dangerous. But no
  vampire has ever been able to harness its power. Their, err,
  aversion to sunlight has made it usually a quite harmless event."

  "I sense a big but coming," Buffy muttered loudly to Xander.

  "Yes, well, I translated a prophesy from the Codex and all the
  signs point to this eclipse becoming an event that is quite
  worrisome." Giles adjusted his glasses and picked up the Codex to
  read aloud the prophesy. "Here's what it says -

  'When the Unslayable One is brought to the Anointed, when the sun
  and moon are one; the earth shall stand still as light battles
  darkness. And with the Slayer's blood as an offering, all shall be
  dust who oppose the Unslayable One and the very mouth of Hell
  itself shall be breached.'

  As you can see it's a very dire warning." Giles took off his
  glasses and wiped them furiously as if stalling for time. "Yet
  there are far too many unanswered questions about who, what and
  how."

  Buffy rattled off the summary, "So let me see if I have this right.
  Basically we have to be on the look out for some guy I won't be
  able to slay, and keep him and Annoying One from killing me and
  opening the Hellmouth, thus destroying the world in less than
  twelve hours from now."

  Ms. Calendar and Xander exchanged worried glances.

  "Well, uhm, I - Yes, I suppose that's about it." Giles agreed
  lamely. "But I don't understand how the vampires would be able to
  do that! They just don't have that kind of power, that ability," he
  protested in confusion.

  "Somehow they've gotten a new weapon on the war against good. When
  is the eclipse set for exactly?" Buffy asked.

  "At about 10 am. You should see the weather channel! They go nuts
  with this kind of thing," Xander told her.

  "Look, you guys have to keep researching and give me something I
  can work with. I have to go back out there and keep up the slaying.
  The place is crawling with vamps. But I'll look for anything out of
  the ordinary." < Which would be just about everything I run into
  tonight. > Buffy thought with more than a bit of anxiety.

  "That sounds like a decent plan. It's all we can do for now, until
  we figure this out," Giles said. "Come back here after your patrol
  and God-willing we'll have more information on this event."

  Buffy nodded and kissed Xander for luck before quickly leaving the
  library.

  *~*~*~*

  Willow had awoken not long ago to the awareness that she was
  fettered to the wall of a cave. She hadn't seen her captors or
  anyone since she got there. She felt as if they must have some how
  drugged her, for she had awoken with unnatural woozy feeling in her
  head. All she could remember were images of the vampires who had
  taken her at the cottage.

  Angel wasn't in the room with her, so she assumed that he was being
  held somewhere else. At least she hoped so because the alternative
  was that he'd been killed and that was an alternative that she
  wouldn't acknowledge to herself.

  < I must be back in Sunnydale. This is just like the cave in which
  the Anointed One had first taken me. > Willow thought, her heart
  squeezed by the cold hand of fear as she concluded she must have
  been transported all the way back to Sunnydale. Back to the
  Anointed One.

  As if on cue, the door of her prison was opened and the little
  monster appeared. "So I see you're finally awake," Colin, the
  Anointed One noted.

  < Oh god, this can't be happening, > Willow thought fearfully.
  "Where am I?" she asked, awaiting to hear the validation of her own
  conclusions.

  Colin admonished her. "In Sunnydale of course. I'm surprised that
  you don't remember this place. It holds *such* memories for me."

  Willow trembled. "Why are you doing this? Wasn't it enough that you
  changed me? What more can you possibly do to me?"

  "Oh, you really don't want to know," he retorted with smug
  arrogance.

  "Where's Angel?" she demanded tremulously.

  "From what I understand he's returned to the land of his birth
  permanently. He's dead," Colin stated gleefully.

  The anguish that ripped through Willow was terrible. She wanted to
  scream and wail, but ruthlessly she bottled it in. She didn't want
  to give him any satisfaction in watching her grieve. Colin's cruel
  little smile instilled outrage in Willow's heart. If it was the
  last thing she'd ever do, it would be to destroy the Anointed One
  and avenge Angel. She desperately wanted to have just one arm free
  so that she could wipe the floor with Colin's hateful face.
  Straining against her chains she tried to lung at him. Her
  bloodthirsty reaction didn't go unnoticed. He only gave an amused
  look of approval.

  With her anger to erase her fear, Willow was able to ask coldly,
  "What do you want with me?"

  "I want what I created you for. To be the Unslayable One. To have
  you kill the Slayer and make my rule eternal!" he announced.

  "You failed in making a real vampire out of me. I would never help
  you, or hurt my friends," she ground out defiantly.

  "Ah yes! That little matter of your soul. Well that's why you're
  here now. Do you know what day it is?"

  Willow shook her head warily.

  "I'm crushed you don't remember. Its been a year now but its
  usually the most memorable thing you'll ever experience. Death has
  that effect. It's the day of your rebirth. The day you became one
  of us," he told her.

  "I was never one of you!" Willow shouted forcefully.

  Colin continued casually as if not hearing her angry denial. "The
  tie between a vampire and their sire is an important one. And on
  the first anniversary of a vampire's birth, there is ritual that
  strengthens that tie. In your case, it will allow your demon to
  come forth, getting your pitiful soul out of the way."

