"HELP! SOMEONE HELP…….AH!"
Buffy and Xander got to Willow too late. They could only look on helplessly as Warren had his skin ripped from his body. The smell of freshly burned meat lingered in the air and a split second later, it saturated the air as Willow incinerated Warren's carcase so that not a trace of it remained. She then turned and walked straight past her friends as Buffy rubbed Xander's back, willing him not to throw up due to the overwhelming stench of death that hung in the air. The dark-haired, dark-eyed, vein-covered girl that had just caused such destruction was beyond their reach now. Faith could sense the witch's power coming in her direction and took it as a hint to get out of there as fast as she could drive. The dark slayer managed to make it back to Revello Drive in record time and knocked on the door with all her might in the hope that Dawn was home. She had to give Xander his dues when it came to carpentry; he'd really done a good job on the front door to keep it standing under slayer strength. As soon as the door was opened, Faith lunged forward and shoved the teenage girl inside the house. Before she could scream, Dawn found her mouth covered by the dark slayer's hand.
"Don't scream, Daybreak, I'm not here to kill you," Faith whispered hurriedly, "some crazy shit's going down outside and I decided to come here and make sure you were safe." She stepped back away from the terrified teenager and dropped her hand from the younger girl's mouth.
"What's going on? Where's Buffy?" Dawn's questions came fast and thick, "I found a note when I got home from school saying something about Tara being in hospital?" At this point, the teenager's emotions got the better of her and she slid to the floor in tears. This made Faith uneasy as she wasn't used to dealing with situations like this. She knelt down beside the girl that she'd always regarded as a kid sister and pulled her into her arms, holding the girl until her tears ran dry.
"Ok, now you've got that out of your system," Faith replied, "I'll fill you in on what's going down. Warren showed up this morning, wanting to kill Buffy with a gun. He fired random shots and ended up shooting Tara as well. Red went all dark with the magicks and then set off on a rampage. I managed to save Tara, although she's still seriously ill in the hospital. Red saved Buffy and your big sis is hot on the vengeful witch's trail right now with Xan-Man. I hot-tailed it back here to make sure Red hadn't caught up with you. She's not herself, Dawn, she could really hurt you."
"W-what are we going to do about Willow, Faith?" Dawn's words came out hushed and fearfully, "I don't want anything bad happening to her or Buffy." As the teenager finished talking, the dark slayer felt a horrible shiver trail down her spine. Something bad was happening to Buffy and she had to stop it. The pain that the blonde was in was almost acute enough for Faith to feel it, blow by blow, as it was happening. Her panic-filled gaze met that of the worried teenager.
"I have to go just now, D," the brunette said, trying to remain as calm as possible, "you stay here for now, until things blow over. From what I know, Red's not got any beef with you. I'll go get B and bring her back in one piece to ya." Then, before anything else could be said, Faith had run out the front door and was tearing off down the street, heading straight for the middle of town. Only one thought was going through her mind: Hold on, Buffy.
As she got near the Magic Box, Faith's approach became more cautious and stealthy. The crashes and bangs that were coming from inside the shop could be heard outside in the street, they were so loud. The slayer wasted no time in getting up to the window nearest to her. Looking in, she saw Willow and Buffy fighting with Anya lying unconscious on the floor and Xander gently feeling on her body for a pulse to make sure his ex girlfriend was still alive. The heavy breathing and unsteady movements showed Faith that the blonde slayer was losing the battle against the super strong witch. Buffy was tiring fast and Willow was showing no signs of even breaking a sweat. Finally, the witch picked Buffy up and threw her into a cabinet. The slayer no longer had any strength left to get up and fight and could only look into her best friend's eyes.
"Poor Buffy, feeling like every day here's a living hell," Willow's voice was empty and emotionless, "only wanting her suffering to be over. To be back in heaven, where Tara's no doubt waiting for me. Why don't you let me give you a hand, slayer?" Willow had slowly walked over to Buffy as she had been talking and now had the blonde by the throat. She was about to strangle her best friend when she felt herself being knocked sideways. The witch's grip on her best friend was released and Buffy fell gasping to the floor. Before she could comprehend anything, the witch felt a fist strike her hard on the cheek and she went flying across the room into a wall. The force of the punch was so strong that Willow's body made a very large hole in the wall.
