Faith

This time when Faith awakens she's in a strange room with no visible exits, or openings of any kind. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all smooth and white. The lighting seems to come from nowhere. The room is about the size she'd expect a prison cell to be. There is a flimsy pad on the floor that could barely be called a mattress, but nothing else that could be considered furniture. For a moment, she thinks she might be in prison. As she slowly takes in her surroundings, she discovers she's not alone. "Buffy?" She calls out to the slumped blond form. Not quite willing to approach and touch the other slayer, she stays as far away as she can without pressing herself against the wall.

Buffy slowly starts to stir and look around. "Faith? What the hell is going on? What did you do to me?"

Faith does her best to keep her composure and not let herself cringe away from the fury of Buffy. She looks so weak and pale. She really did let Angel drink from her. That must be how they were able to capture her. She can see the bite mark on Buffy's neck. There wasn't a drop of blood visible on her shirt. Faith couldn't remember what Buffy was wearing when they fought. She thought she should be able to, the image of the person who stabbed you should be seared into your mind forever. She could only remember Buffy's eyes, and the swirl of emotions they seemed to be trying to convey.

"Damn, B. You let him drink from you?" Faith grimaced and shuddered at the idea. I never understood why she loved that vampire so much. Sure he's cute, but he's a vampire, we're supposed to kill vampires. Plus there's the whole curse thing. It's not like they can actually be together.

Buffy's fear drops away from her face, and now it's only anger she's showing. "I had to! Because of what you did!" She starts to rise and charges at Faith, grabbing her by the jacket and pulling her to standing. When Faith makes no motion to defend herself or her actions, Buffy slows down and seems to reevaluate their situation. "Wait, why are you here? And where is here?"

"Both good questions - same answer, I dunno. I thought maybe this was prison or some council thing, but why would they capture you?" Buffy releases her grip and Faith slumps back against the wall, trying to find her usual level of confidence and bravado, but too worn out for it to work.

Buffy looks Faith over thoughtfully, "How did you end up here?"

"When I fell off the roof – after you – ya know... tried to kill me... I landed on this truck." Buffy's harsh glare drops slightly, Faith continues, attempting to ignore the possible look of concern. "I thought I was going to be okay, but then it turned out the driver of the truck knew who I was somehow. He drugged me and took me here."

Faith could see the suspicion in Buffy's eyes and who could blame her for doubting the story.

"A human was able to kidnap you?"

"I was kinda damaged from this -" She opens her jacket and lifts up her shirt to show the knife wound that had stopped bleeding but wasn't entirely healed. The bandage at some point had been removed, exposing the raw, pink wound. She can see Buffy's expression change. Was that guilt? Nah, what does B have to feel guilty about? She had no choice. She had to save her boy. "How did you end up here?"

"I don't remember anything after I went to Angel." Buffy frowns and rubs the wound on her neck. From what Faith could see, it looked almost completely healed. Maybe a week has passed, with how healed with both are. Whatever was going to happen with the Mayor must be over by now. Faith frowns, not willing to feel sad for the passing of the demon she somehow let herself fall into league with.

"Do you think you saved him?" Faith wasn't sure why she asked, but she needed to know.

"Do you care?" Buffy spat her response back with venom.

Faith winced at the harsh words but doesn't respond to the question. She does care, the moment the arrow left her bow she knew everything she had done was a mistake. She had been bitter that Angel tricked her, let that fuel her need for revenge. Once she had done it though, an ache began to grow in her heart. She couldn't take any of it back though, couldn't undo the damage she had done. If only I hadn't gotten away, she would have fed me to him, and neither of us would be trapped here right now.

"What do you think they plan to do to us?" Buffy asks, her eyes firmly focused anywhere that wasn't Faith.

She can't even look me in the eyes – maybe she does feel guilty. Faith watches the blonde slayer as she examines their surroundings, part of her still wary that Buffy might attack her again. She wasn't sure she had it in her to try and fight back.

"No idea. The guy who took me taunted me a little, but he didn't tell me anything." Faith pauses, "The gang will be looking for you though, right? They'll probably be here any minute."

