Chapter 6

In some ways Buffy was actually relieved when Willow and Oz returned. Yes, she was less than eager to start the Tublakah spell, to watch Faith die, when she had just brought her back to consciousness, was so worried about both her mental and physical recovery. But the longer she sat waiting for it to happen, to the longer time she had to dread and obsess over it- and anything that might to wrong with it. As the minutes went by, her anxiety was steadily increasing… and it was only made worse because she knew that she had just pushed Faith farther away from her, perhaps made it where she would be distracted, less likely to fight for her life if something went wrong…

God, why had she agreed to let them do this to her? Worse yet, why the hell had she said that to her?

Giles had tried to talk to them both, seeming to be simultaneously attempting to assess Faith's current physical and mental state even as he reassured them both of the measures they would go to in order to perform the Tublakah correctly. Somehow his attempts to set Buffy at ease only made her feel worse, for he could not conceal the undercurrent of worry in his own tone…

She had tried to talk to Faith quietly as Anya and Xander continued to bicker with increasing volume and Giles had withdrawn from them, seeming to sense that they needed to attempt to repair the damage Buffy's thoughtless words had caused. And Buffy had tried to apologize, forcing the hushed, awkward words up her throat… but even though Faith had shrugged her off, telling her that it was cool, Buffy could see that her posture had not changed, and her quick little smile was forced and quickly disappeared.

So when Willow and Oz came back, with Willow's Wiccan friend Tara in tow, Buffy was glad for a diversion, if not for the reason of the diversion. As the three arriving began to set down the candles, a small, elaborately shaped jar, a heavy-looking and obviously old spellbook, and various spell ingredients, Willow began to make introductions in a voice that was almost grating with its nervous energy.

"Everybody, this is Tara… Tara, this is Mr. Giles, the ex-librarian of my old high school, and Buffy's ex-Watcher. This is Buffy, the vampire slayer… and this is Faith, the other slayer. The one we're doing the ritual on. This is Anya, the ex vengeance demon-"

"And I'm Xander," Xander interrupted, giving the girl a smile. "The normal one! I assume Willow might have mentioned that I'm the only one without special powers or shapeshifting abilities here? Major points to you for not seeming all freaked, by the way. But then again, if you're a witch too I guess this stuff is all old news to you-"

"Oh, you're special all right, Xander," Willow teased with a mischievous little grin, "don't worry, you're our very special boy-"

"What? Why is he your special boy?" Anya interrupted Willow's jabbing with a frown that seemed suspiciously jealous. "What does he does for you that's so special? He's very talented with his hands, yes, and his tongue as well, but I didn't know he had demonstrated his special skills with you-"

"It was a joke, Anya, a joke!" Willow said hastily, but Anya was still frowning.

"How's that a joke? It's not funny. Xander does have special skills, but how do you know-"

"Pleased to meet you, Tara," Giles interrupted, holding out his hand to Willow's friend, who had been standing rather close to Willow, looking very awkward and nervous, almost intimidated. She ducked her head as she shook his hand quickly, barely meeting his eyes before lowering her own in seeming self-consciousness.

"P-pleased to meet you t-too, Mr. G-Giles," she stammered, glancing back at all the others in the room as well. "N-nice to m-meet all of you."

Buffy looked over at her curiously, interested; this was Tara, the powerful Wiccan friend Willow had somehow neglected to mention…

Tara was taller than Willow, Buffy, and Faith, perhaps Anya's height, but much more solid and voluptuous than Anya was. Her hair was dirty blonde, hanging half in her face, and she wore baggy clothes, further accentuated by her awkward slouch, and little makeup. Her demeanor and lack of eye contact, as well as her overall appearance, made it obvious to all that she was a very shy but gentle person- in a way, a bit like a more extreme version of what Willow had been like when she was younger.

Faith seemed to be eyeing Tara too; she smirked a bit, arching an eyebrow.

"So you, you mess with the mojo like Red? Should I be callin' you Terror instead of Tara?" she said a little slyly, and Buffy glanced at her, hopeful, encouraged by the playful words and tone. 

But no sooner did Faith catch her watching her did her small smile slip, and her eyes quickly flickered away.

Damn it…

Tara flushed, glancing again at Willow uncertainly, and Giles took the opportunity to attempt to drive them forward once more.

"Right then, well, shall we have a look at the spell, then?"

"Oh, um, y-yes…" Tara picked up her book, fumbling through it for the right page. "H-here it is…"

Everyone went to look over her shoulder, which seemed to worsen her skittishness- everyone except Faith, who couldn't, and Buffy, who didn't want to. She didn't want to think about the details of how they would do this until she had to… and to be honest, she also was reluctant to leave Faith's side until she had to. This could be the last she would see of her, the last-

No! She couldn't think like that. Willow and Tara would bring her back… they HAD to.

