After only a few seconds in the new dimension, Faith spun around with panic in her eyes. Buffy wasn't actually looking at Faith, so she didn't notice this panic.
"I don't want to be here."
"OK, sure. Let's get out..." Buffy started to look for an exit, but Faith grabbed her arm.
"Where is it?" Faith reached like she was going to dig into Buffy's pockets, but Buffy couldn't even begin to understand what Faith was trying to do.
"What are you doing?" Buffy hissed as she pushed Faith away.
"I want to go. Now." Faith had never sounded so cold and terrifying.
"I said OK," Buffy argued, not at all liking Faith's reaction to this dimension.
"Then give me the fucking rock." Faith growled and stalked towards Buffy.
"Oh," Now Buffy understood what Faith wanted and pulled the pouch out of her pocket, but as soon as she did, Faith reached for it too and knocked it out of her hand. "Faith!"
"Shhh." Faith clamped her hand over Buffy's mouth. Once Faith was sure Buffy was going to be quiet, she started looking for the pouch. It had been knocked behind some boxes, and Faith was losing control the longer it took her to find it.
"Faith, stop." Buffy gently pulled Faith away from the boxes and was able to retrieve the pouch. Faith immediately tried to grab for it again, but Buffy held it away. "Stop."
Faith practically growled, but she managed to keep her hands to herself and wait for Buffy to pull the stone out.
Buffy frowned when the stone was only barely glowing and did not react when she tried to activate it. "Shit." She hissed.
"What the fuck?!" Faith shoved Buffy, who just barely managed not to lose the stone again. "Why isn't it working?"
"It just needs some time to recharge." Buffy hadn't had a chance to really look around until now. It seemed like they were in some kind of warehouse, but she didn't recognize it. "Where are we?"
"I don't know." Faith was clearly lying. If she didn't know where they were, there would be no reason to be freaking out.
"Faith," Buffy tried again. "We will get out of here, OK? I promise. Just tell me what's going on."
"Doesn't really matter, does it?"
"No, I guess not. But we might need to find a place to wait until the stone recharges."
There was a roar from outside the building, and Buffy moved towards it without thinking. Faith chased after her and pinned her to the ground before she could get outside. The unmistakable sounds of a fight could be heard, and Buffy struggled to get up, but Faith wouldn't let her. Buffy was pretty sure she'd have to hurt Faith to get her to let her up, so she just stopped resisting.
"I won't try to go out there. Just get off of me." Buffy tried to reason with Faith, but Faith was beyond reason at the moment.
It seemed like Faith still didn't want to move, and Buffy just accepted that she was going to be stuck pinned to the floor until whatever happened outside was over. After a few minutes, the sounds of fighting stopped, and they could hear Faith and another woman talking.
"What..." Faith stood up abruptly. "That's... that's not how it happened."
Buffy was now free and followed Faith to the exit. There was a small window in the door, and they both peaked through. Faith and an older woman were there, and they seemed to be recounting the battle that had just finished. Buffy couldn't believe what she was seeing.
A young Faith was smiling as she moved around in front of the older woman. Buffy now realized that must be Faith's watcher. This Faith barely resembled the one standing next to her.
"That was well done, Faith." The watcher praised Faith, and it was startling to witness both Faith's reactions. The one next to her looked like she had been slapped. While the one outside smiled widely.
"I told ya I could do it." The outside Faith was practically beaming with joy as she bounced around in front of her watcher.
"Yes, you did. Still, we must be cautious." The watcher tried to contain her grin, but there was no doubt of how proud of her slayer she was.
"Are we going to Sunnydale now?"
The watcher hesitated for a moment.
"Aww. C'mon ma. You promised!" Young Faith pouted and folded her arms over her chest. "You said once I took out Kakistos and his minions that we could go!" Buffy had no idea how old this Faith was. She looked to be barely fourteen, but slayers weren't called that young as far as Buffy knew. Of course, she had no idea what the rules were in this dimension.
"I know I did, dear." It was evident that the watcher had bad news and that she was dreading telling young Faith.
"So what's the deal?!"
"The council believes only the older and more experienced slayers..."
Young Faith huffed loudly and stomped off before she could finish. The watcher sighed heavily and followed her charge.
