Chapter Three
By the time Buffy returned to Faith's room after getting Hayley started on the laundry, Faith was gone. Buffy groaned in annoyance as she gathered the dirty dishes from the desk and dresser, piling them in the bus bin she'd brought up from the kitchen. She didn't know why she took it upon herself to clean the mess in Faith's room, but she knew it was keeping her mind off the looming apocalypse and the kiss they'd shared earlier down in the training room.
"Buffy?" Dawn stood in the doorway, watching her. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning."
"But this is Faith's room. Why would you be cleaning her room for her?"
"Because it was disgusting and I need to keep my mind off of what's happening right now."
"You mean with the Neqa'el?"
Buffy nodded. "Can you take these down to the kitchen for me?" She asked as she motioned to the bus bin full of dishes.
"What's up with you?" Dawn asked, ignoring the bin full of dishes. "You're becoming obsessive-compulsive Buffy again, aren't you?"
"No! When was I ever obsessive-compulsive before?"
"When we first came here, you were being completely anal about the way things were with the girls, with starting up the Organization, and then with Faith always being right there..." Dawn trailed off and laughed at Buffy's oblivious look. "Something happened, didn't it? And I'm not talking about this whole deal with the Neqa'el either. Something happened between you and Faith and don't lie to me."
Has she always been so observant? Buffy wondered to herself as she grabbed the broom leaning up against the wall by the door. "Nothing happened," Buffy said after a moment. "We've just been talking about this looming apocalypse and as scary as it is, she's right about some of the things she's been saying."
"I can smell bullshit a mile away and don't ever forget that. So," Dawn said as she grabbed the broom from Buffy. "Tell me what happened. Are you guys fighting again?"
"No," Buffy sighed. "We're not fighting again. It's nothing, Dawn. Don't worry about it. I'm just feeling a little stressed over the whole Neqa'el situation because we don't know enough right now. Could you just bring those down to the kitchen for me?"
Dawn grabbed the bin of dishes and rolled her eyes. "I know something is going on with you and I'm gonna figure it out sooner or later, but I'd rather you just be honest with me."
"Dawn..." Buffy glared at her, definitely not in the mood to be dealing with a nosey, overly observant bratty little sister.
"What's the magic word?"
"I'll cut off your credit card for a month!"
Dawn pouted and carried the bus bin of dishes with her as she left the room. Buffy flipped on the stereo, the last CD Faith had played blaring over the speakers. She let the music fill her, take her over despite it not being the type of music she liked, and she went nuts with sweeping the floor, dancing along to the heavy metal music, completely oblivious to the younger slayers that started to gather in the hallway watching her.
Faith sat in the chair next to Kennedy and Willow's bed, faintly hearing Iron Maiden being played on the other end of the castle. Kennedy smirked as she rolled up the magazine she'd been reading and smacked Faith's arm.
"So you kissed Buffy?" Kennedy asked, grinning when Faith rolled her eyes and slouched down further in the chair. "And now she's cleaning your room for you?"
"Yep," Faith sighed. "I think she's going crazy."
"Or she's just being Buffy and trying to avoid the whole issue with you two getting with the smoochies on top of the shit with the Neqa'el."
"Could be," she replied with a lazy shrug. "Hey, she wants to go clean crazy on my room, I ain't gonna stop her, you know what I'm sayin'?"
"Do you want to kiss her again?"
"Shit, Ken. Can we drop this?"
"You're the one who came in here telling me every last detail. Like hell I'm gonna drop this. I want to know what you're feeling right now."
"Confused mostly."
"You want to fuck her, don't you?"
"The thought has crossed my mind once or twice," Faith admitted easily. "And if you dare tell anyone, I'll beat you worse than the Neqa'el did, Ken," she warned her with a glare. "I'm serious."
"So you do want to fuck her? Interesting."
