Willow was surprised at the urgency Giles had shown to start training
Kennedy after he found out that she was the one who was called. May be he
was scared that even Buffy wouldn't come back, especially after the
exchange they had in the kitchen before she had left. Or he was desperate
to believe that what he had done was the right thing. He was driving
Kennedy like machine while she took it enthusiastically. Kennedy had been
the kind of person who had always got what she wanted. Being born in a rich
family does that to people. To top that she had a drive for not wanting to
loose, so when her watcher was killed and she had found herself in a fight
where she was not more than a bystander it had driven her crazy. Though she
disapproved with the means Giles had used so that she was called, she
didn't wish to let the opportunity go by. Whether or not Buffy came back,
she had a fight to win and she planned to get ready for that.
The news had reached that Faith was alive which brought a sigh of relief to Xander, Willow and Dawn, who had been holding their breath waiting for Buffy to go wacky on them. Giles was relieved to hear the news too, but he tried to act as though it didn't matter by just stating, "Well, the more the merrier. I suppose."
When the evening was drawing nearer Giles had started to prepare the weapon bag for Kennedy's first patrol while Kennedy still practiced in the backyard. Willow made herself tea and watched the young slayer from the window above the sink. Her body looked so amazingly comfortable with her new found strength and she still moved with a grace of a dancer even while practicing fighting techniques. She had always admired that about slayers, whether it was Buffy or even Faith. But now to watch this young woman doing the same, made her more excited, in ways she didn't want to be.
She sipped on her tea as she tried to think of Tara instead. Trying to think about Tara only reminded her of the conversation they had on the phone earlier when Tara was definitely angry with her about breaking the promise. She couldn't understand why Tara would be so upset about it, after all it was just a stupid promise and now that Faith was alive there was no harm done. Of course Willow didn't allow herself to think that if Faith wasn't alive, because thinking that meant that she had to admit her fault and she liked denying more than admitting; just like she had done with her magic addiction, which she finally had gotten rid of. But to Willow it wasn't about admitting what she had done wrong, it was all about how she could compete. It was about how her love would never be good enough for someone who gave up her destiny for her. How could she ever forgive herself for that?
It was only recently that Willow had come to know that Tara had given up her destiny for her. Something that Tara had felt would have made them come closer but it had only put a distance between them. At first the wicca had tried to do her best to understand, but ultimately it was just about the fact that Tara was willing to make one of the most important decisions in their life without consulting Willow even once. Regardless of where her destiny would have taken them, Willow felt that she should have had a say in it, especially if the sacrifice was to be made for her.
Tara did tell her that she had accepted her destiny, how that had happened Willow didn't know, but she was happier now than she had been in days. She felt like a huge burden was lifted from her, like she felt guilty that Tara was not what she was supposed to be, because of her. But now she didn't understand where their relationship stood, at that moment Tara certainly couldn't come there. Being the white-lighter Tara was blocked from the range of the hell mouth. She also had gone with Phoebe, who Willow could tell had some ulterior interest in Tara, which she certainly didn't like. Of course she should not be the one to complain as just a few hours ago she was joining lips with the slayer outside. But like Kennedy had said that was just a moment and she was still in love with Tara or that's what she thought.
