Faith
Faith slowly poked around Spike's crypt. Buffy had wanted her to wait until she was done with work, but she couldn't just sit around the house. She had to do something to feel useful, to maybe find out why Spike had attacked Buffy. The moment replayed over and over for her. She was holding him with the stake to his chest - with no intention of staking him. Then he pulled her closer and looked into her eyes, she thought she could see sorrow and misery in them - then he was gone. She had been too shocked to react in time to will her weapon away.
Nothing in all the nights they spent patrolling together had he done or said anything to make her question him. But there had to be something. If he was in on whatever the First Evil had plotted for me, I should have seen something.
She kicked at the couch in frustration, before dropping onto it. Spike's crypt was practically bare. There were a few empty bottles of whiskey and a few crumpled packs of cigarettes, but nothing else. She had never spent much time in his crypt, but she didn't remember it being quite this empty.
"Find anything?"
The sound of Buffy's voice from the open doorway almost made her jump out of her skin. "Nah, doesn't seem to be anything here at all." Faith frowned and wrapped her arms around her midsection. Faith was struggling with her feelings, feeling a bit lost - which is something she hadn't had to deal with in a long time. She knew she completely had Buffy's love and support, but she still felt unsettled by everything that was happening.
Buffy let out a small scoff as she entered the crypt, Faith watched as she examined the area as if she didn't believe Faith really searched. "Do you remember seeing him last week?"
Faith frowned, not wanting to think about last week - but needing to make sure that she didn't miss something. "Not really... just that one time in Willy's."
"But he was following you. He saved you. How could you not remember seeing him?" Buffy argued back.
Faith ran her fingers through her hair. Searching through everything that happened, she couldn't think of any time she had seen Spike. "I don't remember seeing him."
Buffy scoffed again, a little louder this time. "Or you just don't want to tell me the truth."
Faith went through a range of emotions before she finally realized what was happening. The thing in here with her - was not Buffy. She was annoyed with herself for not realizing it immediately. "I don't know what you want me to tell you. I don't remember seeing him."
"You look pretty comfy in here, maybe all those late nights you were supposedly patrolling with him - you were really here instead?"
Faith knew it wasn't Buffy, but the accusation still stung. She let her face and posture show the shame she was feeling.
Buffy grinned, "I didn't want to believe it, I thought we had something real - but your mother was right about you wasn't she? You give yourself away to anyone. Even a lifeless vampire!"
Faith growled and stood up, her fists clenched at her side.
"That's right, give in to the anger. Show me who you really are!" Buffy leered at her, looking supremely confident.
Faith immediately softened at seeing the triumph in Buffy's face, "damn."
"What's the matter, Faith? Can't handle the truth?"
"Nah, just wish I was a better liar. I wanted to play along with you a bit longer, see if I could get you to tell me something useful."
Buffy sputtered, "what are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?"
"Probably," Faith took the stake out of her pocket and tossed it at Buffy, a wry grin forming as it passed right through her to clank to the ground.
Buffy roared, "how did you know!?"
Faith stood with her arms crossed and watched the fury on the First's face.
"Faith? Are you OK?" The real Buffy was in the crypt now, in her terrible Doublemeat Palace uniform. She ran to Faith and wrapped her in a hug.
"Yeah, B. I'm fine. Sorry, I made you come down here."
"Don't be sorry, what happened? Did you find something?"
Faith nodded her head towards the First, who was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and a very smug look on her face. It really disturbed Faith to see Buffy looking at her that way. "Got a visitor I wasn't expecting."
Buffy turned to look, "umm... what?"
"You don't see it?"
The apparition of Buffy grinned a nasty, toothy grin, a look that Faith didn't think was possible with Buffy's face. "What's the matter, Faith? Starting to doubt yourself?"
The Buffy in her arms pulled her tighter, "no, I don't see anything."
"Well, that's just great." Faith shook her head and ignored the taunting of the First, "I didn't find anything in here. It looks like someone cleaned it out."
Buffy's eyes swept over the barren area, "hmm. Where do you think he slept?"