Faith kicked the side of the bed, still glaring, but struggling to bite back the laughter that was escaping. Kennedy, despite being as beaten as she was, was still herself. If it hadn't been for her fast friendship with Kennedy as soon as they'd arrived in Scotland, Faith knew she wouldn't have stuck around as long as she had.
"I don't want to fuck her, Ken. Just had a few fleeting thoughts about it, that's all. Not like I'd ever get the chance. It's Buffy for fucks sake. She doesn't swing that way."
"She kissed you back," Kennedy pointed out. "Obviously you don't know her as well as you think you do. I find it funny though, you know how alike you two really are when you break it down. You both keep yourselves closed off to everyone around you."
"Except you. You know me better than I know myself," Faith laughed as she blocked the blow from the magazine with ease and grabbed it out of Kennedy's hand. "She wants to talk about it."
"And?"
"I ain't in no mood to talk about it with her right now."
"You're afraid of what she's gonna say, aren't you?" Kennedy asked and Faith shrugged. "You are. I bet you're thinking one of two things right now. One, she'll say it was a mistake and that it'll never happen again. Two, she'll tell you she wants you and that alone scares the shit out of you because it's Buffy and you're convinced you don't have a chance in hell with her."
"I ain't good enough for her, Ken," Faith sighed dejectedly. "I'll only ever been good enough to be her friend, if that."
"You really don't see it, do you? You're one of her best friends now, Faith. If you're good enough to be one of her best friends, you're definitely good enough to be something more."
"Don't do the relationship thing," Faith muttered as she averted her eyes away from Kennedy's hard stare.
"Or won't because you're a pussy?"
"If you weren't hurt I'd kick your ass for that!" Faith chuckled and kicked the edge of the bed again. "Tell me a little more about these Neqa'el. What'd they look like?"
"It was dark in the caves so I didn't get a good look at them. One of them punched me and it felt like I was hit by a wrecking ball. They got this smell to them too," Kennedy said and she furrowed her brow as if she was trying to remember all the details. "You know how most demons got this putrid stench? Well the Neqa'el kind of smell like...wet dog."
They both erupted in laughter as Willow walked into the room. She sat on the other side of the bed next to Kennedy, smiling as their laughter slowly died off.
"What's so funny?" Willow asked as she leaned in to kiss Kennedy gently on the cheek. "Guys, what's so funny?"
"Ken said the Neqa'el smell like wet dog."
"That's funny? Okay..." Willow raised an eyebrow at the two of them and shook her head. "Faith, you know that Buffy is cleaning your room right now?"
"Yep."
"And you're letting her?"
"Why not?" She said with a shrug. "Ain't like I was ever gonna do it myself. Did you find out anything more about the Neqa'el?"
"No, nothing more than what we already know. We'll have to wait until Percy Chapman comes in the morning."
"Another tweed?" Kennedy asked, rolling her eyes and making a gagging motion.
"He's not really a Watcher. He's head of the research department at the Watcher's Council."
"Still another tweed if you ask me."
Faith got up to leave when Willow and Kennedy started looking a little too cozy, sharing small little kisses and looks that told her they wanted some alone time. She made her way down the long corridor, finding a group of girls hanging outside her bedroom door. She stepped past a few of them and looked inside, laughing when she saw Buffy dancing along to the music as she swept the floor. Faith shooed the girls away, glaring at them until they scattered in two directions, half heading for the dorms in the west wing, the other half heading down the stairs.
Her talk with Kennedy about Buffy had put new thoughts into her head, thoughts she didn't need or want, but they were there now and there was no way they were getting out any time soon either. She stepped into the room and quietly shut the door behind her, Buffy completely oblivious to her presence. She leaned back against the door and crossed her arms over her chest, smirking as she watched Buffy try to move to the music, dancing along with the broom in her hand.
"Faith!" Buffy yelped when she spun around. "How long have you been standing there?"
"A minute or so," she chuckled, watching as Buffy blushed and turned the stereo off. "Nice moves, B. Good to see you ain't lost your ability to dance."
"Shut up."
"You almost done?"
"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "Why?"
