Buffy

Buffy is roaming around the compound, looking for some way to reach the lower level. She wanted to bring Faith with her but was afraid of Willow thinking they were getting along. She had waited until she thought Willow had gone to sleep before starting her adventure. Checking all the doors she passes, hoping to find one unlocked, thinking one of them had to have a way to get to the lower level. So far none have them have revealed anything useful.

"Buffy?" Buffy is startled at hearing her name but relieved to see Tara behind her.

"Hey, Tara. What's up?" She's hoping to sound nonchalant, and not like she's been sneaking around trying to get into areas that maybe she shouldn't be.

"Just heading to the library, what are you doing?"

"Just going trying to burn off some excess slayer energy." Buffy looks at Tara thoughtfully, "How come I never see you and Willow together? Is everything ok?"

Tara's posture changes, her normally open happy expression is now nervous, "I don't know what you mean, everything is fine." Tara stutters her words out, and her brow is furrowed.

"You have to see something weird is going on here. The soldiers are all wearing those medallions, and Willow doesn't seem to want me to leave."

"Those medallions are just to protect them from the first."

"Then why don't you or I have one?"

"I don't know…" Tara's face contorts in confusion. "What are you trying to say?"

"I think Willow is up to something. She wants to kick Faith out. I know they never got along, but it seems like she's trying to keep us apart for some reason." Buffy is starting to feel bad about pushing the issue, but she has to find out if Tara knows anything.

Tara beings rubbing her temples and moaning slightly, "Tara? Are you ok?" Buffy moves closer and reaches Tara just before her knees go out, and she starts to crumble to the ground. Buffy is still holding her up when she feels a powerful blast of energy push her away, knocking her painfully into the wall. She quickly regains her feet.

"What did you do to her!?" Willow is now by Tara's side, holding her up and glaring at Buffy.

"I didn't do anything, she just fainted, I think."

"You must have done something!" Willow is helping Tara to her feet and helping her down the hall in a direction away from their room.

Buffy moves to follow but finds she can't get any closer to them. Willow glares over her shoulder. "Just stay away from her!" With that shout, Buffy finds herself thrown again, crashing to the ground. It takes her a bit longer to stand up this time. When she finally does, the pair of witches are nowhere to be seen.

What the hell was that? Buffy turns back towards her room, rubbing her back where she crashed into the wall. As soon as she enters, she feels strong arms restrain her from behind, one covering her mouth, preventing her from speaking. She knows who those arms belong to and she doesn't resist, lets herself be guided into the bathroom and watches as Faith turns the shower on, Buffy guesses to prevent anyone from overhearing them.

Faith

"Wha.." Faith once again covers Buffy's mouth, preventing her from speaking.

Faith leans in close, intent on whispering into Buffy's ear. When she gets close, she feels Buffy shudder, and she loses track of herself. Instead of saying what she needed to say she found herself leaning into Buffy, breathing her scent in. Buffy's hands were on her hips, pulling her close. "Please," Buffy whispered into her ear, warm breath scorching Faith's check.

She groaned and pushed herself away, closing her eyes and taking calming breaths. Shaking her head, unable to look at Buffy. This was a mistake, I shouldn't have come in here. I can't let her think there's something between us when there isn't. Buffy moves closer, "Can I just say one thing?" Faith nods slightly, eyes still tightly closed.

Instead of speaking, Buffy kissed Faith with all she had. It was gentle, but it was deep and filled with meaning. It was soft and perfect, knocking all of Faith's plans out of her head as she returned the kiss against her better judgment. We can't be doing this. I don't know what she's thinking. There is an apocalypse that we have to stop!

"Fuck." Faith took a deep breath and pushed herself away again. "You make a good point, but we can't. I have to tell you something, and when I do…" She can't bring herself to say what she knows will happen.

"Are you here to tell me you're here to stop Willow? Cause if so, I'm in."

"What?" Faith is completely shocked that Buffy already seems to be willing to go against Willow.

"She's not the Willow I once knew, I think… I think she's up to something."

"Giles and Angelus aren't exactly sure what she is planning, but they said she has to be stopped."

"You saw Giles? He's working with Angelus?"

"It gets crazier. They're both working with the First. I wish I could explain more, but I don't know if it's safe. They gave me those pouches to protect us from Willow's magic. It must not work all that well since she was able to make me hit you." Faith shrugged and tried to hide how upset she was that she had punched Buffy in the face - even if it wasn't on purpose.

"You should have seen what she just did to me." Buffy frowns, rubbing her back once again.

"She hurt you?" Faith is confused by how upset she is that Willow hurt Buffy. Her insides churned at the thought of what might have happened.

"She thought I did something to Tara. She threw me around with her magic like I was a ragdoll."

Buffy frowns, the two slayers are as close as they dare be. Speaking as low as possible, hoping their slayer hearing is more advanced than whatever surveillance Willow might have in place.

"Tara? Willow's girlfriend?"

"Have you met her?"

"Met her? She's dead."

"Dead? Are you sure? She seemed very much alive when I was talking to her earlier." Buffy's shock at the news caused her to back away and raise her voice.

Faith pressed a finger to Buffy's lips, trying to quiet her.

There is a pounding on Buffy's door and then crashing sounds as the door is forced open. The slayers don't even have a chance to move before the bathroom door is ripped open and Faith is being dragged away. "What are you doing!? Let her go!" Buffy screams at the men who are using their much larger bodies to block her access to Faith.

