Author – Benaboo

Rating – This one is definitely NC-17

Warnings – violence, some gore, language, and explicit sex

Setting – This takes place at the beginning of January 2010, after the boys go to Wisconsin in Gypsy's, Tramps, and Thieves. Takes place during season 5 of Supernatural, 6 years after Buffy ended, and 5 after Angel ended.

Notes – This is the last chapter of Hell Mouths for a bit until I finish my other Supernatural and MASH fictions, which are very near completion! This chapter is for my girls, you know who you are. Sometimes you just need a good Buffy and Willow moment!

Chapter Twelve

Sam POV

Darren's mansion was a real sight from the outside. It seemed like a piece of Hollywood plopped down right in the middle of the Dust Bowl, completely out of place and yet fitting in with the nice neighborhood in a weird, Stanley Kubrick fashion. To tell the truth it reminded me a bit of Crowley's place; minus the entire Enochian angel guarding symbols of course. I took in the building and surrounding grounds as we walked up to the black, spiked, iron gate and Angel pressed the call button on the box there. You would think the half-demon would have better security, but Angel had assured me he had other measures in place.

"Wow." Was all I could muster up to say.

"Yeah." Was all he responded with.

If I hadn't driven by Stephen King's house so many damn times passing through Maine, this is what I would imagine it would look like instead. From our viewpoint it looked like the gothic style fence work stretched around three football fields of yard, the mansion itself seeming to swallow it into its sides near the back. Angel assured me this wasn't the case though, a huge yard in the back the size of an actual golf course. In fact, the former vampire wasn't being vague about that. The demon Darren loved the game apparently.

A long, nicely paved, winding road led up to the mansion, dividing the well manicured lawn in a snakelike river you'd see on a world map. The majority of the yard was clean of trees and bushes, with only a few planted along the fence and up near the house in a deliberate looking manner. It gave the grounds a more enormous, spacious feel to it. We were buzzed in, without talking to anyone, and as we walked up the driveway, leaving the closing gate behind us, the only vehicle I saw was a black limo parked up by the front door, and the only people were two big, burly guys standing on either side of the door. My hunter instincts immediately kicked in and told me that there were other eyes watching our every move, and they hadn't let me down thus far so I remained cautious and vigilant of my surroundings. If this demon dude was as badass as Angel said he was, and I had no reason to doubt his word. I'd need to keep myself as focused as possible on what may or may not lie ahead.

The driveway was a mile or so long, all uphill, and by the time we got to the top I felt I'd been at the gym for a few hours. My legs were definitely feeling the burn. I wasn't sure my legs would want to work if they had to. I would bet money that was why Darren had visitors walk up to the house, and I don't usually gamble. Smart really, to make your guest so tired they had no real fight left in them once they made it to you, if they were human at least. Yeah, this bastard was evil.

As Angel and I walked up the steps I noticed, quite disturbingly, that the huge, potted plants on either side of the door were meadowsweet. Of course, even though it bugged the shit out of me, this was an alternate reality. It was very possible it didn't have any pagan connections whatsoever. It was a very decorative looking plant after all. On the other hand, it could be much worse than my own reality when I thought about it. I made a mental note to ask Angel, or perhaps Willow or Giles about it when I saw them again. For now I had to concentrate on backing Angel up if things didn't go smoothly.

In my experience things never went smoothly…

We stopped in front of the big burly guys, and I noticed that with the exception of looking mostly human, they each had two inch horns curving up out of their foreheads and freckles framing the hairline of their otherwise normal looking appearance. They both wore identical, dark brown muscle shirts and camouflage cargo pants with black combat boots, and a weird medallion on a tied hemp necklace around their throats, collar style. Meeting them in a dark alley would sure be an interesting encounter. I didn't envy Buffy and Faith and what they had to face day to day.

"We're here to see Darren." Angel did not look at them as he spoke, just faced the door, and I did the same, taking my cues from him as he explained to me at the house earlier in the day and again in the car. They didn't speak back, the demon guy on the left grabbing the knob, twisting it and giving the door a quick, hard shove inward, revealing a decorative foyer from what I could see. It was also one of the few rooms that had a light on in it. We stepped in, and the door shut firmly behind us; no one was around.

"Alright, what now?" I asked, curious about what was going to happen now that we made it here, especially since we had no way of knowing what to expect from Darren himself.