"That was weird. You - she - looked so young. And what was that about older and more experienced slayers?" Buffy was still peering through the window, but Faith was no longer by her side. "Faith?" Buffy turned around, alarmed that she couldn't see where Faith had gone.
The sound of wood being broken drew Buffy further into the warehouse. There were large wooden crates stacked in neat piles. Faith was busy destroying them. After watching for only a few moments, Buffy opted to check out the rest of the building to give Faith some privacy.
Faith continued to unleash her rage on inanimate objects for the next hour. Buffy knew she wouldn't be able to tell if the stone was charged enough without Faith being close, but she didn't want to interrupt whatever Faith was going through.
When there was finally a break in the sounds of destruction, Buffy left the back office to find Faith leaning against a wall. Her hands were covered in scrapes, and she was drenched in sweat.
"Faith?"
"What?" Faith didn't look up, but she at least didn't sound quite as angry as she did before.
Buffy risked moving closer and pulled out the stone. She considered asking Faith if she was ready to go but decided against it. Instead, she activated the portal. There was no stopping the sigh of frustration as Faith jumped into the portal before it was even fully formed.
Buffy didn't want to take any chances of getting separated, so she followed shortly after.
When she came through, it took her a moment to get her bearings. Faith was squatted in front of her, looking over the edge of the platform they were on.
Buffy assumed silence was a good idea and moved forward to see what Faith was looking at. Her stomach turned, and she reached for the portal stone immediately. It wasn't ready, just like she expected.
"Hey, Baby." A vampiric version of Buffy said as she slipped into Angel's lap and gave him a disgusting and excessively loud kiss.
"I got you a present," Angel said once the kiss was over.
"Ooooo!" Vampire Buffy jumped off of Angel's lap to move to a form that they couldn't quite make out.
"Try to remember not to kill this one." Angel stayed lounging in his chair.
"I'll try." Vampire-Buffy pouted and grabbed the girl's hair, forcing her to look up. It came as no surprise to either slayer that a barely conscious Faith was chained to the wall.
Buffy stood and tried to leap over the metal railing, but Faith stopped her and pushed her back into the darkness.
"Faith, we have ..." Buffy whispered, but Faith clamped her hand over Buffy's mouth and shook her head.
"Nothing we can do here, B."
"How can you say that? We can save you - I mean her."
"There'd be no point." Faith shook her head and looked to find a way out of this area.
"Of course, there's a point." Buffy forced Faith to look at her. "So what if this isn't our world? It's some world that probably has people in it. We should stop them!" Buffy couldn't make any sense of why Faith was so resistant to fighting.
"B." Faith pushed out an exasperated breath. "Think for a minute. If one of us gets seriously hurt or killed fighting them - the other will never get home. It's not worth the risk."
Buffy frowned as she absorbed Faith's words. She didn't think Faith had been paying enough attention to realize they needed to be together to activate the portal stone.
The Faith below them screamed, and Buffy winced. She winced even harder when Vampire-Buffy laughed. The stone was still not recharged, but Buffy knew she wasn't going to be able to stand listening to this a moment longer.
"Can we at least get out of here?"
Faith nodded, and they quietly slinked around until they found an exit. There were several guards in the alley below them, so Faith opted to head up instead of risking a fight with them.
They sat next to each other on the roof, leaning against the half wall. They couldn't hear what was going on in the building below, so Buffy pushed out a sigh of relief and took a look at the portal stone, begging for it to recharge faster. She was dreading what was going to happen next. It seemed like each dimension was worse than the last.
Finally, the stone was recharged, and Buffy activated it. This time Buffy went through first and walked into a bedroom that she didn't recognize. Faith was through a moment later, and she chuckled as soon as she took the room in.
"What?"
Faith held up a framed photo on the dresser. It was a wedding photo with Buffy and a rather large man. Buffy snatched it out of Faith's hand and studied the image. She supposed the guy was kind of cute in a boring farm-boy kind of way. She put the photo back and took a look at the stone. "Damn."
She held it up for Faith to see. It was almost completely dim. "What do you think that's about?"
"I don't know." Buffy studied the stone and shook it a few times as if that might wake it up. "Maybe it has to do with being around other versions of ourselves? Or how magical the place is?" Buffy looked out the window and frowned.
Faith looked at the nothingness outside herself and scowled. "Damn, B. How the hell did you marry someone out in the middle of fucking nowhere?"