"Maybe in there?" Faith and Buffy walked over to a large cement coffin. They pushed at the lid, surprised when the entire thing shifted to reveal a hole with a ladder.
The First was screaming at Faith now, but Faith ignored it. She considered telling it to shut up but didn't want to give it the satisfaction of knowing how annoying it was.
"This is disturbing." Buffy let out a gasp, Faith dropped down next to her and shuddered.
"Damn. Where did he get all this stuff? How did I have no idea!?" The cavern walls were covered with pictures of Faith. There was even a dummy wearing Faith's clothes with a brown wig. There were pictures of her from all over town, at work, shopping, and even at home in the yard. It was a small relief that none were from inside the house.
"A lot of these pictures are during the day... how did he take them?"
"David, maybe? He was probably part of whoever was watching me before." Faith shivered as she imagined how people have been following her around all this time.
"Is that thing down here with us?" Buffy asked, taking a step closer to Faith.
"Yeah, it seems to think I care what it has to say."
"We should just get out of here."
Faith shook her head, "let's grab as much of this as we can." Faith considered taking her clothes off the dummy but immediately dismissed that idea. The slayers picked up anything that had writing. Buffy pulled down all the pictures of Faith and added them to their growing pile. "We don't really need those do we?"
"No... but I don't want to leave them here, and maybe there will be something to tell us who took them. If there's anyone else involved, we need to know."
"Yeah, OK." Faith was digging around next to Spike's bed when she found three full vials of blood and two empty ones. She groaned and then added them to what they were taking.
"You know you can't stop me. You can't get rid of me. There's nothing you can do, no where you can go that I can't get to. I will eventually break free, I will kill everyone you care about, and there is nothing you can do about it." The First smirked at Faith, who stared through her and didn't visibly react at all to its words.
"Think we got everything?" At Buffy's nod, Faith helped her up through the opening and handed Buffy their haul. She took one last look around the cavern and shook her head before climbing out.
They loaded everything into the car and climbed in. "Do you need to go back to work?"
Buffy shook her head, "told them I had a family emergency and that I wasn't coming back."
"Are you sure?" Faith was relieved, she really didn't want to be alone right now - but she didn't want to be obvious about how unsettled she was until the First finally left her alone.
Buffy smiled and caressed Faith's cheek, "I'm sure. We've got a lot to go over, and that place is kinda awful." Buffy was washing her with her love and support, pushing the emotions over their connection. All of her insecurities were driven away as she felt it.
She started the car, and as soon as it began to move, she could no longer see or hear the First. "Thank god." She pushed out a breath, and her body finally relaxed, she didn't even realize how tense she had been before.
"It's gone?" Faith nodded, trying to keep herself together enough to not crash the car. "Who was it? What did it say?"
"You, of course. It didn't say a whole lot, I tried to keep up the charade once I knew it wasn't you - but I didn't last very long."
Buffy sighed, Faith could see out of the corner of her eye that Buffy's face was scrunched up. "I understand if you don't want to tell me, but I felt what it did to you."
Faith silently cursed herself, she had been working on not shielding so much from Buffy, and she had been taken off guard. "I'm sorry you had to feel that. Really, I'm OK."
Buffy stiffened, "do you... resent me for not being better at shielding my emotions from you?"
"Where the hell did that come from? Of course not. I love knowing what you're feeling and being able to help you with whatever is stressing you out."
Buffy let out a little chuckle, and then Faith smacked her forehead. "Ok, so I'm kinda dumb sometimes."
"You're not dumb. I know you still struggle with believing people feel the same way about you, that you do about them."
"Seems like I should be over it by now." Faith frowned and tried to focus on driving and not feeling bad for herself.
"I'm not sure it's something you can just get over. It takes time."
Faith held her breath for a second before they turned down Revello drive. "It wasn't so much what it said. I was sitting there, feeling like an idiot for not knowing something was up with Spike. I went there, hoping to find some kind of answer to make it make sense. When it was empty, I just kept replaying last night over and over, trying to understand how he looked so sad when he staked himself. Trying to understand why I wasn't fast enough to stop him."