"Well, this does seem surprisingly simple, all things considered," Giles murmured thoughtfully, after he and the others had read over the text several times. Glancing from the text to Willow and Tara to Faith, he said, "If you are very careful, and sure…"

"We can do it," Willow finished, looking at Tara with a pride that made the taller girl flush and smile bashfully again. "Can't we, Tara? We've practiced together several times, and it's really amazing, in just a few attempts this week we've already done some really amazing stuff together-"

"'Stuff'?" Xander repeated, his voice a combination of irony and eager hopeful fantasy that made Willow scowl at him, and yet she as well as Tara flushed.



"Spells, Xander. It, it's really cool, we, we seem to have this energy in our auras that mixes really well together, and when we combine it, we can do so much more than we can alone. It's really-"

"Well, well, that's very good, Willow," Giles broke in politely but firmly, "and I am sorry to interrupt, but shall we begin now? We really haven't much time, and frankly, I believe that all of us should like to get this over with as soon as possible."

"Oh yeah, yeah, of course!" Willow said hurriedly, startling slightly and glancing at him with oddly widened eyes, and then, inexplicably, sneaking a look at Oz as well, who was standing beside her patiently. "Yeah, let's set it up… we, we need to clear a place out on the floor and lay Faith down on it- we can lay down a blanket first, I guess, the basement floor's kind of hard and dirty…"

She, Oz, and Xander began to clear out the space they would need, soon announcing that it was ready. Buffy looked at Faith, swallowing hard as her stomach cramped with sickening dread… there was no more putting it off now.

"Faith, are you sure?" she asked her, her voice shaking slightly, as she touched her arm, not caring in the moment whether or not Faith wanted her to. "Are you really, really sure you want to do this?"

For a second Faith hesitated, and Buffy drew in her breath, almost praying for her response… but the brief conflict in her eyes was pushed aside, and Faith nodded briefly.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm sure, B. Let's get this thing started."

Sighing a deep, slightly shuddering sigh, Buffy lifted Faith again, carrying her over to her blanket Xander had laid out for her and setting her down gently on her back, straightening her out carefully. Willow and Tara busied themselves setting three candles in a triangular arrangement around her, with one at her head and two spread widely at her feet. As Willow lit them, the others hovered nearby while keeping a distance at the same time, allowing only Willow and Tara to sit close to Faith, one on each of her sides.

"Okay, Faith, now close your eyes, and then we'll put the ingredients in the jar and start this off…" Willow said with just a little too much nervousness than for Buffy's liking. As Faith closed her eyes, taking a deep breath that was obvious to them from her supine position, Tara 

held the jar over Faith's body, and Willow carefully measured out the three ingredients needed, dropping them in order into the jar.

"Here goes… wolfsbane… scotsridge… and cintimilla…"

As she spoke the name of the third ingredient, dropping it into the jar, a sudden light flashed inside it, as the contents mingled, swirling, meshing together into a single golden orb-like vapor. Still holding the jar in one hand, Tara took Willow's hand with her other. Quickly covering the jar's opening with their joined hands, she turned it over so that its contents spread over them. The strange vapor seemed to grow, thinning out as it stretched itself over their joined hands, covering them in a thin golden sheen that suddenly seemed to be illuminating from their own flesh, rather than simply wrapping around it. Buffy stared, fascinated in spite of herself even as she barely could stop herself from holding her breath….

Still joining hands, Willow and Tara moved them further up Faith's body, letting them hover about a foot above her upper chest. With Tara still holding the jar, now bringing it down closer to Faith's face, they met each other's eyes, then began to chant in unison the same two words, over and over.

"Tublakah. Hakalbut. Tublakah. Hakalbut. Tublakah. Hakalbut…."

As Faith's eyes remained tightly shut, Buffy watched her and the other two young women with rising tension, barely aware of Giles and Xander close to her sides. The two young witches' chanting grew faster, less distinct, and it seemed that their voices were one, their words melting into one command.

"Tublakahhakalbuttublahkahhakalbut…"

Suddenly Faith's body stiffened, each muscle abruptly pulling itself rigid and flexed with such obvious strain that Buffy gasped in alarm, afraid that she was somehow hurt. Her back arched, and as her eyes flew open, a shrill cry escaped her that made Buffy's heart freeze over in near terror for her. She tried to stand up, to run over to Faith and lift her into her arms, to stop Willow and Tara from whatever it was they were doing to her. But to her further horror, she found that she could not make herself move. She couldn't even speak, couldn't scream for Willow and Tara to stop… and judging from the others' silence and motionlessness, they either couldn't or wouldn't either.

Through her slayer bond with Faith, she could feel the younger girl's cold as her body began to shake violently, could feel her heart racing faster and faster… she could feel Faith's terror, and it choked her, paralyzed her so that she thought that she too would die…

Faith screamed again, and the sound felt as if it were assaulting Buffy, physically harming her inside. She could feel her own heart rate quickening, feel herself beginning to shake as well, as if she were experiencing a sympathetic lesser version of what Faith was going through. Willow and Tara continued to chant, their glistening, dark with the magic channeled through them, and Buffy thought it would never be over.

