Chapter 57
Faith walked back to the house. Everyone was in the living room crying and curled up on themselves. Dawn had found Chloe hanging from a bed sheet in Willow's room. Faith had just buried the body next to Annabelle's, the first potential that had been killed. The First had also paid a visit in Chloe's form. Faith stared around the room.
"Is everyone here?" she asked.
"All accounted for." Kennedy said.
"Anyone want to say a few words about Chloe?" All she got was silence. "Let me. Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid. She was weak. And anyone in a rush to be the next dead body I bury, it's easy. Just.. think of Chloe, and do what she did. And I'll find room for you next to her and Annabelle. Buffy and I are the Slayers. The ones with the power. And the First has us using that power to dig our graves." Faith threw down the shovel angrily. "We've been carrying you, all of you, too far, too long. Ride's over."
"You're out of line!"
"No she's not." Willow said.
"You're gonna let her talk to you like that? Willow, she's not even the most powerful one in this room. With you here, she's not close."
"You're new here, and you're wrong. Because I use the power that I have. The rest of you are just waiting for me or Buffy."
"Well, yeah, but only because you kinda told us to. You're our leader right now, Faith, as in 'follow the.' Buffy's not here." Xander said.
"Buffy's not here. She's got problems of her own in LA. We're here." Faith said. "From now on until she gets back, I'm your leader as in 'do what I say.'"
"Ja wohl! But let's not try to forget, we're also your friends."
"I'm not." Anya said.
"Then why are you here? Aside from getting rescued, what is it that you do?" Faith asked, wheeling on the ex-demon.
"I provide much-needed.. sarcasm."
"Um, that would kinda be my job, actually." Xander said, raising his hand.
"You're here because you're scared." Faith said.
"Same goes for everyone in this room."
"Fine. Anya, all of you, be as scared as you'd like, just be useful while you're at it."
"Come on, Faith. You know everyone here's doing everything they can." Willow said.
"The First isn't impressed. It already knows us. It knows what we can do, and it's laughing. You want to surprise the enemy? Surprise yourselves. Force yourself to do what can't be done, or else we are not an army like Buffy said..we're just a bunch of girls waiting to be picked off and buried." Spike stood and walked toward the door. Faith wheeled on him. "Where are you going?"
"Out. Since I'm neither a girl, nor waiting. All this speechifying doesn't really apply to me, does it?" Spike said.
"Fine. Take a cell phone. That way, if I need someone to get weepy or whaled on, I can call you."
"If you've got something to say.."
"Just said it. You keep holding back, you might as well walk out that door."
"Holding back? You're blind. I've been here, right in it.. fighting, scrapping.."
"Since you got your soul back?"
"Well, as a matter of fact, I haven't quite been relishing the kill the way I used to."
"You were a better fighter then."
"I did this for you. The soul, the changes.. it's what you wanted."
"What I want is the Spike that's dangerous. The Spike that tried to kill Buffy when you two met. The one that so intent on killing anyone and everyone in his path."
"Oh, you don't know how close you are to bringing him out."
"I'm nowhere near him. Dawn, get the potentials upstairs, and break out that emergency kit."
"What are you going to do?" Dawn asked.
"I'm declaring an emergency." Faith walked out and called Robin. He was more than willing to come over and help out. The minute he got there, she led him into the living room. "We thought you'd want to be here."
"Yeah, you thought right." Robin said.
Kennedy, Willow, Anya, and Xander went through the contents of the bag. Dawn watched them from her position near Faith. "That emergency bag's got some neat stuff in it. Weapons, charms, advanced reading assignments."
"Yeah, cool stuff, but we've seen it all before." Xander said.
"Well, not this, we haven't. What's inside it?" Anya asked.
"Mm, I don't know. It hasn't been opened since.." Robin started. Faith broke off the lock with her bare hands. "Well, since now."
Xander pulled out metal figures from the bag. "Puppets. That's it! The First hates puppets! Now if we can just airlift Kermit, Fozzie the Bear, and Miss Piggy into town, the First'll be a-running."
"Those are Muppets." Willow said.
Dawn took a metal figure from Xander. "And these things are shadow-casters. You put them in motion, and they tell you a story." She looked at the book. "It says you can't just watch, you have to see."
"What the hell does that mean?" Anya asked.
