Choices
by Izzy
Rating: NC-17
The dark Slayer didn't know how long she had been standing there in the hall with her hand resting lightly on her stomach and a wistful expression on her face, but Buffy seemed very worried about her when she came back into the hall to find out what was wrong.
"Faith, are you ok? Was it what Willow said to you, what did she say?" The blonde asked with concern.
"Um, no Red was pretty cool actually. She made me promise not to hurt you and said that she was going to give me another chance."
Buffy smiled a little. "So, that's good isn't it?"
Faith couldn't hold it in any longer and tears started to run silently down her face, which made the blonde even more worried.
"Faith what is it?"
The brunette locked eyes with her lover before asking her a difficult question. "B, am I pregnant?"
"What?" The question confused Buffy for a moment, but when it hit her she stood back in shock and had to cover the gasp that threatened to escape her mouth. "Oh my God; Beth." The tears were still falling down the brunette's face and Buffy quickly moved back in to comfort her. "Oh baby, it's ok, it'll be alright."
"I'm not sure I can do this, I don't think I can be a mom." Faith said with her head buried in the crook of Buffy's neck.
"Faith, if you are pregnant then you're going to be a wonderful mom. I've been watching your double do it for more than two weeks."
"She's not me though. She hasn't made all the mistakes I've made."
Buffy shook her head. "It doesn't matter, you're the same basic person she is, and you can do it if you put your mind to it. You have it in your heart to be a good mom."
Before Faith could protest they heard a voice from behind them. Apparently they had all been wondering what was taking them so long. "She's right you know. Besides it's not all that hard, you just do what comes naturally." The other Faith approached the teary brunette. "Here try holding her." Beth was in her arms and she held the child out for her double to take.
Faith took the child and held her under the arms and out in front of her, which made the other brunette frown and the blonde smile a little.
"Hmm, I don't remember having that problem."
They were startled again by another voice behind them, this time it was Buffy's double.
"Are you kidding me? You treated her like she was a bomb that was going to go off if you touched her for the first month that she was at home with us. Not that I was much better." She said with a teasing smile on her face. "Here, let me help you." She approached the Slayer holding her child. "Put this hand under her to support her and the other hand on her back to stop her from falling backwards. Of course you would have to support her head more if she was a newborn, but the midwife will show you all that."
Beth was looking round wide eyed at the four Slayers that had congregated in the hall, amazed and amused by her parents and their doubles. She was quietly sucking her two middle fingers as she rested her head on the dark Slayer's shoulder, she had been awake since five o'clock and it was almost midday now so she was beginning to feel sleepy. She yawned and closed her eyes, which caught her parents' attention.
"Looks like all the excitement has worn her out a little." Buffy said and after giving the brunette a little longer she took her child back.
"We'd better get back. Wren will want to get started, and I'm kinda curious to hear what she has to tell us." Faith said as she moved to stand next to her wife.
"Who's Wren?" Buffy asked.
"She's the one who knows what's going on; she works for the Powers." Faith said before ushering the other couple into the living room, leaving her wife to put their daughter to bed.
Wren was standing in the middle of the room, waiting patiently for the others to join them. By the looks on the faces of the new couple as they walked into the room, she could guess what they had all been talking about.
She watched as both of the new arrivals raised an eyebrow when they first saw her. Wren was used to this, and truth be told, she liked it. For some reason, when people imagined higher beings, they saw them as wise looking figures with a dignified look, but certainly not with pink hair.
She gestured for them all to take their seats and then began to get to the point of her visit.
"For the two of you that have just joined us, my name is Wren. I work as kind of a messenger for the Powers." She could see that they were all eager to hear what she had to say and chose not to delay any further; especially as the Slayers were beginning to get restless. "As I told you two earlier," here she pointed to the visiting Slayers, "I'm here predominantly for Beth…"
Buffy (AU) came back down after a few minutes and sat down next to her dark haired lover, linking their fingers together as she made herself comfortable.
From this point Wren proceeded to tell them what she had told the Scooby members from the other reality; about the prophecy regarding Beth's coming into existence, about the Order of Destruction, and how Lebath and Lisbaen were planning to kill the Slayers' child as she was supposed to be a big threat to them in the future.
"So Beth is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with; what kind of powers will she have? What signs should we be looking out for?" Faith (AU) asked as soon as Wren had finished.
"As far as strength goes, by the time she reaches high school she should be as strong as any normal Slayer, but as she gets older her strength will grow. She will have some abilities for magic, but telekinesis will be her greatest mental power." Wren paused for a moment as this sank in. "As for signs, well as soon as you begin to see things floating around the house you'll know what that is. Her strength will mature with her, and she will have to learn how to control her magic abilities."
When Wren had finished Buffy glanced over at the other Slayers, wondering if they were as overwhelmed as she was. Her new lover looked as she imagined she herself looked, but the other two Slayers appeared even more shocked than she was.
"Had you never thought that she would be different from other kids?" Willow asked the married couple, having had similar thoughts to her best friend.
The Slayers in question exchanged a look before the blonde spoke. "Well, we anticipated that she would be different from other kids, and we already know that she's stronger, faster and less prone to illness, but we had no idea that she would gain other powers later on."
"We'll handle it though." The brunette mother said in an attempt to assure both herself and her wife. Truthfully, she was feeling a little anxious about what the future would hold, especially once their daughter hit puberty.
"Well I'm sure you all have a lot to think about now, but are there any more questions you want to ask me before I go?" Wren asked.
"Do you know how we're supposed to defeat these demons; Lebath and Lisbaen?" Buffy (AU) asked, which caused all eyes to turn once more on the bright haired woman.
"There are few books on either demon, but I'll leave you with the names of a few that I know of. I'm afraid I don't know exactly where these particular volumes are, but I have a suspicion that at least three of them are in the City of Angels." Tara passed Wren a piece of paper and a pen on which the names of the demon texts were written.
"I know it doesn't look like much, but if you can get a hold of these books I'm sure you'll find them very useful." Wren passed the paper back to the blonde witch who gave it to her girlfriend. "I'll be back in a day or two. The ritual that they want to perform should be done by the light of a new moon. That gives us four days." When Wren had finished speaking, the two witches stood up to show their visitor out; it seemed that all four Slayers had suddenly lost the ability to move as each of them was deep in thought.
Noise from upstairs roused them from their reverie and they all glanced towards the ceiling.
Faith looked to her wife. "I'll go check on her." She said as she detangled herself from the blonde's arms and made her way out of the room.
When the witches came back into the room Willow asked Buffy if she could speak to her upstairs. Buffy reluctantly followed her best friend to the witches' bedroom. The red head sat on the bed and gestured for the blonde to do the same thing, but Buffy stayed standing and Willow mentally understood the gesture; Buffy was taking a stand for Faith.
"Buffy…" Willow started, but was immediately interrupted.
"I know what you're going to say Will; you don't like Faith, so I get that you don't like the idea of me and her, but I need this. I never knew before just how much." Buffy sighed and sat down next to Willow. "Please don't hate me. You're my best friend Will, and I need you… I'll always need you."
By the time the Slayer had finished speaking Willow was close to tears. "Aww, Buff. I… I don't know what to say. I need you too, but I didn't bring you up here to tell you to stay away from Faith."
The blonde's eyebrows shot up. "Oh…" Her expression turned to a frown then. "So, what did you drag me up here for?" She asked with a small smile.
"Well I did want to talk to you about Faith. I wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way things turned out with her before. I know that we all handled her in the wrong way… or didn't handle her, as the case may be. Just know that, I'm not going to stand in the way of her trying to find redemption."
As her friend finished talking the blonde was, this time, the one left holding unshed tears. Unable to find the words to explain how she was feeling, Buffy pulled Willow into a strong embrace and whispered just two words.
"Thank you."
When the hug ended they both wore matching smiles before the red head became more serious.
"This doesn't mean though that I'm ready to forgive her or to apologise to her, yet. I'll give her the chance to prove herself though." As an after thought she added; "But if she ever hurts you then things will get ugly."
"You just had to put that in, didn't you?" She smiled coyly.
Willow smiled again. "Of course."
They then stood up and made their way out of the room. Buffy headed off to the bathroom and when she was finished walked towards the top of the stairs. She stopped before she got there and noticed that her girlfriend/lover?'s double was still in her room; talking quietly to her daughter.
Standing in the doorway the blonde furtively watched the picturesque scene of the mother and daughter. Her thoughts soon wondered to the dark Slayer who was sitting in her living room, probably feeling nervous and unsure of herself, and most likely carrying their child. Most parents didn't have the luxury of knowing that they were going to be parents the day after the conception of their child, and Buffy couldn't help thinking at that moment that perhaps they were the lucky ones.
Not that she wasn't thrilled by the thought that she and Faith were going to have a baby, but she was only just getting used to the fact that she and Faith had slept together. They hadn't yet had time to talk about their relationship and what it meant to each of them, and suddenly this huge responsibility had been thrust upon them.
She didn't even know what they were; lovers, girlfriends? Did they just sleep together? Was Faith supposed to move in with her now? Would they get married? All these questions filtered through her mind as she stood gazing at a scene that could one day be hers.
As she turned to leave the brunette looked her way and welcomed her into the room. Buffy, almost reluctantly, complied.
"How is she?" The blonde said, asking after the child.
"Restless. She can sense all the people in the house and she wants to investigate." Faith said with fondness for the small brunette.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. "She can really feel that, already?"
"Yeah, it's part of the whole Slayer thing she's inherited. Probably the reason why she kept picking up your phone when no one else could hear it ringing. Her hearing's always been real acute too; most of the reason why B and I soundproofed our bed room." She said the last part with a slight chuckle and was pleased to see the blonde blush a little. "I'm assuming it's ok for me to say things like that; now that the two of you have found a more pleasurable way of releasing all that tension, rather than battling it out." Faith said with a definite smirk.
Trying to turn the subject away from her own sex life, Buffy asked the dark Slayer how she and her wife were now that they'd been reunited.
"Last night was hard. Not having seen her for two weeks and wanting nothing more than to touch her all over… With Beth in the room though…" She didn't have to finish that sentence as the blonde had already caught on to her meaning.
"I don't envy you one bit. To be next to her and not being able to touch her… It's hard. And I've only really been doing it sitting on the couch downstairs. Maybe I shouldn't care what anybody else thinks, but I didn't want to stir anything up too much when I know she's already nervous just being here. Speaking of which, I should really be getting back down there." As she finished she started to make her way to the door.
"Ok. Tell B I'll be down in a few."
"K…" Just as she was leaving the room the blonde thought of something else to ask the dark Slayer and turned back. "Oh, I was just going to ask you if you were going to be staying here again tonight."
Faith shrugged. "Sure. Don't really have anywhere else to go. Why, did you want us out?" She asked with a frown.
"No! I was just wondering. I'll probably be staying at the hotel again, if that's ok."
"Why wouldn't I think that was ok?" She asked, confused.
"I dunno. I thought maybe you'd want us around to be here for Beth. You know, in case those demons came for her." She said with concern.
"Oh, well thanks, but I shouldn't think anything will happen tonight. Wren didn't seem to think that anything was gonna happen for a few days, and if anything did happen there'll be two Slayers here. Anyway, I think the two of you could do with the alone time, give you a chance to catch up on what you've missed."
"Alright, we'll be back some time in the morning. See if we can't figure all this out and get you guys home."
They exchanged smiles before the blonde exited the room and made her way to the living room on the ground floor. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she was taken aback by a knock at the door. On answering it she found Xander and Anya and reluctantly invited them in. Steering the two away from the living room she cornered them in the kitchen and attempted to explain the situation.
"So Buff, what's up?" Xander asked almost immediately.
"I know you guys haven't been round here much lately…" She said before she was interrupted by the ex-demon.
"Xander's been avoiding Faith 'cause he's scared of her."
The construction worker tried to protest. "I am not scared."
"Uh huh, sure honey. He doesn't like her because she undermined his manhood by sleeping with him and then forgetting about him." She finished when she'd turned back to face the Slayer.
"And it's not at all to do with the fact that she tried to strangle me to death." He said sarcastically.
"She tried to kill Buffy a bunch of times and she's ok with Faith now." Anya chimed in.
Xander looked at the blonde Slayer almost accusingly then. "Yeah, why is that?"
