A/N: Thanks for all the feedback guys. The stories winding down and should be finished soon. Sorry about the confusion in Chapter Twenty-one, I wanted it to read a little mystical-y and confusing. It'll all come together soon. Again, thanks for all the feedback. I really appreciate it!

Chapter Twenty-Two

Buffy and Faith watched as the figure disappeared into the shadows, in a flash of light, they were back outside by Wesley's SUV. The girls quietly climbed into the car and began the journey back home.

"Buffy!" Dawn yelled as the girls arrived home. Dawn ran from the home and threw herself into her sister's arms. "Where were you guys? We were worried. Do you know what Giles and Wesley have been going through?"

"We weren't gone that long." Buffy said as she released Dawn.

"Not that long?" Dawn nearly shrieked. "You've been gone for almost three days! We didn't know if you were alive or dead or what."

"Three days?" Faith said. "It couldn't have been more than a few hours."

The three girls walked into the house and took in the view. "What happened?" Buffy asked, eyeing the broken windows and damaged walls and floors.

"The seal has been opened." Giles said solemnly.

"The Turok-Han?" Buffy asked.

"About a million of them." Willow replied.

"Any casualties?" Buffy asked quietly.

No one answered.

"Giles?" Buffy asked.

"No." Giles breathed. "No fatalities. A lot of injured people." Giles took a sharp breath. "You two should have told someone where you were going! You should have taken a cell phone, something. Three days you were, we don't know where and you didn't even have the decency to call or check in or anything!" Giles's accent slowly slipped as his voice got louder and louder. "You're supposed to be our leader here!"

"Stop it!" Dawn yelled.

"I'm not." Buffy said as bravely as possible. "I'm not the leader here. Faith is."

"What?" Wesley asked, his voice breaking.

"We went on a little vision quest." Buffy said.

"We saw the creation of the First Slayer." Faith added. "And we found out how to defeat the Turok-Han."

"How?" Wesley asked.

"A spell." Buffy replied, handing a sheet of paper over to Giles. "Something about an end to destiny."

"This is-." Giles started.

"The rest of the spell you and Willow found." Faith finished. "It's how we defeat the Turok-Han, how we defeat the First Evil."

"Buffy, that's crazy?" Willow said, reading over Giles's shoulder.

"It's the strength of the slayer." Faith said. "We're going to curse the girls with the strength of the slayer, thereby sealing their fate in blood."

"Pure blood?" Willow asked. "We haven't figured that out yet."

"It's me." Buffy said. "I'm the corruption in the slayer line. When I died all of the slayer's powers and strengths should have gone to Kendra and then to Faith. When Xander, when Xander saved me part of the strength stayed in me. When I died the second time, all of the power, everything was sent to Faith as she was the true slayer."

"And when we - I - brought you back." Willow said.

"My body took strength from the earth to fortify me, to make me stronger, to make me whole again. The powers I have now aren't the powers passed to me by the slayer line. I'm not the Slayer." Buffy concluded.

"So, Faith's the real Slayer?" Xander asked.

Faith nodded her head sadly. "And because I used the power for evil, it created a rift and let the First in. That's why it went to Angel."

"Why?" Angel asked.

"The First needed you and I evil. The Slayer and the Champion of the people. If we were both evil, there'd be - there'd be no one powerful enough to stop us." Faith said sadly. "It's the path of redemption that allows us to go on."

"Sorry?" Wesley asked, clearly not understanding Faith's last comment.

"That's what the spirit guide told us. That us, me and Angel, that seeking redemption is what allows us to go on and do good." Faith said. "Because we've used evil. We've been evil. We've relied on it, allowed it to make a reputation for us. But because we try and redeem ourselves, we never lost the power."

"But, I'm not, that's not me anymore. I'm just a man." Angel said. "I don't even have half the strength I did as a vampire."

"But you're still Angel." Buffy said. "Even when you became a man, you didn't stop being you. You're still a good man, a fighter for the side of good."

"And it'll be up to the three of us to stop The First Evil." Faith added. "Your redemption, the fact that you not only achieved it for yourself, but that you helped me achieve it - or work towards it anyway. And Buffy, whose strength is from the same place the First Slayer received her strength, the earth."

"So, what do we do?" Willow said.

"We give the girls their strength." Faith said. "That's the spell that made the First Slayer stronger than the demon. We're to repeat it on the girls. Once they're stronger, we'll be able to push the Turok-Han back into the Hellmouth."

"But not before Sunnydale burns." Buffy said. "The guide told us that Sunnydale would burn in flames and that people would die."

"We had to be prepared to leave behind our life." Faith added.

"And that which we love." Buffy concluded.

"Willow." Giles said softly. "Gather the ingredients for the spell." He handed her the paper. "Wesley, we need to find a place that would be considered free of evil in order to perform the spell."

"That won't be easy." Wesley said, "With all the demonic activity in town, there aren't any evil-free areas."

"We're in one." Lorne said. "We're in a place of good, a place of non- evil."

"Good." Giles said. "Lorne, if you'll help Wesley and I set up for the spell."

Buffy and Faith stood and watched as the group set to work. The girls went to prepare for the spell.