"So that is Kennedy." Buffy said from behind as she walked in to join her wican friend. "Oh! Buffy you are back." Willow said a little surprised and little scared. "Yeah. I hopped a ride with Paige. When Tara told me Kennedy was called. I knew the name but I couldn't put a face to it. There are so many girls in this house its hard to tell who is who you know. But now that I see her I think Giles hit a jackpot this time around, she is exactly what he wanted." Buffy finished her thought while Willow just nodded in affirmation. "So what's Mr. Watcher's plan for the little girl?" Buffy asked sarcastically. "Oh! I think he is sending her for patrol, as we were not sure if you would come back." Willow replied then realized what she just said and added, "I mean come back today." "Why, he is not sending her to the opening of the hell mouth to see if she can defeat the First? And if she can't we will certainly have another." Buffy couldn't refrain herself from making that remark. "That is not what it was about Buffy." It was Giles who spoke as he entered the very room where just this morning he was almost shred to pieces by his charge. "Spare me your reasoning Giles. You can play God with any of these girls out here, and they might even believe that you have a reason or wisdom to do so. But I have been fighting this fight for too long so leave Faith and me out of this game. You got your slayer; you do your fight. I never needed potentials to fight my fight before and I still don't need it now." Buffy blasted at her former watcher. "Together we are stronger." Giles put it grimly. "Surely that thought didn't cross your mind when you sent Faith to the First this morning." Buffy replied. "But she is alive, Buffy." Willow tried to make Buffy feel better by the reminder. "But she wasn't meant to be." Buffy retorted. "One bad apple rots all." Giles certainly believed that he was not wrong. "How did you figure that she was the bad apple? She had changed and ." "Yes, she had. And so had you." Giles interrupted Buffy's sentence. "Ever since she came back the focus of you and Piper had been nothing but Faith. Regardless of how you two felt about her the most important agenda was to be the First but no, the most important things for you all was bickering over Faiths love. When did Buffy Summers start to care more about one person than about the world?" "Maybe since she fell in love." Buffy answer was nothing more than a whisper. "Or may be since she can't believe that she was rejected by someone she loved." Giles added. Buffy shot a look at Giles at his statement. "Love is not a fight and you were making it one. The only fight we have here is the fight to save the world. You had to learn your lesson." "At Faith's expense." Buffy asked. "I sent her right after dawn when I knew you would be back. I was counting on you to save her and not the witches. I thought a fight together would help you both resolve your issues. The only regret I have is that the witches did intervene and maybe you didn't get your answers. But I hope that you would move past your hurt ego and try and concentrate on what is important here. Seeing that you came back without her I don't know if the issue is resolved but I know that you have come back as the Buffy for whom the fight was above all love." Giles didn't take his eyes off Buffy the entire time. "You mean you got your slayer back." "Slayer is what you are." "But is that all I am?" "No, but right now slayer is what we need. Necessity is above all causes." "And love is not a necessity?" "Is it for you?" Buffy didn't have an answer, because the question that was staring at her face was if she needed Faith not just wanted Faith. She didn't have an answer because even though she could easily process feelings like the hurt and anger, she was not able to process love. She smirked at herself once again as Faith's words rang in her mind, "You don't know love."
Tara had made more than one trip to the elders since she had healed Faith. The first trip certainly was about her acceptance of her powers but others were mostly about the hell mouth. Even though Buffy and Faith were too tangled up in their feelings to notice, the First was coming closer and closer to fulfill his intentions as the days went by. It was imperative that someone pushed the slayers and the Charmed Ones to work faster. That is why Tara had calls out to anyone who had any information that could help. It was 10pm and Phoebe was sitting on the couch with the Book of Shadows on her lap and packet of chips on her hands when Paige orbed back after dropping Faith off. "Oh! Piper is so going to yell at you for dropping the crumbs on the Book of Shadows." Paige said as she snuggled next to her sister and shared the innocent sin. "Only after she yells at you for letting Faith go to Sunnydale without her knowledge." Phoebe replied trying to scare her little sister of her elder sister's wrath. "Oh! Don't try to scare me. You know I tried to stop her. And you are my proof of that." Paige said as she munched on the chips and opened her eyes wide at the page that Phoebe was reading on the Book of Shadows. "Anyway, I don't think when Tara said do some research while she was gone; she meant do some research on her. Let's see you are reading on witches/white-lighters. Ummm. Must be interesting." Paige tried to pull the book from Phoebe but her sister kept a firm hold on the book with both her hands and even some of her upper body weight. "Ohhhh! Paige, I was just curious." "Curious about the woman who has a girlfriend?" Paige seriously questioned her sister's motives. Before Phoebe could come up with an excuse, Tara orbed in their living room and Phoebe shut the book as soon as she could. "Oooo! The crumbs." Paige muttered and looked at Tara. "I might have something. But we have to work fast. It has to be done tonight, or else we might be too late." Tara said grimly not even bothering to notice the school girl look Phoebe was giving her. "Who said something about being too late? What are we too late for people?" Piper said walking down the stairs. "I was called by a tantrik in the Himalayan region. He has a solution but we have very little time to come up with a potion and a spell. The First is already getting too strong. There are no demon or evil in the streets any more. They are all allied with him." Tara finished her sentence, sounding more and more like a white-lighter than the timid little witch that the sisters had met only little over a month ago. "Ok people you heard the lady. Phoebe, Tara the Book of Shadows, Paige with me, kitchen we have a potion to brew." Piper ordered and started to stride towards the kitchen. "You ok?" Paige asked her eldest sibling as soon as she reached the kitchen. Piper had always been all about just getting the work done in the beginning which she had reasoned was because of Prue's loss but she had calmed down later on and now again seeing her sister take the same stride made her wonder if she had done the right thing by giving in to Faith's request. "I am fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Piper replied trying to be unaffected and started to get the ingredients and just throwing them in the pot. "Ok. Just make sure you don't blow the placeup." Paige said stopping her sister from brewing something toxic.