Buffy shook her head a little trying to organise her thoughts. "Ok Xander, I know you have your own issues when it comes to Faith, but she's changed a hell of a lot since you last saw her, and I know that if you give her a chance you'll see that. No I haven't always been Faith's number one fan, but that's past and we're working together to try and fix the mistakes we made. If you can't find it in yourself to give her that chance then I'd at least like it if you could respect my choice help her."
They were silent for a moment while the dark haired man chewed on this information. "If you want to give her a chance and try to make friendly with her then there's nothing I can do about that and I'll try not to get in the way, but I can't promise that I'll be able to do the same thing. You'll just have to give me time."
"Ok, time, I can do that. Do you think you'll be able to stay civil with her though?"
"Why?" He asked cautiously.
"She's in the living room." Buffy said guiltily.
"I'm guessing that's why you pushed us straight into the kitchen then, to give us this little talk." Buffy just nodded. "You couldn't have told us this earlier? When did she arrive?"
"Yesterday. She was driving the other Buffy here from LA and when they got here I got into the car with her and we took a drive so we could talk. We patrolled together, ate pizza, and then I stayed at her place last night. So I've not been back long. Will said she left a message on your answering machine about the meeting earlier, but didn't know what time you were going to be back."
"You stayed with Faith last night? Does that mean she's your orgasm buddie?"
Xander was about to berate his girlfriend for saying something inappropriate, but the blonde's intense blush made him do a double take and his jaw dropped to the floor when the truth hit him.
"You're sleeping with her? So why bother telling us all that crap about wanting to be her friend?"
Buffy's head shot up at this point. "It wasn't crap! I do want to be her friend, but I'd like to be her girlfriend as well."
Xander just rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, I stick by what I said… I don't think I'm ready to make nice yet, so maybe you should just give us some homework to be going on with." He said a little bitterly.
Buffy sighed. "I understand that you need time to get used to this, but we have a serious situation on our hands here… Could you at least just stay for the briefing?"
Xander nodded reluctantly and was rewarded with a hug from the Slayer. "Let's get this over with then so we can go home. I still have to make up the work schedule for tomorrow."
Buffy led them into the living room where everyone else had gathered, including Faith (AU) and Beth. The room was pretty crowded and with Xander and Anya's arrival and everyone soon noticed that there weren't enough seats.
Faith quickly stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll go get a chair from the dining room." She said by way of offering the others her seat.
"Or better yet you could stay out there." Xander suggested.
Faith stopped momentarily, feeling the pain of his words hitting her hard. She swallowed down the biting comeback and carried on walking.
"Xander!" Buffy scolded, before turning to the brunette. "Faith, could you get one for me too please?" She heard a muffled acknowledgement and turned back to her friend. "I only asked you to be civil Xander, and you can't even do that. If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all, ok?"
Xander just waved his hand in the air and looked away from the blonde Slayer as he put his arm around the ex-demon. Faith came back in a moment later carrying two chairs and placed them just inside the doorway before sitting down with Buffy.
Xander managed to stay quiet throughout the briefing, even through the various details about Beth's origin and future significance. Not too long after the briefing, as the group had delved into mixed conversation, Xander once again could not refrain from commenting generally about Faith when Buffy suggested that she and Faith patrol.
"Make sure you check for a pulse before you stick the stake in." He said before receiving simultaneous death stares from four Slayers.
"Xander, what did I tell you…? Can't you for once just keep your opinions to yourself?" She said, displaying anger as she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.
He also stood up, pointing at her accusingly as he said, "You know what; the only reason you're defending her is because you slept with her, and you're hoping that by pretending to be her friend, you'll get to do it again."
Faith intervened at this point. "Even if that were true, it would still make you a complete hypocrite."
Feeling slightly offended by the comment, the blonde turned to the dark Slayer next to her. "You think that's true; that I would do that?"
Faith mentally slapped herself before turning to the blonde. "It was hypothetical; I didn't mean that what he said was true."
"But you think it could be." She pursued.
"B, can we do this later, when we haven't got a studio audience." The brunette asked, pleading with her eyes, to which Buffy reluctantly nodded.
The two other Slayers who, up 'till this point, had been silent, had exchanged confused glances during the conversation, and Faith gasped suddenly as the answer came to her.
"You had sex with Xander!?"
The Slayer in question closed her eyes in frustration and lifted a thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose. "Yes, ok? I had sex with Xander, I'm not exactly proud of it." She turned to Xander at this point. "No offence intended man, it just shouldn't have happened."
Before anyone could say anything else Buffy gently linked her hand through the brunette's and ended the dispute. "We're gonna go now, Faith and I will patrol and we'll all meet back here tomorrow afternoon. Anybody besides Xander have anything to say…? Ok, we'll see you all tomorrow then."
Buffy waved goodbye to the witches and the other Slayers and ushered the brunette out the front door.
It didn't take long after the two Slayers had left before the other two had had enough of the stares they were getting from the still present construction worker. They made their apologies to the witches and took their daughter up to Buffy's room, where they stayed until Xander and Anya had left.
Meanwhile, dark and light Slayer walked most of the way back to the hotel in silence, uttering minor comments about where they planned to patrol later on and what time they should go out.
Buffy could tell that the dark Slayer had been emotionally wounded by what Xander had said, but wanted to wait until Faith was ready to talk about it, or to at least wait until they were inside and alone before starting to ask her questions.
As it happened, the blonde Slayer decided not to ask any questions until they had finished patrol, thinking that perhaps once Faith had got some tension out on a few vamps, she would be more willing to talk.
When they returned to the hotel in the early morning both were tired and hungry and while Faith was in the shower Buffy made them something to eat. After the food was prepared she sat on the bed and waited for her turn in the bathroom.
As Faith came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, Buffy stood up and there was an awkward moment between them as the blonde tried to move past the brunette to get to the bathroom. After a second or two of moving side to side to get past one another, they each started laughing and the atmosphere became instantly easier.
The blonde moved slowly forward and placed her hands on the brunette's hips, and then kissed her lightly on the lips, twisting them round so that their positions were reversed.
"I whipped up a little snack from what was in the mini-bar. Help yourself, I won't be long." She kissed the dark Slayer again, a little longer this time, before heading off for a greatly needed shower.
Faith pulled a white tank-top out of her bag and pulled on a pair of black boxer shorts before checking out the food laid out on a near by table. Deciding to wait until Buffy had finished in the bathroom; she took a seat on the window sill and gazed blindly at the street down bellow.
Thoughts were rushing around her mind, as they had been all day. From the joy of waking up next to Buffy, to their conversation at breakfast, her fear of being around the Scoobs again, discovering the possibility that she was pregnant, and watching the obvious closeness of her and Buffy's doubles, feeling envious of their relationship.
How would she ever be able to live up to that image after the things she'd done? Long term relationships had never been her thing; the thought of bearing her secrets and fantasies to someone she barely knew beyond the physical held deep repulsion for the brunette.
However, just that morning she had wanted nothing more that to share everything with the other Slayer. To lay bare her soul and put all of her hopes and dreams in the blonde's care. The realisation of this drove a tide of irrational fear to her brain and she suddenly felt sick and claustrophobic.
How the fuck was she supposed to handle all this? How the fuck was 'she' supposed to handle the responsibilities of keeping together a relationship with someone who, not too long ago she had shared a deep hatred, and trying to find redemption for all the bad things she's done, with the pressure of parenthood on top?
Buffy had obviously enjoyed their love making, but Faith still couldn't help thinking that somewhere inside the blonde, sex had been all she was looking for. Now Buffy would be regretting ever having touched the dark Slayer, feeling that they would have to stay together because Faith was now pregnant.
As the dark Slayer's thoughts turned increasingly sour the blonde was drying herself off and soon emerged from the steam filled bathroom with a dreamy look on her face. Seeing the frown on the brunette's face and the dark cloud that had formed around her head quickly brought Buffy back down to earth.
Moving so as not to disturb the brunette, Buffy slipped on a t-shirt and some underwear. Running her fingers through damp hair in an attempt to tame it, she approached the window and tentatively touched Faith's arm, half expecting the brunette to flinch at the touch. Buffy softly stroked the other Slayer's arm in comfort, but she remained rigid and silent.
When she did finally speak her voice was cold and she kept her eyes trained on the scene outside, avoiding looking at the blonde Slayer. "Why are you still here?"
Buffy's hand stopped and she slowly withdrew it from the dark Slayer's arm. She pushed a biting comeback to the recesses of her mind and retreated a few steps to settle herself on the bed, her knees pulled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around them.
Having dealt with Faith's mood swings in the past she knew that getting into an argument was going to do nothing to solve whatever was on her mind, and it was probably the first thing that Faith was expecting to happen. Her mind flashed quickly through all the events that had happened earlier that day, from waking up, making love, going to breakfast, getting the call from Willow.
As she chronologically moved through the day's events she began to realise why Faith was acting this way. From the point when Willow had called she realised that the brunette had begun acting differently. She had become quiet after leaving the hotel, and as the blonde had been imagining what their reception would be like back home she had thought nothing of it. She recognized then that most, if not all of the things that had happened to them today had been good.
They had woken up together and had spent a wonderful first morning in each another's arms. Willow had approved of their relationship, to a certain degree. They had discovered that they were going to have a baby… Things were looking up; the road ahead seemed bright for once. For Faith, things had gone from; being at the bottom of the ladder, seeking redemption (but not completely expecting to find it), to receiving forgiveness from some of the people she hurt the most, possibly finding love, becoming pregnant, and all in just a little over twenty-four hours.
After coming to this realisation Buffy had to think carefully about how to deal with the brunette's attitude. She eventually reckoned that she would just have to stay as calm as possible, and keep her answers short and honest.
"Why, Faith?" She asked, hoping that this would cause the brunette to turn and face her. When Faith didn't budge she sighed and continued. "Because I want to be."
Not having expected the blonde's calmness Faith turned around sharply, confusion etched across her features. The same thoughts that had been circulating round her head for most of the day were warning her not to get her hopes up, not to believe that what Buffy was telling her was the truth, reminding her of all the terrible things that she'd done and asking her if she really thought she deserved what was being offered to her.
The sad truth was that she believed that she absolutely did not deserve what was happening to her. Not friends, not happiness and certainly not love. In Faith's mind, the fact that these things were happening to her made her think that there was sure to be a catch somewhere; something that proved that she wasn't worthy, something to punish her for her wrong doings and ridicule her for ever hoping that things were going to turn out for the best.
All of her life, whenever something had been going her way, whenever she was happy, it was taken away from her. It had started with her parents. She had been happy with them and they had been taken away from her by a drunk driver and for five years after that she had had to endure the cruelties of her adopted 'family'.
It had taken her a while, but she had eventually managed to escape. It was then that her Watcher had approached her and informed her of her destiny as a Slayer. Sarah had been like her best friend, teacher and mother all rolled into one, and then that bastard Kakistos had tortured and torn her apart; she was left to look after herself once more.
Sunnydale had been the light at the end of the tunnel, with her fellow Slayer Buffy, waiting at the gates to welcome her in. At least that's how she'd imagined it. At first it had given her hope; hanging around with Buffy and her friends, but Faith had soon come to realise that she wasn't entirely welcome, no matter what she did.
In the beginning it had been the blonde Slayer herself who was secretive and had found fault with her, but when they had begun to bond a little more it was Willow who had pushed her away and become envious of their connection.
It was not hard for the brunette to admit to the fact that she had been attracted to Buffy from the start, and it had been natural for her to try and act on those feelings. Each time she had made a pass at the blonde Slayer it had seemed that there was more of a response, until Angel had come back from hell that was.
So she had had to settle for just being friends and though she had often flirted with the blonde, she had no longer expected a serious response. Their friendship had developed slowly and Faith still remembered now, the seemingly endless hours she had spent alone in her dingy motel room, waiting for dark to come so that she could spend time with Buffy.
Just as things had been looking up she had accidentally killed a man. Feeling scared and isolated she had refused offers from the others for 'help', feeling ostracised by the people who supposedly saw her as their friend. So she had eventually lost them too, though by her own betrayal when, with a mind full of anger, confusion and sour beliefs, she had gone to work for the Mayor.
Revenge had been the biggest thing on her mind then. She had convinced herself during those days and nights spent alone, that they had played her all along. Pretended to like her so that they could use her Slayer status to help when they thought they needed it. She had never been invited to attend the meetings. No one had thought to ask her how she was, if she was getting enough to eat, if she had enough money for rent or clothes. They had missed her birthday, but they hadn't known it because no one had bothered to ask her when it was.
