Into The Void
by Electra
Rating: R
Faith was released into Angel’s custody four days after the meeting with Warden Drake. Before she left the prison, Drake had invited her and Angel into his office. While there, he placed several protection spells upon her and performed a Zedalyde Ritual, which in effect bound her soul to this plane.
He also gave her a supply of the medication that suppressed her dreams. However, Drake warned her that her body seemed to be building up a tolerance to the medication already, and that it would soon lose its effectiveness on her.
Lastly, Drake promised to watch out for her while she was out of his care. He mentioned that he would contact some friends on a higher plane and try to get any useful information out of them.
With that, Angel led Faith out of the prison and towards the SUV that waited to take them to Sunnydale.
As Cordelia and Wesley waited in the SUV for Angel to return with Faith, they had discussed the fact that neither one of them trusted Faith still. Angel had told them what had been happening to Faith, and asked that they give her a chance. Still, they were under the belief that Faith was faking the whole thing in order to escape from prison.
They mutually concluded to remain on full alert while in her presence.
However, their sense of alert quickly faded when they saw a weak and timid-looking Faith being slowly led to the vehicle by Angel. He had and arm around her waist and in turn, her arm was draped over his shoulders.
Her face was thin and pale. Her once toned and buff body now seemed too thin and frail. It wasn’t the Faith that they had once known, not even as she tried her best to put on a smirk and toss out a playful line.
“So, my fans await.” She timidly joked. “I’ll have to ask that we hold off on autographs ‘til later. Might not wanna give the convicted felon anything sharp to play with, like a pen.” She forced out a hoarse laugh.
Suddenly, Cordelia and Wesley felt full of concern and sympathy for the girl.
“Hello, Faith.” Wes simply replied, a compassionate look on his face.
“Hey Faith.” Cordelia added, her face a mixture of concern and disbelief. “Angel, get in the front with Wes. I’m gonna sit in the back with Faith. You know, do the girlie-bonding thing.”
She got up out of the passenger seat and moved to Angel, who was still supporting Faith. She slid between Angel and Faith and ducked her head under Faith’s arm. After sliding her arm around Faith’s waist, she led her towards the opened back door and away from Angel.
“Um, oh . . . uh, Cordy? Are you sure that you have her?" Angel fretted as Cordelia helped Faith into the back seat. “I can help, or . . . uh, well, just be careful. She’s kind of weak right now.”
Faith looked embarrassed at the concern that was being shown for her. She had never really been taken care of before.
“Uh, Angel . . . I’m right here, y’know? I can hear ya. Besides, I’m not that weak. It’s just the meds that I’m on. Give it a couple days . . . slayer metabolism will get them outta my body, and I’ll be good as gold, baby. Trust me. I’m five-by-five.” Faith stated, a little smile playing across her lips.
Cordelia laughed aloud and rolled her eyes playfully.
“God, Faith, ‘five by five’? Are you still using that phrase? And if so, are you ever gonna let us know what it means?” Cordelia teased the other girl as she helped buckle her in.
Faith looked down at Cordelia’s hands as they brushed across her abdomen while trying to buckle the seatbelt. Her trademark smirk crept up on her face.
“Hmm . . . well, if you keep up the T.L.C. that you’re givin’ me right now, I’ll let you in on all of my secrets, Queen C.” Faith replied, waggling her eyebrows.
Cordelia laughed. “And there, gentlemen, is the Faith that we all know and adore.”
The four laughed as they finished settling into the vehicle. After checking that they were ready, they began their journey to Sunnydale.
As they drove away, Faith looked back at the prison that had been her home for more than a year. A sense of loss came over her as she realized that she might never be able to fully finish her quest for redemption.
However, the sense of loss quickly faded as thoughts of Buffy and Sunnydale flooded her mind. If she played her cards right, she might be able to earn Buffy and the Scoobies’ trust and forgiveness once again.
That is, if she lived long enough to do so.
The ride to Sunnydale seemed to take a lifetime, at least for Faith. She was exhausted, and her body and mind were in desperate need of sleep. She had the medication to suppress her dreams, but she was still too scared to even take a little nap.
Cordelia could sense that Faith was trying to stay awake, so she tried to make small talk to entertain the girl. Wes and Angel remained quiet in the front seat, listening to the conversation but not partaking in it.
“So . . . Faith. Are you nervous about going back to Sunnydale? I mean . . . ‘cause I know that I’VE been avoiding it. Like the plague.” Cordelia nodded very matter-of-factly.
“Normally, I would be CRAZY nervous about going back to SunnyD. Bad memories, y’know? I guess I should feel pretty hesitant, especially with the whole ‘I-tortured-and-or-maimed-several-of-its-inhabitants Thing.’ I caused some major trouble there, even outside of my clashes with the Scoobs. But oddly enough? I’ve got too many other things on my mind right now to sweat the small stuff. Y’know what I mean? I’ve got other things to be nervous about.”
“Yeah, I get it. So, tell me what’s on your mind. In your own words: what’s making you nervous?” Cordelia asked. She thought that if Faith would talk about her problems, it might make them a little easier to deal with.
“Oooookay. First? I’m wicked-scared that this dark magic shit is gonna make me go all ‘Evil-Faith’ again. Warden Drake said that maybe it was the darkness that made me all psycho-slayer before, and I was hella-strong back then! Imagine what it could do to me right now, being all weak and tired and shit.”
Cordelia nodded. “Right. I can see why that would make you nervous. Why else?”
“Secondly? If the darkness doesn’t consume me, it’s gonna kill me. That is, if you guys don’t figure out how to stop it. And that leads me to reason number Three.”
“And that is . . . ?”
“I HATE the fact that you guys have to put up with this shit. Me? I don’t mind dying for a good cause, or as a part of my redemption, or even to lift the burden off of any one of your lives. I’ve come to terms with that, and I accept it. But everyone is already in too deep. If I die now, you guys are gonna feel like you failed me, and that’s not true in the least bit. Just having you guys help me now, after what I’ve done . . . means so much to me. You all have gone above and beyond already. I don’t want any of you to feel bad if things don’t work out as planned. So, yeah. That’s a big factor.”
Cordelia smiled at the timid girl next to her and gave her a small slap on the arm.
“Now Faith, you should know that NOBODY makes Cordelia Chase do something that she doesn’t want to do. I may have been . . . reluctant . . . at first. I mean, after all, you did break into my apartment, elbow me in the face, and cause me temporary disfigurement. BUT . . . that’s all in the past. I’m here right now because I want to help. If that dark magic or darkness or WHATEVER was controlling you before, then you, yourself, are not guilty of the things that you did. You were merely a cute little leather-clad puppet, and you can’t be held responsible.”
“Thanks Cor.” Faith said with a smile on her face. She felt genuinely happy that Cordelia had said that to her, mainly because she knew that Cordelia always ‘tells it like it is,’ and that she wasn’t lying about wanting to help.
Cordelia, however, decided to sneak in a little bit more to her diatribe.
“Besides, I know that you’ve gotta be telling the truth.”
Faith knitted her eyebrows together. “Oh yeah? How’s that, C?”
“Because not even ‘evil-skanky Faith’ would let herself get into the condition that you’re in now, just to get out of prison. Say it with me now, honey: Sunlight is goooooood. Anorexic-supermodel body type is baaaaaaad. You need some UV rays and some McDonalds, stat!”
Even Angel and Wes were laughing in the front seat now.
“Gee, thanks Cor. Way to make the sick girl feel better about herself. I think you’ve been hanging out with Angel too much.” Faith stated, recalling the teasing that Angel put her through in the infirmary.
A glimpse of her old-self ran through Faith as she decided to press on a bit further.
“Still. Ya gotta admit one thing, Queen C,” Faith stated as she ran her hands along her sides and licked her lips, “Even pale and bony? I’m still a fuckin fox.” Faith smirked playfully and winked at Cordelia, who was wearing a huge smile in return.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. You’re still a hottie. Like I said, all you need is a couple of rays and some take-out, and you’ll be bangin’ in no time at all, and I’m always right about stuff like this. It’s just too bad for you that my door doesn’t swing that way.”
“Don’t worry, Cor. Even though my door may swing both ways, it’s not currently open for business, if ya get my ever-so-subtle drift. I’m keepin’ it strictly vanilla. Still, let’s not forget that I’m not dead yet, and that as long as there is an opportunity for a crude joke or an off-the wall innuendo, I’ll be there to dish it out.”
Cordelia laughed, as did Angel and Wes.
From the front seat, Angel muttered under his breath, “You can take the girl out of the wild . . .”
Faith promptly finished the sentence for him, “ . . . but you can’t take the wild outta the girl. Damn straight And don’t you forget it, either!”
After the laughing stopped and silence once again fell over the vehicle, Cordelia decided to press Faith even further.
“So, now back to the topic of your door swinging both ways, and being closed for business and whatnot. I have to ask . . . I always thought that you were a straight-shooter, Faith. What’s the what? Are you?”
“Nope.”
“Then . . . back to the door analogy, and ‘swinging both ways’ and everything. Should I assume that you’re bi-sexual then?”
“Hmm. Nope, I don’t think I am.”
Cordelia sighed, frustrated at Faith’s vague answer.
“So? Come on! Are you gay? That would explain the leather fetish . . . and you taking Buffy to Homecoming . . . and the innuendos at me and any other girl . . . and . . . come on, save me here, Faith!”
“What the shit? No, I’m not gay, either. What’s with all the questions???” Faith answered quickly. She didn’t like the direction this conversation was headed. She glanced to the front seat to silently plea with Angel for help, but he was doing his best to pretend like he wasn’t listening.
Cordelia continued.
“If you’re not straight, not bi, and not gay, what the hell are you? And I’m trying to make a point here, so just go with me here for a minute.”
Faith exhaled sharply, and then remained quiet for a moment or two. She decided to play along with Cordelia’s little ‘game’.
“Y’know what? I really don’t know what to consider myself. I would normally say straight, but . . . y’know . . . all female prison . . . long incarceration. But as of late, I’m not interested in the kinks and games that I used to be. Guess I don’t see the point in it anymore. I’m definitely not gay, ‘cuz I think both men and women are beautiful, y’know? I’d be happy with either, as long as he or she was meant for me. Then again, I wouldn’t consider myself bi, either.”
Cordelia stifled a laugh. “Umm, Faith, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you like guys and girls, and would be happy to end up with either? . . . you’re bi, honey.”
Faith thought about it. “I have to disagree with you there, C. Being bi means that you’re attracted to both men and women. But like I said, I’m not into the kinks and games anymore.” Faith paused, trying to form her thoughts into words. She hadn’t realized that she started speaking aloud again. “I found someone who makes me disregard the rest of the world in that way. When I’m around her . . . I don’t find anyone else compelling or attractive, because all I see is her. So, like I said, I guess I’m not bi either. I’m . . .”
Cordelia interrupted with a smile on her face, “ . . . in love with Buffy.” She said it gently, but almost as if she had ‘won.’
Faith was quickly snapped out of her thoughts when she hear Cordelia’s words. She put her hands up over her mouth in an effort to stop any other treacherous words from escaping, but it was too late. The damage was done. Now everyone in the vehicle knew her deepest secret.
She was still wearing a shocked expression on her face when she removed her hands from her mouth in defeat. She gave Cordelia a pleading look, almost as if to say, ‘Don’t make fun of me, pleeeeeease!’
Cordelia caught on.
“Oh. Don’t worry Faith. I already knew it. Angel knew it. Hell, even Wes knew it, and you know that he’s normally Mr. Clueless-Guy. I just wanted you to realize it, and to get it out in the open. We’re not judging you, honey. In fact, I think it’s kinda cute.” Cordelia stated.
Faith’s state varied between confusion, fright, disbelief, shock, and anxiety.
“How? What? How? And . . . cute?”
“Oh, please, tough-stuff. I can tell that you love her just in the way that you respond when someone mentions her name. Plus, I was there in Sunnydale before you went all ‘grrr’ and ‘argh.’ I’m not blind. Plus, vision-girl here, remember? You loved her even then. And the whole ‘cute’ issue? It’s like when a little boy likes a little girl . . . he runs up to her and punches her, then runs away. Kinda like you and Buffy. Only . . . less with the bruises and cuts, and the whole stabbing thing . . .”
Cordelia drifted off in thought. She was brought back to attention by Faith, who began feverishly speaking, addressing everyone in the vehicle.
“Listen, even if you guys know now, you can’t tell Buffy. EVER. She doesn’t need to deal with that, on top of everything else that’s going on with me. I can hope to maybe earn her trust some day, and maybe if I get really fuckin lucky, her forgiveness. But I know she’ll never love me back, at least not in the sweaty and panty way that I would like. If this gets out in the open, it’ll ruin any chance that I have at a quasi-friendship with her. So please, just let it be.”
Cordelia smiled a little, as did Angel and Wes.
From the front seat, Angel could be heard singing, “Faith and Buffy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G . . .”
Faith exhaled sharply and closed her eyes. She muttered under her breath. “OOOOH, you just wait, Soul-boy. I get my slayer-strength back and you and I are gonna have us a little rumble. Hope you’re ready for an old-school ass-whoopin.”
Angel stopped singing and chuckled at Faith’s threat. Cordelia laughed as well, and finally spoke to break the two up.
“Don’t mess yourself, Faithy. We’re not gonna say anything to the Buffster. You just needed to realize it for yourself. I think I got my point across. And seeing that we were talking about your fears of returning to Sunnydale, that one needed to be put on the table with the others.”
Faith understood what Cordelia was getting at.
“Right. Fear number Four: That Buffy will find out that I love her, and it’ll ruin everything.”
Cordelia smiled a genuine smile. “Congratulations, kiddo. You pass.”
Finally, Wesley spoke up.
“Well, I do hope that you’re ready to confront you fears and face your demons” he stated as he pointed to something out the front of the windshield.
A small tremble went through Faith as she watched the moonlight spill over the road in front of them, illuminating the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale!’ sign in a perfect splendor.
After about a 10-minute ride, the SUV finally pulled onto Revello Drive. Faith had noticeably tensed up, her nerves taking over her.
Cordelia glanced over at her and gave her a warm smile. Without hesitation, she grabbed Faith’s hand in her own and gave her a little nod, as if to say ‘don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.’
Faith closed her eyes as they pulled into the driveway. She kept them closed as she heard the car engine turn off, and as she heard Wes, Angel, and Cordelia step out and close their doors.
‘Maybe if I don’t open my eyes, I’ll find that none of this is really happening. I’m not really at Buffy’s house, about to walk in and beg for help. I’m not sick, and I’m still sitting in prison having a wicked weird dream. Hell, maybe I’m even back in Boston, Slayer-free, laying in bed and waiting for my alarm clock to ring before I go to school. Maybe this was all a dream.’
However, Faith was broken from her thoughts as she heard her car-door open. She kept her eyes closed tightly; still hoping that maybe it was all a dream. Her body suddenly shook as a familiar tingle ran through her. When she felt a gentle hand on her arm, she slowly opened up her eyes and looked up to face a concerned-looking Buffy.
Shock. Pure shock is what she was feeling. Shocked that she wasn’t getting pummeled. Shocked that Buffy wasn’t yelling at her. Shocked that Buffy didn’t look angry. At all.
“Hey, B. Wasn’t expecting to see you standin’ there. How goes it?” Faith tried her best to put on a smile, but her anxiety was too high, and a shaky grin was all that she could muster.
Buffy shook her head as if trying to snap out of her thoughts, and responded.
“Eh. Another day, another apocalypse. How about you?” She asked as she helped Faith out of the car.
“Y’know me, B. Five by five, all things considered.”
Faith tried to hop out of the car like she would have back in the day, almost forgetting her current state. When her feet hit the pavement, her legs buckled and she began to stumble.
Buffy immediately tightened her grip on the shaky girl, sliding her spare arm around Faith’s lower back and guiding the other girl's closest arm over her shoulders.
Faith, taken aback by Buffy’s action, looked at Buffy with a semi-shocked and confused look upon her face. “Umm . . . thanks, B. Guess I’m not quite up to the hoppin’ and the walkin’ yet.” Her cheeks turned a little pink as a hint of embarrassment crept over her.
“It’s no problem Faith, I’ve gotcha.”
Angel, Cordelia, and Wes looked on with a little bit of shock. Angel had never expected Buffy to be as concerned or as receptive as she was being right now.
You see, Angel had been giving Buffy daily updates of Faith’s state since the first day she was sent to the infirmary. She seemed a little skeptical at first, seeing as that Faith had seemed fine when she came to visit. Still, she showed her concern by asking questions and demanding updates on any changes in Faith’s condition.
Shortly after Angel had met with Warden Drake and Faith in the prison, he contacted Buffy right away to make arrangements. He explained everything that Drake had told them, and made it clear to Buffy that Faith needed her help.
He was surprised that Buffy didn’t put up a fight, and he questioned her on it.
‘I don’t know why, Angel. If what you said is true; if Faith wasn’t in control during her bad-girl times, then I guess I really can’t hold anything against her, can I? I mean, I’m gonna have to talk some things out with her, and we’ll have to see what our research uncovers. Still. Until then, I’m gonna give her a chance. I don’t wanna fight with her anymore, not if I don’t have to.’
‘Well, that’s really reasonable and mature of you, Buffy but how are the Scoobs gonna feel? They don’t share the connection with Faith like you do. They don’t really have a reason to WANT to forgive her.’
‘I know. But they’re a pretty understanding bunch. If they know that Faith wasn’t behind the wheel during that whole car-wreck, they’re not gonna be all blame-y. They’ll ease up, eventually. Don’t worry, I’ll fill them in on the what, and I’ll MAKE them deal if I have to.’
So, back to now . . .
Buffy began to walk her sister-slayer towards the front porch when she subconsciously began to feel along Faith’s side and back with the arm that was supporting her there.
“Geez, Faith. I can feel your ribs! How much weight have you lost? I couldn’t tell that you were this skinny when I came to see you . . . guess the jumpsuit covered it all up.”
Faith shrugged.
“I don’t really know. They didn’t exactly serve up portions that fulfilled my ‘Daily Slayer Nutritional Requirements,’ if ya know what I mean. Between that and the whole ‘lack of sleep’ thing, I guess I kinda slimmed down a bit.”
Buffy looked at her incredulously, eyebrows raised.
“A bit? Looking at you makes me think of one of those way-too-skinny waif supermodels of the 90’s. Oooooh! I’ve got it now . . . a vampire supermodel. Say it with me girl: sunlight is our friend. Helps fight the pastiness. You need some sun and some take-out.”
Cordelia laughed aloud in the background, overhearing what Buffy was saying.
“See, Faith? I’m always right. Don’t you forget that!” Cordelia taunted playfully.
Faith turned her head around to look at Cordelia. She shot her a huge grin while popping her middle finger up in response, then mouthing the words ‘Fuck You, C.’
Cordelia laughed again, then said sarcastically, “Fuck me? I don’t think so, Faith. I already told you: my door doesn’t swing that way. Besides, aren’t you holding out for someone else???”
Faith’s jaw dropped in disbelief and her eyes just about bugged out of her head. She gave Cordelia a menacing look and a shake of her fist before turning back in Buffy’s arms.
“What’s that all about? Care to share?” Buffy inquired, her interest piqued.
“It’s nothing.” Faith answered a little too quickly. “Cordy’s talking out of her ass again. Best to disregard and ignore anything she says.”
Buffy smiled slightly in response. “Ooooookay.”
Buffy pushed the front door open and led Faith into the house.
“Some things never change.” Faith stated as she looked around the house, noticing that it looked exactly the same as the last time she was there.
“Yeah. I kind of like it that way though. Always something familiar to come home to. Makes me feel kind of safe, you know?”
