Thanks for reading everyone. Just to let you know, I'm going to try and avoid going into all the intense details of some of the less important episodes, because they obviously would have been different with Faith there. Enjoy.

Dawn was stuck with Spike for the night, I still don't understand why we left them alone, but Tara seemed okay with it and I trusted her judgment. We made it to the cemetery and all kneeled by Buffy's grave. "Ready?"

"To bring B back from the dead, I don't know if I'll ever really be ready." Willow hardly looked at me, I guess she was getting in the zone, it felt weird. Wrong. Then again with my deluded sense of morality I should just leave the big questions up to someone else. "Do your thing Red." We all grabbed hands and Willow started chanting.

"Osiris, keeper of the gate, master of all fate, hear us! Before time and after, before knowing and nothing-." The light around us intensified, red hazy light which made me realize that I could hear motorcycles in the distance. Something was off. "Accept our offering, know our prayer." Willow never did tell us what the offering was, she was acting super shady earlier but I dismissed it as her acting indifferent towards me, it was known to happen. Now I wasn't so sure what was going on. "Osiris, here lies the warrior of the people-." Holy fuck were those-

"What's happening to her?!" Xander yelled, I looked over at Willow my eyes widening as bugs began to crawl under her skin. I wasn't sure if any of us were even holding hands anymore, just watching Willow as a vortex surrounded her.

"Tara, what's happening?" Tara would know what's going on, Willow went over the spell with her, she was supposed to know all the risks. Now with a fucking snake crawling out of her throat something told me she didn't exactly clue her girlfriend in on how this would work.

"Let her cross over. Osiris, let her cross over. Release her!" I didn't even notice the motorbike goons until they smashed the vessel in front of Willow. There were a lot of them, riding around, laughing and talking about the slayer being dead. Willow was unconscious and Xander was starting to pick her up, I tried to stand, but I fell back down grabbing at my chest. I felt like something inside me was ready to break out.

"Faith, are you okay?" Tara was trying to help me up while Anya looked around for an escape route. Usually I stayed and fought no matter what but now, I felt like my heart was going to explode. "We have to run. Now." I followed them, deeper into the woods. Anya was running ahead of Tara and I, but after a while I started to feel more like myself again.

"Tara what the hell was that back there?" I finally asked her as the three of us hid behind a few bushes and waited for the demon gang to speed by.

"I-I don't know…I'm scared-."

"We have to find Xander. Those demons are chasing them and they might hurt Xander." Anya said in her matter-of-fact tone.

"A-and Willow. I don't know what I'd do if anything-."

"Yeah I know." I assured her. "We go back to the Magic Box and regroup, then I'll figure it out. Everyone makes it out of this alive, alright? I promise." We started running, the last thing I ever expected to be doing tonight. I knew Tara was getting tired, but she kept pushing, she was so worried about Willow it was plain to see. Anya wouldn't give a shit about anyone but Xander anyway, so I wasn't too concerned about her. I really wished G-man was here, maybe he wouldn't know what to do but at least he'd make it sound like everything was okay. We really needed him around.

We ran into the Magic Box and started looking around, Xander and Willow weren't here, and neither was Dawn. With the whole city going to hell I'd hoped that at least she'd be with someone other than Spike, he'd better keep her safe or I'd have his bleached head. "Where's Xander?"

"They'll be fine, even with a snake coming out of her throat, Red's one hell of a witch." I assured Anya.

"She wasn't good enough to bring Buffy back." Anya muttered as Tara began clearing a spot on a table. I tried to ignore Anya, which is something I did at all times, but she was right. Buffy was still dead. I was here and Buffy's dead. I couldn't stop those demons, I don't know how. I don't have a plan or Giles to back me up, it's just me. The Slayer. And I have no clue what to do. "Now's not a good time for yoga, Tara. We have to find Xander."

"Chill out Anya, she's doing something." What Tara was doing who knew? When a light appeared out of nowhere I knew I was in over my head, Tara seemed pretty pleased with herself though, so it must be good. "What was that?"

"It'll guide Willow to me, she knows what it means. What now?" I didn't like this, everyone looking to me for the next move. My idea was to fight, but I knew that wasn't logical we were outnumbered. "We have to go and find Dawn."

"No, you can't. Neither one of you can go out there. It's dangerous, I'll go-."

"But you could get hurt." I grabbed a knife and stuck it in its holster.

"I'm a slayer, it's what I do." I started for the door but Tara grabbed my arm.

"I'll go with you, Willow's bound to find me no matter what but I'm too worried about Dawn. I'll go with you and Anya will stay here in case anyone shows up." I thought it over for a second, Anya could do a protection spell if she needed it, and it wouldn't hurt to have Tara come with me.

"Fine come on." We left the shop, immediately awestruck by the chaos that surrounded us. Demons were running free, breaking into stores, setting things on fire. I wish I was the real slayer, I wish I was Buffy, none of this would be happening if she was still here. "If you get hurt Red's gonna kill me."

