Back to Buffy.
Dr. Pisnovski joined Buffy in the room, sat down at a console panel, pushed a couple buttons and Buffy began moving. With his hand on a lever Dr. Pisnovski pulled Buffy closer to him, "You look good up there Buffy, I think it suits you. Have you had time to get a better attitude? I'd hate to see anything happen to your pretty young sister."
"Oh, stop with the threats. I told you that won't work."
"My oh my, I am beginning to think you're a lost cause. Fine, you play the hero to the death, but just remember you are also causing the death of every person you know." The doctor said as he pushed the lever, sending Buffy to within a few feet from the pit of snakes. "Now, just to make you remember this for all of eternity, I will let you watch as each of your friends is killed in a most gruesome way. Although, I can think of some other things I'd like to do to that hot little sister of yours. Yes, I think that's what I'll do first."
"If you so much as look at her I'll kill you." Buffy screamed up at the sadistic doctor.
"Well, won't that be a trick, what with you all tied up and hanging from the rafters and all. Until then, enjoy the view." He walked over to the vamp standing guard, "Bring me Dawn Summers and kill anyone who gets in the way."
"I'm warning you, you have no idea who you're dealing with." Buffy yelled as Dr. Pisnovski laughed and walked out of the room.
Willow and Kennedy were off getting the last ingredients for the location spell they were getting ready to use. Xander had found another 20 camera's in various places throughout the house and Dawn was searching the magic books for some type of release or teleport spell.
Andrew was busy putting his pictures up all over the house. "Okay guys, we're ready. If it works, we'll have an exact location for Buffy and then we can move onto the hard part." Willow said as she sprinkled the last of the Damian around her.
Kennedy, Dawn and Xander backed away as Willow began chanting.
Willow recited the words in front of her and as she finished the chant, a blistering flash of light came down and made a mark on the atlas they had set out.
All four of them rushed towards the atlas and were surprised to see the mark was only a couple miles from where they were.
"Get me the teleport spell." Willow said loudly as she maintained her focus, "I want to do this now; I can feel Buffy's essence and don't want to lose it."
Kennedy grabbed the spell and tossed it to Willow who began to chant some more bizarre words and when she was finished there were no bursts of light or any other such effects, in fact not one thing happened to tell them whether the spell worked or not.
Buffy however was now standing outside the storage facility, but still had the rope and handcuffs on her hands, so she made her way back to the house to find Fatum sitting with his legs up on a chair watching Wheel of Fortune.
"Oh you foolish man, don't buy a vowel, solve the puzzle. It's so easy." Fatum said then switched channels after the man bought the vowel after all.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Buffy said as she stood in front of the TV waving her hands in front of him, "As you can see I wasn't so lucky."
"Ah, I see that. I didn't know you were into bondage." Fatum said as he made a motion with his hand and the rope and handcuffs were no longer there.
"That's more like it." Buffy said as she shook off the stiffness in her hands. "Now, what the hell were you doing while I was being hung above a pit of snakes oh wise ass super being?"
Fatum muted the TV and looked up at Buffy, "I do enjoy your sense of drama. Back to what we were talking about when you pouted and ran away, how much were you thinking of Faith after she left?"
Buffy's face went white then red then she let out a huge scream and then she calmly sat down beside Fatum, "That felt good. Okay, let me answer your question so you'll shut up about Faith. I thought about her a lot after she left. I thought about her while I was hanging from the rafters and I'm thinking about her now. Happy?"
"Actually, I always am happy, but thank you for answering this for me. But, if I could ask one more thing." He said as he pulled out a laptop from somewhere under his skin.
Buffy made a strange face as she saw him pull it out of his body, "Ewe, where did that come from, your intestines? Gross me out and what is it for?" "Just one second dear." Fatum said as he flipped through a thousand files.
"Dear? I don't think so. You can call me Buffy or Miss Summers or pretty blonde, but not dear. I'm not sure why I don't like it, but it sounds so annoying when you say it." "You sure are a strange one Miss Summers, I hope I got it correct this time." Fatum said as he pulled up a file on his computer, "Here Buffy, I want you to have a look at this. I'm going out back and check on our friends."
