Faith

The slayers walked side by side from the surveillance room to head to the dining hall. Faith was starting to lose control of the emotions she could feel from Buffy, having a difficult time discerning which ones were her own. They were almost to their destination when Faith suddenly found herself pinning Buffy to the wall and kissing her deeply, Buffy eagerly returning the kiss. After a few moments, Faith broke the kiss but did not move her body away.

"Not that I'm complaining, believe me, I am not… but what is this about?" Buffy asked once she recovered her breath.

"Sorry, I don't know… Tara did something…" Why did I do that? I didn't mean to do that! Faith warred with herself internally. It felt so good though. It still does, her body against mine. It feels so right, so perfect.

"You don't ever have to apologize for kissing me." Buffy grinned, her hands were on Faith's hips, holding her securely close. Faith was leaning heavily against her. "What did Tara do to you?"

"Maybe she didn't do anything exactly, she just said I could tap into the energy between us, and somehow I did, but now I can't shut it off."

"I was hoping she'd get a chance to show us how to do that. Do you know how you did it?"

"I'm not sure. I just tried remembering what she showed us and opened myself to our slayer connection, and I could feel you when you were in your room. It became more than just the usual tingles letting me know where you were. I could feel what you were feeling."

Buffy pouted for a second, "So is this about what I'm feeling or about what you are?"

"I don't know." Faith frowned.

"Oh." Buffy released her grip on Faith and pushed her away gently.

Buffy

Faith backed to the other wall of the hallway and leaned against it. Buffy closed her eyes and tried to open her connection to Faith. Remembering what the swirling energy looked like, imagining she could still see it. Something started to change. She could feel Faith's emotions. There was an undercurrent of confusion and desire. But fear was the strongest thing she felt.

Buffy blinked back tears, "What are you so afraid of?" The words were barely a whisper.

"I don't even know." Faith confessed.

Their discussion was disrupted by the sound of a scream.

"Willow!" The slayers quickly broke apart and ran towards Willow's room. Opening the door without knocking.

"She's gone." Willow didn't even seem to notice them at first. She was sitting upright on the bed. Her knees pulled to her chest. She was rocking and repeating the phrase over and over, tears streaming down her face. Buffy quickly moved to her side and wrapped her in a hug. The contact shocked Willow out of her stupor. "Buffy? What? You're here… what happened?" She sees Faith in the doorway, and her eyes widen for a second and then calm. She looks down at the paper in her hand. "It's real. Everything she said was real."

Buffy can hear the thundering of footfalls in the hallway. Four large uniformed soldiers appeared in the doorway. "You're coming with us." The lead man says, entering the room.

"Like fucking hell, she is." Faith jumps in the path and pushes the man back. He crashes into the other three knocking them all into the hallway.

"She's too dangerous to be free!" The man shouts and attempts to push past Faith again, only to be met with the same reaction. The man scowled at the small woman in front of him, not comprehending how she could be so much stronger than him.

"Where is Riley?" Buffy asks, "isn't he in charge here still?"

The leader crosses his arms over his chest and reluctantly nods. The yelling and crashing attracted more soldiers who were all crowded in the doorway attempting to understand what was happening. They made space for Riley once he arrived, waiting and hoping they would get a chance to exact justice on the witch.

"You have to let us take her. She's dangerous." Riley says as he enters.

"She's not dangerous anymore." Faith replies.

"How do you know that?" He narrows his eyes at Faith. Buffy could feel the confidence oozing out of her, and maybe a hint of something else. Is she jealous of Riley? Why on earth would she be jealous of him?

"You all not being piles of glop on the floor right now, is one clue." Faith answers, keeping herself between Willow and the soldiers.

"You weren't here. You don't know what she did! We are taking her, and you can't stop us!" Riley is in Faith's face. Faith is not at all intimidated by his posturing. She has a casual smirk, her arms folded over her chest, as if there isn't a man twice her size threatening her with bodily harm and shouting at her.

"She doesn't even know what she did. Just like she was controlling you, something was controlling her. Locking her up isn't going to make anything better." Buffy insists. Riley's face softens as he looks at the very distressed witch.