Faith nodded, even though she really didn’t know the feeling that Buffy was talking about. When she was younger, her own home was never a safe haven, and since she was called as a Slayer, she had never had a permanent place to call home. Always some shitty motel that lasted only until she would skip out of town and make her way to the next shitty motel.
Jail had been her only safe-haven, and that in itself was pretty shitty.
Faith snapped herself out of her thoughts and continued to look around. She saw a couple of people standing in the kitchen. Some of the faces were familiar, and some were new. One face, however, seemed to be missing from the bunch.
“Hey . . . where’s Mrs. S? She doesn’t have to be afraid to be around me, y’know? I’m pretty harmless right now.”
Faith watched as Buffy hung her head and drew in a deep breath. When she lifted her head back up, her eyes were filled with tears. She exhaled sharply and took in a couple of deep breaths before she spoke.
“Umm . . . my mom . . . I . . . there was . . . s-she’s dead. She died. A couple of weeks ago. Right after I-I came to s-see you.”
Faith’s eyes got large once again, and she shook her head in disbelief.
“Oh God, B . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Shit . . . I’m sorry I brought it up . . . geez, I’m such an asshole.” Faith stammered.
“No, Faith, it’s not your fault, you didn’t know.” Buffy sniffled, then continued, looking up to meet Faith’s gaze. “You know what? She was really happy that I went to see you. Said that ‘it would be good for my soul’ to get some closure with you. Guess she held on long enough to see it happen.”
The tears that Buffy had in her eyes were now freely falling down her face. She used the back of her hand to wipe them away.
With the arm that was draped over Buffy’s shoulders, Faith gave a gentle squeeze to the smaller girl. She wasn’t exactly sure if Buffy wanted to be comforted by her, but it was the only gesture she knew of that wasn’t over the top.
She closed her eyes and waited for the backlash from Buffy. However, she was surprised to find that Buffy didn’t resist. In fact, she had actually nestled herself into Faith’s embrace just for a moment, until she heard a cough from behind her.
“Am I interrupting something?” Angel asked with a sly grin on his face.
Buffy quickly sat Faith down on the couch and stood up, straightening out her clothes.
“Nope. Faith was just trying to be consoling. I . . . I told her about m-my mother.” Buffy stated, looking very emotional once again.
Angel put Faith’s bags on the floor near the stairs and walked over to Buffy, pulling her into a tight embrace. She closed her eyes and relaxed against him as he stroked her hair and placed a chaste kiss on top of her head.
Faith watched from the couch, and a hint of jealousy swept over her. ‘Damn, that’s what I shoulda done. Just scoop her up and hold her. Of course, I probably woulda collapsed under our combined weight. Okay, so maybe my smaller gesture wasn’t as bad an idea as I thought. Keep it simple, right? Besides . . . Angel has first dibs.’
Cordelia and Wes walked in at that moment, and Cordelia made a gagging sound as she saw Buffy and Angel in their embrace.
“Ugh! Haven’t you two learned your lesson yet? Hugs lead to kisses. Kisses lead to groping. Groping leads to groiny-ness. Then, we have us a real problem: one sick slayer, one heart-sick slayer, and one soulless vamp with a taste for death and a fetish for torture. I don’t know about you guys, but I think we need to stop this before a whole vicious cycle starts up.”
She pointed at Angel, who just glared at her. “You! Couch! Now!” The she pointed at Buffy. “You! Anywhere but the couch!”
Buffy and Angel dejectedly separated. Angel walked to the couch and sat down, mumbling under his un-needed breath as he did so, “ . . . don’t know who made you the boss of me . . . I’m over two centuries old . . . always treat me like a little kid . . . you’re not the boss of me.”
Buffy also walked towards the couch, but sat on the arm rest next to Faith rather than in the empty space next to Angel. She crossed her arms across her chest and put on her pout-y face. She glanced up at Cordelia through her eyelashes and noticed that she was getting an annoyed look from the other girl.
“What?” Buffy asked, sounding both innocent and annoyed at the same time. “It’s my house! Besides, I’m not sitting next to him. Oh! . . . and I have no intentions of getting ‘groin-y’ with him, so just chill out, Cordy.” Then under her breath, she added, “You’re not the boss of me” in a little, girly tone.
Faith couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange. ‘Cordy’s back in town for 10 minutes and she’s already taking charge. Damn, I like this girl!’
Slowly but surely, the Scoobies began to enter the room from the kitchen. They were apprehensive at first, but Faith’s appearance and demeanor slowly melted away their fears. They finally let their guard down, at least temporarily.
Dawn smiled as soon as she saw Faith. She ran over and knelt in front of her, wrapping her arms around Faith’s legs and giving them a tight hug.
“Faith! It’s been soooooo long. My god, how much weight did you lose? Oh! You’ll be able to share clothes with me now!” Dawn giggled.
“Hey, ‘Crack-of-Dawn,’ it’s good to see you too, kiddo. I just might take you up on that clothes offer, as long as you’ve got some leathers to share.” Faith responded while mussing up Dawn’s hair.
From across the room, Xander and Willow watched in awe. Not only had they never seen Faith act ‘lovingly’ like she was now, but they had also never seen her in a physical state like her current one.
“Oh my goddess.” Willow exclaimed, quiet enough so that only Xander heard her.
“I’ll see your ‘oh my goddess,’ and raise you a ‘holy shit’.” Xander replied, just as quiet.
Anya, on the other hand, was extremely intrigued by the dark slayer in front of her. Instead of standing back and acting shocked, she walked right up to Faith and grabbed her hand, shaking it firmly.
“Hello. I’m Anya. I don’t believe we were ever properly introduced. Xander is mine, so please refrain from seducing him or having sexual relations with him.” She paused and studied Faith for a moment, then continued. “Though . . . from looking at you now, I understand why he would want to have sex with you. You’re strangely sexy and exotic, even though you are a little pasty. Oh, and those lips! Rrrrrrrooow.”
Anya made a little growling noise and winked at Faith, who gave her a questioning smile in return, making sure to run her tongue over her bottom lip as she did so.
Anya continued, “Anyways, I hope that your recovery is quick and easy. Maybe when you’re back to your dark and sexy self, you, Xander, and I can enjoy a session or two of consensual pleasure. I’m very limber.”
An air of discomfort swept across the room. Xander cringed from across the room, Giles let out one of his patented “Dear Lord’s,” and Cordelia laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had heard in a long time.
Faith looked a little puzzled at first, but she burst out laughing after a moment or two passed.
“You, I like." Faith said as she glanced at Anya. Then she looked across the room at Xander and finally caught his eyes. “Hey Xan-man, you’ve got yourself a live one here. She keep you on the edge of your seat?”
“You have no idea” he answered with a friendly a pleading smile.
Next to Xander, she noticed Willow fidgeting while talking to a blonde girl standing next to her.
“Hey, Red. You’re lookin’ good.”
“Thanks.” Willow replied with a nervous smile. She didn’t take complements too well.
“Last time we ran into each other, you were makin’ big with the magic mumbo-jumbo. So, you plannin’ on turnin’ me into a frog or snail anytime soon?” Faith asked, trying to be playful but not wanting to overstep her boundaries.
“Nope. You’ll be happy to know that I have no current plans to turn you into a frog or anything. Besides, I’m sure your animal spirit is a wolf or a fox or something cool like that, ‘cuz I mean . . . come on . . . it’s you. Not that a frog isn’t cool to some people. But, with the warts and the slime, and the croaking and hopping, just . . . yuck . . . and . . . I’m babbling again, aren’t I?”
Faith just took in a breath and chuckled a little.
“Yep, you kinda are. But y’know what? I missed that, Red. Feel free to keep going if ya want to.”
Willow shook her head. “Hmm . . . nope. I’m done now. Besides, I’ve gotta save all the strength I have for tomorrow. Looks like you and I are going to do a little ‘magical mind-walk.’ See if we can find out what’s going on in your head.”
Almost immediately, Faith’s smile faded as she looked down nervously at her lap. She couldn’t believe that not only were the Scoobies being nice to her, but they were going to help her as well.
Everyone in the room noticed as Faith dropped her head, and they all went silent as they waited for someone to say something. Angel sat on the couch with Faith and Buffy, Dawn on the floor in front of them. Cordelia sat on the stairs, while Wes and Giles hovered nearby the front door. Tara, Willow, Xander, and Anya sat on the chairs across from the couch. They looked at each other awkwardly as Faith collected her thoughts.
She wanted to thank them, but wasn’t sure how. She decided to just jump right in.
“Umm, listen guys, I wanna thank you all for bein’ so nice to me. I know I don’t deserve your friendship, especially with all the shit that went down in the past. Whether I was someone’s evil puppet or not, it really doesn’t matter, ‘cuz I was pretty shitty even before that. I was selfish, and afraid of being alone, so I took advantage of my so-called friendships at every opportunity. Fucked up, right?”
“Faith, you don’t have to . . .” Buffy interjected, not wanting Faith to have to go through this in her current state. She placed her hand on Faith’s shoulder, but Faith cut right back in.
“ . . . No Buffy, I do. Please, just let me finish before I chicken out.”
Buffy nodded. Oddly, she didn’t remove her hand from Faith’s shoulder.
“Okay . . . so, where was I again? Did I get to the part about me being a shit-head yet?”
The gang smiled at her question. Anya decided to answer.
“You said you were shitty and selfish, but you didn’t get to the shit-head part yet. Please continue.” Anya nodded and smiled.
“Yeah . . . thanks, Ahn. Okay, so continuing on . . . I was a shit-head,” she looked to Anya who nodded at her, and then continued, “and I want to make it up to all of you. But, I have to fight the good fight first. If I get through this? I’m not gonna go taking off like I normally would. I’m gonna deal with the things that I shoulda dealt with a long time ago. And if I start slackin’, I fully expect each and every one of you to kick my ass back into gear.”
“Will do.” Buffy and Dawn replied at the same time, a little too much optimism in both of their voices.
Faith laughed, as did a few other people in the room.
“So, good. The plans is then: We find out what’s going on with me, we try to stop it, we win, and then I stick around to deal. That is, if you guys don’t give me the boot first.”
Xander responded with a smile. “Nahh. I think we can learn to put up with ya. Especially if you share some more of your stories. There are more stories, aren’t there?” He asked anxiously.
“Sure, Xan-man. I’ve got a lot more to add to the collection now. Prison-variety.” She winked.
Xander just stared at her with a fascinated, goofy look upon his face. “With the girl-on-girl action, and the chains and the hand-cuffs and other prison-y goodness?”
Faith laughed again. “Kinks or vanilla, your choice.”
A small pout appeared on Anya’s face, and she interrupted.
“Hey. Xander, I think that you’re getting too involved in the sex and girl-on-girl talk, and you’re not including me. Now, I have to top her, just to keep your interest! I can be creative. I can be exotic. I can hand-cuff you to the bed and give you orgasms. In fact, I’m gonna do that right now. Come on!” She stood up, grabbed his hand, and led him to the front door.
As he was being pulled along, Xander blurted out, “Uhh . . . I’ll talk to you guys soon! If you don’t hear from me by tomorrow afternoon, come looking for me, and bring a locksmith!”
A couple of stray laughs came from the house as the door slammed shut behind the two fleeing Scoobs.
‘God, it feels good to be back.’
As the group settled down from the small disruption, Buffy saw her chance to finally get a handle on things. She stood up from the arm of the couch, thus removing her hand from Faith’s shoulder, and walked to the center of the room.
She looked each and every person in the eye to make sure she had their attention before speaking. After assuring herself that all eyes were on her, she finally spoke.
“Okay then. So we have a tentative plan. Just like Faith said: We find out what’s going on with Faith, we fight, we win, we deal. It’s as easy as that.”
Giles, who had been silent through this point, decided to interrupt.
“I assume by your little ‘we’ speech that you intend this to be a group endeavor. Have you decided who shall do what, and when?”
“Well,” Buffy paused, “I hadn’t exactly thought it out too much. I know that Willow’s gonna do the mind-walk with Faith tomorrow, and that Tara’s gonna be her anchor. They need to save up their energy, so that’s all that I’m assigning them for now.” She directed her attention to the two witches sitting across the room. “You guys can head up to bed if you want. I’ll talk with you in the morning to get things set up.”
Both Willow and Tara nodded and stood up, hand-in-hand. They whispered a quick ‘goodnight’ to Faith and the rest of the gang before heading up the stairs.
Buffy spoke again.
“As for the rest of you, I know you’re not gonna like it, but you’re all part of the research crew. Hit the books, hit the streets, hit up any contacts that might have information. We don’t have to start tonight, because we don’t even have a starting point to go from yet. I suggest you guys get some rest, ‘cuz once we find out where to start, we’re not stopping until we finish this. Thoughts?”
Buffy looked around the room, almost daring someone to go against her.
“Umm, Buffy?” Dawn said quietly. “Where is everyone gonna sleep? I don’t think we have enough beds. Or blankets, for that matter.”
Suddenly, Buffy looked a little defeated. She hadn’t even thought about sleeping arrangements, and here she had a house full of guests.
Angel sensed her discomfort, and immediately spoke up. “Don’t worry about Cordy, Wes, and I. We’ll stay at the mansion. I’ve had it kept up over the years. I’ll patrol tonight, so you can focus your attention on what’s going on here.”
The three stood to leave, and Buffy put a hand on Angel’s arm to stop him.
“Listen, Angel. I know you’re not gonna like it, but I think you should stop at Spike’s and get him to help with tonight’s patrol.”
“You can’t be serious.” Angel replied, sounding a bit annoyed.
“Yeah, I am. I know he can be a pain in the ass, but he’s a good fighter. You’ll get the patrol done quicker, and then maybe you can check into some of your old contacts and see if any of them know what’s going on with Faith.”
Angel grumbled under his breath, but finally gave in. “Fine. We’ll be back before first light. Let me know if anything happens between now and then.”
“Will do.” She replied with a gentle smile.
Before walking out the door, Angel walked back to the couch and bent down in front of Faith.
“You okay?” He asked, his voice full of sincerity.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry ‘bout me. I think you’re leaving me in some pretty capable hands. I’ll deal.”
He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the forehead before standing up and leaving with Cordy and Wes.
As they walked outside, Cordelia could be heard whining, “I can’t believe you’re making me sleep in that crusty old mansion! Come on, you’re a vampire, for Christ’s sake. Let’s go to a hotel and scare them into giving us a room.” After hearing nothing in return from Angel, she continued, “Ugh, fine. But if I wake up with any kind of bites or rash, I am SO quitting.”
Back inside, Buffy was trying to tie things up so they could all call it a night.
“Okay, so Giles, you can sleep on the couch. I hope you don’t mind, but the bed space is kind of limited.”
“No, I don’t mind, Buffy. I’ll probably be up most of the night anyway, reading through some prophecies and journals. I have far too much to look into to be able to sleep at this point.” He turned his vision to Faith. “We’re not going to fail you this time.” He said before walking out of the room and into the kitchen.
Faith smiled. She still couldn’t believe how things were turning out. ‘I swear, if I didn’t think I’d stumble over, I’d be doin’ a little happy-dance right about now.’
Without a word, Dawn got up off of the floor and headed up the stairs, calling down from the top of the stairs, “There’s no way you’re giving away my room!” before closing her bedroom door behind her.
Suddenly, the realization hit Faith that she was now alone in the room with Buffy. She visibly tensed up a bit, keeping her head lowered and fidgeting a bit.
“Faith . . . are you okay?” Buffy asked, sounding concerned.
“Yeah, B. I’m fine. Just a little tired, I guess.”
“Well, come on then. We’ll go up to bed.” Buffy answered very nonchalantly.
Faith looked up at her with a puzzled look on her face. ‘You gotta be shittin’ me. Is Buffy actually plannin’ on letting me stay in her bedroom? Right . . . she’ll probably tuck me in and then go crash with Dawnie.’ Faith stood up and tried to walk to the stairs, but she was having a hard time. Still, she was determined to prove that she wasn’t totally incapable.
After a moment or two, she finally reached the bottom of the stairs. She looked up to the top of the stairs, which were starting to resemble Mt. Everest to her, and let out a defeated sigh. Letting her last wall down, she looked over to Buffy, who was watching her with an amused look on her face, and uttered the words that she had never said before.
“Buffy . . . will you help me?”
Smiling, Buffy walked over to her and slid underneath Faith’s arm while wrapping her free arm around Faith’s waist. As they slowly began ascending the stairs, Buffy finally answered.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
After a short trip to the bathroom so that Faith could wash up and get ready for bed, the two slayers found their way to Buffy’s bedroom. Faith sat down on the chair in front of the make-up mirror while Buffy ran back downstairs to grab her bags.
Faith was definitely feeling awkward. She was tired, and could probably use a good night’s rest. However, she was afraid to sleep. Afraid that another dream could really hurt her, if not kill her. To add to that, now she was presumably kicking Buffy out of her own bed.
She made up her mind. When Buffy came back in the room, she was going to tell her that she didn’t have to sleep on the floor or in Dawnie’s room. She could have her own bed, seeing as that Faith was going to go sit on the back porch and watch the stars ‘til the sun comes up.
‘Good plan, Faithy. Now you just have to convince her to go along with it. Good luck!’
Buffy chose that moment to walk into the room, Faith's bags in tow.
“Hey.” Buffy said, then looked at Faith questioningly. “How come you aren’t in bed? Did you need my help?”
“Ummm . . . y’know what, B? I’m kinda riled up a bit. I’m thinkin ‘bout spending some quality time with your back porch . . . y’know, get some air, watch the stars. Besides, this way you don’t have to crash with Dawnie or take the floor.”
Buffy gave her a bewildered look, then shook her head and smiled a bit.
“Yeahhhh . . . you didn’t really think I was gonna go for that, did you?”
“Nope. Nope, I didn’t.” Faith answered a little too quickly. “Listen, truth be told? I’ve kinda got the willies about going to sleep. Never know what’s gonna happen. If you don’t mind, I’d rather stay awake, at least while I can.”
Buffy pondered Faith’s request for a moment. She knew that Faith was exhausted. She looked like she was ready to crash any moment. She didn’t want to let her out of her sight, so that ruled out any possible of getting any sleep herself. She decided to play along, at least for now.
“Okay, Faith. I can’t make you sleep, so you can stay awake if you want. But, for your information, that means I can’t sleep either. I’m here to watch over you, and I can’t do that if you’re off running around while I’m catching a few Z’s. Of course . . . I don’t see you doing much running or jumping in the near future . . .” she trailed off.
“You’re not gonna make me feel guilty, are ya? ‘Cuz I think you are.” Faith said with a little whine.
Buffy put on her best innocent face. “Nope, I wouldn’t do that to you, being all fragile-like and repent-y. Forget about it. Hey, I don’t need sleep. I’m sure that being well-rested would just make tomorrow too easy to deal with, and we all know how I love a challenge . . .”
“. . . Blah, blah, blah. Geez, you’re almost as bad as Angel, trying to guilt me into doing things with the whole ‘innocent’ routine. Fine, you win, Summers. I’ll stay up here, but I’m NOT sleeping.” She yawned, but tried to cover it up.
Buffy, knowing that she won, put on a big grin. She walked over to her bed and started pulling down the covers, her lips still curling up into a grin.
Faith just watched on and chuckled to herself. Noticing that Buffy seemed intent on sleeping in the bed, she stood up and grabbed the sleeping bag that Angel had packed with her stuff. She slowly walked to the foot of Buffy’s bed and began to lay the bag on the floor so that she would at least be comfortable on the floor for the night.
“Uh, Faith? What are you doing?” Buffy interrupted, noticing what the other girl was doing.
