Buffy
"Is Faith going to leave now?" Dawn asks quietly. She had been slowly picking at the breakfast in front of her, barely eating any of it.
"What? Why would you ask that?" Buffy had to resist groaning. Dawn had been staying with Anya and Xander for the past week so that she wouldn't see the way Faith was behaving. It didn't even occur to Buffy to be worried that Faith would hurt Dawn. She honestly didn't want to risk damaging their relationship.
"She's super rich, why would she stay here with us? I sure wouldn't if I had that kind of money."
"You're being ridiculous. Faith loves us. She would never leave us. How did you find out about that, anyway?" Buffy was fairly annoyed that everyone seemed to know about Faith's trust, except for her.
"I heard Anya and Xander talking about it." Dawn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "She loves you, maybe, not so sure she cares about me."
"You can't seriously think that!"
"Why not? She's always picking on me and calling me annoying!"
"Maybe because you are annoying?" Buffy snaps back, getting frustrated with herself for falling back into bickering with her sister.
"See! You'd leave me, too if you had the chance!"
Buffy sighed, things had been strained between the sisters for some time. Both Buffy and Faith had begun working more hours, trying to keep up with the household costs, she knew that Dawn was feeling neglected, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
"Dawn, you know that Faith loves you - and you know that we both are doing everything we can to take care of you. So what is this really about?"
Dawn is quiet, fiddling with the food on her plate. "What if she does leave? What if she's sick of me and doesn't want to have to deal with me anymore?"
"There's no way that will happen. I promise you. We are her family, and she'll do anything she can to take care of us. No matter how annoying and bratty you are, that will never change." Buffy had become aware very early in this conversation that Faith was just outside the kitchen and could hear everything they were saying. It didn't affect anything she would have said, but she hoped that it wouldn't upset Faith that Dawn didn't think she loved her.
"What are we going to do if she does leave? We can't afford to live here without her help."
"Stop it already. Faith is not going to leave!"
"You don't know that!" Dawn shouted back, her voice reaching the high pitched screech that always got on Buffy's nerves.
"Actually, I really do." Buffy held her hand in front of Dawn's face. It took her sister a while to understand what she was being shown.
"She asked you to marry her!?
"Well, I asked her, but she agreed." Buffy stared at the ring on her finger, smiling as it pulsed her with warmth and love.
Dawn gave an excited squeak and ran around the counter to hug her sister. "I'm so happy for you both!"
"So, are you satisfied now that she won't leave?"
"I am." Dawn nodded eagerly.
"If you don't stop being such a brat, we might send you to boarding school, though." Faith says as she enters the kitchen.
"Shouldn't you have to be nicer to me now that you're going to be my sister-in-law?"
"I don't think that's how it works." Faith says as she wraps her arms around Buffy from behind and kisses her neck.
"This is so not fair!" Dawn shrieks, but she has a massive smile on her face.
"You should know by now that nothing is ever fair. You better get going, don't want to be late for school."
Dawn sticks her tongue out at her sister and runs out of the kitchen.
"Can we send her to boarding school? Sounds kinda nice." Buffy says, closing her eyes and leaning into Faith's warmth.
"Nah, you know you'd miss her."
"I guess." Buffy sighed, she knew it was time to stop avoiding all of the things they needed to talk about. She had already called in sick, planning on spending as much time as necessary to help Faith get through what happened. She had wanted just to quit, but there were a lot of things to work out before she could do that.
"Can we talk about last week?" Buffy asked as gently as she could, bracing herself for the backlash that usually came with these kinds of questions. Much to her relief, there was none.
Faith nodded, and leaned against the counter, sipping her coffee.
"There's a lot I still don't understand about what happened. I don't just mean this week, but before. All those times anyone tried to get me to think about the past… I don't know. It was like there was this block. I thought I had done it to myself, but now, I'm not sure."
Buffy waited for Faith to continue. This was the most Faith had ever said about her past, and she hadn't actually said anything yet.
"What David did to me..." Faith paused and scrunched her face, "he made me remember."
