Willow hated Wednesdays. It had been a Wednesday when it had happened, and the fifty eight years of Wednesdays since had all been wasted days. Days of trying to understand. Days of wishing it hadn't happened. Days of wondering when the pain would go away. Days of guilt and self-loathing.

For a few short months she had thought the worst day of her life was the day she lost Tara. Tara's had been a senseless death. Not that death made any sense to Willow at all, even at the age of eighty. But there would have been some comfort, however little, in knowing that Tara had died for a cause. Being hit by a bus was not a cause, it was a statistic. The driver had suffered a stroke. Thirteen people had died. Including Tara. Precious, lovely, innocent Tara.

Then had come that other fateful day. Darker to Willow than the two Apocalypses she had lived through since then. Darker than the day they'd got the news that Buffy had left them.

They'd finally found a way to close the Hellmouth. A Once-in-an-Eternity's chance. All the signs and portents had pointed to that day being the right day - the only day - that they could succeed. It was simple, and there was no way it could fail. All it required was an element of self-sacrifice. Willow was fine with that. She had nothing left to live for now that Tara was gone. All she had to do was cast a small rite that would start to open the Hellmouth, then step into it. Her sacrifice would close the Hellmouth and everyone else would be safe. Forever.

Or so she'd thought. She hadn't realised the cause and effect that was involved. She hadn't realised that in some ways the sacrifice would be in vain. Closing the Hellmouth did not avert the First Apocalypse. For several years afterwards Giles had done his best to reassure her how much worse, and how much more final the First Apocalypse would have been had the Hellmouth not been closed. Even now, she wasn't sure she believed it... even though it was so important for her that she did.

She still didn't know how Faith found out what she'd been planning to do. Only Willow and Giles had known about the plan to close the Hellmouth. Giles had gotten all excited when he stumbled across it, and then become grim when he'd found out the true cost of the rite. Maybe he had sent Faith to stop Willow from sacrificing herself. Maybe she had found out by some other means. It didn't matter how. It didn't matter how then and it certainly didn't matter how now. All that mattered was that she had found out.

Willow had been standing next to the Hellmouth when Faith showed up. The tear in reality had simultaneously been a small distortion about a foot across, and a rent in the cosmos that split the Universe in two. Willow had stepped towards it. She had heard a voice call her name. Faith's voice, although she hadn't recognised it straight away. She found herself pushed roughly aside, and fell to the floor. When she had steadied herself and looked up, she had seen the brunette Slayer jump into the Hellmouth. The Gateway had closed immediately.

Willow had been prepared for many things. The life she had chosen meant there was always the possibility that she would give her life to save another, or that she would find that someone would give their life to save her. But to see someone she had hated, had loathed, had feared... to see them lay down their life for her was more than she knew how to bear. Especially when...

There was one thing she had discovered about the rite to close the Hellmouth. The sacrifice it required was not necessarily a clean death. Any taint on the soul of the one who sacrificed themselves was magnified, amplified, and inflicted back upon them. Willow had accepted this. She had not lived a saintly life, but as souls went she liked to consider herself relatively taint free. Faith on the other hand... for almost sixty years her soul had been trapped in there. For almost sixty years she had suffered torment on Willow's behalf. That was the pain that Willow could not bear. That was what had turned every Wednesday since then into a wasted day.

And now Willow was tired. Too tired to waste any more Wednesdays. Too tired to suffer any more pain inflicted on her soul. And there was only one way she could allow her pain to end.

The Metempsyche Gem had taken her fifty years to create. Fifty years of painstaking research, and of dedication, and of hard work. Fifty years of unwasted Thursdays through Tuesdays. Finally, it was ready. Finally, she could rest.

Years after the Hellmouth had been closed an apartment block had been built on the spot where it had once been. For the past fifteen years Willow had lived in the ground floor studio over the exact spot where Faith had chosen to take her place. Fifteen years she had endured walking over that spot every day so that she could do this final thing now.

She placed the Gem on the exact spot where the Hellmouth had once been. Her hands shook as she held them out over the glittering jewel. She only had one word to speak, but it caught in her mouth twice before she could say it. Freedom. At first she uttered the Sumerian word, as that was what the spell required. But then she spoke it in English. "Freedom," she said, tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. "Freedom!" she shouted.

The Gem flared suddenly. Willow could see immediately that it had worked. Faith's ghost floated in the air in front of her. The brunette's face was worn. Willow could see the years of pain in the other woman's face. She fought back a choking sob as Faith smiled at her with a face full of gratitude, and... love. Willow felt herself relax finally. And as Faith reached out her hand, Willow felt her body fall away, felt her soul shrug off the weight. She reached out her own ghostly hand to take hold of Faith's.

Hand in hand, they soared free of their pain. Eternity, whatever it was, awaited.