“Oh . . . well, I was just putting this down so my back isn’t sore in the morning.” Faith indicated the sleeping bag in her hand and continued trying to get it even on the floor.
Buffy calmly walked over, grabbed the sleeping bag, and threw it by Faith’s bags.
“Listen, we’re both adults here and I have a Queen-size bed. We’ll draw an imaginary line down the middle and keep to our respective sides. Can you handle that, Faith?”
Faith fidgeted a bit, nervous at the prospects that lay in front of her.
“B . . . I know we’re not okay yet, so . . .”
Buffy interrupted.
“ . . . No, we’re not okay yet. Kinda far from it, I’d say. We have a lot to talk about. Tons. But we’ll deal with that when this whole ‘thing’ is over. Until then, I’m gonna do what I can to help you, and that’s a promise. Sharing a bed with you? Not at the top of our list of problems right now. Got it?” She held the covers up for Faith, indicating that she should hop in.
Faith simply nodded, and crawled into the bed, perfectly content for the moment.
She watched as Buffy grabbed some clothing from a dresser drawer and left the room, presumably to get dressed for bed. She couldn’t help the relaxed feeling that came over her as she laid there in Buffy’s bed, all snuggled up and content.
Without even realizing it, she drifted off to sleep.
Buffy entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She was definitely feeling tired, and couldn’t wait to crash for the night. She was about to ask Faith if she needed anything else when she noticed that the other girl was sleeping.
A small smile crept up on her face. It wasn’t because Faith looked kinda cute laying there on her bed all wrapped up like a little cocoon. It was because Buffy knew that she was right when she said that Faith was going to crash any moment, and now she had.
‘I love being right.’ She thought with a smirk on her face.
Buffy turned out the light and was just about to hop into her side of the bed when she heard something.
It was Faith. She had let out a small whimper. As Buffy got closer, she realized that Faith was breathing rather heavily for a person who was supposed to be sleeping. She pulled the covers back from up around Faith’s head and noticed that she was covered in a fine coating of sweat.
‘Oh shit! She’s dreaming. I’ve got to wake her up before it’s too late.’
Buffy quickly put her hands on Faith’s shoulders and began to shake her gently.
“Faith, come on, wake up. It’s time to wake up Faith. Come on, Slayer! Faith!!”
Suddenly Faith’s eyes flickered open and she looked to Buffy.
“Shit! I can’t believe I fuckin fell asleep! I was only out for a couple of minutes, right?”
Buffy nodded. “Yeah, I just changed and washed up, and came right back. Are you okay?”
Faith knitted her eyebrows together while pondering Buffy’s question. She realized that something was different. Her reaction to her dream (which she couldn’t even remember, right now) was not as severe as it had been other times. Her breathing was a little rough and she was sweating, but there was no pain. Oh, and no catatonia. ‘Bonus.’
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Thank god you woke me up when you did. This is wicked weird. I don’t have the normal pain part of the side effects. Which, y’know . . . not complaining here. It’s just weird. Maybe it’s got something to do with you, ‘cuz you’re near me. Maybe the Slayer-connection stops the magic from getting that close to me, ‘cuz the Slayer-connection is stronger than anything else, magic or not.”
“I don’t know Faith. That’s what we’re going to find out tomorrow. In the meanwhile, do you want to go back to sleep . . . I mean . . . now that I’m here? Like you said, maybe it won’t be that bad if I’m here next to you.”
Faith thought about it for a minute.
“I don’t know, B. It’s kinda scary. Big-time scary.”
“Well, I’ll be right here next to you. If I think something’s going on, I’ll jump on in and save the day. It’s kinda what I do. Birthright and all.”
With that, Buffy crawled onto her side of the bed and settled in. She laid on her side so that she was facing Faith. She immediately closed her eyes and relaxed, trying to let sleep take over her.
Faith, on the other hand, had rolled onto her back and lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Her feet started dancing back and forth, part of a nervous habit she picked up years ago. She hadn’t even realized that she was doing it until she heard Buffy let out an annoyed sigh.
“Hey, Fred Astaire? Are you planning on keeping up the ‘midnight mambo’ all night over there, or were you going to try and sleep?” Buffy asked, not opening her eyes.
“Sorry,” Faith replied, “nervous habit. Just scared to sleep, I guess.”
Buffy sighed. With eyes still closed, she began to speak again.
“What I’m about to do does not signify that things are okay between us. I just want to get some sleep, and I know that you definitely need it too. Understood?”
Faith glanced over at Buffy with an unsure look on her face. “Umm, yeahhhhh, I guess.”
“Alright then.” Buffy replied. She opened her eyes only long enough to scoot closer to Faith, pull the girl closer to her, push her on her side, and drape an arm over her midsection.
‘Oh. My. God. Is Buffy spooning me? Yep. Buffy-fuckin-Summers is spooning me.’
“Not a word of this to anyone, Faith. Got it?” Buffy said with her eyes closed yet again.
“Yeah, I got it, B.” Faith answered with a small grin on her face.
She relaxed into Buffy’s embrace and slowly drifted off to sleep, a content smile playing on her lips.
Faith awoke to first light of morning. The house was still silent, except for the sound of the front door that had been opened and closed just a moment ago. She couldn’t believe that she had got through an entire night without having any of the dreams.
Feeling well-rested, she began to stretch, preparing to get up out of bed. However, she cut her stretch short when she realized that Buffy was still pressed tightly against her.
A big smile appeared on the dark-Slayer’s face. She couldn’t believe that Buffy had actually shared a bed with her, let alone ‘cuddled’ up against her just so that they could both get a good night’s rest. It all seemed too surreal for her to handle.
She pondered lying there in the bed for awhile, just to listen to the smaller girl breath and to feel the warmth of her body. But, Faith thought that it would be too awkward for Buffy to wake up that way. She didn’t want the other girl to have any regrets.
So, carefully as not to wake Buffy up, Faith slid over and stepped off of the bed. She crept around the room to her bags, quietly rummaging through them to get a fresh pair of clothes. When she found some, she opened the bedroom door and headed to the bathroom to shower and get changed.
When she passed the staircase, she looked down to see Angel, Cordy, Giles and Wes sitting in the living room, patiently waiting for the rest of the household to wake up.
Angel glanced up at her and gave her a wink, trying not to alert the others to her presence. She waved at him and indicated that she was headed to shower. She smiled at him before walking off towards the bathroom.
Neither he nor Faith had noticed or paid attention to the fact that she was walking around unaided and without a struggle.
Faith stood with her eyes closed underneath the hot spray of the shower, enjoying every moment of it. The showers in prison had been a bad experience. When they weren’t spurting forth lukewarm water at a rate of just more than a trickle, they were the meeting place of the ‘bad’ crowd of the prison. She had to defend herself in the showers on more than one occasion, so she had never enjoyed her showering experiences while there.
She had been in the shower for some time now. She was sure that either Willow or Dawn would be banging on the door at any minute, so she reluctantly turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.
After getting dressed and drying her hair, she grabbed the rest of her stuff and headed back to Buffy’s bedroom.
When she got there, she was surprised to see Buffy lying awake in her bed. As she walked through the door, Buffy’s eyes came up to meet hers.
“Shower.” Faith said.
“Yeah, I kind of figured.” Buffy responded.
Silence filled the air. Faith stood next to the now closed door, waiting for Buffy to say something. ‘Shit . . . maybe I’m supposed to say somethin’ here. But what?’
“So, umm . . . thanks for last night. I was kind of a mess. But I guess that sleep did me some good, so . . . yeah. Thanks.” Buffy just looked at her, a somewhat confused look on her face. Then a realization hit her.
“Hey . . . I see you’re back to the walking and hopping and whatnot. I must have some sort of healing powers in my cuddling. OOH! I love it . . . ‘the all-healing Slayer-cuddle, --sure to cure your ailment.’ I should market that.” Buffy joked.
“Hell yeah, you should.” Faith responded. “I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was, it worked. A nightmare-free night, and a pert and semi-lively ‘me’ in the mornin'. I could definitely get used to somethin’ like that.”
Faith’s eyes got big as she realized what she had just said. ‘Oh geez. I just basically told B that I could get used to cuddling with her. Maybe she didn’t pick up on it.’
Faith looked to Buffy, who had a slight blush on her face.
‘Yep, definitely picked up on it.’ She decided to change the subject.
“So, you gonna get up and get anytime soon, blondie? Angel is here with Queen C and Wes, and Giles is up too. Guess they’re all pretty eager to get on with this thing.”
“Yeah, I’m getting up now. I was just waiting for you to come back is all.”
Buffy sat up and got out of bed. She was considering taking a shower when she heard the water running.
“Crap. Willow or Tara must be in the shower. Guess I’ll have to wait ‘til later. I’ll just get changed so we can go downstairs.”
She walked over to her closet and opened the door, stepping behind it as she began to undress.
Faith couldn’t help but catch a glance out of the corner of her eye. She saw that Buffy had stripped down to her underwear and t-shirt, and that she was reaching up in her closet to grab something on the top shelf.
Then, Faith saw something that definitely caught her eye. As Buffy was reaching, her t-shirt had lifted up a little, revealing the upper hem of her underwear (which had slipped down a little, revealing just the tiniest bit of top of her butt). Peeking just above the top of the hem of her underwear was the trace of a tattoo.
Faith gasped as she recalled the circumstances behind the tattoo.
You see, it was her little ‘gift’ to Buffy during the whole ‘body-swap’ incident. Knowing that there was a chance that Buffy may get her body back, Faith wanted to make sure that the other girl had a permanent reminder of the incident. Just before she was about to head to the airport, she stopped at a local tattoo parlor. She picked out a semi-large heart with a stake going through it. The real kicker was that she had ‘Faith’ written smack-dab in the middle of the heart. This way, she would always be a part of Buffy, whether the other girl liked it or not.
She couldn’t believe that she had almost forgotten about it. But she didn’t have much time to think about it, as Buffy had heard her gasp and turned to look at her.
“Admiring your handiwork, Faith?” Buffy said, trying to sound angry but not able to keep the smile she was trying to hide off of her face.
“Yeah, B . . . about that . . .” Faith trailed off.
“About that . . .” Buffy mocked. “Can you imagine having to explain it to my mother and friends? And Riley? It was definitely not fun, but a good joke on your part. I guess you got the last laugh in that little bit. Touché.” Buffy responded while trying to get a glimpse of the tattoo in the mirror on her closet door.
Faith laughed softly.
“Well, B . . . I guess that since you were always tellin’ me that I was such a pain in your ass, I would make it a little more literal.”
Buffy and Faith laughed as they finished getting ready.
When they finally stepped out of the bedroom, they discovered that Tara had showered, and that Willow was just about to hop in. She told them that she would be down in about an hour.
Having a little bit of time to spare, Faith decided that she wanted to go do some tai-chi in the basement, wanting to take advantage of her newly regained strength while she was able to.
“Hey, B, I hope you don’t think I’m skippin’ out on the little party downstairs, but I think I’m gonna head to the basement to do some tai-chi. D’ya mind?”
Buffy considered the other girl's question, and finally replied, “Nope, I don’t . . . as long as you don’t mind if I join you. I could definitely use a little more balance and peace today.”
Faith gave Buffy a warm smile. “Of course I don’t mind. But . . . I do things a little unconventionally. Think you’ll be able to deal?”
“Lead the way.” Buffy responded with a smile.
Before the girls headed to the basement, Faith ran back into Buffy’s room and grabbed one of her bags. She met Buffy back in the hallway and the two girls made their way to the basement, saying polite ‘good mornings’ as they passed people throughout the house.
When they finally reached the basement, Faith knelt down beside her bag and pulled out a small CD-Player and some CD’s.
Buffy looked on doubtfully.
“So, is this what you mean by unconventional? Playing the ‘healing’ music? Faith, I’ve done that before, too. Hello, that stuff plays the whole time on my ‘Tai-Chi for Dummies’ DVD. I can handle it. In fact, I prefer it over the silence.” Buffy stated very matter-of-factly.
Faith gave her a sly grin.
“I don’t think this is the kinda music you’re used to, B.” Faith stated as she handed the other girl a CD case.
Buffy looked at it and a funny look came over her face.
“Hmm . . . Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Nirvana . . . Faith, I really don’t think you can do Tai-Chi to these. They’re far too fast and hard, and just . . . noisy.” Buffy said as she screwed up her face while handing the case back to her.
“You just have to go with me on this one, B. Trust me, you’ll like it.”
Buffy gave her a look, and then just shrugged her shoulders.
“Fine, whatever you say. Please, continue.”
Faith put the CD in and pressed play. The girls had just enough time to get into position before the first song started. It was “The Fragile” by Nine Inch Nails.
Faith closed her eyes as the music started and began to take in several deep breaths. She had a look of total concentration on her face.
Buffy looked on questioningly, but decided to just give in. She closed her eyes and began to steady her breathing as well, relaxing to the surprisingly mellow sound of the song playing. She had expected something much more loud and hard. It wasn’t exactly her type of music, but she could deal with it.
As the beat of the music began to pick up, both girls began their Tai-chi exercises. They still had their eyes closed, but they had somehow managed to start at the same moment and remain perfectly in sync with one another. Their movements were slow and fluid in nature, and even their breathing patterns matched one another’s.
They had continued through their routing for at least 30 minutes without any disruptions. The rest of the gang had gathered upstairs and began going over the game plan. When they noticed that neither Buffy nor Faith had resurface from the basement, they had asked Tara to go and get the two slayers.
Slowly, Tara made her way to the basement and quietly crept down the first few stairs. What she saw before nearly took her breath away. She looked on as Buffy and Faith worked through their Tai-chi movements, moving in perfect synchronicity. She actually had to sit down at the top of the steps to catch her breath. Still, she ducked her head down so that she could continue watching.
Hoping to remain unnoticed, she watched as their auras emanated around them into the surrounding air. She couldn’t tell whose was whose, because they matched perfectly. The mellow-blue color shimmered around the two slayers, growing more and more intense as the minutes passed.
Of course, your average person wouldn’t have been able to see the blue shimmer around the two girls. But Tara, being a witch, could see it and feel it as if it were corporeal. She cold feel the sense of tranquility and harmony emitting from the two girls, and she was taken back by the beauty of it all. Fortunately for her, the two slayers had been so completely engulfed in their movements that they hadn’t detected her presence yet.
She knew that the gang upstairs was probably beginning to grow impatient now, but she didn’t want to interrupt the sight in front of her.
When she heard Dawn complaining and offer to barge in on the little ‘slayer-fest,’ as she called it, Tara finally decided to interrupt the girls. She stood up and coughed a little, announcing her presence as she walked to the bottom of the stairs.
Both girls instantly turned their heads towards the direction of the disturbance. They smiled as they saw a timid-looking Tara standing there.
“I’m s-sorry to disturb y-you guys, but the whole gang is upstairs w-waiting to get started.”
Faith bent down to turn off the radio, then turned to Tara and flashed her a winning smile.
“Nahh, it’s no problem TT. Just wanted to make sure I was good and ready for today. Guess my battery recharged a little last night, ‘cuz I woke up this mornin’ feelin’ better than I have in a hella-long time.”
Tara smiled. “I can definitely t-tell. Last night, your aura was really murky and dark with lots of pent-up t-tension and fear. Now, it’s really l-light and calm. The Tai-chi r-really must have helped.”
Faith nodded. “Yeah, that and Buffy. I think our Slayer-connection may be playin’ a small role in my unexpected but highly-anticipated recuperation.”
“I definitely agree.” Tara stated. “When you guys w-were doing your movements, you were perfectly in sync, even though your eyes were closed. Even your auras were perfectly matched. Must be a pretty strong connection. It w-was really beautiful.”
Faith smiled, blushing a little. C’mon TT, you gotta stop with the ‘beautiful’ talk. Look!” She pointed at her blushing face. “You’re makin’ me blush. Bad-asses aren’t supposed to blush.” She joked.
Tara laughed at Faith’s comment.
“Well, I’m going to head b-back upstairs and see if Will needs anything else before she does the spell with you. I’ll see y-you guys in a few?”
“Count on it.” Buffy stated with her business face on.
The two slayers watched as Tara walked up the stairs and closed the door behind her. Buffy walked over to a table and picked up the bottled water that she had placed there earlier. She took a long drink, then looked to Faith who was busy getting her stuff together.
“That was amazing.” She stated, looking to Faith for some sort of response.
“Yeah, it was” was all that Faith responded.
“And the music? Not so bad. Think I could get used to it.” Buffy fished a little.
“Yeah, I like it too.” Faith replied without looking up.
Buffy could tell that the other girl had something on her mind. She had her eyebrows knitted together, and she was chewing on her bottom lip.
“Okay, there’s obviously something on your mind. Spill.” Buffy ordered as she put on her resolve face.
Faith looked up at her and pondered whether or not to even bring up what she was thinking about. When Buffy raised her eyebrows expectantly and pointed at her resolve face, Faith finally gave in.
“It . . . it’s kinda stupid, but I’ve kinda been thinkin’ ‘bout it for awhile.”
“So? Just tell me Faith. I think we’re past the whole ‘me getting mad’ point.” Buffy added. To make it a little easier for the other girl, she put and understanding smile on her face.
Faith thought about it for a moment, choosing her words carefully. She threw caution to the wind and decided to just jump right in.
“Okay. Well, umm, when I was in prison, Drake said that he felt ‘energies’ around me, that’s how he found out that there was something dark around me. But, he said that he also felt a non-threatening energy. Umm . . . he said it was you, tryin’ to feel me with the slayer-connection. So, I was kinda wonderin’ . . . y’know. Why?”
She immediately lowered her head, trying to avoid Buffy’s gaze.
Buffy remained quiet for a minute, kind of shocked by the revelation. She never thought that anyone would find out about that. ‘Guess there’s no sense in trying to hide it now.’
"Yeah, that was me. At first, I was doing it because I wanted to make sure that you were still I jail. You know, safety precautions."
Faith nodded as if she understood. ‘A-ha! That’s exactly what I thought.’
“But then,“ Buffy continued, “I kept doing it, even after I was sure that you were staying put. I really don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll try.”
Faith looked at her and gave a small nod, encouraging her. Buffy smiled nervously and continued.
“So, you and I: the two Slayers. Two. There’s only supposed to be one. I guess that makes us an anomaly. Anyways, there’s only one person in the entire world who is like me, and who can understand my life. That person is you. Like it or not, we have a bond that no one else can come close to comprehending. I guess that I just kind of missed that bond. I missed feeling . . . well, you . . . in the strictly non-physical sense, of course.” She quickly covered.
Faith, who sat patiently and listened to the other girl talk, tried to hide her amazement at hearing the words coming out of Buffy. In a roundabout way, Buffy was saying that she missed her. That she missed feeling her.
Faith smirked and interrupted the other girl.
“Well B, you don’t have to worry about missing feelin’ me anymore, ‘cuz I’m here now. And, if you’re a nice girl . . . I’ll let you do all the feelin’ that you want.” She winked at the blonde girl who blushed a little.
Buffy tried to continue as if Faith hadn’t said anything, shooting her an annoyed glare before she spoke again.
“So, I reached out to you in the only way that I knew how. I wasn’t about to come and visit, mostly because I was still really angry at you. But, I think we’re past all that right now, right?”
Faith nodded, turning her smirk into an agreeing smile.
“Yeah, I think we are, B. At least I hope so. We’ll find out today what’s been going on in my noggin, then we’ll go from there. I can’t wait to figure out what the hell is goin’ on with me. But, before we do that . . .” she paused dramatically, “ . . . can we get back to the feelin’ part?” She gave Buffy a naughty smile.
“Ughh. Faith, you’re incorrigible. Let’s go.”