"Remember?" Buffy raised an eyebrow, not at all understanding.
"Remember living there, with her. I could never answer you when you asked about my past because I didn't know. Everything I thought I knew about my past, was wrong or a lie. My father didn't abandon me, he died in some freak accident." Faith took another sip of coffee, "There's still a lot of blank space. I don't even remember how I escaped from there. I think maybe Kara and Diana pulled me out, but I'm not sure." Faith frowned and rubbed her thigh gently, something Buffy hadn't seen her do in a very long time. She had always wondered about the scar that was there, but any reference to it would cause Faith to shut down.
"Maybe Kara will know something?" Buffy offered, opting to not prod into Faith's past and let her tell things in her own way.
"Maybe." Faith took a deep breath. "Before whatever David did to me, my earliest memory was of waking up with Diana looking over me. I had no idea who I was, or who she was. The only things I knew for sure, was that I was worthless - that I should never have been born and that I couldn't trust anyone."
Buffy gasped, and Faith smiled a little, "I was awful to her. Fought her at every turn, ran away constantly, stole anything I thought I could sell - but she always welcomed me back. No matter what I did, she'd tell me I was special and that she'd help me. When I finally became the slayer, things started to get a little better, then they got worse, then I came here - then you know what happened."
Buffy nodded and waited for Faith to continue.
"I would sometimes get flashes of my step-mother's face - Flashes of pain and emptiness. Snippets of things she had said would make it through. I could never remember all of it, there was no context - just pain."
Buffy ached for what Faith had been through, doing her best to keep it together while Faith decided what she wanted to say next.
"When I was forced to relive those memories, I hoped they weren't real. That was part of why I needed to go back there. Once I saw her and that place I knew it had all really happened."
Faith ran her fingers through her hair and blew out a breath. "It's like there are too many versions of everything that's happened to me." Then she smiled and looked up at Buffy, "but here's the thing. Where I am right now, I know who I am and what I want. I feel… whole and like none of that stuff matters. I don't want to rehash all the shit that happened to me. I don't think I need to. Is that OK?" Faith moved closer and held Buffy's hands.
Buffy searched Faith's eyes and probed her feelings, trying to understand. Faith was completely resolute and wasn't lying. Whether or not she was right, Buffy had no idea. She knew it was different than before, Faith wasn't in pain - she wasn't exactly calm, but she wasn't getting upset like she usually would. Buffy had learned more about Faith's history in these past few minutes than in all the time of knowing her.
Buffy started to feel guilty that she was justifying agreeing with Faith, just because she didn't want to know the details of what had happened to her. Then her guilt began to compound, wondering if all this time that she didn't try hard enough to get Faith to talk to her.
Faith's arms were around her again, "nothing bad that happened to me is in any way your fault."
"But..." Buffy started to argue, but Faith silenced her.
"It's not my fault, and it definitely isn't yours. The First has been messing with my life since the beginning. It's the only one to blame in all this."
"I just don't want to let you down again."
"You never let me down." Faith countered.
"But I did! I doubted you. I thought you were just sick of how hard things have been." Buffy pulled away and turned from Faith, wrapping her arms around herself and trying not to have a complete breakdown.
"I get how you could have thought that. We've barely seen each other, and when we did, we were too tired to talk about anything."
"I just..." Faith gently turned Buffy around, forcing her to look in Faith's eyes.
"Buffy, I know there's nothing I can say to make you feel less guilty. Just know that I don't blame you even a little bit. Not for how stressful life has been lately and definitely not for last week. I don't know for sure what would have happened if you had pushed harder to get me to talk to you... but I really don't think it would have been good." Buffy was slightly relaxing, mostly from the warm blanket of emotions Faith was covering her in. "Plus, we hopefully won't have to worry about money anymore. Even with whatever happens with David, you and Dawn will be taken care of."
"Faith..." Buffy's happy thoughts were torn away at the idea of Faith having to go to prison. Especially not for killing someone who kidnapped her and was most certainly doing the bidding of the First Evil.
