AN: see first part for disclaimer.

Back in Buffy's Room

One thought went through Buffy's mind and it was that she had to kill Faith, 'That bitch must die; she must feel the pain I went through.' She moved away from the window and charged at Faith, with the goal of ending the dark slayer's life.

Willow saw the way Buffy was acting and it reminded her of the Angel incident and she knew that she would just get in the way. No matter how much she hated Faith, this confrontation had to happen sooner or later and all she could do was stay out of the way for now. Willow left the hallway, went to the living room, and waited for the two slayers to get through with the battle that was about to happen.

Faith waited patiently as Buffy came toward her. She noticed that the blonde slayer wasn't in top shape so she wasn't worried about a long drawn out physical fight. A verbal battle might be different though. Faith easily blocked the double kick Buffy tried to hit her with and caught both punches that where aimed at her torso. "Come on B, we both know you're not in top shape. For once listen, and don't react. Stop being stubborn, its can come back to haunt you later. Trust me I know," the last part of her little speech was made in a soft, sad tone as Faith noticed that Buffy had stopped fighting and had turned towards her bed.

Deciding that Buffy wasn't going to be the first to talk Faith composed herself, "Look Buffy, I only came to make my peace with you. I came to apologize for the way things went down and to say I forgive you for also making my life hell. I know you think you were right the whole time, but you treated me like crap even before I went bad. I realize now that I had others that cared, and that I didn't need your approval for anything. I'll be going now, and I'll also be coming around helping with the slaying until Xander returns. And he'll be back, he promised me. He may not know you're alive, but he'll be back." Faith turned and made to leave glad that her practiced speech was over, but was stopped by Buffy.

"Wait!" Buffy shouted in urgency, she wanted to know more about what happened to Xander and she also wanted to set Faith straight about what she said about forgiving her. "I didn't do anything wrong!" she said, as she thought about how everything went wrong back a few years ago with Faith.

Faith stopped and sighed, she knew that they were going to have a long conversation that she was not ready for. "Look Buffy, I am not really ready to have it out with you right now. I just came to tell you I'd be around and that we will be able to talk eventually. I also think we will have to have a group talk, because I also have issues with them. And I know they have issues with me, ok." Without waiting for a reply Faith left and walked out of the house, going straight to Xander's old apartment. 'It's a good thing he paid a whole year in advance; now it's mine,' she mentally chuckled. "Thanks Xand-man. Even when you're not trying, you are always looking out for your friends." She thought about her night with him and how he had told her about his place and how she was always invited.

On board the Tree-ship Tsunami

Even though his wounds where already healed Xander tried to hide the blood spots on his clothing as he materialized in front of the holographic figure. He had grown used to the holographic-like woman who claimed to be the brain of the ship he currently was living in.

Tsunami looked at him with sad eyes, she knew he was hurt and that things had not gone according to his plan. "You are back to continue your training," she said evenly.

Xander snorted at the question, "Well dahh, I live here too you know. Plus looking at you helps." He smiled at her and walked through the ship going toward the training room. He had to learn to not loose his concentration, and that was what he was going to go do. Practice meditating. 'If some one ever told me I would meditate, I would have laughed at them.'

Before he could go into the chamber though he was ported into the main tree chamber at the heart of the ship, "You must first watch this," she then moved her arm and a series of images began to form around him. First he could make out the indistinct shapes of two fighters. One was graceful and flowing in the movement and it seemed enchanting. The other figure was fighting using simple basic steps that seemed like it was barely able to maintain against the other.

The images seemed to become clearer, sharper and he could tell that the first fighter was a female and definitely in good shape, while the other was a male and seemed rather plain. As he watched he could see how graceful she was though her attacks were vicious and unrelenting, seemingly beating him down.

"This fight happened many years ago, before many of the things that you now know were ever even imagined."

