Complement

by Michele D

This is the first fanfiction I wrote. I began it in 2000 & completed it in 2002. I will mark it complete once all chapters are up. I'll be posting a few chapters at a time. Just a heads up, it is long. Starts in the future that only lives in my head (Prologue). Takes place right before & during Judgment (Part I).

27. XXVI – Enjoy the Silence

XXVI – Enjoy the Silence

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They walked out of the bedroom and right into what could only be classified as a chef's ultimate fantasy. The kitchen was huge, with side-by-side double door chrome ovens. In the wall next to the ovens, was a traditional brick pizza oven. There was a twelve-burner black stove to the left, and to the left of it was a glass rotisserie oven. The refrigerator was the size of a walk in closet, with a floor freezer to the side of it. There were too many cabinets to count.

Along the wall adjacent to the ovens was a double stainless steel sink, sunk into a long marble counter top, where a fresh pot of coffee was brewing. Two very large black mugs were set out next to the coffee pot with cream, sugar and spoons. Copper pots and pans, and cooking utensils of all sizes and shapes hung from hooks on the ceiling over the center-aisle butcher-block counter that was the size of a twin bed. The center-aisle counter was lined with hot buffet trays, wafting from them were the most enticing smells either Slayer had ever had the pleasure of tickling their noses.

Faith's stomach growled so loud and long that she actually blushed. She laughed when Buffy's answered hers just as loudly, if not louder. They smiled at each other, getting lost in the other's eyes. Wanting to pretend for just a while longer, pretend they didn't see the hollowness, gauntness of the other's face. Or the bruises that looked even darker on top of the pale skin that lay underneath, the matching gashes under the other's bottom lip. Pretend not to notice the aches and pains that were once again humming through both of their bodies. Pretend not to notice the haunted look that both now had lurking in their eyes and the scars that they both had seared upon their souls.

Buffy lightly ran her hand down the side of Faith's face. She smiled softly when Faith instinctively leaned into her touch. She grabbed Faith by the hand, giving her an impish smile and practically dragged her over to the hot trays on the counter. She handed her two plates to hold while she took off the tops on the trays.

"I can't believe how good this smells... so good... yum..." Buffy was purring under her breath as she babbled. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse... never smelled anything so good in my life ever... nope... not ever... except for you that is... hmmmm... what to choose... what to choose... why choose... take it all... yup... that's it..."

Buffy was almost a blur as she went down the line taking something from each tray not caring what it was, piling it on both plates. Her mouth was watering, and she thought she might have drooled on herself at one point. She scrunched her face up a little as she stared at the plates trying to figure out how to fit more food on the already overfilled plates, "...well there is always seconds..."

Buffy took one of the plates from Faith, who had been so busy watching Buffy babbling cutely that she didn't notice how much food she had piled on the plates.

"B, this is too much. If we eat all this we're gonna get sick."

"Faith you don't know that..."

"Yeah, B I do... There is more food on the plates right now then we've had to eat all together in a really long time. Our stomachs can't handle this much food all at once. If we try and eat this much we'll get sick..."

"How can you poss..."

Memories of Faith from the first time that she had been in Sunnydale came back to Buffy. How then and even now, Faith wolfed her food down as if it were the only food she had in days or would have for days. She remembered how when Faith ate she protected her food as if she were afraid it would disappear, or get taken from her. Buffy didn't think she could recall once where there was ever any food left on Faith's plate or anyone else's for that matter when she was around. How her stomach had constantly growled back then and Faith would dismiss it as a 'Slayer Thing'. Though Buffy knew better, she was a Slayer too, and her stomach never growled twenty-four-seven, then again hers had always been full. She had just ignored it, just like she had ignored a lot of other things about Faith that she didn't, couldn't, or wouldn't deal with.

"Faith... the first time when you were in..."

Faith knew exactly what Buffy was going to ask her, and she didn't want Buffy going there. She knew Buffy well enough now to know that she would somehow manage to blame herself for it. She didn't want anything marring their respite from the hell Glory had thrust them in, especially not another thing from her past. She wanted to forget for a little while that the reality that had been her life for nine years had reared its ugly head again.

"B, what's past is past... 'K? Please... Can we just sit down and eat..."

She moved close to Buffy, and gently brushed the hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. She leaned in and kissed her lightly, tenderly on the cheek, then just rested her face against Buffy's, pulling her loosely to her. They stayed that way for long minutes, the food momentarily forgotten, the need to be close to each other more important to them both.

Reluctantly they parted, moved over to the long wooden table and sat down side by side on the bench. Neither even considered sitting on opposites sides of the table, even in this safe-haven they needed the reassurance, the feel, the warmth of the other next to them.

They ate in silence, each bite like a little bit of heaven.

"Faith... Are we really here or is this like what we do when we share our echoes?" Buffy asked with a mouth full of food, manners totally left by the wayside.

"Actually..."

Like a streak of lightning, both Slayers were on their feet the second they heard the voice behind them. They spun around knocking the bench over, crouching into fighting stances, their hearts in their throats, fear pounding through their veins. Neither one registering that it was Atropos standing in front of them, the only thing that registered was that one second there was no one behind them and the next there was.

Atropos carefully took a step backwards from the two snarling Slayers. There was a feral light mixed with the fear in their eyes. How stupid could she be to just pop up behind them like that? She kept her hands at her side waiting for them to realize that they were safe here with her for now.

Faith was trembling. What if she was wrong? What if this was just another elaborate game of Glory and Johnny's? What if it wasn't really Atropos standing in front of her, but Glory wearing a different mask? She felt the icy fingers of fear as they slid up her spine, digging in deep, roughly caressing each vertebrae making her want to arch her back to push them away. A chill crawled over her skin leaving little streaks of invisible cold-fire in its wake. She heard Buffy as if she were far away hissing beside her.

Chocolate brown eyes locked with the crystal clear, light jade green eyes in front of her, searching for an answer, terrified of what she would find there. What she saw in them surprised her. There was sorrow, remorse, comfort, respect, admiration and even love for them in those jade green eyes.

She felt the fear begin to recede; she knew the vileness, the evil that was Glory intimately, had felt it worming its way under her skin looking to devour her soul. Faith knew without a shred of doubt that the thing that was Glory couldn't fake or look at her with or without a mask, with eye's that held any of those emotions.

Faith gently touched Buffy's arm when she realized she was still hissing low at Atropos. "B... Buffy it's okay..." Slowly she felt the arm beneath her hand relax as the tension and fear drained out of Buffy.

"Did I ever tell you that I hate when you do that too...?" There was a slight tremor in Faith's voice, betraying how shaken she had been by Atropos' sudden appearance.

Both Slayers were breathing a little heavy, their hearts racing. The taste of fear was bitter, and far too familiar in the back of their throats. Their little pretend world had been shattered the second that Atropos had spoken. Faith couldn't help but wonder if either one of them would ever feel one hundred percent safe again. Feeling safe had been a new experience for her, up until Angel had taken her from the courthouse she couldn't ever remember a time when she had felt safe, and she mourned its loss.

"As a matter of fact I believe that you have... Please sit back down and eat. I will try to answer your Chosen's question."

"Watch out B, here's where she goes all cryptic lady on you. She's like a walking, talking prophecy. Gives you the clues but doesn't tell you what to do or what the hell they mean. Isn't that right Elder?" The touch of affection in Faith's voice softened the sarcasm of her words.

The ancient woman arched her sculptured, thin black eyebrow at the raven-haired Slayer's sarcasm and her nickname for her.

"Well, Child this time I actually can answer the question, without any subterfuge."

Buffy looked at Faith and mouthed 'Child' at her, a little smirk around her mouth.

"I believe Bee..." Atropos paused and watched the interplay between them as Faith smirked at Buffy and mouthed 'Bee' at her.

She was a little amazed, actually awed by them. Amazed that they could find anything to smile about, let alone tease each other about after all they had been through at Glory's and that lowlife, (whose name Atropos refused to even think, let alone say), hands.