"I'm not going to run away from this. Even if I wasn't in control of myself at the time, it was still me that did it. You know you'd say the same thing if this had happened to you."
Buffy couldn't argue with that logic. Instead, she tried to focus on something they could actually do. "We should go check out the fight club, maybe they can tell us more," Buffy suggested. She had a lot of questions about this club and hoped they could tell them something that would make this David problem go away.
It took a bit of convincing, but Buffy and Faith were standing before the door to the demon fight club.
"Are you sure about this, B?" Faith was nervous, and Buffy felt a bizarre sort of happiness that Faith was actually letting some of her negative emotions through to her.
"Yep, we need to find out what happened to you."
Faith grimaced and knocked, a window slid aside, and the door opened.
"Hey, wait! She can't come in here!" The guard shouted and reached for Buffy.
This time Buffy grabbed the guard's arm and twisted until the creature squealed and backed away. Faith had suggested that they don't reveal that anything changed until they found out more about what happened at the club. Buffy was nervous but willing to try and act as if she belonged in the club.
"What was that?" Faith took a step towards the guard.
"Nothing, everything is fine." The guard stammered and tried to back away but couldn't escape Buffy's grip.
Buffy released the guard and wrapped her arm around Faith's waist as they walked together into the central part of the club.
"Faith! Welcome back." The manager of the club walked up to the pair, a broad smile on his demon face. Buffy kept her composure as the slayer part of her was itching to fight the monster in front of her. "And you brought the other slayer! I couldn't be more pleased."
"We're not here to fight. We just need some information."
The manager frowned, but then a wicked glint formed in his eye. "Information is to be traded. One fight, and you'll get all the information you could want."
"I'm not fighting." Faith crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. Faith had explained that the fight club was upstanding as any underground demon fight club could be. She couldn't remember everything about how they worked, but she seemed convinced that the club wasn't necessarily evil.
"Not you, her." He said and motioned towards Buffy, "we have someone who heard the slayer was fighting here. She has offered a great deal for this opportunity."
"No way, neither of us is fighting." Faith stood firm, shaking her head.
"Who is it? What kind of demon?" Buffy asked.
"B? You can't do this."
"You don't think I can take on one demon?" Faith had been handling the majority of the slaying, but Buffy still kept up with her training and was very capable of taking care of one demon by herself.
"It's not about that." Faith frowned and tried to pull Buffy away from the manager, but Buffy wouldn't cooperate.
"It's a vampire," the manager supplies. "She wants a one on one fight, with the original slayer. For this, I will tell you everything you could want to know."
"One vampire? I'll do it." Buffy answered and held out her hand to shake with the manager.
"B!" Faith pulled Buffy to the side. "What are you doing? We don't even know if he can help us."
Buffy chuckled and kissed Faith. She had decided it was time to get back into her role of vampire slayer, and this seemed to her like a good way to start. Whoever this vampire was, she apparently had a grudge against her. Better to fight her in a somewhat controlled environment then deal with whatever plots there might be.
"You can't just kiss me and expect me to think this is a good idea."
"No?" Buffy kissed her again, this time much more forcefully. She put her whole body into it and at the same time used their connection to overload her senses. She did intend to explain her actual justification for fighting, but this way was more fun for now.
"Mmm." Faith moaned once Buffy finally broke the kiss, "that's not fair."
Buffy winked at her before turning back to the manager, "when do we fight?"
"She'll be here shortly."
Buffy noticed that the area surrounding the cage had been empty when they entered, but since they had arrived, it had begun to fill. She stepped towards the manager, gripping his vest and pulling him close. "If anything I don't like happens to Faith or me, I will end you and everyone you know."
The manager swallowed hard and nodded. "I run a clean establishment. Everyone knows the rules. No violence outside the cage, and no interference with the fight is allowed. That goes for you as well."
"Perfect." Buffy let go of his vest and returned to Faith's side to wait for the fight to begin.