She grabbed Faith by the elbow and pulled her up the stairs, giggling at the pout-y face that she received from the supposed bad-ass slayer dragging her feet behind her.
When the two girls walked into the kitchen, they saw then entire gang gathered around. They received a few ‘good mornings’ and ‘hellos’ as they walked through, making their way to the island-countertop where Willow had several books and other supplies scattered around.
Buffy looked around and noticed Spike casually leaning against a doorway, trying to remain unseen in the background. She walked over to him with a confused look on her face.
“Spike? What are you doing here?” Her voice wasn’t angry or sharp . . . she was just genuinely surprised to see him there.
“Peaches mentioned that the other bird, Faith? . . . is having some problems, that things might get a bit ugly. Figured you could use all the help you can muster. So, ‘ere I am. No questions, ‘kay?”
Buffy gave him a small yet appreciative smile before turning back towards the others.
In the meanwhile, Cordelia had given Faith a funny look and pulled her aside by the elbow to have a ‘chat’ with her.
“Geez . . . what is it with people and the whole ‘draggin’-me-‘round-by-my-elbow’ thing? It’s gettin’ a little tired.” Faith said, a little annoyed.
Cordelia just ignored her comment.
“Well, well, well . . . look who’s up with the walking and the hopping and whatnot. Yesterday you were Miss Rubberlegs, and today you defy gravity and the expectations of everyone here. What gives? What kind of drugs did they give you?” She asked playfully.
A smirk appeared on Faith’s face. “Thanks for the keen observiness. But, for your info? No drugs. Just a nice little dose of Vitamin ‘B’.” She said with a hint of bravado.
Cordelia’s jaw just about dropped to the floor when she realized the double entendre before here.
“GET OUT! Are you implying that little Miss-Tightly-Wound was makin’ with the sexual healing?” she asked in disbelief.
Faith burst out in a hoarse laugh, clutching her knees as she bent over in laughter.
“Nahh, nothin’ like that. Trust me . . . after more than a year in jail, I’m definitely itchin’ to get my naughty on, but not like this. I was afraid to sleep last night ‘cuz I dozed off for a few minutes and started to have a nightmare. But B swooped in and woke me up before it got bad, thus saving the day. The aftereffects weren’t killer like usual, and we thought it must’ve been ‘cuz of the Slayer-connection. So, when I told her I didn’t wanna go to sleep again, she fuckin’ spooned me, and we both fell asleep. Let me tell ya . . . I haven’t slept that good my whole life.”
Cordelia put on a big smile. “Now THAT is just too frickin’ cute. Tell me Faithy . . . are you guys gonna get monogrammed towels and matching bath robes next?” She winked.
Faith just gave her a slight menacing glare before pulling her back to join the gang.
When they reentered the kitchen, the rest of the gang were at full attention as Willow was speaking.
“So, I’m gonna need all of you to form a circle around Faith, Tara, and me. Tara’s going to be my anchor. She’ll be able to pull me out if the dark magic is too strong. If she can’t do it alone, she’s going to have to draw on the energy from the circle, which is where all of you come in to play. Just keep an eye out for anything out of the norm. If I can’t get out . . . well, Faith and I will have a whole new set of problems to deal with.”
The entire group looked pretty nervous, including Buffy who decided to voice her opinion.
“Listen, I have an idea, but I don’t think you guys are gonna like it. I think that I should be inside the circle with Faith too.”
Willow interrupted. “Buffy, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Will, just listen. Faith started having a nightmare last night, but I woke her up in time. Point is this: she was OK when I got to her . . . no sweats, no pain. And she was fine for the rest of the night when I was by her side. I think the Slayer-connection is so strong that the dark magics can’t get through it.”
Giles and Willow shot each other nervous glances.
“Buffy, you do realize that this could be extremely dangerous. Are you quite sure that it’s a good idea to have both you and Faith susceptible to this type of threat simultaneously?” Giles asked, full of concern.
He finally had both of his slayers back. It was hard for him to think of losing Faith again, but it was almost too much for him to think of losing both of them at once.
Buffy glanced over at Faith, and then looked back to Giles.
“Giles, I appreciate your concern, really. But you have to realize something: we’re Slayers. We put our lives on the line every time we walk out the door, and we are always susceptible to some type of threat. I’m trying to make sure that none of you have to put your lives on the line this time because it’s not your job. It’s mine.”
Giles realized that Buffy was trying to look out for the best interests of everyone involved. He also realized that she had made up her mind already, and that it was useless to oppose any further.
Reluctantly, he nodded in assent, though he still didn’t like the idea of both of his slayers going under the proverbial knife.
Feeling that everyone knew their parts, Willow began gathering the articles scattered around the counter, indicating that it was time to get things started.
“Well, it looks like it’s time to get this freak-show on the road.” Faith stated as she grabbed a couple of the items out of Willow’s hands, making her way towards the living room.
“Let’s do this.” Buffy stated, making eye contact with each and every person in the room before following Faith into the living room.
The rest of the gang slowly followed into the living room. When they entered, they noticed that Buffy and Faith had moved all of the furniture to the outskirts of the room, leaving a large empty space in the center of the room.
Willow got to work as well, grabbing a glass bowl and placing an assortment of various herbs and powders in it. Tara had lit a few incense sticks and walked around the room, letting the scented smoke fill the atmosphere.
When Willow had finished with the contents of the glass bowl, she placed it on the floor and picked up a different container filled with white-colored sand. She carefully poured the sand into a semi-large circle, big enough to enclose herself, Tara, Faith and Buffy within it.
Finally, she grabbed a couple of crystals out of a velvet satchel she had brought in with her and placed them at five points within the circle, signifying earth, air, fire, water, and spirit.
As she finished, she looked up to meet the anxious eyes of everyone in the gang. It was almost time and she needed to give the final instructions.
“Okay, so we have everything set up now. Myself, Tara, Faith and Buffy will be within the inner circle. The sand is there for a purpose, as you’ll see in a few minutes. No matter what happens, once I start the ritual, NO ONE can cross the inner circle. It won’t be able to stand the excess energy, and then we’ll all be put at risk. Are we clear on that?”
The entire gang nodded their heads affirmatively.
By this point, Faith had become extremely nervous. All of the energy that she had felt that morning seemed to be completely drained from her. As she stood, her legs started to tremble beneath her. She felt as if she were about to tumble over when she felt a small hand slip into her own.
Buffy had noticed the nervous expression on Faith’s face and saw her start to tremble. To assure and comfort the uneasy girl in front of her, she quickly slipped her hand into the other girl's and gave her a quick smile before turning her attention to Willow.
Faith’s legs stopped trembling as she realized that Buffy was going to be there for her. All of these people in front of her were there to help. It seemed almost unfathomable to her, being a part of a group of people this large who actually cared enough about her to help. She had never felt anything like this before.
She shook her head slightly and turned her head back to the red-head in front of her.
“There’s one more thing that I think I should bring up. It involves Angel and Spike.”
The group collectively turned their heads towards the two vampires who were standing near the staircase, staying as far away from the windows as possible.
Willow continued.
“As much as we all appreciate the help you are willing to give, I think that you both need to keep back from this.” She received annoyed looks from the two men, and tried to explain herself. “Let me explain. Angel . . . as we’ve all seen in the past, your soul seems to be a temperamental thing; it’s not tied as tight as all of ours. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen during this ritual. The last thing we need is for the dark magic to get to you and take your soul. It’s too risky right now.”
Angel took in what Willow had said, and couldn’t argue with her entirely valid point. He nodded his head and then stepped back, indicating his assent.
Willow then turned to Spike.
“And Spike . . . I know you mean the best and all, but we have to face the facts: you don’t have a soul. You are still ‘evil,’ though you may not seem that way to us. I know you want to help us, and we really appreciate that, but this dark magic may try to harness you and use you as a tool for its own purpose. Once again, it just seems too risky at this point.”
Spike nodded, also understanding Willow’s point.
“Yeh, I get it, luv. No need to worry. But I’m not going anywhere just yet . . . you may need me down the road, and I want to be ‘ere when that time comes. ‘lright?”
“Thank you, Spike.” Buffy said from across the room.
He nodded at her, then joined Angel in the dining room area, anxiously watching what was happening in the next room.
“Okay then,” Willow began, “I think we’re ready to start.”
She walked into the circle of sand and was immediately joined by Tara, then by Buffy and Faith who were still holding hands. Buffy gave Faith’s hand a quick squeeze before letting go so that they could move to their respective spaces.
Meanwhile, Cordelia, Wes, Dawn, Giles, Xander, and Anya had formed themselves into a large circle around the sand-circle. They didn’t link hands, but they were close enough to do so if the need to became an issue. They anxiously sat and watched on.
When Willow saw that everyone and everything was situated, she turned one last time to look at the group.
“Okay, here goes nothing.”
She lowered her head and closed eyes, then mumbled an incantation slowly and quietly. As soon as she stopped speaking, the white sand around them turned into a brilliant orange color. To the four girls inside the circle, it looked almost as if nothing had happened around them. The only effect they had noticed was that they couldn’t hear anything outside of the circle.
However the rest of the gang saw something completely different. After the sand began to glow orange, a large flash of light emitted from it. Suddenly, it seemed as if the sand was on fire. There were no flames, but it distorted the atmosphere around it into a blurry, wavy view, almost as if trying to look through a campfire. Inside the circle, they could make out the figures of their friends, but they couldn’t tell exactly what was going on.
Xander called out to Willow, trying to make sure that they were all okay. However, he got no response.
“Does anyone else find that just a little bit weird?” he asked as he addressed his peers.
“Shh. Quiet now, Xander. We don’t want to interrupt the ritual.” Giles whispered, not taking his eyes off of the sight in front of him.
Back inside the circle, Willow grasped Faith’s hand. She closed her eyes and mumbled another incantation. In a flash, they had both gasped and fallen back seemingly unconscious, Willow into Tara’s lap and Faith into Buffy’s lap.
Both Tara and Buffy gave each other a nervous look as the girls lying in their laps began to tremble a bit.
Tara closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel any indication from Willow that she needed help.
Feeling no sense of harm, she kept her eyes closed and continued waiting, unconsciously stroking Willow’s hair all the while.
Willow opened her eyes to find that she wasn’t inside the Summers’ living room anymore. She glanced around and found herself in a dark alleyway, undoubtedly somewhere in Sunnydale. She glanced up when she heard a sound.
“Welcome to my mind. ‘Please keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times, sit back, and enjoy the ride’.” Faith said in her best ‘ride operator’ voice, a small smirk playing on her lips.
“Faith? Umm . . . where are we? Is this one of your memories?” Willow asked as she got up off of the damp ground.
“Kinda looks that way, doesn’t it?”
“So, where is this? What am I looking at?” Willow asked, trying to figure out the significance of the location they were in.
Faith paused for a moment, looking kind of nervous.
“This is the night it all changed. If you direct your attention that way,” she pointed towards the entrance of the alley, “I think we’ll be startin’ the show any minute now.”
No sooner than Faith had said the words did two people come running down the alley.
Willow’s eyes widened a bit when she realized it was Faith and Buffy. She looked on as a vamp jumped out from behind a pile of trash. Buffy grabbed the vamp and tossed him to Faith, who staked him on contact. They began running forward again, only to have another vamp jump out.
“Oh . . . this is the night when . . .” Willow trailed off, realizing that she was watching a replay of the night Faith killed Allen Finch.
“Shh, don’t wanna miss the show.” Faith pointed out.
Willow watched as memory-Faith grabbed the vamp and tossed him to Buffy, who dusted him just like Faith had the previous vamp. Willow couldn’t help but notice how in-step the two Slayers were with each other, how fluid their motions were and how well they anticipated one another.
As the two girls ran on, Willow watched as another figure jumped out of the darkness. She watched as Faith immediately went in for the kill, much like she had with the other vamp. Only when it was too late did she hear Buffy yell, “Faith, no!”, as Faith’s stake descended into the figure's chest.
Willow watched in horror as memory-Faith looked at her blood-covered hands in shock, trying to figure out what had happened.
Then, she looked up to the real Faith who had her eyes closed and was shaking.
“Faith . . . it was an accident. I can see that. It could’ve happened to anyone, it could’ve been Buffy.” Willow softly reasoned.
Faith’s eyes remained clamped shut.
“Yeah . . . but it still fuckin’ hurts to see it. Every fuckin’ time I close my eyes. It won’t stop hauntin’ me.” Faith said through clenched teeth, fighting back her emotion.
Willow turned her attention from Faith back to the scene in front of her when she realized that they were somewhere totally different now.
She looked around, trying to place herself.
“Uh, Faith? Where are we now?” Willow asked, confused.
Faith unclenched her eyes only long enough take in her surroundings.
“We’re in my motel room. Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know where we are, seeing as that ya never were actually here to visit or nothin’.” Faith said, not able to help the small amount of bitterness that escaped with her words.
Willow had no response, she simply looked down at her feet. She kept here eyes glued down until she heard the door open. She saw memory-Buffy and Faith walk into the room.
She watched as Buffy offered to help, and as Faith tried to push her away. That caught her as odd.
She looked over to the real Faith, who still had her eyes clenched shut.
“Faith, why wouldn’t you accept Buffy’s help? She was trying to be there for you, and you pushed her away. Why?” Willow asked, almost pleading.
“Because I know I was in some deep shit. I woulda loved to let Buffy help me, but I didn’t wanna pull her into my mess. I had nothin’ to lose, and she had everything . . . family, friends, school, a perfect fuckin’ life. I didn’t want to poison her life like I had my own. So, I pushed her away. Seemed easier that way.”
Willow just shook her head. She watched as memory-Buffy pulled Faith into a hug, placing a kiss on her head while trying to comfort her. It struck Willow as kind of strange, Buffy showing affection to Faith like that and all. Still, she watched on as Faith pushed Buffy away one last time, and as memory-Faith fell to her knees sobbing as the other girl left.
Willow blinked her eyes and found that she was in another place again.
“Oh my goddess . . . this is the Mayor’s Office. Faith . . . why did you come here? Were you that anxious to turn on us that quickly?” Willow asked, trying not to show her anger.
Faith opened her eyes to see the all-too-familiar office in front of her. She began pacing, trying to distract herself from the scene that was about to play out.
“It wasn’t like that, Red. I came here to turn myself in, ‘cuz it was closer than the Police Station, and I wanted to get it over with as quick as I could.”
Both girls turned their heads when they heard familiar voices . . . those of memory-Faith and the Mayor.
They listened as the Mayor told Faith that he had set her up with Finch, how he had other plans for her, and how he knew she’d turn to him.
A particular bit of the conversation that really caught Willow’s attention was when memory-Faith had mumbled, “I’m tired of not being wanted.”
Willow moved her eyes over to the real Faith, who had stopped pacing and cringed as she heard herself say the words. She knew that Faith had felt lonely back in the day . . . the Scoobies never really had included her all that much, being as young and ignorant as they were. But she never knew that Faith felt unwanted . . . so much so that she would run to the open arms of the first person who came along.
When she heard memory-Faith agree to the job, with the condition that Buffy and her friends were not to be harmed, she came upon a realization. ‘Faith didn’t switch sides to harm us; she did it to protect us . . . from herself.’
She watched as the Mayor held out his hand for Faith to shake, and how she reciprocated the gesture. Then, she watched as memory-Faith’s eyes turned black, her body turned rigid, and she shrieked out in pain.
The shriek was enough to stop the real Faith from pacing and to bring her attention to the scene in front of her.
Willow looked on with a disturbed look on her face.
“Faith . . . what’s happening? I don’t . . .”
“Fucked if I know.” Faith interrupted as she walked over to Willow, getting closer to the scene. “This is all new to me.”
“Shh . . . what’s he saying?” Willow asked, straining her ears to listen to his slow mumble.
‘Animus mei Animus vestri
Infusco lacuna Infectum voluntas
Mei postulatio fieri.
Amicitia fidelis adiuvo
Tantum amor curo. . . . . .
Oh, don’t worry, I won’t hurt your friends. You will.’
“Red, what’s that mean? What’d he do to me? How come I never fuckin saw that part before?” Faith spit out, in disbelief of what she had just saw happen.
“I don’t know Faith . . . I think it’s time we get back to our plane so we can figure this out.”
Willow closed her eyes and uttered a few words, trying to break her and Faith out of the ritual. She opened her eyes, expecting to be back in Buffy’s living room, but instead she found that she was in another alleyway with Faith.
“Red? What’s going on? I thought you said we were goin’ back?” Faith asked as she looked around, recognizing the alley she was in.
“Yeah, well, I thought so too. Let me try again.”
She closed her eyes and uttered the same words, but to no avail. She looked up to the sky and concentrated . . . “Tara . . . get us out of here. Please.”
“Wait.” Faith said, looking around. “I know this place. We aren’t finished yet. We can’t go back ‘til we see how this ends.”
“I don’t get it. What do you mean ‘how it ends’?” Willow asked.
Faith shuttered as she looked around.
“This is the night that Angel saved me. I was either going to A.) kill him, or B.) let him kill me. He didn’t like either option, so he chose C.) save me.” Faith uttered as she looked at Willow with pain on her face.
The girls were shook out of their conversation when they heard the sound of breaking glass, followed by a loud thud.
They watched as Faith began to attack Angel, and as he tried to calm her.
“I already told you Angel . . . I’m poison. There is NOTHING good about me! I’m dirty. No one can help me.”
“I can help you Faith. I’ve been almost exactly where you are now. I can help you. We need you. We . . . I care about you, Faith.
She struggled a little, but then fell against Angel, sobbing.
Angel wrapped his arms around the shaking girl in a protective embrace. “Shhh, it’s okay, Faith. I’m here. I care. I’m going to help you. I care, Faith. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Angel repeated over and over.
A small smile appeared on real Faith’s face as she watched Angel comfort the fragile girl n his arms. “He really did care, Red. Maybe the first person to ever care about me. Anyways, I think we can high-tail it outta here now.”
Willow gave Faith a sympathetic look before closing her eyes and trying the incantation again.
“Nope. Nothing. I think we need Tara to pull us out.” Willow stated after her incantation failed yet again. She looked back to the scene in front of her after something caught her attention. “Hey . . . what’s going on over there?” She pointed at the people in the memory scene.
Faith followed Willow’s hand. She watched as memory-Faith’s eyes turned black again, and then shone a bright white color before she went limp in Angel’s arms.
“Beats the shit outta me.” Faith said as she watched with great interest. “Looks like Angel didn’t notice it either, ‘cuz he’s just carryin’ me away like nothin’ happened.”
“Yeah, I guess not.” Willow stated as she watched the memory fade. “Boy, I can’t wait to get back and tell everyone about this. We’ll hit the books and find out what’s going on in no time. You should be in ship-shape before long, right Faith?”
Willow waited for an answer from the girl who was standing behind her.
“Right, Faith?” she asked again, turning around slowly to face the other girl.
When she fully turned, she saw Faith lying on the ground in a fetal position, her eyes clenched shut as she grabbed on to her head.
“Faith!” Willow screamed as she rushed over to the huddled mass and knelt down next to her. “Faith, what’s wrong? Come on! Talk to me here!”
Faith couldn’t respond. The pain in her head was so hard and loud that it blocked out everything around her.
Willow gasped as she saw blood start to trickle out of Faith’s nose and clenched eyes.
“Oh, god. No!”
Before she could try the incantation again or call out to Tara, a large gust filled the alley that forced her to close her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the Summers’ living room. She quickly rolled on her side to see Faith lying in Buffy’s arms, curled up in a fetal position, bleeding from her nose and still-clenched eyes.
“Oh god, no!” Willow yelled as she sat and looked at Faith, then at Buffy who was crying while holding the broken girl in her arms.