"It's cryptic. I don't like it. Every time instructions get cryptic, someone gets hurt.. usually me." Xander said.
"You can't just watch, you have to see? See what?" Faith asked.
"That's where all my fancy translating skills break down, but I think it's an origin myth. The story of the very first Slayer." Dawn said.
"I-I saw her."
"You saw the First Slayer?" Robin asked.
"The other night.. in my dream. It's gotta mean something, right?"
"We'll find out." Dawn ran out of the room and came back with a box of matches. Faith dimmed the lights and walked over to stand near Robin. In the darkened room, Xander struck a match and lit the wick at the center of a metal mechanical object. The light filled the room. Dawn held a large book open in her arms. "Ok. According to this, I think.. you put on those puppet guys one by one. They cast shadows and the shadows tell the story. First, there is the Earth." Xander put the first metal figure on the mechanical object. The light at the center cast a shadow of the figure on the wall. A tribal drumbeat could be heard in the background now.
"What's that sound?" Kennedy asked.
"Ok, so far, so creepy." Xander said.
"Hmm, ok." Dawn said. As she told the story, Xander added figure after figure. With each figure, strange sounds could be heard. "Then, there came the demons. After demons, there came men. Men found a girl. And the men took the girl to fight the demon.. all demons. They.. they chained her to the Earth. And then..and I-I can't read this. Something about darkness."
The shadow caster started to spin on its own. Faith looked around and then back at Dawn. "What about darkness?" The shadow caster device was spinning, making shadows of the figures on the walls, but the shadows were animated, moving, acting out the story.
"It says you cannot be shown. You cannot just watch, but you must see. See for yourself, but only if you're willing to make the exchange." Dawn said.
"When did you get so good at Sumerian?" Xander asked.
"It's not in Sumerian anymore." The words on the pages of the book were magically changing into English.
Willow and Kennedy stood, alarmed, as the shadow casters told a story of a demon attacking the chained girl. The device spun faster and faster as the shadows moved up the walls. Suddenly, a bright blue light formed at the center of the device, growing in size until it formed a window of light. Faith walked closer to investigate it.
"But what does it mean?" Xander asked.
"It means I have to go in there." Faith said.
"No, it doesn't! Where does it say that? It doesn't say that!" Willow said.
"Faith, you don't even know what you're exchanging. You don't know if you're ready yet." Robin said.
"That's the point." Faith said.
"No. Faith, we don't know where you're going or how we'll get you back." Willow said.
"Faith, you can't." Xander said.
"How will we get you back?"
"Find a way." With that, Faith jumped.
Buffy came around on Connor's other side and smiled as Angelus attacked the boy again. They had been toying with him for an hour or so. At first it was stalking, then it was whispering from the darkness, and now it was attacking slightly. Connor defended himself well. Hell, he should. He was trained by the best.
"Mom, you don't want to kill me." Connor said.
"No, I just want to play with you for a while. Your dad's going to kill you and bring you over to the dark side." Buffy said. She fended off the kicks he threw at her easily.
"That's not my father. My father is in a jar somewhere. You're still my mom."
"Duh." Buffy kicked Connor and the boy went sprawling on the ground. Suddenly, a blue light formed in Buffy's peripheral vision and she turned to see what it was. A window like portal was opening and expanding. "What the hell?"
"Mom!"
"Well, this is interesting." Angelus said, knocking Connor down.
"Tell me about it." Buffy said. She circled the portal which followed her. She came to rest in front of Connor. "Think we should go in? It seems to be following me."
"How will we get back?"
"Hell if I know."
"You're not going in there."
"Didn't plan on it. But watch." Buffy moved from side to side. The portal followed. "I told you it's following me." Suddenly, a kick to her back sent Buffy flying into the portal. Connor had gotten up and tried to kick her away, but she had moved and made him kick her IN the portal instead. Buffy went sprawling face first into the ground.. Which was nothing but sand. When she looked up, there were a pair of boots there.
"Buffy?" Faith asked above her.
Buffy looked around in fear. "What the hell is going on?" She stood up and looked around. It looked like the place where Giles had taken her on the retreat where the first Slayer had told her death was her gift.
"I don't know exactly. How did you get here?"
"A portal was open in front of me. Connor kicked me in."
"Connor?"
"You heard me! Geez, do I always have to repeat myself?"