Lights surrounding the cage flared brightly, and the manager motioned Buffy towards the opening. She gave Faith one last kiss before entering. The gate slammed shut behind her. Moving to the center of the enclosure, she peered into the dark tunnel on the other side of the cage. There was movement, but she couldn't tell who was coming towards her.
The crowd was roaring, she focused all her attention on the other gate. Blocking out all noise and demonic signatures. Faith was the only other thing she let into her consciousness. She could feel the wave of strength infusing her. Knowing she could draw on that strength to increase her powers, but she wasn't going to do that unless she needed to.
The figure finally appeared, and Buffy gasped. Suddenly unsure of this plan. "Kendra?"
The slayer that Buffy had thought long since dead walked casually into the arena. "Did you miss me, Buffy? Do you ever think about me and what you did to me?"
Buffy tightened her face, anger burning inside her. She hadn't even considered that Drusilla could have turned Kendra, there hadn't been a chance to check. It was a grim reminder of a very bad time for her. "What happened to you wasn't my fault."
Kendra laughed wickedly, "no? It wasn't you that freed Angelus? It wasn't your selfishness that caused my death?"
"Are we going to fight, or are you going to annoy me till one of us dies?"
"We are definitely going to fight." Kendra pulled out a stake from behind her back, "remember this?" The stake was extremely familiar to Buffy. It was Kendra's stake. The one Buffy had bronzed to always remember the other slayer. She wasn't confident of the last time she saw it, but she had always kept it above their fireplace.
"No!" Buffy's confidence faltered, "how did you get that?"
"Your little sister is quite trusting." Kendra grinned and licked her lips, "tasty too."
Buffy didn't have to ask or even look at Faith, she knew that the other slayer had already left to check on Dawn.
"I am going to kill the hell out of you." Buffy moved to a fighting position, still not drawing on her extra supply of power from Faith.
Kendra laughed, "we'll just see about that. I've learned quite a few tricks since we last fought." She launched an attack, moving far more fluidly than she did when she was a slayer. Her moves were no longer telegraphed, no longer stiff.
Buffy found herself quickly on the defensive, blocking blow after blow and unable to find room for a counter-attack. Fury was building inside of her. If this creature hurt Dawn, she would never forgive herself. All her past mistakes began to haunt her. She was getting sloppy, letting blows slip past her defenses.
A warm pulsing on her left hand started to make it into her awareness. She grinned, a copper taste filling her mouth as she pulled open a split in her lip. Rolling to the side, to give herself some breathing room. Taking a deep centering breath as she rose, she focused on remembering who she was and what she was meant to do.
"I bet you think I feel bad about what happened to you. I bet you think I'd do anything to take it back."
"You should. It is all your fault!" Kendra punched out with the stake, but Buffy grabbed her hand before it could make contact.
"Maybe it was my fault. But you know what? I wouldn't change it for anything. If you hadn't have died, Faith wouldn't have become a slayer." Buffy applied more pressure to Kendra's arm, twisting it until she is forced to drop the weapon.
"You haven't learned anything! You still believe your heart is more important than the fate of the world!" Kendra roared and tried to pull out of Buffy's tight grip.
Buffy shoved Kendra away, "this time they're the same thing." Buffy had seen what happens to the world without Faith in it. She was entirely confident that Faith needed to be a slayer for the sake of the world.
Until this point, Buffy had no awareness of the crowd. She had only been focused on the fight and her worry about Dawn. The crowd was chanting wildly, she couldn't tell which one of them they were excited for, but she didn't care. The thrum of the crowd pulsed through her, waking the slayer within.
Kendra launched herself at Buffy and Buffy flipped into the air, twisting as she landed on the vampire's shoulders. She gripped under her chin and pushed off with all her might, leaping backward and landing on her feet.
Kendra's head with wide eyes was in her hands a moment before vanishing into dust, along with the rest of her. Buffy made her way to the center of the arena and picked up Mr. Pointy, sliding it into her back pocket. This was not at all the fight she had expected, but it might have been what she needed.