"You know I don't like anyone being in here. It's my room, my sanctuary and you've invaded it."
"You're impossible sometimes, you know that? I try to do something nice for you and you don't even thank me!"
"I never asked you to come in here and go fuckin' nuts with the cleaning, B. I liked my room the way it was before perfectly fine."
Buffy dropped the broom to the ground, giving up and she stalked towards the door. "Move," she said through clenched teeth. "You want me out? I'll go."
"By all means," Faith said as she opened the door for Buffy and moved out of the way. "Thanks though, B. I mean it. You didn't have to do this for me."
"All I was trying to do was do you a favour and get my mind off of what's going on right now."
"I know," Faith said with a frown and she grabbed a flustered Buffy before she could walk out. She wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug and after a moment or two, she felt Buffy relax in her arms. "You're worried that this sitch with the Neqa'el is gonna end badly, aren't ya?"
"Yeah," Buffy nodded, sighing as she wrapped her arms around Faith. "This is nice."
"What, this?" Faith asked, moving back a little from their embrace. "Yeah it is, isn't it?"
"How come you've never...hugged me before?"
"Not a very comforting type or touchy-feely chick here, B. Thought you figured that out before?"
"You want to know what I think?" Buffy asked as she stepped out of the embrace. "I think there are a lot of things about you that you haven't figured out yet. I think you aren't quite the way you make yourself out to be."
"What makes you think that?"
"Little things," Buffy replied with a shrug and she closed the door when a couple of the girls that had been standing out there before walked by. "Don't get me wrong, you're still you, Faith, but sometimes I wonder if you keep yourself from really being you. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
"Not really."
"Forget it," Buffy sighed. "It's too complicated to try to explain what I'm getting at right now."
"Whatever, B. Don't get how me giving you a hug made you spin off into telling me I ain't who I am," Faith said with a light chuckle. "You read too much into shit sometimes, you know that?"
Buffy laughed and picked the broom back up from the floor. The moment felt a little awkward for both of them, but they'd had a lot of awkward moments since they found a common ground to form a friendship on. Faith left the room, not wanting to stick around in case Buffy tried to talk to her about what happened between them earlier. She'd barely even closed the door behind her when the alarm went off for the second time.
They both ran down to the control room and found Xander staring at the monitors in alarm. He pointed out to the one on the far left. The camera was aimed to the east side of the castle. Even in the torrential downpour and poor signal coming from the camera, they could make out a few of the younger slayers in the middle of a fight against at least seven Neqa'el demons.
"What are they doing out there?" Buffy asked nobody in particular. "I thought everyone got word that no one was to leave the castle?"
"Word got out, but those girls had already left," Xander said as calmly as he could and stopped Buffy when she turned to leave. "Don't, Buff. It's too dangerous."
"I am not about to stand here and watch them get hurt or killed!"
"B," Faith said softly as she grabbed onto her. "Don't. We can't put our lives at risk."
"Let go of me!" Buffy snapped. "Faith, I'm going to ask you one more time. Let go of me. Now. I'm not standing here watching those girls fight them alone!"
"Xander, keep the others from coming in here," Faith said quickly. "If anything happens to those girls, I don't want the others seeing this."
"Faith, let me go," Buffy said angrily as she struggled against the ironclad grip Faith had her in.
Xander rushed to lock the door to the control room before any of the others could come in. Faith kept her eyes on the monitor, watching as the Neqa'el easily took out the four girls that had been struggling to hold their own against them. Faith had to use all her strength to hold Buffy where she was and she didn't let go even when Buffy stopped struggling against her and let out a choked sob as they watched the last of their girls fall to the ground, unmoving. They watched as the Neqa'el circled the fallen slayers for a moment before they spread their wings and flew off, disappearing out of the camera range within seconds.
"That was freaky," Andrew muttered from his desk, looking rather pale. "Who knew they could fly?"
"They got fucking wings, dumbass," Faith muttered as she let go of Buffy. "Of course they can fucking fly."