"Are you ok?"
"Just peachy."
"Buffy? What's wrong with you? You seem.. Different."
"So do you." Buffy smiled and then looked around. "Fine, I'll play along. But just for right now. I have a vampire to get back to. First of all, how did we get here?"
Faith stared at Buffy for a moment and then shook her head. "Um, Robin gave me.. Us a Slayer hand-me-down. It had this box with shadow puppet things that told a story. We decided to see what it was and it opened a portal. I guess we're on a quest to find out about being the Slayer."
"Ok.. Who's Robin?"
"Principal Wood."
"You're on a first name basis with the guy?"
"We uh.. We.. Never mind. We don't have time. Come on, we need to find these three guys I think. They should be here if I'm correct."
"Second of all, why is this the desert?"
"Um, the first Slayer was made when these three guys chained her down and gave her powers to make her fight demons."
"And you know this how?"
"Shadow puppets told me the story."
"Shadow puppets? And they say I'm crazy."
"It's a really long story. And hey, what vampire? I thought Angel was bad."
"He is.. He's.." Buffy didn't want to tell Faith that she was just as evil as Angelus because that would mean the girl would go to LA and hunt both of them down. "In a cage and Lord knows what he'll tell my friends while I'm gone. I'm the only one that can handle him."
"Doesn't seem like it. Fred said that you'd gone comatose almost. Not talking to anybody and all."
"Yeah. Comatose. Who are those guys?"
"They must be the Shadow Men."
"Shadow Men?" Buffy asked incredulously as she followed Faith up to the men.
"Hello? I'm Faith. This is Buffy. We're the Slayers." Faith said.
The man in the red hat thing was the first to speak. It was in an ancient tongue neither Slayer recognized, but they understood it perfectly. "We know who you are."
"And we know why you're here." Black hat said.
"We've been waiting." Brown hat guy said.
"Goody for you." Buffy said.
"Um, you know, I know we have bigger issues to deal with, but how'd I understand anything you guys just said?" Faith asked. The Shadow Men looked at each other and stood, not answering.
"Oh, I know this one! Ancient magicks." Buffy said sarcastically.
"I just thought it was neat."
"We have been here since the beginning." Red Hat said as the three started to circle Buffy and Faith.
"Now, we are almost at the end." Black Hat said.
"The neat of it just left." Buffy said deadpan. "End of what?"
"You are the Hellmouth's last guardians." Brown Hat said.
"Latest. You mean latest guardians." Faith said.
"No." Red Hat said.
"Ok, um, I have a First to fight, ok. So just tell me what I need to know. I came to learn."
"We cannot give you knowledge. Only power."
"Power's always good." Buffy said. Faith hit her shoulder and then looked back at the three hat guys. "What!? You know what I think? I'm not really here at all. None of this is actually happening. This is like a play. Some non-reality re-enactment hologramy.." One of the hat guys whacked Buffy in the face with his big stick thing and she fell to the ground. "Ok, OW!" Was all she said before she was knocked out.
When she came to, Faith was standing next to her, shackled at the wrists. "What the hell is this?" Buffy stood only to find that she was shackled at the wrists and chained to the ground too. She struggled against the chains. The three men were standing in front of her and Faith in a circle. "My husband is going to rip your throats out!"
"B, shut up." Faith said.
"We are at the beginning. The source of your strength. The well of the Slayer's power." Brown Hat said.
"This is why we have brought you here." Red Hat said.
"I thought I brought me here. Listen, you guys. I'm already a Slayer, bursting with power. Really don't need any more." Faith said.
"I didn't bring me here. I was sort of kicked here. Can I go?" Buffy asked.
"The First Slayer did not talk so much." Red Hat said.
Buffy pulled on her chains again. The men started tapping their staves against the ground rhythmically. The Red Hat fetched a box and brought it to the center of the circle where he took off the box top.
"Herein lies your truest strength." Red Hat said.
"The energy of the demon. Its spirit." Black Hat said.
"Its heart." Brown Hat said.
"This is how you.." Faith said.
"Created the slayer?" Red Hat asked with a nod. "Yes."
Black smoke came out of the box in long tentacles. It seemed sentient as it danced around the circle. The men kept tapping their staves rhythmically.
"It must become one with you." Brown Hat said.
