Buffy
Buffy is laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Nothing makes any sense, something is wrong with Willow, but she can't imagine what it is. She feels a wave of energy pass through her body and instantly pops up from the bed and opens the door. Faith is standing there, about to knock. Without a word or a thought, she pulls Faith into her room and shuts the door. Grabbing her roughly and kissing her, the kiss lasts only a few moments. "You came back." Buffy grins and leans her head on Faith's shoulder.
"Yeah."
"What was it like?" Buffy has her arms wrapped around Faith, who is standing stiffly in her embrace.
"Weird. Very very weird."
"In here too." Buffy moves to kiss Faith again, but she's shoved away.
"This is not what I came back for." Faith's tone is harsh and cold.
Buffy frowns and steps back. "Right. Sorry, I was just so worried that I'd never see you again. I saw you with Angel and all those demons, and I was sure something had happened to you. Everything is so strange down here. The First keeps messing with me, and the army guys are acting so weird. I can't even get them to talk to me. I think Willow is using those medallions they're wearing to control them. I got one off of Riley, and he was normal for a second, but then these other guys showed up." She took a deep breath. "You're the only one I can trust." Buffy finally stops her stream of words, searching Faith's eyes for any sign of reciprocation. She only finds a confused stare. She sighs and slumps down on the bed.
"You saw me with Angel?" Of my babble-fest, that's what she decides to comment on? Maybe there really is nothing between us. I at least hope we aren't enemies. I have to trust that she's not evil, if I don't, I have nothing left.
"They have surveillance all over town apparently. What was that place?"
"First, that was Angelus and not Angel." Buffy's heart aches at the news. She had sacrificed so much for Angel, and now he was gone.
"Are you sure it was him? Why would he just let you go?"
"I'm sure." Faith sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets. "It's complicated."
"Why did you come back?"
Buffy watches with confusion as Faith paces, not saying anything.
"It's Willow, isn't it? Something's not right." She whispers, as if afraid to say anything against Willow in this place.
There's another knock at the door, and both slayers jump at the sound.
"Buffy? Can I come in?"
"Sure," Buffy answers reflexively, and the door opens.
"Faith? I didn't know you were back." Willow looks a lot less than pleased to see Faith.
"Yeah, I didn't want to bother you, so I sorta snuck in with one of the teams." Faith grins sheepishly, and Willow clenches her jaw.
"Well, good. I'm glad nothing happened to you out there." Willow smiles, but it doesn't seem real. She turns her attention back to Buffy, "I just came to see if you wanted to grab lunch."
"Sure, meet you in the conference room in a few minutes?"
"Sounds good." Willow spares another glance at Faith and exits.
Willow
How the hell did she sneak back in here? It's going to be so much harder now! How is it that they're so friendly? They should still be trying to kill each other! I'm going to have to find some way to separate them. If they hadn't been so close when I pulled Buffy out, Faith would still be stuck in that other dimension, and I wouldn't even have to worry about this.
On top of taking more of her energy to pull them both out, she had to waste even more of her magic appearing to protect Faith from the First. She just knew that if Buffy believed Faith was in danger that she wouldn't be able to stop her from trying to leave.
Willow returned to her quarters to think. Sorting through the papers on her desk. Everything was in order. She just needed Buffy to complete her task. Then she would be able to fully restore life to Tara.
It had been two years since Tara died. Willow had managed to partially bring her back to life but was cursed to never be able to be with her. Only when Willow was asleep or drained of energy would Tara be alive. They shared brief moments together, but Willow would never be able to enjoy those moments. It gave her some small comfort to know that Tara did get to live on, but she needed more.
That's why she fought so hard to bring Buffy back. The slayer was the key to restoring full life to Tara. The slayer who defied death once before was the gift Osiris demanded. Willow was determined to give him that gift. She'd already destroyed the world in this pursuit. She wasn't about to stop now, just to keep the slayer who was once her friend alive.
She had been spreading herself very thin lately, using too much magic to maintain control of the soldiers. She was lucky that most of them still willingly followed the command structure. Unfortunately, that's likely why Faith was able to sneak in so easily. They weren't all automatons following her orders without question. It wouldn't matter once she had Tara back, together they would set everything right and defeat the first. It was these thoughts that helped her justify what she was doing. She even considered explaining it to Buffy as a way to get her on her side. She just wasn't so sure the slayer would be willing to sacrifice herself, even for such a noble pursuit.