She probed her connection to Faith, feeling intense relief on the other end. She didn't know for sure if that meant that Dawn was OK, but she assumed that it did. She made her way out of the cage and moved through the crowd. She still wasn't sure whose side they were on, but they were excited and had the sense to move out of her way.
"That was very well done, Slayer." The manager approached her with a wide grin.
Buffy gave him a hard look, "just tell me what happened with David."
The manager scowled, quite a comical look for such a nasty looking demon. "What do you want to know about him?"
"Was he human and did Faith kill him?"
"We have a policy, no humans or anyone fighting against their will may die in the arena. It's a shame that Faith didn't try to get him to agree to the fight." The demon clicked his tongue to show his annoyance.
"So he wasn't a human, then?"
"No, he was a very unpleasant demon. But we did have to revive him." The manager's distaste for David was evident.
"So he's still around?" Buffy was not excited about the prospect of having to deal with David again.
The manager chuckled, "After the slayer's display - his claims of immortality were proven untrue. His enemies, of which he had many, took it upon themselves to rid the world of him."
Buffy relaxed and nodded, "I think that's all for now. If we have more questions, we will be in touch."
The manager smiled and let her pass. Buffy moved past the guard who had previously tried to stop her. He quickly opened the door for her. Buffy almost immediately crashed into Faith once she walked outside.
"Dawn's OK."
"Thank god." Buffy's body was starting to ache from the beating she had taken. "Home now?"
"Want some healing first?" Willow offered, and Buffy nodded. Moaning as the warmth spread through her body and healed all her injuries.
"What the hell happened here?" Buffy asked once they arrived in the Summers' living room. The coffee table had been smashed to bits along with a lamp.
"Kendra was here, but Spike fought her off. She managed to get the stake and escape." Faith explained.
"Spike was here? Why?" Spike had become more a part of their lives, but it was made clear to him that he was not welcome if Faith or Buffy weren't home.
"Didn't get a chance to find out." Faith shrugged.
Spike, Tara, and Dawn are in the kitchen, laughing about something.
"Spike? Why were you here?" Buffy was trying not to be too accusatory, but she still didn't fully trust the vampire.
Spike looked nervously at Faith. "Just happened by."
"That's definitely not true, why were you here?"
Spike sighed and hopped up on the counter, "I was looking for Faith. Hadn't seen her in a few days, wanted to make sure she was OK."
"What do you mean you hadn't seen me?"
"I've been… keeping an eye on you. I saw you at that fight club, knew you were getting yourself into trouble." Spike shrugged and sipped at a mug of blood.
Realization dawned on Buffy, "you brought her home the other night. Left her on the porch?" Buffy moved closer to Spike, and he stood up from the counter. She considered the situation, she could yell at Spike for not telling them what he knew Faith was doing. Mostly, she was far too grateful that Faith was still alive to be angry.
"Well... yeah." Spike shrugged nervously.
"Thank you." Buffy shocked everyone, including herself by hugging the vampire. "Thank you for tonight too." Spike stiffened and took a step back when Buffy let him go.
"Is Kendra going to come back, do we need to do a disinvite?" Tara asked.
"No, she's dust," Buffy responded and looked around the room. She took a deep breath as she thought about everything she wanted to say to them.
"Things have to change." She started, everyone looked up at her questioningly. "To start, we need better vampire invite protection on where everyone lives. No more accidentally letting in vampires - and maybe you can figure out how to replicate the magic in this ear cuff, we all need to be able to detect the First." She motioned to the witches who looked to each other a little confused. "And we're going to start having dinners together, Xander, Anya, and Giles too. We've all been too focused on our own lives and let our group fall apart. And I'd like you two to move in with us."
She started pacing as she continued to talk. "We need a plan for when Kara, Kennedy and the potential slayers get here. There's probably going to be even more of them showing up. We need a place for them all to live and a place for training. And maybe there's something we can do to protect the Hellmouth.. maybe..."
"Um, Buffy? Aren't you being a little… commandery?" Willow asked disrupting Buffy's flow.