"Uh, don't think so." Buffy said, watching the tendrils. She started to struggle against her chains and then Faith decided to join in.
"This will make you ready for the fight." Red Hat said.
"By making us less human?" Faith asked.
"This is how it was then. How it must be now."
"This is all there is." Black Hat said.
Buffy and Faith both struggled against their restraints in vain as the black smoke came toward them, entering their bodies through their noses and ears. Both Buffy and Faith screamed as the black smoke tried to enter their bodies. The men just stood there watching. The smoke couldn't get in through their heads while the two were screaming, so it rose to the ceiling of the cave and came back down to her, encircling Buffy and Faith's hips. Still, they resisted.
"Make this stop!" Buffy yelled.
"This is what you came for." Red Hat said.
"No, this isn't the way." Faith said.
"Do not fight this."
The smoke came at Buffy and Faith again. They struggled and the smoke backed off for a minute. Buffy glared at the three men. "You think I came all this way to get knocked up by some demon dust? I can't fight this. I know that now. But you guys? You're just men." She ripped her chains out of the ground. "Just the men who did this.. to her. Whoever that girl was before she was the First Slayer."
"You don't understand." Red Hat said.
Faith ripped her chains from the ground too. "No, you don't understand! You violated that girl, made her kill for you because you're weak, you're pathetic, and you obviously have nothing to show us."
Buffy used the chains that were still shackled to her hands as weapons when she attacked. She swung the chains at the legs of one man and the staff of the other. She knocked them down, but they got up again. A fight ensued. Buffy took on Black Hat while Faith took on Brown Hat. Buffy easily got the upper hand and broke the guy's arm savagely. "Learned that from Angelus." Faith knocked her guys out and she and Buffy walked up to the man in the red hat who was holding a staff. Buffy broke it and the demon smoke disappeared. "I knew it. It's always the staff."
"We offered you power." Red Hat said.
"Tell me something I don't know." Faith said.
"As you wish." Red Hat held his hands up to Buffy and Faith's cheeks. Then suddenly, Buffy was back in LA. She was standing in the middle of the street where she, Angelus, and Connor had been fighting. Angelus and Connor were nowhere to be found. Buffy started to run back to the warehouse she and Angelus were staying.
"Angelus! God, where the hell are you?" Buffy screamed.
"Buffy!?" Angelus ran down from the second floor catwalks.
"Angel! Oh God!" She ran into his arms.
"Where did you go!? How did you get back? I was worried."
"You were worried?"
"A little, yeah. What happened?"
"I ended up in the dessert with Faith! They called up this portal thing that sucked in the Slayers. God, I can't believe how the Slayer was made!"
"Slow down! What are you talking about?"
"I was almost raped by demon energy! Ew!"
Angelus laughed. "I'm the only demon energy that's allowed to rape you."
"You can't rape the willing baby."
"Are you saying you're willing?"
"I'm saying that we need to get to our, air quote, 'friends' soon. There's a shit load of Ubervamps coming and even I don't want to get involved with that!"
"Ugh! Those Turok-Han things?"
"Exactly. They're just waiting to be released. And they will."
"Faith?" Wesley asked on the other side of the line.
"Wes? Are you ok? Did Buffy end up back there in LA?" Faith asked.
"Huh? She left? We haven't seen her. Angelus kidnapped her when he got out."
"What!?"
"Faith?" Willow asked. Faith shook her head and held up a hand to stop Willow from talking.
"What do you mean?"
"Buffy and Cordy accidentally let Angelus out when we thought he was Angel again. Angelus killed Lilah and got away with Buffy. She's in trouble because she's so out of it. I'm coming down to get you. I left about an hour and a half ago."
"Buffy's not.. I'm ready as soon as you get here." Faith hung up the phone and looked at Willow.
"Are you ok?" Willow asked.
"I'm five by five."
"What's going on?"
"Nothing. Angelus has just escaped. Buffy's having a hard time getting him back. I'm going up there to help out. Stay here and keep a ward over the house till I get back. Have Spike and Robin watch the place. I'll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully with Buffy and Angel in tow." Faith grabbed a few of her clothes as she said all this and shoved them in a bag. "Wesley's on his way here to get me. If we need your help, I'll call." With that, Faith was dashing out the door and down to Wesley who was just pulling up in the driveway. Things were bad in LA and Faith was their last hope.