Faith
Red looked seriously pissed off that I was here. Maybe everything they said was true. She pulls a small pouch out of her pocket and looks at it, somehow trying to discern if it can really do what they said. "Keep this on you at all times." She hands it to Buffy, who looks at it confused.
"Why? What is it?"
"I can't explain now, just please trust me."
"I trust you." She stuffs the pouch into her pocket, and Faith breaths a sigh of relief. I can't believe she says she trusts me. I don't understand what she sees in me. It almost makes me not want to let her down, to be the person that she thinks that I could be.
"Can you try to convince Red to let us go out on patrol?" Faith asks, desperately wanting a chance to talk to Buffy away from this place so she can explain all that she's learned.
"You don't think she'll let us go?"
"Just ask her and see what happens, I guess."
Faith hates being trapped in this compound, she looks all around the room, wondering if there are cameras watching them now, knowing there's nothing she can do about it.
B knows there's something wrong with Willow, but will she trust me? Will she let me kill her friend? Faith considers letting Buffy think that she loves her, taking advantage of her feelings to make sure she makes the right decision. She just can't bring herself to do that though, part of her wonders if she has feelings for Buffy. Her anger and lack of self-worth won't let her believe it. No matter what I do, there's no chance B will forgive me. I'd rather she hates me for killing her friend than thinking that I used her and then killed her friend. Confused by her screwed up logic, she runs her hand through her hair and heads towards the door.
"You're leaving?" Buffy frowns and Faith's heart lurches at the sadness she hears.
"Yeah, gonna get cleaned up. Plus you have lunch."
"You could come."
"I don't think Red would like that too much."
"Will I see you later?" Buffy approaches, and sweep hair out of Faith's face. Faith can't help but shudder at the contact. Why does this have to be happening? How is my life so impossibly fucked up? "Maybe we could train later? There's a decent gym upstairs."
"Sure, OK." She moves to open the door, but Buffy stops her.
"Faith? I know things are crazy. And maybe none of this makes sense. But I trust you completely. Whatever it is you're not telling me, I trust you." Buffy's eyes are unwavering and locked on Faith's. No one has ever trusted Faith before. She's always been the one everyone expected to screw everything up. Her instinct is to panic, to make a snarky comment and push Buffy away, somehow she doesn't. She only nods and pulls the door open, turning away. Her mind in complete turmoil.
She returns to her room and flops down on the bed. Fingers running gently over her lips, thinking of the tingling sensation from the brief kiss moments ago. B is just lonely and scared, so she's clinging to me. Once I deal with Willow, all of that will go away. She'll remember that she hates me. Frowning Faith sits up from the bed and focusing on remembering who she has been for the past few months. Focusing on her strength and confidence, pushing away any of the soft emotions that she knows will only lead to pain.
Buffy
I wish I knew what happened to her out there. I could see the way Willow looked at her. I can't believe that she's held onto her hatred of Faith after all these years. There must be something else going on.
Buffy heads off to find Willow and see what else she could find out. Willow is alone in the conference room, sorting out the contents of an MRE. "Hey Willow, where's Tara?"
"Resting."
"Oh, she seems really nice. I'm glad you found someone who loves you."
Willow's eyes go fierce for a second, and Buffy feels the energy change in the room. Willow shakes her head, and her eyes soften. What the hell was that? Are things not what I think they are between those two?
"How can you be so cozy with Faith all of a sudden?"
Buffy is a bit shocked by this question and the harsh tone of her previously always sweet friend. "I don't know that we're all that cozy. We just finally got the chance to talk without anything getting in the way."
"You slept together," Willow replies flatly.
"I thought it might convince her to stay." Buffy shrugged.
"Maybe not the best tactic for the get some, get gone, girl. You must remember what she did to Xander."
Buffy sighs, "Yeah, I remember. I know it wasn't a great plan."
"There are lots of hunky initiative guys down here. You could have any one of them if you wanted."