“Willow, what happened?” Buffy said through clenched teeth, tears streaming down her face.
“I . . . oh god . . . I . . . things were going fine! W-we went through a couple of Faith’s memories, and I think we got some really useful information. I saw what happened in the alley when Finch died, and your confrontation with her at the motel. Oh! Then, I saw what happened at the Mayor’s office . . . she went to turn herself in . . . but . . . it’s complicated. He, uh . . . he put some kind of a spell on her . . . and then we were in another alley and Angel saved her. I tried to call to Tara to pull us out. I tried, Buffy! But something was wrong . . .”
Tara interrupted. “I heard you Will. I t-tried to get you guys out, but I couldn’t, something was stopping me. I had to use the energy from the circle.”
Willow looked away from Tara and towards the outside of the sand-circle. Her eyes grew even wider as she saw that all of the people in the outer circle were lying there passed out. Angel and Spike stood hovering over them, checking that they were okay.
“Oh my god!” Willow screeched, sobs now overcoming her. She couldn’t believe how wrong things had went, and she couldn’t help but feel that it was somehow her fault.
Buffy tried to get her attention, needing to know what else happened.
“Will . . . they’re fine, they just passed out from the energy exchange. IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT. We need to deal with Faith right now, because I don’t know what to do here.” Buffy said, trying to sound as calm as possible.
The red-head stopped her sobs long enough to tell Buffy and Tara the rest.
“After we saw Angel save her, something caught my eye . . . memory-Faith’s eyes turned black, then bright white, and then she passed out. Our Faith had no recollection of that, or of the Mayor putting a spell on her. She never saw those parts in her dreams. Anyways, my back was towards her, and when I turned around, she was on the ground like she is now. God . . . Buffy, I didn’t know . . . I didn’t mean to . . . It’s all my fault.”
She broke down sobbing again. Tara scooped her up in her arms and rocked her gently.
Buffy stood up with Faith in her arms and tried to step out of the circle, but the invisible barrier that the sand had created held her back. She balled her hand into a fist and punched the barrier a few times, hoping to get through. After having no luck, she turned to Tara.
“Tara, can you break through this thing?”
Tara lowered her head and mumbled a few words, and the barrier dissolved into thin air.
As the barrier dissipated, Angel looked up and saw Buffy run out of the circle with Faith in her arms.
“Buffy! What the hell happened in there? What’s wrong with Faith?” he left Spike to watch over the others and followed Buffy up to her bedroom where she gently lay Faith down onto her bed.
She turned to him and ran into his arms.
“I don’t know what happened, Angel” she choked out between sobs. “One minute, everything was going smooth, then Tara was trying to pull them out because she heard Willow call to her. But, she couldn’t do it, so she used the circle’s energy . . . I guess that’s why they all passed out. Next thing I know, Faith is shaking in my arms, and she’s got blood coming out of her nose and eyes . . . and she’s breathing, but I don’t know what to do. We need help, Angel . . . we can’t let this kill her.” She buried her face into his chest and continued to sob.
He protectively wrapped his arms around her, whispering a few comforting words to her.
“Don’t worry, Buffy. We’ll figure it out, and Faith will be fine. This is what she would get like before after her dreams, but . . . never with the blood thing. I think we need to go wake up the others so we can look further into this.” He let go of her and grabbed her hand, trying to get her to walk towards the door with him. “Come on.”
She pulled her hand away. “No, Angel . . . I’m not leaving her alone. Go and wake the others, Spike and Tara can help. Send Giles up right away, please.”
She walked quickly back to Faith’s side, leaving him no chance to object.
Before he went downstairs, he walked into the bathroom and filled up a bowl with warm water. He grabbed a clean washcloth and towel and made his way back to Buffy’s room.
“Thought you might want to clean her up a bit.” He stated as he left the items on her nightstand, then turned to leave the two girls alone.
Buffy promptly grabbed the washcloth and dipped it into the water. She rang it out before gently wiping the blood away from Faith’s face. As she worked, she quietly whispered to the unconscious girl in front of her.
“Faith? Can you hear me? You have to fight. You’re so much stronger than this, and you’re not alone this time. You’re surrounded by people who care about you, including me. Faith . . . I can’t let you leave me again. We’re the Chosen two, sister . . . that bond alone makes it seem like we’re meant to be around each other. I felt so lost when you were gone. Don’t get me wrong, I hated you at first, for leaving me. I thought that we understood one another, that you felt alone without me, too. Suddenly, you weren’t there, and I was mad at you for that.”
She paused as she put the soiled washcloth back in the water and used the clean towel to dry the wetness from Faith’s face. She continued whispering.
“But, I got over it when I came to see you in jail. Hell, I got over it even before that. I would try to feel you every night, just so that I wouldn’t feel so alone . . . you know, temporarily fill the void that you left behind. And you know what? I didn’t. Feel so alone, that it. Then suddenly, you’re back in my life again, and Angel is telling me that all of the bad stuff that went down probably wasn’t your fault, and that I should give you the chance to start over with a clean slate. I couldn’t help but smile, because there’s nothing more that I would love than to be given a second chance at a real friendship with you. I don’t want to feel so alone anymore. And now, maybe I . . . we . . . won’t have to. But first, you need to fight this . . . WE need to fight this. I’ve gotten too used to the idea of having you around again for you to just up and leave for a second time.”
By this point, she was absentmindedly stroking Faith’s hair.
She wasn’t lying in what she had said . . . she really didn’t want to feel alone again. But . . . could there be something else underneath it all? Could it be that it wasn’t the feel of the Slayer-connection that she wanted, but just the feel of Faith?
She pushed the thought to the back of her mind as she heard someone coming up the stairs.
As she turned and looked towards the door, she saw Giles timidly hovering, not wanting to interrupt the tender moment.
“It’s okay . . . come in Giles.”
He walked into the room and looked down at Faith, still laying unconscious on the bed.
“Angel filled me in. Have there been any changes?” He asked quietly.
“No, none. I cleaned her up, and I tried talking to her, but . . . nothing. Do you think we should take her to the hospital?”
“No, I don’t.”
Buffy gave him a surprised look. She had expected him to go all parental and say, ‘yes, absolutely.’
He continued. “We can monitor her here just as well. This is a mystical problem, not a medical problem. They wouldn’t know what to do with her, much like we don’t right now.”
Buffy nodded her head. She turned her attention back to Faith and continued stroking her hair.
“Giles, seeing her in that coma everyday for 8 months was hard enough. She doesn’t deserve this. We need to help her.” Buffy pleaded.
She hadn’t yet realized what she had just said, or that Giles had caught it.
“I’m sorry, but . . . did you just say that you saw her while in her coma, every day for 8 months?” He asked. His tone wasn’t angry, just a bit confused.
“What? I, umm . . . oops.” She drew in a deep breath, then continued. “Yeah, I went to see her nearly every day. Guess I just felt bad that I put her there, and that she had no one else to be there for her. Plus, you know about the whole ‘Chosen Two’ thing and our connection, and how I don’t feel so alone when I’m with her. I really can’t explain it.”
“You don’t have to explain it, Buffy. You’re an adult, and you are perfectly capable of determining how you feel. Trying to get me to understand in pointless, as long you understand it yourself. Besides,” he paused, “you are well aware that there is nothing about your generation that I understand.”
He gave her a knowing smile, passing no judgment on her.
“Thanks Giles. Anyways, I think I should stay up here with her, make sure there are no changes or whatever. Is everyone else waking up down there?”
“Yes, slowly but surely. We’ll start research right away. I’ll send Angel and Spike out to patrol tonight. Perhaps they can stir up some information from the Mayor’s former cohorts. This might be a good chance for you to get some rest, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
That sounds like a good idea. Thanks Giles.” She smiled at him, and he simply gave her a small nod before turning out of her room and disappearing down the stairs.
Buffy turned back towards Faith. She walked to the opposite side of the bed and slowly laid down besides the girl, pulling her into a similar position as the night before.
“Okay, Faith. It’s time to see if I’m gonna be a rich woman or not. We’re gonna test out that ‘All-healing Slayer Cuddle’ that I mentioned. I swear, if this works? You get 50% of the profits.” She laughed a little to herself before wrapping her arm around Faith’s waist and pulling her into a tight embrace. “Alright, let’s make with the healing.”
She rested her head on the pillow and slowly dozed off.
Buffy woke to the sound of someone quietly calling her name.
“B? Hey B? Buffy?”
Buffy’s eyes shot open, realizing that the voice was Faith’s. She sat up quickly, looking down at Faith who had shifted onto her back.
“Faith! Oh my god, you’re up! How are you feeling?”
Needless, she was surprised to see that Faith had awoken so soon. Angel had said that she was out for over a week the last time she had an episode like this.
Faith groaned a little. “Five by five, all things consid . . . no, wait, that’s a lie. I feel like shit, thanks for askin’.” She replied, laying her head back down on the pillow.
Buffy was too busy to actually listen to Faith’s sarcastic answer. She was frantically checking her over, feeling her forehead for a fever, trying to feel for her pulse, looking into her eyes for signs of trauma, etc.
“How long was I out for this time?” Faith asked.
Buffy glanced over at her alarm clock. “Uhh, about three hours. I guess I kinda lost track of time while I was napping.”
“Napping?” Faith asked with a grin. “I wouldn’t exactly call that napping. Sounded like you were using a chainsaw to cut down some trees over there . . . I think that signifies a fairly deep sleep, B.”
Buffy’s mouth dropped wide open. “I do NOT snore, Faith.”
Faith just glared at her with a questioning look on her face.
“Okay, fine! I might snore a LITTLE.” Buffy admitted. “BUT . . . I have an excuse. I had to have my adenoids taken out when I was little. Now maybe you can answer a question for me Faith. What’s YOUR excuse?”
Faith blinked hard and shook her head a little. “Nuh-uh, B. I don’t snore, I’ve gotcha there.”
Buffy smiled sweetly, and in her most innocent voice, she said, “Not that, Faithy . . . I mean, what’s your excuse for the drooling you’ve been doing on my pillow?”
Faith looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “I’m sorry, B, I must not have noticed it with being UNCONSCIOUS and all. How ever will you forgive me?” Faith copied Buffy’s innocent voice and batted her eyelashes as she talked.
Buffy just growled a little. “Oh Faithy, I already forgive you.” Buffy replied, teasing a little. “But, the pillow now belongs to you. Enjoy.”
The two girls chuckled a bit. After a few moments, Faith finally decided to get down to business.
“So, fill me in on the missing details: we do the mindwalk, go through some bad memories, red tries to bring us back and can’t, we watch the big finale, and then . . . go. Your turn.”
“Oh. Right. Will turned around and found you laying on the ground, bleeding from the eyes and nose. It happened here too, outside of your memory. You whimpered, you trembled, and you bled, in that order.” Buffy replied.
“I bled from the eyes?”
Buffy nodded.
“That’s wicked gross, B.”
Buffy nodded again. “Yeah, and I got to clean it up. Yuck. How convenient for you though.” Buffy said skeptically, but in a joking manner. “You can’t even stay conscious long enough after you start bleeding from your eyes to clean it up by yourself. I think it’s a conspiracy.”
Faith chuckled a little, as did Buffy who had relaxed back down, propping her head up on her elbow. She turned slightly onto her side so that she could remain in contact with Faith.
Faith looked downwards, hiding her eyes. “So, umm, what’s the what? Am I dyin?”
“No, not gonna happen. Because I . . .” she goofily wrapped her arm around Faith’s midsection, “am not letting you go, now that we’re getting along so well and all. You’ll be up and slaying in no time, right? And I’ll be able to have a night off for a change, right” Buffy joked, trying to take Faith’s mind off of the severity of the situation.
Faith chuckled again, then unconsciously laid her own arm over Buffy’s across her midsection. “Sure, B. That could happen.”
The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by Buffy, whose goofy grin turned into an endearing smile. They just gazed at each other for a few moments, happy to have the new-found peace in their often turbulent relationship.
They were brought out of their reverie when they heard a cough at the bedroom door.
Buffy immediately sat up and turned a bright shade of red when she saw that it was Cordelia. Faith just sat back and gave her a grin.
“I’m sorry; I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Cordelia asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She continued. “Oh, don’t worry Buffy. I won’t let your little cuddle-fest out of the proverbial closet. Besides, I think it’s absolutely adorable. You can both use a little but of that slayer-lovin, as far as I’m concerned.” Cordelia stated, making both girls blush and pull their arms back to their own sides.
“Anyways, I thought I should come and get you, Wes and Giles think they might have figured some stuff out with the details Willow gave them. Should I tell them you’ll be down, in say, ohh . . . 10 minutes or so?”
Buffy looked up at Cordelia, surprised at how ‘cool’ she was being about the situation that she had walked in on.
“Uhh . . . who are you, and what did you do to the Cordelia Chase that we all know and fear?” Buffy asked, trying to sound lighthearted.
“She grew up . . . wearing big sister’s clothes these days.” Cordelia replied with an understanding smile. “I’ll just be back on my way downstairs so you two can carry on with your vicarious cuddling and gazing.” The two girls started to protest, but Cordelia cut back in. “I know, I know . . . ‘it’s a slayer-thing.’ Whatever. Be downstairs in 10 minutes or I’m sending Dawn up with the Polaroid camera and lots of film.”
She left without another word.
The two girls just sat there for a few minutes, content smiles playing across both of their faces.
Finally, Buffy helped Faith out of bed and down the stairs to hear the news.
“There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me”
Tool, “Sober”
All heads in the room turned when they saw Buffy leading Faith down the stairs.
“Hey hey hey,” Xander said, “if it isn’t the Buffster and ‘Living Dead Girl.’ Ladies and Gentlemen, not even bleeding from the eyeballs can stop these two girls.”
A few stray giggles were heard throughout the room. Meanwhile, Buffy walked Faith over to the living room couch, which had since been moved back into its proper place.
“I did the cleaning.” Dawn beamed. “Oh, and by the way, I think we need a new vacuum cleaner. As it turns out, you’re not supposed to vacuum up sand in large quantities, much like you’re probably not supped to try to vacuum at the beach.”
Buffy just sent her a glare before lighting up and saying, “Well, I guess it makes things kind of even. We suck your energy to bring Faith and Willow back, and you kill the vacuum cleaner. Guess it could’ve been worse . . . at least you didn’t pierce something in a big act of retaliation.”
When she finished her little encounter with Dawn, she gently placed Faith down on the couch and sat next to her. Seeing Faith shift uncomfortably under the staring eyes of the Scoobs, Buffy grabbed Faith’s hand and gave it a little squeeze.
Just then, Wesley, Giles, and Willow walked into the living room from the kitchen, a few books and notebooks in their hands.
“If everyone is here, I suppose that we can begin.” Wesley stated, looking around the room to ensure that everyone was there.
Seeing as that everyone was accounted for, he continued.
“Right, I guess we can begin then. While the both of you were upstairs, we had to opportunity to question Willow on what happened during the ritual. She mentioned that the Mayor seemed to have placed a spell of some sorts on Faith. We’ve managed to translate the words. Basically, the spell translates as follows: ‘My soul, your soul; make dark the space and void good will; my will be done; True friendship will help; only love will cure’.”
“It’s a rough translation,” Willow interrupted, “I think I may have gotten some words jumbled. Still, we think it’s some derivative of a Trivudian Control Spell.”
“So, what does the spell do? It sounds pretty cryptic.” Buffy asked.
“We’ve had to make a few assumptions here, but we’re not through with our research yet. As far as we can tell, the Mayor removed a part of Faith’s soul and put it in himself. In turn, he placed a part of his own dark soul in her to fill up the void. By doing this, he essentially filled her with his own darkness, and was therefore able to use her to do his bidding.” Wesley explained. “I suppose when I told you before that ‘something crawled into the place where your soul was supposed to be.’ I wasn’t that far off.”
“So I was a puppet then, right? That wasn’t really me?” Faith asked hopefully.
“Yes, we believe that was the case.” Giles answered.
“But . . .” Buffy began, “if he was using her as a puppet, why was she still all ‘woman scorned’ even after he died? Wouldn’t the spell have stopped working after his death?”
Willow answered the question. “The dark magic that he used was so strong that when he died, it continued to work.”
Faith’s eyes grew wide as she came across a realization. “Holy shit . . . does this mean that I still have part of the Mayor’s soul in me? We gotta get it out . . . I feel gross . . . oh god, we gotta get it out . . .”
She began to panic, clawing at her clothes and skin in the process. Buffy quickly grabbed her flailing arms and tried to calm her down.
Willow quickly spoke up again.
“No, Faith, it’s not in you anymore.” When she saw Faith calm down a bit, she continued. “Part of the spell said, ‘true friendship will help.’ When Angel tried to save you in the alley, risking his own life in the process, he showed a true act of friendship and caring. That’s why we saw your eyes glow in the dream. The spell was broken . . . the Mayor’s soul and the darkness it carried fled you body, and you passed out from the loss of that energy. It’s not in you anymore, Faith.”
Faith visibly relaxed after hearing Willow’s explanation, but she still had other questions in her mind.
“Okay: his soul isn’t in me anymore. So, what’s goin’ on in here then,” she pointed up at her head, “what’s tryin’ to take me out?”
“That’s the tricky part, Faith.” Giles answered. “The darkness was a part of you for so long that you body became accustomed to it. One might even call it a dependence of sorts, similar to a drug addiction. It appears that the sudden disappearance of the darkness has caused you to go through a sort of mystical ‘withdrawal.’ Hence, the hot and cold sweats, the tremors, the fatigue, the restlessness, and the pain.”
“Holy shit.” Faith said in wonderment. “Man, that explains a lot! When I was in prison, I was always binging on mad amounts of candy and sugary foods. It kinda took the edge off, made things more bearable. It’s like when my mom would be comin’ down off of a week-long heroin bender, she’d eat candy-bars and cookies by the dozen.”
“It gets even worse, Faith.” Wesley interrupted. “When the darkness was suddenly forced to flee by Angel’s act of true friendship, you were left with a void . . . an empty space where the part of your soul was missing. It appears now that the darkness is trying to reclaim you, find its way back into the void, hence your nightmares and dreams. It’s trying to make you see your dark side and succumb to it, but you’re fighting, trying to stay on the right path. Therefore, it’s going to try to get back in by any means necessary.”
Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “Wait . . . I thought you said that the darkness or WHATEVER was forced to flee when Angel showed that he cared. Even if it wanted to come back, how could it if it doesn’t have a driving force behind it?” She asked, sounding very frustrated.
“A curse . . .” Willow muttered under her breath, not even aware that she had said the words aloud.
“What?!?” came from the mouths of several people in the room.
Willow shook her head as if she was startled out of a daydream, and then a look came across her face as if she had realized something.
“It’s a curse!! It’s a Trivudian Control Spell laced with a curse . . . it’s no wonder that I couldn’t figure it out, it’s two things combined into one. I was only able to see one side of it. It’s like trying to see half of an equation: it doesn’t make sense unless you can see both sides. But,” she paused and a grim look crossed her face, “oh boy, I think things just took another turn for the worse.”
“Oh joy.” Faith said as she sighed and sunk even lower into the couch.
“So, okay, it’s a curse. What does that mean for us, Will?” Buffy asked.
“Buff . . . it’s a curse, meaning . . . no one can remove it, save for the person who put it on her in the first place. The Mayor was really smart when he used that spell. He made it so that it would keep working even if he wasn’t there to control it. Basically, the dark magic is going to keep working until it wins out.” Willow explained, a hint of defeat in her voice.
Faith sighed even louder. “I repeat: Oh joy. Can’t the convicted felon catch a break here?” She let go of Buffy’s hand and put her hands behind her head, resting back against the couch. She turned her eyes up towards the center of the ceiling and kept the focused there, hoping to stop the tears that were threatening to spill.
