"I hardly find it possible to think that the girl I knew in Sunnydale could be capable of such -- such atrocities."

Cordelia looked up from where she sat on the circular sofa across from the former Watcher, who was leaning against the reception desk, a bewildered expression of disbelief on his face as he shook his head slowly.

"Makes Faith look like a saint, doesn't she?"

Uncomfortable, Spike shifted unintentionally back against Tara's arm, which rested casually along the back of the sofa. He felt a sense of mingled gratitude and relief when she immediately responded, allowing her arm to drop across his shoulders, offering a subtle reminder of her support and understanding.

"So what do you think caused this?" Angel asked abruptly, not to anyone in particular, glancing around the room with somber, unhappy eyes. "Do you think it was her coming back from the dead? Do you think that she...?"

"Came back wrong?" Tara suggested quietly, and all eyes turned to her, sobered and uncertain at the verbalization of the idea that had already entered all of their thoughts.

She immediately felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny of their multiple stares, as her thoughts turned self-consciously to her own role in Buffy's ill-advised resurrection. It was not the first time that she had found herself considering how things might have been different, had she followed her instincts and refused to take part in the spell that Willow had been so certain would go right.

Apparently, nothing was further from the truth.

"It was one of Red's spells that raised her," Spike pointed out, his voice subdued, yet tinged with a note of anger. "Of *course* it bloody well went wrong!"

A moment of awkward silence fell over the assembled group, each taking in those words and considering the possible ramifications of them.

"Okay," Angel finally broke the silence with a weighted sigh. "We need to focus here. We need to take stock of exactly what we need to do from this point...each problem we're dealing with here, and possible solutions..."

"Ooooh! A list! I can make a list!"

The strange but sweet little brunette with the boy's name -- Frank, was it? -- stood up from where she sat cross-legged on the floor in the corner of the room, moved eagerly to the front desk on which Wesley was leaning and rifled through the drawers until she found what she sought -- a small black and white composition notebook. She held it up with a triumphant smile.

"Okay! Let's start with the problems, a page for each, and then we can start figuring out the solutions!"

Her excitement was infectious, if a bit inappropriate given the dire circumstances they were facing. Strangely, Spike felt comforted by her efficient, competent air, as if the terrified little thing had suddenly found herself immersed in her own element again.

A slow smile came over Wesley's face as he met Angel's eyes over the tiny brunette's oblivious head, and Spike saw his sire's eyes light up as they turned back toward the girl and he nodded in response to her words.

"Right," the older vampire agreed. "Let's get this down. Good idea, Fred."

*Fred, that's it...knew it was a boy's name...*

"Okay. Problems," Fred began, her tone all business now, her pencil poised over the page and tapping it eagerly.

"Number one would have to be, my sister's a psycho," Dawn stated flatly.

"Okay, got it...psychotic...vampire...slayer..." Fred muttered the words aloud as she wrote them down in the notebook. Suddenly she looked up again at the younger girl as she explained, "And...technically she's not psychotic...not unless she's seeing things and answering voices that aren't really there. I think what you mean is psychopathic. Unless...she's...*not* seeing things and hearing voices, is she?"

"Um...I don't know...I don't think so," Dawn replied, wide-eyed at the possibility.

Spike shook his head, not looking up as he clarified in a flat, expressionless voice that barely served to mask his fear, "No. Not that I...not that I saw..."

"She's gonna be looking for us soon, if she isn't already," Tara pointed out. "Her first plan failed, to locate Spike through the bond, so now she's gonna be really mad, and all the more determined to find him."

"*Temporarily* failed," Wesley's grim voice reminded them all. "I was able to temporarily block her attempts, but I'm not quite sure how long our wards will hold against the power of such an accomplished witch as you say Willow has become..."

"Wait, *wait*! That's two different problems! Or maybe three..." Fred frowned, anxiously chewing on the end of her pencil and glancing between Tara and Wesley expectantly, waiting for one of them to clarify the situation.

"Three?" Cordelia raised a dubious eyebrow in her direction.