Buffy huffed and wanted to point out that she would never do that. Buffy didn't spend a ton of time imagining her future, but when she did - it definitely wasn't this.
"Buffy?" A man's voice could be heard just outside the door, and Buffy shoved Faith to the ground next to the bed.
"Uh, hey... you," Buffy said entirely unconvincingly.
"Who were you talking to up here?" The man surveyed the room with suspicion.
"Oh, no one. Just talking to myself." Buffy tried to sound light and airy. She thought flirting with this man might help her get out of this mess, but she couldn't bring herself to.
"Where's Joy?"
"Oh, um... outside?" Buffy took a guess, and it seemed to work.
"OK, are you coming down for dinner soon?"
"Yes, I just needed a sweater!" Buffy exclaimed way too loudly and picked up a sweater that was on the edge of the bed.
The guy was clearly confused but seemed to be letting it go.
"OK, well... come down when you're ready."
"I will." Buffy grinned stupidly and held the sweater up.
The door was shut, and Faith was rolling on the floor, just barely keeping her laughter silent.
The sound of a car arriving caused both slayers to panic. They might be able to escape out the window, but there was no where to go. They really didn't have any kind of plan here.
"Riley, I'm home!" Buffy's cheery voice called from downstairs, and Faith started laughing again.
"Shut up. What are we going to do?" Buffy whispered, but Faith couldn't stop giggling long enough to even try to answer the question.
Buffy took the stone out and hoped that it would recharge faster now that another Buffy was in the area.
"Oh, thank god."
"Are we really just gonna take off without explaining what just happened?" Faith just barely stopped herself from laughing as she asked this question.
Buffy almost fell for it, but she just smacked Faith on the arm. "We're going. Now!"
"Aww, man. I wanted to see what Barbie B was like." Faith knew she was being kind of a brat, but she was startled to see Buffy married and being all domestic.
Buffy just scowled and activated the stone. "Let's go." Buffy shoved Faith into the portal ahead of her, not wanting to risk that Faith wouldn't immediately follow her.
"What the..." Buffy came through the portal and crashed into Faith, who was just inside of it.
Faith grunted and stepped out of the way. "This doesn't look like home."
Buffy agreed and looked around, trying to make sense of what she saw. They were on a rooftop, surrounded by other taller buildings. She peered over the edge and gasped at what she saw. Cars were flying between the buildings at alarming speeds. Below the mass of cars, it looked like a massive cloud of smog covered the entire ground.
"B." Faith tugged on her arm and directed her attention to the other side of the building.
"Who is that?" Buffy asked, but Faith had no idea.
A figure facing away from them was wearing a long flowing cloak that waved and billowed around them as if by magic. There was wind, but it was blowing in the wrong direction.
"Hey!" Buffy called out. "Did you do this?" Buffy wasn't sure why, but she felt strongly that this ethereal creature was responsible for their current situation.
The woman turned around, and Buffy halted her approach. "Oh. Is this happening now?"
"Willow?" Buffy walked forward slowly, now feeling a lot more confused than aggressive.
"Not really. Not anymore." The woman who was once Willow looked back into the night.
"What does that mean?"
Willow didn't respond.
Buffy looked over to Faith, but Faith didn't seem to know what to do or say either.
"Did you bring us here?" Buffy thought it would make some kind of sense that Willow had found a way to magically send them the portal stone. Nothing else about what was happening was making any kind of sense, though.
Willow shook her head. "I don't think so. Did I?" Willow appeared to be counting on her fingers, shaking her head again when she was done.
"But you sent us this?" Buffy held the pouch containing the portal stone.
Willow tilted her head in confusion. "Maybe. I don't remember."
Buffy was now right next to Willow and could see that her eyes were pitch black. "What happened to you?"
Willow rubbed her temples and shook her head. "This is the wrong now. Or maybe the wrong then?" She tilted her head yet again and looked back at Buffy.
"Willow?" It was obvious that something was very wrong with her friend.
"Wait." Willow held up her hand and seemed to be processing something. "Or maybe this is it. Is this it? A new then and now?" She looked at her hands as if she expected something to happen. When nothing did, she scowled. An enraged Willow turned away from Buffy and stalked towards Faith. "Don't you remember? You were there. You saw it all but didn't stop me. Didn't say anything."
Suddenly Faith was floating in the air and drifting towards the edge of the building.