So she had wanted revenge, and helping a man who wanted to become a demon and kill them all seemed like a pretty good way to go about it.
Of course she hadn't envisioned that her relationship with the Mayor would have turned out the way it did. Just like her first Watcher had been like a mother to her, the Mayor had been like a father. She had developed a deep love for the wannabe demon, and eventually he had ended up near the bottom of a long list of people that she had loved and lost.
The final thing that she had lost had been her self. The girl she once thought she knew had fallen into a big black hole and she didn't know if she was ever going to find that girl again. She was gone along with all the other things. Just like her virginity, she wasn't going to get that girl back.
Faith was tired of losing people, and she had come to realise that if she didn't have anyone to lose then surely she couldn't be hurt. These were her thoughts now as she trained her eyes on the blonde Slayer that she was once again beginning to fall for. It had been hard enough losing Buffy the first time when she hadn't even really experienced having her, and Faith didn't think she would be able to survive losing her again, when it really mattered.
Their baby was important to the world and the battle against evil, therefore she couldn't (even if she had wanted to) consider having an abortion, but she couldn't look after a child, so after the birth, their daughter would stay with Buffy, and Faith planned to make herself scarce from their lives.
With this in mind she knew that she would have to destroy the feelings that she had allowed to develop between them. She had to make Buffy hate her again.
Faith scoffed and rolled her eyes at the blonde's answer, trying to hide the surprise she had felt upon hearing Buffy's words. And forgetting the promise she had made to the red headed witch she began to speak in harsh tones.
"Oh, you want to. Of course, how could I forget, the golden Slayer always gets what she wants." She began to walk round the room, gesturing with her arms, and continued to make snide remarks; each one hitting its target and causing the blonde Slayer to flinch.
"It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference what I want, but I never did have a say in anything did I? Why should that change now? I didn't ask to come back to Sunnyhell, I didn't ask for you to jump into my car, I didn't ask you to forgive me, and I sure as hell didn't ask to get knocked up!
"You know what? I think Xander was right. I think you wanna be here because you got a taste and wanted to come back for more. You're no different from anyone else I've ever fucked. I get used; I get fucked and I get dumped. Sooner or later they get tired of me and then I'm out on my ass, but not this time, I'm not gonna let that happen again. I'm not gonna be yet another Buffy Summers cast off."
Buffy tried to interrupt at this point, trying not to raise her voice and hoping to calm the other Slayer down.
"You don't know what you're talking about Faith. Yeah, I've had some bad experiences with relationships, but I really think it could work between you and me."
Faith stared in disbelief, and changed her tactics a little. "Are you even listening to me? I don't fuckin' want this…! What would make you think I'd want to be with someone who gets off on fucking the un-dead?"
This hit the blonde hard and she felt her resolve bend significantly. She kept her mouth closed and tried to fight back the tears, but realised that she'd failed miserably as she tasted the saltiness of her pain gathering at the corners of her mouth.
After that last remark Faith knew she had done it, but somehow she didn't feel the way she thought she would. She was supposed to feel glad that she had broken any ties that were between them; after all it was for Buffy that she was doing this as well. Somewhere along the lines something had gone wrong, she had overlooked something, some minute detail that was the cause of the intense pain she was feeling in her chest.
As the Slayers' eyes locked together and Faith could see Buffy's heart breaking, she realised that what she was looking at was a mirror image of what was happening inside of her. The pain she was feeling inside was reflected in those beautiful green eyes that were staring back at her.
The plan had been, to make Buffy hate her and to make herself hate Buffy before either of them could fall into that vortex of feelings associated with love. What she had overlooked had been the deep down fact that they were already in love. Nobody was going to be able to take Buffy away from her, she hadn't given them the chance, in the five minutes or less she had managed to destroy all her hopes and dreams, and as the blonde Slayer excused herself to take refuge in the bathroom, Faith felt all chances of her happiness being cut to pieces by a very large proverbial axe.
Her legs buckled as the tears began to flow down her cheeks and she wept silently into her knees, which were pulled tightly against her chest.
In the bathroom, Buffy filled the sink, pulled her hair back and sank her face into the cold water. Only when her lungs began to hurt from the lack of oxygen did she pull back, gasping for air. Reaching for a towel she slowly dried her face, giving herself time to think about what had just happened.
Faith's words had hurt, but what had caused her the most pain was the memory of the times that they had fought before. That was a time when they had hated one another, and Buffy could never look back on those times without feeling guilty and sorrowful. Even though she knew what Faith was trying to do it didn't make her words sting any less.
She hadn't wanted to leave the brunette out there alone with her thoughts, but she wanted even less to lose her cool and to begin arguing with Faith. That, she knew, would end all reasonable conversation and would most likely end in a fight or with one of them walking out, and the brunette would be even harder to reason with if given time alone to convince herself that she was not worthy of love and happiness.
She stared at herself for a long time, considering the next step. The images she's had that morning came back to her. Scenes involving her and Faith, watching the sun set together on a deserted beach in the middle of the summer, and making love under a moonlit sky with the sound of waves lapping against the shore. She didn't want to lose Faith, couldn't lose her. She had to fight.
With renewed resolve Buffy took a deep breath and moved towards the door.
The blonde Slayer had barely been in the bathroom five minutes, but during that time Faith had begun to feel that all consuming darkness beginning to surround her. She had stopped crying and was trying to push back the dark feelings that were threatening to break out.
She tried to tell herself that things weren't that bad, they could be fixed. She just had to swallow her pride, apologise to Buffy yet again for being so stupid, and explain why she had acted the way she had. Only, that would involve telling her about her step parents, about Kakistos, and about her fears of losing anybody she ever got close to.
Then there was the possibility that Buffy wouldn't want to know, that after that last outburst she would realise that Faith wasn't worth the hassle and just leave.
Time seemed to slow down, and the more of it that passed, the less strength Faith had to hold off the darkness. When Buffy emerged from the bathroom the brunette's efforts were so concentrated that she didn't even notice. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her hair, smoothing back the still damp locks, that she realised there was someone else in the room, and the shock of it caused her head to snap up with alarm.
Buffy took her hand back sharply and let it hang in the air, wondering what the brunette's reaction was going to be, but when she saw the look of recognition in her eyes she brought it back down to rest on the dark Slayer's left knee.
When the blonde spoke it was in a soothing tone and held with it no feeling of reproach towards the other girl.
"What you said… It hurt, and I'm not sure whether I deserved it or not, but…" She paused to think and Faith waited in anxious anticipation. "Unless you really meant it, I think we should just forget it."
Faith's expression quickly changed from anxious and scared to relieved and guilty, and when she spoke her words were rushed and broken.
"B, I'm so sorry… God, I hate myself right now. I-I don't know why I said those, things."
"I do, and I think you do too." Faith raised an eyebrow. Buffy smiled at how cute she thought the brunette looked when she did that and reached out a hand to smooth out the brow with the tip of her middle finger. "We've still got a lot to work out. I know everything is happening fast, but the way I see it, we're making up for lost time.
"It's ok to feel nervous about all this, I know I do. The past couple of days; my mind has been all over the place, I've barely had time to think and most of it's just a big blur. And just for the record; what Xander said is completely untrue; I'm not with you because you're great in bed."
Faith smiled slightly at this and then sighed deeply. "I know B; deep down I know all this. There's just this part of me that doesn't want to believe it. It's like; whenever anything's going my way and I'm happy, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop, there's got to be a catch somewhere. I guess I figure, if I have nothing, then there's nothing to lose. I didn't want us to get really serious and then have to lose you."
Tears were falling down the dark Slayer's face as she continued to talk, and only when she stopped did she notice them.
"Look at me; I'm crying like a fuckin' baby, how weak is that?" She said in annoyance.
Up until now the blonde had been letting Faith talk, sensing that she was on a role, but the brunette's last sentence was not something that she just wanted to let lie.
"You are not weak Faith; showing your emotions does not make you weak. You're allowed to cry, it's perfectly natural. God, if I didn't cry now and again I think I'd explode." She let this sink in before continuing. "I'm not going to think any less of you if you want to breakdown occasionally. All I ask is that you tolerate me when I'm having one, 'cause when it comes to breakdowns I'm like old faithful."
Faith laughed a little and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. "Thanks." She said a bit croakily.
"Anytime." They stayed quiet for a moment until Buffy asked the brunette something she'd been wondering about since Faith had mentioned it. "By the way, how did you know about Spike?"
The dark Slayer's brow furrowed in confusion. "Spike?"
Buffy hesitated for a moment wondering if the brunette actually knew about him like she'd thought, but seeing as how she'd already brought it up she knew she couldn't back out now. "Um, you said something about me and vampires, so I assumed you somehow knew about him." The look on the other Slayer's face was her answer. "You didn't know about him, did you?" She said in defeat and Faith shook her head. "Way to put my foot in it." Buffy said quietly with her eyes focused on her hands that were resting in her lap.
Faith was somewhat confused, but tried to hide it. From the blonde's unintentional confession she had worked out that Buffy had had sex with Spike, who she had only ever met in Buffy's body, but what confused her were the reasons why. She understood the whole Angel thing; he had a soul, he fought evil, and he had the whole dark and dangerous thing going on, but as far as she knew Angel was the only vampire with a soul, so that would mean that Buffy had had sex with Spike who she assumed was still evil. She would never have thought it of the blonde.
Buffy was beginning to feel worried as the silence wore on. She breathed a sigh of relief when the dark Slayer spoke calmly and reasonably.
"So, was there some other reason why you slept with him, or was it just about the whole hungry horny thing?"
"A little bit of both."
"You gonna expand on that, or do I gotta guess?" She asked, letting a grin tug at the corner of her mouth and letting the blonde Slayer know that she wasn't angry.
Feeling more confident, but needing to move around, Buffy stood up and went to the window that the brunette had been looking out of previously and stared up into the sky. Faith stayed where she was on the floor, thinking that Buffy needed the space.
"It was so peaceful up there… There was no, pain or darkness. I didn't have to worry about anything. My time was over; I'd finally earned my way into heaven." She paused and crossed her arms over her chest as the brunette got up off the floor and approached her from behind and pulled her into a loose embrace, encouraging her to continue.
"They brought me back and I couldn't cope. I was exhausted trying to pretend like everything was ok. With Spike, he didn't expect me to be ok all the time and I didn't have to pretend with him… He'd had a thing for me for quite a while, and I guess I was desperate. I wanted to know if I could still feel; he made me feel. Most of the time he just made me feel disgusted with myself, but I was spiralling downward and I felt like I couldn't stop.
"I did eventually tell him that I couldn't be with him, and that I was using him and it was killing me. He thought he was in love with me, he was still very persistent."
The blonde's last words struck an alarm bell in the brunette and she wanted to know if her thoughts were going in the right direction.
"What do you mean; persistent how?"
Buffy hesitated and wiped a tear from her cheek before crossing her arms again. "He tried to rape me." She said almost inaudibly. "He didn't; I managed to fight him off, but… It just made me feel really weak. I felt like it was my fault for having played with him before."
Faith hugged the blonde closer to her and talked calmly to her, reassuring her. "B, it wasn't your fault. You said no, that should be enough for anyone. He overstepped the border, and if I find him I'm so gonna make him hurt."
Buffy smiled slightly and turned in the embrace. "As comforting as it is that you would seek vengeance on someone who has caused me pain; you can't stake Spike."
Faith frowned. "Why the hell not?"
"He's already dust. Your double staked him last week."
The dark Slayer was a tad disappointed by this news, but also relieved that the bleached blonde blood sucker was no longer around to cause trouble. She shrugged and walked backward a couple of steps to sit on the bed and pulling the blonde along with her, tugged Buffy onto her lap.
Buffy ran her fingers through the brunette's hair and marvelled at how soft and silky it felt between her fingers, all the while letting the pain of their earlier conversation ebb away as she gave into the calmness that had begun to take over. Faith gazed up at the blonde in a kind of awe, wondering how she ever got so lucky.
"So, are we ok then?" The brunette asked after a few moments.
Buffy looked into Faith's eyes and smiled softly as she leant forward, bringing her mouth in kissing distance, and whispered, "What do you think?"
Faith ran her hand up behind the blonde's neck and pulled her down to close the remaining distance between them. The kiss started off soft and undemanding, but soon verged on becoming out of control. The synchronised rumbling of the Slayers' stomachs brought them apart and Faith groaned in annoyance at the interruption.
"Maybe we should eat that food you prepared."