But nearly as soon as the despairing thought crossed her mind, it was… Faith's body suddenly went still, with nearly as much force as it had began trembling. Her limbs crumpled back down limply, and her eyes slammed closed. Buffy knew from her slayer connection that Faith's heart had stopped… when she did not see her chest rise and fall with her breathing, Buffy felt as if she herself could not breathe.

She had barely began to process the intensity of the pain suddenly swelling in her chest, so vivid and intense that she would have fallen, toppled right onto her face had Giles and Xander not both grabbed hold of her shoulders. She had just began to process that they were touching her at all, when suddenly a golden vapor very much like the one surrounding Willow's and Tara's hands began to seep out slowly but steadily from Faith's nose. Unclasping hands, Tara quickly stuck the jar under Faith's nose, catching the small bit that had began to escape and all the rest that came out as well for the next minute or so. Buffy could feel her chest heaving with her deep, shuddering breaths, as Giles and Xander kept protective hands on her shoulders.

Finally it seemed that the mist-like gold that was Faith's life force had stopped coming, and after waiting for a few more seconds, Tara quickly screwed the jar's lid back on. Inside the jar, the life force swirled obliquely, seeming to Buffy somehow both incredibly strong and incredibly fragile and delicate at the same time… something like the person it belonged to.

As Tara held the jar carefully, there were several moments of nervous, tense silence that no one seemed eager to break. No one wanted to look at Faith's body before them, with its carelessly arranged limbs and the fact that it was obviously no longer living. And yet, no one seemed able to look away from it. Buffy's heart and respiration seemed unbearably loud to her, especially given the absence of Faith's.



Finally Willow spoke up hesitantly, her voice small and uncertain. "Um… I think it's okay for us to talk now… her, her life force is nice and safe in the jar, and our hands aren't all glowy… so…"

For a few seconds more the silence remained, and then Xander, as was usually the case with him, blurted out what no one else had wanted to say aloud.

"Wow… that was… just a little bit scary…"

"Did that look painful to anyone else?" Anya burst out with, her face scrunched up with anxiety. "It looked really really painful to me. Are you sure you did it right, because I don't' think I remember hearing about it being so painful-looking-"

"It seemed as if the ritual went very well," Giles interrupted her deliberately, giving the girls a smile that nevertheless seemed unsettled to Buffy. Turning to her, he asked her with concern, "Are you all right, Buffy? You seem…"

He didn't finish his sentence, but he didn't need to for Buffy to grasp his meaning. She looked, she was sure, as wretched and terrified as she felt.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Giles… I'm, I'm peachy," she said with no conviction, and then, abandoning her attempts at calm, looked at him with pleading near desperation. "Giles, how long does she have to stay like that? When will another slayer be activated? I'm sorry, but I don't like this, I really, really hate this… when can we bring her back?"

Her voice got higher as she went along, and Xander and Oz looked at her with a sympathy that only made her feel worse. Willow too gave her a cringing empathetic look; it was obvious that she was more shaken by Faith's reaction that she had expected to be. In fact, Oz was the only one present who seemed undisturbed, and Buffy knew that was because Oz never looked disturbed by anything.

"Why, yes, of course, Buffy," Giles said, blinking, and he squeezed her shoulder briefly but reassuringly. "If Faith's life force is gone from her, which it is, then a new slayer has already been called. In a way, this is truly intriguing… this is the first time in history, I believe, that there will be three slayers present at once-"



"Giles," Buffy cut him off, her voice taut with impatience, "can we bring her back now, or not?"

"Oh… yes, I suppose so," Giles said slowly, blinking again. "Yes- Tara, Willow, if you are ready…"

"Oh yeah, sure," Willow replied hurriedly, glancing at Tara. "Tara, are you-"

Tara nodded, stammering that she was, and as she held the jar cautiously up to Faith's face, beginning to unscrew it again, everyone fell silent once more, watching with bated breath.

The golden vapor- Faith's life force- began to eke out slowly from the container, disappearing once more up Faith's nose, as if she were breathing it in. Buffy watched, her breathing shallow with her nerves. She kept waiting, praying to see Faith move, to see some indication of her return to life.

But nothing was happening… it wasn't very long before all of Faith's life force had vanished inside her… and yet nothing had happened, she had displayed no signs of vitality…

As they waited with rising alarm, watching for a breath, a movement, that would not occur, Buffy's heart pounded at a dizzying tempo.

"Oh my god," she gasped at last, her voice sharp, splintered with shock. "What's wrong, what's wrong with her?! Why isn't she alive, why isn't she breathing?!"

"She- she is alive," Tara said hesitantly, her face pinched with worry as she knelt over Faith, feeling her face and neck. "Her- her life force is in her, I-I can s-sense it. I-I can feel her p-pulse, her heart is beating… b-but she's n-not breathing. For some reason, she's n-not breathing, and I d-don't know why…"