Willow's POV

"I don't like it. It's too risky."

It scares me too. I've never done something this big before.

"I know but... but Faith's coming apart you guys, you've seen it. It's really bad."

"I know Will. It'll be okay she just... she needs time to deal with Buffy's death. We all went through it after it... happened."

Tara, Anya, Xander and I all get really quiet for a moment.

I'm gonna change it all. I'm gonna help Faith by giving her back the one she loves. I'll give them both a second chance.

"I know we all went through it but the rest of us didn't lock ourselves in our room and refuse to leave. She needs our help, and this may be the only way to help her."

"She's gone Will. We can't just... bring her back."

"We can Xander, I did the research. We all did after her death because we wanted her back and we love her."

"Yeah we did, before we decided it wasn't right. We all did the research, without Giles."

Giles?

"What does Giles have to do with this?"

"You know as well as I do that the only reason Giles isn't here with us, why we didn't involve him in the research, is because Giles would never let us do it. He'd tell us it was wrong. That we were messing with the natural order of things."

"Giles just doesn't understand how important Buffy is to Faith. She's lost without her. And besides, Buffy didn't die a natural death. She died because of the blast from Omega. You can't mess with the natural order of things if the death wasn't natural."

"How do we know that? Every book we read believes that death of any kind is natural."

"So you think it's natural for someone to die of a massive blue energy blast from a million year old demon bent on destroying the world?"

He shifts uncomfortably and so do Anya and Tara.

Are they all against me on this?

"Not when you say it like that, but Willow..."

"Buffy didn't die a natural death. She could be in horrible pain, not unlike Faith is. Faith is in her own private hell right now, and Buffy might be too. I won't leave them there like that."

There are another few moments of silence in the room before Xander speaks up.

"What about Joyce?"

Buffy's mom...

"We should tell her shouldn't we? I mean what would she think if we bring her daughter back from the dead and don't tell her?"

They aren't wrong, but...

"What if she..."

"WILLOW! I'm... I'm not saying I can do this but... but I won't do this unless Joyce is okay with it."

He's right, we have to tell her.

"All right, I'll talk to her. See if she's okay with it."

I get up to leave.

"Tara and I have to go take over Faith watch from Joyce anyway. I'll ask her about it then."

"Thank you, Willow."

I smile at Xander.

"So... Scooby meeting adjourned?"

He smiles back tentatively.

"Adjourned..."

"Okay."

I reach for Tara's hand and she takes it as she stands up.

"We'll reconvene here tomorrow after I talk to Joyce right?"

"Sure whatever..."

Tara and I leave Xander's place.

He's not completely on board yet, none of them are. But if I can get Joyce to let us do it, then everything will be okay. I just... I don't know if I can convince her.

Faith's POV

It has to stop. I have to make it stop. There's only one way to make it stop.

I open the door to our room and quietly go down the stairs, tears stinging my cheeks.

I have to make it stop.

I look into the living room and manage to make out Joyce sleeping on the couch through watery eyes.

She must've been tired and passed out, good. She can't stop me until it's too late. I have to make it stop and there's only one way to do it.

I wipe the tears out of my eyes as I walk into the kitchen and look around.

It has to stop... I have to make it stop.

I take the knife from its sheath among the other ones.

It won't stop unless I make it.

I start back to my room with the knife.

I know I can make it stop, and then we can be together.