Buffy lowered her head to the dark Slayer's neck and let her hands do what they wanted as she replied, "Just ignore it."
"B, I can't ignore it. It's just gonna get louder if we carry on with this."
The blonde sat up and pouted for a moment before an idea came to her. Getting off the bed she grabbed a plate from the table and then moved back over to the brunette, pushing her back down before she too could get up.
"Well, maybe we can do both then." She said with a wicked smile before popping a stone-less cherry into her mouth. As she saw the dark Slayer's eyes widen in anticipation she took a step forward and then proceeded to kneel on the bed with one knee on either side of the brunette's legs. "How d'ya like that idea?"
Faith's answer was an enthusiastic nod, and before she had time to reply properly there was a cherry in her mouth, followed shortly by a tongue, seemingly wanting to share the small morsel.
Taking her time, Buffy fed the brunette Slayer while alternatively divesting Faith of her clothes and assisting Faith in the removal of her own clothes. When the cherries were gone they decided to move onto the floor as neither one of them really wanted to sleep in a bed that was full of cookie crumbs.
After making love the first time they lay panting on the floor and it was Faith who realised what a mess they'd managed to get in to. As a solution Buffy dragged the dark Slayer into the bathroom and pushed her into the shower. Trying not to let her hair get too wet she slowly ran a soap laden sponge all over Faith's body before allowing the favour to be returned.
By the time they had dried off and slipped under the covers neither of them had enough energy to do anything besides snuggle. Buffy laid her head on Faith's shoulder and made random patterns on her stomach with the tips of her fingers, while the brunette ran her fingers through silky blonde hair.
Before long both Slayers found themselves drifting off to sleep, neither one aware of the trials that lay shortly before them.
Order of Destruction HQ; In between worlds. 16th day.
Lebath was getting restless. Ever since her outburst at the meeting her fellow council members had been avoiding her and Aramath had been keeping an eye on her every move, making it hard for her to make the necessary plans for the capture of the Slayers’ child.
Lisbaen was all prepared now for the ritual that would take place in three days. They had planned on capturing the child the day before so that the Slayers wouldn’t have enough time to find out where the ritual was taking place, but now Lebath was having second thoughts.
She had many demons at her disposal. They were strong, loyal and would die for the cause, basically they were big and stupid, but they would be enough to take down the four Slayers and any other forces they could come up with. She could have many levels of security in place before the Slayers could find their hiding, and by which time it should be just about time to start the ritual.
The hardest part was separating the Slayers so that they could easily take the child without too much hassle. As she paced a few more times up and down the length of the room an idea came to her. With this thought her mind was made up. She wasn’t going to wait any longer; she wanted that child now.
Thinking of her destination she vanished from the OoD HQ and materialised at the entrance to Lisbaen’s den, startling the guards as she did so. They bowed to her as soon as they realised who she was and made way for her to enter. Once inside she swiftly crossed over the gravel floor to Lisbaen’s quarters and didn’t bother knocking before she entered.
The scene that greeted her did not surprise her and all she had to do was to wave an arm and order them all out before turning on the remaining demon.
“I want the Slayer’s child now. I’ve decided; there is too much that could go wrong if we wait. If we could get her now we would have everything we needed. All we would have to do is to wait for the new moon, and to keep an eye out for the Slayers. They will have a hard time trying to find us; we’re not even in the same dimension as they are.” Lebath said with certainty, daring Lisbaen to contradict her.
He hesitated before answering, still trying to conduct himself after the interruption. “It’s a great plan in theory,” he began cautiously. “But these Slayers have a history of being very resourceful in times of conflict, especially when someone they care for is in danger. It would be wrong to underestimate them.”
She considered him for a while; longer than she needed to, but she wanted to watch him squirm under her gaze. At last she said, “You’re right. I wouldn’t want to underestimate them, but if left any longer they would have more time to research and to possibly discover our plan. I want to get to the child now, while their defences are low. This way we will have her and even if they do discover our location before the ritual we will have many guards to tackle them.
“We will move on this today. My sources tell me that the other two Slayers are not staying in the same place as the child’s parents. You will fix me a loop for them; to keep them out of the way. They are all supposed to be meeting later this morning. If my instincts are right, and they always are, they will send a search party for the looped Slayers and this is when we’ll strike. They will leave one Slayer with the child I’m sure of it, but with a few of our best warriors she will be no problem to overpower.” She smiled as the plan began to come together in her head.
“They have two Wiccans with them also. One is weak from a long illness; the other though is very strong. D’Hoffrin was looking to add her to his group of vengeance demons.” He warned.
“Interesting… Well, where they have witches, we shall send warlocks. The council has a few and I’m sure I can convince a couple of them to do me a favour.” She paused to think over the plan again and once she was satisfied she began giving orders. “Find someone to create a loop for the new couple. I want it in place before they wake. I will talk to the warlocks and make a deal with them. Then we will wait. When the time is right we will strike, and then the child will be mine.”
With that she swept out of the cave, leaving behind one frustrated demon and many confused and awed followers.
Faith’s hotel room.
Buffy yawned and stretched as she woke, moving her head to the side as she did so. She almost choked as she suddenly found herself with a mouth-full of dark hair. She sat up slightly and pulled the remaining strands out of her mouth before taking a look at the girl lying next to her.
Faith was lying on her front with her head resting on her arms and her hair covered most of her face. Buffy smiled and turned onto her side. She reached out with her free arm and brushed a strand of dark hair out of the brunette’s face so that she could see her better.
The brunette sighed deeply in her sleep and moved closer to Buffy. It was a little over half an hour later when Faith awoke to find herself snuggled up into the crook of her lover’s arm. She too stretched and then shifted so that she could lay small kisses over Buffy’s neck and collar.
The blonde tilted her head back and closed her eyes, revelling in the sensations the brunette’s kisses were invoking in her. Faith moved so that her left leg was situated between the blonde’s and pushed down so that her thigh roughly grazed the sensitive area at the junction in between.
Buffy gasped slightly and wrapped her right leg around the brunette’s right, pulling her down father. The need for release rose up at an alarming rate in both Slayers and as Faith brought her mouth down to envelope the tip of the blonde’s breast Buffy slid a hand down the brunette’s body and buried her fingers in a nest of wiry hair.
Faith spread her legs more to give the blonde better access and lowered herself down onto probing fingers. As she began rocking back and forward she brought her lips to Buffy’s and kissed her with all the passion and desire she was feeling. She slid her own hand down to Buffy’s centre and entered her.
The two rocked back and forth, matching the other’s rhythm and Buffy soon found herself on the brink of letting go.
“Faith, faster.” She cried as she gripped the brunette’s shoulder with her free hand, and her plea was quickly answered.
The sensations rose up in her quickly and she was soon begging for release. When her body did finally grant her that wish, she surged up and her whole body stopped still as a wave of vibrations shot through her.
Faith suddenly became desperate when the blonde’s fingers stopped what they had been doing and she whimpered with need as she tried to relieve herself by rubbing her centre against the other Slayer’s thigh. Buffy, almost immediately, saw the urgency her lover craved and resumed the motions of her hand, bringing the brunette to a powerful release.
The dark Slayer collapsed on top of her girlfriend and then, so as not to crush the blonde, she rolled them over so that they were facing one another from the side. She kissed Buffy slowly, dragging her tongue over pouting lips before beginning to re-explore that warm, dark cavern.
A familiar buzzing sound brought them out of their embrace and Buffy growled before getting out of bed and retrieving the offending item from her jacket.
“Hello?” She said into the receiver.
*Buffy listen, we need you to get back here pretty quick, both of you, is that ok?*
“Is something wrong?” Buffy asked with worry.
*No, it’s just that there’s someone here who needs to speak to everyone.*
“Ok, we’ll be there as soon as we can.” Buffy said before saying goodbye and hanging up.
Faith knew by the look on the blonde’s face that there would be no more playing around that morning and she slowly got out of bed and gathered some clothes together.
“I so need to buy some new clothes.” She said as she picked up the same pants that she had been wearing for the previous two days.
“Maybe we’ll have time to make a quick pass by the mall later.” The older girl thought out loud while fastening the clasp of her bra.
“I have to call my parole officer too; I need to make an appointment to see her.”
“You can use my phone if you like.” Buffy suggested, wanting to help the brunette Slayer in any way she could.
“Thanks B.” The brunette said as she pulled her tank over her head.
They each took their turn in the bathroom before pulling on shoes and heading out the door to make their way over to Buffy’s house. As the hotel became smaller in the distance behind them Buffy slipped her arm through the brunette’s, whose hands were buried deeply in her pockets, and gave her a warm smile, which was returned in kind.
They continued the rest of the way in this manner, each of them thinking about how happy they were be near one another.
When they arrived they went straight in and neither was as nervous as the day before, when they hadn’t known what response they were going to get. Like the day they remembered as yesterday, the two witches were just coming down the stairs as they entered the hallway, and the greeting they received was much the same. The Slayers simply attributed it to something that the red head was going to have to get used to before she would lose that coldness towards the dark Slayer.
“So, who is it who wants to talk to us?” Buffy asked after an awkward moment of silence.
“Her name’s Wren, she’s in the living room.”
“Oh.” Buffy said in surprise. “How come you didn’t tell us it was Wren over the phone? And I thought she wasn’t going to come back for a couple of days; did she find something else out about these demons?”
The witches exchanged a confused look. “You know her?” Tara asked.
“We met her yesterday.” Faith said with a frown creasing her forehead.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Willow asked. “What did she tell you?” She added with curiosity.
The Slayers exchanged a glance this time. “Will, you were there… Yesterday, you called me, told us to come here. You talked with Faith in the hall and you scared her by telling her that she might be pregnant.” At the still confused expressions on her friend’s faces she turned to the brunette for confirmation and when Faith nodded that this was what she remembered Buffy continued. “Wren told us about how Beth is supposed to be some sort of super Slayer when she grows up and these two demons are trying to get to her so they can kill her… Is any of this ringing any bells?”
“Buffy, Faith only arrived in Sunnydale yesterday; this is the first time we’ve seen her in years.” Willow said with complete seriousness.
Summers’ Home, Real Time.
Willow placed the receiver back into the handset when she decided that no one was going to pick up at the other end. The Slayers were supposed to have been there an hour ago and she had suggested trying to call them, but all she had gotten so far was endless ringing.
“Probably too busy having sex to care.” The red head complained quietly as her girlfriend stood before her in the hallway.
“Willow.” Tara said, admonishing the other witch. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation for their tardiness. She may just have her phone on silent and might be on her way over already.” She suggested.
Willow nodded though she didn’t entirely believe it. “We’ll give them a while longer then.”
“They know how serious the situation is. Beth is like their own child; they would want to help as much as possible I know it.” She said with resolve.
Willow smiled at the blonde and pulled her into a loving embrace and kissed her firmly. “I love you.” She simply said.
Tara blushed before returning the sentiment and they both returned to the living room to await the arrival of the other Slayers.
It was more than an hour later and the two Slayers were still MIA, and Buffy was still not answering her phone. Everyone was starting to get a little worried; they couldn’t imagine that either Buffy or even Faith would be so neglectful of their duties in such a situation.
“Someone should go over there and check it out.” The dark Slayer suggested with her daughter sitting in her lap.
Buffy got up from her position beside her wife. “Something’s not right about this. Whoever goes at least one Slayer should go with them, so I’ll go.”
“Me too.” Tara said firmly, and stopped the red head when she tried to protest. “No Will, you should stay here. Your powers are stronger than mine and you might need them to help to protect Beth.”
They all agreed though Willow did reluctantly and both blonde’s kissed their respective partners (and daughter in Buffy’s case), good bye before heading out the door.
They walked quickly, not wanting to leave the brunette and red head alone for too long. They were silent except for agreeing on directions and soon they came to their desired destination. They took the lift up to the second floor and moved briskly down the hall to room 053. Buffy knocked rapidly on the wood and they waited for a moment, but no reply came.
“Try again.” Tara suggested as she saw the frustrated look on her companion’s face.
The Slayer complied, but still they got no answer. She put her ear to the door and listened.
“Can you hear anything?” The witch asked.
Buffy shook her head. “No. I can hear a clock ticking, but that’s all.”
“What if they’re still asleep?”
The other girl shook her head slowly. “I’d be able to hear Faith snoring if she were asleep.”
Tara seemed to find this amusing. “Faith snores?”
Buffy smiled. “Very softly, but I’d be able to hear it.”