Fatum got up and strolled out the back door.
Buffy picked up the laptop, sat down in the chair, scrolled up to the top of the page and began reading.
Before she had even read one sentence she realized this was a history of Faith's life before she came to Sunnydale. Complete with pictures and video clips of her life. She instantly put the laptop down, not sure if she should read any further.
She thought of how it was an invasion of Faith's privacy and how she wanted to learn this all from Faith herself, but on the other hand she felt it might help understand why Faith is the way she is. It was such a tough decision, but ultimately she wanted to learn about Faith's life from Faith so she put the computer down and turned it off. All this thinking of Faith was bringing back all those old memories and some of the newer ones since Faith returned to Sunnydale.
Her trip down memory lane was short lived as a loud noise out back had Buffy running out the back door to see a swarm of vamps attacking Fatum.
Buffy flew into action taking out one vamp after another until there were only two left standing and they ran away and she rushed over to Fatum who was lying on the ground, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Fatum opened his eyes slowly, his energy severely drained, "I guess I took on more than I could handle. I should know better, I'm not the same young buck I once was."
"You're going to be fine. Just hang in there. I know Willow set me free and if anyone can help you now it's her. She's a very powerful Wicca and she will help. Just don't die on me yet."
"I don't have much time Buffy, but you need to know a couple things before I go."
"No, stop talking like that. Don't talk at all, conserve your strength. Please, just hang on." Buffy said as she held onto Fatum tightly.
"It's okay, it's the way it was meant to be." Fatum said softly as his voice began to fade, "Your destiny has not yet been revealed, you have much more to do with your life. Do not fight love, you are meant to have it and when you find it, never take it for granted and never let it go." Fatum reached into his pocket and pulled out a small locket and handed it to Buffy, "Open this when the time is right. You'll know when that is. Goodbye Buffy, it was a pleasure meeting you."
"No! No! No!" Buffy screamed, but Fatum had closed his eyes for good.
Buffy took the locket and held it to her chest, her eyes filled with tears for a demon she'd only just met. She put the locket in her pocket, let go of his big furry hand and stood up with anger in her eyes.
There was more than revenge on her mind, but her first concern was doing what was right by Fatum and giving him a proper burial. Things seemed bleak and Buffy had never felt more alone, but that was about to change as she looked up and saw a pickup truck coming down the road she knew her friends were here to help.
Faith did a quick sweep of the small town and was on her way back when she saw a light flickering by the statue. She moved towards the light, but as she got close, she realized the light was coming from the statue; it was shining at the statue.
With a quick look around, she saw where the light was coming from and ran up the hill, tracing the light to a small hole in the middle of the hill. She bent down and pushed some sand and dirt out of the way, revealing a door with a camera attached to the window.
Her hands weren't working near fast enough so she ran back to the statue where she grabbed the pick axe from the ground and ran back and began smashing the door down.
Once she smashed in the top half, she climbed up and slid down the other side.
As she looked around, she saw what amounted to the basement or game room of someone's house.
There was TV on one corner and another one in the opposite corner. A pool table, foosball table and numerous calendar's of pretty girls filled the room.
Faith picked up a pizza box from the table and it didn't take a genius to figure out this was no demon hideout, this was like a fraternity house. When she opened the pizza box she could feel heat coming from inside, so she dropped it to the ground and ran towards the back door of the place. She pulled the door opened and three teenage boys started running away.
It didn't take much for Faith to get them under control and soon had them sitting in a row on the dirty old couch, "Okay, who's gonna start?" All three boys, all around 16 or 17 years old, looked at each other and the two on the outside nudged the middle guy to his feet, "Um, I don't know who you are but we think you should go. This is our place and we didn't invite you."
"Well I'm here so get used to it." Faith said as she took a step towards the tall awkward boy, who swiftly took a seat. "That's better, now I don't want to ask again, what is going on here?"
The kid on the right stood up, adjusted his glasses and rubbed his thin goatee, "We are just having some fun is all. There's no crime in that." He looked at his two friends as he felt a rush of adrenaline go through his body, "But, it is a crime to smash down someone's door."
