Buffy awoke as water was splashed in her face. She was completely disoriented and unsure of where she was. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Faith's steely gaze from only a few feet away.
One look at the woman across from her, and she knew it wasn't her Faith.
It took Buffy a moment to remember where she was and how she had gotten here. There was no way to tell how long she'd been tied to this chair. She was sure it was at least two days, but it could have been a lot longer. Several vampires had come by to bring her food and water. This is the first time she'd seen Faith, though.
Not-Faith was sitting casually on a backward chair with her arms draped over the backrest.
"Oh good, you're awake."
Buffy had to chew the inside of her cheek to prevent a reaction to seeing Faith behaving this way.
"So, how'd you make a copy of me? What was your plan?"
Buffy clenched her jaw a few times before answering. "I didn't make a copy of you. We are from a different dimension."
"Is that the best you can do?"
"It's the truth." Buffy shrugged and tried to appear calm. It was hard to resist asking where Faith was.
"Right." Not-Faith stood up and pushed the chair away before leaning in closer to Buffy. "So what? You two have been hopping dimensions trying to find your way home?"
"Yes. We just want to get home." Buffy had never meant those words more.
"What does she mean to you?"
"What?" Buffy was startled by the question and even more stunned by the brutal right cross that slammed into her cheek. The chair must have been bolted to the floor. Otherwise, she was sure she would have fallen over.
"Don't make me repeat myself."
"She's nothing to me. We're just stuck together until we get back to our dimension. We hate each other." It was agonizing to lie this way about Faith. She had no idea if Faith actually did feel anything for her. There was still a chance that Faith had just been playing nice and still didn't like her at all.
It seemed like they were in a good place just before entering this world. But she couldn't make sense of Faith's earlier behavior when she tried to confess her feelings and then in the bathroom. If Faith liked her even a little, it would have been a prime opportunity to take advantage.
Buffy loved every minute of pretending to be married to Faith. She hadn't wanted to make Faith feel uncomfortable. Still, she definitely took advantage of being able to touch the other slayer.
It seemed like Faith was enjoying it too. The casual way Faith draped her arm over Buffy felt so right. It felt more right than any of the other relationships Buffy had been in.
Another heavy punch pulled her out of her thoughts. "Am I boring you here or something, princess?"
"No, sorry... just..." Buffy didn't really know what this Faith wanted from her. she wasn't sure why she thought it'd be better if Not-Faith believed she was enemies with Faith. It was too late to change tactics now, though.
Not-Faith stands upright and looms over Buffy. "What's with the matching tats?"
"One of the dimensions we visited - it just happened. We have no idea why."
"So if I drag her in here, she's gonna say the same things? And you won't mind watching me slit her throat?"
Buffy hoped her face doesn't betray her. "I'll mind - but that's only because I can't leave this dimension without her." Buffy again bit the inside of her cheek to hold back her tears. The copper taste of blood filled her mouth and fueled her rage.
"And what makes you think I'm going to let you leave?" Not-Faith grins, "maybe it'll be more fun to see how many different ways I can torture you." Not-Faith pulled back cruelly on Buffy's bindings, eliciting a small yelp of surprise from Buffy.
Buffy hesitated, her brain scrambling for something clever to say, but she couldn't find the words. "Just kill me then. Or maybe let her do it. Wouldn't it be more fun to have someone to share all your craziness with? It's gotta be boring surrounded by your idiot vampire minions."
Not-Faith pursed her lips, "that's not a bad idea." She grinned and abruptly left the room, leaving Buffy alone with her thoughts. She had no idea how to get out of this situation. Her only hope was that maybe she could at least save Faith.
A few minutes later, her Faith stumbled into the room and dropped to her knees. She'd clearly been beaten - her left eye was practically swollen shut, and blood dripped from her nose.
"Faith?" Buffy asked cautiously. Faith twitched slightly at the sound of her name but did not otherwise react.
