Animatus

Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming. Sorry I had to do that to you guys, but I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. This is the final chapter. Hopefully I will be able to post the first chapters of the sequel next week. We'll see. I'm having a medical procedure done, so I may not quite be up to it until Tuesday or Wednesday. Anyway, thanks so much for reading. I really appreciate it. I hope everyone enjoyed the story.

Previously:

"We have to go," a voice whispered in her ear. She recognized it as Giles'.

"Get her out of here," Buffy instructed, nodding a good-bye to her Watcher. Giles smiled sadly.

"We'll see each other again," he promised and pulled Faith away. Faith let him push her along. Turning her head one last time, she saw Buffy standing by the fence with her gun in her hand and a horde of zombies closing in on her. Then she ran. She ran the anger out of her body, letting the rage dissipate through her legs. Her tears dried against her face. She ran until she felt nothing and then she heard the gunshot. It was over.

Epilogue: A New Beginning:

Faith stood at the window of her new apartment, looking out over the city of Sunnydale. The sun had sunk below the horizon some hours before, dying in a splendor of red and orange. The light had faded and the sky had turned black. The darkness was so deep that Faith felt like she was losing herself in it. The moon was a sliver in the sky, covered partly by murky green clouds. The lights of the city sparkled. The sight should have warmed her heart, but she felt nothing but an empty chill in her very soul. Turning from the window, she looked around at the apartment that the Mayor had given her. Everything inside of it was brand new. The place felt sterile, but she hoped that after she had lived in it for a while, it would start to feel like home.

She wondered that it did not. When she had first arrived in Sunnydale, her motel room had felt like home to her. Her Watcher's house in Boston had felt like home and even her mother's apartment had felt like home. But the beautiful apartment in which she stood felt like an empty shell. She had been enthusiastic for the Mayor. He had given her everything that she had ever wanted – a spacious apartment filled with every amenity for which she could ask. In his own way, Faith believed that Richard Wilkins even loved her like a daughter. She was happy to know that someone cared so deeply about her, even if it was the wrong person. She sighed, turning back to the window.

She wondered what her Watcher would think of her now. Kate always had believed that Faith would become some great warrior of light to be remembered by the forces of darkness as someone to fear even long after her death. Yet, her life seemed to be spinning out of control. In a way, she thought that her fate had been sealed the night that Kate had died. Even though she had fled from Boston with the intention of continuing her fight against evil, a part of her had given up. Something had numbed inside of her. When she had seen Buffy for the first time, she started to feel something again, even though she had not understood it at first. But everything had spun so totally out of control; Faith did not believe that it was possible for her to fix anything now.

A single tear slowly escaped from her eye and slipped down her cheek. She had become a monster. The worst part of it all was that she knew that she was wrong. Even though she acted like she was enjoying her turn on the dark side, even though she smiled and joked and killed and lived, she knew that she was wrong. But she could not stop. She had lost herself in rage and jealousy and love. The thought of her love for Buffy burned her deeply. Her heart ached day and night, a blazing pain that consumed her. But no matter what she did, she could not make it stop. Sometimes she just wanted to forget. She thought about shoving all of her clothes into a bag and leaving. She could slip out into the night and no one would ever see her again.

But she could not leave. Even though she hated Buffy for not loving her in the same way that she loved the blonde Slayer, she had to be around her. Even if only as an enemy, she had to be a part of her life. A low humming suddenly entered her mind and Faith realized that Buffy was coming. She remembered the first time she had felt that low humming in her mind. She had been dancing with a vampire in the Bronze and she had felt it. Later, she realized that she felt it whenever Buffy was around and, if she tried, she could feel it even when Buffy was far away. That first night, however, the feeling had been soft and friendly. Now, however, it pounded in her mind like a fist; a clear warning that danger was coming. She had shot Angel with a poisoned arrow. She knew what was happening. Buffy was coming to kill her. Faith smiled. Maybe death would be better than the life she was living, but she was not going to make it easy on her sister Slayer. She had too much fire left in her.

………………………………

"I love you, Faith. Don't ever forget that, okay?" Buffy's words echoed through Faith's ears as she ran. The group of survivors ran in front of her. Her feet pounded into the ground. She almost hoped that she would step onto one of the landmines. She wanted nothing more in that moment than to feel such an intense pain that would drive everything else out of her heart – that would make her forget that her lover stood on the other side of the fence separating death from the rest of the world. But she knew that was not true either. She had heard a gunshot as she ran. A single shot that rang clearly through the bright, California afternoon. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the ground was covered with blood. Faith could not feel her connection to Buffy anymore and she knew what that gunshot had signified.

