Willow stared up at the ceiling of her room and hugged the extra pillow to her stomach. It wasn't the ceiling so much as the darkness. She couldn't see the white surface she knew was hanging above her.

Darkness should be easy now. She'd been living in it for too long. In all honesty, she had wanted it that way. It was easier than dealing with the truth.

Her own vanity had driven her. Her own desire to be the best. Then everything has gone wrong, and some of that was on her. She'd put them in a situation and made all the wrong choices. Even thinking about her part in the fiasco left a sour taste in her mouth.

It had been easy to ignore the truth, far too easy to shift the blame away from herself and onto others. She'd blamed everyone, everyone but Buffy most of all. It had been so easy to evade responsibility.

Everything had pushed under her skin and festered.

Cordelia had Xander. They didn't get the fuzzy end of the lollipop. They just got to be happy. She sighed. It was still too easy to build resentment. Cordy and Xander had to hide out here, too. They'd been stuck away from their families and their friends in Cordelia's case.

It had been easy to resent Buffy's easy slide into her new relationship with Spike. Another vampire that decided to switch sides for the pretty blonde. But, was it easy to evolve? Because that's what Buffy was doing. She'd survived torture and come out the other side. Then the universe decided to play fast and loose with her destiny again. That had to suck.

Willow frowned. She'd been so busy blaming everyone else that she'd missed the fact that they were all in an uncomfortable situation. Sure, she and Oz had it bad, but the others weren't smelling roses and eating bonbons. Half of them had evolved into something else. Puberty wasn't bad enough?

They were all caught up in prophecy now. She rolled onto her side, but changing her view didn't change her mind. She'd hated watching Buffy flail against fate with the master. She'd wanted to save her friend. Being helpless then had been awful. Being helpless now, in the grips of something ancient and foretold, was worse.

She wanted to go to Oz, but she couldn't rush him. She'd broken something precious between them, and moving forward was painful.

He'd forgiven her. He'd said the words. He'd meant them. Knowing that made the constant pain of his absence something she could endure. Most days. Not this day.

They were going into battle. It wasn't as back up either. They were going in, and they had to hold their own. The world depended on it if the prophecy was to be believed.

It was easier when Buffy killed the bad guys, and she researched.

Willow tossed back onto her back and grimaced. She needed sleep. The magic she would need to do was taxing. Giles had gone over it with her several times. He explained that Oz would have to get her out of the field when she was done. Everything was so damn complicated.

The creak of the door opening made her jump. She couldn't see. The room was too dark.

"Willow." Oz's voice was a mere whisper. "Are you awake?"

"I know you can see me sitting up." She managed a slight smile.

"It seemed like the thing to say." He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "We don't have to do this. Prophecy or not. We can choose to follow our own stars."

"You'd leave them to fight?" Willow curled her fingers into the sheets pooled around her waist.

"If you can't face this..." The pause was telling. He was struggling. Caught between two right things. The wolf wanted to protect them. The man wanted to protect the world.

"If I can't face this?" She leaned forward.

"If you can't, we can go." Oz sighed. There was a world of misery in that sigh.

"I don't want to do it." She whispered the words but knew he'd hear. "I don't want to save the world and fight some mythic battle that was foretold by some crackpot, fume sniffing, crazy in antiquity. I am sane. I really don't want to do it, but Buffy didn't want to die either. Sometimes, things are sucky. So, once more unto the breach."

"I don't think Saint George is listening." Oz moved closer to her. She could hear his steps on the floor.

"Pity. We could use some dragon fighting types." She shrugged.

"There aren't so many dragons out there these days." Oz was standing next to her bed.

"We've got Buffy. She'd take on a dragon or twenty." Willow looked away from where she knew he was standing. "She went into hell to save us."

"She did." The bed dipped as Oz sat on it. "She did what she could. But we haven't. We let him win. We need to beat him and fix this thing between us. I don't think baby steps will do anymore."

"What do we need to do?" Willow almost jumped when his warm hand cupped her shoulder.

"We need to be together. I don't want to sleep alone, sitting on the floor, outside your door." Oz stroked her cheek with a gentle finger.

Willow stilled. They'd been touching for some time. He'd held her and they'd tried to pretend that everything was normal, but this felt normal. This was normal.

She threw herself into his arms and hugged him close. His hands gathered her bunched up nightgown and she sighed. His lips traced from her neck to her jaw and up to her lips. She buried her hands in his hair and reveled in the low rumble of his growl.

It was going to be alright. Thank whatever benevolent being that existed in the universe. It was going to be alright.