Author's Note: After I finished Beyond Expectation, I started a sequel and actually wrote a pretty good chunk of it. Then I hit a block, and that block hasn't moved for about 10 years. The following scenes were intended to be flashbacks in that sequel, and since they can be appreciated outside the context of the sequel, I decided to post them. I hope you enjoy.

Tara went over the details of the spell with Anya while Giles hurriedly assembled supplies on the table in the Magic Box. Buffy, Xander, Dawn, and Oz watched on, all four of them nervous about the plan to stop Amy and Willow from destroying themselves with dark magick.

"Giles, there's gotta be another way to do this," Buffy said, not liking the risks that Giles had outlined when he and Tara explained what they would need to do.

"Yeah, preferably one that doesn't involve my girlfriend's brain being melted into goo," Xander added. He had been surprised when Anya volunteered to help Tara, hoping to balance the scales when it came to magical power.

"Willow is your best friend," Anya had said. "If you lose your best friend, you'll be sad and useless, completely undesirable. I want to help make sure that doesn't happen."

Her sentiment made Xander smile. After being together long enough, he had grown to see the true meaning in her blunt and sometimes off-putting language.

"I'm afraid there is no time to find another way. The magicks are destroying Willow and Amy. It could very well kill them, but not before they hurt others," he explained. "We've been over this, and the ends outweigh the risk involved."

"We're ready," Tara said to Giles.

Anya nodded her head in agreement, and Giles prepared the circle. Tara looked to Buffy, silently begging her not to worry, but she found it was pointless. Buffy would always worry.

The others stood back while Anya and Tara began, a green glow beginning to form around them. As their chanting became more intense, so did the glow, getting to a point that it was difficult to look at. Their spell was not complete, however, when the front door of the shop burst off its hinges. Willow and Amy strode in, their eyes black as the nothingness that could consume them if they went too far.

"Look, they're trying to spoil our fun," Amy said to Willow. The two of them simply smirked at Tara and Anya, who appeared oblivious to their presence.

"Willow," Oz said, beginning to step forward instinctively.

"Best not," Giles warned as he gripped Oz's arm and pulled him back. "The power is in control of her, not the other way around. She'll treat you no different than an enemy."

There was a flash of energy as Tara and Anya completed their spell. Willow and Amy were close enough that it knocked them off their feet. Anya and Tara stood, both of them surrounded by a softer green glow than that of the spell.

"Hey, look at their eyes," Dawn said. "They're neon green."

"They are the spell now," Giles said, the only way he could explain it.

"I guess it was stupid of me to think you would understand, Tara," Willow said. "You of all people…"

"Well, she is boinking the slayer," Amy said. "What'd you expect?"

Tara ignored their words and focused on her own, on Anya and the power between them. They began another spell, one to banish the darkness enveloping Amy and Willow. They were nearly finished when the other two shot a spell of their own. A powerful dark cloud quickly approached, and Tara and Anya held up their hands to block it. They staggered slightly, but regained their footing and held their ground, still continuing their spell. Buffy was itching to intervene, but she knew there was nothing she could do.

The black and green energies clashed and beat against each other violently between the two pairs of women. As Tara and Anya neared the end of their spell, the energies became more violent and dangerous. Tara knew this wouldn't end well, the clash of the energies could kill them all, most certainly those who had no supernatural powers whatsoever. The moment she and Anya spoke the last word of the spell, Tara turned, looked to Buffy and yelled to her.

"Get them out! Now!"

Buffy didn't hesitate. She turned to Giles, who gestured for them all to use the back door through the training room. The shop was beginning to shake as Tara and Anya's spell completed its work. The resulting explosion of power sent all four women flying in opposite directions. The others had made it to the back door, but not completely out of the building when the concussion waves knocked them all off their feet. When the dust settled, they all hurried back to the main shop area, hoping that they wouldn't find the four women dead.

All four spent half a week in comas and another painful month healing. Once out of the hospital, Amy disappeared from Sunnydale, making no further contact with any of them. Willow spent months working with Giles and Tara to cleanse the residue of darkness left within her, and deep down there was always a tension surrounding her, a fear that she would disappoint her friends and lose herself again. She would've been disheartened to know that way deep down, Tara and Giles had that same fear.

"So everybody knows what they're going to do."

Buffy was winding up her overview of the next day's battle plan against The First Evil. All of the potential slayers, excluding Kennedy, had been excused for the evening. Giles had been impressed enough with Kennedy's initiative over all the other potentials that he had insisted that she be included with the core Scooby leadership, which mostly meant all the non-potentials, excluding Andrew. This was not something Buffy had been wild about, but she accepted it, deferring to Giles' experience and knowledge. Kennedy was doing her best to contain her frustration. Much like Faith had been in her earlier years with the Scoobies, Kennedy was not one for accepting speeches from Buffy. There was also the fact that she had a thing for Buffy's girlfriend. But that was beside the point. Or so she thought.

"We should all get some rest or relax or whatever it is you need to do. Tomorrow's the big fight."

The group started to disperse and Kennedy stalked out of the living room toward the kitchen. Buffy watched her and touched Tara on the shoulder, indicating that she would join her in their bedroom shortly. Then the senior slayer headed for the kitchen, knowing exactly why Kennedy had stalked off.

