She moved into me while I was on the hillside. Xander had taken all the bolts he could, and I had largely overcome Giles' little magical virus trick. I was really gonna do it.

**Excuse me, young lady. Just why are you doing this?**

It was the demon. The one whose power I was feeding, to bring the world down.

"Why are you questioning me?"

**Hey, who woke who up, girlie? That's your friend on the ground, right? How could you do that? Do you have any idea what I'd give to have a friend like that?**

"Hello! You are a topmost demon? You had legions at your command."

**Fawning servitors. Feh! The loyal ones were too stupid to run when the quake hit. The others all got hired out by that Master jerk, to get rid of his precious barrier. But I never had a friend. You, moron--you have plenty!**

She knew which buttons to push, I'll give her that.

"They aren't any of them true friends. They tried to protect Tara's killers."

**Kid, I just walked in to this mess, and I know better. Buffy goes over the top, you all pull her back. Xander straps a bomb to himself, you all cut it off him. You calm each other down when the bad stuff hits. Only difference is, you are better than they are at talking nonsense! In Mrs. Tansen's debate class, some of the arguments you use to support your actions would have gotten you an automatic fail for 'faulty or circular premise'**

"Look, I'm wanting to blow things up, here. Are you gonna help me, or not?"

That's when I felt her enter. Just my luck. Most imprisoned demons stew, waiting eternities for a second shot at ripping creation a new one. I have to get the one who had a freakin' epiphany, and now appreciates friends, hearth and home.

**Not. Now get down on the ground, and you hug that boy who loves you so much, he let himself be pantsed rather than let it happen to you.**

So Xander held me, thinking that he had saved the world, and Giles lay back in the Magic Box, thinking that he had. She made me--MADE me—keep on apologizing to Buffy and Dawn. In England, anytime my attention would wander, she'd practically snap my neck back to the lessons.

Okay, so she was some help against The First. Told me some interesting if mostly useless stories about its old antics. But she was with me the entire time, except for LA, doing the backseat thing---she has family in LA, and they don't get on. Oy, when I did the scythe, it was all:

**No! Trace your power AROUND the weapon. You sooo do not want to tick this thing off. I was there when Celia--that's the lady in the crypt who was so rude about Buffy's name--forged this, and some of the people she invoked--by name, mind you--...**

I am the most powerful individual Wiccan who has ever lived. Even Buffy said so. But I would now trade all that to escape one simple, mind-numbing fact. A fact of my existence that regularly makes me want to scream.

I have two mothers.

**Oh, and that reminds me. Did you even bother to call Sheila and tell her the town went away? When's the last time you scheduled a dinner with her? And don't bring the girlfriend with the pierced tongue. There's a nice one in the back--ahh--she's got an axe-mark on her shoulder, but at your age, can you be so....**