1 Chapter 11















Michael and Faith were in Michael's apartment. Michael was giving Faith her first lesson. She was sitting on the floor, cross legged with her hands resting in her lap.

"I don't see how this is going to help me?" She said.

"I told you, this will let you become in touch with yourself. The best warriors know exactly what they can do, and they are at peace with who they are," Michael replied. "You have to know exactly what you can, and cannot do. So, sit, close your eyes, and just find yourself. If you can do that, you're already half way there." Faith did as he said, and to her surprise, she could find herself. Faith thought that she was lost somewhere in there, but she found herself, her true meaning. She could tell what she needed to do and when. She knew everything that she could do, although she was unclear on the special abilities part. She didn't know what was going on there. For once in a long time, Faith felt sort of at peace. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Michael. The look in Faith's eyes told him everything he needed to know. "Good," was all that he said. Faith watched as Michael walked over to the table, on which were some papers. He had copied the prophecy that was attached to his orders onto a blank piece of paper. He handed it to Faith. "One of my friends encountered this while, umm how could you say, looking through the Watchers' Council computers. He found it under your name, and I think that this should be taken seriously. Faith read the prophecy, and Michael saw that she raised her eyebrows a couple of times.

"So, this applies to me hey?" Faith asked.

"Well, the last paragraph does. The first two regard Buffy. The first is the prophecy that was unravelled when Buffy faced the master, and died. The second was a prophecy that was never found until after Buffy had sacrificed herself," Michael replied.

"Well, how do I fit into this equation?" Faith asked.

"I do not know. But I would guess that you are either the true, or the second, as from what I could gather from the prophecy, one of them is a Slayer," Michael replied. "My friend also sent me information saying that the fight will not be easy between the second and the true." Faith just sat there.

"Why am I listening to this. I don't believe in prophecies," Faith replied. She got up and started to leave.

"Will you be back tomorrow. We need to train you," Michael said.

"Sure. I will," Faith replied as she headed out the door.

At the Magic Box, Willow was going over the Buffy Bot's programming, making sure that it knew what was to be done tonight, and how to do it. As far as Willow could tell, it was fine. Tara came over to her.

"Alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, the Bot's fine," Willow replied.

"Not it," Tara said while pointing to the Buffy Bot. "You."

"Yeah, I'm getting better. The herbs Giles has here really fixes you up," she replied.

"That's got to be a good thing," Tara commented. Xander and Anya came through the front door.

"Giles around?" Xander asked.

"Nope, he's gone to get some lunch," Tara replied.

"Good, I want to go through the plans for what we're doing tonight again," Xander said, anxiety in his voice.

"The man that was freaking out over the concept of raising the dead two nights ago now wants to go in full charge," Willow said to Tara, teasing Xander.

"Well, you can never be overly prepared. Besides, I don't want you to get hurt again," Xander said. They walked over to the research table and sat down.

"Okay, we get there, Tara casts the protection spell…" Willow started.

"Will it work?" Xander interrupted.

"Yes, it's more powerful than the one we used to keep the army that wanted to destroy the key out of the gas station. Not even they could get through it, and Glory had a hard time herself," Willow replied. "Nothing will get through."

"Good," Xander said.

"Okay, then, we dig up Buffy's coffin again, and do the spell to bring her back. And the Buffy Bot will be outside the protection circle, ready to fend off anything before it gets to the circle," Willow explained.

"And if you lived anywhere but here, this would be considered a weird conversation. Thank God we're living on the Hellmouth," Xander said. They all made jokes about living on the Hellmouth until Giles came back.

The group of people had set up their residence in an abandoned Warehouse. There, they had assembled weapons and organised themselves. There were stockpiles of food, weapons and shelters set up in the warehouse. This was only one of three similar operations set up around the Sunnydale area. There were about twenty people in all. They were all gathered around in a group, discussing future events. One man in particular stood out from the rest. He was dressed better than the rest, and everyone seemed to listen to him. He was Quentin Travers, one of only ten leaders of the Watchers' Council. A man came rushing in through the door to the warehouse, running up to Travers.

