Buffy

Buffy's confession went both better and worse than she had expected. The rejection wasn't at all surprising, but it did hurt like hell. She knew there had at least been a chance that Faith would have gotten angry and maybe tried to attack her. She had been relieved that they were able to get through it with just talking. She knew Faith was lying about their connection. It just wasn't possible that it was totally one-sided.

Buffy shakes her head, at a complete loss of what to do or say. Does it even matter now? It's not like we can be friends after everything that's happened. She's killed people, I tried to kill her. Things can never be how they should have been. If only it hadn't taken me so long to figure out why everything was so difficult between us. She sighs and scrunches her face, sliding back down to the floor. Not that I think she would have returned the feelings, but maybe I wouldn't have pushed her away, maybe we wouldn't have become enemies. At the least, I wouldn't have tried to kill her.

"We all make choices, Faith."

"What the hell does that mean? There's a whole lotta shit that happened to me that I had no choice about. Like being stuck here with you."

"But you did make this choice, you chose to turn against me. You decided to hate me and believe that you couldn't trust me. If you had chosen differently, we wouldn't be here right now."

"I just knew you'd blame this shit on me."

"It's not about blame. It's not about who's fault any of this is. I just mean we don't even realize what the consequences of our choices will be until it's too late." Buffy pauses, unsure of what she's even trying to accomplish by talking about any of this. "If it's anyone's fault that we're here, it's mine. Or at least that you are. If I hadn't... with Angel... Kendra would never have died, and you wouldn't have been called."

"Oh, I see, you won't give me any pity because you're throwing your own pity party." Faith is grinning now, but Buffy is too tired to find it charming at the moment.

"Whatever, I'm ready for the dying in silence to start now." Buffy frowns and leans her head against the wall, closing her eyes, hoping that if she closes them long enough she'll wake up somewhere else.

"It's always about you, isn't it? It was a terrible idea when I wanted to die in silence, but now you're all about it." Faith seems to be trying to lighten the mood, in her own bizarre way.

"Right, I'm a princess. Everything is about me, of course. Just leave me alone."

"Kinda hard to do that, there's not a lot of entertainment in here."

"I don't think I have the energy to entertain you." Buffy lays down on the pad and curls up into a ball, her back turned to Faith. She begins to quietly sob. I've done so many things wrong. If I had tried harder to get to know her from the start, we wouldn't be here right now. She's shocked out of her thoughts by the presence of Faith laying down beside her, wrapping her arm tentatively around her.

"What are you doing?" Buffy finally manages to ask once she recovers from how good it feels to have Faith touch her in a non-battle to the death kind of way. The slayer bond they share, causing a pleasant buzzing sensation.

Faith

"I dunno, trying to comfort you, I guess?" Faith replies, very confused to realize she doesn't know what she's doing. "Sorry." She starts to pull away, but Buffy grabs her arm and stops her.

"No, please stay." Faith settles back down. "Thank you." The slayers lay in silence for a few moments.

"Did you really mean what you said.. about my equipment?" Buffy asks quietly.

Faith laughs and moves away. "Are you seriously asking me that right now? After everything? That's what you're wondering about?"

Buffy shrugs and rolls to her back. "You were always so flirty and touchy-feely... I just assumed that you might be into that sort of thing."

Faith sits up and leans against the wall, pulling her knees to her chest and looking down at Buffy. "I'm pretty sure being trapped in here has made you insane."

"Maybe, but what does it matter now? Why not just answer?"

"I thought we were working on dying in silence."

"It's taking too long." Buffy is pouting now, which Faith can't help but be amused by.

Should I tell her? Tell her that I'm not who she thinks I am? Faith blows out a breath and runs her hands through her hair. She's not ready to drop her carefully crafted bad girl persona, it's her armor against the world, and she still needs it. "I'm sure your equipment is just fine."

Buffy frowns but seems to accept this non-answer and rolls back onto her side facing the wall. After a few moments, she rolls onto her back again. Her arms crossed over her face, covering her eyes.

"I think I tried to let Angel kill me."

Faith's insides feel like they're on fire as Buffy's words sink in. She can't even manage to respond.