"Willow!" Buffy screamed and tried futilely to get Willow's attention.
"Oh," Willow shook her head. "I forgot. This is what she meant. This is what I do wrong over and over again. You weren't even there." Willow looked forlornly at Faith and then back at Buffy.
"Willow? Let her go, OK?"
Willow scrunched her face. "She shouldn't be here with you. Not now - not then. Murderous whore. Hate. Jail." Willow shook her head and rubbed her temples. "No no no." Neither slayer liked the words Willow seemed to be using to describe one of them. Faith had a strong suspicion of who.
Buffy was starting to contemplate what would happen if she attacked Willow. She thought that Faith was enough over the roof that she wouldn't fall over the edge, but she couldn't be sure.
Luckily, Faith was dropped unceremoniously to the rooftop before she had to make any sort of decision.
"If she's here now, maybe she'll be there then." Then Willow grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and shook her. "You have to listen. When she tells you that something is wrong - you have to listen."
"What are you talking about?"
Willow growled and shook Buffy again. "It's the only way to stop this!"
"Stop what?" Buffy had no idea what was going on, but she could see from the corner of her eye that Faith was still slumped on the ground.
Buffy fought with all her strength to get away from Willow, but it was impossible. She was starting to panic with worry. There was a chance that this dimension wasn't as terrible as it seemed, but she really didn't want to be here long enough to find out.
"Promise me!" Willow shook her again.
"I promise! Now let me go. I have to make sure that Faith is OK!" Buffy was finally free, but when she turned to check on Faith, it seemed like her problems just got a whole lot worse.
Faith's limp body was being held up by a girl with blue hair and a very nasty-looking weapon.
"'Splain." The girl said. Buffy wasn't sure which one of them she was asking, but Willow stepped forward before she could figure out what to say.
"Fray - let her go," Willow said calmly, but Fray just tightened her grip on Faith. "This is a different when - this is not what you think."
"I heard just fine. You think she can fix all this." Fray shook Faith once again, and Buffy's heart clenched at seeing Faith in danger.
Before Buffy could figure out what to do or say - Faith was free and holding the bizarre ax-like weapon. She had smashed Fray in the face with the back of her head and then twisted them around, flipped Fray onto her back, and took the weapon in the process.
Buffy was impressed by the maneuver that happened almost too fast for her to track.
"Do not fuck with a slayer." Faith said while looming over her would-be captor. Faith had a moment to examine the weapon. It was very oddly designed, but she knew it was hers. It had a gnarly-looking red ax on one end and a stake on the other. Faith swung it around experimentally, completely forgetting the situation they were in.
"Mine." Fray hissed from the ground and launched herself at Faith, but Faith delivered a front kick to her chest that sent her flying across the rooftop.
"Woah." Faith twirled the weapon around again. "You gotta check this thing out, B." Faith tossed the weapon to Buffy, and she caught it smoothly.
Both slayers were surprised. Buffy was sure Faith had forgotten she existed, and Faith couldn't believe she was willing to give up the weapon.
It took a moment for Buffy to focus her thoughts on the weapon instead of Faith. She slid her hand into the handle by the ax end and performed several rotations. "Please tell me that we get to keep this."
"No." Willow shook her head. "It is not time."
Buffy frowned and contemplated opening a portal and taking it anyway. If Faith had been closer, she would definitely have tried. Still thinking that was the best plan, she started to edge towards Faith.
Willow giggled and grabbed Buffy's shoulders. "Do you think I'd let you do that?"
Buffy was shocked now since she was pretty sure she hadn't said her plan out loud. "I thought you said you didn't bring us here."
"Did I say that?" Willow abruptly took several steps back. "I can't be sure. Everything is different now - isn't it?" She tiled her head, and Buffy had no idea what was going on or when her best friend might have gone completely insane.
"I think we should get the fuck out of here." Faith whispered conspiratorially to Buffy.
Willow giggled again and then went over to help Fray.
"I don't think we can. Not yet anyway." Buffy said with a frown.
Fray stomped over to them and ripped the weapon out of Buffy's hand. Buffy was pretty sure she could have stopped her, but she decided not to.
"Follow me," Willow said and hopped over the edge of the building.
Fray followed her a moment after. Buffy was shocked when Faith took off after them without a word. She didn't want to be left behind, so she followed suit. Buffy landed roughly on the car that was hovering a few feet below the edge of the roof.