It seemed that the woman would certainly win; however, just as she performed a spin attack on him he brought his sword up and severed her hand from her body. The woman howled in rage and attacked. Though see seemed graceful still, she seemed to become more vicious and savage. But what truly seemed amazing is that her hand had almost instantly returned to her.

As he watched he could see that the male fighter's quick basic moves had repeated the same thing, this time on her other hand. And, like before, it regrew, and now she had lost all of her gracefulness and had turned to savage attacks. The fight came to a sudden end when his sword pierced her throat. Xander felt a lump in his throat as he watched her hands go limp as she hung from his sword.

"What have you learned from this?"

Xander looked at her stupefied, unable to form words much less draw a meaning from it.

She looked at him with her sad eyes and shook her head sadly. "Though her fancy moves and grace looked good in a fight and caused many that knew her to run in fear, his simple and basic attacks proved to be her undoing." Smiling at him slightly, she spoke like a gentle breeze through the trees as she added, "I know your heart. Do you see where in her attack that she made her four mistakes?"

'Four!' He cried mentally, 'I saw nothing that looked like a mistake.'

The image played again this time slower and he saw how the woman attacked and then spun around to throw some sort of energy at him when he took her hand. "There!" he yelled happily and she smiled at him.

"Correct, do not take your eyes off your opponent."

Again it played and he watched as she began to attack viciously, "Wait! There, she got angry and attacked, right" he smiled happy that he was catching on.

"Correct, if you attack in anger you will loose."

After her hand was cut off again she charged him like a crazed animal and then was killed. "She lost control of herself," he stated sadly as it seemed so sad to see her die. Though he couldn't see either of their faces, he was still sorry for her.

"Correct again. If you loose control of your anger, then the battle is over. You have lost." She stated it simply and he realized that he had missed one.

"What, what is the fourth mistake?" He looked confused; he had watched it twice now, but where was the fourth?

"Her last mistake was not learning from the past. Once he took her right hand he performed the same move and took her other one. If you do not learn from the past, it will only cause you grief." He looked at her and he had the strange feeling that she was not just talking about sword fighting. "It is time for you to continue training, go and think on these things." She then melded back into the great tree at the center of the ship as he turned to go away.

'Why can't she teleport me back, this ship is huge? But noooo, she teleports me to where she is, but can't send me back; and what the hell she could have easily materialized there.' He continued on his long journey to the training room, coming to the realization that it was probably her reaction to him trying to flirt with her.

As he finally neared the training room, he contemplated what he was shown and told, 'I did try to show boat before, no wonder I got my ass handed to me.' He also tried to shake the images of the fight, the beautiful woman ended up dying and he wondered what she did to deserve that. If there is one thing he learned from his fights in Sunnydale that all the vampires and demons that where overconfident and tried to show off always got killed and beaten to a pulp by Buffy. 'I won't be the one to lose because of overconfidence,' he thought as the image of him being swatted around by those exact vampires before he got his powers.

He kneeled on the mat and got into lotus position and tried to concentrate and center himself. He focused on his Jurian energy as Tsunami had taught him to, but couldn't really reach it because the battle he was shown kept playing over and over in his mind.

Summers home

Willow saw Faith run out of the house and wondered happened, but she had come to realize that she couldn't pry into Buffy's life right now. It was no use, because Buffy was non-responsive. She got off the couch and walked up the stairs into Buffy's room, "Hey Buffy, you ok," she softly asked.

Buffy turned toward her long time friend and didn't know what to do or say. She really didn't want to deal with explanations and being babied right now. "I am fine, I just want to be alone."

Surprised that Buffy actually said something to her, Willow smiled slightly but then frowned because it had taken Faith to get her to respond. She sighed, "Ok, then I'll be going. Call me if you need me." 'Yeah like you will!' she mentally cried. Willow turned and left the premises thinking how everything had gone so wrong and how she couldn't even reach her best friend anymore.

As Willow walked out of the room, Buffy thought about what Faith had said and how she mentioned that Xander would be back. The one thought that she kept going through her mind was that she couldn't fail her friends, her sister, and her Xander. She got up and decided to do something that was a long time waiting.