"What are you doing here?" was the first thing Buffy asked when she saw Faith sitting on the same gravestone where she had sat and waited for her months ago.
When Faith had woke up in Piper's arms the sun had already set so she had asked Paige to orb her directly to that particular graveyard because she knew that Buffy would come there.
"I came here for you." She replied to the question that Buffy had started their conversation with even on the night months ago when she had come for and waited especially for her on that very spot.
Buffy chuckled at the answer that she had hoped Faith would have given her the first time they stood on those grounds but now there were too many things that had happened for that sentence to bring a smile. "You shouldn't have come." Buffy told Faith grimly, "It's not safe for you here."
"Yeah, B. I fight monsters and vampires and I should stay away because of an old man, a half wit witch, trembling excuse of a man, an ex-demon and a teenager. You really think they scare me?" Faith said as she joined Buffy who had started to walk. "Regardless they managed to kill you." Buffy said stopping and looking at Faith. "Yeah and I came back. I guess that's another thing we have in common." Faith smiled trying to get Buffy to smile a little. "Are we that alike?" Buffy just asked. "No, B we ain't nothing alike." Faith was now as serious as Buffy was. "Yes, we are. We both have lost everything because of the slayer thing that we have to continue. We have died and come back and still we are prowling around cemetarys in the middle of the night trying save the people for whom we are nothing but a machine to keep them safe." Buffy told Faith and continued before Faith could say anything. "I remember this scared girl who had come running here after her watcher was killed. You were so lost; I could see the pain in your eyes even though you acted as though you were all cool about it. Everyone just heard your stories of killing demon in the nude and all; while I saw you pound on one vampire over and over to make up for the hurt in your heart. Its no wonder you were so easily lured by the Mayor, slayering had given you nothing but pain." Buffy concluded. "It had given me you B." Faith admitted looking down. "If you had seen the pain, if you had understood, why was I still alone B? Why did I have to find Mayor to find a little love that you so easily claim you have for me today?" Faith asked what she had meant to ask months ago. "Because we are alike. If you had lost your watcher when you came in, I had just come back after stabbing Angel. The spell Willow did on Angel had worked. He had got his soul back. I could see it in his eyes. I was looking at the eyes that loved me as much as I loved him when I put the stake through his heart. I was so scared of falling in love after that, that I fought it the only way I could do that was by trying to get rid of you. When you were with the Mayor I just laughed at my fate for bringing me to the same road that I had tried to avoid. On the same spot, looking at the eyes that loved me as much as I loved them, but this time I made it a point to miss." She turned Faith to look at her and took her hand and touched the spot where she had stabbed her. "But I know what I have become in the process. So, it is no surprise that it's ok for you to make love to me all night and walk out the next morning with no words, its certainly ok for Giles and Scoobies to assume that I would just sit and watch as they plotted to kill you. It's ok." Faith put a finger on Buffy's lips which were now soaked with her tears. "No, B it's not ok. B listen don't think about things too much and make them complicated. I took myself to the Mayor just like I kept me in the prison when I could have easily escaped. It had nothing to do with you. Won't say it didn't hurt not having your by my side but hell B it was all my doing. I am done blaming you and especially blaming you for my expectations of you. It was wrong of me to walk out on you that morning and I admit it now. I should have stayed and talked things through with you, rather than so long. Things wouldn't have been this difficult if I had done it then, but while you stay and see things through, I am just so used to running. That's why I came back; I don't want to run no more. And you can't blame the Scoobies, they just knew you B, they knew you would see the bigger picture. And please don't blame yourself for what they thought of you, regardless of where that came from, you were there to save me, and I saw you when I came back so that's all that matters now." When Faith had finished talking, Buffy held Faith hands on hers and kissed them. She looked up into the dark eyes as they lowered on her lips. Just as their lips had united for a connection they both had waited so long for, Buffy's phone rang. Faith pulled right away. "Darn it." Buffy said as she flipped the phone open and screamed at the caller, "What is it?" Her loose grip on Faith stiffened as she listened to the other end and after few seconds closed it. "The sisters have come up with plan. We have to go to the house, right now."