"Why waste your time fighting the second rate slayer?" Faith's voice taunted, "When you can have the real prize instead? You should know B well enough by now, Red, to know that she'd never use her full strength on you. She's stupid enough to think that somewhere in that whacked-out mind of yours is the kind, loving and loyal friend she knows so well."
"Why do you think you would be any better against me, Faith?" Willow replied in the same empty and emotionless tone that she had addressed Buffy in, "Because you're a psycho? Because you've killed people and it hasn't affected your conscience? Or because you love Buffy so much you're willing to give your life for her?" Faith shuddered slightly as this revelation came out of Willow's lips. She didn't intend on letting Buffy ever find out her true feelings.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Red," Faith growled, "I have no feelings for B in the slightest. But I'm gonna kick your ass royally for what you almost did to my slayer sister." The brunette flew straight at the witch, punching as hard as she could, trying to get in at the girl who had almost killed the love of her life. However, for each punch or kick that Faith tried, Willow blocked with the greatest of ease. The darkened witch was simply too powerful for the dark slayer to defeat in battle. Whenever Faith managed to land a punch, Willow just hit her back twice as hard. The brunette slayer was lost in blind fury, complete and utter hatred clouded her mind for what the witch had tried to do to Buffy. She was determined to make the redhead pay, even if it meant giving up her own life in the process. This blind fury was ultimately Faith's downfall, for when she tried to kick Willow's head off her shoulders; the witch blocked the move and unbalanced the slayer. The result was the brunette crashing to the floor hard and then being levitated into the air by magic.
"Silly Faith, you think you're so strong," Willow taunted, "let's have a look at your feelings for Buffy, see if you really bleed as well." Where Faith had torn her top earlier on, her midriff was showing where Buffy had stabbed her 3 years previously. The wound had healed so well that there wasn't even a scar. Willow's eyes were drawn there and she sent a knife from across the room into that stretch of stomach. Faith screwed her eyes up tightly, willing herself not to cry as old emotions were reopened. All the pain, the hurt she had felt that night when Buffy had actually tried to kill her, came flooding back. That was when she had realised that the blonde could never share her feelings. This shock immediately passed through Buffy, who was watching weakly from across the room with Xander.
"What's this? The big bad slayer does bleed after all," Willow said coldly, "if I didn't know any better, I'd have said you felt emotion too. But we all know how dark and twisted you are, Faith. To even think you could know love like that which me and Tara shared until this morning is just foolish." Faith began to try and force her mouth open to speak and as such, Willow became quiet, curious to hear what the defeated slayer would say.
"Y-you silly bitch," Faith's words came out in quiet gasps, "T-Tara's still alive. I got to her in time this morning a-after you disappeared from the bedroom in y-your rampage. G-go to Sunnydale G-General if you don't b-believe me." Willow's blackened eyes immediately went from dark and empty to a warm liquid brown. Without saying a word, she let Faith drop to the floor and then raced out of the shop. Buffy immediately rushed over to Faith's side and held her hand, brushing some stray locks of brown hair from her face.
"You listen to me, Faith," she whispered, "don't give up on me. I'll get you home and help you get better. Just rest now, you've done a good thing today, which I'll be always grateful for." As Faith drifted into unconsciousness, she dully thought that she felt Buffy's lips gently press against her forehead.
In Sunnydale General, a girl was sobbing over a patient's hospital bed. On the bed lay a young blonde that had been rushed in that morning with a gunshot wound. The doctors thought she wouldn't make it, but she had survived the day and was now showing signs of being on the mend. The crying girl was weeping for what she had thought was her lost love, for the pain that she had inflicted upon her friends and the terrible crime that she had committed against her girlfriend's attacker. Her hair had been black, but was now a fiery red colour as it had previously been. Her sobs grew weaker and weaker as tiredness slowly took over and she fell asleep at her love's side.