Faith pulled into the driveway and turned the car off, taking a quick look around to make sure the First hadn't reappeared. "Then that thing showed up and accused me of knowing more about Spike than I admitted." She paused for a deep breath. "She accused me of having sex with him, even before last week."
Buffy giggled, and Faith gave her an incredulous look. "Oh, god, I'm sorry. Nothing about that was funny. Just... the idea that you could have been with Spike - it's a little absurd. I mean, I know he was obsessed with you, but still..." Faith couldn't figure out what she felt about Buffy's reaction.
"That wasn't really the part that bothered me," Faith frowned and looked down at her hands.
"I'm not off to a good start with this being supportive thing, but let me try again?" Buffy turned Faith's face gently, "nobody had any idea what Spike was up to. Please don't blame yourself for that. We all spent tons of time with him, and maybe you spent more - but I never saw anything at all that made me even slightly question him. It was always a little annoying how crazy he was about you, but everyone is crazy about you - so I've learned to just ignore that."
"You knew he was obsessed with me before we found that stuff? Why didn't you ever say anything?"
"I didn't know it was obsession level until today." Buffy paused, "Faith... pretty much everyone who meets you is into you. If I pointed it out every time, I'd drive us both crazy."
"That's not true. Not everyone..."
Buffy smiled, "no, not everyone. Mostly everyone. And you never even seem to notice, so I don't let it bother me - not anymore anyway."
Faith frowned harder.
"Look, this isn't really the point. The point is that you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't make a mistake. Last week, you could have caused so much damage. You could have done anything you wanted. And what you wanted to do, was kill demons and hide out in our bedroom when you didn't think I was there."
"You knew I was doing that?" Faith had been sure she hadn't been caught hiding out in their room.
Buffy nodded, "whatever they were trying to get you to do, you didn't do it. Because even though they used magic on you to try and break you, you didn't break. The you that's you is stronger than anyone I've ever known. The First is after you because it knows you can beat it, and it's terrified of you."
Faith melted into what Buffy was saying and sending her over their connection.
Buffy smiled and kissed Faith. Faith was now seeing how useful it could be to share her emotions more fully with Buffy. Sure, she would have worked through this on her own eventually, but this way was definitely better. She even got to feel the added benefit of Buffy being happier for helping her.
"Willow and Tara should be here soon. Hopefully, something in what we brought will make sense to them."
They were grabbing the items they had collected from Spike's as a car pulled up behind them, Faith figured it was Willow and Tara and didn't turn around until she was tapped on the shoulder. The panic and fear that assaulted her almost brought her to her knees.
"Faith? What..." Buffy's voice caught in her throat at the sign of the uniformed officer standing in front of them.
"I really need to talk to you." The officer said and motioned towards the house, "can we go inside?"
"What's this about?" Buffy asked and put herself between the cop and Faith. Faith could barely form thoughts, nevermind find the strength to explain why she was so panicked.
"I'm not here to cause trouble. I just want to make sure everything is OK... that you won't be after me too."
"What are you talking about?"
Things began to coalesce in Faith's mind, and she was able to calm. "It's OK, B. Let's get inside, see what he has to say." She put what she was carrying back into the trunk, not wanting this man to see it.
The cop held his hat in his hand and shuffled nervously in the living room. "Look - David... he made me follow you around. I didn't want to do it, but I had no choice. Now he's gone... so you don't have to worry about me anymore."
"Why did he have you following me?" Faith crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to look intimidating.
"I don't know. I swear. He never told me anything. After what I saw... I thought all that stuff about magic and demons was ridiculous... but what they did to him... " The cop was clearly terrified and looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.
"What did you see?"
"I don't even know. David called me to pick him up, but I guess I took too long. There were these things.. and they... They ripped him apart." The man was shaking as he explained.
"We're not going to come after you." Faith felt kinda bad for the guy, he may not have been her favorite person, but he seemed pretty genuinely freaked out.
