Buffy
Buffy watches Faith anxiously pacing around the cell. She sat in confusion at why Faith pushed her away and why she was even trying to comfort her in the first place. Now that they are trapped here, and Buffy is left with no distractions, she finds herself trying to empathize with Faith.
For the first time, taking a moment to consider what her life might have been like. How could we have let her stay in that motel all by herself? She's just a kid, where did she even get the money to pay for it? It shocks her more than a little that none of this ever occurred to her before. She thought of herself of a compassionate person, but how could that be true if she never even tried to help Faith?
She's wrapped up in her thoughts and not paying attention until she realizes that Faith has been talking as she paces.
"I can't believe I fell for his act. He was using me all along, and I just let him. I should have known he was going to betray me." Faith sighs and drops to the floor. Buffy finds her heart aching for the pain she sees in the younger slayers face. She's still not sure this isn't all a trick. Faith is evil. She's a murderer. She tried to kill Angel. Watching the distress in Faith's face makes it harder to focus on those things. I can't believe she would let me see her so emotional, even if she was up to something.
What am I supposed to do now? Try to convince her that it's not her fault that the evil demon guy was evil? Pointing out that she's right, that this is her fault – doesn't seem like a fabulous idea. We need to work together if we're going to survive this.
"We don't even know that the mayor has anything to do with this."
"It's gotta be him, who else would know about that knife? And the poison, he must have set me up."
She has a point. Very few people would know about her connection to that knife. The mayor had to know the cure for that poison he gave her. "I don't know, but look. We have to keep it together if we're going to survive this mess."
"We? Survive? Aren't you the one who was just trying to kill me? Why do you care if I survive whatever this is?"
I don't care, not one bit. If you hadn't sided with the mayor and poisoned Angel, we wouldn't be here right now. If you had never come to Sunnydale, everything would be better. Nope, can't say any of that. She covers her face with her hands and sighs, trying to keep her voice calm and even. "Believe it or not, I do care about you." Do I care about her? How am I supposed to convince her I care when I don't even know what I'm feeling?
"Right, and that's why you can't even look at me."
"Of course I can't look at you! You killed someone. You tried to kill Angel! You threatened Willow – and the way you treated Xander... Let's not forget that you sided with a demon who was trying to ascend and kill everyone at graduation!" She pauses a moment to compose herself. "You were supposed someone I could have been close to."
Where did that last part come from? I never wanted to be close to Faith. Why am I even trying to be nice to her? She's evil. She tried to kill my friends. There was never anything about her that I liked or wanted anything to do with. Right?
Faith
"Whatever, I know what I did." Someone she could have been close to? What the hell is that? All she ever did was push me away. Maybe she's still drugged up. It would explain why she fell asleep on me too.
"Maybe you know what you did, but do you have any idea why you did any of it?"
Faith scowled and looked away. You hurt me. Everyone wanted me to be more like you. But I could never be good enough to be like you. I always make the wrong choices.
"I guess I'm just evil. Right? What other reason could there be?"
I wanted to be part of something. I'd never really belong with you or your friends, no matter what I did. The mayor made me feel important, even if it was a lie. It felt good to think someone gave a shit about me.
"I don't think you're evil. I think you're lost." Buffy barely whispers.
Both slayers sit back down against their respective walls and hang their heads. Neither feeling very good about themselves or each other at the moment.
"Faith?"
"What?" Faith snipes in response. Why can't she just leave me alone? Why did we have to get trapped together?
"Can you sense anything outside? It doesn't seem like there are any demons out there anymore. You don't think the mayor lost, and then they left us here, do you?"
"That'd be just fantastic." Faith rolls her eyes and groans at the thought.
"If the mayor did lose, maybe the gang will be able to find us now."
Yeah right, no one is coming. We're going to die down here. I'm going to die trapped with this uptight bitch who treated me like shit from the moment we met. Faith says nothing, just crosses her arms and stares at the wall.
Several more hours pass, there have been no new portals, no sounds, or other changes.
"We can't just sit around here and wait for death. There has to be some way to get out of here."
Faith gets up and starts to work on the knife again. This time she tries pushing up and pulling down, and it starts to wiggle a little. Triumphantly, she pulls it free and holds it up to show Buffy. "At least we don't have to starve to death now." She says with a wink.
"What!" Buffy's eyes widen, and she presses herself against the wall.
"You need to chill out. Like you said, we can't go back to trying to kill each other until we get out of here." She takes the knife and begins working on slicing away at the opening left behind. The material won't actually cut, all she can do is wiggle the knife attempting to widen the opening. She continues to work for several more minutes and sighs in frustration. The ornate double blade is not at all the right tool for this type of work.