A thought then occurred to the witch. “But this isn’t your Faith we’re looking for. They’re mostly the same, but what if this one doesn’t snore?”
Buffy thought about this for a moment. “I could try to break in.” She considered this as she tested the door handle to see how strong it was. “Ok, I’m gonna try it.”
She twisted the handle and pushed the door with her shoulder. Seconds later a loud click and the splintering of wood could be heard and both blondes cautiously crept inside as the door came open.
Immediately they could tell that they had been correct in their assumptions that no one was at home. Tara immediately spotted Buffy’s cell phone sitting on the bed side table and picked it up before waving it at the forgetful Slayer’s double. The Slayer at hand blushed a little bit and shrugged her shoulders.
They found nothing that would give them any clues into the other Slayers’ disappearance and the witch placed the phone back on the bed in case the pair should come back. They left the room knowing little more than when they had got there, other than the fact that neither the blonde nor brunette Slayer was still present at the hotel.
Back at the house the situation had just turned chaotic. As the two brunette’s and the red head had been sitting in the living room, writing notes (and doodling), They had heard a crash and a loud bang from the back door and before they could gather any real fire power or form a plan they were encircled by at least ten demons.
Beth was immediately placed between the two of them for protection and neither the witch nor the Slayer moved too far away so that no demon could come near the tiny future warrior.
Faith moved with all the power and speed that her Slayer status, plus the desire to protect her daughter, could give her. Adrenaline pumped through her without mercy and any attacks that she couldn’t block hardly registered in her brain as she slaughtered one demon after another. She was grateful to have a mirror on the wall in front of her so that every now and then she could check on the small girl behind her and on occasion see how her new witch friend was faring against the onslaught.
Willow had started out strong and in front of her too was a growing pile of dead demons, but she was weakening rapidly and the demons were still coming. There was an invisible battle going on inside the witch at that moment, but it didn’t take long for her to decide what was best and in moments her eyes had become blacker than black and two demons quickly went down in front of her.
From outside, for everyone to see, were at least a dozen more demons. Those that could see in through the windows saw the change in the red head and signalled to one another to concentrate on the brunette instead.
The Slayer’s hope was fading fast. In the past couple of minutes the pressure from her attackers had increased dramatically, almost to the point where she could no longer keep track of them all and with many fallen victims at her feet she was beginning to find it harder and harder to move around comfortably.
With no mirror in front of her, the red head couldn’t tell how Faith was doing behind her and had no idea of the effect her decision had made on the Slayer, or what the consequences of her actions would be. She was beginning to get weak again, but as the number of her attackers had fallen a great deal she figured that they would be triumphant in the end.
The dark Slayer had just glanced over at the mirror for a second and had let the fact that her daughter was still ok register in her brain before turning back to the fight when out of nowhere a particularly ugly demon to the left of her, just out of her line of sight, brought a heavy weapon down on the back of her head.
The pain took a moment to register, but by the time it had she had already fallen and the demons were not stupid enough to let her get her ground again as they pushed forward and darkened her world with unconsciousness. Willow was not far behind the Slayer as there was no longer any protection on her back and the last thing she heard was Beth’s cries for her mother before her world too faded to black.
As soon as the blonde Slayer saw the open door and smelled the scent of demons in the air she felt her heart hit the pit of her stomach and rushed forward into the house. The two blondes found broken furniture everywhere, the worst of it being in the living room where they had left their significant others and the Slayers’ daughter.
As they entered their anxiety grew; there were their lovers lying unconscious on the floor and with cuts and bruises blemishing their features. They each moved over to their partners and attempted to bring them round.
Buffy stroked the brunette’s head, which was now resting in her lap, and whispered to her. “Faith, baby. Come on, you need to wake up.” The distress was evident in her voice and in her heart she knew what had happened. At the moment she would only concentrate on the other Slayer, but she knew that as soon as Faith woke up she was going to have to face the fact that their daughter had been taken. “Faith, I need you now; please wake up.”
Over the other side of the room the Wicca was slowly waking up and soon realised what had happened. The room was a mess and her head hurt a lot, but the demons had gone and she knew what that meant; they had failed.
“Willow. Are you ok?” She heard the anxious voice of her lover from above her.
“My head hurts, but I’ll be alright. Where’s Faith?” She asked with surprising concern.
“Buffy’s trying to wake her up. What happened?”
“Demons, lots of them. Too many to fight. Did you find the others?” She asked, referring to the two Slayers that belonged in their world.
Tara shook her head slowly. “No, there was no one there, and Buffy’s cell was lying on the bed, so unless they go back there she’s not going to answer it.”
“Damn it. What the hell is going on?” She said out loud as her frustration grew.
“It didn’t look like there was a struggle; I’m thinking that they left voluntarily.” The blonde witch said, but didn’t have any theories as to what had happened to the pair.
“It was a set up.” Faith said as she caught the tail end of the witches’ conversation, having just woken up. “They wanted to make sure that there was as little resistance as possible. They knew we would go looking for the others.” She broke her gaze away from the witches and turned a guilty expression on her wife. “There were just too many of them. I couldn’t keep an eye on them all.”
Buffy felt the tears pricking the backs of her eyes and tried in vain to keep them away. “I know baby; you did your best, I wouldn’t have been able to do any more… Is she… Do you know if she’s still alive?” Buffy asked with difficulty.
Faith looked at her loved with watery eyes, but had no answer for her as the tears began to fall. It was Willow who answered the blonde Slayer’s question.
“They took her alive.” She said with certainty, but paused before explaining to them how she knew this. “She… I could still hear her crying as they left.”
They were quiet for a while; the only sounds that could be heard were the brunette’s muffled sobs as she had her head buried in her wife’s shoulder. Buffy stroked dark hair and held Faith tightly as her own tears fell in silence.
It was almost an hour later when the Slayers looked at one another again and shared an unspoken understanding of the other’s feelings. Buffy nuzzled the top of her wife’s head and then gave to her a comforting kiss. She used her great strength to pull them both off the floor and noticed for the first time that they were alone in the room and she wondered how long they had been sitting there.
“Faith, look at me.” She commanded once they were both steady on their feet. “We’re going to get her back.” She said, the tone of her voice leaving no room for disagreement.
Faith nodded before adding, “Or we’ll die trying.”
“Or we’ll die trying.” The blonde repeated in agreement.
With that settled they kissed again, taking their time to indulge in the feelings this action invoked in each of them, as they knew it would be a while before they would have the chance to do this again.
They made their way into the dining room where the witches were sitting at the table holding hands; a bright light seemed to come from all around them. When the light dissipated each of the Wiccans relaxed and began to breathe a little more slowly.
“What was that all about?” Faith asked before sitting down; she was still weak from the fight.
“A locating spell. We were trying to see where they’d taken her.” Tara said.
Both Slayers appeared interested at this. “And?” Buffy asked, impatience lining her voice.
“The results were inconclusive.” Willow said as she tried to catch her breath.
“Meaning?” Faith asked with the same tone as her wife.
The witches exchanged a look. “Meaning that she is no longer here… In this world.”
AU Sunnydale.
Giles, Annie, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya, Spike and Dawn were all sitting or standing in various places around the Magic Box that afternoon. After another two gruelling days of research they had found out quite a lot about the situation at hand.
Currently they were collecting ingredients for the spell that would bring the Slayers back to their world. They had made the discovery just the day before; it had been in one of the books that the Watcher had brought with him from England. Everyone was anxious to have the Slayers back at home and in charge; they were all feeling a little naked without their protection, though none of them would have admitted it.
They had discovered when and where the ritual would take place and knew that by now Lebath would have all the ingredients, minus Beth, or so they hoped.
The blonde vampire had joined them that morning after having kept to himself for a couple of days and had told them that a lot of demons and one or two warlocks had shown up around the hellmouth. They all made the correct assumption that the demons would be a part of Lebath’s army, and the mention of the warlocks told them how serious Lebath was in her intentions.
The two witches were collecting ingredients from the store room in the basement and were talking about their plans to defeat Lebath.
“When did you want to do the spell?” Tara asked the red head as she placed another item in the box.
“As soon as everything is ready. Today hopefully.” Willow replied. Tara was quiet for a moment while she thought about this. “Why, what were you thinking of?”
“I was just thinking that maybe it would be best to contact them first to tell them what we’re doing. Maybe by using the dream spell.” She picked up another item that was on her list and placed it in the box with the other ingredients. “What if they’re in the middle of something and we just pull them back here?”
Willow raised an eyebrow at the blonde who blushed when she realised what her friend was thinking about. “I was thinking more along the lines of them being in a fight, protecting someone, and then we pull them away and some innocent person dies because of us… But there is the other thing as well.” She admitted with a shy smile.
Willow nodded in agreement. “You’re right; it’s too risky to just do it without their knowledge. We could do the dream spell tonight. We’ll try to contact Buffy; we should be able to get at least one of them. Though I doubt she’s sleeping much.”
“Early morning would probably be the best time; after the sun has begun to rise. At least she shouldn’t still be hunting at that time.” Tara suggested and the red head quickly agreed.
They made their way up stairs to the main area of the shop and relayed their plan to the others, who also agreed that it would be best to wait until morning, and they began preparing the spell that would allow Willow to enter Buffy’s mind in their dreams.
Everyone except Spike went to bed as normal and the Watcher and the two witches set their alarms in time for sunrise so that they could perform the spell. It was only just beginning to get light when the red head was trying to get back to sleep again, after having drunk the potion, and she could hear Giles and Tara chanting in the back ground.
Fortunately the potion also acted as a sort of sleep inducing medicine and through the sounds of voices she could feel herself giving way to the feeling. Not long after the voices had drifted away the red head found herself in a white hall and men and women in blue pyjama type clothing were walking by in various directions.
She began walking, not sure of where she was going, but just following her instincts. She was startled by a scream proceeded by crying and she quickly pursued the sounds before coming to a small room where she was pleased to find both Slayers and to her surprise, a new-born Beth.
Willow decided not to interrupt just yet as the scene was so beautiful, and she considered that the blonde might be grateful to be remembering happy times. So she stood out of sight at the back of the room and watched the interaction between mothers and daughter.
Moments later a doctor stepped into the room, but this was no ordinary doctor, it was a demon in hospital scrubs and the witch was horrified to see her walk over to the bed and pick the child up before laughing maniacally and walking away, taking the baby with her. She looked back to the Slayers and saw that they were both in floods of tears, but weren’t going after the demon that had just taken their child.
She listened as the brunette wept.
“She’s gone B; I let them take her… They’re gonna kill her. I couldn’t stop them. I knew what they would do, but I couldn’t stop them.”
Not being able to stand it any longer Willow stepped forward and addressed her best friend.
“Buffy.” She said softly and watched as both Slayers turned to her with puzzled expressions.
“Will, what are you doing here?” The blonde asked after a moment.
So the red head explained to them what she knew and informed them of her plans to bring them back home. Then it was the Slayers’ turn to tell the witch about their own experiences and about Beth’s capture.
They agreed to perform the spell at twelve later that day. The Slayers told Willow about the strange disappearance of the other Slayers and wondered if those Slayers too could be brought over to their home world to help, if they could be found. Willow said that it was possible and noted in the back of her mind to make allowances for this when she came to perform the spell later.
Willow gave them each a reassuring hug and offered them a few words of comfort before concentrating on returning back to consciousness.
‘Real World’ Sunnydale, Time Loop.
Both Slayers were bemused as they headed back to the hotel later that day. It had taken a while to convince everyone that they had met Wren before and that they weren’t crazy, but they had managed it in the end.
Naturally, everybody had turned to the pink haired woman for answers, none of which she had. All she could offer them were a few guesses, one of them being that Lebath had placed them in a time loop so as to take them out of the game for a short while.
When asked why the demon couldn’t have done that to all of them except Beth until the ritual was over, she replied that the council of demons would have been informed and would have become suspicious, which would have raised too many questions that the demon wouldn’t have been able to answer without blowing her cover.
So after they all had sat around in silence for a while contemplating what this could mean for theirs’ and Beth’s future the suggestion had been made that they should go back to the hotel and hope that they were back to their normal time by morning.
They rode the elevator up in silence, each deep in their own thoughts, and when they eventually reached the door to the brunette’s room the only communication that passed between them was look of increasing gloom and hopelessness before they passed through the door and into the room.
What awaited them there caught them completely by surprise.
An apartment on the outskirts of Sunnydale, 'Real World'.