"Is there a problem?" she asked as she watched Kennedy grab one of Xander's beers out of the refrigerator. She wasn't of age, but Buffy figured it wasn't really a battle she felt like fighting the night before they faced the First Evil and its hordes of Uber Vampires. Kennedy twisted the cap off the beer and didn't even acknowledge Buffy. "I would really like to be sure everybody's on board here. If anybody's not full into this, someone who wasn't going to die already could have a really bad day."

"I'm full into it. No question there," Kennedy said finally, still not looking at Buffy and instead choosing to look out the kitchen window into the back yard. "Thing I'm not into is my little 'baby-sit the witches' assignment. I kick ass better than any of the girls but I'm stuck with the Wiccas."

"Don't forget the scythe. You have to bring that down to the fight once they're done with it," Buffy added. Kennedy rolled her eyes, turned and hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter.

"So I'm a babysitter and a delivery girl. Great," she said sarcastically. "This is crap and you know it. You just can't handle having me in the thick of things. For some reason, you don't trust me to fight alongside you. Is it a superiority thing? Afraid I'll do better than you? Or maybe you think I might take out the First before you get to him? You've definitely got some trust issues."

"Not surprisingly, you're completely wrong about most of that. I do trust you. It's not a superiority thing," Buffy said. Kennedy scoffed and began lifting her beer to her lips. "One thing you're right about is that you are the best out of all the girls. You're the strongest, the fastest, and you've got better instincts and improv skills than almost all of them together."

The beer bottle hovered just below Kennedy's chin. She was so shocked by the compliments that she had forgotten what she was in the progress of doing.

"I trust you more than any of them to keep two of the most important women in my life safe. Short of Faith, I wouldn't give anybody else the job you've got. Only thing is there's something you've got on Faith here," the senior slayer continued. She leaned forward on the kitchen island and sighed. "I know how you feel about Tara. I know you tried to make a play for her. I know you'll die before you let anything happen to her. I'm counting on that. If she dies, I better find you with your throat ripped out."

"Gee thanks," Kennedy said sarcastically, chuckling at that last statement. Then her expression grew serious. "But yeah, I get it. Nothing'll touch her. Girl scout's honor."

"You were a girl scout?" Buffy asked with a smirk. Kennedy finally remembered her beer, taking a long draw from the bottle. She smiled, a proud expression taking over her features.

"I was 'til I started high school and one of the troop leaders caught me and Tiffany Scott making out in the craft supply room."

Buffy's smirk broadened into a full smile as she was unable to contain her amusement. She backed toward the kitchen door, signaling that they had had all the conversation they needed to have. Kennedy raised her bottle in a saluting gesture and then Buffy turned. As she crossed the threshold into the dining room she heard Kennedy call after her.

"Nothing'll touch her."

"You've been massively quiet tonight," Buffy said as the two of them changed for bed. It was the night before the big showdown. They had just gone over the plan of attack against the First one last time, and now everybody was going their own ways to prepare for what could possibly be their last day on Earth. "And you've barely looked at me. What's with the Marcel Marceau routine?"

Tara didn't respond. She simply unbuttoned her shirt in silence, her back to Buffy. The slayer moved over and stood in front of her, nudging her chin so she would make eye contact. There were tears in her eyes threatening to spill. The sorrow in Tara's eyes told Buffy all she needed to know.

"My aura's gone, isn't it?" she asked. She remembered all too well when she had first learned of Tara's ability to see auras. The day before Buffy's mother died, Tara had been able to see it coming. Joyce's aura had disappeared and Tara had explained that this meant Joyce was going to die within 24 hours. It was something they hadn't been able to stop. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Because I knew I wouldn't be able to stop you from fighting the First," Tara said quietly. "We all know that we won't all survive tomorrow."

"But you know who won't," Buffy added. Tara dropped her hands to her sides, forgetting about her half-buttoned shirt. Buffy grasped one of Tara's hands and gently ran her thumb across her cheek. "Who?"

Tara hesitated and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure if she should tell Buffy, but she knew already that telling Buffy who was going to die wouldn't change anything about the upcoming battle. Some things, she had learned, were impossible to prevent.

"You, Oz, Anya and six of the potentials," she said in a whisper.

"Not bad, all things considered," Buffy said. "Mean's we're gonna win, and it's less than half."

"It's still too many," Tara responded.

"Don't tell anyone else," Buffy said. Tara opened her eyes to see that Buffy was afraid as well. It wasn't a fear that most people would notice, but Tara could see it. Tara could see anything in Buffy, with or without an aura. "Especially not Giles and Willow and Xander. If they knew about me or Oz or Anya…it would get them killed, too."

"I wasn't planning on telling them," Tara replied with a shake of her head. "I wasn't planning on telling you. I just…" She paused and swallowed hard, her fear and sorrow beginning to get the better of her. "I don't wanna lose you."

"Don't worry about that," Buffy said quietly. She placed her hand on the back of Tara's neck and pulled her forward into a gentle kiss. When their lips parted she kissed Tara on the forehead before moving back and making eye contact. "Tomorrow is tomorrow. Right now we're here together. That's all that matters."

They made love, trying to bury their sorrow with one last night of passion. But somewhere in the back of her mind, Tara couldn't stop thinking about how this was the last time—the last time Buffy would touch her this way, the last time they would feel so connected, the last time for just the two of them. Nothing could stop it. Nothing could keep death from taking the one woman she loved with all her soul.