Angel pointed to one of the benches on either side of the door in the foyer. "Now we wait."

"For how long?" I asked again.

Angel furrowed his brow and took a seat. "For as long as it takes." I gave a nod and sat beside him, putting my hands behind my head and kicking back until we were called in to see Darren himself.

Buffy POV

Willow and I swept the town trying to find any normal or magical way to track down Faith. We did a few more passes at the places she normally hung out, and then we started casing the more obscure parts of town where the demons gathered. We spent hours checking abandoned buildings, the seedier neighborhoods, and all the weirdo spots near the railroad tracks.

Nothing.

"Dammit!" I kicked a rock and it flew down the railroad ties, knocking someone in the head near a makeshift barrel fire. An audible "Ow!" resounded back on me from the direction I kicked it in and IU felt bad. "Sorry!" I called, but it was already forgotten.

Willow put a hand gently on my shoulder. "We'll find her Buffy. Faith's tough, and she takes care of herself very well, you know that."

I turned to my best friend and gave her a groan. "I know that, Will, I do, but God, there are things I still wanted to tell her, to have her be around for. What if I never get that chance?"

Her hand tightened a bit. "You can't think that way. None of us can. We've been through a lot with her, not all good, but she's pulled through, survived. She's got your determination Buffy. I don't feel it's her time to go yet, and I know you feel the same."

I blew a stray strand of hair out of my face. "I've died three times Will."

"Yeah, and she's already bit it once and came back, and your both still here. If you have nine lives then so does she. We'll find her. She's very resourceful."

I nodded. "I guess you're right." She gave me her resolve face and I had to roll my eyes and smile. "Okay, okay, you're right, she'll be fine. You know how doing this job makes me overly paranoid from time to time."

It was her turn to nod. Our chit chat stopped then, and we continued to walk down the tracks toward the barrel and the innocent bystander I kicked the rock at. As we passed the fire the homeless people had made in that old, empty barrel, they shot us distrust and hate filled glances, as if us just being there was a personal affront to them. I saw one in particular dodge behind the others, most likely the recipient of my angry rock punt. I did my best to look apologetic, but I knew it did no good. I'd be wary of the person who kicked rocks at me too if I was in his position, but if was also the fact that homeless people were distrustful in general so I tried not to take it too personally. I pushed it out of my mind since I had Faith to worry about, stopping ten yards past the barrel to search the area again. My eyesight wasn't as good in the dark, but it was better than most, although the firelight behind me seriously made it hard to see anything but black, so I stood there for a bit letting my peepers adjust.

When they finally did adjust I saw that we had come to the part of the tracks near the grain silos on the outskirts of town, which explained all the homeless people hanging around. When it got too cold they crawled into the metal grain giants, where it was warmer a little and nice and dry, and the snow didn't get in them as much, unless they were broken or cracked somehow. The only problem were that vamps and human eating nasties knew this, so there were always lots of dead bodies in this area. The police and FBI thought Lawrence, Kansas had a serial killer that they couldn't seem to catch; if only.

"You thinking we should check the silos Buffy?" Willow asked, wrapping her arms around her shoulders to keep warm on this crisp, January night.

"Since we're already here we might as well. Wish I didn't have to crawl into each one though. Where's Clark Kent's x-ray vision when you need it?"

My redheaded girlfriend let out a long, exasperated sigh. "Smallville."

I raised my eyebrow skeptically. "Isn't Smallville in Kansas?"

She quirked her lips in amused annoyance. "Typically speaking, yes. Have you been listening to Xander spout off comic book rants again?"

"Oh would you look at that? I feel my dumb blonde coming on all of a sudden!" I walked ahead, the echo of Will's snicker following me as I made my way further up the tracks to check the first silo. I made it there so quick I hadn't realized I'd ran the entire way. A bit of heavy breathing and I apologized to Willow softly as I opened the door to it.

'Don't worry Buffy; I'm just hanging back a bit anyway. Much stealthier this way!' Her voice echoed in my mind. The telepathy was nice. It toned down how much noise we made when we needed to sneak around. At first it was really weird, but I got used to it eventually. Mostly because it started out as whispering in our heads and it was very annoying until Will got it under control, then the head speaking became much easier. To be honest it was nice not to have to voice my thoughts, even with the lack of privacy factor. Although my brush with mind reading back in high school hadn't been quite as cool. I'm still going to be scarred for life by that life experience.

