Replaced

by Cryptkeeper
Rating: R

PART 11

"It's me."

"What the hell?" I hear Faith whisper.

I get up and take her in my arms. With the glow from the tubes I can make out numerous scars and welts coloring her skin. She's barely pale in places and all purple and red in others. A sick pattern of knife slashes are etched into her arms. Something tortured her.

"Just what the fuck is going on here?" Faith yells.

"I don't know, but I think this is who the kid wanted me to find."

"What kid?" She seems genuinely puzzled.

She begins to twist and turn in my arms like she's fighting something off. I hug her tighter and she gradually relaxes, her eyes open and she looks up at me.

"Thing....." I can barely hear her. Her voice is tired and pain-filled.

I smile as I feel a tear bite at my eyes. "Clone-Girl."

She coughs and bright red blood bubbles on her lips, gradually spilling onto her chin and down her throat. I hold her tighter, not being able to stop the tears from rushing forth. I sense Faith beside me now. I turn to her and there's a sadness in her eyes as well. She's already had one of me die in her arms, I can't imagine what it's doing to her to see it again.

"We've got to get her some help B."

"How? We're stuck here."

She looks at me and then down at the clone in my arms. I can see some kind of decision warring in her eyes. Her hand reaches into her pocket and she pulls some kind of circular object out. It's silver and has all kinds of dark red jewels embedded inside the metal.

"What's that?"

"Help. It's how I got here. I don't know what it's called because it's so shittin' long, but it will get her to Giles. She'll live if she gets help."

She goes over to the wall and holds the disc up to it, feeling over the jewels. Everytime she touches one it glows. Soon enough, all the jewels are glowing and then this red light bursts from the disc. Faith stumbles back but holds onto it. The entire disc glows bright red. It must be hot because I can see the grimace on Faith's face. A dark hole appears and I'm crushed to the ground.

"Faith!"

"Relax B, it's just because you don't have the disc in your hand. I'll send her through and then we'll go through."

She walks over to us, like there isn't a two ton force on top of her. She pulls the clone from my arms and goes over to the portal, gently easing her inside. Once she's through, Faith comes over to me and picks me up. The pressure instantly goes away. I hold onto Faith as we make our way over to the portal.

"God I'm so glad that this is over."

We're about to step through the portal when I feel it. It's him. I look at Faith and I can tell that she feels it too. Her eyes are wide.

'IT'S NOT OVER YET SLAYER!!!'

His voice echoes loudly inside my head. I grab my head and collapse to the floor, bent over in pain. Faith's tugging at me and I think she's yelling but it's nothing compared to his.

'I WILL HAVE YOU SLAYER! YOU WILL SUFFER!!'

"NO!!!"

It suddenly gets really quiet. All I can hear is the sound of my own rapid heart and Faith's worried voice. Something bad is going to happen. We have to leave now.

"WE HAVE TO GO NOW!!"

I get up and take a run for the portal, Faith right on my heels. Just as I reach it, this powerful bolt of white energy crashes into it and sends us flying backwards. I crash into one of the tubes, bursting it. The cool liquid washes over me. I turn over slowly, feeling pain in my arm, and find myself eye to eye with one of the kids.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I roll away from the body as fast as I can, my eyes scanning the room for Faith.

"Faith! Faith!"

'FAITH! FAITH!' is yelled inside my head.

I look around the room frantically.

'Please, oh please don't let him....'

"She's right here Slayer."

I turn around and see Faith held in the air by her neck. Her hands are wrapped around a wrist trying to pry it from her. Her eyes keep drifting closed. What scares me the most are the cold hard and brutal blue eyes trained on me.

"We finally meet Slayer."

'Oh God.............'

...to be continued...