Fred impatiently ticked off on her fingers as she spoke, "Psychopathic Slayer with a vengeance, relentlessly looking for Spike, potentially shoddy spellsmanship on our part against the expert magic of a very powerful witch..."

"What?" Wesley interrupted, sounding offended at the disparaging comment on his magical abilities. "I never said..."

"Yes," Fred went on without acknowledging Wesley's protest, her expression thoughtful. "Three problems. The first is the fact that Buffy is psychopathic...crazy...right now. Not that being crazy makes her necessarily a bad person, or anything, because, *hello*, who hasn't been crazy at one time or another and some people just naturally are crazy more than they're sane sometimes and really how can you blame her when she spent time in another dimension, no matter *what* kind of dimension it was, because that can be a very traumatic experience for anybody, and..."

Fred's rambling words trailed off, her dark eyes growing wide and serious as she realized that she had unintentionally drawn the curious attention of everyone in the room. Awkwardly, she cleared her throat and returned to the subject at hand.

"Anyway...problem number one is how to make her...not crazy."

"Number two is how to keep her from finding us until we can accomplish the first one," Dawn picked up for Fred, her wary glance in the other brunette's direction making it clear that she was trying to prevent another rant.

"And, number three is how to keep Willow's magic from breaking down our magic and allowing Buffy to get to Spike," Tara finished quietly.

"Any other problems?" Fred asked, glancing up through wide eyes from one face to another, her head bowed over her notebook, her pen poised to write.

"None that we're prepared to deal with," Gunn replied with a raised eyebrow fastened on her anxious expression.

Angel's voice was low and grim as he pointed out, "Who says we're prepared to deal with *these*?"

"Actually," Tara interrupted, her voice hesitant and apologetic.

Spike knew before she went on that what she had to say was not going to be pleasant for him to hear, when he felt her embracing arm grow tighter around his shoulders, in a wordless cue of warning and reassurance.

"Actually...we do have one more. The bond that Buffy's placed on Spike. We need to find a way to break it, permanently."

There was a moment's silence, before Wesley spoke up hesitantly. "I'm...not quite certain that such a thing is possible at all, Tara. I've thoroughly read everything we have on that particular ritual, and it appears to me..."

"Then it appears wrong," Tara cut him off, a hard edge forming in her words as her eyes blazed into the former Watcher's with a fierce determination. "There has to be a way...and we have to find it."

**************************************

The small group that made up what was left of the Scoobies sat in uncomfortable silence around the table in the Magic Box, following Buffy's story of what she said that she had found when she had returned home from work that evening.

"I can't believe Spike would...would take Dawn." Willow spoke in a quiet, stricken voice, shaking her head slowly in dismay.

Anya looked momentarily relieved, opening her mouth to respond, but Willow continued before she could.

"I mean...I *can* believe it. He *is* an evil vampire and all...but I thought that he would know better, for one thing. And with the chains, and the locked door and all...why would he...I don't know, it just doesn't make sense."

Anya closed her mouth again, choosing not to voice her disagreement just yet after all. It seemed that she was always saying, or just about to say, the wrong thing, and she was sure that if Xander gave her dirty looks for doing so under normal circumstances, taking up for Spike now was likely to incur even greater wrath from her tense fiancee.

"It makes perfect sense," Buffy replied, her voice low and dangerous, her eyes glittering with tears of mingled fear and fury. "He couldn't have me. He *knew* he couldn't have me...and being in the same house with me was too much for him. Since he knew I'd never lower myself to his level, he...he took...he..." Buffy's voice trailed off, as she choked back a sob.

"He took the next best thing," Xander finished for her, his eyes narrowed in anger and disgust. "He took Dawn."

"We have to find her," Buffy sobbed quietly, her head lowered into her hands, her elbows resting on the table. "We have to do something, we have to..."

"I don't know what we can do, Buffy," Willow anxiously replied, her hands clenching together in front of her, fidgeting helplessly as she tried to think of some solution. "I already tried a basic locator spell on Dawn, and on Spike...and both times it just went ‘poof'...and in the bad sort of sense of ‘poof', not the good one. I don't know what else to..."