*****

Buffy was totally determined as she walked toward the room down the hallway; she was going to start getting her life together. She couldn't let it fall apart, 'I was given another chance, how many people can say they had a third chance at life. NONE!' She came upon the door and knocked.

After knocked three times, she decided to just walk in, 'I did it all the time before, why not now.' She walked into the room and what she saw almost made her cry. Her sister was asleep on her bed and around the entire bed were pictures of Xander, her mother, her, and the rest of the gang. 'She must feel so lost, like I do.'

Walking slowly and sitting next to Dawn, Buffy looked at the pictures and a tear left her left eye. She continued to look through the pictures for about an hour, before Dawn started to awaken.

Dawn rubbed her eyes and rubbed them again as she saw her sister sitting next to her, she was shocked to see her there. 'This has to be a dream, she never leaves her room to talk or see anyone.' "Buffy?" Dawn asked in a mixture of surprise and confusion. The pain she had gone through the last couple of months didn't seem to end; now she was seeing her sister in her room, it had to be a dream. "Why can't I have a good dream?"

Buffy smiled sadly at her sister, "It's not a dream." She felt the despair returning as she thought of the pain Dawn had to go through alone. Someone should have been there of her. 'I should have been there for her.' Even though the others were like family, they couldn't really take the place of a blood relative; she knew this because she could feel the emptiness her mother's absence left.

Dawn just stared at her sister, she was a lost for words. She had planned this happening eventually, the arguing that would go on. How she felt abandoned by everyone, by Buffy, by their mom, and by the only guy that was there the whole time, Xander. "You left me, you left me all alone and then you come back and you still ignore me like I am nothing. Is that it, do you see me as just nothing, a ball of energy without a soul?" cried Dawn as she tried to hold herself together.

Buffy wanted to scream, 'No! I don't see you like that,' but her sister's words hurt, possibly more than they were meant to. 'Maybe I was better off not coming out of my room,' she thought bitterly. Buffy bowed her head and she knew her failure was complete; no matter what else she had been good at, it no longer mattered. "I'm sorry," the words left her mouth before she could stop them, and before she would give her sister the chance to respond Buffy tried to stand and run away. Her legs failed to carry her as the images of Xander were all around her. "What have I done..." she cried before toppling over. The weight of all that was going on had proven too much for her to carry anymore.

Seeing her sister try to run and eventually fall, angered Dawn, "Is that you will do from now on, RUN AWAY!" Dawn stood up and walked towards her sister and kneeled down, 'It's time, no more beating around the bush.' "Look Buffy, I know you meant it when you said you're sorry," her voice softened as she said this and then hardened again, "but you have to stop running. Please, I don't want to be alone anymore. I'll be here for you too and I am sorry I blamed you for Xander leaving. It's not your fault, and it's not mine, it's his running like he did."

"I've failed…" she said softly. "Everything, everyone…" her voice became lost as she tried to gather her words again. Buffy had always been proud of being able to protect her friends, her family, but there was no protection from her. She was barely able to hear her sisters' words at first, but she forced her self to try harder. Inside her head she could just picture her family and friends looking at her, 'Whatever happened to the once proud slayer, the one we all loved,' they would say to her.

"No, Buffy, you haven't failed; even though you're the slayer you can also make mistakes." She paused and took a breath, as Buffy seemed to stop and appeared to be listening. "Look I have thought about this a lot and I don't blame you for jumping or leaving," Buffy looked up from the floor at her sister, "but I do blame you when you didn't let anyone help you when you came back." Buffy started to lift herself into a sitting position as her sister continued, "I'm not capable of handling all this stress, I also know you're not, that's why we have our friends and each other."