Faith walked back to the house. Everyone was in the living room crying and curled up on themselves. Dawn had found Chloe hanging from a bed sheet in Willow's room. Faith had just buried the body next to Annabelle's, the first potential that had been killed. The First had also paid a visit in Chloe's form. Faith stared around the room.
"Is everyone here?" she asked.
"All accounted for." Kennedy said.
"Anyone want to say a few words about Chloe?" All she got was silence. "Let me. Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid. She was weak. And anyone in a rush to be the next dead body I bury, it's easy. Just.. think of Chloe, and do what she did. And I'll find room for you next to her and Annabelle. Buffy and I are the Slayers. The ones with the power. And the First has us using that power to dig our graves." Faith threw down the shovel angrily. "We've been carrying you, all of you, too far, too long. Ride's over."
"You're out of line!"
"No she's not." Willow said.
"You're gonna let her talk to you like that? Willow, she's not even the most powerful one in this room. With you here, she's not close."
"You're new here, and you're wrong. Because I use the power that I have. The rest of you are just waiting for me or Buffy."
"Well, yeah, but only because you kinda told us to. You're our leader right now, Faith, as in 'follow the.' Buffy's not here." Xander said.
"Buffy's not here. She's got problems of her own in LA. We're here." Faith said. "From now on until she gets back, I'm your leader as in 'do what I say.'"
"Ja wohl! But let's not try to forget, we're also your friends."
"I'm not." Anya said.
"Then why are you here? Aside from getting rescued, what is it that you do?" Faith asked, wheeling on the ex-demon.
"I provide much-needed.. sarcasm."
"Um, that would kinda be my job, actually." Xander said, raising his hand.
"You're here because you're scared." Faith said.
"Same goes for everyone in this room."
"Fine. Anya, all of you, be as scared as you'd like, just be useful while you're at it."
"Come on, Faith. You know everyone here's doing everything they can." Willow said.
"The First isn't impressed. It already knows us. It knows what we can do, and it's laughing. You want to surprise the enemy? Surprise yourselves. Force yourself to do what can't be done, or else we are not an army like Buffy said..we're just a bunch of girls waiting to be picked off and buried." Spike stood and walked toward the door. Faith wheeled on him. "Where are you going?"
"Out. Since I'm neither a girl, nor waiting. All this speechifying doesn't really apply to me, does it?" Spike said.
"Fine. Take a cell phone. That way, if I need someone to get weepy or whaled on, I can call you."
"If you've got something to say.."
"Just said it. You keep holding back, you might as well walk out that door."
"Holding back? You're blind. I've been here, right in it.. fighting, scrapping.."
"Since you got your soul back?"
"Well, as a matter of fact, I haven't quite been relishing the kill the way I used to."
"You were a better fighter then."
"I did this for you. The soul, the changes.. it's what you wanted."
"What I want is the Spike that's dangerous. The Spike that tried to kill Buffy when you two met. The one that so intent on killing anyone and everyone in his path."
"Oh, you don't know how close you are to bringing him out."
"I'm nowhere near him. Dawn, get the potentials upstairs, and break out that emergency kit."
"What are you going to do?" Dawn asked.
"I'm declaring an emergency." Faith walked out and called Robin. He was more than willing to come over and help out. The minute he got there, she led him into the living room. "We thought you'd want to be here."
"Yeah, you thought right." Robin said.
Kennedy, Willow, Anya, and Xander went through the contents of the bag. Dawn watched them from her position near Faith. "That emergency bag's got some neat stuff in it. Weapons, charms, advanced reading assignments."
"Yeah, cool stuff, but we've seen it all before." Xander said.
"Well, not this, we haven't. What's inside it?" Anya asked.
"Mm, I don't know. It hasn't been opened since.." Robin started. Faith broke off the lock with her bare hands. "Well, since now."
Xander pulled out metal figures from the bag. "Puppets. That's it! The First hates puppets! Now if we can just airlift Kermit, Fozzie the Bear, and Miss Piggy into town, the First'll be a-running."
"Those are Muppets." Willow said.
Dawn took a metal figure from Xander. "And these things are shadow-casters. You put them in motion, and they tell you a story." She looked at the book. "It says you can't just watch, you have to see."
"What the hell does that mean?" Anya asked.