They awed her, the bond they shared, their devotion, loyalty, and love for one another, stronger now, intact. Their smiles humbled her in the face of the fact that they knew that being here was temporary and that eventually they would have to go back to that living hell.

"I believe you wanted to know if you are actually here or not. Well, the answer to that is rather complicated. It isn't a simple yes or no..."

"See I told ya B... So much for not dodging the question..." Faith snorted through a mouthful of food.

"I am not dodging. It is just that I'm not sure if I even know how to explain it..." Atropos paused, waiting to see if the Dark Slayer was going to interrupt her again.

Faith wisely decided to hold her tongue this time when she heard the sincerity in the ancient woman's voice.

"It simply is that you are coexisting in two places at once. Physically here, and there, at the same time but yet not."

"If we are really here THEN WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU SEND US HOME?" The volume of Faith's voice rose with every angry word. There was a pleading quality mixed in with the anger that she hated hearing in herself.

She wanted to beat something, wanted to hurt something, wanted to just rip something apart with her bare hands. She just wanted them both to go home. Wanted them away from this nightmare. That was all she wanted, was that too much to ask? Hadn't nine years of him been long enough? Hadn't those nine years she had lived through been more than enough to count for both of them? Didn't it count for something, at the very least enough for Buffy to be able to go home? Hadn't she paid long enough?

Without even knowing, she had voiced all her thoughts in an almost silent whisper at the plate she was staring at with faraway eyes. The metal fork she had in her hand snapped in half.

Nine years... Nine years... She hadn't known. She had gotten almost all of it in the images from the echoes, the length of time though, that she hadn't known. Buffy's mind reeled from the horror of it. How the hell had Faith survived him, how could anyone have survived all that? Gently she pulled Faith into her arms, who buried her head in the crook of Buffy's neck. She wanted to say something, anything, wishing with all that she was that she could just make it go away. "I'm so sorry... Even one second was too long..."

Atropos watched them; sooner or later they would need to talk about this. Faith would need to do it in order to finally truly be free from her past, and from what had happened now. She would need to finally put a voice to all that pain, guilt and hurt that she had carried around for most of her life. Buffy would need to be part of it, giving a voice to her own pain, guilt and hurt or they wouldn't survive together once they did escape that place.

Now though was not the time. For now, they needed to concentrate on being strong and focused. Faith already knew that, it was why she had pushed, was pushing down, locking up everything this was doing to her on the inside. Buffy, whether she realized it or not, was doing the same thing. They both felt safe here so the walls were beginning to crumble a little, and Atropos knew that in order for them to survive going back there, she couldn't let that happen.

Faith lifted her head from her temporary safe haven. Had she said all of that out loud? Before she had a chance to ask, Atropos began to speak again.

"If I sent you home you would only die. Your bodies are in a sense existing in two places, dimensions, right now. Neither of them are truly complete. For the most part, your conscious and unconscious minds are here, a part of you though still exists there. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible to explain. Think of it in terms of a snake shedding its skin. What is over there is just a thin outer layer, a shell of you each. While here, with us in our domain, are the inner layers, all of them except for the encasing. You cannot survive without the outer shell, just like it cannot survive without the inner parts of you. Nor can you survive here for long without it." Atropos paused and took a deep breath before she continued.

"If I could I would bring your outer shell here but I don't have that kind of power. Glory's dimension is not a part of ours. The scope of what I can do doesn't reach into her dimension. And yes, before you ask the way that you are here is different from the others times, Faith. This time you did not come in your dream or spirit state as it were. This time when you came here you were awake, and your need to be physically away from there caused you to manifest physically, bringing your 'soul' with you.

"Buffy did the same thing by instinctively using and following the bond that you two share as soul-mates. Please you must believe me if I could send you both home I would. There is nothing I wouldn't do to make that happen. Had we been able to see this in the Tapestry I would have prevented it, that BITCH... had no right to do what she did and she damn well knew it! I'd rip her throat out myself if I could get my hands on her."

Atropos could tell by the look of surprise, and the flair of anger in both Slayers' eyes that she had moved them back into a place of strength, their focus once again on getting out of the nightmare that Glory had dragged them into. It was a second or two before Atropos realized that they were growling low in approval of her outburst.

"Did you send him to us?"

"Why don't we finish this conversation in my favorite room...?" Atropos told them ignoring Faith's question for now.

Faith didn't miss the impish glint in the jade green eyes at their nod of agreement.

"Just as a warning Faith...I'm about to do something you hate, but truth be told I've gotten lazy in my old age and just hate to walk..." With that said, Atropos waved her hand and within the span of a blink of an eye they were all in the room, where the tapestries where hung on the wall.

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They were sitting comfortably on the dusky rose-colored couch across from Atropos, who was sitting in an antique rocking chair already working on a needlepoint.

"So did you send Satan to us or was he just playing a game?"

"I did not send him, he went there of his own accord. Just like with you Faith, we cannot make the choices for the Life Threads, whether mortal or immortal, god or not, whatever choices they make are their own."

"How the hell did he know about us being there and you didn't? Why is he involved in this?"

"He didn't know, the Tapestry showed him. As for why he is involved in this I think it would be best if he told you that."

Faith was getting frustrated fast they were once again back to answers that weren't really answers at all. She tried to get this straight in her own mind. The Fates couldn't see this as a possibility in the Tapestry because Glory had done this outside of the Fates realm of power or domain. She knew she was missing a piece of the puzzle here and that piece had to do with Luc. But if Luc hadn't known what happened and the Tapestry had shown him what had happened to them... Then that meant that somehow or another the Fates had gotten him involved afterwards. But why? That was really the question and Faith knew that the ancient woman wouldn't tell her, she had made that clear already. There was another question though that Faith hoped Atropos would give her the answer to.

"Was Lucifer really there to help us? Can we trust him?"

"I cannot tell you that either Child. The decision whether or not to trust Luc or whether Luc was there to help is entirely up to you both."

This time Faith groaned aloud in frustration. It was all going round and round in her head, she had to figure this out, she knew Atropos was trying to tell her something but what? Faith stared down the ancient woman until Atropos broke her gaze. She watched as the jade green eyes looked over her head and a sad smile graced the face of the ancient woman. Faith twisted around on the couch and looked up at the needlepoint tapestry that was making Atropos smile so sadly.

Hello! Good going Faith! Little bit more and the ancient woman would have had to hit you over the head with the damn needlepoint!

As she stared at the needlepoint tapestry she heard Luc's voice again in her head, 'Luc to my friends, but you can call me Lucifer... ah... But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game...' It was the same tapestry from her 'meditation dream', the one of Luc and the beautiful woman with the jade green eyes. He hadn't been playing a game, he had let Faith see his true face from the beginning, he hadn't tried to hide it because he already knew that she had seen it before. Had seen it when she had visited the same jade green-eyed woman who sat in front of her in the rocking chair wearing a mask of her own, who he also knew, would call him Luc, just like all of his friends did.

Buffy looked back and forth between them confused. She became even more confused when Faith asked Atropos her next question.

"How long were the two of you lovers? Oh and Elder you can drop the mask." Though as Faith was saying this she already saw the mask start to shimmer and fade.

Buffy looked at Faith then turned to look at Atropos just as her mask finished shimmering and fell. Now Buffy was totally confused. "What the... Could someone please tell me what's going on? And what the hell is a Life Thread."

"Child did you neglect to tell your Chosen about your visits here?"

Faith gave Atropos a lopsided grin at her calling her child, because the Atropos sitting in front of her now didn't look a day over twenty-five. Faith couldn't help think that the true form of Atropos was both beautiful, sensual and innocent all at once. Luc must have been pretty stupid to have lost her, and Faith hoped that she was never that stupid when it came to Buffy.

A weird chill ran its way up the Dark Slayer's spine and suddenly she had this overwhelming fear that she would be that stupid. That her inability or lack of skill in trying to express what it was that she felt or needed would cause her to lose Buffy and what they had. She was terrified that if, when, they did get back home that she would fall back in to being the same old Faith that she was before. Terrified that she wouldn't be able to knock back down the walls she had re-erected in order for them to survive this nightmare they had been thrust into.

