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Remember
By Michael B.

Spoiler: WARNING! WARNING!! There is some Spoiler from Seeing Red! Some SPOILER to "Villains". Then there is the AU.
Author's Note - This is dark and brutal. Be forewarned. Does it have a happy ending? Yes. It does...well, but maybe not for everyone.
Summary: It wasn't supposed to happen. One young man was going to make it right...even if it killed him.
Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy, and familiar phrases and scenes belong to Joss.
Rating - R

----

Willow was very angry. She was on her knees and the rage burned deep within. She could feel it taking control...feel it burning inside. She looked up and clenched her teethe together. The fire was in her eyes.

She was going to kill him, she thought as she cradled Tara's body in her arms.

Outside, Xander was holding onto Buffy, pleading with her to stay with him. For God's sake, please don't leave me.

The tragedy was worst than anything anyone could have possibly imagined. It came from out of nowhere. It interrupted the lives of people who have become closer than any family could have been. But isn't that how tragedy is? It doesn't care for the young or the old. It doesn't care about the healthy and the sick. It doesn't care about the rich or the poor. It doesn't care about those in love and those in pain.

Tragedy respects no one.

Tragedy feeds on all.

Tragedy fed on them. And it wasn't done feeding.

After Buffy was taken to the hospital and Tara was taken away from Willow, she snapped. She changed. Her hair turned midnight black and Xander had seen the transformation after he pleaded with her not to do anything rash. Her eyes were as black as the void. She brushed him aside if he were an insignificant gnat.

She went after Warren.

She found him on a bus that had left town and she intercepted that bus. With her hand held out the bus just stopped and time seemed to stand still for the passengers and the driver. But not for Willow. Not for Warren.

She took him. She took him deep in the woods where he raised his gun to try to finish her off.

She opened her hand and the gun came to her. She dropped it on the ground and looked at Warren.

"PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!" Warren screamed.

Willow brought her finger to her lips. "Ssssh."

His lips were immediatley sealed up as if by stitches. He stared at her horrified.

"I'm so bored," Willow said as she regarded Warren.

She slapped her hands together.

Warrens arms suddenly went behind his back by an unseen force. His hands were put together as if to be bound. Well...they were bound in the worst possible way. The flesh of his arms together molded as one. His two hands behind his back were now one.

Willow clicked her heels together.

Warrens legs locked and he watched horrified as his two legs molded together into one. He would have fallen but Willow was holding him up with her magic. Warren was floating above the ground and he was terrified like he never was before.

"I'm going to hurt you," Willow said softly. "Slowly. Badly. So bad that you will die...but not right away. You took my Tara. You took..." At the mention of Tara from her own lips, she stopped. Tears began to form in her eyes and she remembered how they had gotten together again. There would be no more magic. No more magic.

Tara had wanted it that way.

She had wanted...

Willow suddenly collapsed onto the ground. Everything that had happened since that horrible day took its toll on her. She cried heavily. She sobbed so hard, her body was shaking. She forgot about Warren. She forgot about magic. All she could think of was Tara and keeping her promises.

As she cried, something happened.

Her hair that was black was red again. The magic she used stopped.

She cried long and hard, and then when she was done and couldn't cry no more, she rolled onto her back...and Warren was there.

Warren...standing on his own two legs, his arms at his sides, and his mouth free of stitches. The gun back in his hand and murder in his eyes.

"What's the matter, Red? The magic gone?" Warren asked angrily.

Willow didn't respond. She didn't care any more.

But Warren did. And he showed her that he cared by proceeding to kick her while she was down. "I'm going to kill you, bitch!" Warren shouted angrily. "Just like I killed your girlfriend!" He kicked her some more for emphasis. "What's more, you don't have anyone out here to help you! Not your super-heroine Buffy! Not Mighty Man Xander! No one is here to help you! Do you hear me?! No one is here to help you!!" He aimed the gun at her.

He tried to steady himself as he caught his breath.

The silence was loud. But a voice from behind was louder.

The voice said, "I'm here."

Startled, Warren turned his head...and something smashed into his face. He fell to the ground...out cold.

The young man dropped his club and knelt beside Willow. She was curled into a ball and her hair had fallen over her face. Gently, the man turned her over onto her back and brushed aside her hair. She looked up at him with eyes that were so pleading.

"Please..." she said hoarsely, almost in a whisper. "I-I just want to die..."

Jonathan, tears in his own eyes, shook his head. Just as softly, he said, "I can't let you do that. I'm going to help you. I'm going to make it right."

He picked her up and carried her away from there. He carried her a long way through the woods. There was a camp site that he had prepared and he took her there. He placed her gently on the ground, ontop of a sleeping bag. He took a pillow out from his gear and placed it gently beneath her head. He covered her in a blanket and again, brushed the hair from her eyes. She was still crying, but it was a silent cry now.

He took a bag from his gear and he began to make preparations. It would take an hour...maybe less, but he knew he had the ingredients and he was determined to get it right.