"It's cryptic. I don't like it. Every time instructions get cryptic, someone gets hurt.. usually me." Xander said.
"You can't just watch, you have to see? See what?" Faith asked.
"That's where all my fancy translating skills break down, but I think it's an origin myth. The story of the very first Slayer." Dawn said.
"I-I saw her."
"You saw the First Slayer?" Robin asked.
"The other night.. in my dream. It's gotta mean something, right?"
"We'll find out." Dawn ran out of the room and came back with a box of matches. Faith dimmed the lights and walked over to stand near Robin. In the darkened room, Xander struck a match and lit the wick at the center of a metal mechanical object. The light filled the room. Dawn held a large book open in her arms. "Ok. According to this, I think.. you put on those puppet guys one by one. They cast shadows and the shadows tell the story. First, there is the Earth." Xander put the first metal figure on the mechanical object. The light at the center cast a shadow of the figure on the wall. A tribal drumbeat could be heard in the background now.
"What's that sound?" Kennedy asked.
"Ok, so far, so creepy." Xander said.
"Hmm, ok." Dawn said. As she told the story, Xander added figure after figure. With each figure, strange sounds could be heard. "Then, there came the demons. After demons, there came men. Men found a girl. And the men took the girl to fight the demon.. all demons. They.. they chained her to the Earth. And then..and I-I can't read this. Something about darkness."
The shadow caster started to spin on its own. Faith looked around and then back at Dawn. "What about darkness?" The shadow caster device was spinning, making shadows of the figures on the walls, but the shadows were animated, moving, acting out the story.
"It says you cannot be shown. You cannot just watch, but you must see. See for yourself, but only if you're willing to make the exchange." Dawn said.
"When did you get so good at Sumerian?" Xander asked.
"It's not in Sumerian anymore." The words on the pages of the book were magically changing into English.
Willow and Kennedy stood, alarmed, as the shadow casters told a story of a demon attacking the chained girl. The device spun faster and faster as the shadows moved up the walls. Suddenly, a bright blue light formed at the center of the device, growing in size until it formed a window of light. Faith walked closer to investigate it.
"But what does it mean?" Xander asked.
"It means I have to go in there." Faith said.
"No, it doesn't! Where does it say that? It doesn't say that!" Willow said.
"Faith, you don't even know what you're exchanging. You don't know if you're ready yet." Robin said.
"That's the point." Faith said.
"No. Faith, we don't know where you're going or how we'll get you back." Willow said.
"Faith, you can't." Xander said.
"How will we get you back?"
"Find a way." With that, Faith jumped.
Buffy came around on Connor's other side and smiled as Angelus attacked the boy again. They had been toying with him for an hour or so. At first it was stalking, then it was whispering from the darkness, and now it was attacking slightly. Connor defended himself well. Hell, he should. He was trained by the best.
"Mom, you don't want to kill me." Connor said.
"No, I just want to play with you for a while. Your dad's going to kill you and bring you over to the dark side." Buffy said. She fended off the kicks he threw at her easily.
"That's not my father. My father is in a jar somewhere. You're still my mom."
"Duh." Buffy kicked Connor and the boy went sprawling on the ground. Suddenly, a blue light formed in Buffy's peripheral vision and she turned to see what it was. A window like portal was opening and expanding. "What the hell?"
"Mom!"
"Well, this is interesting." Angelus said, knocking Connor down.
"Tell me about it." Buffy said. She circled the portal which followed her. She came to rest in front of Connor. "Think we should go in? It seems to be following me."
"How will we get back?"
"Hell if I know."
"You're not going in there."
"Didn't plan on it. But watch." Buffy moved from side to side. The portal followed. "I told you it's following me." Suddenly, a kick to her back sent Buffy flying into the portal. Connor had gotten up and tried to kick her away, but she had moved and made him kick her IN the portal instead. Buffy went sprawling face first into the ground.. Which was nothing but sand. When she looked up, there were a pair of boots there.
"Buffy?" Faith asked above her.
Buffy looked around in fear. "What the hell is going on?" She stood up and looked around. It looked like the place where Giles had taken her on the retreat where the first Slayer had told her death was her gift.
"I don't know exactly. How did you get here?"
"A portal was open in front of me. Connor kicked me in."
"Connor?"
"You heard me! Geez, do I always have to repeat myself?"