“W-willow, I d-don’t think that’s entirely true.” Tara said shyly from the other side of the room. All eyes turned in her direction. “There are two things that c-could happen here. The f-first one . . . well, there’s no happy ending: the darkness finds a w-way back inside or it kills her trying. Second . . . the c-curse is broken. As it said, ‘only love can cure.’ There’s still hope.” She explained with an encouraging smile.
Giles took off his glasses and rubbed them with his shirt, a look of concentration on his face. “Perhaps it requires a declaration of love.”
“Well, let’s put that little theory of yours into motion.” Xander answered. He hopped up from his seat and walked to the middle of the room. With his arms raised up into a ‘V’ shape, he loudly boasted, “I love you, Faith” with a goofy smile on his face. He spun around a little as if to announce it to everyone in the room.
“Hey!” Anya pouted from the corner.
The rest of the room remained quiet, everyone looking around to see if his words had caused any effects. After a few moments passed and nothing happened, Xander threw up his arms in defeat.
“Guess we can rule that out. Sorry Faith. Can’t say I didn’t try.” He shot her an apologetic smile before walking back over to his seat near Anya, who was doing her best to ignore him.
“Thanks, Xan-man. The gesture doesn’t go unnoticed.” Faith replied.
The group went silent again, pondering what else ‘only love can cure’ could mean. A few people mumbled under their breath, trying unsuccessfully to work things out in their heads.
“Perhaps it requires an ‘act’ of love rather than a declaration of it. Just like what Angel did in the alley; he could have simply said ‘I’m your friend,’ but he knew that wasn’t enough. Instead, he tried to show her. He wouldn’t fight back, he talked her down, and then he just held her.” Wesley explained.
The room lit up and everyone began speaking at once, trying to make sense of what Wesley had just said.
“So . . . what then? Faith and someone need to make with the lovin’?” Cordelia asked. “Talk about sexual healing. Literally.”
“Oh sure.” Angel muttered under his breath, a pout on his face. “Sex cures Faith, but it turns me all grrr and argh. Why couldn’t all curses be cured like that?”
“Wait a soddin’ minute here . . . are you saying that a little bit of the rough ‘n tumble is the answer to your girl's problems?” Spike asked. “Well then sign me up. I’ll take the bird out for a spin if it’ll help, ‘cause the lot of you know that I’m all about the helping these days.” A wicked grin was spread across his face.
“Aha! So, the next time that Xander tells me that sex is not the answer, I can tell him that he’s wrong, right?” Anya asked.
“No, Ahn, sex isn’t the answer. It’s the question. The answer is ‘yes’.” Xander goofed.
“Spike, you are not having sex with Faith. Get that idea out of your head before I kick it out for you.” Buffy said while giving Spike a death glare.
“Hey! If I’m getting’ my nasty on, I’m choosin’ my own dance partner.” Faith said from the couch with a hint of both excitement and annoyance in her voice.
“Yuck. If any of you start having sex in this house, I’m turning myself in to social services.” Dawn complained.
“I guess my mom was wrong when she said that sex wasn’t the answer to life’s problems.” Willow commented.
They all began talking over one another, their words getting louder and more jumbled as the moments passed.
Finally, Giles had enough.
“Children, please!!”
The room once again turned silent, leaving most of the group feeling a little embarrassed about their little ‘outburst.’
Giles continued.
“I believe that in this case, sex is not the answer, thank you very much.” Anya once again pouted from the corner. He paused for a moment, then continued. “As most of you are aware, sex does not always equal love. If an act of love is required for this, it would have to be something extreme, monumental. Perhaps a heroic act, perhaps the giving of mind, body, and soul. In either case, we still don’t know enough about it to make such assumptions.
“I agree.” Wesley spoke up again. “I believe that more research is in order. Angel, perhaps you and Spike can look for any remaining associates of the Mayor tonight and try to get up some more information. We’ll take anything at this point.”
Angel nodded, as did Spike. Although the two had a hard time getting along, they knew that they had to put aside their differences yet again for the greater good.
“I have to make a few phone calls to LA and make sure things are in order there before I go out tonight. Do you guys mind if I take over the basement as my workspace for awhile?” Angel asked.
“Not at all Angel, you know that my house is your house.” Buffy answered.
“Great, thanks Buffy.” He turned to Cordelia. “Do you want to help me out? If Gunn is having any trouble with your filing system, maybe you can talk him through, make some sense of it.”
Cordelia nodded her head and headed with Angel to the basement.
Willow, Tara, Wesley and Giles headed into the dining room where the majority of their books and research material were laid out. They dove right back into their research without another word.
Xander and Anya decided to take Dawn to the movies and to dinner just to get her out of the house for awhile. They agreed to be back before dark, just to be on the safe side.
After all was said and done, Buffy and Faith were the only two people left in the living room. A semi-awkward silence filled the air as the two girls sat next to one another, neither knowing exactly what to say or do next.
“So . . . .” Buffy hedged.
“So . . . . yeah.” Faith responded.
“You wanna go sit out on the back porch? Get some sun on that pasty hide of yours?” Buffy asked as she stood up from the couch and held her arm out to the other girl.
“Yeah, sure.” Faith responded as she lifted herself off of the couch. She interlocked her arm with Buffy’s and the two girls made their way out the kitchen door and onto two chairs that were on the back porch.
A few moments of silence passed. Both girls remained sitting next to one other on the porch, but they avoided making eye contact.
Faith sighed. “Why is this so fuckin’ awkward? I was kinda hopin’ that we were past the whole ‘awkward silences’ and 'mixed signals' part of our relationship.”
Buffy drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know why. I thought we left all of that in the past too. I guess I just don’t know what to say right now. There’s so much to take in.”
“Yeah.” Faith exhaled. A smirk crept over her face. “But hey, at least I might get a little bit of lovin’ outta the whole deal. I can think of worse things.”
Buffy laughed.
“I guess that part of you will never change, Faith. Just the thought of getting a little action puts a smile on your face.”
The two girls giggled a bit before settling back down to a more comfortable silence.
Suddenly, and ever-so-subtly, Buffy leaned over towards Faith and began to speak in a quiet voice, almost as if she were telling a secret.
“So, speaking of ‘getting a little action,’ what are you gonna do if that’s actually what it takes? I mean, I know Giles said that probably wasn’t the answer, but still . . . I know we’re all probably thinking about it a little.” She had a shy smile on her face as she spoke.
Faith just shook her head a little, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with where the conversation seemed to be heading.
“I don’t know, B. Guess I really don’t wanna think about it unless that’s what it comes down to.” She lied. ‘Of course I’m thinking about it. Here I am, sitting directly next to the person I love, and there’s talk of sex. Duh . . . what else do you possibly think I could be thinkin’ about right now?’
‘Oh god . . . she’s givin’ me a strange look. I must have a weird look on my face too. Shit! She must know I’m thinkin’ about sex. Okay, stop thinkin’ about sex, Faith. Sex. Stop it! Sex. Cut it out! Sex with Buffy. Quit thinkin’ about sex! Geez, Faith!! One-track mind much?’
Buffy just watched in amusement as Faith seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle. She finally let out a chuckle, which brought Faith out of her thoughts.
“What was that all about, Faith? You can’t tell me that you’re not thinking about it. I can tell that you are. You look . . . guilty. So, come on. Give it up.”
“What?” Faith asked, not sure what Buffy was asking.
“Give it up, Faith. I know you’re thinking about sex. Now, I wanna know who’s on the top of your list if that’s what it comes down to. So, come on. No holding back. Oh . . . and no lying, I can tell when you lie. Your left eyebrow twitches.”
“Again, I repeat: what?” Faith asked, subconsciously raising her hand to touch her left eyebrow.
Buffy laughed again. “Okay Miss Attention Span, I’ll break it down for you again. If it comes down to ‘the having of the sex’, who are you gonna pick? There’s a fine buffet of gentlemen here for you to pick from.”
Faith hesitated. “Uhh, B, I don’t think I wanna answer that.”
“Why not? I thought we agreed to start over with each other. That means no secrets, no lies, and no holding back. I won’t get mad, I promise.” She smiled as to encourage Faith.
“B, it’s a little awkward for me to talk about this with you. I know we started over, but this may introduce a whole new awkward aspect into the scheme of things that I don’t think any of us are ready to deal with.”
Buffy remained silent for a minute as she stared at Faith, trying to figure out what she was trying to hide. Finally, she broke her silence.
“I’ve got it figured out. You’d pick Angel.”
“No, B, that’s . . .”
“It’s okay, Faith. I’m not mad. Angel and I are only friends. I can deal.” She turned her eyes away from the other girl.
“B, listen to me. It’s not . . .”
“Faith, I told you not to lie, and I respect that. I just have to wonder . . . I don’t know if Angel can ‘do it’ or not, with the whole ‘perfect happiness’ clause of the soul thing. We might have to check into . . .”
“Buffy!” Faith interrupted, finally having enough. “I’m trying to be honest here with you, just like you asked. If you really wanna know who I’d pick, I’ll tell ya. It’s not Angel.”
She paused and took a deep breath before continuing.
“It’s you, Buffy. It’s you.”
Buffy sat quietly in her chair, replaying the words that Faith had said over and over in her mind. She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead of her to some point in the back yard. The look on her face was a cross between shock and confusion.
After about two minutes of silence, she took a sideways glance at Faith and noticed that the other girl was anxiously staring at her, obviously waiting for some type of response.
The older Slayer knew that she had to say something, but she wasn’t sure what. ‘Is she messing with me? Is this just a sex thing? Or is it something else? . . . oh god . . . what if it’s something else?’ She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
After seeing the older girl struggle with her thoughts, Faith finally spoke up.
“Buffy, I’m not askin’ for anything here, and I’m not tryin’ to mess around with ya either. You told me not to lie, and I figured that I owed you at least that much. If it’s honesty that you want from me, that’s what you’re gonna get.”
The blonde sat quietly for another moment before finally lifting her eyes towards Faith and speaking. “So . . . what does that mean? Is it just a sex thing for you?”
“No!” Faith answered quickly. She grinned a little and said, “Well, I think that now we both know that I wouldn’t mind a little lovin’ from ya . . .” to which Buffy visibly tensed, so Faith quickly added, “. . . BUT, that’s beside the point. It’s not just a sex thing. It’s kinda . . . more of a heart thing.”
She braced herself waiting for the other girl's reaction.
Buffy’s eyes had gotten wide and had quickly returned to staring into the back yard. Her body still tense, she began to chew on her bottom lip a little. ‘Wait a minute . . . a heart thing? Does she love . . . how . . . what . . . since when?’
Noting Buffy’s nervous response, Faith decided to try to clean things up a little.
“Listen B, I don’t expect anything back . . . you don’t have to respond or do anything. I’m not imaginin’ any monumental declarations from you or nothin’ so don’t worry about it . . . please. I just wanna get through this whole mess with my head first. If I make it out alive . . . well, I guess I’ll have to deal with the consequences of this little discussion at that point in time.”
Faith wasn’t quite prepared for what happened next.
Keeping her eyes focused on some random point in the back yard, Buffy slowly and without warning reached over and took Faith’s hand into her own. She interlaced their fingers and gave a comforting squeeze.
“Faith . . . this is a lot for me to take in right now. I’m glad that you’re not expecting a response, because I’m not sure that I can give you one right now. The only thing that I’m sure of is that I’m glad that you’re back, and that I don’t want you out of my life again anytime soon. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to help you, and we’re all going to make it through this . . .”
She raised her eyes up to meet Faith’s intent stare, and she continued.
“. . . and when that time comes, you and I will schedule a little chat. But before that time comes, can we just stay like this?” She brought up their intertwined hands and raised her eyebrows. “Can we just be . . . like this . . . just be close, at least for now?” She smiled timidly, awaiting Faith’s response.
Faith was pretty much speechless at that point. She hadn’t expected Buffy to react with such a . . . lack of violence? and yelling? and anger?
The dark slayer responded in the only way that came to her mind. With a small smile on her face, she raised up their intertwined fingers and placed a small kiss on Buffy’s hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding Buffy’s hand against her lips. After a moment, she lowered their hands and opened her eyes to meet those of a smiling Buffy.
“Yeah, B. We can just be like this for now.”
They smiled at one another before turning their gazes out towards the backyard. They remained sitting on the back porch, hands intertwined, just enjoying being in each other’s presence.
The two Slayers had sat like that for a couple of hours. They hadn’t even noticed as the sun began to set along the horizon and as the cool evening air settled around them. Only when they heard the sounds of Dawn, Xander, and Anya returning from their day out did the two girls finally decide to rejoin their friends.
Neither one of them seemed ready to let go of the other, so they walked into the house hand-in-hand. As they entered the kitchen, they found it bustling with activity, so much so that no one had even noticed them enter.
Angel was standing near the basement door with Cordelia in his arms, both of them smiling and slightly jumping up and down in excitement. Willow and Tara stood nearby holding hands, just smiling at the sight of Angel and Cordelia. Wesley and Giles remained in the dining room doing research, but they both seemed to have cheerful expressions on their faces.
When Faith had closed the door behind her, Willow heard the door shut and immediately ran over to the two Slayers.
“You guys are never going to believe this . . . Angel just got some really good news.”
“Oh yeah?” Faith asked, looking over to Angel and Cordelia. “What kind of good news? You win an Oscar for Best Brood?” she joked, giving Angel a little wink.
Angel finally let go of Cordelia and walked over to Faith, taking her hands in his.
“Faith . . . do you remember when we were leaving the prison, how Drake did all kinds of protection spells?”
“Yeahhhhh. I was there Angel, and I’m not an idiot . . . or, well . . . not a complete idiot. Of course I remember.”
Angel smiled. “Do you also remember when he performed a Zedalyde Ritual to bind your soul to this plane?”
Faith raised her eyebrows and nodded, getting anxious for him to make his point.
“Well, I just talked to him, and he had some interesting news for me. Apparently, when he performed the ritual, it took effect on everyone in the room . . . including me.”
“WHAT?!?” Faith and Buffy shouted at the same time.
“My soul . . . it’s permanent. It’s bound to this plane. He didn’t realize that the ritual would affect me as well. He only found out when he contacted one of his connections on a higher plane. Apparently, the Powers That Be are aware of what happened, and they’re not going to interfere. It’s mine, for good.” He beamed, barely able to contain his excitement.
“Wait . . . are we sure about this?” Buffy asked. “Is there some sort of spell we can do to see if it’s really true?”
“We don’t n-need to.” Tara replied. “I can sense it, it’s in his aura. I wasn’t trying to see it before, so I never noticed it. But now when I try to see and feel it, I know that it’s definitely there. His soul is bright white, and there is no darkness around it . . . just pure light.”
“Angel, that’s fuckin’ awesome!” Faith replied as she pulled him into a hug.
“Hey! Teenager in the room!” Dawn said as she came walking in, wanting to see what the commotion was about. “What’s going on? Is Faith better?”
“No, Dawnie. But there’s some other good news for a change. Angel’s soul is anchored. It’s permanent now.” Buffy explained, a small smile on her face.
“Holy shit!” Dawn exclaimed, running over to Angel and giving him a hug.
“Dawn! Language!” Buffy scolded half-heartedly, trying to stifle her giggle at the teenager’s outburst.
“Oops . . . sorry. Guess I kinda got caught up in the moment.” Dawn said meekly. “But, hey, you can’t blame me.” She pointed at Faith. “Miss Potty-Mouth over there has been swearing since she got here. You can’t blame me for being an impressionable youth.”
Faith scoffed, pretending to be hurt.
“Aww, D. I thought we were tight!? And here you are, passing the blame. Yeah, I guess I have been a bad influence on you. Teachin’ you to swear, and pass blame, and god knows what else. Hey . . . maybe I can teach you how to smoke.”
“NO!” Buffy cut in. She grabbed Faith’s hand and held on tight. “I’m not letting you near her without my supervision, thank you very much. That’s all I need is a ‘Junior Faith’ strutting around here, calling me ‘B’ and sprouting random ‘Five-by-Five’s’. I get enough of that with you.” She poked the other girl playfully.
Willow observed the new-found closeness between the two Slayers with interest. She couldn’t help but notice that since Faith had arrived, Buffy had been extremely friendly with her, especially considering their past.
To her, it was all beginning to make sense. She always knew that the two slayers had shared a special bond due to their Slayer connection. But, she thought that was all there was to it . . . the Slayer connection. Now, she was beginning to see things a little bit differently.
Giles had come up to her while they were researching and had mentioned how Buffy had gone to visit Faith daily while she was in the coma. It had somewhat taken Willow by surprise. She knew that Buffy felt remorse for putting Faith in that condition, but she never thought that the blonde would let down her walls enough to express that remorse in any way.
Willow understood that Buffy had always felt alone, simply because there was no one who could completely relate to her life. That is, except Faith. And now, Buffy was reveling in the thought of having her dark counter-part back in her life and on her side.
What she couldn’t comprehend was the fact that now that the two slayers were reunited, there seemed to be no way to separate the two. Not even a Slayer-connection could be that strong and impenetrable, she thought. It was something more . . . like the connection between two people with shared destinies, or even more than that. . . cosmic soul-mates.
The witch couldn’t help but feel that there was still hope for the dark slayer. She wasn’t sure how it would work or if it would work at all, but if Faith’s soul was bound to this plane and the two Slayers were indeed soul-mates, then Buffy’s soul would play an active part in fighting off the darkness that was trying to overcome her sister-slayer.
Willow just needed to figure out the formula.
“Well, as happy as I am, I need to get back to research. Congratulations Angel. I’m really happy for you.” Willow said as she excused herself from the group in the kitchen. When she walked into the dining room, she pulled Giles aside and told him about her thoughts on Buffy and Faith’s souls.
In typical ‘Giles’ fashion, the watcher removed his glasses and polished them with his shirt.
“I believe that you may be on the right track, Willow. In fact . . .”
He walked over to the table and began moving books and papers around as if looking for something in particular. After a moment, he moved across the room to a duffel bag that lay filled with books near the door. He reached in and pulled out a small leather-bound book and quickly returned to Willow’s side.
“. . . I seem to remember the case of an ancient Celtic Princess . . .” he flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for, “ah, yes, here it is. Princess Enid was from a mystical family, filled with witches and warlocks, etcetera. There were many demons and forces of darkness that were after her, as they wanted to harness the power of her pure soul for their own use.”
He read further, and then continued.
“On one occasion, the demon Visrath had caught her and began a ritual to remove her soul and put it into himself. Halfway during the ritual, her witch-sisters vanquished him, and in doing so, they burnt up the part of Enid’s soul that had been removed. For many moons thereafter, Enid suffered greatly as other forms of darkness tried to invade her to steal the remaining part of her soul. Her witch-sisters performed a spell using their own life-forces as a power supply. The spell enabled Enid to travel to a higher plane and try to get her soul back through a sort of tribunal. Though it’s not written what happened while there, she returned to our plane with a complete soul. Whatever happened, she was much stronger and powerful when she came back, and the darkness halted its attempts to steal her soul.”
“Wow.” Willow exclaimed, slowly letting Giles’ explanation sink in. “But, Giles, this is different. It’s a curse. ‘Only love can cure’, remember?”
“Yes, well, I hate to be the one to point this out, but it seems as if we are lacking any other pertinent leads at this time. This spell . . . seems to be our only breakthrough at this point, and I don’t believe that we have much time to waste in this matter. I suggest that we try it and take the chance that perhaps Faith’s soul can be restored or mended in that way, and maybe that will drive the darkness away. We simply choose to go around the curse.”