"I didn't try to stop him when he drank from me. I knew that I could stop him, but I didn't even try."

"Why would you do that?" Faith finally manages to whisper the words. Forcing them out, her brain a swirl of emotions that she's not ready to deal with.

"When I stabbed you… something happened. I felt like I'd lost something I needed, something that was part of me. I don't think I wanted to die. I just.. I don't know." Buffy frowned and turned back to the wall, curling herself into a ball.

Faith wants to say something, she just has no idea what to say. A thousand mean and snarky comments run through her mind, but she manages to keep them to herself. So not only did I try to kill the only guy who ever tried to help me, but I drove the chosen one to want to kill herself? That's just great. Faith frowns and pulls her legs even tighter to her chest. Burying her face in her knees. Memories and voices once again trying to remind her that she's worthless, that she can never do anything right, that no one could ever care about her.

"It's not your fault," Buffy says, briefly interrupting Faith's self-torment.

"How can you say that? Of course, it's my fault!"

"Ok - it's not entirely your fault." Buffy sits up against the wall, her legs stretched out in front of her. "If I wasn't so wrapped up in Angel, maybe things could have been better."

"You love him, kinda makes sense you were focused on him."

"He was going to leave right after we finished with the Mayor."

"Seriously? He was going to leave you?"

"He was, and I know it was for the best. There was no future for us."

"Do you really think it would have changed things that much if he wasn't around?" Could she be right? If Angel hadn't been around, if she hadn't been keeping so many secrets, would I have trusted her more?

"I don't know, guess it doesn't matter now." Buffy sighs and lays back down, once again facing the wall.

How could she possibly care that much about me? All the time we spent together she sure never gave any sign that she liked me, even as a friend. She could barely stand to be in the same room as me.

Eventually, Faith can hear Buffy's breath even out, she watches the slow rise and fall of Buffy's back as she breaths. Finding herself drawn to sleepiness, she moves to her earlier position and wraps an arm around the smaller slayer. Feeling Buffy sigh and snuggle into her. I guess if we're trapped down here, whatever this is is better than beating each other to death. She lets the connection that she refuses to believe in bring her comfort and slowly bring her to sleep.

"Um, guys?" The slayers are startled awake by the sound of Willow's voice.

They were still laying together, Faith's arm draped around Buffy, but now they on the floor of the high school library. Quickly they separate and jump to standing.

Buffy

"Willow! You pulled us out of there!" Buffy runs to Willow and hugs her tightly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry it took so long. It was really difficult to find you." Willow replies, she looks tired and not as happy to see her friend as Buffy would have expected.

"How long have we been gone?" Buffy asks.

"Three years," Willow whispers in response.

"Three years!" Buffy and Faith shout in unison.

"We have a lot to explain."

"I am so outta here." Faith turns to leave.

"You can't leave," Giles calls out to her.

"Are you going to stop me?" Faith's face takes a threatening step towards Giles. He has no reaction to her threat, only stands with his arms crossed over his chest.

"He means it literally, you can't leave this place. Feel free to try." Willow replies, there is no passion in her words.

Faith looks around the room and notices there are no doors. It looks like the library, but there are no exits she can see. In a huff, she crosses her arms and leans against the wall. Her face frozen in a scowl.

"Just let us explain what's going on, and then you can decide what you want to do," Willow says.

Faith crosses her arms and leans against the wall. "Fine, whatever. But if you think I'm letting the council or whoever take me without a fight, you're out of your minds."

Willow sighs deeply, "there is no council. There is no one left that is interested in 'taking you.' Just let us explain."

Faith looks like she's about to argue again, but she seems to decide now is not the time.

"Here, you two must be hungry." Giles tosses them each a dark green package.

"This is food?" Buffy asks cautiously.

"It's called an MRE. There's a complete meal in there." The pair take their pouches to the table and sit down, keeping a healthy distance between each other.

Faith tears into her package and begins examining the various pouches and packets. She quickly begins devouring the contents of each. Buffy watches her and can't help but grin at her behavior. She shakes her head and begins eating the contents of her own pouch slowly. She notices Faith has finished her meal and is staring greedily at the items Buffy hasn't touched yet.