"Yeah, maybe. Though they might be dealing with the mayor. It was almost graduation. They might not have the time to go looking for me." Buffy responds, staring hard at Faith.

"I'm pretty sure whatever was going to happen with the mayor already has. Slayer healing is great, but this is more than one day's worth of healing." She motions to her stomach.

"That's just great. My friends had to do my job because of you!"

Faith's heart sinks, she slides to the floor and draws her knees to her chest. Wrapping her arms around them to make herself as small as possible. Her face tucked down as she fights off the tears. How could I have screwed things up so badly? I never wanted things to end up like this. I was supposed to be something better when I came to Sunnydale.

"B.. I.."

Buffy cuts her off before she can get out her words. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say right now. We have to figure out how we're going to get out of here. Then we can go back to trying to killing each other."

"Yeah, ok." Faith whispers in reply. She's so confused and broken down - she doesn't have the will to even try to stick up for herself.

Buffy sighs and slides down to the floor as far away from Faith as she can get.

After what seems like several more hours the lighting dims. "I guess that means it's time to sleep?" Buffy looks over at Faith who only nods in response. Neither slayer attempts to claim the mattress, they each curl up where they are against the cell walls. Neither of them would be able to sleep anyway. There was just too much to think about. I can feel her eyes on me now. She's probably afraid I'm going to attack her while she sleeps. Or maybe she's planning to attack me. I hope she does, then only one of us will have to deal with whatever these demons have planned.

After only about an hour, the lights flare up even brighter than before, and a loud bell begins to sound. The slayers attempt to cover their ears and eyes and cower against the noise. Mercifully it only lasts a few minutes. The sound cuts out, and the lights dim to a more reasonable level. A small portal opens in one of the walls, and some bottles of water are thrown through. Neither slayer makes a move to reach for them.

"This won't be like last time, Faith – we need you to have your strength for what's to come." A loud voice echoes through the strange room. It's not the same voice as her kidnapper, but she does vaguely recognize it.

Buffy looks over questioningly. "My kidnapper tricked me into drinking some drugged water." She replies, attempting to hide the shame she felt over what happened. "Ah, Fuck it." Faith grabs one of the bottles and tosses the other over to Buffy. "Let me drink from mine first, that way at least we won't both get jacked up."

Buffy nods at this. Glad to see she's willing to accept my sacrifice, at least there's no doubt that she still thinks she's better than me. Faith takes a few sips of her drink and leans back against the wall. Suddenly she starts to shake uncontrollably and make frothy sounds with her throat.

"Faith!" Buffy runs over to help her, only to find Faith is now laughing hysterically.

"I never knew you cared so much, B." Faith continues laughing and wipes the drool off her chin.

"You're an ass." Buffy grunts and returns to her corner of the cell, slumping back down to the floor.

"Gotta find the fun in this hell-hole somehow. " She continues grinning, quite pleased with herself. Antagonizing Buffy reminded her of a time when things were better. This is who she wanted to be, the fun-having rogue slayer. She was brash and always having a good time, never worried about what other people thought or the consequences of her actions. I'm surprised she reacted the way she did. Probably just doesn't want to be alone with my rotting corpse in this cell.

After several more moments, Buffy finally drinks some of her own water.

Faith finished her drink and began playing with the bottle it came in, making a crinkly sound with the plastic.

"Are you trying to drive me insane before the demons get down to business?" Buffy snaps.

Buffy's irritation just spurs Faith on. "What? Is this annoying?" She continues to crinkle the plastic bottle with an evil glint in her eye.

In a flash, Buffy is across the room and attempting to take the bottle away. While Faith is giggling and using her slightly superior height to keep it just out of reach, all the while crinkling the bottle. Ignoring the pain in her stomach as she stretches.

Buffy eventually gives up and backs away.

"Why do you get so much joy from causing pain?"

Faith is a little shocked by this serious question. "Aw come on, I'm just messin' around."

"It's not like it's just right now, this moment, that you act like this. You've acted this way since I've known you."

Faith loses her smirk, a pang of regret turning it into a frown. "I was never trying to hurt you, or anyone else."