"Are you ok?"
"Just peachy."
"Buffy? What's wrong with you? You seem.. Different."
"So do you." Buffy smiled and then looked around. "Fine, I'll play along. But just for right now. I have a vampire to get back to. First of all, how did we get here?"
Faith stared at Buffy for a moment and then shook her head. "Um, Robin gave me.. Us a Slayer hand-me-down. It had this box with shadow puppet things that told a story. We decided to see what it was and it opened a portal. I guess we're on a quest to find out about being the Slayer."
"Ok.. Who's Robin?"
"Principal Wood."
"You're on a first name basis with the guy?"
"We uh.. We.. Never mind. We don't have time. Come on, we need to find these three guys I think. They should be here if I'm correct."
"Second of all, why is this the desert?"
"Um, the first Slayer was made when these three guys chained her down and gave her powers to make her fight demons."
"And you know this how?"
"Shadow puppets told me the story."
"Shadow puppets? And they say I'm crazy."
"It's a really long story. And hey, what vampire? I thought Angel was bad."
"He is.. He's.." Buffy didn't want to tell Faith that she was just as evil as Angelus because that would mean the girl would go to LA and hunt both of them down. "In a cage and Lord knows what he'll tell my friends while I'm gone. I'm the only one that can handle him."
"Doesn't seem like it. Fred said that you'd gone comatose almost. Not talking to anybody and all."
"Yeah. Comatose. Who are those guys?"
"They must be the Shadow Men."
"Shadow Men?" Buffy asked incredulously as she followed Faith up to the men.
"Hello? I'm Faith. This is Buffy. We're the Slayers." Faith said.
The man in the red hat thing was the first to speak. It was in an ancient tongue neither Slayer recognized, but they understood it perfectly. "We know who you are."
"And we know why you're here." Black hat said.
"We've been waiting." Brown hat guy said.
"Goody for you." Buffy said.
"Um, you know, I know we have bigger issues to deal with, but how'd I understand anything you guys just said?" Faith asked. The Shadow Men looked at each other and stood, not answering.
"Oh, I know this one! Ancient magicks." Buffy said sarcastically.
"I just thought it was neat."
"We have been here since the beginning." Red Hat said as the three started to circle Buffy and Faith.
"Now, we are almost at the end." Black Hat said.
"The neat of it just left." Buffy said deadpan. "End of what?"
"You are the Hellmouth's last guardians." Brown Hat said.
"Latest. You mean latest guardians." Faith said.
"No." Red Hat said.
"Ok, um, I have a First to fight, ok. So just tell me what I need to know. I came to learn."
"We cannot give you knowledge. Only power."
"Power's always good." Buffy said. Faith hit her shoulder and then looked back at the three hat guys. "What!? You know what I think? I'm not really here at all. None of this is actually happening. This is like a play. Some non-reality re-enactment hologramy.." One of the hat guys whacked Buffy in the face with his big stick thing and she fell to the ground. "Ok, OW!" Was all she said before she was knocked out.
When she came to, Faith was standing next to her, shackled at the wrists. "What the hell is this?" Buffy stood only to find that she was shackled at the wrists and chained to the ground too. She struggled against the chains. The three men were standing in front of her and Faith in a circle. "My husband is going to rip your throats out!"
"B, shut up." Faith said.
"We are at the beginning. The source of your strength. The well of the Slayer's power." Brown Hat said.
"This is why we have brought you here." Red Hat said.
"I thought I brought me here. Listen, you guys. I'm already a Slayer, bursting with power. Really don't need any more." Faith said.
"I didn't bring me here. I was sort of kicked here. Can I go?" Buffy asked.
"The First Slayer did not talk so much." Red Hat said.
Buffy pulled on her chains again. The men started tapping their staves against the ground rhythmically. The Red Hat fetched a box and brought it to the center of the circle where he took off the box top.
"Herein lies your truest strength." Red Hat said.
"The energy of the demon. Its spirit." Black Hat said.
"Its heart." Brown Hat said.
"This is how you.." Faith said.
"Created the slayer?" Red Hat asked with a nod. "Yes."
Black smoke came out of the box in long tentacles. It seemed sentient as it danced around the circle. The men kept tapping their staves rhythmically.
"It must become one with you." Brown Hat said.