The man sighed deeply. "Thank you. And don't worry about the investigation. Some people saw you together the night that David disappeared, but I took care of it."
Faith stood stoically, not quite sure what the right play was. Did the cop think Faith sent the demons to kill David? If he was going to protect her, maybe she shouldn't care what he thought. It could be better for them that he was afraid of her.
"Well, thank you for telling us about this. And you don't have to worry. We're not interested in hurting you." Buffy said after a few moments of nervous silence.
The cop turned and ran from the house.
"Faith?"
"That was the guy that kidnapped me, the first time."
Buffy's eyes widened, and her anger assaulted Faith. "Why did we just let him go?"
"He... was kinda nice, I guess. He didn't hurt me -when he easily could have... and it seemed like he was just scared of David. Besides, he's human. What can we do?"
Buffy huffed, "can we trust him that the police won't come after you?"
Faith frowned and shook her head, "I don't know."
"We'll get through it, whatever happens." Buffy hugged Faith and kissed her. "We'll get through it, together."
Faith smiled and nodded, "let's go get the stuff from Spike's. At least now we know who was taking those pictures."
They were spreading everything out on the table as Willow and Tara showed up. They gave them a rundown of everything that had happened during their visit to Spike's.
"Most of this is...poetry." Tara grimaced as she read through the stack of papers they'd found. "I think it's about Faith."
"That's probably not helpful." Buffy and Faith both shivered. It seriously creeped Faith out that she had no idea that Spike was so obsessed with her.
"We did find something in those letters." Willow chimed in. "We know what David was going to do with your blood."
"Oh?" Faith was excited to maybe be finding something useful out finally.
"Human blood affects the Hellmouth and can be used to link the First Evil to someone. Depending on the ritual, and the subject of the sacrifice, different things can happen."
"Great, so that's probably why I'm the only one it's harassing?" Faith rolled her eyes. The First was quite possibly the most annoying thing that had ever existed. She was somewhat relieved to think it was only annoying her. She didn't want anyone, especially Buffy, to have to deal with seeing the First's version of her.
"We can't know for sure, but that could explain it. Is it here now?" Willow glanced around the room, even though she wouldn't be able to see it.
Faith looked over to the corner, "it hasn't shut up. Telling us how we're never going to stop it. blah blah blah."
The First as Buffy glowered at Faith. Faith was almost enjoying how annoyed it would get that she was ignoring it. She just hoped she could keep this up while they figured out some way to get rid of it. At the least, she wanted to come up with some way to convince it to stop appearing as Buffy.
xxxxx
Shortly after the trip to Boston, potentials began showing up in Sunnydale, and the Summers' home was quickly overrun. They decided to take over Angel's old mansion as their base of operations. Buffy, Faith, Dawn, Willow, and Tara staying at Revello drive to catch any new potentials who arrived and to keep some level of normalcy in their lives.
It had become a massive operation. An army of forty potential slayers, three full slayers, five witches, and ten watchers training constantly. Faith's new found wealth and support from the council providing everything they needed. They had given the watchers all the material they had collected, but they aren't able to come up with any information beyond what they had already figured out.
The First had been relentless, sending its bringers to attack, he seemed to have an unending supply of them. Every night they would patrol the town in groups and take out as many as they could, along with whatever vampires or demons were stupid enough to stay in town.
It was a night like any other. They were out in three groups, each led by a slayer. Bringers surrounded Faith, every time she would cut down one, another two would appear it's in place. She was starting to get very annoyed. Her team of five potentials was fighting valiantly by her side, but they were making no progress. She could feel Buffy and her team getting closer and began to relax slightly. Sweeping through five more bringers with her magical sword of fire.
With Buffy and her team approaching the hoard of bringers from behind, the number of enemies finally started to thin. There were only a few remaining when Faith heard a monstrous howl. She turned to the sound and looked on in horror as a hideous vampiric creature with long claws struck out at Buffy, slicing her midsection. Buffy dropped her weapons and held her hands to her stomach as her innards and life began to spill out.