"Poisoning Angel wasn't trying to hurt anyone?"

"Oh, well yeah.. then.. but that wasn't from the first time we met. You kicked me out of your little gang, and I had to find a new one."

"I never kicked you out of our group. You didn't give us a chance to help when you k-"

"When I what? When I killed that guy? Come on, B. You didn't like me from the start, and you know it. Afraid you weren't the baddest chick around anymore. I could see how you looked at me."

"That's not true." Buffy's reply is weak, and she can't look into Faith's eyes as she says it.

"Right, sure it's not." Faith crosses her arms and leans back into the wall.

They sit in silence for who knows how long.

Faith starts to get a little stir crazy. Maybe the drugs are finally totally out of her system now, but something has changed. She begins pacing around the cell, not at all sure what to do with herself. "Will you fuckers hurry up and do whatever it is that you're going to do!" She's screaming that phrase over and over until she finds herself tackled to the ground.

What the hell was that? She looks to find that it was Buffy who slammed her into the ground and is now attempting to cover her mouth with her hand while also keeping her pinned to the floor.

"Shhhh."

"Get... off.. of.. me." Faith grunts as she struggles to free herself. After several minutes of futile thrashing, she finally settles down, her energy burned off.

She feels Buffy relax a little and goes to shove her off until she notices that Buffy's breathing has become steady. Did she fall asleep? What in the hell is going on? Not sure what to do, she opts to just stay like this. Maybe there were drugs in the water after all. She doesn't let herself notice the change in their slayer connection. The odd tingling sensation that was always present is stronger now, and instead of making her more alert, it brings comfort and relaxes her. It doesn't take long until she drifts off to sleep herself.

"Well isn't that the cutest thing I've ever seen." The disembodied voice blares into the cell, shocking both slayers awake. When Buffy sees where she is her eyes go wide, and she shoots across the room as fast as possible. Faith only grimaces as she sits up, her body stiff from lying in an awkward position.

"Sorry about, um, tackling you. You were just driving me insane." Faith is relieved that Buffy doesn't mention their cuddling session. As weird as it was, she had enjoyed it. Now that Buffy was further away, the warmth and comfort she had felt was starting to fade. She wondered if Buffy felt it too, but wasn't going to ask her about it.

"No worries, B. Maybe the whole point of this is to drive us insane, seems to be working pretty well so far."

As they return to silence, a new portal opens, and this time a knife is thrown through. A knife very familiar to both of them. Both slayers stand up, staring at the weapon. The weapon that was very recently used by Buffy to stab Faith.

Faith slowly approaches, not wanting to freak Buffy out. Though she's not entirely sure why she doesn't want to freak her out. She reaches down and lifts the weapon up, inspecting it. There is dried blood visible on the blade. My blood. She grimaces and shakes her head as she thinks about what happened. With one sudden and violent movement, she hurls it at the wall furthest from Buffy.

Both slayers are shocked to see the weapon has stuck to its hilt into the wall. Faith stalks over to it and attempts to pull it out, but it won't budge. She's pulling with all her strength on the hilt. "Why.. won't .. you .. come.. out!" She grunts at the exertion, ignoring the slight tearing feeling in her stomach.

She's so engaged in what she's doing that she doesn't notice Buffy come over to help. Each slayer has a grip on the handle, and they pull with all their strength. Still, it won't budge. After a few moments, Buffy gives up and backs away. Faith's fury returns, and she begins kicking at the handle, hoping to wiggle it free. She does this for several minutes before she gives up and drops back down to the floor. She's so lost and confused that she doesn't even realize she's sobbing until she feels Buffy has returned to her side and is attempting to hug her.

The contact shocks her back into awareness, this time, she doesn't want the comfort the connection brings her. She pushes Buffy away and stands up. Pacing around the small space frantically, her head is swirling with emotions that she can't handle. Why the hell is she trying to hug me? You don't stab people and then try to hug them! Maybe this is all some kind of trick, and she's not really Buffy. Faith narrows her eyes, looking closely at the blonde slayer and reaching out with her senses. Sure feels like her though.