An entire three floors had given away beneath her feet. Faith groaned as she achingly pushed herself up from the pile of jagged rubble. Her skin was flush from the contact she'd had with the heated demon. The outer side of her left thigh was scorched, the skin peeling back from where it had hit her as she came flying at it. The fall had given her more scratches and bruises, and for the first time, she was truly thanking whatever Powers had chosen her to be the Slayer. If she were normal, she'd have been dead by then.

She stood up on wobbly legs and faced the demon. It had fallen through, as well, but it stood easily. "Think burning the floor is gonna keep me down, huh?" Faith shook herself and took another fighting stance. "If the Molly Go Round doesn't keep me down, then nothing can."

She flexed her toes and winced. The bottoms of her feet were sore and bleeding, but she didn't have time to think about that. She could worry about infection and gangrene later. Right now, there was a monster in front of her, and they were two floors away from the lobby.

Faith wondered if the others had gotten out safely. Every solid hit that she had received happened when she heard a scream. Each time, she had turned her head to see who it was, grateful that it wasn't one of her friends, and angry that some idiot had the nerve to still be in the building when she was fighting a huge ball of molten lava. As long as her friends were out of the building, she could do her job. As long as they were safe, she could focus. Or at least, she would have been able to focus, if she knew they were alright.

A huge, burning fist came down at her and Faith back-flipped out of the way. The fist came crashing down and went to the floor... and through it. Faith stumbled backwards and looked down at the hole. At this rate, she would be in the lobby in no time. She waited until the lumbering arm moved out of the way, then jumped down one floor, landing in a crouch. She looked up and shouted, "Get down here, you big son of a bitch!"

The creature jumped and she tottered as the building shook with the weight of its landing. She ran at it before it was fully on its feet and landed on its shoulders. Her skin was heating, but the actual burning was minimal. She punched it hard in its head, and only after her third punch did she realize she was grinning. Faith had to admit that she was having fun. She had been holding back her strength and aggression so hard in the ring that the chance to let it out was an immense relief. This was the most exhilerating thing she could think of next to sex, and the thought of that made her want to finish the job even faster so she could find Dave and slam him against a wall with her tongue down his throat.

Then, a voice screamed, "Gela!" The creature went still and Faith felt a cool breeze rushing towards her. She jumped back from the creature and landed in a crouch. She watched as a whirlwind of ice circled the monster. When the ice and snow stopped, it was frozen in six inches of ice. Her head whipped around and she glared.

"About fuckin' time you showed up!" She stomped towards the group that had just arrived. Angel, Willow, and Giles stood staring at her, Willow's arm outstretched as she tried to hold the spell. "Where the hell have you been!"

"We thought it was out there," Angel said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "We got here as soon as we could, now we've got to get out of here."

"I don't wanna get out of here," she said, snatching her arm away. "I wanna beat that thing up some more." She bounced from side to side on the balls of her feet. "That was fun as hell. Why didn't somebody tell me it was that great? I mean, the vamps was a thrill yeah, but that... I could wrestle a match, then go out and find an ass to kick, then have the best sex of my life!"

"Faith, sex later." Angel rolled his eyes. "Right now, we need to get outta here."

"I said I don't wanna!"

"Uh, guys?" All heads turned to Willow. "While I'm sure this conversation is great with its back and forth saying of the same thing, but I can only hold this thing for so long, so Giles, you think you can do that spell?"

"What? Oh... Oh yes." Giles held up a scroll and stretched it open. It was the same one that Willow had previously been trying to translate days before. "Between the latest developments and memory jumpstarting, we finally figured out what this was referring to. The beast..."

"Giles, explain later!" Willow's arm started to shake, and so did the ice around the creature. "Spell, now!"

"Oh... yes, right." Giles started to read the spell, his accent a little warbly. It had been quite some time since he'd had to read Latin aloud, and he hoped that he was getting the pronunciations correct.

The more Giles read, the quicker the ice started to crack. The building began to tremble. Plaster fell from the parts of the ceiling that remained in tact to sprinkle around them. They continued to move towards the stairwell. Giles continued to read. Then, his words stopped as ice came flying towards them and a great roar shook the building. They dropped to the floor just in time for a burst of fire to miss them.

"Down the stairs!" Angel jumped up and took off running. The others followed him, Faith nearly pushing him out of the way as she raced down.

The walls surrounding them exploded as they hit the bottom stair. They were able to surge forward in time to miss being crushed by a huge falling stone, but not in time to avoid the monster that crashed to the floor and landed between them. "Fuck!" Faith yelled, diving out of the way as an arm came swinging her way. She landed hard on her side and whipped her head around in time to see Giles being swatted like a fly. He careened against the wall and the scroll went flying from his hands as he slid down into an unconscious slouch, his glasses cracked against his face.

