A/N Happy New Years guys.

Chapter 35

No More Room In Hell

New Sunnydale Hospital

With wide eyes Kendra stared at the room that she knew Buffy was in. She'd never told Buffy or the others but ever since the two had found each other again she felt some kind of connection with the other Slayer. A connection that she felt was slipping away. Before she could walk into the room and see about her, Dr. Lexie Carver came out with a grim look on her face.

"How is she?" Kendra asked as tears already started to pool in her eyes.

Ignoring Kendra, Lexie looked to Jesse who was standing behind her cradling his broken arm. Fighting through his own pain, he still had a worried look on his face out of concern for his friend. "Come on, I need to reset your arm and get it into a cast."

"I said how is she?" Kendra asked in irritation. As the doctor spun around with tears in her own eyes, Kendra already knew the answer. "And the babies?" Seeing Lexie lower her head in sadness, made Kendra's heart drop. Steeling her nerve, she walked past Lexie and into the room.

When Jesse tried to do the same, Lexie just grabbed his good hand and shook her head. Leading him to another room, she went about patching up his arm.

Walking into the room, Kendra saw Hank Summers, Dawn, and Gunn standing around a hospital bed. Breathing a sigh of relief, she saw that Dawn was holding onto two babies. A boy and a girl. She thought for a second that Lexie was only saddened because the children would grow up without a mother but she knew what the underlying concern was. It was for the reason that Kendra had failed to protect Buffy and the community.

Kendra had sworn a sacred oath to be as Buffy's right hand and to protect her and by extension her children. She had failed to deliver on that promise. She had failed the community and Buffy's children and now those poor babies had to walk through life without a mother. Trying to shake those thoughts out of her head, she didn't let the others see that she was in the room as she looked past them and to Buffy.

Buffy laid on her hospital bed sweaty, ghostly pale, and feverish as the machines she was hooked up to went crazy. It was so ironic that she had fought master vampires and hell Goddess' but was taken down by her weapon of choice. A piece of wood. A piece of wood that punctured one of her lungs and damaged several arteries. Taking a few steps back, Kendra watched as the scene before her played out.

Looking past her father and the others Buffy saw Jonathan with a smile on his face and his hand outstretched. In that moment she knew that it was okay. She knew that it was okay to die. Suddenly a gentle, warm, familiar hand touched her on her forehead. Glancing up, her heart started to pound a little faster as Joyce started to smile at her.

"It's okay, Buffy." Joyce told her as her smile widened. "It's peaceful here. You can finally put your arms down and stop fighting."

As she said that, Buffy started to cry even harder. Ever since becoming the Slayer, that's all she ever wanted to do. But what about...

"Don't worry about your sisters, Gunn, or my Grand children." Joyce said reading her thoughts. "Someone else was chosen to watch over them." she said as she turned and looked to Kendra.

"It's all right Buffy." Giles said as he appeared in the room. "It's time to go on a new journey. A new adventure."

"It's better where we are." Willow added. "There's no more pain. No suffering. No..."

"Vampires or demons." Xander told her with a smile. "There's nothing but warmth and love Buff. Isn't that what we always fought for?"

"Just take my hand Buffy." Jonathan said as he walked past the others. "You don't have to struggle anymore."

With one final feverish look to her living family, Buffy gave a gurgled apology to her father, Gunn, and her sister. Looking past them, she met Kendra's eyes and gave her a plea to always protect them. Using the last of her strength, Buffy raised her hand and took Jonathan's. With a smile, Buffy Anne Gunn took her final breath.

"Buffy!" Dawn yelled out, with tears streaming down her cheeks as the babies started to cry. "I'm sorry." she whispered to the little bundles as she gently started to rock them. Taking the boy out of Dawn's arms, Gunn started to gently rock his son.

With shaky hands and tears in his own eyes, Hank moved forward and closed Buffy's eyes. Not only did he not have enough time to say goodbye but he never reconciled with her. He never got a chance to show that he was truly sorry for leaving her and it saddened him that he would never get a chance to hold his oldest girl in his arms again. With all the courage in the world, the older man turned to Gunn and saw that the young man was caught up in emotion himself. The black youth had just found love and a new family in a dying world and had just had part of it ripped away from him. It took awhile for the room to calm down from the out pouring of emotion and Hank watched as Dawn held onto Gunn for support. He'd need it in the time to come.

"Did... did Buffy even have enough time to name them?" Hank asked spoiling the moment. Seeing the blank stare in Gunn's eyes told him all he needed to know.

Blinking her tears away, Dawn started to look around the room until her eyes became fixated on some beautiful purple flowers that were by Buffy's bed side. What ever they were, she remembered that they were her older sister's favorite. "Ken... Kendra." Dawn said finding her voice. She didn't even have to turn around to know that the other woman was in the room. "Do you know the name of those flowers? They were Buffy's favorite."