Buffy tries to suppress her shudder at the idea and the implication of what Willow just said. Guessing that Willow might be offering to give her one of the soldiers if she wanted her to. Focusing her attention on the pouches of food in front of her, not at all hungry, but needing something to keep her reactions in check. "Yeah, I guess it could be good to get to know some of them better. Riley is kinda cute, in a commandery kind of way. There are other things to worry about right now, though." She put on her best smile and watched as Willow seemed to relax a little.
Buffy watches Willow out of the corner of her eye as they both poke at their food. "I was thinking I should go on patrol later. See if there's anything demon-y to kill." Buffy notices Willow's eye twitch at the suggestion.
"There's not much going on around here, the soldiers patrol regularly, and from the reports they very rarely find anything." Willow shrugged.
"Oh, just getting a little stir crazy in here." Buffy frowns.
"Maybe in a few weeks when I'm back at full power, I'd feel better if I knew I could protect you if something happened."
So I can't go out because there's nothing to fight out there, but she also wants to keep me safe? I'm sure that makes some kind of sense. It looks like Faith was right, she's trying to keep me in here for some reason. "Yeah, ok."
Willow seems to relax again, now that Buffy has dropped the request to leave.
Buffy crumples up the packaging from her MRE and rises, "I think I'm going to go check out the training room. I'll see you later?"
Willow smiles and nods. Buffy forces herself to return the smile and heads upstairs. She can already feel Faith is in the training room. She sneaks in and closes the door behind her quietly, hoping to watch the dark slayer training. Faith's back is to the door and is stretching. "Enjoying the view?" Faith asks without turning around, not stopping her routine.
Of course, if I can feel her, then she can feel me too. Buffy berated herself for thinking she could sneak up on Faith. She doesn't respond to the taunt, just continues to watch, finding herself mesmerized by Faith's smooth and controlled movements. After a few minutes, Faith finally turns.
"B?"
Buffy snaps back to awareness, a blush forming on her cheeks. "Ready to spar?"
Faith grins, "are you sure you are? You're looking a little flushed, might be running a fever or something." Faith's flirty response brings even more heat to her face.
"Or something." Buffy grins and launches her attack, which Faith easily deflects. It was a lazy serious of left and right hooks, with no intention of actually landing. Faith grabs Buffy's left wrist and uses her momentum to throw her to the ground.
"You've got to have better than that!" Grinning at the prone Buffy, she was surprised when her legs were kicked out from under her, and she landed on her ass.
"Oh, I've got better, don't you worry." The slayers jump to their feet and circle each other.
It feels good to spar again. She tries not to remember the last time they fought. It was only a few days ago, but it feels like a lifetime has passed. So much has changed for Buffy, she could only hope that the same was true for Faith. The slayers dance around each other, parrying each blow, eyes gleaming with the excitement of the fight. Neither slayer notices when a certain redhead enters the gym. All of the focus is on each other and attempting to find an opening.
Faith launches a particularly vicious right hook. Buffy can feel the energy in the room change slightly. Buffy's defense is not where it should have been, and the blow connects. It hits her solidly on the chin and Buffy is knocked to the ground, rubbing her cheek. Her face a mask of confusion.
"Faith! How could you!" Willow is suddenly by Buffy's side. Buffy instantly understands what's going on. All her suspicions confirmed. What is Willow trying to do? She must be trying to tear us apart for some reason. I wish there was a safe place we could talk, that must be why Faith wants to go on patrol, hoping that Willow doesn't have eyes and ears everywhere.
"It's not my fault the dumb blonde can't block a punch!" Faith stalks out of the room.
"Are you ok?" Willow asks, wrapping her arms around Buffy and helping her to her feet. It was the first time Willow initiated contact. Buffy could tell it was forced.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's no big."
"I don't think it's safe for Faith to stay down here with us. She is still evil, after all."
Ok, how do I play this? I can't let her send Faith away, but if I protest too much will that make things worse? "It's ok, Willow. I don't really think she was trying to hurt me. We just got a little carried away."
Willow scowls, "I just don't trust her, what if she comes after you again?"
"I'll keep my distance. It doesn't seem right to turn her out until we have some proof that she's up to something."
Willow scowls again but says nothing.
Buffy steps away from Willow and rubs her chin. Trying to think of some way to get away from Willow so she can think. "I think I'm going to find some ice and get cleaned up. I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, sure."