The door to the silo was very rusty, and it made an extremely loud creaking sound as it swung to the outside. Forget about not making too much noise, because some of the dead had to have heard that. Colder bits of corn dust blew out at me, and I covered my face quickly before I swallowed or inhaled any of it. A bit of the moonlight from the quarter sliver in the sky filtered through the higher round windows, in faint light blue rays, illuminating the inside in an oddly haunting way. It wasn't much, but it was enough, so I climbed inside.

Corn brittle with the hardness of winter crunched under my shoes, kicking up more dust, and I kept my nose and mouth covered with the sleeve of my jacket, looking around as the dust flew around my head before settling. There were no dead bodies, no homeless people sleeping in the corn, and most importantly, no Faith. I sighed in frustration and climbed back out reluctantly, some part of my sub-conscience hoping she would just magically appear.

Willow picked up on my feelings. 'Not in there, is she?'

'Nope. Well, one down and several to go!'

We got to work. It took us hours to check all the silos. As expected, half of them had homeless men and women residing in them, most of them asleep, but a few dead. I left them were they lay after checking for vampire bites and made a mental note to call the police when I was home. By the time we finished we were miles from where we started, the barrel fire a tiny flicker in the distance. Farmland stretched flat for as far as I could see in the dark, a few houses, barns and trees dotting the landscape in no particular pattern. I walked off the left of the tracks facing east and turned around in a circle very slowly, looking for anything out of the ordinary and listening for anything unusual. I didn't see or hear anything, although for some reason I sensed something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

'Will? Do you feel something's there, even though you can't see or hear anything?'

'Yeah, I feel it. It almost feels like the skin of evil, if you know what I mean.'

'It's a fair enough description. I'm not sure anyone could put it into words better than you have.'

She gave a mental sigh. 'Well, what do we know about our surroundings? Houses, barns, farmland, and railroad tracks as far as the eye can see.'

'That pretty much sums it up.'

'What about underground?'

That was an idea, especially since we knew we were dealing with the First and its Bringers. We had a lot to cover and looking for dead ground wouldn't be easy but it was a place to continue our search. It would be tough because the moonlight was faint due to cloud cover, but I was hoping Willow could do some magic detection while I searched on foot.

'Hey, I hate to ask but…'

I didn't have to finish my sentence because she did it for me. 'Can I break out some mojo? Yeah, go ahead and do your thing and I'll do mine.'

'Thanks. I owe you one!'

'Yeah you do! Just remember mocha's say it with love!'

I just smiled and ran off toward the closest farmhouse, talking with Willow really putting me more at ease. I was happy she insisted on coming along with me. It's good to do things alone sometimes, but with everything that was currently going on and all jacked up the way it was, none of us should be alone right now. Not even me, and when we found Faith I wasn't letting her out of my sight. I needed her. I wanted to make everything up with her and I wanted her in my baby's life. Auntie Faith. I couldn't wait to see the look on her face when I called her that. It would be priceless, and thinking about it kept me going, kept my hopes alive. It was all I had to keep me sane at the moment.

We scoured the land on the left side of the tracks first. A few farmhouses full of manure later and I was ready for a hot shower to scald the shit smell off of my skin. We couldn't find or sense anything, almost as if we went the wrong way from what we felt earlier, so we made our way back to the tracks. As we neared them we got that feeling again, that something was there just out of eyesight and earshot. I was tired but not willing to give up and neither was Willow. Although she'd been floating in the air the entire time, magic was just as tiring after a while, so I knew she had to be feeling just as, if not, more tired than I was. I'd buy her that mocha early if we were anywhere near a coffee shop. Alas, we had to make due.

'Alright, time to go right this time.'

"Let's just take a few minutes ok?" The sound of her voice behind me startled, and I turned around to face her. Even in the dark she looked pretty pale, so I nodded and we sat on the railroad ties to take a break.

"Sure, we can take fifteen. You need to meditate?"

She shook her head. "No, just need to rest."

I gave a slight nod. "We've been going non-stop since we left the house. I could use the breather myself." It was true. I had no idea if it was because I just found out I'm pregnant or not, but best not to take too many chances, and I wasn't ready to clue Willow in when I hadn't told Angel yet.