"So then why'd you let me come?" We snuck off through a dark alley and started making our way towards the Summers' residence.

"Because I'm not Buffy, I don't do bossing people around." I explained. "And I figured you'd keep me grounded, make sure I didn't do anything stupid." Two demons charged us from down the alley, I pulled my knife and took one of them out easily. The other went for Tara, I grabbed him and threw him against the wall. I got in a few punches before slitting its throat. I could hear Tara gasp behind me and I thought we were going to get blindsided again, but when I turned around it was just her standing there. She wasn't afraid of the demon just what I'd done to it. I could see it in her eyes, even if I was protecting her, even if I was fighting evil, a part of her deep down was afraid of me. "Tara?"

"I'm sorry I j-just…sometimes I…"

"Yeah, me too." She didn't understand what I meant, or maybe she did, all I know is that her eyes widened and I realized something was behind me. I spun around and held my knife out readying myself to fight. But it wasn't a demon, my knife fell to the ground, and I think for a second I thought I was hallucinating. I thought maybe this was some kind of dream and I was still in prison, still locked up and I was finally losing my mind. Finally getting what I deserved. "Buffy?"

I took a step forward but she flinched and backed away. Her eyes wandered the alley, she saw burning buildings and heard screams. "Is this hell?"

"What?" She ran off and I tried to give chase but I heard a scream from behind me and saw Anya, Xander and Willow running towards us being chased by four demons. Even as I was fighting them off it felt strange. Sure I'd made the choice a few times to run away I'd never expect it from Buffy. She always fought for what was right, she always fought for her friends. And here I was doing it for her, knowing that I would never replace her, never be good enough for them. I was fighting when all I wanted to do was run.

Once I'd killed them all, and sent one running, we finally got a chance to catch our breaths. "Was that the Buffybot?" Xander asked. He knew it wasn't, everyone knew that, but a part of them couldn't believe what they'd seen.

"It was Buffy you moron. It was her." I sighed. "What the fuck Red?"

"It worked. She's back, she's alive-." She was so stuck in her amazement she didn't realize what was so wrong about this. She didn't see the fear in Buffy's eyes, she didn't understand that she'd messed up somehow.

"She just ran away from us-."

"From you!" Willow snapped. "She was running from you."

"Fine, whatever you say. I'm going to find Dawn." It took me a while to notice the footsteps behind me. It was Tara, for some reason I felt like she could never let things go. Everything needed to be resolved, but I didn't want that. I liked storming off, I wanted to leave things up in the air, I wanted Willow to understand that she was powerful but sure as hell wasn't God. "Why are you following me?"

"Because I'm supposed to stop you from doing stupid things, remember?" I tried not to smile but ultimately failed. "Are you angry?" I didn't want to respond so I didn't, I just kept walking until she grabbed my wrist. She wasn't strong but I stopped anyway just to let her feel like she was. "Fine, go ahead. Hit me. Get it all out."

"Shut up-."

"Make me." She challenged. This was new, usually Tara would try and calm everyone down not get them riled up.

"Why? I ain't mad at you. I'm mad because this isn't who I am. I'm Faith, I fucking kick ass and nothing gets to me, but then I came here and things started to make sense and now I'm lost again. And to top everything off there's no one to fix it, I had the mayor and then Angel and even Giles…what do I have now?"

"You don't need anyone to fix this. There's nothing to fix, you're making all the right choices." Tara let go of my wrist and smiled. "Turning over a new leaf." Even though I knew she was being genuine I still heard the playfulness in her voice. It was nice, welcomed actually, the demons were already started to clear out.

Buffy was back. Alive. It wasn't perfect, life never was, but I was happy.

And then I felt the pain. Her pain, I doubled over and tried not to scream. Tara rushed over to help me, but I brushed her off, this wasn't me. I wasn't feeling this. Buffy was. "Fuck." I covered my ears trying to drown out the voices. Jump. Do it. Jump. I didn't understand what was happening, not until I looked up. I hadn't been here since Glory, since Buffy sacrificed herself from the same balcony she was standing on right now. I was about to run up there when I saw someone else up there with her. "Dawn…"

"What? Oh God, Dawnie-." I grabbed Tara's hand before she could go up there. Something told me neither one of us was supposed to do anything. "We have to go and-."

"No. Buffy sacrificed herself for Dawn, she died for her, she'd do anything for her." Tara didn't understand what I was saying. Even through the pain I was desperate to make sense, to show her that I could be strong too. "We can't do or say anything to stop what's going on up there. Dawn has to do it." I remember this feeling. I remember being helpless like this before, I remember the pain of wanting to end it, wanting to step away from it all. Those were my feelings, but now Buffy was having them too. I never thought she would, I always thought her life was perfect, sunshine and daisies, and maybe it was.

But as soon as she followed Dawn down the steps and Dawn wrapped her arms around her big sister, I knew. I knew things would never be the same.

R & R, please.