"How about she stays in here unless one of us is with her? You can post guards out there or whatever." Faith offers.

Riley grunted and turned away, clearly not happy about how this encounter went. "You have to let us do something!" The original guard yelled at Riley as he tried to leave the room.

"Do I? Either she's still evil, and she kills you where you stand, or she's good again, and you're going to punish an innocent girl." Riley held his ground, "Which one of those options do you prefer?" The man looked away, disappointment evident on his face. The soldiers were dispersing now, hearing what Riley had said and understanding the truth of it. Giles was finally able to push past the soldiers and make his way into the room. He closed the door behind him.

He cautiously examined Willow and the slayers. "How is she?"

"It's hard to tell. She hasn't said much." It's now that Buffy sees the letter clutched tightly in Willow's hand. She gently pried and free and examined it. Scanning the contents, she handed it to Giles. Giles read it just as quickly and handed it to Faith.

"Trust Faith and Buffy. I'll always love you. - Tara" Faith grunted and looked at her feet. Buffy could feel the confusion and embarrassment Faith was feeling at being included in the note. She did her best to push supportive, positive feelings through their connection. Delighted when she could tell it was working, Faith shoulders pulled back, and a small smile reaches her lips.

"Willow?" Giles called out cautiously.

Willow looked up at the sound of his voice with confusion. "Giles? What happened? What did I do?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was searching for Buffy. I had found this spell it was supposed to find her and bring her back." She pouted, looking down at her hands in confusion. "Did it work? It must have! You're here!" Willow lit up and finally noticed that Buffy was holding her and returned the embrace.

"It didn't exactly work as you think." Giles frowned.

"What did happen?" Buffy asks, afraid to learn the answer.

"I don't know, I'm afraid. I wasn't there. I had returned to England. I didn't even know she was still trying to find you."

Buffy's face fell. She had assumed Giles had been working with Willow. Hearing that he must have given up on her was devastating. Faith was by her side as soon as the feelings began to overwhelm her. Wrapping her arms around Buffy and Willow while giving Giles a scathing look. "You gave up trying to find her? How could you do that?"

"I didn't give up! I was working with a coven in England. They were trying to find you. Had I know Willow was trying too we could have worked together. Maybe…" He trails off, rubbing his brow in frustration.

"You left Willow alone to protect the Hellmouth?" Buffy's voice is soft, trying to believe that he didn't give up on finding her, but still upset that he could have left Willow alone.

"It wasn't his fault. Once you were gone, things were hard. We grew apart. I was so sure of myself and my magic. I wouldn't have listened to him anyway." Willow moves to sit more upright, pulling herself out of Buffy's grip.

Giles

Giles moves to sit at the desk, suddenly feeling very tired. He looks at the trio on the bed, wondering how this could be happening. He was grateful to have Buffy back. He was less sure about Faith. Though Faith hadn't shown any signs of being anything other than upstanding. It was curious how different Faith appeared to be. He was shocked to see that not only was she comforting Buffy, but that Buffy was accepting that comfort, almost seemed to need it.

Nobody knew what happened to them the night they both disappeared. Since no new slayer had been called, they believed that they were both still alive. They had assumed that Faith had done something terrible to Buffy. They just had no idea what it could have been. Angel had been saved, so they knew he had fed from at least one of them, they just couldn't imagine how the events took place. Angel seemed to think it was Buffy he had fed from, but he was so distraught he was not making a lot of sense when he tried to explain what happened. They had lost touch shortly after, and when he returned as Angelus, there did not seem to be much point in trying to get an explanation. He should have asked Faith about it, but he didn't trust her to be truthful about what happened.

"What happened to you two? Where have you been?" Giles asks.

The slayers exchanged a nervous glance and Faith released her grip, backing away slightly but not moving from the bed. Her face was tight, and she gripped her hands in her lap.

Buffy sighed deeply before answering, "We fought, I stabbed her, she got away. I went to Angel, and he drank from me. The next thing I remember is waking up in a weird cell with Faith. After what only seemed like a few days, we woke up here with Willow, telling us three years had passed."

