Hours later, Buffy and Faith were in Buffy's apartment, showered and dressed. They had refused to speak to anyone as Buffy had roused Faith and they vanished away in privacy. Knocking on the door had gone unanswered, phones switched off. At Willow's mental intrusion, Buffy had put her training into action, slammed up her mental walls and psychically slapped the young witch out of her mind. Willow hadn't tried again.
The two Slayers sat at either end of the couch, Buffy clutched a coffee, Faith a beer. Silence reined.
Eventually, Faith blinked and spoke, starting as though she surprised herself.
"Well. That was a bitch of a thing"
Buffy blinked in response.
"B, I'm guessing.. well, hoping? that you got your own technicolour journey and didn't share mine, yeah?"
"Yeah Faith, I got the technicolour playback of the disaster that is Buffyland." Silence fell again.
"It's like I can remember being shown all this stuff, but it's all fuzzy now. Like if I concentrate on a particular thing, I see it clearly, but otherwise it just drifts away."
Buffy cocked her head to the side.
"Hmm, maybe we need to know this stuff, like Treeie said, but if it's all there, all front and present like, it'll be all overwhelm?"
Faith thought about this and nodded.
"Yeah I can see that Buff. Changes things though."
"hhmmm" was all Buffy said in response.
Many more minutes passed.
"Buffy, I just ... wanna... you know... look, I'm only going do this once okay? I'm sorry for all the shit that went down between us"
Buffy smiled at the quietly stammering Slayer.
"Faith, I got the same memo, so no apologies, k? Let's just say it's in the past, we both did stuff that we regret and leave it at that?" Faith smile gratefully and skulled the rest of her beer.
"Thanks B. Now I gotta hit the sack. That Lifetime movie in my head had wiped me out."
"Yep, I don't wanna think about anything right now, sacktime sounds like the thing"
For the first time in a year, Buffy's exhaustion dragged her under in seconds of laying her head on her pillow.
They had agreed at breakfast that they would speak to Giles straight away. Knocking had happened every 5 minutes at the door until Faith snapped and told the quaking Slayette to fuck off and tell the pompous arsehole they would see him when they saw him. It was an hour later that they walked into Giles office. Giles glanced up with a scowl at the knockless intrusion.
"Finally! Glad to see you have graced us with your presence" he snapped sarcastically.
Buffy merely crossed her arms, propping her hip on the arm of the chair. Faith slumped into hers and slung her boots onto the Watcher's desk, daring him with an angry glare to say anything. He merely sniffed and looked down his glasses at Buffy.
"Now that you have gotten over your little sulk.."
Buffy stood straight and glared at her ex watcher.
"Giles, enough. Get Willow and we'll talk" Moments later, the young witch entered the room. Rushing to hug her friend, Willow stumbled to a halt at the coldness in Buffy's face. Hurt flooded the redhead and she retreated back to the side of the desk. As Giles drew a breath, Buffy held up a hand.
"No. You don't get to speak" She barked a NO as he opened his mouth and he closed it with a furious snap. "Here's how this goes. I'm leaving. Faith's leaving. We will no longer be any part of this 'organisation'. I would say you changed, but we both know you haven't. Either of you. For years I have let all of you tell me what to do, where to go, who to... to love. ' she stumbled over the word but cleared her throat and continued."Yesterday, our demon friend showed me a few things. My life in fact. Every thing. And I saw so much more than I ever realized."
She pointed to Willow. "You control everything by force. If it doesn't fit your way things should be, you make it fit. But the way things should be, is not how YOU view them. And you, "She pointed to Giles as he glared in anger at his wayward slayer "You. So much I don't know where to start. At first, you did it because you loved me. I can see that. But it changed. Like Willow, like Zander, like Angel and Riley, you all tried to make me into what YOU wanted. Regardless of the pain it caused. Regardless of what was right. The worst thing is, I let you. I knew the whole time, but I wanted SO bad to be normal. Well, no more. I'm done." Giles remained silent but Willow jumped to defend herself and at the same time, maintain her friendship with the Slayer. But her voice trailed away at the look in Buffy's eyes. Not a sliver of warmth remained.
"I could have forgiven all of it. The Argbon demon shared many things. But the betrayal of Angel, the lies of .. of Spike' She caught the stutter that time, 'is too much. After that time in Sunnydale, you and I came to an agreement Giles. Apparently not one you were ever going to honour" She slammed her hand down on his desk at his spluttering defense. She hit so hard that a crack appeared and ran from one side of the heavy oak desk to the other. " ! You don't get to speak! You have said MORE THAN ENOUGH!" Buffy screamed before she reared back, fists clenched as she struggled to regain her composure. Faith remained silent. She had said her piece yesterday. While the rage still bubbled, it no longer demanded an outlet here.
"No more. I am done with all this. You want me miserable and controllable, you want The Slayer on a nice convenient leash. But I am also Buffy. And I will never be controlled again, not by the Old Council, not by this 'new' one and not by YOU!"
Tears gathered in her eyes. "I loved you Giles. You were my father in every way that mattered and you killed it. As surely as you took a stake to it."
She turned and with a nod to Faith, left the office. Giles yelled at her to come back, to stop her childishness. Willow, sobbing, followed after Buffy, dancing around her, imploring her to understand, to realise that she only did what she did because she loved her. That caused Buffy to halt and stare coldly at the crying Redhead.
"Thought you learnt already Will, love doesn't control. It doesn't confine or lie. It stands beside you, it has your back, it learns your moves and dances with you. It doesn't force you to love back, by strength or magic. It IS your magic, it BECOMES your strength."Willow flinched at the reminder of her magic with Tara and looked away. "You will never become what you can be if you never learn that truth"
"Oh like YOU have? With some demon crawling through your head, doing gods know what?" Willow snarled hatefully, striking back from the hurt she felt. But it simply rolled off Buffy, like water on oilskin. She merely shook her head.
"Willow, think of this- if Tara had returned and by someone's silence, caused her death without you knowing, how would YOU feel?" With that, she turned and continued walking away.
Slayettes scattered like shoal fish before the shark as the two Slayers left the building. At the door, they ran into Andrew, clutching his bag to his tweed watchers suit. Buffy handed him a letter addressed to Dawn. He babbled his apologies, having discovered that Buffy knew of his deceit as well, fear making his body quake.
"Give this to Dawn. I will know if you don't and you do NOT want that." He nodded wildly. Dawn had gone out with a patrol to another city as a training exercise and was due back later that day. Buffy had explained what had happened and told Dawn to remain at the Compound. Buffy had things to do. For the Argdon demon hadn't just shown her the past, it had also hinted at something coming in the future. Another storm. And until Buffy knew what that was, the safest place for her sister was at the Council compound, regardless of how Buffy felt.
At the car, Faith and Buffy stood looking at each other. They knew that they had things to do, and it wasn't together. But they could feel it, soon they would be back together, facing off whatever was coming.
"Stay safe B, I wanna see you at the next battle, yeah?"
Buffy smiled, probably the first true tiny smile for a long time.
"Facing each other or facing something else?" Faith laughed at the comment and gently slugged Buffy in the shoulder.
"See ya soon B" With that, Faith clambered into the car, nodded to Robin who had arrived at her call and with a wave to Buffy, were gone down the road.