"Here, let me work on it for a little while." Buffy gets up and takes the knife from Faith without actually looking at her. "What do you think this stuff even is? It's not like anything I've ever seen before. I wish Giles were here. He'd know what to do. Or really, if I'm wishing for things, us not being here would probably be the better thing to wish for."
Faith silently watches the blonde slayer work and babble about nonsense while she does it. She said "us" as in both of us not being here.
"B?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, do you think we could have gotten past what happened? That we could have been friends?" Why did I just ask that? She hates me and thinks I'm evil. She never took any time to try and understand me.
Buffy pauses and stops working on the opening. She looks down at the knife in her hands. "I'd like to think so. It was an accident."
"It's too late now though, isn't it?" What difference does it make? We're going to die down here. Even if we do get out, there's no way things between us can ever be OK. Not after all the mistakes I've made.
Buffy
Too late to be friends? I'd say so. As soon as we're out of here, I'm going to... something.. I don't know what I'm going to do. Things would have been easier if I had killed her. Buffy shakes her head at that thought. Knowing it isn't true at all. As soon as she felt the blade slide in, she knew she was making a terrible mistake. If Angel had been allowed to help her, if that evil watcher hadn't have come. If if if...
"I don't know if it's too late. First, we have to find a way out of here. Then we can figure it out."
"Right." Faith crosses her arms and frowns as she sits slumped against the wall.
Buffy continues to dig at the opening, making very little progress. It might not be the way out of here, but at least it's something to do.
"B?" Faith pauses, while Buffy looks over at her. "I've done things you might not know about. That deputy mayor wasn't the only human I killed."
Buffy frowns slightly at this confession. We suspected that she might have gotten to that volcano guy. I had hoped it wasn't true. Why is she telling me this now?
"It was some science guy – the mayor didn't even tell me why, and I didn't ask. Why would I have done that if I wasn't evil?" Faith is staring at her hands as if wondering who they belong to and how they could have done the things they did.
How is she managing to make me feel bad for her and her crazy murdering ways? It's not like it's my fault she turned out this way. Is it? I tried to be supportive after the accident with the deputy Mayor. She told me she didn't care, that it didn't mean anything that she ended a human life. She's just feeling guilty now because she was tricked and now we're trapped. Right?
"Not sure why I told you about that, guess it doesn't matter now."
"Why do you always put up such a front? Why can't you ever say how you really feel about something?" Buffy turns to Faith and sees her slumped against the wall. An expression of sadness and regret plastered on her face. Buffy has never seen Faith showing any kind of emotion like this before. If only things could have been different between us. I know there's a real person in there somewhere.
Buffy's eyes drop as she watches Faith crumble before her. I didn't mean to hurt her. I don't know why everything has to always be so heated and difficult between us.
Faith
A good question – why can't I ever say how I really feel? Maybe because I've been terrified my whole life? I can't admit to that, can't show weakness. Can't survive on your own if you're weak. There's no way I can explain that though. She'd never be able to understand what it's like in the real world. Where no one gives a shit about you. As hard as her life has been, she's never truly been alone. She's felt like she was alone, shouldering her slayer burden. But it isn't true. There's always been someone there to support her, even if she didn't see it.
"I guess it's always been easier this way." Feeling things just means you can be hurt.
"Isn't that incredibly lonely?"
Faith hangs her head. Lonely, I've been alone my whole life. I don't even know what it means not to be lonely.
Instead of replying, Faith gets up and takes over the work of digging fruitlessly at the opening.
Buffy
An unknown amount of time passes for the slayers. They alternate working on the opening with the knife, even though they are making no progress. Buffy is watching Faith work and trying to figure out how things could have been done differently. What could I have done to avoid ending up where we are now? Not just stuck in this cell, but the animosity between us. We are both slayers. We should have been friends.
"Buffy?"
"Willow!"
Faith turns around, "Have you lost it? Nobody is here."
"I heard her, in my head, I think."
"Buffy, are you ok? Where are you."
"Yeah, we're ok, I don't know where we are, though."
"We?"
"Faith is here with me. She thinks maybe the mayor set us up."
"Are you sure she's on your side?"
"Yes, I'm sure. How long have we been here? Did you stop the mayor?"
"We did stop the mayor." There is a long pause, "you've been gone for a few months."
"A few months! It hasn't felt anywhere near that long, maybe a day or two." Buffy sighs, she's not sure if it's better or worse that time moves slower in this cell. If it took a few months to find them, they'd probably be dead by now. "Can you get us out of here?"
"We're working on it, be in touch soon."