A/N: The next chapter will be the last chapter. Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to leave feedback :)
Buffy woke, dazed and feeling as if every bit of her energy had been drained. She glanced over at Severin as he held Faith by the throat and held her against the wall. She groaned as she picked herself up from the floor and stumbled towards him, gripping onto his shoulders as she found the energy and strength inside of her to pull him away from Faith. She managed to pull him away long enough for Faith to catch a much needed breath and she joined in on the attack, kicking him in the head with a hard kick while Buffy held onto him.
Faith looked at Buffy as she jumped onto Severin and they fell to the floor. She plummeted him with her fists and she didn't stop even when his body grew lifeless beneath hers. Buffy had her eyes trained on the Hellhound as it sat at the top of the stairs, watching and waiting for its moment.
It happened so fast, too fast for Buffy to process and with her body still sluggish from whatever spell had been cast upon her, she took full impact as the Hellhound leapt at her. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the anger flush through Faith as she gripped onto Severin's head and tore it clear off his body. As soon as he was dust and before the Hellhound had time to feed on her, it backed off, whimpering as it sniffed the ground where its true master now laid.
"Jesus, you okay, B?" Faith asked as she reached down and pulled her slowly to her feet. "Fuck, thought it would've been more of a fight."
"More of a fight, Faith? He almost killed you and that...that thing almost killed me!"
"It's done with now, B."
Buffy stared into her eyes and noticed they were slightly darker than they had been before and she tried to get Faith to look back at her, but she wouldn't and she stepped back from her and knelt down next to the Hellhound. Buffy stood there and checked herself over and aside from a couple of scratches on her chest and shoulders from when the Hellhound had leapt at her, she was okay. Faith sure didn't look okay as she grabbed the Hellhound's collar and dragged it down the stairs.
"Get out!" Faith screamed as she pushed it out the back door and slammed it, spinning around to face Buffy as she walked into the kitchen. "I should kill it, huh? Why can't I?"
"Faith...Severin is gone, he's dead and gone. You saw how fast everything changed as soon as he was dust."
"Can't trust her no more," Faith muttered. "Better go tell Giles what went down. I wanna know how the fuck he got in the house in the first place."
"Faith, would you look at me?" Buffy asked softly as she stopped her from walking past her. "Baby, please look at me?"
"Why?"
"Why are you acting like this?" Buffy choked back her tears as Faith shoved her away. "What did he do to you? Faith?"
"Nothing! He did nothing, Buffy. He was so close though..." she sighed as she stopped before she reached the front door. "He was going to...bring back the darkness to my soul and take away the light. Whatever the fuck that means."
"But he didn't, did he?"
"Started to."
Buffy turned her around so she could look at her and she wasn't prepared to see the tears falling freely down her cheeks. "Oh, Faith. It'll be okay."
"Will it? Cos every time everything starts to get okay something comes around and fucks it all up."
"No..."
"It's the story of my fucking life, B. I get one little thread of happiness and it's gone. Like us in the beginning, back in Sunnydale before I went bad. We pushed each other away; we didn't understand that we were the only two who could relate to everything we felt day in and day out. I pushed you away cos I was falling in love with you and I knew you never felt the same way about me. Too busy mooning over Angel to notice anyone else."
"That might have been true, sort of. I mean you came at a crucial time in my life. I pushed everyone away then. It wasn't just you, Faith."
"How would you have felt being the new Slayer in town, trying to make friends, trying to fit in, and trying to let what you thought was just a silly, stupid crush go and failed no matter what you did?"
"I don't..."
"Sometimes I get so tired of my life. It's a vicious circle and I don't know how to stop it in the right place. Like tonight. Everything was perfect then this shit happened. Christ, I don't even want to think of what would've happened if Giles hadn't called tonight."
Buffy knew there was more that she wanted to say and get out of her system, but she was holding herself back. She didn't blame her for doing it either especially after everything she'd been through, not just in the past couple of weeks, but through the course of her life. It all seemed to hit her and Buffy barely had time to react and catch her as she passed out. Still feeling the effects of the spell, she managed to get Faith over to the couch and she called Giles.