Faith laughed at the kids threat and walked over to an open shelf and pulled out a video tape, "What's this? Hmm, it says Karen, 7/13/03."
All three boys got up and rushed towards the shelf, but Faith stared them down and they sat back down.
"If this is anything like what I think it is you are going to wish you never met me." Faith said as she looked through the other tapes, but there were only tapes of TV shows and movies. "So, you have one tape here of a girl, should I put it in the VCR or did you want to save me the trouble." "It's not what you think." The shorter kid said as he stood up and walked up to Faith, "It's just, well, it's the only good thing we've ever had happen to us. Karen is not some girl from around here. She's perfectly legal and willingly allowed us to tape her."
"Well isn't that a heartwarming story." Faith said as she put the tape in the VCR, "As I watch this wonderful tape, you can tell me what you know about the Higathi demon."
They looked at each other again, but nobody said a word.
Faith watched the tape and saw an attractive blonde woman appear and moments later start stripping, "It's nice to know you have a hobby.who are you three anyway? Names please and then you need to tell me what you know about this demon. I am not going to ask again."
The short kid looked at the other two, who nodded for him to continue, "I'm Dougie and that's Harold and that dork is little Timmy."
Timmy stood up and walked over to his friend, "Shut up, it's Tim now and I'm not a dork you loser."
"Enough with the teenage drama club." Faith said as she stepped in between the two boys, "Now, one last time, Higathi and what you know about him?
Dougie "Okay, okay, it started out as joke and it just got way out of hand. Who knew everyone would fall for such a fake looking demon?"
Faith was rolling her eyes at the insanity of the situation, "You've got to be kidding? There is no demon? How could you possibly pull this off? Everyone believes this and from what I've seen, are pretty scared."
Harold got up and walked over to another cabinet and pulled out a rather advanced looking video camera and brought it over to Faith, "This is not just a video camera, it's been tweaked to double as a holographic projector. We created the demon, filmed it, created a voice for it and then when we had it all setup we tried it out."
"This is just unbelievable. Don't you have anything better to do with your lives?" Faith asked as she stared at the three teens.
"Don't knock it, this took us about 16 months to pull off. You have no idea how much work it is to create a demon from scratch." Tim said while grabbing a piece of pizza.
Faith "Just one more thing, what did you plan on doing with Isabella? You know, the sacrifice girl?"
"We hadn't thought that far in advance." Harold added, his eyes staring directly at Faith's breasts, "We really had no idea this would get so far as it is. It's not like we were going to hurt her or anything." "First off, could ya at least try looking my in the eyes?" she said as she lifted his head upward, "Somehow I doubt you wanted to bring a pretty girl into your little playpen here to talk, so I have to think it was for something sexual and that really pisses me off."
"Well, we didn't do anything wrong. It didn't work, you interfered so I guess that's that." Dougie said with a smug look on his face.
"Oh how much I'd love to wipe that look off your face, but I'm reformed now, well sort of, and I just don't think you're worth it. So, here's what's gonna happen. We, meaning you, are going to go outside, turn on your holograph thingy and explain to the town everything you have done. I'll let all the parents decide what your punishment is and then I'll let Isabella have her say in all this. When all that is done, we'll see how happy you all are. Now get a move on, it's time to meet the town."
"This isn't fair, we were just having some fun." Harold said, his face turning white with the thought of his dad finding out what he's been up to.
"That's for the town to decide, now show me the way out." Faith pushed the guys forward and they led her through a maze of corridors until they came to a set of steps that led right up behind the police station.
Faith looked at the big sign in front of her and smiled at the three troublemakers, "I wonder if this is irony, fate or just poetic justice we ended up here. Anyway, the sooner you get this over with the sooner you can get back to enjoying videos and playing pool."
They all marched into the police station, with a little help from Faith and as she watched a police officer come and take them away, she shook her head and ran back to Isabella's house.
After explaining the situation to Isabella and her parent's, Faith went back up to her room to gather her stuff up.
"Hey, you don't have to leave tonight you know?" Isabella asked as she came in and sat on the bed.
"I know, but I think it's for the best." Faith said as she picked up her small bag and threw it over her shoulder, "I know it's sudden, but if I've learned anything from all this, it's that I need to go back and deal with my problems head on."