"Oh," Andrew frowned. "Right."
"We need to get out there," Buffy said shakily, not taking her eyes off the monitor. "They could still be okay."
"Buffy," Xander said softly as he approached her. "They're dead."
"We can't just leave them out there!"
"It's not safe. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they aren't out there. We need to wait this out."
"We need to-"
"No," Xander said firmly as he stood tall, never being one to back down from standing up against Buffy. "We don't need to do anything right now other than stay right here where we are. They won't come in here."
"They aren't vampires," Faith said as she turned to look at them. "They don't need an invitation to get in here. They can come in here as they please."
"I'll call Wills, get her to do a protection barrier around the castle," he replied as he pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket and made the call.
"B?" Faith said gently as she reached out and placed her hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Come on, we can't help them now. The only thing we can do is try to figure out a way to keep us all safe until we know more about the Neqa'el and how we can fight them."
Faith caught Buffy quickly wiping away the few tears that had fallen. Buffy couldn't hold herself together and Faith barely was able to herself, but she stayed strong, fighting off her own emotions over their fallen slayers for the sake of holding things together for both her and Buffy.
"We need to call another meeting," Buffy said quietly. "We can't wait until we know more. Reading books is not going to help us this time."
"Maybe not, but we're not going in blind, B. What we just saw, watching how they fight, isn't much to go by."
"It's better than nothing," Buffy countered and she moved to the intercom. "I want everyone down in the control room in five minutes. We have another situation on our hands," Buffy said as she spoke into the microphone. She let go of the button and turned to Xander. "Does Willow have the barrier spell covered?"
"Working on it as we speak," he replied with a nod. "What's the game plan, Buff?"
"We're going to set everyone up in teams, like we'd planned for earlier. We're going out to the caves in an hour."
Faith sighed. She knew Buffy's plan was going to land them into trouble they wouldn't all walk away from especially after watching the quick fight between the fallen slayers and the Neqa'el. As all the girls began to arrive in the control room, Faith walked over to the armoury and began to pass out the weapons one by one. Xander walked over to where she stood in the doorway to the armoury and pulled her aside.
"You need to stop her from doing this, Faith."
"Would if I could, Xand," she sighed and grabbed a long sword and checked it out. "You know when Buffy gets a plan in her head, ain't no talking her out of it even if we're walking straight to our death."
"At least try to stop her from doing this until tomorrow," he said under his breath as Buffy walked into the armoury and grabbed her favourite sword, one almost identical to the one Faith held in her hand. Buffy ignored the two of them as she walked back out and Xander took a step closer to Faith. "I've got a tranq gun in my desk. We'll tranq her and tie her up-"
"Xander, we can't do that!"
"Yeah, we can and we will," he said firmly. "I can't let her lead you all out there when we pretty much have no idea how to fight these things. That man Giles called up is coming from London early in the morning. We gotta wait until we know more, Faith, and we gotta make Buffy see that."
"Get the gun and I'll get you a clear shot. Whatever you do, Xand, don't fucking shoot me."
"I'm a sure shot and you know it."
Faith strutted out of the armoury and over to where Buffy was standing by the monitors. She looked at them with her, not seeing a single thing on the cameras outside. The rain hadn't let up at all and the sky was darkening quickly. Buffy turned to Faith with a sigh and glanced back at the girls gathered behind them.
"You ready, Faith?"
"Sure."
"Andrew is printing off a couple copies of the maps we made of those caves a few months ago. You have your own team. You'll be going in after I head in with mine."
"Sorry, B," Faith said as she saw Xander take the tranq gun out of his desk.
"Sorry?"
"Sorry, but this plan of yours? Ain't happening today," she said as she grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and quickly turned her so Xander had a clear shot. He took the shot, two darts hitting Buffy in the back of her thigh and her left butt cheek. She stumbled forward, dropping her sword as Faith dropped hers and caught her before she could collapse on to the floor. "Nice shot, Xand."