"Dey are... dey are called Jasmine." Kendra replied nervously as she stepped forward. Meeting Dawn's gaze, she knew that the younger woman didn't hold any hate or ill will towards her. She knew then that all of those feelings were just in her head and that she was having them because of guilt.

"You hear that baby?" Dawn asked, as she looked down at her niece. "That's going to be your name. Jasmine. Jasmine... Alonna Gunn." with a smile Dawn watched as Jasmine smiled. Looking up, she saw that Gunn was still trying to collect himself. Putting her hand on his arm to calm him, Dawn then put her hand on her nephews forehead. She had wanted to call him Angel but they already had a baby named that and plus she didn't want to make Gunn angry by calling his child by Buffy's first loves name. Then she tried to think of what Angel's real name was. It was Liam right? What was the formal English name for it. "And your name will be William. William Jonathan Gunn."

"Those are some beautiful names honey." Hank said as he pulled Dawn close. She was his oldest now.

"Yeah... yeah they are." Gunn added, finally getting his shit together. "I think Buffy would've liked those names."

As he said that someone came into the room and gasped. Looking back they saw that it was Samantha Finn. "Oh God." she said softly as she saw Buffy's still form in bed. Buffy was just too pale and she knew that she was gone.

"Sam... what..." Riley stopped talking as he walked into the room and saw what his wife had just seen. It took him a minute to take in that Kendra was standing in front of him.

"Report." Kendra said flatly.

"Over... over thirty six of our people were killed." Riley reported as he finally took his eyes off of Buffy. "Kate was one of them."

"I... I see." Kendra replied sadly.

"It get's worse." Samantha added. "The Slayer's scythe is missing and... so is Faith. From what Amy told us a portal was opened in the square and she believes that Faith was taken through it."

"So she isn't dead." Kendra whispered to herself as she turned around and bit her lip. "But why would Lissa and de others take her and the scythe?"

"We also found this in Caleb's room." Riley said as he reached into his backpack and handed Kendra an all white mask. Flipping it over, the mocha colored Slayer's eyes widened as she dropped the mask through nerveless fingers as she saw a engraving of a owl inside of it. "What's wrong?"

"I... I... know who took Faith." Kendra replied as she swallowed hard. "I don't know de exact members but I've heard of dese people before. They're called de Court of Owls. I... I remember an old nursery rhyme dat Mr. Zabuto told me as a child. Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling the world from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed. Speak not a whispered word about dem, or they'll send the Talon for your head."

"But why would they take Faith?" Gunn asked.

"I don't know." Kendra told them all.

Place Unknown

Faith sat up off of a hard, cold floor in a darkened room. With a wince, she held the back of her head. "Bitch." she said simply as she stood to her feet and looked around.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she got her bearings and started to walk through a dark hallway into a chamber. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of a raging fire in a doorway. With her Slayer hearing, she could hear a man being beaten on the other side. Not liking the sound of that, she leaped through the fire to the chamber on the other side.

Entering into the room, she saw a kneeling man being beaten by robed men with sticks. Barking at them to step back, they all looked up at her and she saw that they had no eyes. Doing as they were ordered, the Bringers stepped back into the darkness of the room. Making sure none of them would try to attack her, Faith pulled the beaten man to his feet, took off the bag over his head, and looked into the bloodied face of a man she had never seen before.

"Thank you... thank you." the man cried out. Suddenly a pair of hands reached out of the darkness and snapped the poor man's neck like a twig.

"Whoa." Faith said with wide eyes as she watched the man's lifeless body hit the floor. With a smile on his face Hamilton stepped into the little light that the room provided and regarded Faith.

"That was really a shame that I had to kill him." Hamilton said sincerely. A sincerity that didn't reach his eyes. "I knew Drogyn for centuries. He was like a brother to me."

"I'd hate to be a part of your fucking family." Faith replied as she glanced down at the dead man before getting into a defensive position. "Come on... I think I got enough strength to whoop your ass backwards." she said as Hamilton smiled at her.

"Calm down Faith." Buffy/First said as it stepped out of the shadows. "Nobody here wants to hurt you. At least not yet."

"Buffy?" Faith asked with wide eyes. "You're... you're one of the bad guys?"

"Stupid girl." Caleb said as he, Drusilla, Lissa, and Sweet walked into the room. "I don't reckon I approve of her appearance but that ain't your little blond haired friend. That there little lady is the First Evil."

"Thanks for the introduction Caleb." Buffy/First said with a sudden frown. "I think."

"What the fuck is going on here?" Faith demanded to know as she looked around at them all.

"Manners girl." Caleb said as he dropped his smile. "I'll only warn you once."