Willow had just hung up the phone with Tara discussing the details about the ritual when Kennedy walked in with Giles. "What's the plan?" Giles asked looking at the four witches. "We need Buffy and Faith to return." Willow answered for them all. "Yeah, we need Buffy and FAITH. FAITH too, for some people who think she is dispensable." Phoebe aimed her remark at Giles whose reaction was to adjust his glasses.
Before the room got heated with any more uneasiness between the unwilling allies; Buffy walked in with Faith behind her. "Ok People! Let's not waste time." Piper said getting up from the couch and holding the knife. "What is that for?" Buffy asked unsure of Piper's intention. "For blood, we need all the slayers' and potentials' blood mixed together for the spell to work." Willow explained. Faith tried to walk towards Piper but Piper just avoided her, walked towards the first potential, cut her hand to get some drops of blood on the bowl she was holding. Faith was surprised by Piper's aloofness while Piper felt she had a legitimate reason. As the sisters collected the blood, Willow took it upon herself to explain, "A tantrik told Tara that the reason why the First has been able to rise above ground to get an army together is because the balance of good and evil was broken when Buffy was brought back to life. Now, as he is raising the demons finding the loop hole that we created. Now we can use it to call all the potentials as slayers so that we can have our own army. Though this might balance the forces, it doesn't guarantee a win." "It has to be a battle; a hands on battle." Buffy completed Willow's explanation and looked at Faith who was already looking at her. Piper was only steps away watching the two slayers nod in unison like they knew each other's thought. Piper looked away wondering how she had even believed she could come between such a strong connections. After the blood drive was done or sort of, the witches threw their potion into the bowl and with Willow they all recited together, "Blood of the dead, and blood of alive Let them come together, and let them Thrive From now, till the evil gone Strength that hides, let is be found Each one that can be, let it be For Slayers We proclaim all of thee."
They all looked around the room for the girls who now shown with new found confidence and strength. "This is temporary though; once the First is destroyed the potentials that got the power by our magic will loose it, so that the balance can be maintained." Paige warned the girls who looked like they we were kids in a candy store. Giles looked around wanting to say something but he knew that words were not needed. This was the army he had hoped to form. He just merely looked towards the door as he watched Kennedy lead the girls to the battle they all came to fight. The sisters followed and Faith found herself walking with the Scoobies.
The news had reached that Faith was alive which brought a sigh of relief to Xander, Willow and Dawn, who had been holding their breath waiting for Buffy to go wacky on them. Giles was relieved to hear the news too, but he tried to act as though it didn't matter by just stating, "Well, the more the merrier. I suppose."
When the evening was drawing nearer Giles had started to prepare the weapon bag for Kennedy's first patrol while Kennedy still practiced in the backyard. Willow made herself tea and watched the young slayer from the window above the sink. Her body looked so amazingly comfortable with her new found strength and she still moved with a grace of a dancer even while practicing fighting techniques. She had always admired that about slayers, whether it was Buffy or even Faith. But now to watch this young woman doing the same, made her more excited, in ways she didn't want to be.
She sipped on her tea as she tried to think of Tara instead. Trying to think about Tara only reminded her of the conversation they had on the phone earlier when Tara was definitely angry with her about breaking the promise. She couldn't understand why Tara would be so upset about it, after all it was just a stupid promise and now that Faith was alive there was no harm done. Of course Willow didn't allow herself to think that if Faith wasn't alive, because thinking that meant that she had to admit her fault and she liked denying more than admitting; just like she had done with her magic addiction, which she finally had gotten rid of. But to Willow it wasn't about admitting what she had done wrong, it was all about how she could compete. It was about how her love would never be good enough for someone who gave up her destiny for her. How could she ever forgive herself for that?
It was only recently that Willow had come to know that Tara had given up her destiny for her. Something that Tara had felt would have made them come closer but it had only put a distance between them. At first the wicca had tried to do her best to understand, but ultimately it was just about the fact that Tara was willing to make one of the most important decisions in their life without consulting Willow even once. Regardless of where her destiny would have taken them, Willow felt that she should have had a say in it, especially if the sacrifice was to be made for her.