"Oh, you mean that girl, Buffy?" Isabella asked, not sure if she was happy or sad about Faith going back to another girl.
"Yes, she'd be the one. I can't believe how much I've missed her and I just want to go back and see if we can make this work." Faith smiled , but then saw the disappointment in Isabella's eyes so she and she stopped and looked her in the eyes, "Hey, I'm going to be back. I am not leaving for good. I want to find out what happened to your sister to. I just need to see Buffy first. "Oh, that's great. I was hoping you'd say that, but I didn't want to push." Isabella said,
Isabella followed close behind, "Let me walk you to where we met, it's the least I can do."
"Thanks, I'd like that." Faith smiled and the two girls left the house and began walking down the street.
"I do want to thank you for everything you've done for me. You must think we are so stupid thinking some holograph was a demon." Isabella blushed as they crossed the street.
"No, not at all." Faith said as they came upon the road where they'd met, "Those guys were pretty convincing, but I have a feeling they have learned there lesson and will never try anything so stupid again. I think you'll be safe from them." "I know and I owe it all to you." Isabella said, smiling at Faith and then leaned forward and gave her a very big kiss.
Faith pulled back with a stunned look on her face, "What was that?"
Isabella smiled, "It was just a kiss silly. I couldn't help it. I've wanted to kiss you since we met." She stopped as she saw Faith getting nervous, "Oh don't worry, I know your heart belongs to this Buffy girl and that's fine, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't seize the moment and show you how I feel about you."
"I don't know what to say." Faith said, suddenly at a loss for words, "If things were different and."
"It's okay, I am happy right now and that's all I want, so thanks again. I'll never forget you Faith." Isabella was smiling from ear to ear and as she looked down at her purse, her eyes lit up, "Hey, can I take a picture so I have something to remember you by?" "Sure, for you I'll make an exception to my anti-picture rule." Faith sat down her bag and began making mock poses, "Okay, so how do you want me?"
"Oh, I know I won't get that pose, so I'll settle for a big smile." Isabella held out her Polaroid, waited until the wind died down and then clicked the camera and waited for the picture of Faith to develop.
Faith ran over to see how the picture turned out, "Oh, I look horrible, you have to take another picture."
"You do not, you look beautiful and I won't trade this picture for anything." Isabella said as she put the picture down her top.
"You're lucky I'm going home to B or I'd reach down and take that picture from ya." Faith smiled and then gave Isabella a big hug.
Isabella squeezed Faith tight and looked behind her as a couple kids were fooling around on their jet ski's.
"I'm glad I met you Isabella, you're a sweet girl and I hope you have a long happy life." Faith said as she walked back over to her bag.
"I hope you and Buffy have the same long happy life to. I'm really happy for you, I just hope she knows how lucky she is." Isabella said as she waved to Faith.
There were a half dozen jet ski's in the water now and Isabella was watching them as they came close to the shore. In an instant, her eyes lit up as she saw a gun in one man's hand and as he turned to fire it at the other man Isabella saw that Faith was right in the line of sight so she rushed over and pushed Faith out of the way.
Faith was lying on the ground as she heard the sound of gunshots and screamed as she saw Isabella fall to the ground.
She rushed over to see Isabella bleeding terribly from her chest and Faith pulled off her t-shirt and held it against the wound to stop the bleeding, "Oh god no, Isabella. Isabella, can you hear me?"
Isabella didn't answer and Faith was frantic and grabbed the cell phone from Isabella's purse and dialed 911, told the operator what had just happened and within minutes the ambulance came flying down the road.
"Isabella, hang on please. The ambulance is here and they are going to take of you." Faith said, holding her hand and waving to the paramedics to hurry up.
Isabella squeezed Faith's hand and tried to open her eyes, "Faith.are you okay?" she asked in a faint almost whisper of a voice.
"Yes, I'm fine. You saved my life." Faith said wiping away the flood of tears, "Now you have to take it easy and let these people help you." She said as she watched the paramedics work on her.
They put her on a gurney, lifted her into the ambulance and with Faith by her side they drove to the small hospital downtown.