"It won't happen." Buffy said softly for Faith's Slayer hearing only.

It was Faith's turn to look at Buffy in confusion. She had been so deep in her own thoughts that she had momentarily forgotten about the echoes they shared.

"What won't happen?" Faith asked her just as softly.

"You being that stupid, or going back to the way you were before."

"But..."

"No buts... I won't let it happen..." Buffy smiled softly at Faith, "Face it baby, you're stuck with me forever and then some, whether you like it or not."

Faith smiled weakly back at Buffy and couldn't help but to lean into her hand when Buffy gently touched her cheek.

"Don't ever forget that. Whatever happens we'll get through it together. I love you Faith. It's unconditional and it's forever." Buffy leaned into Faith and rested their foreheads together, "Okay..."

"'K..."

They settled back down into the couch together, Faith snuggling into Buffy, laying her head down onto Buffy's shoulder. "Good. Now you want to tell me about your visits here? 'Cause you kinda fell asleep on me last night... Oh and baby..." Buffy glanced over at Atropos who had remained silent throughout their intimate exchange. She didn't doubt for a second that the ancient, and Buffy knew she was ancient despite her appearance now, had heard what they said. She looked down at the top of Faith's head.

"Yeah B..." Faith looked up at Buffy from her perch on Buffy's shoulder.

"You won't be coming back here anytime soon without me..." Buffy let her gaze fall on the beautiful Fate sitting across from her, an impish grin playing around her mouth.

"Ahhh B..." Faith whined playing along with her. Secretly thrilled though, at the little bit of possessiveness that had slipped into Buffy's tone.

"Don't B me... Now come on and tell me what happened when you were here before... "

Faith resettled herself back comfortably into Buffy, laying her head once again on Buffy's shoulder and began her tale. "Well the first time was when..."

Atropos was in awe of them once again, amazed by how they seemed to be able to tease each other. To be able to find happiness within the moment, to push aside all the bad and focus just solely on each other, without forgetting that the time would come that they would have to deal with all that had happened to them. This ability, she knew, was what would get them through the aftermath that was sure to come when they did escape Glory's hell, and escape they would, Atropos had not a doubt. It saddened her a little though, that they both had to learn how to grab onto the moments when they could, the hard way. Faith when she was a child and Buffy after she had been 'Chosen'.

She relaxed back into the rocking chair, working on her needlepoint and listened to Faith tell her tale. Faith, whether she knew it or not, Faith was actually a very good storyteller.

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"... So that's all of it. Though, I didn't remember any of it until I was up on the platform that night. Letting... letting you go was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I felt like I was being torn in half. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to stop you. I wanted to say fuck the world, everyone it in could die for all I cared as long as you and Dawn were safe... But I couldn't because..."

"Because what Faith?"

"Because you taught me better than that B and not only you but all of you, Angel, Cordy, Gunn, Wes, the Scoobs, Dawn, and even Spike. It would have been like spitting in all of your faces. So, I clung to the hope, the fact that nothing could separate us, that when my time came that I would be with you again. A year ago, I wouldn't have cared. But you taught me how to care, how to love and so I honored your wishes.

"A piece of me died though with every step you took towards the portal and I know that I would have only kept myself alive long enough for Dawn to grow up and keep my promise to you. Because truth be told B... I don't want to live in a world without you in it."

Faith ran a shaky hand through her hair and rushed out the rest, "Now I remember Atropos telling me that it was up to me whether I would remember them after that night. I was so pissed at what happened; at the fucked-up choices they gave me, that I made myself forget them. At least now we know what the hell Luc was trying to do or say with that dumb ass 'tapestries' of pain speech he gave us." Faith paused again, she toyed with the leg of Buffy's sweat pants, then asked her in an almost whisper, "B... did I do the right thing... do you...?"

"Yes Faith you did... As hard as it was, you did... and it was unfair of me to ask you to do it. And I would have felt the same way as you. But you did the right thing letting me go and as weird as this might sound or be, I'm proud of you for it."

"Really?" Faith looked at Buffy with that wide-eyed amazed look that always made Buffy's breath catch at how innocent she could look at times.

"Really." Buffy leaned in and kissed the tip of Faith's nose, who immediately crinkled it and turned beet red. "But what I want to know..." Buffy's gaze turned to Atropos, "Why didn't you just bring Faith here like you had in the past?"

"My ability to bring Faith here whilst she slept doesn't extend into Glory's domain or I would have. All I can do now is send you back when the time comes."

"Then you did sen..."

"As luck would have it Luc just happened to pay Glory a visit." Atropos said cutting off Buffy. "For some odd reason his appearance seemed to have caused Faith to remember us, and being here."

"Yeah, lucky." Buffy let it slide knowing better than to push for an answer that wasn't forthcoming. "So when do I get to see this 'Tapestry of Life', and can I see my own 'Life Thread'?"

"Yes you can see your own Life Thread. We can go now if you like."

"Now would be good."

"Very well then. And Faith..."

"Let me guess you're gonna do something I hate again aren't you?"

Atropos just laughed lightly and waved her hand.

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They were soaking in the tub once again, basking in the magical water that seemed to take away all of the physical pain in their bodies.

Both Slayers had spent hours standing in front of the Tapestry of Life as it had shown Buffy all that it had shown Faith on her last visit here to the Fates domain. She had learned, like Faith, that each Slayer retained the mystical energy that made them what they were even after death. That in fact, each Slayer was born with the energy already part of them. She wonder, like Faith had, if there was a way to activate the power in the next Slayer before the current Slayer died. It was strange to think that the 'Slayer energy' was not actually passed on, but duplicated and given to the next.

While she had been looking at not only her own Life Thread but also Faith's and the other Slayers, that ancient, remembered thing from deep inside that seemed to run through her blood had quickened. She had brushed it off at the time thinking it was answering something from its mate that lived inside of Faith. Now though, as she lay cuddled into Faith, who was gently stroking her hair, she wasn't so sure. She felt like she was missing something, whatever it was, kept tickling at the edges of her mind and the more she tried to bring it to the forefront the more it eluded her. With a tired sigh, she decided to let it go for the night and snuggled deeper into Faith's warm embrace.

Faith was almost completely relaxed, letting herself luxuriate in her mate's warmth, which surrounded and covered her like a soft woolen blanket. Although she couldn't completely let herself go, the security of this temporary safe-haven for Faith had been effectively destroyed that morning. Her, their reaction to Atropos sudden appearance in the kitchen had been a harsh reminder that eventually they would have to go back there.

She knew no matter how long they stayed here that she would not be able to completely give in to the pretend world again, nor would she be completely able to let her guard down. Part of her would keep waiting to hear the sound of the other shoe to drop back in the personal 'Slayer Hell' that Glory had created just for them.

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"Who the bloody hell are you?"

Luc smiled and jumped down off the counter, "I'm sorry, I'd forgotten that we all hadn't met yet. It just seems like I know you all so well... Please allow me to..." He stopped when he heard Xander groan. Shit he almost did it again, didn't he? "My name is Luc, but you..."

"He's the 'Devil.'," Xander blurted out unable to contain himself.

Wesley turned and looked at Xander, "He's a devil you say, you mean like a demon?"

"No l-i-k-e in T H E Devil...Satan... Lucifer... The Prince of Darkness... that devil..."

"Very funny. Almost had me there, you bloody glorified brick-layer."

"Oh Xander's not lying Spike," Anya said smugly. "I've known Luc for over a thousand years. We were friends when I was a Vengeance demon."

A decided chill mixed with a little bit of fear settled over the room when they realized that neither Xander nor Anya was lying. Xander watched as Wesley pulled a cross out of one pocket and a bottle, of what he assumed was holy water out of the other. He couldn't help grin.

"Not gonna work Wesley, he's not a vamp." Wesley just shot Xander a 'what-do-you-know-I-was-a-watcher' look. Xander smirked at him, for once he had the upper hand. "Okay don't believe me..." Surprising himself he quirked an eyebrow at Luc and they shared a silent understanding.