Buffy stopped and blinked at her, "did you miss everything we just learned? The First Evil has the advantage. Wesley has been feeding it who knows what information, it even managed to infect a potential slayer. We have to do more to protect ourselves and the world."
"Yeah... but…"
Buffy sighed, trying to contain her frustration. Willow, of all people, should not be fighting her on any of this. "I didn't mean we had to do all these things tonight, or even in the next month. Just that we need to start focusing more on fighting the First Evil." Faith was by her side, she couldn't read Tara, but Willow seemed to be unconvinced.
"You don't understand how dangerous the First is." Buffy started and then looked to Faith for direction.
Faith sighed, "the whole reason I was sent back - was to stop it. After we were, wherever we were - we ended up in a future where the First had figured out how to open the Hellmouth. It had taken over the earth."
"Pretty much all humans were imprisoned or dead. We can't let that happen again." Buffy held close to Faith and hoped that this would convince Willow of how important this was without having to explain too much more.
"How could you not have told us this before?!" Willow asked with outrage, and Buffy sighed.
"Probably the same reason that Tara didn't tell us she was Faith's cousin, or that you didn't tell me what you found out about Faith."
"That's totally different." Willow started to argue.
"It's always different, what I'm saying is that we all have reasons why we might not reveal something. And sometimes, they're very good reasons - so we need to trust each other. If we're going to make sure the First doesn't open the Hellmouth, we have to work together. We can't forget who we are and what we're meant to be doing."
"But.." Willow started to argue.
"I think she's right." Tara chimed in, and Buffy was shocked to get support from Tara - especially in opposition of Willow. "I mean.. the Keepers are the reason why Faith remembered, and no one else did... right? So we should probably trust that. If I had tried to tell Faith I was her cousin sooner... I'm not sure things would have worked out the way they did."
Buffy looked at Willow and waited to see if she had any argument left in her. Willow frowned but nodded. Buffy let out a massive sigh of relief. "The main thing I want to change is us, you two are our best friends, but we hardly ever see you."
Willow sighed, "yeah. We have sort of drifted apart. It would be good to fix that."
"Plus, we have a wedding to plan!" Buffy grinned and hugged Faith tight to her. She was not at all prepared for the vampire that she had forgotten was even in the room to attack her.
Spike ripped Buffy away from Faith and threw her into the wall. "She was supposed to be mine!" The initial attack happened fast, but he did not get a chance to strike her again. He was flung into the door, a stake pressed to his heart by Faith.
"Dawn, go upstairs." Buffy took the time to say before standing back up, she was relieved when the girl actually listened.
"No! I didn't mean to!" Spike was yelling and twisting in Faith's grip. He was doing the bizarre thing that Buffy hadn't seen him do in over a year. Making nonsense noises and smashing his head into the door behind him.
"Spike? Calm down, what is going on?" Faith asked, but before Spike could answer, he grabbed her hand with the stake in it and drove it into his chest. "I don't understand? What just happened? I thought Spike had a soul and he saved me. Why would he do this?" Faith was looking down at the pile of dust. Buffy could feel the wave of confusion pouring off of Faith, it was so strong she could barely figure out what she felt about what happened herself. It took her several moments to gather herself enough to speak.
Buffy looked to Tara and Willow who seemed just as confused. "Do you think Wesley gave him his soul when he was in the Initiative?"
"It's possible, he would have had access to the same spell I used to re-ensoul Angel... but I don't know about what just happened." Willow frowned.
"I was supposed to meet him at the Bronze when David took me. Do you think..." Faith trailed off, and Buffy's heart broke.
"Tara?" Buffy noticed that Tara's brows were furrowed, "do you know something about this?"
"No. I was just thinking about when we found him. I don't even know what drew me down there." Tara shook her head, "maybe something tricked me." Her words were almost a whisper, she seemed just as distraught about this turn of events as Faith did.
"Maybe we'll find something to explain what happened in his crypt." Buffy moved closer to Faith, wanting to comfort her, but not quite sure to make of things yet.
"Speaking of finding things... did you find anything at David's?" Faith had finally turned away from the pile of dust and seemed to be back in control of her emotions.