Buffy struggled against her bindings, wanting nothing more than to comfort the other slayer, but she could not break free.
After a few more moments of silence, Faith sucked in a breath and shuffled towards Buffy before standing. She rolled her neck and grimaced as it cracked. Finally, her eyes settled on Buffy, and Buffy began to panic. She had thought they had been building a relationship of some kind, but that look in her eyes made Buffy sure that she was about to die.
She closed her eyes and dropped her head, accepting her fate. Gaining some comfort from knowing that at least Faith was going to survive whatever was about to happen. She heard Faith moving closer and held her breath. Her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the killing blow to land.
Instead of attacking, Faith moved to the back of the chair and started to untie her bindings.
"What are you doing?" Buffy raised her head and whispered.
"Do you like being tied to this chair?" Faith asked, very clearly annoyed.
"No… but… I don't understand. I thought…" Buffy was horrified. Did her attempts to save Faith actually make things worse for her?
"Thought what? That I was going to hurt you? Maybe kill you?" Buffy was finally free from the chair. She quickly stood and turned to face Faith.
"I was hoping she'd let you go if she knew we were enemies." Buffy feared that any closeness that they had developed might have been washed away.
This was definitely her least favorite dimension.
"Is that what we are?" Faith asked, and Buffy wasn't sure what was going on. "And here I thought we'd made so much progress." Faith coughed a few times and spat out a glob of blood. "But hey - if you want to be enemies - fine by me." Faith slid down the wall and closed her eyes. Her breath came in painful, raspy gasps.
"Are you OK?" Buffy moved to her side and started feeling her ribs without thinking.
Faith tried to shove her away, but she was too weak. "Get off."
Tears welled up in Buffy's eyes. "I'm sorry - the last thing I want is to be your enemy. I just thought she'd let you go. I didn't mean any of what I said to her. Let me help you."
Faith was too tired to fight, so she stopped pushing Buffy away. Buffy's hands were again on her, feeling her ribs. Buffy sighed as she felt several ribs were twisted out of place, and one was likely broken.
"This is going to hurt." She pointlessly said before beginning the process of manipulating Faith's ribs back into place. Faith didn't make a sound. She only held her breath and hoped that she would pass out until this nightmare was over.
Buffy inspected the rest of Faith's body. Most of the damage to her face and arms looked relatively superficial. Her ankle was swollen and most likely broken. There wasn't really anything to be done about that now, but it would definitely cause problems when they tried to escape.
There was no way to know how long they sat in silence before the door opened again. This dimension's Faith walked in carrying bottles of water and a couple of sandwiches. She placed the items on the chair Buffy had been bound to and sat in the other chair.
Neither of the sitting slayers made any move towards the food or drink.
"I wanna apologize to you." Not-Faith started, and Buffy frowned as she worried about what would happen next. "You just really freaked me out. Ya know?"
Buffy could tell that something wasn't right, but she had to wait until she had some better idea of what was going on before she attacked. "You did this because we freaked you out?" Buffy couldn't keep the anger out of her voice as she motioned to the bruised and battered Faith sitting next to her.
Not-Faith sighed and tried again to give them water. This time Buffy took both bottles but didn't move to drink. "Yeah, I mean... I was just doing my normal thing - patrolling cemeteries and looking for vamps to take out. Then I see you two, and it makes me think maybe someone is up to something. I just had to make sure."
Buffy narrowed her eyes but couldn't really find a problem with Not-Faith's logic. The vampire minions and access to a dungeon took more than a little away from her feigned innocence.
"Now that I know you guys are cool - let's get outta here." Not-Faith crammed one of the sandwiches into her mouth and walked out of the dungeon.
Faith stood to leave, but her leg immediately crumpled under her. Without asking, Buffy wrapped her arm around Faith's waist and acted as a crutch. Faith was clearly irritated, but she had no choice.