She explained what happened, at least the parts she'd been awake and conscious for and Giles said he would come over right away with Willow to check on her and Faith. Buffy tried to keep her anger in check when Giles told her they had come across some very valuable information about Severin. She knew they should have told them before, but it was definitely much too late for that now.
"Buffy?" Faith called out from the couch as she hung up the phone. "B?"
"I'm here," she said softly as she knelt next to her and took her hand.
"What the fuck happened?"
"You passed out."
"Shit," Faith groaned and she closed her eyes as she took in a deep, shaky breath. "What a fucking day it's been."
"It's almost over," Buffy smiled as she leaned in to kiss her lightly on the cheek. "I'll make some tea. Willow and Giles are on their way over right now. Do you want me to get you anything?"
Faith shook her head no and let go of Buffy's hand as she stood back up. She walked into the kitchen, sighing as she filled up the kettle and placed it on the stove. Every time they'd taken a step forward something always happened that made them take a giant leap backwards. They couldn't even enjoy their first night together, they couldn't make it last and despite the memories it would come with she couldn't stop thinking about the ways that Faith had made her feel and it made her whole body tingle in anticipation for more.
She knew she couldn't expect a flawless relationship with Faith and she didn't even hold out on hope that it would be close to perfect all the time. They had a long way to go before they reached the point where no matter what happened, things wouldn't turn out this way and Faith wouldn't push her away just like she's always done. Trying to figure her out had been next to impossible and she was slowly beginning to understand everything there was to know about Faith. The more she learned, the harder she fell in love with her and the more she wished that just for one day they'd live a normal life and not have to worry about their calling and the things that went bump in the night.
"Buffy?" Willow called out as she let herself in the front door. She threw her arms around Buffy as soon as she walked into the kitchen then took a step back and looked her over. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Will."
"You got him, didn't you?"
"Faith did."
"Thank goodness you are alright," Giles said softly as he came in from the living room. "It seems Faith has had enough excitement for the day. Wouldn't even budge when I walked in."
"She passed out before I called you. Whatever Severin was trying to do to her completely threw her for a loop. It's too much."
"He feeds off the souls of Slayers who have turned to the dark side once before," Giles said quietly as he sat down at the table. "We should have told you of this information before and I apologize for withholding it from you two. This type of information..."
"Is very important that we know right away," Buffy muttered. "What good did you think keeping it from us would do?"
"I er..." Giles sighed as he looked over at Buffy. "Severin has to come to you. You cannot hunt him like the others. He has to come to you on his own time, with his own terms. I should have known he would come here tonight. It seems he had a bit of a vendetta against Faith for killing Kakistos."
"Giles, you didn't know," Willow interjected as she joined him at the table. "It's over now, isn't it?"
"His followers will come soon and we best be prepared. It is far from over I'm afraid. Explain to me again what happened tonight after he arrived, Buffy."
"He stopped me," Buffy said softly. "Some kind of a spell. I blacked out and when I came to he was strangling Faith."
"Then what happened?"
"It happened so fast. I pulled him off of her, she basically beat the crap out of him and before I had time to react the Hellhound attacked me. Faith killed Severin and as soon as he was dust, the Hellhound stopped. I still can't process this. I..."
"Despite how quickly it all happened, it's for the best that he's been dealt with. Did you notice any changes in Faith afterwards?"
"Yes."
"How bad is it?"
"I don't know. He did something to her, Giles. She's not the same."
Willow stood up slowly and sighed as she pulled a book from her bag. "I am going to do a spell to find out what happened to her. I'll need you two to stay here until I'm finished. You don't feel any different either, do you?"
"No, Will. Just feel like I've been drained of almost all my energy and strength right now."
"That's normal for the type of spell he used on you," she said as she shook her head and flipped through the book in her hand. "Give it a couple of days, Buffy."
"We do not have a couple of days unfortunately," Giles said abruptly as he stared at the two of them. "Severin's followers are very loyal to him. They'll be coming and they'll be here soon. I've got the girls out in the cemetery, waiting."
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do if I cannot fight them?" Buffy asked, feeling useless and frustrated and angry. "It's not like Faith is ready to jump up and fight right now either and the girls...I don't think they'd be able to handle that kind of a fight either."