“I guess that since it’s our only break so far, we can try it. But Giles, after what happened with the spell this morning . . . I don’t know if I can do it again. What if something goes kablooey again or someone gets hurt. I don’t want to be responsible for that.” She replied with a hint of sadness and fear in her voice.
“Willow, I have complete confidence in you and your abilities. You weren’t at fault for what happened this morning. Ask anyone, I’m sure they’ll tell you the same.”
“Okay then. If you think I can do it, and that we might have a chance here, then I say we give it a shot. I think Faith deserves another chance at life, and I want to help her. Gosh . . . I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.” She said with a little smile.
“I understand.” He said, returning her smile. “Back to business, I think that we better start planning this event. Perhaps we should plan a group meeting for later this evening, in about an hour or so. Wesley and I will read further into the history and the ritual, and you can tell the others about our findings and the meeting.”
The witch nodded and headed off into the kitchen to tell the others about the meeting.
Giles turned back to Wesley in the dining room and got right back to work, a small smile on his face at the promise that the spell could possibly hold in store for them.
Willow had entered the kitchen and found the rest of the group there, including Spike. She told them about the spell that she and Giles had discovered and about the story of Enid.
A couple of people questioned the validity of the spell, especially when being put up against a curse.
Willow explained that it was their only shot at the moment, and that they would further discuss it at the meeting.
Faith immediately hung her head, trying to hide the scared look on her face. Buffy was too wrapped up in the conversation to notice that the brunette had let go of her hand and had slipped out onto the back porch to be alone for awhile.
As Faith went to sit down on the steps, she heard the door open and close. Expecting it to be Buffy, she didn’t turn around to investigate.
“Mind a bit of company, pet?” Spike asked.
She immediately turned her head around to look at the blonde vampire.
“Oh, hey. Nah, I don’t mind. Care to cop a squat with a convicted felon?” She asked jokingly.
“Not unless you don’t mind sitting next to a mass murderer.” He joked back, pulling a cigarette out of a pack and lighting it. He held the pack out to her and she fished out a cigarette, lighting it with his lighter.
“So,” he continued, “How come you’re out here by your lonesome?” He asked.
“Got a lot of shit on my mind. Didn’t want the Scoobs to have to indulge my ragin’ insecurities. Figured I’d brood out here for a while, then go back in and put on my ‘Brave Little Toaster’ face.”
“Right. So the tough-girl act . . . all a front?” He asked, not removing his eyes from the girl.
“Guess so. That gives us one thing in common. You may try to be the ‘Big Bad’, but here you are, pullin’ for the good guys. What gives?” She asked, finally looking over to him and meeting his gaze.
He smirked a little.
“You know, if you would’ve told me 2 years ago that I’d be making friends with the Slayer and her friends, I would’ve laughed and killed you for it. But, people change. Got me a chip and they took me in, even though I was always tryin’ to kill ‘em or fuck ‘em over one way or another. They may not be my friends, but they accept me, and that’s good enough.”
Faith grinned. “Yeah? And why else, tough-guy? You gonna say it or are ya gonna make me do it for ya?” She leaned in slightly and elbowed him.
He arched his eyebrows at her, then finally shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s all about the girl. Can’t fight her, can’t forget about her, and can’t hate her no matter what I try. I love her . . . but she could never understand that. I’m a ‘monster’. I’ll never be good enough. So I try . . . I play nice with her Scoobies and help out where I can. Whatever it takes, right?”
Faith gave him a friendly smile. “Guess that gives us another thing in common.”
Spike did a double take and just started at her.
“Yeah, you heard me right, tough-guy. ‘It’s all about the girl’, right? For me too. It’s always been about Buffy. I think I’ve loved her since before I even knew her. But me? I’m beneath her. Never expected her to love me, or want me around in any way, shape, or form. But, as of late, things seem to be changin’ a little. She says she doesn’t feel so ‘alone’ when I’m around. If that’s what it takes for her to be happy? . . . me just bein’ here? Then you better believe that I’m gonna fight ‘til the end to make that happen for her.”
Spike just listened to the brunette speak, realizing just how much she loved the blonde slayer. After hearing what she had said and looking back at the events of the day, he could see that maybe Buffy loved the girl too. A small smile crossed his face.
“We’re both completely whipped, aren’t we?” He asked, gazing out into the back yard.
“Yeah, I guess we are.” She laughed.
“Let’s review: one neutered vampire and one rogue slayer, both in love with the original Slayer. We’re a sad lot, you and I. Maybe that’s why I like you. We’re a lot alike, Faith the Vampire Slayer.”
“Yep we are, William the Bloody.”
A comfortable silence fell upon the new-found friends.
Faith stubbed out her cigarette and was about to head back inside when she heard the door open.
“Faith?” Buffy called out. “Oh, there you are. I didn’t even notice you step away until I noticed that my hand was cold.” She said with a smile.
“Yeah, I’m out here, B. Havin’ a little chat with blondie here.” She gave Spike’s arm a little jab.
“Oh really?” Buffy asked, raising up one eyebrow. “Dare I ask about what?”
“Nah, nothing interesting, Slayer. Just makin’ nice.” Spike answered, giving Faith a wink.
“Alright, well, the meeting starts in a few. You coming in Faith?” She asked, putting out her hand to the other girl.
Faith smiled. “Yeah, B. I’m with ya.” She stood up and grabbed Buffy’s hand and let the older girl lead her to the door. As she passed by Spike, she brushed her free hand across his shoulders and gave him a friendly smile.
He returned the smile and remained seated on the steps as he heard the door close.
“’lright. If that’s what it takes to make the Slayer happy, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll help the Rogue get through this, and let them be happy in love. Yeah, I’m definitely good n’ whipped.”
He stubbed out his cigarette and got up, opening the door to join the rest of the gang in the house.
The entire gang had gathered in the living room and now sat waiting for the meeting to start. Willow, Giles, and Wesley seemed to be conversing among themselves in the corner, trying to clear up their ideas before they started.
Finally Giles stepped forward and cleared his throat, getting the attention of everyone in the room.
“Yes, erm, I believe that we are ready to begin. Has everyone been brought up to date with the new information regarding the witch-Princess Enid and the spell that saved her?” He addressed the room.
Everyone either nodded their head or said ‘yes’, indicating for Giles to continue.
“Right. So then, you understand that we have somewhat of a dilemma here.”
“I don’t understand what the problem is.” Cordelia announced. “We do the ritual, Faith goes before the tribunal, and she comes back with a new and improved soul. Case closed, right?”
“Wait . . . she has to go before a tribunal?” Angel responded. “That’s normally a really big deal. If it’s anything like what I’ve seen in the past, she’ll be there to answer for herself, but she’ll need a warrior; someone willing to battle for her. One of us . . . will have to be her warrior.”
All eyes began darting around the room. Right away, everyone began seeking out the warriors. Buffy was a sure-fire answer. Then again, both Angel and Spike could also be considered.
Willow broke everyone out of their thoughts.
“It’s great and all that she only has to choose one of us to be her warrior, but that’s not all that she needs. The ritual requires representations of the 5 elements to make it work. The ritual uses the energy from the 5 sources almost like a battery to power-up a mystical gateway. The gateway then transports Faith, her warrior, and the 5 sources to the location of the tribunal on a higher plane . . .”
“. . . and therein lays a problem.” Giles continued. “We don’t know what happens on that plane. Even more, we have no idea what toll the ritual will take on the 5 sources or the warrior chosen. History revealed only that Enid came back with a complete soul and a new sense of strength and power, but it mentions nothing of the 5 sources or of her warrior.”
“Another problem is that we can’t be sure that this ritual will solve Faith’s problem. It is a curse, after all, that is doing this to her. We can try and go around the curse, but we can’t be sure that our efforts won’t be entirely fruitless.” Wesley added.
“So what you’re saying is that we’re pretty much goin’ into this completely blind?” Faith asked.
“Exactly.” Willow answered.
“Then we’re not doin’ it, end of story. Not after what happened last time. No offense, Red. I don’t want nothin’ like what happened to me to happen to any of you.”
Giles sighed. “Listen, this is what we have come down to: We’re out of options and we’re obviously running out of time. I believe the only reason Faith is still alive is related somehow to the Slayer-connection that she shares with Buffy; it’s keeping the darkness at bay. But, it won’t be able to hold it off forever, as displayed by this mornings’ little show. The ritual is risky, but sitting here and doing nothing is even riskier.”
The entire group remained quiet, each person lost in their own thoughts.
Suddenly, Buffy spoke up.
“When do we do this?” She asked in her best ‘taking charge’ voice.
“Buffy,” Willow said, “we still haven’t determined that we are going to do it. Faith said that . . .”
“I don’t care what Faith said.” Buffy interrupted, standing up from her spot on the couch next to the brunette slayer. “We are doing this because I, for one, am not willing to stand by and watch her die. Guys . . .”
She took a few deep breaths to organize her thoughts and continued.
“. . . one thing that we have learned in the last few days is that Faith is an innocent in all of this. All of the bad things that happened in the past? Not her fault. And now, the same thing that took away her free will is trying to kill her. I don’t know if you guys are forgetting this, but we help innocent people. Do we ever decline to help because it’s too risky? NO! We don’t. I understand that some of you may be scared, and I understand that some of you may not want to be part of the ritual. But, we have a pretty big group of people here. I’m sure that we can come up with a few volunteers to help.”
She looked around the room, waiting for a response. Everyone remained quiet, simply taking in what she had just laid out before them. Finally, she spoke again.
“Me? I’m the warrior.” She turned to Faith who was just about to voice her opinion. “Faith, don’t. I’m doing this because I want to help you, because I’m not willing to sit back and watch you die and do nothing about it. Like I said before, we just got you back, the real you, and I’m not willing to let you leave us again so quickly.”
Everyone watched the display before them. Buffy’s eyes had welled up with tears and she probably would have broken down sobbing had she not been trying so hard to get the words out.
They watched as Buffy, defeated by her tears and emotion, fell back onto the couch and covered her face, crying softly into her hands. They continued to watch as Faith leaned over and wrapped her arms around Buffy, trying to provide some comfort to the girl.
“Shh, B. It’s okay. Please, don’t let this mess get to you like this. I’m happy just to be here, to have made some peace and amends with all of you. I don’t expect everyone to lay down their lives for me. But don’t worry, ‘cuz I’m gonna be as strong as I can. I’m not goin’ down without a fight.”
She seemed to have forgotten the presence of the people in the room as she held the other girl and spoke to her, placing small kisses on her forehead.
The group was pretty much in shock at the display of affection before them between the two slayers. Not a single person spoke or moved; they just watched in earnest and waited for their feet to hit the ground again.
Finally, Willow spoke up.
“I’m in. You need 5 elements to make this work: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. I’m earth. Being a Wicca and in touch with the earth, I think it suits me best. I’m in, Buffy.” She explained in a gentle voice.
Buffy looked up with red eyes and gave Willow a smile while mouthing the words ‘Thank you’.
“So, where does that leave us?” Giles asked. “Buffy is our warrior and Willow is earth. Do we have any other volunteers?”
At that point, everyone in the room raised up their hands. Between hearing Buffy’s speech and seeing the display between the two slayers, they all decided that they wanted to do their part to help.
Buffy chuckled through her tears when she saw everyone’s hands in the air. Faith smiled, holding back the tears of happiness that were threatening to fall from her eyes. Neither girl moved from the others’ embrace.
“Well then,” Giles began, “seeing as that everyone has volunteered, I think it may be best if we assign the other elements to those who best suit them. Are we all agreed on that?”
The group nodded.
“Right then. How shall we divvy this up?” He asked, looking around the room for suggestions.
“I think that Angel would be a good choice for spirit.” Willow suggested. “Being a vampire, he’s not supposed to have a soul. Still, he does, and he uses it to help so many people. Plus, it’s anchored now . . . his forever.”
Angel smiled. “I’m in.”
“Oh goody.” Spike quipped. “That leaves fire for me.” He turned towards Faith and gave her an endearing smile. “I’m in, pet.
Willow looked to Giles, giving him a concerned look at Spike’s offer.
Giles just shook his head. “I suppose it makes sense. Spike is dark, a demon, ‘of hell’ and all that rubbish. He seems to be our best candidate for fire.”
“What?!?” Xander yelled. “Well, if he’s fire, then I’m the water that puts his pale un-dead ass out. Count me in.”
Once again, Giles nodded his head. “Yes, that makes sense as well. If Spike as a vampire represents fire, then Xander as a human would represent everything opposite of that: water. Brilliant. So, that leaves us . . . air?”
He looked around the room for affirmation.
“Oh, I’ve got that one covered.” Cordelia noted casually.
A few doubtful glances were passed around the room.
“What?” She asked with a tone of incredulity to her voice. “Hello?!? Seer here, direct link to the Powers-that-Be. You know . . . those guys that we look up to the sky to . . . on a higher plane and all?”
A look of understanding came across the faces of the people in the room, finally getting her “air” connection.
“Geez,” she mumbled under her breath, “feel like I’m talking to a Kindergarten class here.”
“So, we have it settled then.” Giles concluded. “Buffy is the warrior, Willow is Earth, Cordelia is Air, Spike is Fire, Xander is Water, and Angel is Spirit. Are we all in agreement?”
Everyone nodded.
“Excellent. As for Wesley, Dawn, Anya, Tara and myself, we will serve as anchors for the elemental sources. Buffy and Faith . . . the two of you will be in the middle and will be responsible for one another. Can you handle that?” Giles asked.
The two girls looked from Giles to one another, both with shy smiles on their faces.
“Yeah, I think I can handle that.” Buffy stated, not taking her eyes from Faith’s.
“I bled from the eyes, G-man. I think I can handle a little one-on-one time with the Buff.” She stated, causing the group to laugh quietly.
Finally, Buffy turned her eyes away from Faith and looked towards Willow.
“So, Will . . . when do we do this?”
“Umm, from what I read, on the eve of the new moon . . . which, conveniently enough, is tomorrow night.”
“Great.” Cordelia replied casually once again. “The sooner we do this, the sooner we can all go back to our normal lives, and hallelujah to that.”
She received a few menacing glances and after a moment realized why she was getting them.
“Oh. Well, it’s not that I don’t like being here . . . in Sunnydale . . . and making big with the help, but . . . you know. It’s Sunnydale: big with the creepiness, not so big with the fun.” She defended herself.
“Hey!” Willow protested. “We have fun. We have lots of fun. In fact, living on top of a Hellmouth is a fun-a-palooza. Fun-ness abounds.”
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Lots of fun. Remind me to plan a return visit in the near future . . . you know, for pleasure, not business.” She said sarcastically.
“Speaking of fun,” Xander interrupted, “what say we head over to the Bronze and partake in a little bit of it, seeing as that tomorrow is looking like a big fat unknown to all of us.”
“I second that motion.” Anya stated. “I could use a drink, and this house is beginning to smell like corn-chips.” Buffy shot her an annoyed glare. “What? It is. Too many sweaty people in a cramped environment seem to be causing the corn-chip effect. I’m not being rude, I’m being honest. Some people say that honesty is a virtue, you know.”
“Yeah, well, some people say that silence is golden, and some other people say that you shouldn’t say anything if you can’t say something nice.” Willow pointed out.
Anya snickered. “Yeah, well those people are idiots.”
Once again, the room broke out into laughter at the comment that the ex-Vengeance demon made. In return, she smiled and nodded her head proudly.
After a minute passed, Giles called for the attention of everyone in the room yet again.
“I think that’s actually a good idea. A night of fun and relaxation might help you to focus more tomorrow on the chore at hand. So, go out, be young and have fun. Just be sure to get a good night’s sleep. We’ll meet back here tomorrow afternoon to prepare, and we’ll begin the ritual just after dusk. Are we clear on this?”
“Clear as mud.” Spike commented with a smirk.
“Wait, Giles . . . does this mean that you won’t be joining us? I promise, we won’t make you dance or pretend to be a former member of the Beatles this time.” Xander asked with a goofy grin.
Giles smiled, ceremoniously removing his glasses to wipe them with his shirt.
“As mush as I appreciate the thought, no, I won’t be joining you. There are a few books at my apartment that I would like to consult before tomorrow, so I’ll be making my way there tonight.”
“I’m not going either.” Angel quickly added. “I’m not really into the club scene, I’m . . .”
“Oh yes you are going, Mister. You’re gonna go, you’re gonna smile, you’re going to drink a non-blood related beverage, and you’re gonna dance with me too. Are we clear on that?” Cordelia cut in, giving him a death glare.
“Crystal clear. Guess I’m in.” Angel responded, defeat filling his voice.
As the rest of the group began to get up to go, Faith coughed to get their attention.
“Guys, I hope you don’t think I’m a party-pooper, but I’m gonna have to sit this one out. I’m havin’ enough trouble with the walkin’ and the standin’. There ain’t no way that I gonna be able to drink and shake my money-maker all night long. But, by all means, go. Have fun for me.”
“That means I’m out too.” Buffy commented. “I’m not leaving her here alone.”
“Buffy!” Dawn squealed. “You have to go! I know that you’re not gonna let me go without you, and I don’t want to miss out on the fun again.”
“B, you can go. I’ll be fine here. I’ll just catch a movie on TV or somethin’. No big.” Faith stated casually.
“No, I’m staying here. I told you before, I’m not leaving your side.” She then turned to Dawn. “Dawnie, you can go. Xander, do you mind taking her with you and Anya?”
“Sure. I don’t mind taking the Dawnster off your hands for awhile. If it looks like we’re gonna be real late, I’ll take her, Willow, and Tara back to my place, that way we don’t have to disturb your beauty sleep.”
“Thanks Xander.” Buffy gave him a warm smile.
Everyone began to slowly file out of the living room. After about 10 minutes, the house was empty except for the two slayers still seated side-by-side on the couch.
Both girls felt a little uncomfortable with the newfound silence in the house. That, along with their sudden alone-ness.
“B, you coulda went with them. I don’t mind bein’ alone.” Faith stated shyly.
“I know. But, I do mind being alone.”
Faith chuckled.
“B . . . you woulda been surrounded by your friends, dancin’ circles around each other, havin’ a good time. That’s not exactly what I call ‘alone’.”
Buffy sighed. “To the ‘average joe’ it isn’t. But . . . I’m not anywhere near your normal everyday girl. For me . . . even when I’m with them, it’s kinda lonely. Not that I don’t appreciate and love each and every one of them, because I really do. But, they can sit back and have fun and just . . . let go. I’m always peering into the dark corner or alley, making sure that my friends are safe around me. Don’t get me wrong . . . I like to have fun just as much as the next person, but . . . it’s hard when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder, you know?"
“Yeah, I get it. Or, at least I think I do. See, it was always different for me. When I would go out, I would have fun and just totally let go. Didn’t have any friends to look after, y’know? Mighta been dangerous for me, but I could always handle myself. I guess that sometimes ‘alone’ isn’t so bad.” Faith shrugged.
Once again, Buffy blew Faith away with what she was about to do.
“I have to disagree with you there, Faith . . .” Buffy began with a smile.
As if it were nothing, she swung her legs up onto the couch and laid back, placing her head and shoulders on the brunette’s lap. “. . . I think that ‘alone’ is completely overrated.” She said with a smile and a laugh.
Faith just sat there frozen, her arms sticking out from her sides rigidly like a robot.
Buffy laughed at her response, or lack there of one.
“Geez, Faith. Loosen up a little. Here, let me help you out there, Mrs. Roboto.” She grabbed one of Faith’s arms and rested it on the arm of the couch. She grabbed her other arm and draped if over her own stomach so that the brunette was essentially holding onto her.
“See?” Buffy asked, smiling up at the brunette. “This isn’t so bad, is it?”