Buffy tossed the remaining pouches to her and tried to stifle a laugh as Faith devoured the contents of those as well. Knowing that there are more important things to worry about right now, she took a deep breath and tried to be ready for what they were about to tell her. She knew none of it was going to be good news.

"Where are my mother and Xander?" Buffy asks, finally noticing only Giles and Willow are here.

"Your mother and Xander are both dead." Giles reply is cold, but Buffy doesn't notice his odd behavior.

Buffy's tears flow freely at this news. She's shocked when Faith reaches over to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. She worked to compose herself, she had to know more about what was going on. "What happened to them?"

"Let me explain what's been happening." Willow sits at the table across from the slayers. "Without any slayers, things got a little crazy. We were able to defeat most of what came at us, with the help of some new friends. About a year ago, something called the First evil showed up. We couldn't stop it. It opened the Hellmouth, and all sorts of evil creatures poured out from it. There was nothing we could do."

"Your mother died before the First came, she had an aneurysm. It was peaceful, at least, from what the doctors told us." Giles explained tersely.

Buffy only nodded, she couldn't process everything she was just told. It only felt like a week ago that her life was fine. This can't be happening, just a few dews ago I was graduating high school surrounded by my friends and family. Willow looks so worn down, I can't imagine how hard these years have been for her.

"Xander died fighting, we were taken by surprise. Even with all the training he had been doing, he had no chance."

"I thought the Hellmouth was under the library, how is it still standing?" Faith finally speaks up.

"We're not actually at the library." As Willow spoke, the illusion faded, and they were just in a plain white room. "We thought it would be less shocking to bring you into something familiar."

"So what's it like out there? Are there any humans left alive?" Faith had finished every scrap and crumb from the packages, she even ate the powdered drink mix. I can tell she wants to ask for another meal. I'd find this a lot funnier if it weren't for the apocalypse.

"There are some, the demons have been corralling them into camps whenever they're found. The ones that they don't just kill anyway."

"And these new friends you've made?" Faith asks, raising an eyebrow.

Willow sighs. "They're called the initiative. It's a government-funded program to fight demons. They started out terribly misguided at everything supernatural. But we were able to join forces with them and help them change their ways."

"So is that where we are? In some government facility?" Faith looks around nervously, not liking the idea of being trapped anywhere.

Willow nods.

"What about Angel, did I save him?" Buffy quietly asks.

"You saved him, but we don't know where he is. He left after things happened with the mayor, and we haven't had any contact since." Willow doesn't make eye contact as she answers. There is something they're not telling me.

"What exactly happened with the mayor?" Faith leans towards Willow, her posture threatening.

Willow glared back but was clearly not afraid of Faith. "None of that matters now."

"It matters to me! I need to know if he knew how to cure that poison and if it was him behind kidnapping us." Faith is raising her voice.

"We don't have answers you want. He never revealed his plans to us." Willow seems annoyed at having to answer Faith's questions. I know she didn't like her, but it has to be better to have two slayers back in the world. Yet she doesn't seem all that happy to see either of us.

Faith grunts and pushes away from the table.

Willow sighs and continues to explain the current state of things, "The evil we're dealing with now has taken over the entire world. It's non-corporeal and can appear as any person who's ever died. It seems to enjoy appearing randomly and tormenting us with people we've lost."

"Well, that's just great. Are there rooms for us here or something? Can I go now?" Faith moves away from the table, heading towards the now visible door.

"Yes, I'll show you the way." Giles walks out with Faith, leaving Buffy and Willow alone.

"It's all my fault." Buffy covers her hands with her face.

"What? How is any of it your fault?" Willow sits down next to Buffy, showing her first sign of any emotion, even it was only confusion.

"If I had handled things differently, they never would have captured us. We would have been here. You could have been off in Oxford or wherever, instead of stuck in Sunnydale, having to fight my battles."

"Buffy, none of it is your fault. We've all made mistakes. You can't blame yourself for this." Buffy searches her friend's eyes. The words seem to match what she thinks Willow would say, but the facial expression doesn't.