Faith reacted instantly, tearing through everything in her path. Slicing through the monster without a thought and kneeling at Buffy's side. She pressed her hands to her stomach and pushed every bit of herself into their connection. All the time, wailing in her head for Tara and Willow to help. Buffy's eyes were wide with confusion and terror. She was staring at Faith as tears slid down her cheeks.
Faith was completely unaware of everything happening around her. All of her focus on Buffy and begging someone, anyone to save her. Her body jerked as a sword stabbed through her back and stuck out of her stomach. Darkness was starting to close in on her, but she fought it off. There was no way she could die before knowing that Buffy would live.
Faith barely notices Willow appear a few feet from the pair. Willow moved quickly, but to Faith, it seemed like slow motion. It felt like a lifetime, but only a few seconds passed before they were both healed.
The slayers wrapped each other in a tight hug and cried. Willow transported them all back home without comment.
"Are you ok?" Faith asked once she was finally calm enough to form a thought. They hadn't at all released their tight grip on each other.
"I feel kinda weird. But I'm OK." Buffy scrunched her face, which normally Faith found cute, but she was seriously freaked out at the moment.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, I just feel… different."
Faith couldn't quite get a read on what Buffy was feeling. They were both still filled with adrenaline from the very near death.
"Bad different?" Faith asked, pulling slightly away to get a better look at Buffy's face. This was by far the worst wound Buffy had been healed from. Faith had been healed from some pretty severe injuries, but she was not quite herself at the time and didn't remember feeling any different afterward.
Buffy smiled and shook her head, "no. Kind of an amazing different."
"Woah." Tara gasped as she entered the living room, dropping the drink she had been carrying.
"Tara? What's wrong? What are you seeing?"
"Um… I'm not sure." Tara looked nervously between the two slayers.
"This isn't one of those things you can't tell is for our own good, is it?" Faith asked, shifting so she was sitting more beside Buffy, wanting to be able to face Tara without losing any contact with Buffy.
"It's not a secret. I just don't understand what I'm seeing."
"Try to explain." Faith tried to stay calm, finding it difficult to control the fear that something terrible might have happened to Buffy.
Tara sat on a chair across from the slayers. "Everyone has a unique essence, an energy that represents who they are."
"OK…" Faith watched her nervously, not at all able to read the situation.
"It looks like Faith's essence is now somehow inside Buffy." Tara waved her hand, gesturing at Buffy's midsection.
Buffy placed her hand on her stomach, rubbing it lightly. "Oh."
"Oh? Oh, what? What did you just figure out?" Faith asked, looking frantically between Tara and Buffy. Buffy was calm now, which began to settle Faith, but she still had no idea what was going on.
Buffy smiled and led Faith upstairs without saying anything. She changed out of her bloody clothes and sat down on the bed, motioning for Faith to sit next to her. "This is something we never talked about… but have you ever thought about having kids?"
"B? What the hell are you talking about? Why are you asking about that now?"
"I think…" Buffy put her hand on her stomach again, unable to actually say the words.
Realization finally dawned on Faith as she stood up and paced around the room, trying to figure out how she felt about this. She could feel Buffy's eyes on her, but she was too wrapped up in her own feelings to figure out how Buffy felt at the moment. It was chaos inside her mind. The idea that somehow she was going to be responsible for bringing a new life into this world was a lot to handle.
The complete insanity that their lives had been lately left no room for raising a child. The past two months, they were in constant war mode, either training or fighting. There was never a spare moment to think about anything else.
There had never been a time in her life when she thought about this situation. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to have children, she just never even considered it. Now that she was forced to, she felt intensely calm. Her pacing stopped, and she turned to face Buffy, kneeling before her.
"You're going to fight me on making you stay out of this battle, aren't you?"
"Until I'm too big to move." Buffy grinned, pulling Faith up, so they were both standing.
"We're not splitting up our teams anymore though. We need to find out what the hell that thing was, and you need better weapons." The wheels in Faith's head starting turning, they had a timeline now. They would have to be both more aggressive and more careful.