Whoa! Big on the weird meter there! The Devil! Me and the Devil sharing a secret decoder ring moment.

Wesley held the cross out in front of him and moved forward, he thumbed the top off the bottle. Xander, Willow, Tara, Anya and even Luc watched him with amusement. Angel and Spike moved to the side, standing slightly in front of Wesley flanking him. Dawn burrowed further into James, while Gary watched, a little amused himself. Gunn moved to stand protectively in front of Cordelia and Fred, who kept peeking out over the top of his shoulders.

"Get thee gone oh... um...Prince of Darkness. Go back to the bowels of hell that you ah... hail from." He thrust the cross towards Luc, and sprayed him with the holy water. The Scoobs hid their smiles behind their hands, when Luc slowly dissolved into smoke. Wesley turned around and gave Xander a self-satisfied smirk. "You were saying Xander...?"

"He was saying..." This time it was Wesley who practically jumped out of his skin when he heard Luc speaking from behind him. He spun around and came face to face with the Devil himself, who was smiling at him with his own self-satisfied look. "...that crosses don't work and now you know that holy water doesn't either, though you might have harmed Angel and Spike if your aim was a little off."

Luc spun around when he heard the snarls coming from both Angel and Spike. He held his hand out halting them before they could attack, "Please gentlemen, as Gary so succinctly said, don't go all 'game boy' face on us. It's true I am whom Xander said. Lucifer, The Prince of Darkness, though I prefer Luc, it is what my friends call me. Whether you choose to believe it or not I am your friend and I AM here to help the Slayers. Let me further state that the rumors of my evilness have been greatly exaggerated."

"It's true! It's all gossip, rumors, and out and out lies!" Anya gave them her smug, 'matter-of-fact-I-know-this-cause-I was-a-Vengeance-Demon,' look.

"I suppose telling us that the Luc in your story was really Lucifer was what? Not an option, Willow?" Cordelia sneered in her best Queen C voice, now that she had finally come out of hiding from behind Gunn.

Angel had been puzzled the second that Luc had literally went up in smoke, something was tickling him around the edges of his brain. Then, when Luc had reappeared behind Wesley, he knew what it was that was bothering him. He stood quietly, and opened all his senses to the room, then he knew for sure.

"I ah... didn't think it was important...?" Before Willow could finish, Angel cut her off.

"You were in the hotel yesterday weren't you?" Angel half asked, half-told Luc, "Right before Cordy had her vision. I sensed you." Angel took a threatening step towards Luc, completely forgetting that yesterday his senses had told him that the presence he had detected was benevolent, not malevolent. "What kind of game are you playing with us?"

"I am not playing any game, giving Cordelia the vision was the only way for me to get you all here without directly interfering. If I came to you yesterday and said; Hi, my name is Lucifer or better yet Satan, I need to talk to you; would you have listened to me? No, you would have put on your 'game boy' face and attacked. Right, Soul-boy?" Luc snarled right back at Angel.

Angel's eyes started to glow yellow; he took another step towards Luc. He never got the chance to attack; someone else beat him to it.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" Dawn screamed already running at him.

Luc turned around in time to catch the little hellcat coming at him with claws bared. He held her easily as she pummeled his chest.

"WHERE'S BUFFY AND FAITH? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THEM? WHERE DID YOU TAKE THEM?"

No one in the room moved. They stared unblinking, frozen to the spot, fear written clearly across all of their faces, including Willow and Xander who were unsure now if Luc truly was on their side. All except Tara and Anya, who had no fear at all that Luc would hurt Dawn. Tara had a look of concentration on her face as she stared at the Prince of Darkness, who was holding Dawn quite easily and quite gently.

"I haven't done anything with them little one," Luc told her gently, "I didn't take them anywhere. I want to help them just as much as you do."

"LIAR! I know you have them!"

Tara surprised everyone as she started to walk towards them.

"Tara, don't..."

Tara ignored Willow. She walked up close to them both, and tenderly placed her hand on Dawn's shoulder.

"Dawnie, sweetie calm down... Please... He is..."

Luc put Dawn back on her feet and Tara quickly grabbed her to keep her from going after him again.

"Easy Dawnie, he's here to help." Dawn stopped struggling against Tara, she stared defiantly at Luc, not really giving a shit, if he was Satan or not.

Faith, I'm channeling Faith...

The tears started to fall unbidden from her eyes.

He locked his eyes with Dawn, his face, solemn, serious. Only Tara caught the deep down sorrow and remorse that flitted across his face briefly before he asked Dawn softly, "What makes you think I have them little one?" He couldn't help think that she reminded him of both Slayers, as she stared so defiantly at him, not backing down, unafraid of him, the supposed greatest evil that had ever lived.

Dawn angrily wiped at the tears that were leaking from her eyes. "You... you called him Soul-boy... Only Faith called him that... How would you know that if you don't have them?" Her voice went from defiantly angry to almost pleading. At least if he had them, they had a chance of getting them back. She would do anything to get her sister, no, sisters' back.

He sighed. Again, Tara saw the sorrow and remorse flash across his face. They all waited for him to answer, he wished he could just tell them where the Slayers were, but he fucking couldn't. The damn fucking rules again. He had no idea what would happen if he broke them, not a one. Besides, he knew they had all the right hints, he had made sure of that. Willow had all the clues; he had given them to the Slayers to give to her. It was his words that they had heard in their heads and had spoken to Willow. Now all the people in front of him had to do was figure it all out then the rules didn't apply and he could lead the way.

"I know that Faith calls him that. Just like I know that Tara and Willow call each other their 'Always' and Xander calls Angel, Dead-boy and Spike calls him 'Peaches' or 'Poof'. I also know that Faith calls you 'Gamin' and I would tell you what Anya and Xander call each other, but I think that you are too young to hear that just yet." He paused and ran his hand through his hair; he was making a mess of this.

"I can tell you that you remind me of not only your sister but Faith as well and that they would be proud of you right now. But that doesn't mean that I have them. I wish I did, because I would gladly give them back to you. I would have given them back the very second that they showed up knocking on my door. Because neither one of them belongs where I dwell. I don't have them little one. I wish with everything I am that I did."

Dawn didn't know why but she believed him. Actually, everyone in the room, living and undead, believed him. Maybe it was the sorrow and remorse they all heard in his voice, and saw now in his face. Or maybe it was in the slumped shoulders, or his hand that seemed to be nervously picking at the leg of his pants. They all knew he was called the 'Great Pretender', but none of them thought that he was pretending now. Maybe it was the fact that they needed someone other than themselves to believe as well. Or maybe they just wanted him to confirm what they all hoped, all wanted to believe, that Buffy and Faith were alive.

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL HAS THEM THEN?"

"He can't tell you that. He is bound." Everyone looked at Anya. "There are rules that the 'Incarnates' must follow. He can't break them. The last time someone broke the rules..." She trailed off when Xander nudged her gently. Okay so she could tell that story another time. "He can hint, push in a direction. But he can't tell outright. It sort of like figuring out a..."

"RIDDLE!" Willow looked at them all a little sheepishly after her outburst. "Sorry... when I ah saw them..."

"You saw them, saw them... but that means..."

"That they really are alive, I know that now, though I didn't at first Tara..." Willow waved off the twenty million questions everyone started to ask her. "...it wasn't until I saw their 'auras' that I knew they were still alive. Angel..." Willow waited until he focused on her, "Why did you come downstairs convinced that they're alive?

Angel waved the lifting gloves that he had forgotten he was holding at them. They all looked at him a little confused.

"The scars... there weren't any scars on her hands... Nor did Buffy have the scar on her mouth. They may have looked like them, but it's not our Faith and Buffy buried in those graves."

They all looked at him. He was right. In their grief, not one of them had noticed it, it was the thing that had been bothering them all, their subconscious minds had known all along. They all just stared at each other in silence, any lingering doubt they may have had that the Slayers weren't alive was eradicated.