"Sir, I have some urgent news," he said in between gasps for air.

"What is it then?" Travers asked him.

"The Slayer… Her friends… They tried to raise her," the man repeated.

"Come on man, you're not making any sense," Travers said. The man just looked at him.

"Buffy... Her friends tried to raise her last night," the man repeated clearly, his breath coming back to him. Everyone just looked at him in shock.

"Are you sure of this?" Another man asked.

"Yes, I am. They were unsuccessful though. Faith and her witch friend stopped it. Well, Faith didn't do much to stop it, she mostly screamed and ran. But her friend hurt the Witch that was preforming the spell," the man said to everyone.

"Stupid girl," was all that Travers said in reply.

"What if they're successful?" the man asked again.

"Well, then we'll just have to wait and see what happens," Travers replied.



They arrived at the cemetery at half past eleven. Willow was carrying the supplies, while Xander was carrying the digging equipment, mainly shovels. Tara noticed that the moon was completely full tonight, and that the sky was perfectly clear with dozens of stars dotting the sky. There were animals around tonight, which to Tara only meant that either they were not going to succeed with the spell, or the universe wanted Buffy to come back.

They arrived at Buffy's grave, and Xander gave one of the shovels to Anya. They began to dig while Tara sat down against the back of the tombstone. She concentrated, and focused on building up as much energy as she could inside her. When she felt it peak, she pushed it out with her hands into a big sphere. The sphere of energy was transparent and mottled with white and dark purple. It spread until it was encompassing the area around Xander, Willow, Anya and Buffy's grave. Tara still concentrated on keeping the sphere up. It wasn't powerful enough to stand on it's own yet.

Xander, Anya and Willow lifted the coffin out of it's grave, and they put it where they put it the night before. They had to wait for Tara to finish the sphere of protection before they could start. There was only one problem. It was taking too long. They needed to start the spell at midnight, and there was five minutes to go, and Tara still hadn't finished. Tara finished with three minutes left, and she came rushing over to the grave, where she picked up the green candle, for the Earth Element.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Willow asked. She looked over everything, and made sure it was all there. She then looked to everyone, who nodded to say that they were ready. "Isis, Great Goddess, Mother of God, the creator of life, You rule over the celestial bodies and give the stars their place. We call you forth tonight. Osiris, Lord of Eternity, King of the Gods, whose names are manifold, whose forms are holy. We call you forth tonight. On this night, we raise the dead to life. Isis, give this body life. Osiris, guide this soul back from the astral planes back to the Earth. Hear us," Willow said. She poured the blood from the urn of Osiris onto the head of the coffin again, which was still stained from last night's attempt. As before, blue energy began to swirl around Willow, and later the coffin. Xander looked over to Anya, who was sitting on the other side of the coffin to him. They looked at each other as they realised what they were doing. The energy around the coffin began to envelop them too. Xander was filled with a sense of power. That he could have done anything at that moment. He saw a disturbance outside the sphere of protection, only to see the Buffy Bot fighting an unknown attacker.

Faith had run from the Assassins again tonight. Before she knew it, she was at the graveyard she had been at the night before. Not wanting to go in, she hesitated. But the sound of the crossbow bolts flying towards her were all the motivation she needed to scale the fence and start running through the woods into the graveyard. Once again, shocked, she saw a bright light ahead in the graveyard, in the same location it had been the previous night.

"Shit, not again," she said while running towards it. As she got closer, she saw a sphere of energy surrounding figures inside it. She could tell that the people inside were Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara. Outside the sphere, she saw the Buffy Bot, facing her in a fighting stance. Faith ran for the sphere. When she arrived she punched it as hard as she could, but all she managed to do was to hurt her hand. She watched as waves of energy rippled out from where she had punched it. She went to punch it again, but she was spun around by the Buffy Bot, to face it.

"I don't have time for this robot. Either you get out of my way or I send you back to the toaster factory," Faith said in anger at it. She was suspecting a smart comment from it, but it just lashed out and did a spinning punch to her face.