Willow nodded, "we brought everything to the dining room."
"Oh!" Buffy had forgotten all about David. "The manager demon-guy told me about David. One - totally a demon and two, you didn't kill him."
"I didn't?" Faith's relief washed over Buffy at the news.
"Well... you sorta did. But they have a policy about letting anyone fighting against their will - stay dead."
"So he might come back to cause trouble?"
Buffy shook her head, "it turns out that he was not well liked. He had been strong-arming everyone, claiming that he was invincible - once you proved that it wasn't true... his enemies took care of the rest."
Faith frowned, Buffy could tell she still didn't feel great about what happened, but at least they didn't have to worry about the police being an issue.
"Do you think you remembered the rules, and that's why you took him there?" Buffy probed gently, she needed Faith to see that she wasn't a murderer, to really believe it.
Faith ran her fingers through her hair, Buffy could feel her confused emotions and waited for Faith to decide how she felt.
"It's possible. I must've known that at some point." Faith didn't really seem totally relieved at the situation, which Buffy completely understood. She tried to convey her support over the link and was relieved when it appeared to be helping.
"So, umm... we grabbed everything that looked remotely mystical," Willow commented, and led them into the dining room.
Buffy's eyes swept over the table and frowned, none of it meant anything to her. Faith fixated on a wooden box and moved to open it.
"Figures." Faith hissed, showing Buffy the contents of the box before closing it back up.
"Do you know what that is?" Tara asked.
"It's just a knife," Buffy explained, placing her hand on Faith's and trying to keep herself calm. Sure, it was just a knife. Just the one that symbolized all of their worst moments. A knife she had definitely never wanted to see again.
"Yeah, just a knife," Faith agreed and accepted Buffy's comfort while she continued to look over the items on the table. "So what does any of this mean? Is that my blood?" There were five tubes of blood amongst the papers and other random magical junk on the table.
"We'd have to compare it to yours, but we're pretty sure it's human." Willow picked up a few of the documents and sighed, "we think he was planning on using it to do something to the Hellmouth. Most of this is in a language that we can't identify, but some of these drawings look familiar."
"Great. But maybe he didn't get to do what he was going to? It seems like we'd know if the Hellmouth was open." Buffy could see recognition flare on Faith's face as she looked through the other documents on the table. She picked up a stack of envelopes and frowned. Buffy guessed that those envelopes contained more letters from Faith's step-mother.
Buffy was horrified at the idea that someone would probably need to read them. If Faith's step-mother had been conspiring with David, there could be something useful in them. Faith was clutching the stack tightly, Buffy could feel Faith straining as she decided what to do. Finally, Faith blew out a breath and shoved the stack towards the witches. "Maybe there's something useful in here."
Tara gently took them, "are you sure? We don't know that she had anything to do with what happened."
"I'm sure. If they were working together, there's probably something that will help in those letters."
"OK, if you're sure." Tara took the stack but made no move to open them.
"We stopped by to visit the Keepers after finding all this... hoping they'd at least tell us something about the blood." Willow started to explain. "They weren't helpful."
Buffy growled at the mention of the Keepers. "Are they ever?" Buffy asked and then immediately felt terrible. If it wasn't for them Faith wouldn't even be here right now. "I'm sorry, I know how much they've done for us. I just wish they could tell us more, that you didn't have to go through everything you did."
Faith looked back down at the items they collected from David and took a deep breath. "I get it. It'd be nice not to have to learn every lesson the hard way. But at least we're all here, and whatever they were trying to do probably didn't work. And we even got a new slayer out of the deal."
Buffy rolled her eyes, "a very annoying, bratty slayer. Do I even want to know what she said that made you hit her?"
"No, probably not," Willow said, and Faith growled low so only Buffy could hear. "I'm pretty sure she knows her place now, though."
Buffy didn't really like that answer, but she accepted it. "So tomorrow, we'll check out Spike's crypt and see if there's anything there. You two will come over after to school to go over what we found?" She motioned to the witches, and they agreed.