"Maybe you want to tell us what they said now Willow..."

"Um... sure... when I saw them I asked them who had bea..." She paused she didn't want Dawn to know how badly battered Buffy and Faith had been. "...um, er... brought... took... taken them... to where they were... They didn't answer me, instead they told me a riddle...The Key knows... The Soul holds the key... And the Two will open and hold the door... The Fallen knows the way..."

"The 'Key' that would be you Dawn."

Dawn shot Anya a confused look. How could she know anything? "But I don't know anything..."

"Tell us what happened up there that night Dawnie..." Tara softly encouraged her.

She had been on the scaffolding, on the tower that night, she had seen the portal but that was it. She didn't see anything when... Dawn took a few deep breaths and felt the tears' welling up in her eyes again, it was still too hard to think about that night. Too hard to think about how her sister had sacrificed herself for her. She felt Tara tighten her arms around her and she leaned gratefully back into Tara's comforting embrace.

She closed her eyes and even though it hurt her deep inside, she pictured that night in her mind. "The... portal started opening... the white energy in it was almost hypnotizing... familiar somehow, like it was calling me... Faith came up behind us... Then, for like a second, Buffy got this far off look in her eyes... then she pulled me close and told me that she was going to... told me what she wanted me to tell you all..." Dawn paused hearing her sister's words to her once again.

She remembered the look, the love in Buffy's eyes for her. The love that seemed to radiate from Buffy for Faith as she silently said goodbye to her. Remembered as her sister turned and ran down the platform, which had seemed endless, as Buffy dove off the end, falling into the white light.

Dawn took a shuddering breath and continued, "...Faith was crying... she went after Buffy... I wanted to reach out to her but I couldn't. It was like I was frozen in place... I couldn't believe any of this was happening... It wasn't supposed to be Buffy who died; it was supposed to be me... Then Faith moved past me, she stumbled, then she stopped... she moved closer to the edge and hesitated... then she... then she..." Dawn saw Faith again in her mind, how she had staggered past her crying, stumbling, stopping, staggering two more steps, hesitating then... How the air suddenly grew chilled, the sound of a madwoman's giggle drifted through the air... how... How it looked like Faith hadn't...

"NONONONO! SHE'S DEAD!" Dawn started crying harder, her chest heaving, her tears choking her. "Faith... Faith didn't... she... she was pushed... I didn't know... I thought I imagined it... I didn't know... I felt her, heard that laugh... that crazy laugh... Glory's got them... Glory's got them..."

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They were all sprawled out around the living room. It had taken a little while to get Dawn to calm down. They were all a little dazed, not one of them had thought Glory could possibly still be alive. Willow barely managed to keep herself calm, after seeing the Slayers today and adding the knowledge of how much Glory hated Buffy. She was afraid to think about what Glory had, was doing to them, if she did, she would lose it. She needed, they needed, to stay focused on getting them home.

"Okay so Glory is alive..." Willow looked at Luc for confirmation, who just shrugged his shoulders. Considering that he prodded or hinted to push them in the right direction, she was going to take his silence as confirmation. "Okay then the next part of the riddle was 'The Soul holds the key'... Which I am going to assume is you Angel and maybe that book that Cordy saw in her vision."

Willow sneaked another look at Luc who was now swinging his feet, twiddling his thumbs and looking aimlessly up at the ceiling.

Angel retrieved the book from the floor by the stairs where he had dropped it earlier and where it had lain forgotten until now. He placed it on the low table for all to see.

Fred practically flew out of her chair. "Oh... that's... that's Shrsqwrn... it's because of that... oh... Sorry..." Fred flopped back down into the chair.

"What dimension is Glory or rather Glorificus from?"

They all looked at each other, then turned and looked at Luc. Luc looked back at them. Fuck! He knew he had forgotten something!

"Perhaps we should call Giles. He might know."

"Um..." Fred tried to get their attention but they ignored her.

"Or I can see what I can find out about the Knights on the internet, maybe there is a clue there."

"Excus..." Fred tried again.

"The brick-layer and I can go down to Doc's place and see if we can find anything there."

"She's... um..." Fred tried a little louder this time.

"I can go with Dawnie down to the shop and we can see if anything is in that book that Spike and Xander brought back with the ritual in it."

They all got up from their seats with purpose.

"Um..." Fred began hesitantly again; when she saw that no one was paying attention to her still, she decided to try another tactic. "STOP!" She squirmed a little when everyone paused and turned to look at her. "Um... Glory she's from Shedu... but..."

"Angel see if there is an incantation in there to open a portal to Shedu."

"Excuse me but if we open a portal, don't we have a little end of the world as we know it problem?"

"Not necessarily. Since Glory was exiled, she simply couldn't go back to her own dimension via a normal portal, like when we traveled to Pylea to retrieve Cordelia. She needed to perform the ritual using the 'Key', or rather Dawn's blood to open a portal with the mystical energy so that she could be restored to her former self, separate from Ben. If she went the normal way, she would have still been stuck in Ben's body."

"Are you sure Wesley? 'Cause you don't sound too sure to me."

"Yes, well, as sure as I can be."

"Damn! There isn't any Shedu in this book! Now what?"

"Um... You can't get there from here. It's not that simple. Her dimension isn't part of our inter-dimensions, you need to find a middle dimension to get there from here. Sort of like a crossroads, or no, better yet, a bridge. Yes, a bridge is better. A dimensional bridge, a virtual bridge... It's kind of like dimensional quantum physics almost in a way... or maybe..."

Wesley cut Fred off; she was definitely going to give Willow a run for her money on who could babble the most. "Fred... Do you know a middle dimension?"

"Yes."

"Okay what is the name of this middle dimension and is it in the book?"

"Kama. Page 463. But the book only tells you about Kama, not how to open the two portals. You need a spell for that because they need to be opened together and that isn't in the book."

"Concomitant Gate," both James and Gary said at the same time.

"Well I guess Tara and I aren't the third part of the riddle, 'And the Two will open and hold the door'. Let me guess... you guys are witches..."

"Aren't guy witches, Warlocks, Will?"

"Only if they are evil Xander."

"And we're not evil, a little wicked maybe, light in the loafers, but not evil." Gary smiled at them, not able to help himself he winked at Xander...

"And how come we're just finding out now that you two are witches?"

"Long story, one I'm sure James would love to tell you, but for now let's concentrate on getting back the Energizer Bunnies."

"Don't ask about the name... taking a leap of faith here that 'The Fallen knows the way' is you Luc." James said after punching Gary in the arm for using the nickname they used for the Slayers in private after hearing more than just their conversation one morning.

Luc jumped off the counter, which had over the last two days, become his favorite spot here, and in L.A. "That it would be! Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak... The fucking rules don't apply... The Slayers' are alive, and Glory has them. The bodies that fell from the portal were clones in a way, which is why there were no scars. Glory did the same thing that the monks did by using a drop of their blood, which wouldn't carry the genetic trace for the scars unless they were born with them.

"I know where Glory is keeping them and I managed to buy them a little time. However, there is another player involved, someone from Faith's childhood." Luc paused, not sure if he should go on with Dawn in the room, he looked to Willow for an answer.

Dawn didn't miss the interaction between Willow and Luc, she knew he was looking to Willow to decide whether she could stay and hear what he had to say. Now more the ever she believed this was her fault. She should have said something sooner; she had heard what Gregor had said about the nature of the beast. She couldn't even think about what Glory was doing to them. She knew it was bad, she had heard Willow's hesitation, knew that she had almost said beaten.

"I'm not leaving! They're my family, my sisters. I'm not leaving! I won't be able to help them when they come back if I don't know what happened to them. I am not a child; Buffy was my age when she was 'Chosen'. I want... I need to help. I know it's bad, I heard what Gregor said about Glory. Please I..."

Luc caught a slight nod from Willow out of the corner of his eye. He would tone down what he said and fill them in with the rest of what they needed to know when Dawn was asleep later that night. "Okay little one, you can stay... The first thing you all need to know is that while only a few months have passed here, almost seven months have passed for the Slayers..."

