Shortly after the sun had set the gang had got into Xander's car and headed for the woods. The ride there had been quiet mostly as Willow had been concentrating on a locater spell from where she had been sat behind Spike who was riding shotgun. Pulling the car into a small lay by opposite the woods Xander turned off the engine, and shifted in the seat so that he could see Willow.
"Any luck with the spell?" Xander asked her.
"No I've been trying the whole way over here, they must be blocking it somehow." Willow said before she and the others got out of the car.
Spike was the first to walk across the road and towards the woods, the others walking behind him trying to keep up. Xander, stepping in so that he was walking beside the vampire.
"The spell didn't work how are we supposed to find them?" Willow asked as they walked further into the woods.
"I'll find them. The blood I can smell it." Spike stated.
"Ew." Dawn said wrinkling her nose.
"and in terms of a plan?" Xander asked
"We find them we get them out and kill whatever gets in our soddin' way." Spike said as he lead the others towards the crime scene.
"Sound's good enough to me." Xander said.
'Merlin' as she had decided to name him and the two guards that had brought Hope back stood watching over the slayers. The one eyed demon still wore that hideous grin that Faith really wanted to wipe off his ugly face.
She was suddenly growing tired of the whole confinement thing as she paced backwards and forwards in the circle she shared with Hope.
"Ten more minutes in here and I'm gonna snap." she said as she continued to pace.
"We'll find a way out." said Buffy who was also getting tired of being trapped there.
"How, by sittin' on our asses? Tell you what B you wait for your pals to come save the day me I've had enough." Faith said
"Faith this isn't Buffy's fault. Why are you..." Hope began
'You knew about this didn't you? You had to. You know everything else, what did it just slip your mind? Or did you plan for this to happen." Faith accused
"Faith I swear to you I had no idea." Hope said
"God have you listened to yourself?" Kennedy asked beginning to think Faith had gone mad.
"Kennedy's right Faith, I'm not the bad guy." Hope said trying to make the older slayer see sense.
"Oh so you two are best bud's now? Wasn't too long ago you were kicking the crap out of her." Faith said.
"To protect her, If it would have been you or Buffy I would have done the same." Hope said trying to argue her case.
"You honestly think you could take me Future Girl?" Faith asked.
"Faith, stop this." Buffy said, fearing what was about to happen.
"I'm not gonna fight you Faith." Hope said standing her ground.
"Come on don't go soft on us now Hope. Show us what you got." Faith said goading her in to a fight.
Hope stood still not daring to taking her eyes off of Faith for even a second.
"Show me!" Faith said pushing the future slayer so that she almost fell to the ground. "Show me!"
'Merlin remained sat down simply watching the slayers.
"Master what should we do?" One eye asked as he took a step forward.
"We do nothing." replied their master as he continued to watch.
Hope suddenly snapped sending a nasty right cross to the left side of Faith's jaw which sent her into the barrier. Turning around to face Hope she moved her hand up to her bottom lip tracing her fingers along it for a second she looked at them and saw a tiny droplet of crimson blood.
"There you go, knew you had it in you somewhere." Faith said before rushing the other slayer
Faith sent Hope flying into the barrier with a roundhouse kick before she could regroup Faith was on her again lifting her onto her feet she went to hit Hope who ducked to avoid being hit again. Faith punched the barrier so hard she was sent flying across the circle and landed on the ground. Before she could stand Hope rapped her arm around her throat and pulled her up so that Faith was on her knees. Hope who was stood behind Faith tilted her head so that she could see Faith's face.
Before either Buffy or Kennedy knew what was happening Faith pulled out a small throwing knife and stabbed Hope in the thigh with it. Screaming in pain Hope let go of Faith and clutched her wounded leg as Faith stood up and began to stalk towards her with the knife in her hand.
"Master with all due respect now would be a good time to bring the barrier down." the smaller demons said.
"Damit, get in there but don't kill them we still need them." their master ordered.
He had made promises of fights with the slayers to the demons of this dimension and if they didn't get their fight he would be a dead man.
A second later the barrier was brought down acting quickly Faith threw the knife at Merlin hitting him in the chest it killed him instantly. The barrier around Buffy and Kennedy went down and the slayers began to surround the two demons.
"What the hell was that?" Buffy asked Faith and Hope.
"We had a plan." Faith shrugged.
flash
"You wanna get outta here?" Faith asked her voice low enough so that only Hope could hear her.
"What do you have in mind?" Hope asked her voice matching Faith's quiet tone.
"We fight." Faith replied.
"That's it, that's your big plan?" Hope asked beginning to think the older slayer had gone crazy.
"Don't you get it Merlin over there has probably been promising all of his buddies a fight with a slayer. They don't get one they'll kill him, so we fight he'll lift the barrier." Faith explained.
"and when the barrier's down we kill him which will lift the barrier around the others." Hope said now seeing the logic in Faiths plan.
"Good plan." Hope said.
"You sound surprised. You ready?" Faith asked.
"As I'll ever be," Hope said not looking forward to having her ass kicked again.
Flash
The two demons looked at the four slayers that surrounded them knowing this wasn't going to end well. Faith grabbed one eye from behind she pulled out a large Knife that had been sheathed at his side and stabbed him in the chest with it. Buffy took out the remaining demon with a round house kick that sent him into the nearest tree he slumped to the ground unconscious.
"This way." said Hope as she stepped forward.
"Are you sure?" Kennedy asked.
"You wanna fight a whole mess of demons then go that way." Hope said pointing in the opposite direction.
"If not follow me I got a pretty good look around when they took me." Hope said leading the way.
They walked for a short distance each of them on guard. Hope stopped suddenly looking to the left side of them.
"I think we've got company," she said only to be proven right a few seconds later when about twenty demons stepped out from behind the trees.
"Plan?" Faith asked looking around them.
"We fight?" Kennedy asked
"I don' know about you but I don' really feel like having my ribs bashed in again." Hope said.
"We run." Buffy said.
"Run? I can barely walk." Hope said pointing at her injured leg.
"You got a better idea?" Faith said rapping Hopes arm over her shoulders for support before they began to run in the direction they had been headed.
It hadn't taken them very long to find the crime scene they had looked around for a few minutes before walking further into the woods. Suddenly Willows voice broke through the silence.
"Wait don't move." she told them pulling out a small book from the bag she had brought with her.
Flipping it open she began to read in some language that none of the others could understand, shortly after she had finished there was a flash of white light. Looking ahead of them they saw the slayers appear out of nowhere running towards them with a group of demons behind them.
"Look's like we found the gateway." Spike said
As they ran the slayers could see the gang about to come through the gate way.
"How do you know the barriers not going to be there?" Kennedy asked as she ran
"The barriers around us went down when Faith killed the demon so in theory..." Hope said
"In theory?" Buffy said not liking the sound of that.
Before the gang could enter the gate way the slayers came through almost running into them, the demons that had been chasing them slowed a little two of them running straight towards them only to be thrown back. The area around them began to shake and the demons began to retreat.
"What's happening where are they going?" Kennedy asked
"The gateway it's closing." Willow said.
"Look's like you got out just in time slayer." Spike said smiling at Buffy who smiled back before placing a kiss on his cheek.
The others saw but said nothing as they began to make their way home.