Faith took a deep breath and exhaled, relaxing a bit. She looked down at the girl in her lap and smiled. “Nah, B. It’s not so bad at all. In fact . . . ‘not alone’ seems to be pretty fuckin’ awesome.”
For a few minutes the two slayers engaged in small talk. Faith absentmindedly began to play with the blonde hair sprawled out on her lap. Buffy was playing with the other girl's hand that lay across her stomach.
“So . . . TV. Are we going for infomercials or movie-of-the-week?” Buffy asked.
“Umm . . . you pick.” Faith replied, not really caring what the blonde put on, as long as she stayed in her current position.
“No, you pick. I don’t know what you like. I’m easy.” The blonde replied innocently, not realizing that Faith was taking the ‘I’m easy’ part in a different sense.
Faith chuckled, catching Buffy’s attention. When the blonde looked up, she saw Faith waggling her eyebrows.
“You’re easy, B? That’s the best fuckin news That I’ve heard all week.” She joked.
“Faith!” Buffy yelled between her laughs. “You know that’s not what I meant.” She went to give the brunette a small punch on the arm, only to have her hand caught in mid-air.
“Now-now. That’s not very nice, B. You’re not supposed to ‘rough-up’ the handicapped girl. I’m afraid that I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson, little girl.”
“Hey! I’m not little!” Buffy stated, starting to struggle half-heartedly against Faith’s grip, trying to hold back her laughter. “I’m just vertically challenged. I still kick ass!”
A small play-struggle began between the two girls, both trying to gain the upper-hand. At some point during the battle, Buffy arched up, bringing her face up dangerously close to Faith’s.
They had both froze when they noticed the intimate position that they were in. Here they were: Faith holding onto both of Buffy’s wrists, both girls’ lips parted, breathing heavy and gazing into one another’s eyes, mere inches separating their faces.
Faith blinked hard trying to fight back her urge to close the small distance and kiss the girl beneath her.
Somehow, her urges were winning over. With the last ounce of restraint that she had left, she managed to utter a few hoarse words.
“Buffy . . . I’m gonna kiss you.” She lightly loosened her grip on the other girl's wrists, giving her an ample opportunity to pull away.
Between rough breaths, Buffy quietly responded, “Okay.” She broke one of her hands free from the brunette’s loose grip and placed it on the back of the other girl's head, pulling her down into a soft but scorching kiss.
The kiss between the two slayers was soft and gentle, both girls exploring and simply getting used to the feel of one another’s soft lips.
Buffy’s hand had let go of the back of Faith’s neck and now lay tangled in her dark tresses. She thought that she should be feeling hesitant or scared even, but she wasn’t. She felt strangely comfortable and at ease in the brunette’s arms, enjoying the velvet-soft feel of her warm lips and silky hair. It felt like ‘home’.
The soft ‘buzz’ that she usually felt through her body from the Slayer-connection had turned into something much more intense, almost as if an electric current was running through her. It wasn’t unpleasant in the least sense. Instead, it was almost . . . euphoric.
Faith was feeling the exact same thing. It was hard to contain her happiness at that point. She hadn’t even realized that she had begun to smile into the kiss, drawing Buffy’s attention.
The two girls finally broke apart, both being left a little breathless.
Buffy changed positions so that she was now sitting on the couch facing Faith rather than laying across her lap.
Faith noticed Buffy’s change in position and quickly started feeling self-conscious. She thought that Buffy was going to be mad that she had kissed her, or even storm off. The brunette lowered her head, waiting nervously for some sort of response from the older girl.
Buffy saw how nervous Faith looked. The once ‘Big Bad Faith’ was now acting like a shy schoolgirl, and Buffy couldn’t help but smile at the sight before her. Without hesitation, she put her fingers underneath Faith’s chin and made her look up. She cupped the girl's face with both hands and leaned in, placing a small kiss on the tip of her nose.
“Ewww.” Faith replied, trying to hide her smile, once again completely relieved that the blonde hadn’t knocked her out.
“Ewww?” Buffy asked incredulously? “That was hardly the response I was hoping for.” She laughed.
“Well, ya kissed my nose, B. The very same nose that I was bleedin’ from earlier. Hence, the ‘ewww’. I think that maybe ya been hangin’ around too much with the vamps that you’re supposed to be dustin’.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe I won’t have to anymore, now that you’re here.” Buffy replied, taking Faith’s hand in her own.
Faith smiled at first, but her smile soon faded into a nervous frown and she lowered her gaze away from the other girl.
“Faith? What is it?”
“I’m sorry, B.” Faith replied, keeping her eyes lowered.
“Sorry for what?”
“I’m sorry I kissed you like that . . .”
Buffy instantly froze. She wasn’t regretting the kiss . . . so why was Faith?
“. . . I shoulda had a little more control. You told me earlier that you wanted to just stay like this,” she held up their intertwined fingers, “you know, be close without being too close. And here I am, mackin’ on ya just an hour later.”
Buffy smiled and relaxed a little.
“Faith . . . I wouldn’t have let you kiss me if I didn’t want it. It may have been a ‘heat of the moment’ type thing, but I don’t regret it. In fact . . .I wouldn’t be totally against doing it again.” She replied shyly.
Faith’s eyes immediately sprang up and she turned her head to look at the blonde. She put on her patented smirk and cocked her head.
“Oh really? Guess I haven’t lost my touch.” She said cockily but in a joking manner. “I wouldn’t mind a little ‘instant replay’ either.”
Buffy’s shy smile quickly turned into a mischievous one. “So . . .”
“So . . .” Faith copied, her smirk still firmly in place. She made the first move last time, so she was going to wait for the blonde to initiate this time.
Without another word, Buffy leaned in and met Faith’s lips in another kiss. Like the first time, electric-like currents traveled throughout their bodies.
The kiss quickly turned from soft and gentle into something more. Faith ran her tongue along Buffy’s bottom lips and was surprised to find that the blonde had parted her lips in response, silently granting her entrance into her mouth.
Minutes passed as their tongues danced and desire rose. They pulled one another closer and closer, relishing the close contact that they had denied themselves for so long. Instinctively, Faith’s arms wrapped around Buffy’s back, growing more bold as she ran her hands underneath the girl's shirt and indulged in the soft feel of her skin.
Buffy, for her part, was also growing more bold. Her hands wandered from Faith’s hair, down along her sides, and finally ended up near the hem of her shirt. Craving even more contact, she decided to push even further.
Hesitantly at first, she slipped her hand under the hem of Faith’s shirt and placed her palms on the taut skin of her stomach. The simple gesture had elicited a small moan from the brunette, which in turn caused Buffy to grow even bolder. She moved her previously immobile hands so that they were gently caressing and stroking Faith’s stomach.
By this point, the two slayers were completely wrapped up in one another. Neither girl was pushing too far, yet neither seemed to be backing off in the least bit.
They were so distracted that neither girl heard the sound of footsteps coming up the porch or the sound of the front door opening. They were only brought out of their reverie when they heard a gasp.
“Ahh! Oh my goddess!” Willow gasped, quickly covering up her eyes with her hands. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to . . . I didn’t know! I didn’t see anything . . . except kissing . . . and hands up shirts . . . and, oh my goddess!” She stammered, trying to find her way out of the room with her eyes closed.
Buffy and Faith had jumped at the sudden intrusion, but neither had made any large-scale efforts to cover up their ‘show’.
“Will, it’s okay.” Buffy said calmly. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“I, uh . . . I forgot my jacket . . . I, we turned around halfway there to come back and get it, but I don’t think I need it anymore. Suddenly feeling very warm. Oh goddess! I’m . . . I’m just gonna go. Back to the car. And not talk to anyone.”
“Willow, it’s no big deal. You can open your eyes.” Buffy stated, smiling at the obvious embarrassment of the red-head. Subconsciously, she was wondering why she wasn’t feeling embarrassed as well, but she couldn’t come up with anything. She shrugged it off.
“No, that’s okay . . . denial suits me fine, thank you. I’m just gonna go. So, umm . . . enjoy your evening. Bye!” She said as she made a mad-dash towards the exit, running into the door on the way. “Ow!”
The two slayers laughed as they heard the door open and close and listened to her footsteps quickly retreating from the house. Silence filled the room once again.
Both girls suddenly felt a bit shy.
“Well, I guess it’s not gonna be a secret much longer.” Faith hinted, looking anxiously at the blonde. She wanted to know how the older girl felt about the whole situation.
“Yep, I guess not.” Buffy stated indifferently. It just didn’t seem to bother her.
As if nothing had happened, Buffy casually threw a pillow onto Faith’s lap and curled up next to her, resting her head on the pillow.
“So . . .” Buffy started as she smiled endearingly up at Faith, “. . . infomercials or movie-of-the-week?”
Faith chuckled and mussed up the girls hair. “Your choice, Easy-B.”
They turned on the TV and spent the rest of the evening like that: Buffy curled up on Faith’s lap, and Faith stroking Buffy’s hair.
None of the gang had returned to the Summers’ Residence. Giles stayed at his own apartment, Spike returned to his crypt, Angel, Cordelia and Wesley had gone back to the mansion, and Xander took the rest of the ladies back to his place, not wanting to take them home to Buffy so late.
They had all enjoyed their carefree evening, but never forgot the task that they would be put up to the next day. The lack of Buffy and Faith from their little gathering was sure to remind them of that fact. They had all returned to their respective ‘homes’ by midnight, wanting to get a good nights rest to save up their strength for tomorrow.
Buffy awoke to the sound of her friends in the lower-level of her house. She hadn’t heard them come in . . . in fact, she hadn’t heard much of anything the whole morning. As she began to move around a little, she realized that she had nestled herself nicely into Faith’s embrace.
She opened up her eyes and glanced up to find a pair of chocolate-brown eyes gazing down at her.
She smiled. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Faith answered back, her voice raspy with sleep.
“Were you watching me sleep?” Buffy asked playfully.
“Yeah, I was. But I kinda had no choice in the matter. I tried to get up about couple of hours ago, but you had this death-grip on my waist. Figured I could think of worse ways to spend my time, so I just kept my ass planted here.”
“You could’ve woke me up, I . . . wait a minute. Did you say a couple hours?” The blonde asked, trying to sit up. Faith just nodded. “What time is it?”
Faith turned her head and glanced at the alarm clock.
“It’s almost noon, B.”
“What?!? I can’t believe I slept that long! I’m normally Mrs. Bright-and-Early, and you’re normally Mrs. Sleeps-a-lot. You must’ve rubbed off on me.” Buffy added playfully.
“Is that an invitation?” Faith asked with a smirk, not able to ignore the perfect set-up that Buffy had innocently given her.
Buffy smacked her arm and giggled. “Maybe another time. Will you settle for a good-morning kiss?”
Faith waggled her eyebrows. “For now.” She joked.
She pulled Buffy up to her and gave her a gentle but passionate kiss. Just like the night before, the kiss slowly started to build, distracting them just the same.
They were suddenly broken from the kiss when they heard yet another gasp. “Aah!” They looked up to see Willow standing there once again, hands over her eyes. “You guys need to get a ‘do not disturb’ sign or something.”
“And to think that a simple ‘knock’ coulda avoided this whole situation.” Faith joked.
“Argh! I did knock, but you two Love-birds must have been distracted by something.”
“Oops, sorry Will.” Buffy laughed, finding the whole situation incredibly funny. “We’ll have to get you a blindfold, or maybe some bells to tie on your ankles so we can hear you coming next time.”
“Or maybe you should just have your hearing checked. Slayer senses? My hiney!” Willow responded, eliciting a laugh from the two slayers.
After a moment, she peeked through her hands to make sure that the girls were decent. She then removed her hands form her face and inched closer.
“Giles said to let you guys sleep until noon to get some extra-strength. He was about to send Dawnie up to get you guys, but I jumped in, just in case I ran into something like this again.”
“Thanks.” Buffy stated.
Silence ensued as Willow was clearly trying to figure something out in her head. She finally spoke up after a moment had passed.
“So . . . with all of the vicarious smoochies that I’ve been interrupting, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that the two of you have made up then? Found a common ground?" She asked with a sly little smile.
“Yep.” Both slayers said simultaneously. Buffy continued. “We’ve come across a few realizations over the last couple of days. Faith has some kind of feelings for me . . .”
“It’s a heart thing.” Faith interrupted, nodding her head and saying it very nonchalantly while keeping eye contact with Willow. She didn’t want to come right out and say ‘love’ because she didn’t want to freak Buffy or Willow out just yet.
“. . . AND,” Buffy cut back in, “I can’t stand the thought of being without her again.”
“Meaning?” Willow hedged.
“Meaning . . . I have feelings for her too. It took me almost losing her to realize that, I guess.” Buffy replied shyly, a small blush on her face. “Willow . . . are you okay with this? You’re not gonna freak out, are you?”
“I’m five-by-five, Buff.” Willow replied, earning a wink and a proud nod from Faith. “I think we’ve all accepted the fact that the past is the past, and that Faith was simply a ‘cute little leather-clad puppet’, in the exact words of Cordelia. Plus . . . warm and cozy feelings? May give us an even better chance of winning this battle. I say . . . rock on with your girl-loving selves.”
Buffy and Faith laughed at the red-head.
“Red . . . I gotta say, I like ya more and more every day.”
“Thanks, Faith. And I definitely like the new and improved you: full of wit, smirks and innuendos, and lacking in the ‘I want to kill my friends’ area. Definitely a change for the better. Anyways, I’m gonna go back downstairs . . . make up some kind of cover story for why I was gone so long. I’ll see you both in a while.”
With that, Willow headed out of the room. The two slayers immediately got up from bed and got dressed before following the red-head down to see the rest of the Scoobies.
The gang had spent most of the afternoon just talking and goofing around. Giles knew that they should have been preparing and reading further into the ritual, but he didn’t want to deprive them of what could very well have been their last time together as a group.
The entire group was easily able to tell that there was something up between Buffy and Faith. They two girls didn’t leave one another’s side at any point during the day, excluding trips to the bathroom.
In any case, the light mood in the room started becoming more and more somber and dusk was quickly approaching. Awkward silences and strained glares began to fill the room, making just about everyone uncomfortable.
When dusk approached and the tension became just about unbearable, Faith finally decided to ease everyone’s misery.
“Alrighty boys and girls . . . time to get our hands dirty. Who’s with me?”
About 10 minutes had passed and the gang had managed to move just about all of the furniture out of the living room. Willow and Tara had brought several supplies in the room, ranging from herbs and oils to crystals and books.
They began their preparations by pouring another ring of white sand, though larger than the one they had made last time. At five equally spaced points along the circle, they placed a crystal and a small satchel of blended herbs and roots. The crystals were to act as filters for the energy sources, and the herb-satchels were carefully concocted blends that made up a strong form of a protection spell for each of the five energy sources.
As Willow and Tara finished their work upon the circle, Giles began another task. He pulled out a glass vial with an amber-colored oil in it. He called over the five sources, the warrior, and Faith and dabbed a small amount of oil on each of their foreheads.
“The members of the tribunal will only allow you in their presence if you have been anointed with this oil by a High Priest of the Radev Order. They would consider it blasphemous for you to go there without this.”
“Umm, Giles,” Xander interrupted, “I hate to burst your bubble, but I think they might know that you’re not a High Priest of the Radish Order.”
“It’s ‘Radev’, and I am a High Priest among its ranks.”
“Since when?” Willow asked doubtfully.
The librarian stammered for a moment before finally telling the truth. “Since last night. Internet certification is a wonderful thing, alright?”
He ignored the few stifled giggles that he received and finished up with the anointing.
“So, the last thing we need to arrange is the anchors. Perhaps the sources should take their seats among the circle.”
At that point, Angel, Cordelia, Spike, Xander, and Willow made their way to the sand-circle and took their respective seats.
Buffy and Faith stood hand-in-hand in the corner of the room, neither wanting to step into the circle yet. To them, it almost felt as if they were stepping into doom. Even worse, they knew that anything they were going to say at that point would sound needy and desperate, and possibly depressing, so they just watched on in silence.
“I’m going to be Xander’s anchor.” Anya stated. “Behind every good man is a good woman, and that’s me.”
“Okay.” Giles commented. “Wesley, would you pair with Cordelia?”
“Of course.” He made his was over to a nervous-looking Cordelia and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“I-I’ll pair with Willow,” Tara commented, “I think I’ll be the m-most useful to her.”
“I agree.” Giles stated. “That leaves Spike and Angel, and Dawn and myself.”
“I’ll take the ‘lil bit.” Spike quickly cut in, receiving a few glares. “What? Can I help it if I don’t want a Tweed-y middle-aged bloke over my back? No. The niblet is with me.”
“Fine.” Giles conceded. “That leaves Angel and I. Right then. I believe that we are just about ready to begin.”
“Wait . . . that’s all?” Buffy asked, sounding scared.
“Erm . . . yes, I believe so.” Giles answered truthfully.
“But . . . what are we supposed to do? What is Faith supposed to do? Are you telling me that we are walking into this completely blind?”
“Buffy, I thought that we had pretty much established that fact yesterday. Willow know what she has to say to begin the spell, and then the magic will lead us from there. The gateway will be activated, and you will all be sent to the tribunal. I’m sure that they will help to guide Faith in her journey while she’s there. Just . . . be prepared for anything. That’s all I can tell you.” Giles answered, trying to calm his slayer a bit before they continued.
Still holding Buffy’s hand, Faith began to step towards the circle, only to be jerked back by the small blonde.
“Faith . . . wait. I just want to tell you . . .”
“Buffy, stop.” Faith interrupted as gently as she could. “Anything you’re gonna say is gonna sound like goodbye, so . . . just hold on to it till we finish this, ‘kay?” She squeezed Buffy’s hand, trying to put on a brave face. But inside, she was terrified; she thought that this was her end, for sure.
Buffy gave her a small smile, blinking back her unshed tears. After a moment, she let Faith lead her to the circle and they stepped into it together, hand in hand. Willow had arranged two pillows in the center so that the slayers could lay back onto them, so the two girls immediately laid down next to one another, hands clasped in a death-grip.
As the anchors stepped up and took their positions, they were finally ready to begin.
“Well . . . this is it. After I begin the first incantation, there’s no going back. Is anyone having any second thoughts?”
“Yes!” Several people yelled out jokingly, trying to lighten up the mood a little.
“Okay, that’s normal, but totally unacceptable. We’re in this together now, right?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Alright, let’s begin then.” She glanced around the room one more time, making sure to make eye contact with every last person there. Finally, she closed her eyes and began the incantation.
Upon completing the words, the sand began to glow a fierce red color, enveloping everyone in the room this time.
“Here goes nothing.” Willow added before starting the second part of the spell. She uttered some words in Latin, and suddenly, bright white light began to emit from the five power sources.
“Excellent,” Xander commented, “I’m a flashlight.”
Willow muttered a few more words, finally finishing the spell. In an instant, the five sources fell back into the arms of their respective anchors, seemingly passed out. Buffy and Faith, who had been anxiously looking around from the middle of the circle, also seemed to pass out a moment later.
Faith had been nervous when she had entered the circle. She became even more nervous as she watched the five sources pass out, just moment before she followed suit. She didn’t remember what happened during the time that she passed out, but now she felt herself lying on a floor, her eyes still closed.
She heard a sound, similar to an echo of something dropping in a large hall. Realizing that she was no longer in the Summers’ living room, she slowly opened one eye, then the other.
The dark slayer quickly scrambled up from the floor, taking in her surroundings.
She felt really disturbed. Not because of the large void of a room that she seemed to be standing in. Not because of the three robed figures who stood staring before her on marble-laden throne. Not because a small trickle of blood had worked its way down from her nose.
She was disturbed because she was standing there . . . alone.
...continued in chapter 21...