"You good, B?" Faith had to help stabilize Buffy so she wouldn't fall off into the smog below.
"Yeah, thanks." Buffy stared at Faith a little too long. She couldn't seem to control her feelings after seeing Faith break free from Fray, and now she had saved Buffy's life. She promised herself that she'd tell Faith how she felt at the next opportunity. No matter how much the rejection was going to hurt.
The car started moving, and Buffy slipped a little so Faith would have to help her again.
"You sure you're alright? Seeming kinda clumsy." Faith said with a raised eyebrow, and Buffy hoped Faith wouldn't see her blush.
Buffy didn't want to risk making more of an ass of herself, so she slid through the opening in the roof and climbed into the back seat. Faith was next to her a moment later.
"So what's the sitch here?" Faith asked, leaning forwarding her seat and brushing her thigh against Buffy's.
Buffy definitely had room to move away, but she really didn't want to.
"Sitch?" Fray asked and rolled her eyes.
Faith grunted and slid back into her seat with her arms folded over her chest. Neither slayer had any idea what was going on. Buffy pulled the portal stone out to check and saw that it looked ready.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Willow wasn't even looking at them. Buffy was sure she hadn't seen it. "In fact." Willow snapped her fingers, and the glow in the stone vanished.
Before Buffy or Faith could express her outrage, the car stopped, and both Willow and Fray and exited the vehicle.
"What are we going to do?" Buffy asked Faith, not at all wanting to enter the building. It seemed possible that the stone would recharge if they could just get away from Willow.
"Doesn't seem like we've got any choice here." Faith shrugged and opened her door.
"Right." Buffy sighed and followed the three women into a very lush apartment building. Buffy was just far enough back that she heard Faith hiss, and her limp body hit the floor.
There were not a lot of options. There was no chance that she'd leave Faith behind and not just because they needed to be together for the portal to work.
"Um, hey. Could you not knock me out too so we can talk about this?" Buffy called from the edge of the door. Faith was close enough that she could pull her to safety without exposing herself.
"Fray!" Willow shouted, and Fray just growled back.
"How about you just let us reactivate the stone, and we'll be on our way." Buffy tried, even though she knew it was not going to work. She really hated this dimension.
"No!" Fray shouted. "You'll change it. You'll undo it all!"
"OK, look. We're probably not even from your dimension. We've been to all kinds of different dimensions. How about I prove we're not from your timeline?" Buffy had no idea what she was talking about here. She had hoped that Willow would chime in with some kind of science talk to help things make sense.
"How do you plan to do that?" Buffy was relieved that Fray was at least considering listening to her.
"I don't know, but none of the places we've been so far was our own dimension. So why would this one be?" Buffy knew the argument was kind of weak, but it was all that she had.
"Fuck." Faith hissed and rubbed her head. "What just happened?"
"I don't know, but Fray doesn't want us to change anything in her timeline. So I think she's planning on killing us."
Faith grinned. "Oh, this is an easy one."
Buffy had no idea what Faith was planning on doing but deferred to her since she had a plan.
"Yo Fray, if I come out there, are you gonna shoot me again?"
"No, 'spose not."
Faith winked at Buffy and moved into the doorway. "You watch any Star Trek or other sci-fi?"
Fray just tilted her head, not at all understanding Faith's question.
"OK, doesn't really matter. Here's the deal of any time travel. You can't change the past or the future. No matter what you do - that's always what you would have done. So if you know that slayers called Buffy and Faith existed and did some shit - that means you didn't kill us now. So that means the only way you could change time would be to kill us. Get it?"
Fray had her hands on her hips and very clearly did not get it.
"Oh," Willow frowned and sat heavily into a chair. "She's right. She can't stop me before I go mad. Otherwise, we'd never be here for me to tell her to stop me from going mad."
"You got it, Red." Faith grinned at Buffy, and Buffy couldn't help but be impressed.
"How..." Buffy started to ask how Faith knew anything about Star Trek, but Faith blew her a very distracting kiss.
Willow waved her fingers in the general direction of Buffy.
"You are free to go." Willow sounded so sad, and Buffy wanted to try and comfort her friend. Anything comforting she said would contradict their theories on time travel and would either lead to them dead or more time in this dimension.