"I am programmed to protect Willow from everyone. I will not allow you to get in there," the Buffy Bot replied. Faith stepped forward and punched it in the head. She did it again, and again, and again, until the Buffy Bot finally managed to block her punch. The Buffy bot swung for Faith's head, but she ducked from it and managed to uppercut the Buffy Bot's mid- section. Faith pulled out a knife from the back of her pants. One she had stolen from the Assassins the previous night.

"I'm going to rip you apart," Faith said while lunging forward with the knife. The Buffy bot caught the knife and ripped it out of Faith's hand and threw it into the forest.

Tara could see the Buffy Bot fighting Faith, and she didn't like it. So far, the Buffy Bot hadn't managed to lay a hand on Faith. She focused on the spell to bring the real Buffy back again. The energy was encompassing her, going through her. It was almost like the energy was alive, and searching through all of them. Its power was unlimited and untouchable. She felt the energy moving through every fibre in her being. She suspected that everyone was feeling the same things as she was. Tara was shocked when she heard a voice in her head, not of any language recognisable to man. But she understood what it was asking of her. It wanted to know why this person should be brought back to life.

"She is the Slayer, one of the best of her time. She is my friend, she is my lover's best friend, and she is my friends' best friend. She means so much to so many people. She deserves life," Tara heard herself say. She also heard the others saying similar things. The voice inside her asked her what she would be willing to do to have this person back in the living world. It asked her if she was willing to sacrifice herself to let this person live. Tara was unsure if it was asking a hypothetical question, or an actual one. But she replied yes anyway, and she heard the others reply as well. She felt the energy flowing through her change, it was leaving. But instead of leaving Tara with an empty feeling, it felt like the energy was still there inside her, but different. She realised that the energy that had come inside her, had unlocked her reserves of power. It was her energy, it was her. She understood what she was to do. She leaned forward, and put her hands on the coffin. There, she pushed her reserves of energy through the coffin, into the body inside. She realised that this was energy straight from her soul. She was giving part of her soul to Buffy. She understood the spell now. They weren't asking for a God to raise Buffy from the dead. They were asking a God to let, them raise Buffy from the dead. Tara opened her eyes, only in time to see the knife go through the Buffy Bot's head. It fell to the ground and sparks flew from its head.

After Faith had overcome the Buffy bot, she looked into the sphere. The four people were kneeling at each side of the coffin, and they all seemed to be emanating a soft white light from themselves. Faith watched in amazement as they all touched the coffin in unison, with their eyes closed. She stood in horror and bewilderment as she realised that the spell might actually work, that Buffy could get up out of that coffin. The light surrounding them had begun to diminish, but the white light coming from them began to grow stronger. It surged through them, and into the coffin. Faith just hit the sphere as hard as she could, and was surprised to see a look of pain come across Tara's face. She hit the sphere again, and saw that when she hit the sphere, she hurt Tara. She didn't want to hurt Tara, but it was necessary to stop Faith's predecessor, and rival, from coming back to life. She started pummelling the sphere as hard as she could. She watched as Tara overcame the pain, and closed her eyes. Faith kept hitting the sphere, feeling it weaken. Faith watched as the light coming from Tara began to diminish. She was surprised to find the light from Willow diminishing too. When it had disappeared from them, they both opened their eyes and walked over to one another. They sat on the ground cross legged, facing each other, hand in hand. They closed their eyes, and Faith felt herself being pushed away from the sphere. She couldn't do anything to get closer to it. She saw herself begin to rise above the ground. When she was two metres off the ground, the air around her began to shimmer. She closed her eyes, and focused all her strength. She raised her palm and pushed energy towards the sphere. But it never got there, it was absorbed by the shimmering air. She opened her eyes, and got one last glance at the sphere before she found herself standing on the footpath, on the other side of town. She began to run as fast as she could back towards the cemetery. She could not let the spell be completed.