Buffy nodded her agreement and leaned into Faith.
"This is completely insane. You know that, right?" Faith asked while chuckling.
"Completely." Buffy agreed.
"As long as we agree." Faith smiled and kissed her.
"Come on. We probably need to get back. There were still a lot of bringers." Buffy pulled away and started towards the door, but Faith stopped her before she could get there.
"While you were dying, I sorta went on a rampage on my way to you. I'm sure the potentials and Kennedy took care of whatever was left." Her phone buzzed in her pocket, "see? Just got the all clear."
"But we need to know what that thing was," Buffy whined, but Faith could see she didn't mean it. She was looking at Faith, just waiting for her to give a reason why they shouldn't leave this room.
"Plenty of people saw that thing, and that's why we have the research team. I have some of my own research to do." Faith grinned and pulled Buffy close.
"Tsk tsk. Shirking your responsibilities already? I thought I taught you better than this, Faith." Diana appeared in the room with them. Glowering disapprovingly at Faith.
Faith rolled her eyes at the apparition. The First had not stopped randomly appearing to annoy Faith. It continued only showing itself to her, appearing as her watcher, her step-mother, Buffy and even herself. She didn't know why it didn't give up. It never had any effect on her. It was seriously killing her mood at the moment.
"You're seeing it again, aren't you?" Buffy asked when Faith pulled away.
"Yeah." Faith sighed.
"Don't you want to know why you're the only one who can see me?" Diana asked while circling the pair. Turning into Faith part way through her circuit. "It's because you're batshit crazy!"
Faith closed her eyes and pressed herself further into Buffy. It had been over two months, and she was getting tired of dealing with it, but she was still relieved that it was only appearing to her.
The First laughed, "you can't really believe that this is your life. That you have this amazing life and now you're going to have a kid. There's no way I'm dumb enough to believe that shit. Come on, Faithy, smarten up. You know you're really strapped to a bed somewhere, pumped full of drugs or maybe in a coma, dreaming up this fantasy world. You can't believe it's real. That somehow she loves you, that somehow anyone could possibly care about a piece of shit like you?"
Faith raised her head and looked up at the sneering evil version of herself. Clad in tight leather pants and a red tank top. Dark makeup on her eyes and lips. It struck her as interesting, that version of herself was once real and would be entirely right that she could never have this life.
But she was no longer that broken girl and hadn't been for a very long time. She ignored the damaged version of herself and kissed Buffy. Focusing all her thoughts and emotions on the woman in her arms. Having no doubts about who she was and what her life was meant to be.
They didn't bother trying to hide the pregnancy from the rest of the group. There were Wiccans besides Tara who would be able to tell, and if the First knew, there was no point in hiding it anyway. If there had been any doubts about the origin of Buffy's pregnancy, they were quickly dispelled by any who had witnessed the damage Buffy had taken that night.
They visited the Keepers, hoping to gain a new magical weapon for Buffy. The Keepers denied the request, but much to Buffy and Faith's chagrin, Kennedy was allowed to take the Scythe. The magical ax made Kennedy almost as powerful as Buffy and Faith had become. It did not grant her healing, but they had Willow to manage that.
Faith had grown to appreciate the new slayer over the past few months. She was an excellent fighter and seemed to really enjoy training the potential slayers. Something neither she nor Buffy particularly cared for.
After failing to gain any new weapons for Buffy, Faith had come up with another idea. She just wasn't sure if it was a good one or not. Faith flipped the business card around in her hand for several minutes. Holding the phone in her hand and trying to decide if this would improve their situation or make things worse.
"Watcha doing?" Buffy approached her from behind, wrapping her arms around her stomach and resting her chin on Faith's shoulder. Faith leaned into Buffy and smiled.
"Thinking about calling for reinforcements." Riley had left contact information after they had dismantled the Initiative. All of the soldiers involved were incredibly grateful and promised to help if they ever needed anything.
"Do you think they'll come?"