"Hey Buffy?" Willow asked in a small, hesitant voice.

"Yeah Will?"

"When did you find out you were pregnant?"

Guess I wasn't telling Angel first.

Faith POV

Navigating through the vents was a bitch!

A bitch and a half with the brat hanging behind me the entire time, but not that he was a bitch, just that it's a bitch coming to a vent dead end and then having to turn the fuck around. And WHAT was with the smell? I'd sniffed a lot of things, both voluntary and involuntary, but the smell in the vents topped the damn cake. It was as if someone mixed up sewer, rotten garbage and eggs, and mixed in some grave dirt. It was worse than vamp breath and that's saying something. I swear to fucking god someone could bottle that odor and sell it to any nation's government as germ warfare; or to the SWAT teams as knock out gas!

Son of a bitch.

I shook my head for what seemed like the thousandth time in a vent system that felt like it was made of only dead ends; and I had to pee, which made everything ten times worse. I was squeezing my hardest not to let a single drop leak out. Not an easy task when you can only feel the temperature and it makes the sensation heightened. I knew it was January, but it felt like mid-July in the deep fucking south! I was far from being five by five. I think it might be time to change up the number.

At least there was still a way to go as we mapped out the vents in our heads. We had to turn around a lot, but if it got us out of here and kept us out of the cell, it was all worth it. Sweat kept pouring into my eyes so I stopped frequently to wipe my brow. I'd give just about anything to be able to sit up for a little bit. My back, hands, and knees were killing me, and it was much harder to bear for such a prolonged amount of time without my slayer abilities. I got my wish a few minutes later where the vents came to a 'T' intersection. There was a 3'x 4' cubicle room, vent shafts going off to our left and right, with a vented window in the middle of the room. It wasn't much, but it was enough for me and the boy wonder to take a breather and collect our thoughts. I slid in first, to the left and up as close to the screened vent as I could to make room for Connor. He followed my lead and went to sit up next to the right vent. We sat there for a few minutes catching our breath before we spoke, the silence of exhaustion understood between us. If we had to we could probably sleep this way for a bit, but that was not as appealing as getting the fuck out of here. I was done with the smell, heat, and back pain.

In a low voice, Connor finally spoke. "What I wouldn't give for some water right now."

"Yeah, along with some clean air and a toilet; I'm mad squeezing not to flow right now!"

"Actually, the smell doesn't seem as bad right here." I could barely see the outline of his finger tap the vent window. "I wonder where this leads to. Looks like some sort of room with a bit of light. The vents may be safer but if there's a window or door in there it could be quicker."

I considered his suggestion. "That's a good idea. The only problem is we don't have our strength. We might attract attention banging to get it open son. Fighting out that way in our condition isn't guaranteed survival."

Connor sighed. "I know. I just want to get the Hell out of here; being cooped up is driving me crazy."

"That makes two of us kiddo." I took a few deep breaths and was about to tell him we had to get going, when we heard a door opening on the other side of the vent. A few seconds later the same door closed and voices started talking in loud tones, reaching up to us audibly enough to hear the conversation. I slid as quietly as I could to get closer to the vent to try getting a glimpse of demons or men who were speaking. The vents were hard to look through, metal slats facing downward, but I got a fairly decent look at them, along with the two bringers, that came into the room with them. The first man or thing, whichever, was medium height with balding grey hair, short and cropped around the sides in a cartoon Friar Tuck sort of way. Hey, so I have a thing about sappy Disney flicks; sue me. I couldn't see the other man. He was too far to my side of the vent for me to really get a decent look. Baldy had started the conversation, and he was not happy.

"The room was supposed to be guarded by magic at all times. You promised us that there was no way the Slayer could escape! That she would not be able to penetrate the magical shield! Now she and that half-breed brat vampire reject are gone you moron!" I didn't need to see Connor's face to know he was seething with anger. We were close enough I felt his body tense up.

"I told you no such bloody thing. You may want to listen next time instead of hearing only what you want to."

That voice; no, it couldn't be who I thought I was hearing…

"You've been paid a lot of money Mr. Rayne! Don't blame us for you're stupid mistakes! You're a fraud, and Wolfram and Hart will not abide such a man failing us!"

