Chapter 4: Abdicating

A/N: Going off my posting schedule to celebrate Groundhog's Day! You know, since the idea behind this story was loosely based on the movie.

Warning: maybe some language; definitely some violence.

Challenge: Musie's twisted mind came up with this while I was trying to sleep.

Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Summers living room

The night Faith shows up…

Buffy heard the words Xander told the Potentials about believing in her leadership, finding it ironic how quickly he changed his mind once things went pear-shaped. Well, at least this time, that wouldn't happen.

After gathering everyone together, Buffy made her announcement, "I've decided that since Faith is the head of the Slayer line, she should be the leader of the group now."

"Is that really wise? After all, she doesn't have much experience," Giles said, attempting to be diplomatic in his protest.

"Most Slayers don't when they have to fight. 'Sides, it sounds like she did a bang up job in LA, keeping things from getting too crazy," Buffy added, using Xander's argument from the last loop. "You're the senior Watcher guy now, so it's either you or her. I'm just fighting support."

A few days later…

Once everyone realized Buffy wasn't kidding, they accepted Faith as the new leader. Even Buffy followed her orders – much to everyone's surprise. The way she looked at it, though, she had to or the others wouldn't.

Sometimes it was really hard.

Like when the group came up with the idea of grabbing a Bringer and getting answers from him/it about the First's plans. Even if the Bringer knew the plans, what made them think that somebody who willingly mutilated themselves for their 'god' would suddenly rat that god out?

But they all agreed it was a good idea and even to act on the info the Bringer volunteered.

When they went down into the tunnels to search for the armory, Faith told her to wait outside to watch for threats while she – Faith – and Giles took the Potentials down to grab the weapons.

Buffy guessed something was up after a bunch of Bringers came to the site a few minutes later. If they weren't here to ambush the Potentials and Faith, it was an incredible coincidence that they were there. She did her best to make sure that none of the Bringers made it into the tunnels, but didn't know if there was another way in or not.

Then the ground shook and she heard an explosion. Orders be damned; she was going in.

As she dug her way back to where the armory was supposed to be, she found the survivors clamoring to escape. Before she could help them, she was grabbed by an ubervamp. One became three, and she was fighting for her own life now. Buffy took quite the beating, but managed to finally behead all three by the time the girls made it to her side of the cave-in.

After that, they managed to grab the wounded and head back to the house.

In her mind, Buffy knew that they were leaving with a lot fewer people than they went in with, but because she was trying to carry two injured people – one of which was Giles – she didn't stop to figure out who was missing. It wasn't until they were back home that she found out who was gone: a dozen Potentials and Faith. That was out of eighteen Potentials.

The remaining six girls had cuts and bruises, but nothing fatal; they had been the ones farthest away from the explosion. Giles had minor visual injuries, too, but in his case, the worst was unseen. Since he was the closest to the bomb – other than Faith - the concussive blast from the explosion ruptured both his eardrums, deafening him. The only reason he wasn't torn apart by shrapnel like the others and Faith was because he ducked behind a boulder when Faith yelled 'Bomb!'

The next night…

Needless to say, Buffy was – and wasn't – surprised at this point when somehow she was blamed for the tragedy. Never mind that they all agreed it was a good idea to go down there. It was her fault because she shouldn't have turned over leadership to somebody straight from prison.

Since his brain was still rather scrambled, Giles only managed to scrawl out his accusation in shaky handwriting, 'Your childish abandonment of your duty cost us too much this time. I'd ask if it had been your intention to get rid of Faith for good, but I doubt that you could see beyond yourself and Spike to care.'

Despite the fact that the new Slayer was Chao-Ahn, and nobody spoke her language, the rest of the group voted to have her assume responsibility and to kick Buffy out of the house since she was 'acting like a spoiled brat'. This was in direct contrast to the calm and cooperative way that Buffy had actually acted since Faith's arrival. So she shrugged to herself and waited for the trip to D'Hoffryn's place.

D'Hoffryn's realm

Even though she was beginning to doubt there was an actual solution, Buffy still had to try a couple more options before giving up. "Alright. This one is kinda like the first one, but I'll take somebody with me and tell the Scoobies to keep the Potentials in the house," Buffy explained, hoping that by giving the Scoobies the heads up, the girls wouldn't be able to sneak out.

A/N: Next…Spuffy goes. (Not a romantic Spuffy…'cause, eww.)

Shameless Plug: Check out the companion fic 'Hellmouth Day Outtakes' http: / /www. fanfiction. net/s/7799204/1/Hellmouth_Day_Outtakes (remove the spaces or go to the story list on my profile page).