Giles' eyes went wide with shock at the information. Buffy stabbed Faith? How could I have let that happen? If what they say is true, how are they so friendly? Only a few days have passed after attempting to kill each other. There must be more they're saying.

"But…" He started.

Willow

"Why are you two so close?" Willow snaps, suddenly becoming aware of the fact that Faith had been holding Buffy and even more alarming was that Buffy didn't seem to mind. Her last memories of Faith were not good, and she had spent all this time being sure that Faith had done something terrible to Buffy. She was not at all ready to let her anger and hatred of the dark slayer go. It was much easier to focus on hating Faith than it was to think about all the mistakes she'd made herself.

"Being trapped in that cell finally gave us a chance to talk to each other. Then when we got here, Tara helped us tap into our slayer connection."

"Tara?" Willow scrunched her face in confusion. "How…" Willow's eyes widen in shock. She could suddenly see the slayers' auras. It was completely overwhelming, and she didn't understand what she was seeing. She jumped from the bed, keeping her eyes locked on the space surrounding the slayers.

"What just happened? Are you ok?" Buffy looks up.

"I can see… oh… Tara." Willow's heart ached, and she slumped to the ground, her legs failing her. Covering her face with her hands and crying uncontrollably. Tara was dead long before they got here. What did I do? Did I resurrect her? Oh goddess! I couldn't have! No! What did I do?

"Did you get her magic? You can see our auras now?" Buffy moved to Willow's side again, holding her closely.

Willow nodded sadly.

"What are we going to do now? There has to be something we can do about all this." Faith jumps up from the bed and begins pacing. Willow can feel the agitation rolling off of her in waves. Is this what Tara felt all the time? How did she manage to keep everyone's emotions separated from her own? I should have tried to understand more about what she saw. Another wave of grief struck her, remembering all the mistakes she made even before Tara was killed. Knowing there was nothing she could do to undo all the damage she had done. She curled herself into Buffy's arms, too weak and broken to do anything else.

Buffy picked Willow up and placed her back on the bed. Buffy turned to Faith and Willow could see a push of vibrant colors emanating from Buffy and reaching for Faith.

"Stop doing that!" Faith yelled at Buffy, which made everyone in the room jump.

"Sorry... I didn't mean…" Buffy frowned and backed away. Faith groaned and rolled her eyes, fists balled up at her sides.

Faith took a few calming breaths, "I know you were just trying to help, I'm just not used to this."

Willow watched the exchange with confusion. She could see the swirling energies between the two slayers but did not yet understand what they meant. She didn't see anywhere near the intensity of energy surrounding Giles. Whether that was due to him not being magical or something else, she had no way of knowing. She had focused all her magical studies on finding Buffy. No matter how much Tara tried to reach her and get her to learn more about magic, she just wouldn't listen.

"The first thing we need to do is figure out how to close the Hellmouth." Giles offers, apparently ignoring the curious exchange between the two slayers. "I have been researching for many months on ways to do this, and I have a few ideas. With Willow's help, it may now be possible."

"What do you need? What can we do?" Faith's nervous energy seemed to fade with the prospect of actually being able to take action.

Willow narrowed her eyes, a thought occurring to her. Tara's note said to trust Buffy and Faith. She did not mention Giles. She focused her attention on the energy around Giles and noting the differences between his and the slayers. It was far less intense, but it was also less organic and natural. The hues also seemed to be darker. She didn't have enough information to decide what any of it meant, but she decided she would be cautious of Giles and anything he suggested until she learned more.

She suddenly felt exhausted. "I need to rest."

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Buffy offered.

"No, I just need some time."

"Can you mojo the door, make sure those soldiers don't mess with you?"

Willow nodded and motioned for them to leave. Once she was alone, she whispered a quick passage, the door glowed lightly for a second. No one would be able to enter without her permission. She sighed and dropped to the floor. Curling into a ball and letting her exhaustion and sadness overtake her.