Tara did tell her that she had accepted her destiny, how that had happened Willow didn't know, but she was happier now than she had been in days. She felt like a huge burden was lifted from her, like she felt guilty that Tara was not what she was supposed to be, because of her. But now she didn't understand where their relationship stood, at that moment Tara certainly couldn't come there. Being the white-lighter Tara was blocked from the range of the hell mouth. She also had gone with Phoebe, who Willow could tell had some ulterior interest in Tara, which she certainly didn't like. Of course she should not be the one to complain as just a few hours ago she was joining lips with the slayer outside. But like Kennedy had said that was just a moment and she was still in love with Tara or that's what she thought.
"So that is Kennedy." Buffy said from behind as she walked in to join her wican friend. "Oh! Buffy you are back." Willow said a little surprised and little scared. "Yeah. I hopped a ride with Paige. When Tara told me Kennedy was called. I knew the name but I couldn't put a face to it. There are so many girls in this house its hard to tell who is who you know. But now that I see her I think Giles hit a jackpot this time around, she is exactly what he wanted." Buffy finished her thought while Willow just nodded in affirmation. "So what's Mr. Watcher's plan for the little girl?" Buffy asked sarcastically. "Oh! I think he is sending her for patrol, as we were not sure if you would come back." Willow replied then realized what she just said and added, "I mean come back today." "Why, he is not sending her to the opening of the hell mouth to see if she can defeat the First? And if she can't we will certainly have another." Buffy couldn't refrain herself from making that remark. "That is not what it was about Buffy." It was Giles who spoke as he entered the very room where just this morning he was almost shred to pieces by his charge. "Spare me your reasoning Giles. You can play God with any of these girls out here, and they might even believe that you have a reason or wisdom to do so. But I have been fighting this fight for too long so leave Faith and me out of this game. You got your slayer; you do your fight. I never needed potentials to fight my fight before and I still don't need it now." Buffy blasted at her former watcher. "Together we are stronger." Giles put it grimly. "Surely that thought didn't cross your mind when you sent Faith to the First this morning." Buffy replied. "But she is alive, Buffy." Willow tried to make Buffy feel better by the reminder. "But she wasn't meant to be." Buffy retorted. "One bad apple rots all." Giles certainly believed that he was not wrong. "How did you figure that she was the bad apple? She had changed and ." "Yes, she had. And so had you." Giles interrupted Buffy's sentence. "Ever since she came back the focus of you and Piper had been nothing but Faith. Regardless of how you two felt about her the most important agenda was to be the First but no, the most important things for you all was bickering over Faiths love. When did Buffy Summers start to care more about one person than about the world?" "Maybe since she fell in love." Buffy answer was nothing more than a whisper. "Or may be since she can't believe that she was rejected by someone she loved." Giles added. Buffy shot a look at Giles at his statement. "Love is not a fight and you were making it one. The only fight we have here is the fight to save the world. You had to learn your lesson." "At Faith's expense." Buffy asked. "I sent her right after dawn when I knew you would be back. I was counting on you to save her and not the witches. I thought a fight together would help you both resolve your issues. The only regret I have is that the witches did intervene and maybe you didn't get your answers. But I hope that you would move past your hurt ego and try and concentrate on what is important here. Seeing that you came back without her I don't know if the issue is resolved but I know that you have come back as the Buffy for whom the fight was above all love." Giles didn't take his eyes off Buffy the entire time. "You mean you got your slayer back." "Slayer is what you are." "But is that all I am?" "No, but right now slayer is what we need. Necessity is above all causes." "And love is not a necessity?" "Is it for you?" Buffy didn't have an answer, because the question that was staring at her face was if she needed Faith not just wanted Faith. She didn't have an answer because even though she could easily process feelings like the hurt and anger, she was not able to process love. She smirked at herself once again as Faith's words rang in her mind, "You don't know love."