"Told ya I was a sure shot," he grinned as he put the gun back into his desk and cleared his throat. "Ladies, the plan to go out there and take out the Neqa'el is not happening today. Buffy couldn't see the danger of going out there before we have any viable information. We'll have a meeting tomorrow morning as soon as we gather more information on how to defeat these things. For now, I want you all to go about the rest of your day and remember that there is no patrol tonight for anyone."
A chorus of groans erupted throughout the room as the girls brought their weapons back to the armoury and left the control room. Faith scooped an unconscious Buffy up in her arms.
"Take her to her room and tie her to the bed," he said as he grabbed a coil of magic rope and handed it to her. "I'll brief Giles on what's been happening and for the love of God, Faith, make sure she's bound tightly. We can't have her getting loose until we can convince her that her plan won't work."
Faith carried Buffy to the elevator on the other end of the floor, hoping the tranq's would hold out long enough for her to get Buffy tied to her bed. She ignored the look Dawn gave her as she stepped into the elevator and hit the button with her knee. Faith wasted no time as soon as they were on the third floor, kicking open the door to Buffy's room and tossing her on the bed. She bound her hands to the thick wooden headboard and then wrapped the rest of the magic rope around her legs.
"I tell ya, B, so not how I thought I'd get ya into bed," she chuckled to herself as she checked the rope to make sure Buffy was bound tightly. "You're gonna be pissed as hell when you come to, but I won't have to worry about you kicking my ass. At least not until I get you outta this."
She stepped back to admire her work, ignoring the thoughts and memories in her head of the last time she'd tied anyone up. Wesley. Pushing those thoughts aside, she wandered around Buffy's room, this having been only the second time she'd been in there. It was completely spotless, everything in there seemingly having its place, which didn't surprise Faith at all. The rounded corner in the room had dozens of plush oversized pillows, mostly white and pink with a few purple mixed in. Faith flopped down on the pillows, smirking as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
She didn't like having to do what they had to do to stop Buffy from doing something stupid, but it was the only way until they knew more about the Neqa'el and how to fight them without getting themselves killed in the process. She got up from the pillow-filled seating area and wandered around Buffy's room. She had a few weapons lined on the shelves and the scythe in a glass case that Willow had cast a spell on so it couldn't be tampered with. Even separated from it by the glass and the spell, Faith could feel the power still emanating from the scythe. She wondered if they could use it on the Neqa'el and made a mental note to bring it up during the meeting in the morning.
Buffy groaned softly and Faith spun around to look at her. She looked as if she was coming to, but she shouldn't have been since Faith knew two of those tranq's should have kept her out for at least two hours. She cautiously approached the bed as Buffy opened her heavy-lidded eyes.
"What the hell is going on? Why am I tied to my bed?" Buffy asked groggily as she struggled against the rope. "Faith? Answer me!"
"Couldn't let you do it, B."
"Untie me. Right now."
"No. You're so fucking stubborn, Buffy. I know you want to get them, take 'em out, but we gotta wait. I am not letting any of us put our lives on the line."
"Four of our girls just died out there, Faith!"
"I know, I fucking saw it too, Buffy! You need to calm the fuck down and realize that your plan would've gotten more of us killed! I want to take 'em out as much as you do, put a stop to this before it gets outta hand, but we can't jump in there like this. We need to know more."
"I can't just stand down-"
"Ain't got a choice right now," Faith snapped, clenching her fists at her side. "God, this has been the longest fucking day of my life."
"Tell me about it," Buffy muttered and she started to struggle against the ropes. "Can you untie me now?"
"No. I know exactly what you're gonna do once I untie ya, B."
"I promise I won't kick your ass...hard."
Faith rolled her eyes, grabbed the chair from the desk, and sat down. Buffy laid there and glared at Faith, but she didn't say anything more to her. Faith picked up the weapons catalogue from Buffy's nightstand and began to flip through it, ignoring the death glare from Buffy that almost made her skin crawl.