  "It won't work!" Willow said confidently.

  "Won't work? Do you really think that I didn't know what I was
  doing when I chose you? I planned this. All of it!" Colin began to
  boast. "When I first made you, I knew that you would have the
  powers that are uniquely yours. The only thing that I didn't plan
  is that that meddling Angelus would find you and hide you away for
  so long. It took some time before my henchmen found you in Rome.
  After that was botched, it was as if you had dropped off the face
  of the earth. But we found you just in time, for I needed you to be
  here today, to do the Ritual of Binding. This ritual will be one of
  the final steps in those plans. It's very simple really. All you
  need to do is cooperate," he said this last part as if relishing in
  her inevitable submission.

  "Cooperate. I told you once before that I'd rather die than become
  a vampire," she spat contemptuously.

  He pointed out, "You're already a vampire."

  "I won't ever help you," Willow vowed.

  "Yes, well you know, I thought about that too. That you might have
  some misgivings and you see I don't underestimate your strength or
  will. It's part of what makes you so unique. That's why I brought
  your friend here, to see if perhaps HE could make you more
  willing." Colin's voice carried a venomous threat as he motioned
  for someone outside the room to enter.

  They brought Xander in looking beaten and bloody.

  Xander had decided to take a break after hours of research in the
  library. His eyes burned and words were no longer making sense. He
  was going out for the obligatory snack run, and as Buffy was still
  out slaying and Giles was not leaving the library for anything, Ms.
  Calendar offered him a ride since it was too dangerous for him to
  go out alone. They were stopped at a light when their car was
  attacked by seemingly scores of vampires. The last thing that
  Xander remembered was a hand smashing through the car window.

  Xander came to awareness that there was an enormous headache
  pounding against his brain and that he was being carried through
  some tunnels. < What?? I'm not dead? Why aren't I dead? Not that
  I'm not happy I'm not dead, but what's going on? > Xander didn't
  even want to think about what might have happened to Ms. Calendar.

  "Where are you taking me," Xander yelled, struggling futilely with
  the vampires holding him. They didn't answer, merely dragging him
  through the labyrinth of caves that led him to a chamber where
  Willow was chained to a wall.

  "Oh God! Xander!" Willow strained helplessly against her chains,
  her dread mounting.

  "Willow!" Xander cried out in astonishment and horror.

  < It is out of my worst nightmares, > she realized as a tear slid
  helplessly down her cheek. "Xander," she choked back a sob.

  "You know the last time you were here you were whimpering his name
  then too." The child-demon seemed to give great pleasure in telling
  this to them both.

  "You bastard!" Xander shouted out. One of the vampires holding him,
  punched him in the gut and he doubled over gasping and trying to
  hold back from retching at the power of the blow.

  Willow screamed out, "No, don't!"

  "You see, Willow. You either help me or your beloved Xander becomes
  one of us. Right before your eyes." Colin said inexorably, "You
  see, its up to you."

  Willow sized up the situation. Xander stood between two very hungry
  looking vamps just waiting to carry out any order that the Anointed
  One might give. It truly was out of her worst nightmare. She closed
  her eyes. She knew there was no way out of this. The Anointed One
  had planned this all out so carefully. He knew her weaknesses and
  played them out to perfection. Willow bowed her head as if in
  defeat, hoping beyond hope that if she would do this, she might be
  able to save Xander.

  "I'll do whatever you want. Just don't hurt him," Willow pleaded.

  "No! Willow, you know that if you do I'm dead anyway," Xander
  argued desperately. < She can't give in! Not for me! > he thought,
  utterly distraught.

  She looked away from him and then nodded her assent to Colin.

  Colin approached her then and began the Ritual of Binding
  immediately by cutting his left wrist and making a similar cut on
  Willow's. The blood flowed for a moment before he motioned her to
  raise her wrist to his so that their blood co-mingled. Then
  Anointed One spoke the ritual words that Willow repeated, reading
  it from a parchment that another vampire had brought before her.

  "You are the seed," Colin intoned.

  Willow read aloud, "You are the sire." Her voice was devoid of any
  expression.

  "Your being to my being."
  "Your being to my being."

  "I bind myself to you."
  "I bind myself to you."

  "We are one."
  "We are one."

  With the uncomplicated words of Binding performed, there was only
  one more thing to complete the ritual. Colin cut open his other
  wrist and put it to Willow's mouth. She hesitated for a moment and
  then began to drink his blood. She drank until the Anointed had to
  pry his wrist away, his face grimacing in pain. Willow's hair
  covered her own face from Xander, who had watched all this with a
  sick heart.

  Looking at the remaining blood on her wrist, Willow stood perfectly
  still. Bringing her own wrist to her lips she licked the blood away
  with her tongue. Then she straightened with an arrogant flip of her
  head and daintily wiped the blood from the corners of her mouth.

  The Anointed One looked intently at her. And something in her face
  must have satisfied him, for smiling broadly he asked her, "How do
  you feel?"

  "Unslayable." Willow purred.