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"Morning sleepy head..."

"Morning to you too..." Buffy burrowed deeper into Faith's side, not wanting to get up yet. She had a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she felt an answering response coming from Faith.

They had been here for ten days; today was the start of their eleventh. In Glory's domain, it was the beginning of the sixth day, while for the Scoobs, and the L.A. crew the sun had just gone down on the second day after Luc's arrival at the Mansion. The Fates domain was once again out-of-sync with the rest of the dimensions; it was a necessity in order to maintain the Tapestry of Life.

The Chosen Two had fallen into a daily routine within the Fates' domain. After the first morning, all three Fates joined them every day for breakfast. They had found out that Clotho was a master of hand-to-hand combat, as well as a medieval weapons expert. So after breakfast every day they trained with her and she suitably impressed both Slayers, they had learned quite a lot from her in only nine days.

Lachesis, it turned out, was a master of Tai Chi and Yoga. They spent their afternoons with her and had learned new Tai Chi exercises that even Angel didn't know. She taught them about pressure points, how to regulate their heart rate, breathing, the flow of their blood through their veins. She taught them about the seven basic chakra's and what each one did, they were learning how to unblock and balance their chakra's; to let the vibrations of the light, which made up their centers flow freely. In turn, Lachesis taught them how to share the energy or use it themselves with not only Yoga meditations, but their Slayer Healing to help heal their bodies even faster.

They spent their evenings with Atropos in her favorite room, who still, despite her young appearance treated them much like a grandmother would her grandchildren. She began teaching them different meditations that would strengthen the 'bond', or the 'echoes' they shared. The bond expanded under her tutelage, it became second nature to them. They learned to communicate effortlessly with each other through emotions, without words. They were not telepathic in the sense that they could speak to each other in their minds, rather it was with images in a place between their conscious and subconscious minds.

They were learning how to fine tune and control their connection, echoes. How to expand them, narrow them down to a single thought, emotion, even close them all, except that one small thread that would for eternity connect them. That thread Atropos told them would always remain open, not even death could close it, it was the thread that linked them outside of being Slayers, it was the thread that anchored their souls together, it was the thread that made them soul-mates. They hadn't however, started to explore the new echo of the ghost-like-physical-touch they felt upon their own skin when the other was touched.

Between the three Fates both Buffy and Faith began to learn how to use all of their Slayer senses, from sight, to smell, to touch, to sound, to even taste. They were learning how to fine-tune all of their senses to their advantage. To begin to tap into the source of what made them Slayer's, something they had barely touched upon before. Both Slayers had to wonder if the council didn't teach them this because they didn't want a Slayer to actually realize their full potential.

The Fates were teaching them how to substitute one sense for the other if one became disabled. On the second day of training Clotho began to teach them how to fight without their sight. They spent most of the afternoon blindfolded and on their butts, but in the last hour of training it became a rare sight to see either Slayer on the ground. Faith became quite proficient at fighting 'blind' quickly, earning herself a new nickname from Buffy, which had come from some damn television show that she used to watch on 'Nick-At-Night'. She started to call Faith, 'Grasshopper' after the character Kane from the original Kung Fu series with David Carradine.

As the days passed and they trained together using their newly acquired skills, they began to move in perfect synchronicity, like true mirror images of the other. Graceful, almost as if they were performing a choreographed dance. Yet they still remained independent, still able to improvise, surprise the other. They were able to communicate, warn the other of an impending attack or danger. They became each other's proverbial eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head.

They balanced each other in a way that the Fates had not seen in eons and they all thought that the sight of the Chosen Two moving together or simply just being together was one of the most beautiful sights they ever had the honor to see.

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"Good morning Grasshopper and Buffy." All three Fates said together.

"B, you are so going to regret that name and so are you three." Faith snarled but there was no real threat behind either the snarl or the words.

"Well Grasshopper, it is only fair that you have a nickname too, especially since you gave all of us at least one if not two. Let's see Buffy here is B. I'm 'Elder' or 'Pos', Lachesis is either 'Lach' or 'Ma' and Clotho is either 'Clo' or 'Kiddo'..."

"Yeah but those are wicked-cool nicknames, not like mine..." Faith grumbled some more before she sat down with a huff and a pout.

"Don't pout baby... I hate it when you pout." Buffy leaned in close to Faith, and purred in her ear, "You know I have other nicknames for you, but I don't think you want me to share those..." Buffy planted a soft kiss on the sensitive spot behind Faith's ear before she moved away and attacked her breakfast.

For a little while after Buffy's lips touched the sensitive flesh by her ear, Faith forgot all about what had happened to her, to them, over the last seven months. She felt a blush creep up her neck, and the light laugher from the Fates' whom she was sure heard what Buffy said, just made it grow brighter.

"No fair B... Did I ever tell you, you don't play fair...?" Then she attacked her own breakfast, reveling in that warm fuzzy feeling that Buffy had always been able to give her.

They all talked while Faith wolfed down her food and was lost in her own little world. Then that gnawing feeling in her stomach grew, reminding her of what had happened, what still wasn't over. The blush faded from her cheeks and neck, the warm fuzzy feeling grew ice-cold. Vaguely she heard the little pearl-of-wisdom that Atropos decided to drop on them that morning.

"Food is a lot like the source of your power. That which sustains you, like the source of your strength, your power, what makes you each uniquely you, can also be your poison, or your greatest weakness, and that which can destroy you..."

Faith continued to stare at her plate when she was finished, forgoing her usual seconds. She closed the sound of their voices off and concentrated on the link to the part of herself that was still aware there. Then the tingling of her Slayer senses was rushing at her and if she didn't know better she would have sworn that she heard the distinct sound of the other shoe dropping. Every hair on her body stood on end, seeming to crackle with electricity. She bolted upright, her back, spine rigid, every muscle in her body tightened painfully.

"Faith baby...?" Buffy tried to keep the tremor out of her voice but she knew and if she didn't she would have known the second she saw the haunted eyes that Faith turned to her.

"B... I'm sorry..." Unbeknownst to Buffy, Faith had spent hours every night in the Fates' library researching, trying to find something, anything, to merge their segregated bodies into whole ones here in the Fates' domain. Atropos had joined her after the first night thinking perhaps that she might have forgotten something over the years that might help them.

Then Faith had begun to look for anything that could even just get Buffy away. She didn't care the cost, even if was her own soul, she would pay any price to get Buffy free from Glory and Johnny, any price at all to keep Buffy from ever having to go back there. Neither Faith, nor Atropos found anything that could release the Slayers from the other dimension. They kept on researching anyway just in case. Biding their time, waiting for the sixth or seventh day, when hopefully, with the help of the Chosen Twos' family of friends they would escape that place.

Buffy grabbed Faith's hand, squeezing it gently. "No sorrys... We'll get out of this together..."

"Now Atropos..." Faith choked on the words as they came out.

With a nod of her head, the Slayers' were returned to Glory's hell and the Fates were once again in the Tapestry of Life room.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Atropos..." Lachesis pleaded with her sister as she sat at the loom.

"You have to tell them... Tell Luc... That skanky-bad-haired excuse for a 'god' and that vermin weren't supposed to be back for two more days..." Clotho joined her voice to her sister's, sounding a lot like the Dark Slayer.

"Please Atropos you can't leave them there..." Lachesis looked into her sister's sad eyes. She knew Atropos didn't want to leave them there, but the goddamn rules. Always the rules! "Atropos do you really want to have to cut one or both of their Life Threads in two days' time? This whole thing should have never happened to begin with. Let alone the cutting of their Life Threads, not now, not this soon, not this way... Atropos please..." Lachesis voice was soft, barely a whisper.

Atropos spent less than two seconds looking at her sisters' crying, pleading eyes. They, like her, admired, respected and loved the Slayers; the Slayers had become a part of their family. She knew Lachesis wasn't lying, knew that there was a real possibility that she might have to cut one or both of their Life Threads. Already the scene in Glory's dimension was starting to play out and with almost one-hundred percent certainty one or both of the Slayers would not survive to see the sunrise on the eighth day within Glory's domain if she didn't do something. This time it all came down to her, only she could stop the cutting of a Life Thread so the choice to break the rules was hers alone.