End of Part Three.
Dr. Pisnovski joined Buffy in the room, sat down at a console panel, pushed a couple buttons and Buffy began moving. With his hand on a lever Dr. Pisnovski pulled Buffy closer to him, "You look good up there Buffy, I think it suits you. Have you had time to get a better attitude? I'd hate to see anything happen to your pretty young sister."
"Oh, stop with the threats. I told you that won't work."
"My oh my, I am beginning to think you're a lost cause. Fine, you play the hero to the death, but just remember you are also causing the death of every person you know." The doctor said as he pushed the lever, sending Buffy to within a few feet from the pit of snakes. "Now, just to make you remember this for all of eternity, I will let you watch as each of your friends is killed in a most gruesome way. Although, I can think of some other things I'd like to do to that hot little sister of yours. Yes, I think that's what I'll do first."
"If you so much as look at her I'll kill you." Buffy screamed up at the sadistic doctor.
"Well, won't that be a trick, what with you all tied up and hanging from the rafters and all. Until then, enjoy the view." He walked over to the vamp standing guard, "Bring me Dawn Summers and kill anyone who gets in the way."
"I'm warning you, you have no idea who you're dealing with." Buffy yelled as Dr. Pisnovski laughed and walked out of the room.
Willow and Kennedy were off getting the last ingredients for the location spell they were getting ready to use. Xander had found another 20 camera's in various places throughout the house and Dawn was searching the magic books for some type of release or teleport spell.
Andrew was busy putting his pictures up all over the house. "Okay guys, we're ready. If it works, we'll have an exact location for Buffy and then we can move onto the hard part." Willow said as she sprinkled the last of the Damian around her.
Kennedy, Dawn and Xander backed away as Willow began chanting.
Willow recited the words in front of her and as she finished the chant, a blistering flash of light came down and made a mark on the atlas they had set out.
All four of them rushed towards the atlas and were surprised to see the mark was only a couple miles from where they were.
"Get me the teleport spell." Willow said loudly as she maintained her focus, "I want to do this now; I can feel Buffy's essence and don't want to lose it."
Kennedy grabbed the spell and tossed it to Willow who began to chant some more bizarre words and when she was finished there were no bursts of light or any other such effects, in fact not one thing happened to tell them whether the spell worked or not.
Buffy however was now standing outside the storage facility, but still had the rope and handcuffs on her hands, so she made her way back to the house to find Fatum sitting with his legs up on a chair watching Wheel of Fortune.
"Oh you foolish man, don't buy a vowel, solve the puzzle. It's so easy." Fatum said then switched channels after the man bought the vowel after all.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Buffy said as she stood in front of the TV waving her hands in front of him, "As you can see I wasn't so lucky."
"Ah, I see that. I didn't know you were into bondage." Fatum said as he made a motion with his hand and the rope and handcuffs were no longer there.
"That's more like it." Buffy said as she shook off the stiffness in her hands. "Now, what the hell were you doing while I was being hung above a pit of snakes oh wise ass super being?"
Fatum muted the TV and looked up at Buffy, "I do enjoy your sense of drama. Back to what we were talking about when you pouted and ran away, how much were you thinking of Faith after she left?"
Buffy's face went white then red then she let out a huge scream and then she calmly sat down beside Fatum, "That felt good. Okay, let me answer your question so you'll shut up about Faith. I thought about her a lot after she left. I thought about her while I was hanging from the rafters and I'm thinking about her now. Happy?"
"Actually, I always am happy, but thank you for answering this for me. But, if I could ask one more thing." He said as he pulled out a laptop from somewhere under his skin.
Buffy made a strange face as she saw him pull it out of his body, "Ewe, where did that come from, your intestines? Gross me out and what is it for?" "Just one second dear." Fatum said as he flipped through a thousand files.
"Dear? I don't think so. You can call me Buffy or Miss Summers or pretty blonde, but not dear. I'm not sure why I don't like it, but it sounds so annoying when you say it." "You sure are a strange one Miss Summers, I hope I got it correct this time." Fatum said as he pulled up a file on his computer, "Here Buffy, I want you to have a look at this. I'm going out back and check on our friends."