Tara had made more than one trip to the elders since she had healed Faith. The first trip certainly was about her acceptance of her powers but others were mostly about the hell mouth. Even though Buffy and Faith were too tangled up in their feelings to notice, the First was coming closer and closer to fulfill his intentions as the days went by. It was imperative that someone pushed the slayers and the Charmed Ones to work faster. That is why Tara had calls out to anyone who had any information that could help. It was 10pm and Phoebe was sitting on the couch with the Book of Shadows on her lap and packet of chips on her hands when Paige orbed back after dropping Faith off. "Oh! Piper is so going to yell at you for dropping the crumbs on the Book of Shadows." Paige said as she snuggled next to her sister and shared the innocent sin. "Only after she yells at you for letting Faith go to Sunnydale without her knowledge." Phoebe replied trying to scare her little sister of her elder sister's wrath. "Oh! Don't try to scare me. You know I tried to stop her. And you are my proof of that." Paige said as she munched on the chips and opened her eyes wide at the page that Phoebe was reading on the Book of Shadows. "Anyway, I don't think when Tara said do some research while she was gone; she meant do some research on her. Let's see you are reading on witches/white-lighters. Ummm. Must be interesting." Paige tried to pull the book from Phoebe but her sister kept a firm hold on the book with both her hands and even some of her upper body weight. "Ohhhh! Paige, I was just curious." "Curious about the woman who has a girlfriend?" Paige seriously questioned her sister's motives. Before Phoebe could come up with an excuse, Tara orbed in their living room and Phoebe shut the book as soon as she could. "Oooo! The crumbs." Paige muttered and looked at Tara. "I might have something. But we have to work fast. It has to be done tonight, or else we might be too late." Tara said grimly not even bothering to notice the school girl look Phoebe was giving her. "Who said something about being too late? What are we too late for people?" Piper said walking down the stairs. "I was called by a tantrik in the Himalayan region. He has a solution but we have very little time to come up with a potion and a spell. The First is already getting too strong. There are no demon or evil in the streets any more. They are all allied with him." Tara finished her sentence, sounding more and more like a white-lighter than the timid little witch that the sisters had met only little over a month ago. "Ok people you heard the lady. Phoebe, Tara the Book of Shadows, Paige with me, kitchen we have a potion to brew." Piper ordered and started to stride towards the kitchen. "You ok?" Paige asked her eldest sibling as soon as she reached the kitchen. Piper had always been all about just getting the work done in the beginning which she had reasoned was because of Prue's loss but she had calmed down later on and now again seeing her sister take the same stride made her wonder if she had done the right thing by giving in to Faith's request. "I am fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Piper replied trying to be unaffected and started to get the ingredients and just throwing them in the pot. "Ok. Just make sure you don't blow the placeup." Paige said stopping her sister from brewing something toxic.
"What are you doing here?" was the first thing Buffy asked when she saw Faith sitting on the same gravestone where she had sat and waited for her months ago.
When Faith had woke up in Piper's arms the sun had already set so she had asked Paige to orb her directly to that particular graveyard because she knew that Buffy would come there.
"I came here for you." She replied to the question that Buffy had started their conversation with even on the night months ago when she had come for and waited especially for her on that very spot.
Buffy chuckled at the answer that she had hoped Faith would have given her the first time they stood on those grounds but now there were too many things that had happened for that sentence to bring a smile. "You shouldn't have come." Buffy told Faith grimly, "It's not safe for you here."
"Yeah, B. I fight monsters and vampires and I should stay away because of an old man, a half wit witch, trembling excuse of a man, an ex-demon and a teenager. You really think they scare me?" Faith said as she joined Buffy who had started to walk. "Regardless they managed to kill you." Buffy said stopping and looking at Faith. "Yeah and I came back. I guess that's another thing we have in common." Faith smiled trying to get Buffy to smile a little. "Are we that alike?" Buffy just asked. "No, B we ain't nothing alike." Faith was now as serious as Buffy was. "Yes, we are. We both have lost everything because of the slayer thing that we have to continue. We have died and come back and still we are prowling around cemetarys in the middle of the night trying save the people for whom we are nothing but a machine to keep them safe." Buffy told Faith and continued before Faith could say anything. "I remember this scared girl who had come running here after her watcher was killed. You were so lost; I could see the pain in your eyes even though you acted as though you were all cool about it. Everyone just heard your stories of killing demon in the nude and all; while I saw you pound on one vampire over and over to make up for the hurt in your heart. Its no wonder you were so easily lured by the Mayor, slayering had given you nothing but pain." Buffy concluded. "It had given me you B." Faith admitted looking down. "If you had seen the pain, if you had understood, why was I