None of the vampire guards were in the sewer when they exited the cell and followed Not-Faith through the tunnels and onto the streets.
Buffy was surprised that they came out right in front of City Hall. There was no time to ponder this as Not-Faith kept a brisk pace.
As they followed Not-Faith through the streets, Buffy started to wonder how much time they had before the crystal would recharge. She reached into the pocket and tried not to panic when it wasn't there.
"Um, hey - Faith?" Bile rose in Buffy's throat as she used Faith's name on this imposter.
"What's up?"
"I had a rock in my pocket... have you seen it?" Buffy felt Faith tense next to her, but this wasn't the time to ask why.
Not-Faith pretended to think for a bit. "Don't think so. What did it look like?"
Even without Faith's low growl, Buffy would have been able to tell she was lying. "It was just like this green crystal."
"Nah, didn't see it. Is it important?"
"No, just a pretty rock. I picked up a few dimensions back." Even though obviously, Not-Faith stole the stone, Buffy did her best to downplay its importance.
"Sorry - guess it's gone." Not-Faith shrugged, and Buffy clenched her teeth. They had to get the stone back and get the hell out of this dimension. The only chance of doing that is to stay close to Not-Faith and figure out what she was up to.
"Nice place." Faith grunted out as Buffy lowered her to the couch.
"Yeah - it ain't bad." Not-Faith grinned as she hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter. "It's good to be Queen."
Buffy can't help but be disgusted by how this version of Faith was behaving. She couldn't understand how a slayer would ever be willing to work with vampires.
Faith is completely terrified of watching herself behave this way. Unlike Buffy, she had no doubt at all that Not-Faith was up to something and would happily hurt or kill either of them if they were no longer of use to her.
"So, how long do you think it will take you to find a way outta here?" Not-Faith asked, trying to sound disinterested, but she wasn't really able to pull it off.
It'd be a lot faster if you gave us the crystal back. Buffy managed to keep that thought to herself. "There's no way to tell. In some places, we were able to find a way out pretty quickly. Other times, it took months."
"Months!" Not-Faith dropped down from the counter. "There's gotta be some way to get it done faster."
"Not that we've been able to figure out," Buffy answered as her mind raced for a way to get away from their captor. She wanted to ask if Giles or her friends were here. But she was pretty sure that would just put them in danger.
"Well, shit. That sucks." Not-Faith moved into the kitchen and grabbed herself a beer.
"Do you have a first aid kit or something?"
Not-Faith couldn't stop her sneer at this question. "She'll be fine."
"She will be." Buffy conceded. "But we'll have better luck finding the next portal if I don't have to carry her when we look."
Not-Faith clearly did not at all like the idea of them wandering around Sunnydale. "Can't you just go by yourself?"
Buffy shook her head. "We've only ever found portals when we're together."
"How about just me and you look then?" Not-Faith asked, and Buffy was surprised to hear the disgusted huff from Faith on the couch.
Buffy's eye snapped to Faith's, and she couldn't stop her smile. Faith was jealous. Just like Buffy had been jealous of B-plus - Faith was jealous of Not-Faith. And if Faith was jealous - that meant that Faith liked her. Buffy was even more determined to find their way out of this dimension.
"I don't think that will work either." Buffy had no way of knowing if it would or not - she couldn't even be sure that portals only appeared when they were together.
"Well, if you're gonna stick around - you're gonna start earning your keep." Not-Faith downed her beer and chucked the bottle noisily into the trash.
"What do you expect us to do?" Buffy did not at all like the feral grin on Not-Faith's face.
"Well, see... there's this group of vamps that just won't follow the rules. I keep my vamps in line. Ya know? But these other vamps, they just wanna wreck everything."
"OK, where are they?" Faith was clearly in pain as she rose to her feet.
Not-Faith laughed and downed a second beer. "Nah, I think you better stay here and rest up."