"I beg to differ," Faith said as she walked into the kitchen. "Don't know about you, B, but I'm ready to fight these assholes. And you are wrong. The girls can handle this kind of a fight. They are well prepared and well trained, B. Stop underestimating them."
The tone that Faith used caused chills to run down Buffy's spine. What did happen with Severin had definitely changed something deep inside of her. She could feel flickers of the old Faith and it made her feel nauseous. Before any of them could say a word, Faith was already out the front door and the only sound was the sound of the wood frame cracking under the sheer force of it being slammed.
"Willow, I need you to set up a protective barrier around the house. I'll bring in the girls and I'll go out and find Faith," Giles said as he broke the heavy silence. "Call Xander and Dawn and have them come here at once."
"Okay," Willow said with a nod as she began pulling supplies and ingredients from her bag. "Anything else, Giles?"
"For now, no. I'll be in touch if I haven't come back within an hour."
Buffy stood by the stove, fighting off her tears as she waited for the kettle to finish boiling. It was rare that she couldn't hold herself together in times where the weight of the world rested upon her shoulders. She knew that a lot of what she was feeling had to do with the spell that had been used to stop her from trying to attack Severin.
"Buffy?" Willow said softly as she walked up behind her. "It's going to be okay."
"I know. I just...tonight was so...perfect until this happened."
"Did you and Faith..."
"Yes."
"Oh wow," Willow smiled a little as Buffy turned to look at her. "Do I get the dirty details or the cliff notes version?"
Buffy stifled a laugh as she wiped away her tears. "It was amazing, Will. I can't believe you want to talk about this right now while we should be getting prepared for whatever is about to come."
"Protection spell takes a few seconds, already done. Now, on with the details."
"We need to call Xander and Dawn."
"Buffy," Willow laughed as she shook her head. "I get that a lot has happened tonight, but I'm just being the nosy best friend searching for the dirty little details of your life here."
"Will, I'm not telling you everything that happened."
"Other than it was amazing," Willow laughed as she rolled her eyes. "Sucks that it had to end up like this."
"Tell me about it. I even started to freak out a little bit you know, afterwards, and tried to leave. She wouldn't let me. Will," Buffy breathed in deeply as she felt her tears spring to her eyes once more. "She asked me to move in with her."
"Did you say yes?"
"What do you think?"
"You said yes, didn't you?" Willow asked excitedly. "How do you feel about it though?"
"I want to. I feel good about it, really good actually. The only thing that scares me is the fact that I know with her and Jennifer they never even got close to the whole moving in together thing. Why do you think that is?"
"Because it's you, Buffy."
Buffy smiled at that and she leaned against the counter. She knew how Faith had been feeling lately, especially with the conflicted feelings and being torn over doing what felt right and doing what was right. She let herself dive deeply into her thoughts as she tried to go back to the moment before the whole night had turned around. She knew she should be focusing on dealing with Severin's followers that would without a doubt find them soon enough, but her mind was betraying her as she took herself back to the last moment she shared with Faith before the phone rang and ruined their moment.
The whistling of the kettle jarred her from her thoughts and not a moment too soon. With the way Willow was staring at her, giggling, she knew she had a telltale look on her face that gave away exactly what she was thinking about. They laughed, forgetting about everything else and just let themselves act like normal girls, girls that didn't have the kind of problems they dealt with day in and day out.
****
Faith kicked the empty pop can down the middle of the road, shivering as a cool breeze blew in from the north. She knew taking off the way she did probably wasn't the smartest thing for her to do, but she needed to be alone with her thoughts and there were just too many of them for her to think straight.
The encounter with Severin had brought up too much of her past and the darkness she'd once felt was on the brink of her sanity, taunting her and teasing her as well as trying to coax her into giving in. Whatever Severin had done to her in those brief moments before Buffy woke up, it had pulled pieces of her soul apart. She tried to shake off the loneliness she felt threatening to take over her and tried to keep the feeling she had earlier, before everything turned to shit.