"It's not wise to curse in front of Caleb dearie." Drusilla spoke up with a crazed smile. "It makes him so frightfully angry."

"Well, I don't give a fuck!" Faith yelled back. "Now I asked where the fuck are we?"

Before Caleb could move forward, to do bodily harm to Faith, a demonic hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder. Turning, Caleb calmed down a little as he saw that it was D'Hoffryn.

"Please calm yourself Father Caleb." D'Hoffryn said as his inky black eyes became fixated on Faith. "She's our guest. At least... for a little bit. As far as where you are that's a simple question to answer Miss Lehane. You're in what's known as the Deeper Well. Behold." as he extended his hand, it was then that Faith noticed that they were standing on a they looked over to see what the bridge spanned, they saw an endless pit lined with thousands of coffins.

"You have no idea what you're looking at do you?" Buffy/First asked. Not expecting a response anyway, it continued. "This is a place of legend. A place that your precious Watcher's told you about."

"I must've went to sleep when they were telling that story." Faith replied as if she were bored.

"You stupid harlot."

"Father Caleb!" D'Hoffryn shouted, making the other man step back. "Now Miss Lehane you must know of the Old Ones? They are the ones that your people drove into those coffins centuries ago."

As he said the name the Old Ones, Faith's mind whirled a mile a minute as she thought back to a dream she had of the Master right before the apocalypse happened. It was also then that she realized why they needed her. She'd seen enough horror movies and read enough comics and books to know that they needed to use her as a sacrifice.

Seeing the look of realization in her eyes, Buffy/First smiled at her. "So you know why you're here?" Not waiting for her to answer she continued. "You know what's funny? People go on and on about Buffy being the true Slayer but it's you Faith. The true Slayer line has been passed down to you and that's what we need to unleash certain Old Ones to fulfill a prophecy. A prophecy that I set forward eons ago. We just needed a true Slayer's blood and the scythe to unlock certain Sarcophagi. The only reason Buffy kept her powers in the first place was because the Powers That Be still needed to use her. A lot of good that did her in the end."

"Buffy is..."

"Yes Faith... Buffy is dead." Buffy/First said with an even wider smile. "But don't worry. Soon you're going to join her. It'll take another day to complete the incantations so enjoy what little time you have left."

"In the meantime, let's dance." Sweet said as he took Faith's hand. Looking down at herself, Faith saw that she was now dressed in a tight red form-fitting dress. As the demon started to whirl her around on the bridge and then back in the chamber, Faith saw the dizzied faces of her captors and she remembered what Buffy had confided in her. It was when she had been beaten to death by Brock Lesnar and met her friend Jonathan. He had told Buffy that they were already in hell and had to find a way out.

Morning

The Next Day

Town Square

There was a storm brewing behind Kendra's eyes as she stared off into the nothingness of the day as people gathered around and said their last goodbyes to Buffy and the others that had fallen. Ignoring all of the people crying, she continued staring up into the sky, even as someone came to her and grabbed her hand. Already knowing her husbands touch, she just gently squeezed his hand.

"I know this is an especially bad time to say this but we just got done interrogating Wesley." Jesse started. "He... he confessed to helping the First. He didn't know what it really was or what it was leading him to really do but he's begging us for forgiveness."

"Tell him, he has it." Kendra replied as she finally met his gaze. Looking around, she saw that Eddie, Samantha, Riley, Amy, Marcie, and Harmony gathered around her. They were looking to her to lead them now.

"He has it!?" Eddie asked angrily. "Even after all that his lies have done. He... he got Kate... my woman killed. It was because of his lies that Buffy and the others were kil..."

"De First is very manipulative." Kendra said firmly, cutting him off. "It could easily have been one of us."

"But..."

"Let me finish." Kendra cut him off again angrily, but still not quite raising her voice. "We will give Wesley another chance but dats it. If he betrays us again..." she trailed off as she said that but it was clear what she was saying. If Wesley betrayed them again they wouldn't banish him. He would have to die.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Harmony asked. "Besides stand around like a bunch of shmucks."

"We're going to find Faith." Kendra told them. "Amy, I need you to do a locator spell and see if you can reopen the portal she was taken into."

"Okay... I... I can do that." Amy replied as she walked away.

"Riley, I need you to let de people of this town know that everyting will be fine." Kendra said as she turned to the resident soldier. "Then I'd like for you to gather some weapons and be ready with them in three hours."

"Kendra what the hell are you doing!?" Jesse asked as he whirled her around with his good hand. "You don't even know where the hell we're going."

"I do know where we're going." she replied as she looked past him and down the hill they were standing on and saw Dawn, Gunn, and Hank putting the last bits of dirt on Buffy's body. "We're going into darkness." as she said that the whole group gave each other a look