The apartment shone with a bright light that could not be seen, even through the windows, from outside. The light came from the centre of the main room where a familiar pink haired woman sat meditating. Eyes visibly moved from behind their lids and her forehead was creased into a deep frown as she concentrated.
Her body sagged and the light dimmed as she awakened, and her eyes scanned the room as she re-familiarised herself with her surroundings.
News had reached Wren earlier that morning telling her that Lebath had made her move and that she had been successful in taking the Slayer's child. At first she had not believed it, had been certain that it couldn't happen, but after a little talk with the higher powers she knew it was true.
The rules had changed. Lebath had moved before her time; it was unexpected, but Wren would find a way to work with it. If the bad guys were allowed to bend the rules then so was she.
She decided to walk to the Slayer's house; it would give her time to think over her plan. Everything had to be done just right, and it had to be done quickly, before the powers that be had tome to stop her. She wasn't supposed to actively help the mortals; all they had allowed her to do was to give information, but then she had never been very good at following rules.
Wren was not surprised to find herself trapped against a wall by a very pissed off Slayer as soon as the door had been opened. If she had still had any doubts regarding the truth of Beth's kidnapping, this would have confirmed it.
"Faith, if you want her to talk you're gonna have to loosen your grip a little." Buffy said this from behind the dark Slayer, her voice hard and her eyes cold as she spoke.
The dark Slayer's grip loosened enough so that Wren would be able to speak, but still tight enough that it was uncomfortable for the pink haired woman.
"Ok mystery lady, you get one chance and no asking the audience; where's our daughter?" Buffy spoke again, just as the witches entered and fixed their accusing stared on the visitor.
"She's back in your home world, in an underground cavern, near the hellmouth. Look, you don't need this aggressive force. Like I said before, I'm here to help."
"Lot of help you've been so far; you said they weren't gonna move for a few days and yet here we are, minus one future bad-ass Slayer. So what'd ya have to say 'bout that?" Faith's tone was full of hurt and anger and every now and then her voice would crack slightly.
"I told you what I thought was true at the time. It was the most likely scenario and I didn't know that Lebath was going to change her mind. She's not playing by the rules, and if she's not then I don't see why I should either. Therefore, I'm going to do what I was specifically told not to and I'm going to help you get Beth back." Her gaze never once left the brunette's and with each word she could feel Faith's grip easing.
"Ok, so how exactly are you gonna help us?" Faith asked as she stepped back to stand next to her wife.
"I'll take you there; back home. You and the other Slayers."
"We can't find the others." Willow said from behind the two Slayers.
"I found that out about an hour ago. They're trapped in a time loop; they're reliving yesterday. Or more precisely, the day before yesterday as it's passed midnight now… When you're both ready we'll go there and then I'll take you home."
"What do you want us to do?" Willow asked curiously.
"Stay here and guard the hellmouth. It'll be business as usual for other vampires and demons."
Both witches nodded reluctantly. "Isn't there anything we could research in case you need any help?" Tara asked cautiously.
Wren considered this for a moment and seemed to be having an internal debate before she answered. "There's a website you could look at." She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and jotted down the URL. "The password is there as well." She received curious stares from all four women. "It's the Watchers Council's database. Everything you'll need to know will be there. They change the password every month though so you'll have to be quick."
The Slayers took this as their cue and quickly ascended the stairs to collect any of their belongings that they had brought with them. Once they were ready they said their goodbyes and thank you's to the witches and were wished good luck before they set off for the hotel where the other Slayers had been staying.
As time was of the essence Wren broke another of the PTB's rules and teleported them all across town. They materialised outside of the room as they weren't sure what to expect from inside. They waited a while after knocking twice, but received nothing except silence from the other side.
"Are you sure they're here?" Asked Buffy impatiently.
"I'm sure." Wren said with certainty.
After knocking for a third time the brunette became fed up with waiting and forced the door open. As the trio stepped inside they were greeted with a smaller version of the Summers' home after the demon attack and on the floor lay an unconscious blonde Slayer.
Faith immediately dropped to her side, shortly followed by Buffy, but they had no success in trying to wake the other Slayer.
Meanwhile Wren had disappeared into the bathroom and came back seconds later with a worried expression.
"We don't have any time left. I don't know where the other Faith is, but if we're going to do this then we have to go now. Hopefully our unconscious friend here will be able to shed some light on the situation when we wake her up at the other end."
The lovers exchanged a quick glance and shortly nodded to one another in silent agreement.
"Alright, let's do this." Faith said as she lifted her wife's double and waited for further instruction.
Wren approached them and placed one hand on the sleeping Slayer and another on the brunette, and then instructed the conscious blonde to hold on to her.
"Whatever you do, don't let go of me." She said to Buffy before closing her eyes and beginning to chant.
AU, A large cavern adjacent to the Hellmouth. 17th Day.
"Lisbaen, you amaze me. Showing your initiative by capturing the dark Slayer. This definitely put you in my good books." Lebath regarded the bound Slayer for a moment. "Isn't she going to wake up?"
"It might take a while. We wanted to make sure she stayed like this until she was secured, so we injected her with a soporific drug. It is enchanted also so she might not wake for a while."
Lebath sighed in annoyance. "Show me the girl then. I trust you didn't need an enchanted drug to keep control of her."
Lisbaen twitched slightly at the harshness of her words, but managed to contain his fear of her as he answered. "The child is awake; they'll bring her in here in a moment." He said as he looked towards the door in anticipation.
"Good… We will keep them in here together, but make sure that they are kept far apart. I don't want them managing to undo each other's restraints, or something stupid like that."
"Yes ma'm." He said obediently.
Before Lebath could become too irritated with waiting, a group of demons entered, all guarding a small cage, which contained the infant. The leader smiled wickedly as the demons set the cage down and Beth flattened herself against the back of the cage as she got nearer.
"Well, well… What have we here? It's nothing more than a frightened child." She stood up to her full height as she addressed her followers. "And this is supposed to be the mightiest warrior that ever lived." She said; mocking the 'slayer to be'. "It's pathetic really."
Several demons close by laughed nervously and kept their eyes on their leader as she retained the maniacal grin. Beth took the opportunity to check out her surroundings and soon noticed the brunette Slayer chained securely to the wall on her right. Immediately she tried to call out for the woman who she thought was her mother.
"Mommy! Mommy, wake up! Mommy, please." Tears began to fall down her face as she realised that the dark Slayer wasn't going to wake up, but she didn't stop calling to her.
"Shut up you little twit! Stop being so whiney! It's not even your mother." Beth continued to cry silently, all except for the occasional sniff. Lebath leaned down to the cage again. "Your mother is dead… Don't believe me? Ask my minions; they killed her, her and that meddling witch. Two less people to cause a problem for me."
"Daddy?" Beth said in her increasingly timid tone of voice.
Lebath frowned for a moment before she realised what the child was talking about, and then she began to laugh vigorously. "You mean the blonde Slayer; the one who just won't stay dead." Her tone was cruel as she stared fiercely at the young brunette. "Her double is dead now by the way," she said in a conversational tone, "and your 'daddy' won't evade my reach for too much longer. Two days from now and the whole of the human race will be bowing down to me."
Out of her line of sight two younger demons exchanged a nervous look and slowly tried to slip out of the room. After the euphoria of their first battle against the Slayers they had been a little too enthusiastic when it had come to giving their report; they had elaborated a tad too much and hadn't had the courage to say other wise when the leader had assumed that they had killed two of the Slayers.
"I wouldn't bet on that if I were you!" The voice was harsh and still croaky, and the tone was extremely pissed off.
"Ah. You're awake." Lebath said with a small amount of delight as she stood up and walked over to the brunette. She winced in mock sympathy as she looked over Faith's wounds. "That's a lovely black eye you've got there, does it hurt? I sure hope it does."
The dark Slayer began looking around for something and it didn't take the she demon long to figure out what that something was. "If you're looking for your little slut you won't have much luck. As soon as you were out cold she was no problem to finish off. You see, we only wanted you alive. Actually it wasn't my idea to bring you here at all. I had avoided having any of you killed as I thought it might bring unwanted attention from the PTB," she said this with a deep seed of hatred in her voice, "but Slayers die all the time from demon attacks and my connections with these demons are virtually untraceable. If they were to be traced, well, by then it would be too late to stop me."
Faith expression was somewhere between enraged and devastated. She pulled sharply on the chains, but achieved nothing except a gash on her wrist and a deep pain in her shoulder. The drugs were still working from within her system; it would take a few more hours until she was back to full strength.
"Now, now; none of that. Be a good girl and I might let you live to see the ritual." Lebath smiled evilly as she left the room and ordered four of her minions to guard the door.
Lisbaen followed Lebath through a series of tunnels to a small, but surprisingly cosy cave where she threw herself upon a mass of cushions in one corner and closed her eyes with a smile on her face.
"She's cute when she's mad, isn't she?" She said with her eyes still closed.
"You mean the Slayer?" Lisbaen said in confusion.
She stared at him with a hint of loathing and a slight sense of sympathy for his inferiority. "Yes, the fuckin' Slayer. Did you think I meant the child…? Or maybe you thought I had a thing for one of your minions." She scoffed and turned her gaze away from him before standing up.
"I…"
"Be quiet; I've had enough of you kissing my ass for one day." She walked past him and disappeared through a blood red curtain and came back seconds later with a large decorative box. "I want to go over the ritual again; make sure you know you part."
"I know my part." He said with clenched teeth.
"No harm in being sure." She muttered as she opened the box.
The contents of the box seemed to glow, and Lisbaen looked on in awe as Lebath picked out the items one by one. A shiny piece of black rock was the first thing to come out, followed by an odd looking jug that made a sloshing sound as the demons set it down, and then came a small dagger, which was decorated with runic symbols and tiny yellow jewels.
"We will transport the Slayers' child down to the hellmouth at dusk two days from now. I want you to supervise her transport and then you will make sure that she is bound according to the scrolls I gave you.
"You must also make sure that everything else needed will be there; you have the list. I will enter the cave at eleven thirty, by which time I expect the child to have been prepared with the elixir. I will begin the ritual and by midnight she will be dead and I will be the most powerful member of the Order that ever existed." Lebath stared off into space as she pictured what she imagined as a glorious future.
Lisbaen gave her a moment before asking, "My men were wondering if the security plans have changed since we now have the child and a Slayer."
She didn't think about this for long. "Double the guard around their prison; I don't want that Slayer getting any ideas. As for the security around the ritual, I believe we should spread out a little more. If the other Slayer turns up with her followers I want them to be challenged well out of range of the hellmouth."
Once they had finished discussing security issues Lebath placed the items back in the box and returned them to a reinforced safe behind the red curtain. She made her way out of the cave, leaving instructions with Lisbaen not to disturb the captives until she returned the next day. She had to make an appearance at another OOD meeting and she wasn't looking forward to it.
Author's Note: Most of the following part will take place in the AU. Technically this is the 'real world' for the married Buffy and Faith, but I thought it would be less confusing to keep our B and F as the 'real world' Slayers and the others as the 'AU' Slayers. I hope this makes as much sense to everyone else. Now and then you might see 'RW' or 'AU' in brackets to remind you of who's who.
AU, Slayers' house.
The television flickered and digital snow dominated the black screen before the picture began to play. The room in the image mirrored the reality of the room where the dark Slayer was sat on the couch, with her pain filled eyes fixated on the black box in front of her.
A ten month old Beth stood next to the coffee table, gripping fiercely to its edge so as not to fall down. The blonde Slayer could be seen in the background with her arms open towards the child; beckoning her forward. The light in Buffy's eyes twinkled dramatically as her daughter gave up her death grip on the table and stumbled forward a couple of steps before coming to a halt.
"Come on Beth, you can do it; come to Mama." On screen Buffy said; encouraging the infant to continue.
Gradually the tiny brunette lifted one leg after the other and waddled over to her blonde haired mother. As soon as she got there Buffy scooped her up into her lap and the camera was placed hastily on the floor as Faith joined them in their joyous embrace.
As soon as the home video came to an end the people on the screen began moving speedily backwards only to start all over again. Movement from behind the dark Slayer brought her out of her reverie and she turned to find her wife standing in the door way with watery eyes. Faith held out her hand to welcome the blonde over to the couch and Buffy gratefully rushed forward and cuddled up to her mate, both of them giving and receiving comfort of the other.
They were quiet for a while; simply watching reruns of their life together. A short time later they were joined by two witches and Faith turned off the television as she and the blonde turned to face their friend.
