Willow chanted a short phrase over and over, sprinkling around the edge of
  the ceremonial circle of the Hellmouth a mixture of wine, burdock, and
  blood that had been prepared for her. When she finished, she stood in the
  center of the circle, at the heart of the Hellmouth. Her arms raised, she
  called out:

  "Sun and Moon, O Powers divine,
  Ancient as the power of Light, Ancient as the power of Night.
  Life and Death, Cyclic and Everlasting - I bid Thee hear Me now!
  I admonish thee by the Powers that be come instantly unto Me.
  Render forth thy Power to My will.
  I compel Thee by the sacrifice of the Slayer's blood.
  Viris Divinae Venite!"

  While Willow spoke, the very air seemed to change. It sang with the
  incredible forces she was invoking. A swirling wind whipped Willow's long
  auburn hair about her face, and she looked more supernatural spirit than
  substantive being. By the time she finished she was practically shouting
  and her last words echoed and reverberated like a clap of thunder.

  The earth rumbled in reply.

  The whole cavern quaked violently. The earth and rock above the Hellmouth
  fissured, breaking apart to create an opening to the naked sky. Willow
  looked straight up and saw the sun and moon in the last moments before the
  apex. A few more seconds and the moon slipped into position directly in
  front of the sun.

  In full eclipse, the sun's light was not entirely diminished. The moon
  haloed by the corona of the sun gave off light of a grayish quality. Not
  quite pure, not quite corrupted, it was yet strong enough to destroy a
  vampire.

  A normal one anyway.

  And the light filtered down through the chasm, hitting exactly the outline
  of the Hellmouth over which Willow stood. Her upturned face was bathed in
  the ghostly light and with her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted she
  seemed to be caught up in a mystical ecstasy.

  In safety far away from the light that streamed down, Colin's eyes suddenly
  widened in disbelief as Willow's body seemed to take the light within
  herself. She was glowing and the brightness seemed to build then explode as

  Willow herself started to radiate the light, pouring out of every pore of
  her body and filling the cavern.

  *~*~*~*~*

  Angel was getting more and more frustrated, not to mention more and more
  afraid. He had been looking in all the possible places that Colin could
  have secreted Willow. He hadn't seen anyone. No guards, no patrols. It was
  all too easy to make his way around the tunnels. It didn't bode well
  because meant the main forces of the Anointed One must all be where Buffy
  and Giles were.

  Angel was already doubling back on his way toward the main cavern when
  suddenly the earth began to quake around him. Dust flew everywhere as the
  tunnels groaned with the weight of maintaining their cohesion. Then just as
  suddenly it stopped.

  < What was that?!? > Angel thought wildly as he started to run even faster.
  He was a few meters away from the main cavern when he spied Xander
  making
  his way to the same spot.

  Above ground, Xander had come to for the second time that day with a
  splitting head-ache and with a groggy awareness that he had been ditched
  with a vengeance. But determined he had dragged himself down through the
  caverns to arrived just as Angel did.

  "Angel!" Xander exclaimed. "Willow told me you were dead. What's going
  on?"

  "Willow! Is she with you?" Angel demanded shortly.

  "No. She-she knocked me out and came down here I think to rescue Buffy
  and
  Giles. She was planning something. I don't know what but….."

  Another smaller tremor rocked the tunnels around them, cutting short
  Xander's explanation. The two men looked at each other and immediately
  headed for the entrance.

  Angel was about the step through the passageway into the cavern when a
  blast of light made him instinctively slam himself against a shielding wall
  of stone. Xander, not so hampered by the this, stood at the entrance and
  viewed the scene below with shocked awe.

  *~*~*~*~*

  Again the earth shuddered, but Willow was unaware of anything around her.
  Her being was focused on the light which filled her and drifted along
  within every cell, her body becoming nothing more than a conduit for the
  light. Once the light built inside her at a critical mass, she released it.
  Consciously, she directed it toward the Hellmouth. Attuned with the light,
  Willow could feel it slamming against the Hellmouth with all the might of
  her desire to destroy it. And like a living thing the Hellmouth groaned at
  the assault until it finally fell before the primeval force of the light
  which sealed the Hellmouth for all time.