Buffy was shocked that her sister could understand what she had felt so clearly. To say the least Buffy was impressed and the first thought that went through her mind was, 'Wow, when you get so Yoda like.' The sheer levity of her thought brought a smile to her face as she regarded her sister. "I…" her throat hurt still but she had to force the words out. "I'm sorry for leaving you." She then tried to stand and instead just moved to her knees and hugged her sister. "I… I'm not good at this."

Pulling away from Dawn slightly she looked at her sister, "Thanks." Using her sleeve, Buffy whipped her tears away then stood slowly. "You… you hungry?" Dawn agreed and they both decided to go out and see what they could find, 'Things might just be alright, at least I can hope for it.'

Two months after Faith's appearance

Faith and Buffy were slowly walking through one of the many fabulous cemeteries in Sunnydale. The latest news from Spike had warned them that a new group of vampires where trying to expand their forces to oppose the two slayers. Things between them weren't perfect, but after fighting and verbally abusing each other, the two had come to the understanding that they had to give each other another chance.

Deciding that it was time to be honest with her fellow slayer Faith gathered her wits, "Buffy, I think it's about time to let you in on more of what happened with me and Xand a couple months ago in the cell." Faith used Buffy's name not only to show her seriousness but also show that the respect that she had for her fellow Slayer. 'Damn,' Faith thought, 'how do I tell her this?'

"Go ahead, I'm listening," she said calmly though she was more than a little apprehensive. Faith had helped her get through the last couple of weeks and it helped her forgive the rogue Slayer for her past mistakes. Not that it helped the others from forgiving her. But the more Faith revealed about that night the more Buffy was scared that she would hear something she wouldn't like.

She took a deep breath and waited for Faith as they casually patrolled the empty cemetery. 'Damnit, Spike! There aren't any vamps here! Trying to be alone with me, are you? Well, Faith ruined that.' Buffy chuckled at the thought and tried to keep the mood light, though the longer Faith paused, the more tense things felt.

"Well it's time I told it all. Well, at first, there was this blinding bluish-yellow light and there he was. He looked a wreck and his eyes seemed almost dead. He looked at me, pleading for help. I didn't tell you this, but he had been writing me in prison since the first week I was there. Finally I had a friend… Someone who cared, and forgave me for my mistakes. At first I would rip up his letters and then cry myself to sleep because I was afraid, B. Afraid that, if he really saw who I was that he would leave me." A few sniffles left her. She didn't like to cry in front of people, so she tried to contain herself.

She looked at Buffy, and remembered her promise to Xander. That she would try to live a real life and get peace between Buffy and herself. Faith sniffled some more.

A single tear can be seen flowing from Buffy's face, "I know how you feel, for so many years I kept him at arms length. Afraid of what could happen or what could be…but no more. I will not let any one else get that close to me."

Faith was shocked by Buffy's declaration, but she knew that once Xander returned, Buffy would change her tune. "Well the letters became intimate and he eventually visited me once a month. He forgave me Buffy… can you believe that? He forgave me and he said that he'd be there for me, but he's not. Not yet, anyway… but I have to hope that he will come back. Anyway, back to that night. He looked so helpless, so lost I just ignored every question of how he was there and I just hugged him. He cried for what seemed like hours and then he kissed me. He said I was one of the few that made him feel whole… which was a huge surprise. Well things expanded from there and we ended up sleeping together. Let me just tell you he was so gentle and caring, a totally different experience for me. It felt like he was afraid I would disappear."

As Faith continued to tell Buffy about her encounter with Xander, Buffy just stopped and froze. She couldn't believe what he did after what he had said. And with Faith, even though she had been making progress with Faith this was just a bit much.

Before Faith could register what was happening, she was punched in the face and was kicked into a tombstone breaking it on impact. "You Bitch," she heard from Buffy. She opened her eyes to see Buffy running from her.

"Oh shit! Good going Faith," she told her self out loud.

AN: thanks everyone for the reviews.. as to the question of the order of the Goddess.. oops my bad heheh.. I don't know if I'll change it or not yet.  Thanks for the reviews.