"Fuck it! That skanky-bad-haired-bitch started this!"

With a fury in her jade green eyes that neither of her sisters had seen in a very long time, and that the Chosen Two, especially Faith would have been proud of, Atropos waved her hand and was gone.

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"LUC!" This time it was Lucifer, the 'Prince of Darkness', who almost jumped out of his skin when suddenly someone was behind him.

He whirled around, blinking, not believing his eyes. He heard Spike growling and purring in what he knew was the equivalent of a vampire courting call, and whirled back around on Spike, "Don't even think about it!" He turned around once again; he guided her into the kitchen so they could speak in private. "What are y..."

"I had to send them back. One or both of them will not live to see the sunrise on the eighth day in that bitch's domain. You have to go to Shedu now!"

"What? But it's only the sixth day there! Son of a bitch! It's going to take us almost a full day to get there... If only I could fade them there, but I can't. It doesn't work. I can only move, fade myself to the middle and then to Shedu, even that takes time. We don't have everything we need... fuck we're not ready yet... What the hell am I going to do? I can't leave Buffy and Faith there alone... I have to go help them... distract Glory, something... But I can't leave here; they won't be able to get there... what the h..."

"Luc..." She lightly placed her hand on his arm to stop his rambling. "Tell me what it is that you still need. Then you can tell me how to get to Shedu and where the Slayers are being held. I will lead these Warriors of Light there. This way you can go and help the Chosen Two immediately... "

"Atropos... You... why are you doing this? The rules..."

"Sometimes you have to break the rules Luc... They are family now... this was never meant to be... should never have happened. Neither one of them deserves this... I should have done something the very first second we discovered this within the Tapestry and I will regret that I did not for the whole of my life..."

He gave her a lopsided grin that was brilliant, "I knew there was a reason why I'm still in love with you after all these eons..." Luc's eyes grew wide when he realized what just came out of his mouth. Atropos stared at him, disbelief and hope mingled in her jade green eyes, eyes he used to lose himself in for hours, once upon a time.

"Luc?" She questioned him softly.

He lifted his hand and gently stroked her hair and whispered to her, "I never stopped, not once, not for a single second..."

The smile she gave him left him blind for a fraction of a second; his heart skipped a beat when she told him softly, "Neither have I... but..."

"Now is not the time..." He finished with a happy sigh none-the-less. "But after this, we will talk and then after the talk..."

She slapped his arm as he dragged her out into the living room.

xxxxxxxxxx

Their outer layer and their inner layers rejoined the same second Johnny came busting through the front door.

"Daddy's home, girls! Did ya miss me?"

They were off the couch and on opposite sides of the room from each other so fast that all he saw was a blur of motion. He could hear the low rumbling growls coming from them both. He looked at Buffy first who was crouched low, ready to spring, a feral light in her eyes making them more gold than hazel. He turned his attention to Faith next, whose stance was relaxed, almost casual, the same feral light in her eyes. The flecks of emerald green glowed brightly within her dark chocolate eyes, making her look even more like the predatory panther that Buffy often likened her to.

He snarled and gave them a tightlipped rabid smile of his own. They took in his appearance, there didn't seem to be a mark on him and something was different about him. Both of the Chosen One's opened their Slayer senses to him like the Fates had taught them. In the same instant, they knew what was different about him, he was now only a quarter human, the rest was pure hell demon. For just a second, terror flickered through both of their eyes but they pushed it down, focusing instead on remaining strong.

He didn't miss the fear in their eyes and he smiled broadly at them showing them what the additional change had brought him. He now had a very long sharp set of upper and lower fangs, they sparkled like they were coated with Vaseline. He saw their bodies tense minutely. He couldn't wait until they saw his hands, which he had kept behind his back since he entered the room, not to mention the other little powers that came along with his almost full demon state. He ran his tongue over the top set of fangs, loving the way they felt.

"Like 'em...?" Neither Slayer answered him, but then again he hadn't expected they would. He turned his attention to Faith once again locking his eyes with hers, "I can't want to use them on you, baby girl... Can't wait to taste you... I bet you'll taste good..."

They moved forward as one, slowly stalking him. Then they were a blur coming towards him as they tapped in further than they ever had before into the source of what made them Slayers.

There wasn't any way that he could take out both of them at once, coming at him from either side like they were. Then again, he didn't need to. Faith reached him first, her longer legs giving her the advantage, Buffy was only a step behind her. Faith lashed out with her left leg in a knee-strike, and Buffy barely managed to whirl out of the way a second before Faith would have hit her, because Johnny was no longer there.

"Looking for me my little 'Pets'?" He waited to continue until they turned around to face him, "Oh did I neglect to tell you I can do that blinking from one place to another like Glory now? So sorry."

They had not even taken a half a step towards him when he hit them both with darts from the Tranquilizer Guns he pulled out from behind his back. He shot Faith a second time, just to be on the safe side.

The drug worked its way quickly through their bloodstreams; they staggered another step or two. Both swaying drunkenly, fighting with everything they were worth against the effects of the drug on them. First Faith, then Buffy's legs gave out; they both fell to their knees with a bone jarring impact. Their world becoming blurry, their limbs heavy, so very heavy, yet they felt like they were floating at the same time. They watched him approach them with glazed eyes in slow motion leaving a rainbow-like trail behind him.

He kicked out and caught Buffy in the shoulder knocking her down to the floor on her back. He giggled like an insane three-year-old as she struggled to get back up.

He turned towards Faith and lashed out with his foot, five times as hard, catching her in the stomach. Smiling as she slid a foot backwards doubled over in pain.

He saw the little tremors, the slight convulsion starting to move through Buffy as she fought against the drug. He knew this was one severely painful drug. Causing hallucinations, disorientation, confusion, extreme muscle cramping, heart palpitations and convulsions; eventually rendering them unconsciousness, but it was a pain-filled trip getting there.

He walked behind Faith and pulled her up by her hair. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her tightly to him, letting the razor-like nails of his fingers slice thinly, delicately across her stomach. He released her hair, and cupped her under her chin pulling her head back harshly onto his shoulder, exposing the long column of her neck. He stood towering over Buffy, holding a struggling Faith against him like she was no more than a two-week-old hissing kitten. He had that same self-satisfied triumphant smug look on his face that Buffy had longed, needed to claw off, that first day here. That need returned to her with a vengeance.

"Slayer-Runt, did Faithy ever tell you about the summer we spent up here after her junkie-whore of a mother died of an overdose?"

With each word a memory struggled to find its way out of the deep dark place it still lay lurking within Faith. A memory that she had buried so deep, that it had not even come close to surfacing that first night of their captivity here with the rest of her childhood memories.

"No... Well, it was the summer she turned sweet sixteen... So..." He paused and licked the side of Faith's neck, smiling at the taste of fear in her sweat.

Buffy watched him from under heavy eyes, concentrating on clearing her system of the drug. Using the breathing and meditative methods the Fates' had taught them. She was slowly succeeding, but it wasn't fast enough. She could feel the sheer panic rising up in Faith, could feel bewilderment overtaking Faith as she slipped out of the here and now, sliding back into her past.

"Yummy... As I was saying... I decided to give her a special present. I decided to teach her something. I've heard she actually put it to use once. Do you want to know what it was, Runt?"

The memory slammed into Faith, overtaking her. Creating more terror and fear, then she had ever felt in her whole life. It forced her back in time, the drug confusing her as she was once again caught up in the nightmare of that summer. She was sixteen again, Buffy, vampires, demons, Slayer's, didn't exist, and never had. The only thing real to her was the tortured-filled weeks of the summer she turned sixteen and the real-life monster that was holding her now, cruelly and had been hurting her for years.

"That summer I taught my baby girl all about the five basic torture groups. I'm thinkin' though that it's time I taught them to her again..."