Silent tears of anger streamed down her face as she ran. The one thing in the world that she had wanted she had gotten – Buffy had fallen in love with her. But that thing had been ripped away from her before she really got a chance to experience it. All that remained was a dull, throbbing pain in her chest where her love for Buffy had been. Suddenly, she became aware that people were slowing down and stopping. Then she heard it. A bang resounded through the air so loud that she winced. "Stop!" She heard a commanding voice yell.

The group slowed to a halt. Faith looked ahead of her and saw, for the first time, the second fence standing a few yards ahead of them. She wanted to look back at the distance that she had traveled, but she dared not. She knew that the sight of her lover's dead body lying in a crumpled heap by the fence would destroy her. "What's going on?" She whispered over to Jay, her voice rough and raw.

The soldier looked back at her with sympathetic eyes. "There are soldiers in the guard towers," he said, nodding discreetly to the towers built into the fence. They dotted the fence every dozen or so yards. Faith could see guns pointed at them from every direction. "They're here in case some zombies get over the fence and don't manage to blow themselves up."

"Like us?" Faith asked dryly.

"We knew that there were mines. We also have the reasoning capability to maneuver around them. Theoretically, the zombies wouldn't. I think they know that we're human," Jay replied hopefully.

"Only one way to find out," Faith stated. "Hey!" She yelled, staring up into the closest watchtower. "It's okay. We're not infected. You can check us out if you want. Just let us pass through."

Silence greeted them. Faith could hear the moaning of the zombies on the other side of the first fence drifting through the breeze. A soldier suddenly appeared on a landing around the watchtower. He quickly descended the stairs and moved over to a gate in the fence. "You have weapons?" He asked as he unlocked the gate.

"Yeah," Faith replied.

"Move forward single file and put them on the ground beside the fence when you enter," he instructed.

Faith nodded to the anxious group of people and they began moving forward. "Do you think we can trust them?" Faith asked Jay as he fell in line in front of her.

"I don't think we have a choice," Jay said. "I know one thing though. They're not from the Initiative. Their uniforms are different."

"That's a good thing," Faith muttered. When she reached the gate, she bent over, and placed her gun on the ground. She felt empty without it. She had grown accustomed to the feeling of its grip in her hand.

"Please step through," the soldier said when she hesitated.

Nodding, Faith moved through the opening. The soldier slammed the gate shut behind them and locked it again. "What's going on?" Faith asked.

"This is a guard outpost," the soldier replied. "The city of Sunnydale has been quarantined due to a viral outbreak."

"Spare us the bullshit, okay?" Jay said. "We were in there. We know what it's been contaminated with."

The soldier smiled wryly. "We have to make sure that you're not infected before you're free to enter the outside world."

"Fine," Faith said. Dimly, she saw two Jeeps appear on the horizon.

"There's a base set up a couple of miles from here," the soldier explained. "They'll take you there to test you."

"So it really was a virus," Giles stated.

"Yes, sir," the soldier answered. "There was a secret ops base located underneath the city."

"The Initiative," Jay stated. "I worked down there."

"I'm not at liberty to say," the soldier continued, but smiled knowingly. "They were testing biological weapons there. Apparently, there was an accident and someone got infected with one of the viruses that they were testing."

"Turned everyone into zombies?" Willow asked.

"Something like that," the soldier answered.

"A simple blood test is all that's needed to determine if you've been infected," the soldier explained. "They'll want to keep you over night. But tomorrow you'll be free to go."

"Thanks," Faith muttered. The Jeeps sped closer and stopped just beside them, kicking up dust. Several soldiers climbed out of them and began ushering the group towards them.

"So it was contained?" Giles asked as a soldier loaded him into Jeep.

"Yes," the first soldier answered. "Sunnydale was the only city impacted."

"I'll be damned," Giles muttered as he took a seat in the back of the Jeep. Faith sat down next to him. Once everyone was loaded into the Jeeps, they started moving again, carrying the passengers back to the base. Faith watched the countryside speed past her. She had run all of the anger and rage out of her system. She was surprised to find that she felt absolutely nothing. She was completely numb.

"So what do we do now?" Jay asked from his seat across from her.

Faith shrugged. "The world's out there waiting," she replied. "I guess we ought to go live in it." Closing her eyes, she rested her head against the window of the Jeep. Behind her eyelids, she could see Buffy's face smiling at her. But the image faded until all that she could see was a darkness that seeped into her very soul. The world meant nothing to her anymore. "I love you, Faith. Don't ever forget that, okay?" She knew that she never would, even if that was all that she wanted to do. Eight months ago she had realized that being Buffy's enemy was better than not being in her life at all. She had never thought that she would out live her sister Slayer. But she had and the world was hers to protect now. She had been given her second chance, she just did not know if she wanted it.

"Faith?" Giles asked.

"Yeah?" Faith replied, looking over at him.

"We'll get through this," he said, taking her hand in his own and squeezing it reassuringly.

Faith smiled. "I know," she lied. Looking back out of the window, she sighed. "I know."