  Simultaneously, however, the light from Willow also flowed out across the
  open cavern, discharging in every direction. And the vampires within the
  cavern cried out as one in fear and then in pain as the light blazed
  through them, turning them into cinders. Like dominoes they fell against
  the touch of the spreading light.

  Amidst all this, Colin, the Anointed One, registered astonishment, anger,
  and then…fear on his child-like face. Then he cried out once, more in
  frustration of having been thwarted than from pain, before he too joined
  the other vampires in their total destruction.

  The moment the Anointed One fell, Willow began to falter and the light
  started to fade.

  Unharmed and standing now surrounded only by ashes, Giles went
  unimpeded to
  where Willow and Buffy were. He bent down to check on Buffy who was
  regaining consciousness. She was weak with the loss of blood but otherwise
  unhurt. Meanwhile, Xander made his way down from the entrance toward
  them.

  But it was Angel, freed from danger of the light, who raced down across the
  cavern with inhuman speed just in time to embrace Willow in his arms as she

  staggered out of the light encircled Hellmouth.

  "Willow!?!" Angel said urgently.

  She gazed up at him, her eyes going wide with recognition. She tried to
  speak, but it was then that her body gave out completely. She sunk slowly
  down to the ground. Angel, holding onto her body was pulled down with her.
  They settled on the floor with Angel cradling her like a small child, her
  head and back supported by his arms, her body across his lap.

  "An--Angel?"

  Had his ear been even a couple of inches further away, Angel doubted he
  would have been able to make out what she said.

  "I thought…you…were dead." Her struggling words came out in short bursts.

  "No, I'm here. Right here, Willow," he murmured holding her even closer.

  "Is . . .is everyone. . . alright . . .?"

  "Don't worry. Everyone's fine. Just fine." With the backs of his fingers
  brushing lightly over the curve of her cheek, Angel tried to sooth her.

  "Good…I - uhh!" Willow stopped suddenly, her voice dying in a low awful
  rattle at the back of her throat. She felt her very essence being rent from
  her. Although she didn't need to breathe, her chest heaved as if she were
  trying to draw breath, draw the life back into her body.

  Desperate, Angel could only watch her. With a terrible certainty Angel
  understood what was happening. She was dying. Right here in his arms. And
  there was nothing he could do about it.

  < NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo! > Angel's mind was filled with incoherent pleadings
  with God or Fate to not take Willow away from him.

  "Wills!?" Xander said hovering frantically behind Angel.

  Angel hadn't even noticed that Buffy, Xander, Giles had gathered right next
  to him. He tore his tortured gaze from Willow's face to glance at Buffy and
  Giles, who were equally aware of what was happening to Willow and their
  faces showed their impotent sorrow. Only Xander didn't know what was
  occurring and why.

  For a moment Willow subdued the almost seizure-like spasms and the
  tension
  eased from her body. Yet inexorably Angel felt her slipping away and he was
  powerless to do anything about it. He shut his eyes tightly. He wanted to
  succumb to the weakness. The panic. The fury churning inside him. But right
  now he had to be strong for Willow's sake. So instead Angel focused on all
  the things he should say to her, things he should have said to her before
  this, things that he had waited to tell her until the 'right' time. He had
  to tell her now before it was too late.

  Angel opened his mouth, but whatever words he had ready were lost as
  Willow
  stopped him.

  Trembling, she stretched her fingers towards his face, able only to reach
  his lips, her strength extending just that far. Lightly she caressed him
  with the tips of her fingers. With this gesture it was as if she were
  trying to tell him that the words he had been about to utter were
  superfluous and entirely unnecessary; that she understood all that had been
  unspoken between them. A single tear, for all the things that might have
  been, made its way down the side of her face as she looked up at him
  steadily. But all the while she smiled, just the corners of her mouth
  turning up and in her expressive eyes shone all the passionate honesty of
  her love for him.

  The love that she had tried to keep secret was no longer hidden. It was
  there for him to see unabashedly. In these last moments Willow abandoned
  her pride, her fear of rejection to give him this gift.

  Then her hand dropped from his lips, the last of her strength consumed.
  Willow fought for a moment longer, to hold on to life, to not leave him.
  But the pull on her soul became too great.

  She looked over at Xander, Buffy and Giles and finally back at Angel,
  whispering, "I love you."

  Then Willow was gone.