As he prepared, he talked to Willow. "If I get this right, it will be fixed. All of it will. And Warren will never bother you again. He should have never bothered any of you. He just thought he was something that he wasn't...and I guess I did, too. That's the only excuse I have for hooking up with him and that other loser." He paused. "I guess I'm a loser, too." He glanced at Willow and saw that she was watching him. But she didn't say anything, so he continued, "You're very lucky to have friends like Buffy and Xander. The love you guys have is real. I know it is. I've seen it. I've also seen your pain and your suffering. You guys...you guys have been through so much and yet...you're still a family. I wish life had been kinder with me. I wish I could have been a member of your family than the two I got stuck with. We made such a mess. And...well, who can I really blame but myself? God, I'm so sorry, Willow. You know...I-I find myself thinking about all of those times at school when you interrogated me. Do you remember? I had confessed to you that I had pissed in the simming teams pool, and...and you tried to make me confess to planning a killing spree in the cafeteria...I think of those times and I always thought you were so cool." He shrugged. "Still do. And Buffy saved me that day. Did you know that? She stopped me from killing myself. God, you would think I would learn. But I don't until it's too late." He looked at her. "I can fix what happened so that it doesn't happen again. And I will fix it...because you deserve to be happy. And so does Buffy and Xander. And Anya, too, but I-I can't really fix that." He sighed. "You won't remember any of this if I succeed. But if I don't...just remember that I am sorry. I-I love you...you know, in a plutonic sense. I love all you guys and I hope for the best for all of you. You should be with the ones you love."

With that said, he poured out white sand in a circle around him and Willow. He prepared the rest of the ingredients, but just as he was about to cast the spell, there was a gunshot.

Jonathan stared at the blood in his chest and he fell.

Warren walked up to the circle and he pointed the gun at Willow.

Willow whispered something..."Remember."

He fired.

Then he looked up to the heavens and he shouted, "I AM INVINCIBLE!!"

"No...you're dead. You're just too stupid to realize it."

He turned around and Jonathan had struggled to his knees. Warren aimed the gun at him but Jonathan held up his hand. The gun came to him and he aimed it at Warren.

Warren held up his hands. "Okay...buddy! You are the one who is invincible."

Jonathan shook his head. "No. I'm dead, too. I'm smart enough to know that at least. I know something else."

"What do you know?"

"I have to kill you...twice."

A puzzled expression crossed Warren's features. "Twice?"

Jonathan fired.

The bullet snapped Warren's head back and he fell lifeless to the ground. Jonathan dragged himself over to Willow, but it was too late. She was dead. Jonathan hung his head and he wept bitterly. He wept until he remembered what he had to do...before it was too late. He couldn't hang on for much longer...but he had to.

He just had to.

He began the spell.

* * *

"I don't know what I would do without you and Will," Xander said. "I love you so much."

Buffy hugged him. "I love you, too."

They hugged.

And Warren walked up to them and he began to level his gun.

"Warren!!"

Warren spun around and there was Jonathan looking like death warmed over. Warren looked at him, startled.

Jonathan leveled his gun and fired once.

Warren went down with a bullet to his head and he would never get up again. Jonathan fell, too. He could no longer fight this battle. It was time to give it up.

Willow, Tara, and Dawn came running out of the house. They saw the that Buffy and Xander were okay and that Warren was dead. But Jonathan...?

"Hey, he's-he's still breathing!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Call 911!" Buffy told Dawn. She was sure that one of the neighbors had already done that after the gunshot, but she wanted Dawn out of harms way.

Willow and Tara were both kneeling next to Jonathan. Willow was looking at him, and then at Warren. She looked puzzled.

"Jonathan's been hit?" Xander inquired. "But...there was only one shot."

At that moment, Willow said, "Remember," under her breath. She didn't know why she said it, only that she did. And everything that had happened in the other time line, she remembered.

Tears welled up in her eyes at what Jonathan had done for her...for all of them.

"Jonathan...please don't give up," she pleaded.

"Willow...is-is Tara..." Jonathan coughed up blood.

Willow tried to keep his head up and Tara helped. "Sh-she's right here, Jonathan. You saved her."

Tara looked at her quizically.

"Then...it's all right...now?"

"Yes..." Willow nodded. "Yes, it is. B-but you have to wait. Help is coming..."

Tara grabbed Willow's hand. "Will..." she said.

"Just don't give up. They're coming."

"Willow."

Willow looked into his eyes and she kept his head up. "No..."

"He's gone, Will," Tara said with tears in her eyes.

Willow was dumbfounded. How could this be? She looked at Tara. Tara took her hands, helped her to her feet and hugged her. Willow hugged back and she cried.

Xander knelt beside Jonathan and he moved his hands over Jonathan's eyes, closing them forever. "I'm sorry, Jon...you will be missed, inspite of what you and your friends did."

The sirens came closer. The EMT's arrived. The police. And it didn't end there.

Tragedy had struck. It struck once and it will strike again. It always does. It strikes when it is least expected. It stikes anyone at any time. And if it strikes once, it should be left alone. For if Tragedy is bargained with, it just trades itself for a different Tragedy.

But in this Tragedy, Willow remembered. And she would not forget.

Not ever.