Tara and Willow got back up and went back to their positions beside the coffin. They placed their palms on the coffin again, and felt their energy surge through it. It wasn't too long until each of them felt the untapped energy from their souls pouring into the coffin again.

Willow could feel her energy subsiding. Her body didn't want to let any more of it out. She realised that she could do nothing to stop it, but she wouldn't listen to her own brain. She tried to push more energy into the coffin, but it wouldn't go. Soon, Willow was back to her normal self. She opened her eyes, and saw that the others were too. She felt extremely dizzy, and before she knew it, she had collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Inside the coffin, the decomposed corpse was recomposing itself to look like a person again. Soon, features were able to be made out.

Faith arrived at the gravesite. She looked into the sphere, and saw Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander sprawled on the ground around Buffy's coffin. She tried to look closer, but the sphere was blurring everything she could see inside. She started hitting the sphere again. Faith had realised that it must have been Tara who cast the spell to protect them, and it must have a direct link to her, therefore if the sphere got hurt, Tara got hurt. Faith kept punching the sphere. Soon, Tara's unconscious body was convulsing on the ground. Faith didn't like hurting her. Tara was the only one that had been nice to Faith for the whole time, and actually treated her like a human being. But it had to be done. Faith looked at Tara closely, and all of a sudden, Faith was inside the sphere, looking at Tara. There was blood coming out of her mouth as something hit against the sphere. As sudden as it had occurred, Faith was back outside the sphere, hitting it. She then realised that the only way to bring down the sphere was if Tara died. She stopped hitting it, and stepped back.

Faith focused her mind on being in touch with herself. It took a while for her to find what she was looking for, that little spark inside her that was her true self. She walked up to the sphere, and focused energy into her hands. She put her hands almost against the sphere, and the energy in her hands connected with the sphere. She pulled the sphere apart, and slowly a crack appeared, then another, then another. Soon, the sphere was just a multitude of cracks along a mottled white and purple surface. Faith watched as the sphere faded. When it was completely faded, she rushed over to Tara, and checked on her. She was still breathing, and she still had a pulse, so she wasn't dead.

Out of the corner of her eye, Faith saw a movement. She got up and spun around to face it. What she saw was a body, curled up in a ball with two eyes looking at her, terrified, and feral. Faith walked closer, and looked at Buffy. She backed away from Faith.

"Buffy?" Faith asked. Buffy just backed away again. She looked over at her tombstone, and the coffin, and then back at Faith. Faith stepped closer. "Buffy? You in there somewhere sis?" Faith was surprised that she didn't hate Buffy right now. Instead she felt sorry for her, and even happy. Faith felt a bond with Buffy that she didn't have before. Something that told her that they were connected. Faith put her hand out towards Buffy, offering to help her up. Buffy just looked at the hand for a while, and then back at Faith. She reached out her hand to Faiths, and Faith pulled her up. Looking at her, Buffy was in the black funeral dress that her friends had put her in. She was distant, in shock, afraid. Faith could see this. Buffy didn't know what was happening. "It's alright Buffy. I'm not going to hurt you," Faith said to her, as comforting as was humanly possible. "It's going to be okay, you're back," Faith said.

A crossbow bolt hit the tree next to Faith. She looked over Buffy's shoulder to see the Watchers' Council Assassins coming out of the woods. "Buffy, hide," Faith said to her, unsure if she was able to fight yet or not.

"I've found her!" The man that shot the crossbow screamed. Faith looked at him and his friends. There were four there, and it looked like another five were coming out of the woods.

Buffy went and stood by her friends, behind her tombstone. She tried not to look at the writing on it, she couldn't bare to see her name on it again.