"We're under orders to lock this one up. Don't get in the way. We don't want to hurt you."

Faith lets out a furious roar and smashes the soldier holding her in the nose with the back of her head. He drops to the ground and blood gushes from his face. She kicks out at the next one before he can grab her and in a flash, she's running out of the room and down the hall.

Fuck, Fuck, FUCK! Now, what am I going to do? I have to get out of here, they told me there was another way in and out of here, I just have to remember what it is. I should have paid more attention.

She remembers something about 314, as she passes a door that says 232. She explored a little but had never seen a way to go down a level. The numbers on the doors are going down, so she hopes she's going in the right direction. The sound of clomping footsteps is fast approaching. She needs to make a move and fast.

Room 214 is on the right, and she tests the handle, locked. It's not a particularly robust door though, and the lock yields as she pushes against it. She quickly but quietly shuts the door and looks for anything to keep it closed behind her. Grabbing a chair, she jams it under the handle, hoping that will make it seem like the door is still locked. The room appears to be a small exam room. She doesn't want to turn on the light, but enough passes under the door that she can see the room with her slayer vision. There are only a desk and a medical bed. The walls are all made of concrete, and there are no visible openings in any of them. The floor, however, is a raised tile floor.

The sounds of footsteps reach the door but continue past. Nobody seems to have realized she came in here. She takes a moment to breathe a sigh of relief and kneels down, looking for a way to lift one of the tiles. One of them is designed to be a vent, and she is able to wedge a finger in one of the holes and lift it. She peers under the floor and doesn't see much. There's a crawl space about two feet high. It goes in all directions, further than her slayer enhanced vision is allowing her to see. The footsteps are approaching again, and she knows it's now or never. Even if she can't figure out how to get down a level, she should be able to move to any other room from here. She slides under the floor and carefully replaces the tile.

Moving as quickly as she can, she scurries to the back of the room, as far from the door and hallway as possible. Maybe I should go back to get B? I can't let anything happen to her. Faith frowns and closes her eyes.

"Where did she go!" Faith can hear Willow yelling at the soldiers above as she quietly shimmies her way back to Buffy's room.

"We can't find her. She seems to have disappeared."

"That's not possible, keep searching. You two go get the other one and lock her up." Willow's voice is harsh and sends chills down Faith's spine.

There's no way I can get to her before they do, I'll just have to find a way to break her out. They better not hurt her. Faith lay motionless, reaching out and trying to sense where Buffy was.

Buffy

Buffy was still being contained by several soldiers when new ones showed up. "Come with us."

"Why? What is going on? Where is Faith?"

The soldiers don't answer. They simply grab for her. She ducks under their reach and runs in the direction she thinks Faith went. Before she can make it very far, a sharp pain shoots through her body, and she's dropped to the ground.

She wakes up holding her aching head. What happened? Where am I? She examines her surroundings. It's eerily similar to the cell she and Faith had been contained in. It's completely white with no visible openings anywhere. The dimensions are not the same, this room is much narrower with lower ceilings. Reaching out with her senses, she can feel a vampire nearby. They must have me in one of those cells near Spike. She reaches out further, hoping to feel Faith. Surprised when she can feel her under the floor.

She lays down and puts her ear to the ground. "Faith?"

"I'm here, trying to find a way to get you out of there."

"How are you under the floor?"

"There's a crawlspace, but I can't seem to get through into your cell. You shouldn't talk too much. They might be watching you." Buffy groans and lays down on the floor.

"I could just be a crazy person who talks to themselves."

Faith chuckles, "I found a way down a level, I think I can get us out of here. Can you get out of the room you're in?"

"I don't think I can. You should just go, I can't imagine what Willow will do to you if she finds you."

Faith is silent for a moment. "I'm not leaving you here. I will find a way to get you out."

The panel to Buffy's cell slides open before Buffy can push the issue further.

"Willow!" Buffy jumps to her feet, prepared to fight, but knowing she had very little chance if Willow decided to throw her around again.

Willow laughed at the defensive stance. "I'm not here to fight you. There'd be no point." Buffy gasps at the sight of her friend. Her usually fair skin is even paler than before, blue veins are showing through her almost translucent skin.

"Why are you doing this?"

Willow sighs, all pretense is gone from her. Her posture is completely different, her hair is so violently dark red that it is almost black, her eyes are shimmering with flecks of red and black. There is virtually no resemblance to the Willow that Buffy once knew and loved. "It's all your fault. Yours and Faith's, of course. If you two hadn't screwed everything up, then none of this would be happening."

"It's not like we planned to get trapped in another dimension."

"No, I suppose you didn't. Doesn't matter though. Things are how they are because I tried to save you. So you're going to help me get the one thing I care about in this world back."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to trade you for Tara. You're going to do it willingly, you owe me." Her voice is harsh. Buffy can almost feel them stabbing into her.

"What? What does that even mean? Why do I need to be traded for Tara?"

"It's your fault she's dead, your fault we can't be together." Willow's rage is evident, the energy in the room is charged. Buffy's skin is tingling, but she can't move, nothing she can do to fight it. Willow slams her into the ceiling and drops her to the floor. Buffy tries to rise, but her body won't respond. Her body raises against her will, hovering a foot off the ground. Willow slams her into the wall again with a wave of her finger. Buffy crashes into the wall, unable to do anything to protect herself from the impact.