Being with Buffy had been exhilarating. It didn't even come close to how Jennifer made her feel. She felt like she was discovering love in a whole new way, and in some ways she truly was. But holding onto that feeling, those thoughts and those emotions were becoming an inner struggle. She hated struggling with herself. That's all she felt she'd been doing since Buffy got into town weeks ago. She shook her head as she kicked the pop can one more time and turned around to head back to the house.
She heard voices from behind her and she slowly moved her hand to her inner pocket of her jacket and pulled out her stake. She felt something there, vampires without a doubt and from the deep, almost painful tingle she felt course throughout her body, she knew there were more than a couple of them. She quickly glanced at her surroundings and knew that if she tried to run, she'd get cornered. Feeling awfully stupid for walking off alone, she stopped and turned to face the group of vampires now just a few feet away from her.
"All alone tonight, Slayer?" One of them asked as they surrounded her, leering and chuckling as Faith tried to keep her composure. "Where are the others?"
"Around," Faith replied, trying to keep her voice from shaking and showing how much fear she was actually feeling. She mentally counted the vampires surrounding her and there were nearly twenty of them. "Out looking for a party tonight, huh guys?"
"We found the party," the first vampire that had spoken said as he cracked his knuckles. "One Slayer handed to us on a silver platter. Or in this case, on the asphalt."
Faith chuckled uneasily as she watched them move closer. There was no easy way out of this and she clutched her stake firmly in her hand, waiting for the right opportunity to make the first move. The first vampire, the only one that seemed to speak for the others, leaned in to her and inhaled deeply.
"You Slayers never do learn, do you? You can't live like normal humans. You cannot love like normal humans. You always have to deal with the likes of us and from the smell of things, you're mind is definitely on whatever happened tonight with the other Slayer."
"She's boinking the other Slayer?" One of the other vampires asked and they all erupted in laughter as the first one inhaled again and nodded his head. "That's kind of hot. You think we could watch you and your girl, Slayer?"
"Shut the fuck up," Faith growled as she gripped her stake even harder. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"Has a lot to do with everything according to Severin. It's a pity you got to him, conquered him. He had so many plans for you, Slayer. We got rid of the other girl, thinking you wouldn't find another so quickly. Severin wanted you broken, feeling alone and useless so you wouldn't fight when he brought you on our side."
Just as he was about to grab onto Faith, the sound of tires squealing around the corner made them all look in the direction of the truck headed for them at full speed. She managed, barely, to jump out of the way as the truck barrelled its way through the group of vampires.
"Get in!" Dex shouted as he threw open the passenger door. "Now, Faith."
She leaped into the truck, slamming the door as he backed up quickly and turned the truck around. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Was driving around looking for you. Your friends called me."
"Why?"
"Well, I'm fucking glad they told me what's going on. You realize you could have been killed out there?"
"Nothing I couldn't handle on my own, Dex."
Faith glanced in the review mirror and saw the vampires coming after them, trying to keep up with the truck as it sped down the main road through town. She saw the crossbow sitting on the floor near her feet and with a smile she grabbed it and rolled down the window.
"Keep it steady, Dex. I'm gonna deal with these fuckers."
"Are you a sure shot?"
"What do you think?"
Dex chuckled as he slowed the truck down a little and Faith leaned out the window. The adrenaline surged through her body as she picked off the vampires following them one by one, missing only what she figured to be the leader of the group as Dex turned the last corner and headed for her house.
"Damn, girl," Dex laughed as he pulled into the driveway just as she shot the last arrow and dusted the last of the vampires. "Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"
"Years of practice. How come you had it in the truck?"
"Well, your friends wouldn't let me come looking for you unless I had some weapons. They gave me the crossbow and completely fucking ignored me when I told them I had no idea how to use the fucking thing."
Faith laughed as she climbed out of the truck and nearly got ambushed by Buffy as she ran out of the house and leapt into her arms. "Hey, B."
"God, are you okay?"
"Perfectly fine, B."
"Don't you ever take off alone like that ever again, do you hear me?"
"I just needed to go off alone to think," she said softly as she held Buffy up and stared into her eyes. "Sorry, Buffy. I won't do that again. Look on the bright side, I dusted those fuckers. One less thing to worry about."