still alone B? Why did I have to find Mayor to find a little love that you so easily claim you have for me today?" Faith asked what she had meant to ask months ago. "Because we are alike. If you had lost your watcher when you came in, I had just come back after stabbing Angel. The spell Willow did on Angel had worked. He had got his soul back. I could see it in his eyes. I was looking at the eyes that loved me as much as I loved him when I put the stake through his heart. I was so scared of falling in love after that, that I fought it the only way I could do that was by trying to get rid of you. When you were with the Mayor I just laughed at my fate for bringing me to the same road that I had tried to avoid. On the same spot, looking at the eyes that loved me as much as I loved them, but this time I made it a point to miss." She turned Faith to look at her and took her hand and touched the spot where she had stabbed her. "But I know what I have become in the process. So, it is no surprise that it's ok for you to make love to me all night and walk out the next morning with no words, its certainly ok for Giles and Scoobies to assume that I would just sit and watch as they plotted to kill you. It's ok." Faith put a finger on Buffy's lips which were now soaked with her tears. "No, B it's not ok. B listen don't think about things too much and make them complicated. I took myself to the Mayor just like I kept me in the prison when I could have easily escaped. It had nothing to do with you. Won't say it didn't hurt not having your by my side but hell B it was all my doing. I am done blaming you and especially blaming you for my expectations of you. It was wrong of me to walk out on you that morning and I admit it now. I should have stayed and talked things through with you, rather than so long. Things wouldn't have been this difficult if I had done it then, but while you stay and see things through, I am just so used to running. That's why I came back; I don't want to run no more. And you can't blame the Scoobies, they just knew you B, they knew you would see the bigger picture. And please don't blame yourself for what they thought of you, regardless of where that came from, you were there to save me, and I saw you when I came back so that's all that matters now." When Faith had finished talking, Buffy held Faith hands on hers and kissed them. She looked up into the dark eyes as they lowered on her lips. Just as their lips had united for a connection they both had waited so long for, Buffy's phone rang. Faith pulled right away. "Darn it." Buffy said as she flipped the phone open and screamed at the caller, "What is it?" Her loose grip on Faith stiffened as she listened to the other end and after few seconds closed it. "The sisters have come up with plan. We have to go to the house, right now."
Willow had just hung up the phone with Tara discussing the details about the ritual when Kennedy walked in with Giles. "What's the plan?" Giles asked looking at the four witches. "We need Buffy and Faith to return." Willow answered for them all. "Yeah, we need Buffy and FAITH. FAITH too, for some people who think she is dispensable." Phoebe aimed her remark at Giles whose reaction was to adjust his glasses.
Before the room got heated with any more uneasiness between the unwilling allies; Buffy walked in with Faith behind her. "Ok People! Let's not waste time." Piper said getting up from the couch and holding the knife. "What is that for?" Buffy asked unsure of Piper's intention. "For blood, we need all the slayers' and potentials' blood mixed together for the spell to work." Willow explained. Faith tried to walk towards Piper but Piper just avoided her, walked towards the first potential, cut her hand to get some drops of blood on the bowl she was holding. Faith was surprised by Piper's aloofness while Piper felt she had a legitimate reason. As the sisters collected the blood, Willow took it upon herself to explain, "A tantrik told Tara that the reason why the First has been able to rise above ground to get an army together is because the balance of good and evil was broken when Buffy was brought back to life. Now, as he is raising the demons finding the loop hole that we created. Now we can use it to call all the potentials as slayers so that we can have our own army. Though this might balance the forces, it doesn't guarantee a win." "It has to be a battle; a hands on battle." Buffy completed Willow's explanation and looked at Faith who was already looking at her. Piper was only steps away watching the two slayers nod in unison like they knew each other's thought. Piper looked away wondering how she had even believed she could come between such a strong connections. After the blood drive was done or sort of, the witches threw their potion into the bowl and with Willow they all recited together, "Blood of the dead, and blood of alive Let them come together, and let them Thrive From now, till the evil gone Strength that hides, let is be found Each one that can be, let it be For Slayers We proclaim all of thee."
They all looked around the room for the girls who now shown with new found confidence and strength. "This is temporary though; once the First is destroyed the potentials that got the power by our magic will loose it, so that the balance can be maintained." Paige warned the girls who looked like they we were kids in a candy store. Giles looked around wanting to say something but he knew that words were not needed. This was the army he had hoped to form. He just merely looked towards the door as he watched Kennedy lead the girls to the battle they all came to fight. The sisters followed and Faith found herself walking with the Scoobies.