Fatum got up and strolled out the back door.
Buffy picked up the laptop, sat down in the chair, scrolled up to the top of the page and began reading.
Before she had even read one sentence she realized this was a history of Faith's life before she came to Sunnydale. Complete with pictures and video clips of her life. She instantly put the laptop down, not sure if she should read any further.
She thought of how it was an invasion of Faith's privacy and how she wanted to learn this all from Faith herself, but on the other hand she felt it might help understand why Faith is the way she is. It was such a tough decision, but ultimately she wanted to learn about Faith's life from Faith so she put the computer down and turned it off. All this thinking of Faith was bringing back all those old memories and some of the newer ones since Faith returned to Sunnydale.
Her trip down memory lane was short lived as a loud noise out back had Buffy running out the back door to see a swarm of vamps attacking Fatum.
Buffy flew into action taking out one vamp after another until there were only two left standing and they ran away and she rushed over to Fatum who was lying on the ground, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Fatum opened his eyes slowly, his energy severely drained, "I guess I took on more than I could handle. I should know better, I'm not the same young buck I once was."
"You're going to be fine. Just hang in there. I know Willow set me free and if anyone can help you now it's her. She's a very powerful Wicca and she will help. Just don't die on me yet."
"I don't have much time Buffy, but you need to know a couple things before I go."
"No, stop talking like that. Don't talk at all, conserve your strength. Please, just hang on." Buffy said as she held onto Fatum tightly.
"It's okay, it's the way it was meant to be." Fatum said softly as his voice began to fade, "Your destiny has not yet been revealed, you have much more to do with your life. Do not fight love, you are meant to have it and when you find it, never take it for granted and never let it go." Fatum reached into his pocket and pulled out a small locket and handed it to Buffy, "Open this when the time is right. You'll know when that is. Goodbye Buffy, it was a pleasure meeting you."
"No! No! No!" Buffy screamed, but Fatum had closed his eyes for good.
Buffy took the locket and held it to her chest, her eyes filled with tears for a demon she'd only just met. She put the locket in her pocket, let go of his big furry hand and stood up with anger in her eyes.
There was more than revenge on her mind, but her first concern was doing what was right by Fatum and giving him a proper burial. Things seemed bleak and Buffy had never felt more alone, but that was about to change as she looked up and saw a pickup truck coming down the road she knew her friends were here to help.
Faith did a quick sweep of the small town and was on her way back when she saw a light flickering by the statue. She moved towards the light, but as she got close, she realized the light was coming from the statue; it was shining at the statue.
With a quick look around, she saw where the light was coming from and ran up the hill, tracing the light to a small hole in the middle of the hill. She bent down and pushed some sand and dirt out of the way, revealing a door with a camera attached to the window.
Her hands weren't working near fast enough so she ran back to the statue where she grabbed the pick axe from the ground and ran back and began smashing the door down.
Once she smashed in the top half, she climbed up and slid down the other side.
As she looked around, she saw what amounted to the basement or game room of someone's house.
There was TV on one corner and another one in the opposite corner. A pool table, foosball table and numerous calendar's of pretty girls filled the room.
Faith picked up a pizza box from the table and it didn't take a genius to figure out this was no demon hideout, this was like a fraternity house. When she opened the pizza box she could feel heat coming from inside, so she dropped it to the ground and ran towards the back door of the place. She pulled the door opened and three teenage boys started running away.
It didn't take much for Faith to get them under control and soon had them sitting in a row on the dirty old couch, "Okay, who's gonna start?" All three boys, all around 16 or 17 years old, looked at each other and the two on the outside nudged the middle guy to his feet, "Um, I don't know who you are but we think you should go. This is our place and we didn't invite you."
"Well I'm here so get used to it." Faith said as she took a step towards the tall awkward boy, who swiftly took a seat. "That's better, now I don't want to ask again, what is going on here?"
The kid on the right stood up, adjusted his glasses and rubbed his thin goatee, "We are just having some fun is all. There's no crime in that." He looked at his two friends as he felt a rush of adrenaline go through his body, "But, it is a crime to smash down someone's door."