The First, Ethan Rayne, and Wolfram and Hart; didn't the brat and I just stumble onto the mother fucking load?

"Again, you're not listening to me, just hearing what you want to remember from that thick brain of yours. I told you I could contain a slayer, perhaps more…"

Baldy interrupted him. "Yes! You said you could do it! You lied!" The door opened again and another person walked in the room. From the sound the shoes made on the floor I'd say it was a woman wearing a higher end brand of high heels, although it could be a man. These days you never knew.

It turned out I was right; the newcomer was a woman. She spoke in a firm, yet soft voice; much more pleasant then either man was speaking. In fact, she sounded so nice it was scary. There wasn't much that scared me, which said a lot about the kind of person I felt she was. Slayer intuition or not, she was the type of person that made your skin crawl with apprehension and a feeling of evil. I held my breath as best as I could so she couldn't hear me, which might have been paranoia talking, but if it kept me and the boy wonder alive then it didn't matter. Buffy's words to me when I first met her came ringing back through my head like a phone not answered: "First rule of slaying Faith; don't die!"

"Mr. Mochrie, your voice can be heard all the way down the hall, and it's making our good client Mr. Stiles very nervous. I would ask that you please calm down and discuss this situation in a more appropriate manner."

Ethan took the moment to cheese his way into her scolding. "Yes, please keep your voice down Colin, lest you make any more a fool of yourself than you already are."

I couldn't get a good look at her, but her voice carried up to me on the rising hot, smelly air. "Mr. Rayne, you have no quarter to speak here. Your mistake may have cost us a lot of money and time, and some very old clients; not to mention powerful allies and a partial foundation of Wolfram and Hart's core."

"My humble apologies ma'am, but what exactly did Colin tell you to expect out of my performance?"

There were a few moments of silence before she spoke again, and I'm sure a few eyebrows were raised. "He told us you could make a fool proof Slayer containment with some black magic, one that they could not escape from once you constructed it. It's pretty obvious you did not hold up your end of the bargain."

I could see Mr. Mochrie throwing Ethan some pretty smug looks. "I told him that I could do it, that much is true…"

Baldy's interruptions were getting old. "See? He admits it!"

Ethan sighed, disdain pouring into his voice. "Once again Colin, your problem is that you don't listen to everything someone has to say, you just pick out what you want to hear." For once, I agreed with Ethan, who continued. "Now ma'am, no disrespect but may I please say what I have to without any further interruptions? I won't take up too much of your time, I bloody well promise."

'Ma'am' spoke up in that soft, firm and creepy tone of hers. "Very well Mr. Rayne. Mr. Mochrie, keep your mouth shut."

Some more quiet and a sour look on Baldy's face and the chaos worshipping son of a bitch let loose his side. "The Slayer containment should have been foolproof, would have been foolproof as long as the Slayer kept her powers. I made the original deal with Sir Colin here and I told him this when he explained what you intended, but it's quite obvious that it didn't stick in that fat head brain of his."

"So you're saying that Faith and the boy were able to escape because we took away their powers temporarily?"

I was never so thankful for not having my powers.

"That is exactly what I'm telling you, and what I told him weeks ago. The spell is specific to a Slayer's body chemistry. It's the way magic differentiates a Slayer from a normal girl, which is how you were able to capture those few that haven't come to the good guy's attention yet. The drugs you gave her and the boy allowed them to find a loophole, so to speak, and not surprisingly so."

A new menace and venom filtered into her tone, and Baldy looked ass up scared. "Is this true? It will do you no good to lie either, since Wolfram and Hart has many ways of making you tell the truth."

Yeah. This bitch scared the ever loving crap outta me.

Baldy's voice shook as he spoke. "I swear ma'am, he didn't say that, just that he could create containment, honest!"

"Colin...?" My skin kept crawling. I wanted her to stop speaking. I was betting this woman would make him cry in fear and scream in pain if he didn't tell her the skinny on his mistake, not Ethan's.

