Chapter Twenty-Five
When Willow left Hope, she was sleeping soundly, the massage having put her into a deep sleep. Suddenly, she was jolted out of that sleep by a kick to her ribs. Since she was sleeping on her stomach, not having moved after falling asleep, she knew something was up. What she saw when she woke up was the last thing she expected though, The First with the face of her mother.
"Wake up you little, good for nothing brat. Your Daddy ain't here to protect you now. Plus with Faithy blinded AGAIN because of you, you have no one to hide behind," The First said.
"How did you get in here? I thought you were still in Boston slutting yourself out for another hit."
"Oh, our little Faithy didn't tell you, did she? I died before she was called as a slayer."
"So your The First? Then how did you kick me? I thought you were non-corporeal."
"Oh, you thought you could touch me, but I couldn't touch you? I thought you knew everything about the prophesy. Well guess what, you worthless mutt. You are not going to win. The minute you merged with your wolf, it started the last part. We are in the end game now."
"That's the thing, The prophesy says we win."
"What was it that was said when Buffy and Faith found out about the prophesy? That they weren't written in stone. I have just as much of a chance to win. Actually more if you don't lose control and we know how much you like to be in control. That's why you didn't warn Faith about her becoming blind again. Because of that, she couldn't care less what happens to you."
"That's not true. She's just mad. By tomorrow she'll be talking to me again."
"You think so? Well think about this. You two have a link that lets each other know how the other is feeling, right? I'm sure you are sending plenty of scared and worried feelings through since I woke you. So why hasn't she come down to check on you? Or at least sent someone? Cause she doesn't care. Right now she is having a nice talk with your girlfriend. I could do anything to you right now and no one will know till they find your corpse. Maybe I'll make it look like you killed yourself. Wouldn't that be funny, since you caused another girl to kill herself?"
The First had grabbed Hope in the middle of it's speech and started hitting her in the ribs and stomach. It then let her go and started in on her head. The whole time, Hope didn't fight back. She was too in shock from the combination of seeing her mother again and what was said. The First finished with a strong uppercut that had Hope flying, then sliding till she ended up under the cot, where she curled into a ball to try to protect herself.
"Like I said, you're just a worthless mutt, and I am going to win. It would be best if you get that through your head now. In my opinion, Cloe was the only smart one of you," and with that, it disappeared.
About ten minutes after The First left, Willow came down to check on the young wolf, expecting her to still be asleep in the cot. When she got to the bottom of the stairs and noticed the empty cot, she started to get concerned. She didn't notice the whimpering until she had turned to go back up the stairs.
"Hope, you ok? There's no reason to be scared. Faith is fine and isn't angry. She was just hurt," Willow said as she walked towards the cot, then bent down to try to coax Hope out. She she reached in to try to stroke Hope's back, she started to growl, in her muddled mind, thinking it was The First using Willow to get her out.
"Hope, sweety, what happened? Come on out. I'm not going to hurt you."
Hope turned to Willow, baring her fangs, bloody from the last hit, and growled louder.
"Hun, it's me Willow. I'm not going to hurt you. Please come out of there."
As Willow was saying this, she started to climb under the cot after Hope. This caused the younger woman to back up even more and curl into a tighter ball.
"Ok, I won't come under, but please tell me what happened. You were fine when I left you."
Hope just stayed in her ball and started whimpering again.
"I'm going to go get your sister and Buffy. You just hang tight."
Willow then got up and took off running to the bedroom where she left Faith, hoping Buffy was up there also. The whole time worrying about her girlfriend and wondering what could possibly have happened in the small amount of time she had left the younger girl alone while she was talking to the two slayers. By the time she got upstairs, she had worked herself into a frenzy.
"Faith, Buffy, something's wrong with Hope. She's under the cot and won't come out. She's scared and whimpering and she, she even growled at me. I don't know what happened. She was fine when I left her and..."
"Whoa Red, breathe. What do you mean she is under the cot? I thought you said she was chained on top of it," Faith interrupted Willow's babble.
"I lied. I didn't want you to worry about her taking off. She was asleep when I left her though. You know, when she bared her teeth, they were bloody. And before she went to sleep, she was talking about how sore she was. You don't think she was hurt worse than we thought, do you?"
"If she is that bad, we better get down there. Buffy, could you go down and see what you can do? Willow, can you help me?"
Buffy took off downstairs and Faith grabbed on to Willow's arm so she could get down to her sister a little quicker than if she tried to navigate the house by herself. When the two of them got to the basement, they came upon a fully changed Hope, standing on a prone Buffy, growling with her fangs out.
"Hope, get off of Buffy. She is only down here you help you. No one here is going to hurt you, so calm down," Willow said to the wolf.
This isn't Buffy. It's The First. Hope mind-spoke to Willow and Faith.
"No she isn't. If she was, you wouldn't be able to touch her."
That's the thing, I can touch The First. How do you think I even have a chance of killing it. Bad part that I learned today is, it can touch me too.
"Is that why you were hiding under the cot? Cause it was here as Buffy and did something to you?" Faith asked her sister.
It was here, but not as Buffy. Hope looked from Buffy to Faith It was mom. Why didn't you tell me she died?
"Uh, does anyone mind getting the big heavy wolf off of me sometime this week?" Buffy asked.
"Hope, get off of Buffy. She is not The First. Do you want Willow to touch her to prove it to ya?"
Fine, when I get off of her, Willow, you help her up. That way I am still close if your hand goes through hers.
Hope then got off of Buffy's chest. Willow then bent down to help the older slayer up, but her hand went right through. Shocked, Willow backed up quickly. Seeing it really was The First, Hope sprung on it, just to be swatted aside, yet again.
"Oh this is priceless. I get to beat you again, this time with your sister here helpless to do anything." The First then walked over to Hope, who was motionless next to the wall that she flew into.
"Aww did I break the little wolfy? I thought you wanted to play some more. Guess I'll have to come back to finish our little game." The First said, then disappeared once again.
"HOPE!" Faith yelled as she heard her sister hit the wall. When she heard The First say she was helpless, it struck her to the bone. That is exactly how she has felt since the moment she realized she was blind again. In that moment, she decided that she will not be helpless. She was going to talk to Giles in the morning about helping her to be able to fight blind. She isn't going to stand idly by while her sister is getting hurt over and over again.
Once The First was gone, she turned to where she thought Willow was and said, "Will, take me to Hope. I need to make sure she is alright. I don't hear her moving."
Leading the brunette slayer to her sister, Willow said, "She hit that wall pretty hard. Plus I think she was hurt before this. We need to get her around other people. That way The First can't make the sneak attacks like this."
They made their way to the wolf. Once there they realized she was injured way more than either thought. She was still in wolf form, not even close to changing back like they thought she would be since she was out cold, and she had blood around her head.
"Willow, how bad is she? Is she going to be ok?" Faith asked when Willow hadn't said anything.
"It's, she's pretty bad Faith. We need to get her upstairs so we can get a better look at her. It's going to be hard to tell all of her injuries with her in her wolf form, but we'll manage. Can you sit with her while I get the real Buffy. I don't think either of us will be able to carry her up ourselves."
"Are you crazy? If she happens to wake up and sees Buffy carrying her, she'll freak. Just lead me to her and I can carry her. Just keep a hand on one of my arms and talk me through where we are, ok?"