Faith laughed at the kids threat and walked over to an open shelf and pulled out a video tape, "What's this? Hmm, it says Karen, 7/13/03."
All three boys got up and rushed towards the shelf, but Faith stared them down and they sat back down.
"If this is anything like what I think it is you are going to wish you never met me." Faith said as she looked through the other tapes, but there were only tapes of TV shows and movies. "So, you have one tape here of a girl, should I put it in the VCR or did you want to save me the trouble." "It's not what you think." The shorter kid said as he stood up and walked up to Faith, "It's just, well, it's the only good thing we've ever had happen to us. Karen is not some girl from around here. She's perfectly legal and willingly allowed us to tape her."
"Well isn't that a heartwarming story." Faith said as she put the tape in the VCR, "As I watch this wonderful tape, you can tell me what you know about the Higathi demon."
They looked at each other again, but nobody said a word.
Faith watched the tape and saw an attractive blonde woman appear and moments later start stripping, "It's nice to know you have a hobby.who are you three anyway? Names please and then you need to tell me what you know about this demon. I am not going to ask again."
The short kid looked at the other two, who nodded for him to continue, "I'm Dougie and that's Harold and that dork is little Timmy."
Timmy stood up and walked over to his friend, "Shut up, it's Tim now and I'm not a dork you loser."
"Enough with the teenage drama club." Faith said as she stepped in between the two boys, "Now, one last time, Higathi and what you know about him?
Dougie "Okay, okay, it started out as joke and it just got way out of hand. Who knew everyone would fall for such a fake looking demon?"
Faith was rolling her eyes at the insanity of the situation, "You've got to be kidding? There is no demon? How could you possibly pull this off? Everyone believes this and from what I've seen, are pretty scared."
Harold got up and walked over to another cabinet and pulled out a rather advanced looking video camera and brought it over to Faith, "This is not just a video camera, it's been tweaked to double as a holographic projector. We created the demon, filmed it, created a voice for it and then when we had it all setup we tried it out."
"This is just unbelievable. Don't you have anything better to do with your lives?" Faith asked as she stared at the three teens.
"Don't knock it, this took us about 16 months to pull off. You have no idea how much work it is to create a demon from scratch." Tim said while grabbing a piece of pizza.
Faith "Just one more thing, what did you plan on doing with Isabella? You know, the sacrifice girl?"
"We hadn't thought that far in advance." Harold added, his eyes staring directly at Faith's breasts, "We really had no idea this would get so far as it is. It's not like we were going to hurt her or anything." "First off, could ya at least try looking my in the eyes?" she said as she lifted his head upward, "Somehow I doubt you wanted to bring a pretty girl into your little playpen here to talk, so I have to think it was for something sexual and that really pisses me off."
"Well, we didn't do anything wrong. It didn't work, you interfered so I guess that's that." Dougie said with a smug look on his face.
"Oh how much I'd love to wipe that look off your face, but I'm reformed now, well sort of, and I just don't think you're worth it. So, here's what's gonna happen. We, meaning you, are going to go outside, turn on your holograph thingy and explain to the town everything you have done. I'll let all the parents decide what your punishment is and then I'll let Isabella have her say in all this. When all that is done, we'll see how happy you all are. Now get a move on, it's time to meet the town."
"This isn't fair, we were just having some fun." Harold said, his face turning white with the thought of his dad finding out what he's been up to.
"That's for the town to decide, now show me the way out." Faith pushed the guys forward and they led her through a maze of corridors until they came to a set of steps that led right up behind the police station.
Faith looked at the big sign in front of her and smiled at the three troublemakers, "I wonder if this is irony, fate or just poetic justice we ended up here. Anyway, the sooner you get this over with the sooner you can get back to enjoying videos and playing pool."
They all marched into the police station, with a little help from Faith and as she watched a police officer come and take them away, she shook her head and ran back to Isabella's house.
After explaining the situation to Isabella and her parent's, Faith went back up to her room to gather her stuff up.
"Hey, you don't have to leave tonight you know?" Isabella asked as she came in and sat on the bed.
"I know, but I think it's for the best." Faith said as she picked up her small bag and threw it over her shoulder, "I know it's sudden, but if I've learned anything from all this, it's that I need to go back and deal with my problems head on."