"I think so, if they can."
"Do it. The more, the merrier." Buffy placed a soft kiss on her cheek and headed into the kitchen.
A few days later Riley showed up in Sunnydale to join their war against the First. He brought with him a squad of fifteen soldiers. They could only stay for a few weeks, but while they were there, they helped teach them strategy. The slayers and potentials were excellent fighters, but they did not necessarily understand war.
Riley helped them reorganize their squads and patrol routines to maximize efficiency and reduce casualties. He even provided them with equipment and new technology to help them identify blind spots.
The Initiative was a completely evil organization, but they had developed technology for detecting demon signatures. Once they were able to get a signature on the bringers, they tracked them to their lair and destroyed large swathes of them. They were even able to setup remote detectors, letting them know when new bringers appeared or whenever someone approached the Hellmouth.
It had been very difficult to protect the Hellmouth without drawing attention to themselves. Principal Snyder was still the principal of Sunnydale High, and he never forgot his least favorite student or anyone associated with her. Buffy was incredibly surprised when she discovered that he was not, in fact, infested with the First. He was just the power-hungry, small-minded jerk he appeared to be.
Dawn had only made it two months as a freshman before they decided to pull her out of school. Principal Snyder would not leave her alone. He constantly harassed her and found excuses to give her detention or even suspend her. It was painful, but they decided to send her to a private boarding school. It gave the added benefit of keeping Dawn far away from the fight.
Even with all they had accomplished, Faith was still frustrated. As the months went on, she began to feel real panic. The panic became even worse once they discovered that Buffy was pregnant with twins. They couldn't keep this fighting up forever. She had considered trying to send Buffy away, but quickly saw the futility of that plan. There wasn't a chance that Buffy would leave without her.
Finally, they had caught a break. She had worked out a plan with Willow and Kennedy that she was pretty sure would cripple the First's hold on this dimension. Keeping Buffy out of it was extremely difficult, it was impossible to lie to her. Faith had managed to do it, even though she knew Buffy was aware they were plotting something.
Tonight was the night. They had convinced Buffy to stay in, Tara was going to stay with her, just in case anything went wrong.
Faith, Kennedy, and Willow crept through the old monastery. They could see the flickering candlelight just up ahead. Wesley's voice could be heard, chanting in Latin. Faith signaled for Kennedy and Willow to stop and spread out behind her. She was going to end this herself.
His back was to the opening, and he appeared to be unaware of their presence. Faith held her breath and slowly crept forward.
She raised her arm to strike out at him with her magical weapon when a metal cage dropped around her and her cohorts. She screamed and launched herself at the bars, attempting to reach Wesley with her sword. She watched in horror as the weapon disintegrated as it passed through the bars. When she tried to summon it again, she couldn't. Part of her arm brushed the bar of the cage, and it felt like it was tearing her apart.
Wesley hadn't even bothered to turn around yet. She was filled with rage at failing so completely. As the moments ticked by her anger started to subside, and she finally noticed that she couldn't feel Buffy's or Tara's energy anymore. She could still sense Willow and Kennedy, but nothing outside of the cage.
"I can't feel my magic." Willow whimpered, staring at her hands as if they'd betrayed her.
Wesley finally turned around, Faith saw his pitch black eyes and tried to stay strong under his intense glare. She reached through the bars to grab for him, she was careful not to let her skin touch the bars. He laughed and moved closer, letting her grab his shirt.
He violently tore her grip away, rotating her wrist until it snapped. She screamed at his strength and her weakness. He let her go, and she moved back as far as she could from the bars.
Wesley turned his attention to Kennedy, reaching in and grabbed hold of the Scythe.
Kennedy howled and held on with all she could. Wesley snickered and jerked the weapon forward, smashing her face into the bars. She collapsed to the ground, Willow moved to her side instantly, trying to wake her up, but was unable to.
Wesley was ignoring them now, holding the Scythe and admiring it. He laughed as he twirled it around. Faith wanted to throw herself at the bars again, but she knew the pointlessness of it - and she did not want to experience the intense pain she felt when she touched them.