Faith stood up straighter and approached her doppelganger. It didn't matter how hard she tried, though - she couldn't completely hide the limp. "I'm fucking fine. Let's go."
Buffy was hating every minute of this, but she had no idea how to fix it. All she could do now was hope that they could find a way out of this dimension as soon as possible.
The door opened, and two rather large vampires entered. "You ready to go, boss?"
Not-Faith smirked, "sure am. But this one is staying put." She shoved Faith, who stumbled back, and crashed into the kitchen table.
Buffy knew she had to put a stop to this before Faith was hurt even more. Before Faith could launch another attack, Buffy got between them and, as gently as possible, pushed Faith back to sitting on the couch.
"C'mon B. What the fuck?" Faith hissed. "You can't go out with that..." The words were barely a whisper.
"It'll be OK, Faith." Buffy looked into Faith's eyes and hoped that she'd understand.
Faith pouted and looked away. She hated feeling like this. Buffy was in danger again because of her, and Faith couldn't do anything to protect her.
"Let's go." Buffy headed for the door, and the burly vampires moved out of her way.
Buffy had expected Not-Faith would be a decent fighter, but she was terrible. Buffy really started to wonder how she was Queen of anything when she could barely stake a single vampire by herself. It was a good thing that these vampires weren't too difficult, or Buffy might not have been able to take them out alone. It occurred to her that maybe she could get Not-Faith injured or even killed. But she had bodyguards that never let her get into too much trouble.
"Wow, that was wicked," Not-Faith said and raised her hand to high-five Buffy.
"Um, yeah." Buffy reluctantly slapped her hand and wondered what the hell was wrong with her. "Are we heading back now?"
"Nah, not yet." Not-Faith wrapped her arm around Buffy's waist like they were best friends. "Let's go check out the Bronze, girlfriend."
Buffy felt like she had no choice as she was guided to the club. It was quite a different atmosphere than what she was used to. It was far more crowded, and she was pretty sure most of the crowd was vampires and other lesser demons.
As soon as they entered, Not-Faith hit the bar and came back with a tray of drinks.
"I don't really like to drink," Buffy said when Not-Faith pushed a cocktail over to her.
"Come on - you earned it." The way Not-Faith's eyes narrowed again made Buffy felt like she had no choice.
At least it was something fruity. Buffy took a few small sips and hoped that would placate this deranged imposter wearing Faith's body.
The music was loud and not at all to Buffy's taste, but when Not-Faith grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the dance floor - she didn't resist. She started to get really worried about how this night was going to end. There was definitely a line with how far she was asking to go to stay close to Not-Faith.
Luckily, once they got into the middle of the crowd - Not-Faith released her and started dancing pretty suggestively with three guys.
Buffy did her best to edge off the crowd and not actually dance with anyone. She just wanted to get back to Faith.
"Come with me." A rather large man grabbed her elbow and dragged her outside. "Boss says to take you home." She was surrounded by three more vampires when she got outside. Briefly, she considered trying to escape, but she didn't exactly remember where Not-Faith's apartment was.
Buffy had no idea what was going on. Why did Not-Faith force her to come to the Bronze only to ignore her and immediately send her home? It didn't make any sense, but Buffy was glad to be returning to her Faith.
She was shoved unceremoniously into the apartment, and several locks clicked behind her.
"Faith?"
A huff from the general area of the couch was her only indication of where Faith might be. All the lights were off.
"Sorry, were you sleeping?" Buffy moved around the couch to find Faith lying on her side and staring off into space. "Faith?"
"What?"
"Why are you so pissed off at me?"
This got Faith to sit up, but she still wouldn't look at Buffy. "I'm not. I'd have to care about you to be pissed off at you."
Buffy didn't know if Faith was saying this because she thought maybe they were being watched or if it was some other reason.
"Can I look at your ankle?"
"Do whatever the fuck you want." Faith said, and Buffy had to blink back tears. She knelt down and rolled up Faith's pant leg. It didn't look any better than when she left a few hours ago.
