(no subject)
Okay, the Title doesn't really fit, but it's the only one I could come up with that made sense..
One of a Kind Promise
“She’s flatlining!”
Tara Maclay lain on the ground, bleeding. She’d been shot.
Willow, and various others stayed around, praying to whoever would listen, hoping that Tara would live.
‘What am I…doing up here?’ she thought, seeing her chest covered in blood, body splayed in an unnatural position.
‘Am I…’ she thought, but before she could finish, an answer came.
“Yes, you are. But, didn’t you wish this?”
Tara blinked.
‘What?’
“You did, if I recall. You said, ‘I want to die. I just want them to be happy, just let me die.’”
She backed up. No one knew about that thought, that she’d had after her and Willow’s fight, before her memory was erased.
“Glory almost gave you death. But, she is meaner than I.”, when Tara was seen backing up still, shaking her head, the voice finished. “Don’t worry, child. She’ll get her punishment. In due time.”
‘What’s going on? Who are you?’
“Oh, I’m someone you know closely, but somone you really don’t know at all.”
‘..Huh?’
“You’ll understand later. Now, about this whole ‘Death’ thing. Death’s actually a friend of mine, so.. you CAN stay dead, even if you’re not supposed to…”
‘I’m.. not supposed to die?’
If the voice had a body, It would have shaken Its head.
“No. But.. if it is what you really want…it can be done.”
Tara thought.
“Do you need some persuasion, to make your decision? We do really need to hurry up with all this..”
Before Tara could answer, images were flashed in her mind. Words, pictures.
‘Why did she have to die?’ Xander.
‘No.. Tara..I’m sorry..I know that was meant for me, God, why did it have to miss?’ Buffy.
‘What’re we gonna do now? Who’s gonna help with the store? I can’t manage on my own..’ Anya.
But, the one that stuck out the most..Willow’s face, flooded with tears.
‘Tara…I love you! Please, don’t leave.. I’m so sorry, for everything…please, someone, help her! I’ll do anything, just..please don’t let her die!’
Tara stood, in shock.
More pictures. Willow, after a year. She seemed to be coping fine. The potentials, and later, Kennedy’s appearance.
Ten years. Kennedy left. Willow was torn, once again. 12 years, Kennedy told Willow how she really felt, after she was told about Tara.
Broken, Willow contemplated Suicide.
But.. Tara saw something, that didn’t look right. A face, voices in Willow’s mind, driving her insane.
‘There,’ she said, pointing. ‘Is that your friend?’
“Death, yes.”
‘Why am I not supposed to die?’
“Because Death, not actually dying, but Death, the entity, must be stopped.”
‘Why me? Why do I have to stop it?’
“Let me show you something else. Something that happens after your death. Something, that happens, to Willow.”
Tara was shown when Willow went Bad. She broke down in tears then, and cried.
“That is Death.”
‘My sweet Willow, what happens now? What must I do to prevent this, but make you happy all the same?’
“Oh, you poor thing! Was that too much?”
‘No! Enough of all this!’
“Fate is a strange thing. You can prevent this.. but only you. Tempus Fugit.”
Tara stared blankly.
‘Will Willow be happy with me? If we have another argument like that…I wonder what will happen?’
“I can show you..”
‘No! If I am to..stop whatever this is.. I don’t know how..what will I need to do?’
“Simple. Go back. Live your life. But, live it honestly. Death hates that, honesty.”
‘But..what about Willow?’
“What about her? You’ve seen what happens. Oh look, it’s already begun.”
A face, the same one that Tara saw with the voices attacking Willow’s mind, appeared on the scene, apparently viewing the area with a morbid curiousity. Most of all, taking in Willow.
‘No! He has to get away from her!’
“Honest happiness, dear, that’s all it takes to keep him away.”
‘Honest happiness? What if Willow would be happy with Kennedy? What if this is all a lie?’
“…What if it isn’t?”
‘That’s all I want for her, to be happy, is that so-’
“Hard?” she found herself saying. She looked around. The face she’d seen..was gone.
“You were so easy to fool.”
“What?”
“You. InCREDIBLY easy.” A woman beside Tara shook her head. The voice was the same as the one she’d heard earlier.
“But..”
“Don’t worry! Things will be okay now. Just rest. Thanks to me, the bullet missed anything vital, but that doesn’t mean you’re not injured.”
“Who.. are you?”
The woman slowly disappeared. “No one you need to worry about just yet.”
Tara laid her head back on the gurney as she was lifted into an ambulance.
Later, the same woman met with a cloaked man in Willy’s bar.
“So…I brought her back. Now what?”
A man with a familiar face pulled back his hood, revealing the word ‘Death’ on his shirt.
“Now…we wait.”