"How many were there?"
"About twenty."
Buffy sighed as she kissed her, softly at first then with another soft sigh, she kissed her deeper, her hands disappearing in Faith's hair as she pulled her in closer. Faith broke away from the kiss and looked over at Dex as he stood on the other side of the truck just watching them.
"You mind giving us some privacy, Dex?" Faith asked and he quickly shook his head no and climbed into the truck. "Who is all in the house right now, B?"
"Everyone."
Faith groaned and kissed her quickly as she let her down and reached for her hand. "Guess I should go in and let Giles know what went down. Been the longest fucking day ever and right now all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep for like a year."
Buffy laughed as they walked into the house. She let go of Faith's hand as soon as they walked into the kitchen and she stood off to the side. Faith kept looking back at her as she found herself being bombarded with questions from everyone there. She answered them with as much detail as she could, leaving out the reasons why she had gone off alone. Nobody needed to know about her inner struggles. The younger Slayers looked up at her in awe as she told them of the ride back and how she dusted the vampires that chased after her and Dex.
Giles kept muttering under his breath about how he should have known of the night's events before they had happened. Faith assured him that despite the fact he did know some of the details and hadn't told her or Buffy, she was okay with it. Everything was over for now and despite the fact that she had been emotionally jarred by Severin, she'd be okay in time.
After a little while everyone left but Willow, Giles and Xander. Faith was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to tell them to leave as well, but she couldn't. Willow wanted to find out what Severin had done to her and after being persuaded by Buffy to let her, she found herself lying on the floor in the living room while Willow performed a small spell that revealed the events from earlier.
"It isn't going to hurt her, is it?" Buffy asked softly as she stood by Giles and Xander and watched as Willow let her hands hover over Faith's torso.
"No, it's just going to show Willow what happened. She might feel slight discomfort with the surge of memories from earlier, but it's nothing to worry about," Giles replied as he managed a weak smile when Buffy looked over at him. "It's best we find out what he had tried to do to her."
"I'm fine," Faith muttered as she closed her eyes. "Whatever the fuck he did or tried to do, barely worked. You are all being paranoid for no fucking reason."
Willow shook her head no. Her already pale skin paling even more as she suddenly stood up and began shaking. Faith opened her eyes and leaned up on her elbows, staring up at Willow and wondering what the hell she was so freaked out about.
"Will, what's the matter?" Buffy asked as she walked up behind her and placed her hands on her shoulders. "What did you see?"
"It wasn't what I saw...it's what I felt..." she shuddered as she turned to face Giles. "He's transferred some of himself into her when he tried to take the light from her soul. There isn't a lot and...I think..."
"What the fuck you going on about?" Faith asked as she stood up from the floor. "Do I have to be worried about it?"
"Yes," Willow nodded. "No, I don't know. How do you feel?"
"Exhausted."
"You aren't feeling all murderous and you know...are you?"
"No," Faith chuckled as she stifled a yawn. "All I'm feeling right now is that I'm gonna pass the fuck out any second now. We done here?"
"Yes," Giles nodded. "We're done. For tonight. Faith, if there's anything you feel we should know about what happened tonight, please tell us."
She debated whether or not to tell them the things she'd been feeling since her encounter with Severin, but her body was aching for her to sleep. She wasn't mentally or physically prepared for the confrontation she knew would follow. She wasn't even sure what the hell she was going through even though she could feel the darkness still straining to break through inside of her. How could she explain that to anyone? How would they understand what she was feeling when it was just a big old mess even to herself?
Giving up on trying to understand, trying to deal, trying to fight it all, she said goodnight and headed upstairs, leaving Buffy downstairs alone with them. She kept the lights off in her bedroom and slowly stripped out of her clothes as she made her way to the bed. She couldn't deal with exhaustion well and that's all she'd been dealing with in the last several weeks. All she needed was a break from her life, from her thoughts and her emotions.
As she drifted off to sleep, she felt the edges of reality begin to blur with the edges of her dream world. The nightmares she had, she could deal with those. It was the nightmares in her life she wasn't so sure how to face.