"Were you walking on this?"
Faith didn't answer, just continued to look away from Buffy.
"You need to heal. We'll never get out of here if you don't." Buffy whispered.
"What do you care about getting out of here?! Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"
Buffy was thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?"
"You've found the perfect version of me. The version that can give you exactly..." Buffy came seconds away from slapping Faith. The look on her face was enough to get Faith to stop talking, at least.
Buffy was deeply ashamed of what she had almost done. She just didn't understand why Faith had to make things so difficult. "You cannot be serious."
"What else am I supposed to think? She has everything that I can't give you." Faith huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
Buffy could not believe how ridiculous this situation was. Taking a risk, she sat on the couch next to Faith. "Do you know what I've labeled her as in my head?"
Faith didn't visibly respond.
"You called my copy B-plus, and I call yours Not-Faith." Buffy gently pushed the hair away from Faith's face and forced her to look over. "She is not you, and she has nothing that I want. Please believe that. The only reason I went with her was because I had no choice." It looked like maybe Faith was starting to understand. "I might have to continue to play nice with her, but only until we can get the stone and get out of here."
Faith really wanted to believe Buffy. It was just so hard to. Plus, it has occurred to her that maybe it would be better if Buffy did prefer this world's Faith. Maybe she could move past this ridiculous crush if Buffy was attracted to this other version of her.
"I really don't understand how she's 'Queen' of anything. She can hardly fight at all." She didn't want to say it out loud, but she suspected that Not-Faith wasn't even a slayer. Buffy shifted a little to lean against Faith. "I'm positive that once your ankle is healed - we'll be able to take her out," Buffy said as quietly as possible, and Faith finally started to relax.
Of all the things Buffy could say, this was the most effective. "Really?"
Buffy tried not to laugh at Faith's reaction. "It was pathetic."
"I'm sorry for being so shitty to you. I just hate this. Ya know?" Faith motioned to her ankle, and Buffy definitely did know.
"Let me see if there's any ice." Buffy went to the kitchen and frowned. The freezer was bare, and pretty much so was everything else. The only thing in the fridge was a few beers. Buffy grabbed them, figuring it was better than nothing.
"She doesn't live here." Faith whispered, and Buffy nodded. "What do you think is going on?"
Before they could even open the beers, the door was crashing in. Several people that Buffy didn't recognize were entering the apartment with guns poised for battle. She quickly moved to put herself between them and Faith - who had, of course, stood up on her very broken ankle.
"Xander?" Buffy was surprised to see her friend amid these strangers.
"You know me?" He asked nervously. His eyes darted to a rather large man who must have been the leader of this group.
"Sort of," Buffy replied, not taking her eyes off of the men who were slowly creeping towards Faith.
"Move away from her." The leader said, and Buffy practically growled.
"No fucking way." Buffy tried to ignore Faith's shocked laugh from behind her.
"She is paying for what she's done. Now move away from her." The man said again. The soldier closest to them started to raise his weapon, and Buffy ripped it out of his hands and snapped it in half before anyone could tell what happened.
"She is not who you think she is, and you are not touching her." Buffy had a strong feeling that these men were human, but she didn't care. If they tried to hurt Faith - she was going to stop them.
A radio crackled, and the man in charge backed out of the room to answer it. When he came back in, his disposition was more relaxed. "Come with us. Now." It was clear he was used to giving orders, but both Buffy and Faith were used to ignoring them.
"If you're against her and you want to get us out of here - we'll go with you." Buffy was sure to put as much disdain for not-Faith in her voice as possible. Buffy didn't want to refer to Not-Faith by name out loud at all if possible.
"People saw you with her tonight." The leader approached them, and Buffy was tempted just to try fighting them to escape. But she just didn't have enough information, and Faith's ankle was going to slow them down.
"That was not by choice," Buffy said through clenched teeth. "Now, are you getting us out of here or not?"