"Oh, you mean that girl, Buffy?" Isabella asked, not sure if she was happy or sad about Faith going back to another girl.
"Yes, she'd be the one. I can't believe how much I've missed her and I just want to go back and see if we can make this work." Faith smiled , but then saw the disappointment in Isabella's eyes so she and she stopped and looked her in the eyes, "Hey, I'm going to be back. I am not leaving for good. I want to find out what happened to your sister to. I just need to see Buffy first. "Oh, that's great. I was hoping you'd say that, but I didn't want to push." Isabella said,
Isabella followed close behind, "Let me walk you to where we met, it's the least I can do."
"Thanks, I'd like that." Faith smiled and the two girls left the house and began walking down the street.
"I do want to thank you for everything you've done for me. You must think we are so stupid thinking some holograph was a demon." Isabella blushed as they crossed the street.
"No, not at all." Faith said as they came upon the road where they'd met, "Those guys were pretty convincing, but I have a feeling they have learned there lesson and will never try anything so stupid again. I think you'll be safe from them." "I know and I owe it all to you." Isabella said, smiling at Faith and then leaned forward and gave her a very big kiss.
Faith pulled back with a stunned look on her face, "What was that?"
Isabella smiled, "It was just a kiss silly. I couldn't help it. I've wanted to kiss you since we met." She stopped as she saw Faith getting nervous, "Oh don't worry, I know your heart belongs to this Buffy girl and that's fine, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't seize the moment and show you how I feel about you."
"I don't know what to say." Faith said, suddenly at a loss for words, "If things were different and."
"It's okay, I am happy right now and that's all I want, so thanks again. I'll never forget you Faith." Isabella was smiling from ear to ear and as she looked down at her purse, her eyes lit up, "Hey, can I take a picture so I have something to remember you by?" "Sure, for you I'll make an exception to my anti-picture rule." Faith sat down her bag and began making mock poses, "Okay, so how do you want me?"
"Oh, I know I won't get that pose, so I'll settle for a big smile." Isabella held out her Polaroid, waited until the wind died down and then clicked the camera and waited for the picture of Faith to develop.
Faith ran over to see how the picture turned out, "Oh, I look horrible, you have to take another picture."
"You do not, you look beautiful and I won't trade this picture for anything." Isabella said as she put the picture down her top.
"You're lucky I'm going home to B or I'd reach down and take that picture from ya." Faith smiled and then gave Isabella a big hug.
Isabella squeezed Faith tight and looked behind her as a couple kids were fooling around on their jet ski's.
"I'm glad I met you Isabella, you're a sweet girl and I hope you have a long happy life." Faith said as she walked back over to her bag.
"I hope you and Buffy have the same long happy life to. I'm really happy for you, I just hope she knows how lucky she is." Isabella said as she waved to Faith.
There were a half dozen jet ski's in the water now and Isabella was watching them as they came close to the shore. In an instant, her eyes lit up as she saw a gun in one man's hand and as he turned to fire it at the other man Isabella saw that Faith was right in the line of sight so she rushed over and pushed Faith out of the way.
Faith was lying on the ground as she heard the sound of gunshots and screamed as she saw Isabella fall to the ground.
She rushed over to see Isabella bleeding terribly from her chest and Faith pulled off her t-shirt and held it against the wound to stop the bleeding, "Oh god no, Isabella. Isabella, can you hear me?"
Isabella didn't answer and Faith was frantic and grabbed the cell phone from Isabella's purse and dialed 911, told the operator what had just happened and within minutes the ambulance came flying down the road.
"Isabella, hang on please. The ambulance is here and they are going to take of you." Faith said, holding her hand and waving to the paramedics to hurry up.
Isabella squeezed Faith's hand and tried to open her eyes, "Faith.are you okay?" she asked in a faint almost whisper of a voice.
"Yes, I'm fine. You saved my life." Faith said wiping away the flood of tears, "Now you have to take it easy and let these people help you." She said as she watched the paramedics work on her.
They put her on a gurney, lifted her into the ambulance and with Faith by her side they drove to the small hospital downtown.
End of Part Three.