Willow ran to him, but was swatted away before she could reach him. She landed near the scroll, her arm outstretched. Faith thought that maybe she was conscious, maybe she would grab the scroll and finish the spell. Willow didn't move and Faith ran towards her. She heard Angel call out her name and her head whipped around. He had vamped out, his brow furrowed deeply and eyes yellow. He jumped on the creatures back, then fell off as his skin started to sear.

Faith called out, "Hey!" She saw it ready to blow a stream of fire towards Angel. Its head turned and she dropped to the ground. The arc of fire from the monster's mouth passed close enough over her body that it singed the back of the shirt she wore. She jumped to her feet and ran. Her aim was for a gold-toned post that stretched from floor to ceiling. She called out, "Angel!" She nodded in the direction she was heading and hoped that he understood what she needed.

He did, which made Faith wonder how many times they had fought together, or if there were just some strange link between them. Or maybe he just had common sense. Angel ran in between her and the creature as a distraction. He waved his arms frantically, then got the beast to follow him. Fire blew, but he didn't duck fast enough. The arm of his duster caught fire and he quickly ripped the coat from his body, throwing it to the floor.

Faith grabbed hold of the bar and yanked hard. It moved, but not enough. She focused and tried harder, but then stopped as she caught sight of an arm sticking out from beneath a pile of rocks. She bent down and peered inside. Red hair. She threw some of the large boulders to the side, then looked down sadly at Lita. Just beyond her was Edge. Even if they were still alive, both of their lower bodies were crushed. She knelt down and felt Edge's neck for a pulse. Nothing. She moved to Lita, and the same, nothing. She wondered how in the hell they would explain this. She hadn't liked either of them, but she definitely didn't wish them dead. The site of her co-workers, their lives extinguished, angered her and filled her with enough strength that she leapt to her feet and gripped the pole hard. With one brisk yank it came free and she turned back to the scene.

Angel was down near Willow, his hand just inches away from the scroll. "Dammit!" The beast turned towards her and she swung her weapon. The end of the metal post slammed into the side of its head. It reared back and roared. It came at her again, and she hit it again, bashing in the side of its body and head until bits of burning rock fell to the ground. As she caught glimpses of the room, her anger increased. Seeing Lita and Edge had opened her tunnel vision wide enough to see the bodies littered around the lobby. Some moved, others didn't. She didn't recognize them all, but she knew enough of them to be angry. Most of them were crew members, but they were people she had worked with, people she saw almost every day, and they were broken or worse becasue of this disgusting thing standing in front of her.

Faith continued to hit the monster until it stumbled to its knees, missing one arm from the elbow down and half of its head. It still moved, but it was slower. She used the pole to vault over its head, then took off running. She knew she had to get to that scroll. She wasn't a witch and she didn't read Latin at all, but she thought that maybe the words would be powerful enough. If she could just manage to pronounce them close enough it would be alright.

"Faith! Look out!"

Her head turned as Dave's voice rang out. Dave? What was he doing there? Faith screamed at him to go away, but he continued to run towards her. He caught her with a spear at the midsection, sending her flying across the room. The scroll fell from her hands and hit the floor. She heard a scream of pain and pushed Dave off of her, rolling himto his side. From armpit to waist, he was sliced open by the jagged rock of the beasts fingers. Blood leaked out onto the floor.

"Dave!" She grabbed the nearest cloth to her, a tapestry hanging from the wall and wrapped his body in it tightly. "Dammit, what are you doing here!"

His words caught in his throat as he tried to breathe. "Others... hospital... you were... alone..." His words faded out and then he screamed again as his body rolled to the side.

The monster was forgotten in the midst of Dave's agony, and Faith knelt with his head in her lap. There was blood on her fingers and she stared at it. Slowly, she turned her head down to Dave and watched his eyes close. She was having fun, but he was... Just the thought, the mere possibility, made her throat clog up. The anger she had felt from seeing the others seeped out of her, replaced with remorse and depression. Suddenly, she thought that there was no point to being a Slayer. There was no point to have this power and this strength if the one person she truly cared about couldn't be saved by it.

Faith let his head slip languidly from her lap, then slowly rose to her feet. She turned towards the lumbering creature that came towards her and the fight was gone. Her purpose hadn't been to save the universe. She just wanted to save her own life. With Hunter and Randy in the hospital, Hunter barely holding on the last she'd seen of him, and Dave lying on the floor, there was nothing left to save. The life she had created to make her happy was gone. There was no point in the rest.

She watched the creature come towards her and lowered her head in defeat.