One of the soldiers pulled out some handcuffs, and Buffy rolled her eyes. "You come near either of us with those and..."
Buffy cut Faith off before she could finish the threat. "We will come willingly with you."
The leader held up his hand, and the rest of the soldiers relaxed. "I'm Riley." He offered his hand, but Buffy didn't shake it.
"I'm Buffy - That's Faith."
Riley moved out of the way, and the soldiers started to file out of the apartment.
Faith gave Buffy a pleading look, but there was no option. "Maybe you'll think before walking on a broken ankle next time."
Faith's pout was deep, and Buffy had never wanted to kiss her more.
"We have a medic." Riley offered, and Faith was even more horrified. Now her choice was to let one of these strangers help her or let Buffy carry her again.
"B's got it." She finally said and let Buffy take most of her weight.
"We'll need to move fast," Riley said, and the slayers rolled their eyes in sync.
"Don't worry about us." Faith said, and Riley was confused, but his orders were to bring these women in - so that's what he was going to do.
The group of men led the slayers outside and through various alleys. There were a few points where Buffy literally had to carry Faith, but mostly they kept up without too much of a hit to Faith's pride.
They approached a cave, and the men all began to relax, and their pace slowed dramatically. Buffy thought they were somewhere near the UC Sunnydale campus, but she couldn't be sure. After weaving through several tunnels, they reached an area that was no longer natural cave. The walls were cement, and everything began to look much more military.
They passed through a large metal door, and it slammed shut behind them.
Buffy and Faith both tried not to worry that they had just trapped themselves with these people. If they weren't friendlies - things might have just gotten a whole lot worse.
"You can drop her off at the clinic. The General wants to see you." Riley tried to pull Faith away, but Buffy wouldn't let go and shoved him away. "She'll be in good hands."
"The fact that you look like you want to murder her really makes me doubt that," Buffy said and really hoped they hadn't just made a colossal mistake.
"I don't need your clinic. Let's just go see the General." Faith said, and Riley looked like he wanted to argue.
"Agent Finn, why are you giving these lovely young women such a hard time?" The General had arrived, and both slayers hoped they didn't let it show that they recognized him.
"Sorry, sir." Riley stood at attention with his head down. "One of them is hurt."
"Oh, that is terrible. I'm so sorry." If Buffy didn't know better, it would be easy to believe that his concern was genuine. The General moved closer and held out his hand. Buffy reluctantly shook it, and so did Faith. "Let's head over to the clinic together, and we can talk along the way. Does that sound OK?"
"Fine." Faith hissed out and continued to let Buffy be her crutch as they walked.
"You two have caused quite a stir, as you can imagine." The General said as he walked next to the slayers.
"We have?" Buffy asked, not at all understanding what was going on here.
"I must admit that my first instinct was that you were a danger, but now I understand that you fell in with the wrong crowd." Then he chuckled to himself.
Buffy was still quite confused but didn't know what questions to ask.
"Those vampires you took out the other day. Those were part of the work we do down here."
"What work is that?"
They had reached the clinic, and Buffy helped Faith onto a bed and reluctantly released her. She wanted to stay by her side, but she also didn't want to interfere with her medical care.
"It's quite interesting, really. But I think that's a story for another day. How about we get you two settled, and we can talk about it tomorrow?"
"OK, sure," Buffy said and watched nervously as they x-rayed Faith's ankle. "Are we prisoners down here?"
"Oh no! Of course not!" The General seemed wildly offended by this accusation. "You are free to leave whenever you'd like."
Buffy didn't believe this in the slightest.
"But, if you stay - I believe we can help each other." The General grinned at them pretty the same way he did when they met them before as the Mayor. Buffy couldn't really say why he put her on edge. He had lived up to their arrangement the previous time.
"And what help exactly can you give us?"
The Mayor dressed up in the General's outfit grinned widely. "I know how to send you home."