I was right about the crying at least. "Maybe he said something, but it wasn't clear... No! I'm sorry! It won't happen again!" He screamed then, and I saw a flash of a blade and then his head wasn't attached to his body anymore. What remained fell to its knees, almost as if it were in slow motion, stood still for a brief moment, and fell toward Ethan Rayne's feet. He side stepped and turned so he was facing me in time to avoid the headless corpse playing footsie with his toes, and watched the head roll off to the right of me, stopping and staring up in the direction of the vents and our hiding place with it's wide, lifeless eyes. I could see the tears on his cheeks that he had cried, pleading with the 'Ma'am Bitch' for his life, and even though he'd been a scumbag I felt sorry for the poor ass.

'Rest in peace, Baldy.'

Ethan Rayne had the nerve to look both sorry for him and disgusted all at once. I could see him now that he stepped into my view. "Remind me to stay on your good side."

"To do that Mr. Rayne, you must reconstruct the magical containment. Do not make me regret putting my belief in you and your abilities, and giving this second chance. If you do…" her voice trailed off, losing precious seconds before picking up again. "…you may find yourself in more pieces than Mr. Mochrie. Believe me when I say this."

I saw and heard Ethan take a deep gulp of breath. It didn't seem very natural. His hands went to his throat as he tried to breathe, eyes bugging out a bit in surprise. Whatever was happening continued until his face just about turned blue, and upon being released he collapsed to his knees like Baldy had, only with his head still intact. He fell on his hands gulping in air as his face slowly returned to his natural whiteness, his voice coming out croaked.

"I got it under control. It'll work this time, I swear."

"See that it does." I heard the door open and the clicking of her heels as she walked out, the bringers still in my sight following her out as the door closed behind them and leaving the sorcerer to his own devices. He caught his breath, got to his feet, and glared at the door, anger, humiliation, and fear evident in his eyes. I couldn't blame the guy. He was a rat, this much was true, but even I knew she was a scary ass bitch and all I heard was her voice. Ethan Rayne had looked into her eyes, and it was apparent that it shook him up. I knew that look, especially in the eyes of someone not so easily frightened.

Once he had himself composed breath and face back to normal, and his pants, shirt and tie straightened, he looked at the door as if she just declared war and spoke, so softly I almost didn't hear him.

Almost.

"Be careful who you threaten love. You may not enjoy the end result." With that he did something I wasn't expecting. He turned and walked in the other direction and I saw a door open with a glimpse of what looked like night sky. I couldn't be sure until the smell of fresh air wafted up to me just after he walked out and closed it, turning off the light as he went. It was an easier way out and we could make it if we were careful.

Once we were alone again in the dark vents, Connor let out a low whistle. "We need to get out of here and find my father and Buffy."

"Serious understatement son. That was some hard core Intel we just received."

"That woman was a piece of work. I wish we had a name to go with the face."

I forgot he was sitting opposite of me and probably saw her. "You get a good look at her?"

"Yeah, you could say."

I let out a pent up sigh. "Her voice was enough for me."

"The look in her eyes when she lopped off dude's head…"

I wanted to puke. "Alright, that's enough. Time for us to get out of here."

"Which way do we go from here?"

"Down and outside; Ethan opened a different door and I saw night sky and smelled fresh air."

"I smelled it too, although I thought I was hallucinating. You don't think it's too risky?" He asked, very cautious. Now that we knew bringers were down there I didn't blame him.

"Everything's a risk now, but I think you might have been right. It's better for us to get out as quick as we can. Let's get to work on this vent."

The screws were on the outside of the vent, and we couldn't kick too hard because we knew sound traveled pretty easily down the hall. I knew we may have to risk a few kicks though, so I wanted to hold off on them to the absolute last minute. We just had a rest, so we felt renewed enough to bend the slats to reach our hands outside of them. It took some time and maneuvering but I was finally able to locate the screws on Connor's side of the vent, and I was in luck that they protruded out to the point I could twist them out a ways. I was thinking no kicking would be needed.

I was correct. The vent screen only had corner screws. Connor swung the vent open and I bent it back as best as I could so it wouldn't flap back and make any noise. I peered down and around, checking out the room by the light of the windows near the door Ethan walked out of. The dead body and head were still on the floor, but right below us was a table and a few chairs. Didn't know how sturdy they were, but I was about to find out. I turned my body around, stuck my feet out, and slowly shimmied my way out of the vents until I was hanging painfully by my arms. No Slayer strength was a pain in my ass at that moment, and I had no way to tell how far I was away from the table and chairs, or the ground itself.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I let myself drop.