"Is she awake?" Faith asked of her wife's double, who they had transported over from the other dimension with them after having found her unconscious in a hotel room.
Willow nodded stoically. "She says there were some demons waiting for them when they got back to the hotel. She got knocked out during the fight; doesn't know what happened to the other Faith. I told her that you didn't see her when you got there; she's upset, to say the least."
Faith lowered her head in contemplation, wondering if there was anything she could say that would ease the distressed blonde's pain. Buffy stared at her wife from behind her and stroked back locks of midnight hair as she remembered her own pain from having lost the brunette two weeks previously.
"I'll go and talk to her." The blonde said and kissed her wife's head before leaving the room.
She slowly made her way upstairs; considering with each step what she was going to say to her alternative self. What would she want to hear in this situation? A fortnight before, the only thing she had wanted to hear were ideas on how she could get Faith back, and so she reasoned that this was the type of thing her double would also want to be told.
There was no one in the spare bedroom when she stepped inside and so she retreated back into the hallway and moved a few steps to the right where the bathroom was, and where she could hear the unmistakeable sounds of someone dry-heaving.
She knocked softly on the door and waited for a moment for an answer before moving inside.
"Who is it?" Came the reply from inside. "Oh, it's me." The other blonde said humourlessly as she stood up from where she had been kneeling next to the toilet and walked over to the sink. She ran the cold tap for a while, making sure that it was really cold before splashing the soothing liquid over her face and neck.
"You ok?" The woman at home asked before she could think about how stupid the question was.
"Dandy." Buffy said sarcastically.
"Stupid question huh…? I'm gonna ask Will and Tara to work on a locating spell. Then we'll have to check out how many demons we're dealing with; we'll work out a plan from there." She paused to gage her double's reaction, which was more hopeful and attentive than it had been.
"And if we can't find everything out in time?" She enquired.
"The ritual has to take place at midnight, two days from now. If we're not ready then we'll go in with what we've got. I don't want to lose Beth any more than you want to lose Faith."
Buffy (RW) sighed in a small amount of relief and appreciation as she turned back to the sink and placed her hands on each side as she let her arms carry her weight.
"God…" She said with a strangled voice. "Why does it have to hurt so much?"
The woman standing in the doorway blew out a gush of air as she attempted to answer the rather difficult question. "I guess maybe love would be too dull if it were picnics and daisies all the time. Perhaps it's the higher beings' way of spicing up our love lives; keeping us on our toes."
The Slayer whose eyes were slightly bloodshot grinned and barked a short, formidable laugh. "If it was all picnics and daisies then there would be no need for makeup sex."
"That would suck!" Her double agreed, and then paused as she considered the other slayer's words. "You've only been together for two days and already you've got to makeup sex. How'd you manage to fall out in that time?"
Buffy turned round and rested back against the sink and waved a hand in the air in dismissal. "With amazing ease… She has this whole 'I'm not good enough for you' thing going on, words were exchanged; ergo fall out." The blonde, now leaning just inside the doorway, smiled at the familiar scenario. "You got faced with that crap too?"
"Oh yeah." She agreed wholeheartedly with a fond smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "When she came here from Boston, after two years of being apart, a lot of things happened to her there to make her feel like she wasn't worth it. She found it hard to believe that I still wanted her in spite of all that stuff."
Buffy lowered her head as she thought about what must have happened to her new lover. "She had it… Bad. Didn't she?"
"Bad doesn't even come close to describing it. I wish so much that I had held on longer; not let my mom move us away so soon. If I had thought about leaving my new number with the people who moved into our old place. It just seems like such a simple thing; why the fuck didn't I think about that?" She cursed to herself again and scuffed her foot against the white linoleum floor as she became lost in self depreciative thoughts. Her double brought her out of her reverie when she spoke again.
"Your Faith… She edged around it; hinted at some things. She said that I had to be patient with my Faith; that she would tell me in her own time. But I want to help her now, you know? I want to be able to show her that I care about her regardless of what others may think. If accepting her past is what I need to do in order to do that; no problem."
"I wish it could be that easy for you. Hell, I wish it had been that easy for me. Faith's right. She may act dumb sometimes, but she's really got the insight thing going for her; especially as she's been there herself and pretty much has the same thoughts and feelings. Just give her time." She pushed herself off the wall that she had moved to lean on, ending the conversation.
"Speaking of time," Buffy (RW) said. "We don't have a lot left to do research and work on a plan."
"Let's get to it then!"
They made their way down stairs, the owner of the home slightly in front, walking slowly as her double stopped every couple of steps to stare at the photograph on the wall. Once in the living room the Slayer in front instinctively moved to sit next to her wife and the other Buffy sat in an arm chair opposite them and the witch.
After hours of reading, and talking on the phone to various contacts, they knew enough to give them the confidence they needed to go up against Lebath and feel as though they has a chance at winning. They had discovered some interesting facts about the demon's weaknesses, and knew how they could go about killing her and her partner Lisbaen.
They still wanted to know more about the number of demons that would no doubt be guarding the ritual. Wren had taken off again with promises to return the day before the ritual, and the Slayers were going to take a little trip to see an old friend to try and get some more info.
Buffy (RW) was more than eager to get out of the house as she was getting itchy feet sitting around all day, and the sun had just begun its decent over the horizon when the three Slayers strolled into 'Willie's' that evening. Business was slow, as it usually was when there was a big evil brewing, and the owner of the bar seemed pleased to have more customers when he heard the door open and close. That was, until he saw who his customers were.
The blonde Slayer and her wife were the first ones through the door and the few demons closest to them quickly slipped out through the back of the bar leaving only a pair of 'out of towners' and the bartender still present. Willie paled slightly when he saw the pair, but the expression on his face when he noticed the second blonde was priceless, and all three Slayers would have found it funny were the situation not so serious.
Faith took a seat calmly at the bar and the blondes flanked her as they too took their seats. The dark Slayer spoke, calmly and deathly serious, and inside she revelled in the slight tremble of the greasy haired man's hands as he cleaned a spotless glass over and over again.
"We're not in the mood to play games today Willie, and I really don't feel like hitting you, so why don't you just tell us what we want to know."
He shivered slightly under their intense gazes before answering them. "You'd be talkin' about these new demons in town, am I right? They've been keepin' a real low profile; didn't even know about them 'till a coupla days ago when I heard one of my regulars complain' about them.
"He's a Stickler demon, don't know if you've ever seen one; they're small, got a nasty bite, but otherwise they don't do much damage. He wasn't about to mess with these newbies by the size of 'em." Faith rolled her eyes and made a gesture that told him to get on with it. "Word is they're here for some ritual that's supposed to take place under the next new moon. They're gonna sacrifice some kid to give this demon, Lebath I think they called her, to give her more power. She's gonna be the new big thing around here if she manages to go through with it."
The brunette's mate took over from her when Willie looked as though he'd stopped talking. "Bonus question now Willie; how many of them are there?"
"There's no way I can be sure about that. Different demons say different things; they like to exaggerate." He warned as he put down his glass only to pick up another.
"Just tell us what you think." The other blonde said.
"Twenty, maybe thirty. Big things, great for following orders, but don't spend much time contemplating the meaning of life if you get what I mean." He smiled nervously, hoping that this would be enough to satisfy them. His left eye began to twitch uncontrollably as the brunette stared at him intently and he was convinced that she could read his mind.
"There's something you're not telling us." Faith said coolly as she looked him in the eye.
"No, no, I swear, that's it!" He answered a little too eagerly. Before he realised it she reached over the bar and grabbed him by his shirt collar, the glass in his hand went tumbling to the floor and smashed where his feet would have been, were they still touching the ground.
"You know that kid they're going to sacrifice." She said through clenched teeth. He nodded swiftly. "She just happens to be my daughter, and you should know by now what I get like when the people I love are in danger; patience is not one of my virtues." Her tone dripped with hate and anger and with the last word she dropped him back behind the bar where he stumbled slightly before pulling himself together.
"Two demons, in here last night, and in with these guys you're looking for. They were sitting over there in the corner, talkin' real quiet like, so I thought maybe they were saying somethin' interestin'."
"Let me guess," the visiting blonde said. "You couldn't resist the urge to eaves-drop."
He grinned slyly. "There's a room around back, and the walls here aren't too thick. That and the fact that there's a gaping whole behind that picture, left over from the last bar fight you lovely ladies had here, makes it easy to listen in on conversations."
"Well don't keep us in suspense Willie; what did they have to say that was so important?" Faith asked with a stern look, letting him know that she didn't think that he was anything more than a weasel.
"They talked about some other dimension, with other Slayers like you. They had a couple of jobs; to get the kid and one dark Slayer, and then they left. But they was back here earlier today." He rushed out quickly when he saw the brunette move to grab him again. "They were arguing this time. The gist of it was; they had got carried away when telling their boss about what a good job they'd pulled and they inadvertently led her to believe that they'd killed two Slayers. Erm, you," he pointed to Faith. "And the blonde Slayer from this other dimension."
They chewed on this information for a moment and after a few choice threats were made they assessed that he had no more to tell them and so they left him to, once again, pick up the tattered shreds of what was left of his dignity.
The news of the two Slayers' supposed deaths was both good news and bad news. Good because it meant that they had the element of surprise over Lebath and bad because they knew that Lebath would use this lie to torture Faith and Beth. It was Beth's blonde mother who suggested that they ask the witches to perform the spell that would allow one of them to enter Faith and/or Beth's dreams.
When they got back to the house they relayed the idea to the two Wiccas.
Willow exchanged a look with Tara as she thought it over. "It's doable certainly, I'm just not sure whether it's the best idea or not."
Everyone in the room looked at her in surprise, thinking that she would have been all for the suggestion.
"We can't just let them think that we're dead. I don't know about Beth, but Faith's dangerous when she's upset… At least mine is." She said the last part as she glanced over at the couple beside her.
Her double smiled at her. "It's not just yours; sometimes she acts just like Beth when she throws a tantrum."
Faith scowled at her wife. "Hey! I do not have tantrums." She protested as both Buffys giggled slightly, and ignoring them, she turned to the red head again. "So what's wrong with doing the spell then?"
Willow sighed before beginning to explain. "I don't like to think of them hurting any more than you do, but if we want to keep the element of surprise then it'd be best if they didn't know. One of Lebath's powers is telepathy; what if she were to read their minds?"
"But she hasn't used that power yet." Tara said from beside her.
"Yet. Operative word here. She's conserving her energy, but the temptation to search their minds and use their weaknesses against them could become too great. She might take a chance; thinking that she has the upper hand with two of you gone, and then if she finds out the truth…" She didn't need to say any more as they could all visualise the results.
"Ok." Buffy said in her single seat as she brushed a hand through her hair. "It's only two more days, so lets try and figure out exactly what we're gonna do with what we've got."
She then began to lay out everything she could remember from what they had learnt and Tara jotted bullet points down as they all filled things in. By the end of it they were certain that they knew everything that they could possibly find out at this point and began to devise a plan.
Her wrists were sore from where the chains dug into her flesh, but she hardly noticed as her mind was otherwise occupied. She couldn't believe that Buffy was dead. How could she be?
They had only just gotten together; there was so much more that they had to do. The dark Slayer felt more alone at that moment than she ever had before in her life; utter despair clutched at the large and battered muscle in her chest and threatened to burst with this new and overwhelming burden.
Buffy was her lifeline; her shining star; her wings that had begun to carry her away from the darkness. How could she continue in this life without that? How was she supposed to bring up their child on her own? She knew that the Scoobs would offer to help, and everyone at Angel Investigations, but somehow these thoughts didn't give her any more comfort and she fought with every breath to force back the tears that were like inmates in a prison riot; demanding to be released.
Her eyes fell shortly on the small brunette huddled unmoving at the back of her cage. The two of them were on opposite sides of the miniature cave. Faith could feel the presence of at least four demons past the entrance and by the movement of the infant's gaze she figured that she too could sense them.
Seeing the child had a strange effect on the Slayer. She was effectively getting a preview of what her own daughter would be like and she couldn't help feeling maternally protective over her. For the time being, the small future Slayer was the biggest thing that was keeping Faith together. If nothing else, then she wanted to be able to get Beth out of danger; she would figure out her own future from then on, and big part of that was her plan to exact revenge on the she-demon responsible for their current situation.
Faith had lost track of how long they had been there, but she guessed it had been at least a day. Lebath had been to see them only once, and Faith had no doubt that she was simply giving them time to stew in their sorrow and misery.