"Uh, don't think so." Buffy said, watching the tendrils. She started to struggle against her chains and then Faith decided to join in.
"This will make you ready for the fight." Red Hat said.
"By making us less human?" Faith asked.
"This is how it was then. How it must be now."
"This is all there is." Black Hat said.
Buffy and Faith both struggled against their restraints in vain as the black smoke came toward them, entering their bodies through their noses and ears. Both Buffy and Faith screamed as the black smoke tried to enter their bodies. The men just stood there watching. The smoke couldn't get in through their heads while the two were screaming, so it rose to the ceiling of the cave and came back down to her, encircling Buffy and Faith's hips. Still, they resisted.
"Make this stop!" Buffy yelled.
"This is what you came for." Red Hat said.
"No, this isn't the way." Faith said.
"Do not fight this."
The smoke came at Buffy and Faith again. They struggled and the smoke backed off for a minute. Buffy glared at the three men. "You think I came all this way to get knocked up by some demon dust? I can't fight this. I know that now. But you guys? You're just men." She ripped her chains out of the ground. "Just the men who did this.. to her. Whoever that girl was before she was the First Slayer."
"You don't understand." Red Hat said.
Faith ripped her chains from the ground too. "No, you don't understand! You violated that girl, made her kill for you because you're weak, you're pathetic, and you obviously have nothing to show us."
Buffy used the chains that were still shackled to her hands as weapons when she attacked. She swung the chains at the legs of one man and the staff of the other. She knocked them down, but they got up again. A fight ensued. Buffy took on Black Hat while Faith took on Brown Hat. Buffy easily got the upper hand and broke the guy's arm savagely. "Learned that from Angelus." Faith knocked her guys out and she and Buffy walked up to the man in the red hat who was holding a staff. Buffy broke it and the demon smoke disappeared. "I knew it. It's always the staff."
"We offered you power." Red Hat said.
"Tell me something I don't know." Faith said.
"As you wish." Red Hat held his hands up to Buffy and Faith's cheeks. Then suddenly, Buffy was back in LA. She was standing in the middle of the street where she, Angelus, and Connor had been fighting. Angelus and Connor were nowhere to be found. Buffy started to run back to the warehouse she and Angelus were staying.
"Angelus! God, where the hell are you?" Buffy screamed.
"Buffy!?" Angelus ran down from the second floor catwalks.
"Angel! Oh God!" She ran into his arms.
"Where did you go!? How did you get back? I was worried."
"You were worried?"
"A little, yeah. What happened?"
"I ended up in the dessert with Faith! They called up this portal thing that sucked in the Slayers. God, I can't believe how the Slayer was made!"
"Slow down! What are you talking about?"
"I was almost raped by demon energy! Ew!"
Angelus laughed. "I'm the only demon energy that's allowed to rape you."
"You can't rape the willing baby."
"Are you saying you're willing?"
"I'm saying that we need to get to our, air quote, 'friends' soon. There's a shit load of Ubervamps coming and even I don't want to get involved with that!"
"Ugh! Those Turok-Han things?"
"Exactly. They're just waiting to be released. And they will."
"Faith?" Wesley asked on the other side of the line.
"Wes? Are you ok? Did Buffy end up back there in LA?" Faith asked.
"Huh? She left? We haven't seen her. Angelus kidnapped her when he got out."
"What!?"
"Faith?" Willow asked. Faith shook her head and held up a hand to stop Willow from talking.
"What do you mean?"
"Buffy and Cordy accidentally let Angelus out when we thought he was Angel again. Angelus killed Lilah and got away with Buffy. She's in trouble because she's so out of it. I'm coming down to get you. I left about an hour and a half ago."
"Buffy's not.. I'm ready as soon as you get here." Faith hung up the phone and looked at Willow.
"Are you ok?" Willow asked.
"I'm five by five."
"What's going on?"
"Nothing. Angelus has just escaped. Buffy's having a hard time getting him back. I'm going up there to help out. Stay here and keep a ward over the house till I get back. Have Spike and Robin watch the place. I'll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully with Buffy and Angel in tow." Faith grabbed a few of her clothes as she said all this and shoved them in a bag. "Wesley's on his way here to get me. If we need your help, I'll call." With that, Faith was dashing out the door and down to Wesley who was just pulling up in the driveway. Things were bad in LA and Faith was their last hope.