"That's not yours!" She screamed.
"No. You are right about that. But it's not yours either." Wesley turned to place the weapon on an altar lined with candles.
Faith dropped to her knees. She hadn't felt so helpless in her entire life. This was different than anything that had happened to her before. She had failed. Failing hadn't meant anything to her until she fell in love with Buffy. She had never even considered that she wouldn't fail before then. Failure was her every moment.
But ever since she had figured out who she was and what mattered, she hadn't failed at anything. She had never even considered that she could fail. But now here she was, failing utterly. She had led her friends into a trap. She had left Buffy alone, the one thing she promised herself she would never do.
"Did you think I wouldn't know about your little plan?" The First as Buffy appeared in the doorway. Her arms crossed over her chest. Faith couldn't bring herself to look at it.
"Why do you always have to be her?" Faith whimpered to herself. Wanting more than anything not to have to be taunted by Buffy's face right now.
The First ignored her and began to circle the pedestal that currently held the Scythe. "Do you have any idea how long I've waited to get my hands on this?" Faith couldn't help herself, she watched Buffy move and run her fingers over the Scythe, not quite trying to touch it. Faith took a closer look and realized something wasn't right. It looked like First-Buffy usually did, but the features of Buffy were slightly different, a little rounder, her movements a bit less graceful. Anyone other than Faith would never have noticed these subtle differences.
She turned her attention back to Wesley. "Hey, Wes. What's the plan here? You gonna kill us or what? I'm getting kinda bored."
"Sorry, Faith. You don't get to die yet." Wesley moved closer to the cage, "but if you're bored, I can break some more of your bones, if you'd like."
She reached out through the bars, believing he would let her grab him again and he did. He grabbed both her wrists and squeezed, lifting her off the ground. She screamed in pain as her already broken wrist was injured further.
"No! You idiot!" Buffy's voice screeched through the cavern, Wesley turned his head in confusion, but it was too late for him.
The grip on Faith's wrists was gone, she fell heavily to the ground and was covered in a spray of blood.
"No!" The First screeched again, before distorting wildly and vanishing with a loud pop and a brilliant flash of light. Faith wasn't sure if anyone but she had seen what happened.
"Are you guys OK?" Buffy asked, standing over the pieces of Wesley's body. She had sliced him diagonally, from neck to hip. She prodded the body a few times with the Scythe.
"Not sure how OK anyone is. Don't touch the cage!" Faith had a chance to yell as Buffy was reaching out for the bars. "It's blocking magic off somehow, and it seems to pull the magic out of anything that touches it." Faith looked at her hand and frowned, she was really going to miss having her extremely powerful weapon.
Tara appeared behind Buffy, and they both began examining the room, looking for something that might work. Finally, they were able to trace the complicated latticework of chains above them to a crank in the wall. It took a lot of effort, but Buffy was able to turn it enough to lift the cage.
As soon as Faith was able to, she helped maneuver Willow and Kennedy out of the cage. It was agonizing work with her broken wrists, but this was all her fault. She could endure more pain to help get them out safely.
"I'm so sorry, B." Faith stood with her head down, "I should never have come out here. I put us all in so much danger."
"Shhh, Faith. It's OK. Everything is OK."
Faith held Buffy tight and barely noticed when Willow healed her arms.
"Um... did anyone else here that really loud sound after you killed Wesley?" Tara asked.
"You heard that?" A little hope was returning to Faith, "The real First was here, and it was pissed off. Then when you killed Wes, it sorta imploded."
"Do you think that means this worked? That maybe we stopped it?" Willow asked, they hoped that ridding the world of the First's vessel would weaken it. The next step was to perform a ceremony over the seal to break it's link to Faith.
Faith was doubtful, but she also liked to hope that maybe she didn't put them all in danger for nothing. "I never saw it do that before, so maybe."
"Let's get the hell out of here, this place gives me the creeps." Kennedy picked up the Scythe, and the five of them vanished.