She was sure that the she-demon would come again later that day to pay them a visit. Lebath would mock them and 'entertain' them with details about the ritual and what would happen once it was over. The Slayer planned to stay silent through all of this; not giving her enemy the satisfaction of her attention and saving her energy until later when she would have a better chance at escape.
As she predicted, when the over ambitious demon came to see them later that day, she brought with her four more demon guards; the dark woman had no chance of escape with such an entourage.
"So, how are our captives today?" Lebath said with a wide grin; showing four pairs of canine teeth.
The brunette sneered, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. Beth whimpered in her cage and Faith hoped silently that the child wouldn't make too much noise that would draw the demon's attention; she herself could endure a certain amount of torture, but under no circumstances would she be able to witness this child suffering physical torment.
Lebath's face contorted slightly when the Slayer did not answer and repeated the question in a similar fashion; making sure that the brunette could see that she wanted an answer. Still Faith remained taciturn.
The demon smiled cruelly and half turned around before spinning on her heel and throwing her body into a vicious punch, which resounded in a sickening crunch of one of the Slayer's lower ribs. Her sharp cry beckoned to the sentries standing guard at the door and their heads swivelled quickly inside the doorway; hoping to see some of the action.
Lebath's expression was the epiphany of evil as she clutched Faith's jaw with a clawed hand and brought haunted eyes up to meet her own. "I asked you a question, Slayer." When Faith stayed silent still the demon sighed slightly and released her grip. She cocked her head to the side as she spoke to one of her followers. "Bring me my kit… I'll make her talk; one way or another."
In a cave not so far away, sat another demon in quiet contemplation. Lebath had offered him front row viewing to watch her as she went to work on the dark Slayer. Normally he wouldn't have hesitated in accepting the offer; however, his so-called partner was beginning to get under his thick hided skin and so he had declined, telling her that he had pressing matters to attend to.
In the beginning he had regarded the rather narcissistic demon with no small amount of awe and respect. She had been cool and calculating; never underestimating her enemy and thinking everything through so that the success of a particular task was almost a certainty every time.
She had almost treated him as an equal then. Now though, he was convinced that she saw him as nothing more than a means to an end.
Aside from her increasing lack of respect for his place in the shaping of her destiny, she was becoming more and more complacent with the success of the ritual. It was as if she had no doubt as to its completion and her ultimate power. She had been overlooking seemingly insignificant elements of the plan, which Lisbaen knew could destroy them if something went wrong, and now with the Slayer and the child in her possession, she was spending her time thinking of nothing else.
She had gone through the ritual with him again the day before, but though she had seemed thorough what she had actually talked about had been nothing more than an outline and there were several elements that he hadn't been able to talk to her about.
It had only occurred to him earlier that day that they might not succeed in their task, and this had forced him to think about what he should do if they were to fail. He could not simple go back to his life before; many of his minions now followed more closely to Lebath and would more than likely die if there was a final confrontation, and any survivors would be unlikely to return to his side after such a fiasco.
The best thing he could do now was to secure a backup plan. If at any time he thought that they were in serious danger of being crushed then he had to have an escape.
If he really wanted to he could go to the Order of Destruction's HQ and tell them exactly what Lebath was up to and hope that they would reward him for his information, but he was likely to gain more from Lebath's triumph than her downfall and so he had to hope that she succeeded.
He couldn't very well go to the OoD after the fact as they would probably slaughter him without a second thought for being an accomplice, and by then he was sure that the Slayers too would be gunning for his blood. No, what he really needed were outside allies, demons who had no knowledge of his dealings with Lebath, who would befriend him for his experienced leadership and out of respect for his great many years in the business and for the tales of legendry that preceding him. Younger demons would no doubt thrive on his tales of war and chaos.
With his mind set on this task and feeling more certain now than before of his 'partner's' downfall, he made his excuses to the guards and left the relative safety of the caves.
AU, Summers' home.
It was six in the morning and Buffy lay wide awake in bed, wishing so much that her girlfriend could be by her side instead of the cool emptiness that possessed the other half of the king-sized bed she had slept in. It had been only a little more than thirty hours since she had been with Faith last, but every second alone felt like a lifetime.
All of the weeks, months and years that she and her dark haired lover had fought against one another and had denied their deep seeded attraction was the foundation for the harsh barrenness that now possessed her soul while the other Slayer was forcefully kept from her reach.
Her sleep had been fitful and her limbs ached from an almost possessive desire to make her get up and seek out that which she had lost. But she knew that she had to be patient. They had finalised the plan the night before and Buffy had to make herself believe that before the day was over, she and Faith would be reunited once again.
The seconds passed at a snail's pace, time seemed to have no where it wanted to be, and by half six the blonde Slayer could lie still no longer and made her way downstairs where she fixed a pot of coffee and waited for the rest of the house to stir.
By eight o'clock everyone was up, dressed and eating cereal, toast or bagels and going over the final draft of the plan around the dining room table.
Xander and Anya had turned up early on during the previous evening and had slept on the pullout bed in Beth's room. Buffy (RW) had been pleasantly surprised at the easy banter that passed between the construction worker and the dark Slayer, and secretly hoped that some day her girlfriend and best friend could share a similarly easy friendship.
Willow cleared her throat to get everyone's attention as she organised the few sheets of paper laid out in front of her. "Erm, well I think we all know why we're here," she said with a forced smile, attempting to lighten the atmosphere a little. "We want to go over the final plan so everyone knows what they're doing tonight."
They had all agreed that they should attack Lebath's fortress the night before the ritual was supposed to take place. Each of them was sure that the demons would not be expecting an attack so early; the most logical thing seemed to be to use as much of the time that they had to formulate a plan and to gather as much information as possible.
An hour before, Xander, Willow and Buffy (RW) were going to scout the area to check the positions of Lebath's foot-soldiers and to see how many demons they would have to fight. Tara and Anya were going to do a last minute location spell to pinpoint Beth and Faith's exact location within the caves; they had a map of the tunnels and coves near the hellmouth and could mark where the two brunette's were so the other three Slayers would know exactly where to go.
Faith, her wife and sister-in-law would spend the last few hours sorting out their arsenal and assigning appropriate weapons to each of their friends for the battle. Buffy (AU) had reluctantly agreed to let Dawn join in with the fight, but had given her sister strict instructions to not go any further than the demons' first line of defence, and then she and Anya would fall back to the Magic Box where they had been instructed to wait for the others to return.
Xander, with his brief experience in combat training and vast experience with combat movies, was going to stay close to Tara and Willow as they worked their magic and protect the perimeter to make sure that no demon came close enough to the witches to cause a threat. No body except the three Slayers were to enter the caves themselves.
When everyone was sure of their own parts the dark Slayer and her mate slipped off quietly to their room. Anya was reluctant to let the shop stay closed all day and risk losing any more money and Tara, Willow and Dawn had decided to go with her to check out any other spells that they thought might help them in the fight.
Xander had to go to the construction site to talk to his crew about an up-and-coming project, and so that left the other blonde Slayer to decide what she wanted to do with the rest of the day.
"Will you be alright on your own?" Xander asked with concern, having no delusions about the other two Slayers leaving their room for a while.
"You can come with us to the Magic Box if you want?" Willow said as she realised the situation; she had previously been busy gazing at the blonde witch to the right of her.
"I don't know…" The blonde Slayer said, not really wishing to be amongst too many people at that moment. But when a loud thump came from above and she caught the blushes from the replicas of her friends she reconsidered. "Actually, I think I'll take you up on that offer." She said, thinking that she would rather work off her frustrations in the training room at the Magic Box than spend the next few hours listening to the other two Slayers as they fumbled around above her.
Dawn left a note for her sister and sister in-law where she knew they would eventually end up, when they'd worked up enough of an appetite, and left with the others.
Meanwhile, in the Slayers' bedroom, all motion seemed to have stopped. Buffy lay above her mate and gazed lovingly into chocolate orbs as she thought about how lucky she was to be in this position.
They had woken up at about seven and had lazed around, basking in each other's warmth; before they had been called down to attend the meeting. Usually, when they were together, they would make love in the mornings. Deep, meaningful gazes would turn into light touching and from there things would quickly heat up and they would find themselves unable to resist the urge to touch and taste the other.
Whenever possible they would make love before a big fight also. Knowing that either one of them could die in the coming battle made them desperate to keep their unique connection up until the last moment, when they would become the Slayers and no longer Buffy and Faith.
Faith gazed back at her lover and after a long while reached up to tuck a lock of golden hair behind Buffy's ear. Her fingers came down to gently trace the contours of the blonde's face and eventually came to rest on the back of her neck. She used the position to pull pouting lips down to meet her own and soon became captivated by the feeling of that mouth devouring her essence and every part of her being.
What she thought at first was a moan quickly registered in the blonde's mind as a suppressed sob and she pulled away to find tears beginning to make tracks down her lover's face. Buffy pulled back slightly and put her hand under the brunette's chin to prevent her from avoiding her gaze.
Faith stopped the blonde as she tried to say something. "Don't, B. I don't wanna think about it right now." Buffy sat back on her calves as she observed her wife's distress. "Can't we just do what we always do?"
"And what's that, love?" Buffy said with a hint of amusement behind the sadness she was feeling.
The dark Slayer now placed her hands on slim hips in front of her. "You know. Big bad pops up, we research and make plans, and then you and I get naked and everything feels good for a while. We get to be Buffy and Faith one more time, knowing that this time we might not be ok… But now…"
"It's already not alright." The blonde sighed in defeat and rearranged her position so she was snuggled up against the brunette's side instead of straddling her waist. "We've kept her safe this long. Three years is a long time in our company to not have had numerous encounters with demons. I really like this parenthood thing. In ten years I'm sure I'll be saying different, what with teenagers being the little shits that they are. But I'm not ready to give that up yet."
"How can you be so optimistic?"
"I have Faith… In you. In us. We want our daughter back more than she wants her ritual and the power it'll give her… God damn it Faith, we deserve this. We deserve to win this."
The belief in her wife's voice seemed to fuse to her veins and run through her body like quicksilver. The optimism was contagious, and she wanted so much to believe that they could win that Faith felt her confidence rise again and fill her with hope. She almost believed then, that though the battle would be a hard one, they would win, and they would get their daughter back.
These thoughts were her comfort as she firmly pushed her lover onto her back and began their pre-battle ritual.
Hours later the gang returned and with an air of tension hung like a blanket around them. Each one of them was aware that this battle was no ordinary battle. They weren't just stopping a powerful demon from gaining more power; they were going to save Beth's life and if they failed the Slayers would die. They would die fighting; they would die trying to save their child.
They were also mildly aware of the other two Slayers who had also been dragged into this fight. Each one of the Scoobys, especially the witches of the group, had carefully watched the blonde Slayer's behaviour throughout the last two days, and no one could fail to notice the sadness and determination behind her eyes.
As the troops entered the dining room they saw that their two friends had already set many of the weapons out into groups or pairs on the table, and each group or pair had been given a name-tag.
Xander, Willow and I (RW) left the room to get changed into more stealth friendly clothing as they would soon be going out to execute the first part of their plan. Anya and Tara, who each had brought with them supplies from the Magic Box, took off to the living room where they would be performing the location spell.
Dawn set about helping Faith and her sister to set out their weapons and it wasn't long before they were finished and everyone was gathered in the dining room going over the plan one last time. The red head, her eldest friend and the visiting blonde each took up their weapons as they prepared to leave the Slayers' home to go on their scouting mission, but as they were only intending to take a look and not to start a fight they loaded up lightly.
While they were doing this Tara had performed the location spell and confirmed their beliefs that the two brunettes they were seeking were still being held close to the hellmouth.
Xander picked up a short sword, which had been given a specially made wooden sheath and so could be used to stake vampires, and once the sword was removed from the sheath could be used to stab and decapitate many other demon species. He also took with him a Sig Sauer P220, which his uncle Rory had given him for his twentieth birthday. As the weakest one of the three he wasn't taking any chances and attached the gun to the inside of his jacket along with two replacement magazines.
Neither I nor Willow needed to bother much with the weapons for this mission; they were weapons within themselves and so needed only a couple of stakes each. There were mixed feelings of anticipation and anxiety as the trio zipped up their jackets and left the house; their task was expected to take them no longer than half an hour, so they left among promises to be thorough but quick.
They walked at a quick pace and entered a cemetery just a block away from the high school. From then they split