Faith watched the men coming. They were armed with swords and daggers. Four of them came towards her, and she was ready for them. The first one swung his sword at her head. She ducked it, and grabbed the attackers wrist and twisted his arm so he needed to put his back to her. She snatched the sword out of his hands and kicked him towards the ground. She turned around just in time to block another blow with the sword. She hit the next attackers sword with hers as hard as she could, knocking it out if his hands. She moved forward and kicked him in the chest. Faith looked back and saw a sword coming to her, ready to cut open her stomach. She barely blocked it. She knew that there was someone behind her, and she kicked the attacker in front of her in the stomach, then the head. Faith then turned around and swung the sword towards another attacker, cutting his arm open. He looked at it in shock, but before he could recover himself, Faith punched him in the nose, and then the throat, sending him to the ground gasping for air. Faith spun around as four more of the attackers were coming towards her. Faith picked up the sword from the Assassin she had just sent to the ground. The remaining four attacked her in unison, and Faith was having a hard time fending them off, even with two swords. One of the Assassins had come too close to her, and she kicked him in the knees as hard as she could. She heard a crack, meaning that she had just broke one of his knees. He fell to the ground. The three remaining Assassins circled her, and she was surprised when two of the attackers faces morphed so they had vampiric features. They kept circling her, and Faith realised that they were just going to jab at her, one at a time, until they gained the upper hand. Faith moved towards one of the vampires, raised one of her swords, and brought it down towards his head. He caught the sword between his palms and pulled it out of Faith's hands. She went back into the middle of the circle and watched them circle. She heard the sound of a vampire tuning to dust behind her, and she spun around just in time to see it vaporise. Behind it was Buffy with a tree branch in her hand. The other vampire and the human turned towards her, and advanced. The human swung his sword towards her, and Buffy caught it between her palms and threw it away. Faith watched in awe as Buffy beat up the vampire. She hadn't seen anyone move that fast before in her life. Faith wondered how Buffy came to be so good, and then she realised that Buffy had spent months training, ready to face Glory.

Faith continued watching as Buffy easily slay the vampire. The Human tried to attack her, but she easily brushed him off. The person Faith had punched in the throat was running towards Buffy's back, with his sword raised. Without even looking, Buffy ducked as low as she could go, reached up and grabbed his wrists, and pulled him over and slammed him into the ground on his back. He had the wind knocked out of him. Buffy got up and looked at Faith.

"Good wor…" Faith began but didn't continue the sentence as she saw Buffy turn and run.

Faith just watched her run, and didn't try to go after her. She stood there for a long time, thinking about what had just happened. Her predecessor was back. Faith thought that she'd hate that, hate Buffy. Instead, she found herself drawn to Buffy. It was like she sent off an aura that attracted Faith to her. She would never share this with anyone though, and Faith knew that all to well. She went over to where Buffy's coffin lay and looked at all the bodies of Buffy's friends. She tried to wake them, but nothing would do it. She decided that she would watch over them until one of them woke up. After all, how safe could someone be lying unconscious in a graveyard, in Sunnydale.



Spike was looking after Dawn again. He didn't mind it too much as Dawn was easy to get along with, mainly because she didn't know everything that he'd done before he got the chip in his head and became good. They were watching an old horror movie on the television.

"They should be back by now you know," Dawn said to Spike.

"Don't worry little bit, they can handle themselves," Spike replied. "Anyway, they've got the Buffy Bot with them, they'll be fine. Just don't tell them that I've let you stay up this long, alright."

"Alright," Dawn smiled. It was another hour before Spike began to worry. The sun was going to be up in three hours and they weren't back yet. Dawn had fallen asleep on the couch. Spike looked out the window from where he was sitting, and he could see a figure standing out the front of the house, looking into it. He walked over to the window, and found Dawn next to him. The figure was on the other side of the street, and it was impossible to make out the features. All Dawn and Spike could discern is that the figure had long blonde hair. They went and opened the front door, and as soon as they stepped out onto the front verandah, the figure ran.

"That…" Dawn began.

"Looks like the bot," Spike finished.

"Come on, let's go after it," Dawn said.

"We cant… Oh what the hell. Come on little bit, let's go," Spike said. They ran down the street, and Spike was amazed that Dawn could keep up with him. They ran in the direction the Buffy bot had run, and soon saw it running away from them. Spike saw the Buffy Bot turn the corner up ahead, and go right into a blind alley. Spike and Dawn followed it into the alley.