"Maybe he's using some kind of magic to block it," Buffy suggested, her eyes widening at the idea as she looked up at her friend with rising hope.

"Spike hates magic," Anya reminded her, frowning as she shook her head. "That can't be right."

"He doesn't like it, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't use it if he thought he had to. If he was going to kidnap Dawn, he'd know we'd come after him," Xander argued quietly. "He'd know that if he stood a chance of getting away with this, he'd *have* to use magic."

"What if you're just not strong enough to get through whatever magic he's using?" Buffy directed the question at Willow, her eyes serious and questioning.

Willow looked taken aback by the suggestion, the insinuation that her own magical abilities might be lacking. She appeared to be on the verge of voicing her objections, when the Slayer spoke again.

"Call Tara," Buffy suggested, and the desperate hope in her eyes was enough to drive Willow's feelings of offense to the back of her mind. "Maybe the two of you together can break through the spell Spike's using."

Anya could see Willow's hesitation, both to admit her own possible failure, and to bring her estranged ex-girlfriend into the situation. But in the end, Willow opted for Buffy's peace of mind rather than her own, as she rose and walked to the phone. She raised the receiver, hesitating again before dialing Tara's number with trembling fingers.

She had not spoken Tara in weeks, but she knew the number by heart.

After a few moments, Willow set the receiver down again, without speaking, and turned back toward the others, a worried frown on her face.

"She's not answering."

Buffy frowned, too, her eyes thoughtfully downcast. "It's after four in the morning."

"She should be at home," Willow stated said, her eyes widening with fear as she looked at her friend seated at the table. "Buffy, what if something's happened to her? She used to talk to Spike a lot; she felt sorry for him and stuff. What if he's done something to Tara, too?"

Buffy's eyes were filled with anguished sympathy as she met Willow's gaze. "They *have* been talking a lot lately, Will. I -- I wouldn't be surprised. It's too big of a coincidence that Spike and Dawn are gone...and now Tara's gone, too, on the same night."

"We should go by her house," Xander suggested, rising to his feet. "See if she's okay...or at least if she's there."

Buffy stood stiffly and wiped her hands across her eyes as she took a deep breath. "Okay...okay, you're right. We need to see if Tara's okay...and then we need to see what we can find on...like, *anti*-cloaking spells? Is there anything like that that you know about, Willow?"

Willow nodded distractedly, her eyes troubled and welling with tears, her mind focused on Tara and her well-being. "Yeah, there's stuff we could do. Any spell can be broken; it's just a matter of finding the right counter-spell. But first -- let's go to Tara's house. Something's wrong, Buffy, I know it!"

"Maybe she's just...asleep," Anya suggested quietly, with an apologetic little half-shrug for her simple idea. "Maybe the phone didn't wake her up."

"No," Willow whispered as she shook her head, despair in her voice. "Tara's a very light sleeper."

"It's gonna be okay, Willow," Buffy interrupted, stepping forward on trembling legs to place a shaking yet supportive hand on the redhead's shoulder. When her friend turned to face her, Buffy forced a brave smile, though her lower lip was quivering slightly. "We'll find them. We'll find them before he can do anything to them, I promise..."

Willow's tears spilled over as she whimpered, "But what if we don't?"

"We will," Xander interrupted gently, moving to stand between the two girls, one hand on each of their arms, pulling them closer so that the three were connected, offering their support to each other. "We always have -- and we will."

Willow hesitated a moment, before nodding decisively, as if determined to accept his reassurance. When Xander headed out the door toward his car, she followed behind him. Buffy stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder, spinning her around to face the Slayer's fierce, grim eyes, blazing with fury and determination.

"If we don't, Willow," she answered the question that Xander had taken from her. "If we don't...I'll make sure he doesn't get away with it. I promise you."

Willow's lips turned up slightly in a bitter smile, her eyes momentarily lit with a blinding, enraged power, as she nodded slowly, responding in a whisper before both girls headed out into the night.

"I promise, too, Buffy. I promise, too."