Faith started to struggle against him harder, small whimpers of fear coming from her. "Please don't... please..."

"If I remember correctly we started with blunt or was it sharp Faithy? Guess now I can do both!" He licked his lips lavishly and threw a malicious look at Buffy, smiling widely. Venom dripped from his fangs as he lowered his head towards Faith's neck. He bit her ferociously in the junction where her neck met her shoulder.

The scream came out from some tortured place inside of her soul, as he ripped through her skin and muscle. She felt the venom hissing, slithering under her skin, spreading like wild fire through her, scorching her, boiling her blood. Oddly enough though, the blood that dripped down from where his fangs punctured her felt cold on her skin as it trailed its way down her back, her chest and over her breast.

With Faith's scream, a layer of what separated Buffy from that ancient remembered thing that ran through her blood was ripped away. She reached further into herself, into what made her a Slayer and shrugged off enough of the drug's effects to regain her feet.

He pulled his fangs out of Faith in surprise, disbelief running riot over his angelic features as the Slayer-Runt stood before him. He shoved Faith from him. Before he had a chance to blink himself away, Buffy caught him brutally in the chest with a jumping front-kick. He went flying backwards, landing hard on his ass.

Faith staggered away from him, falling down on her knees again, her body pitching forward. She began to half drag, half pull herself away. Lost in a drug and fear-induced haze, her only thought to escape.

Buffy rushed forward, lashing out with her foot again, hitting him with inhuman force between the legs. His breath caught and he started to choke. It felt like his balls were lodged in the back of his throat. She hit him with rapid-fire right and left crosses, whipping his head back and forth with her punches. The feral light in her eyes making them turn gold, as she growled and hissed, with pleasure seeing him bleed.

Johnny's head began to spin; he put his hand out behind him to stop from falling onto his back. He felt one of the tranquilizer guns with his fingertips; he slid back from her and grabbed the gun. He swung it towards her too fast for her to get out of the way and fired two shots directly into her stomach.

She kept on punching and kicking him, trying to fight off the staggering effects of the drug. She had to protect her mate!

Had to protect Faith!

Had to get them out of here!

Had to stop this!

Had to hurt him like he had hurt them!

Had to...

had to...

had...

He stood when she could barely lift her arms anymore. He shoved Buffy violently backwards. She stumbled; her legs too heavy and cramping on her. She was seeing trails as if she were on a bad acid trip. Her legs gave out and she fell to the floor face first, her arms barely breaking her fall. She tried to rise, but couldn't, "Fai... I'm sor..." Then the drug overwhelmed her and forced her into the darkness' cold embrace.

Faith heard him coming up behind her; she rolled herself into a protective ball. Her body began to convulse violently from the drug, her temperature rising dangerously from the venom, heating her blood. Pleading hoarsely under her breath until the darkness claimed her, "Pleasesomeonehelpmeplease."

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"That son-of-a bitch... I'm gonna..." Lachesis snarled under her breath, she continued to mumble to herself as her sister rushed over to her.

"What? WHAT?"

Lachesis just pointed down at the Tapestry of Life.

Clotho looked at the Life Threads of the Chosen Two, her cerulean eyes glinted dangerously. "He is so gonna bleed... Rip... I'll..."

A disembodied voice floated to the two sisters. "You might want to make a brief trip to the Radiance room; I believe there is a spell there called the 'Amalgamate'..."

"Chronos?"

"Yes..." came the voice to them again.

"What..."

"Time is of the essence here..." Chronos's chuckled at his own joke lightly, "...Oh and while you're in the Radiance room, I believe the spell requires a few things for it to work... Harvester, Valor, Fortitude, Emancipator, Amnesty, Witness, Quintessence and Foreshadow... And no... I will not tell you why, you will know why... And in the words of your sister of the heart, the Dark Slayer; 'It's time for you to motorvate.' And Clo..."

"Yes, Chronos..."

"I'd wish you all luck, but you won't need it now... Remember to wait for the sign..."

"Thank you, Chronos..."

"You're welcome Clo..." This time the disembodied voice spoke to an empty room, the sisters were already gone.

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Luc and Atropos finished going over the new plan with the Scoobs and the L.A. crew. Atropos opened her mouth to call for her sisters when they appeared in front of the fireplace before she got the chance. Clotho pulled a large bag off her shoulder and dropped it to the floor; it fell open, its contents spilling out.

"What is this?" Atropos asked as she saw what the bag contained.

"Chronos..."

"You mean like Father Time that Chronos..." Clotho nodded yes at the redheaded witch. "Well then can't he turn back time... stop this... make it not happen at all... if we knew ahead of time then we could stop it... kill Ben... Glory... something..."

"It doesn't work that way, little tree..." Everyone in the room jumped except for the Incarnates when the deep voice of Chronos floated to them on the air. "I don't have the power to change what happens, I can only set the clock back... besides I already know I didn't do that so it is not an option..."

"But..."

"No buts... Time is of the essence... You have what you need... Remember to wait for the sign..."

"Clo and Lach explain to them what's going on. What all this is, I need a few minutes alone with Luc. When I get back you can fill me in."

Atropos walked Luc outside to the walled in garden. They stood staring at each other awkwardly for a few minutes.

"So... I should get going... You have everything you need. Be careful... we don't have the same power there that we have here. Glory can't kill us, well I don't think she can, but she can hurt us badly. She can kill them though and I... Just be careful all of you..."

"You too Luc..."

He turned to leave and then spun back around pulling her into his arms. "I..." he paused, not sure if he should say what was in his heart, what he had been hiding for so long. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly letting it all go. "I know we need to talk about this. I know this is not the time or the place. But I never stopped loving you, not for a second.

"So... Atropos, Aspect of the Fates, I give to you the thread which binds me to you as my eternal soul-mate. I give it to you freely; as I should have a long time ago with no expectation of having you bind yourself to me. I have been and will forever more be yours alone." He kissed her softly on the cheek and let her go.

"Luc I..."

"No." He began anticipating what she was going to say. "This is not a spur of the moment thing for me. I've wanted to do this for what seems like forever. We can talk about it when we all get back safe and sound. You do not have to accept my pledge or bind yourself to me, this is not something I am doing lightly or because of what may or may not happen. I am just doing what I should have done the first time, should have done a long time ago..."

He turned and started walking away from her, fading slowly.

"And so should have I... Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, I accept your pledge, and I give to you the thread which binds me to you as my eternal soul-mate. I give it to you freely, as I too should have a long time ago..."

He turned, "Atropos, Aspect of the Fates, I accept your pledge in return, binding us together now and for all of eternity."

He flashed her a lopsided grin, his eyes a brilliant sapphire blue and filled with love.

Then Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness was gone.

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He faded into the dungeon that he had spent three days watching Glory torture Johnny in. Neither were there, he was just about to fade out and try the Log Cabin when he felt the air shift behind him. He started turning getting that same gnawing feeling in his stomach the Slayers' had earlier that morning.

"Lucifer..." The thing that was Glory hissed at him, before he had a chance to react, her hand swiped out at him. The razor sharp nails slicing a path through his skin and muscle from his shoulder down to his hip. "So glad you could join us pretty boy..."

Someone or something smashed him in the back of the head; he swayed drunkenly on his feet. He tried to block the next swipe of her hand across his torso but he was too slow. She sliced through his abdomen and he watched incredulously as his blood seeped out from the four long gashes. Another blow to the back of his head sent him pitching forward slowly, as if in a dream, his saw two hands reach out in front of him not even realizing they were his own.

FUCK! I'm sorry... was his last thought before his head cracked sickly against the cold, black cement floor.

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Excruciating pain greeted her as she woke with a fire-filled gasp. Dully she felt a needle withdrawing from a vein in her arm. She felt both cold and hot at the same time as the venom from Johnny's fangs burned a path through her veins. Her body was shivering uncontrollably from both the drugs and the fever running through her.

She was semi-delirious, hallucinating and knew it, she was caught somehow in both the summer she was sixteen and the here and now. Her arms were being slowly drawn up over her head and she became conscious of the cuffs around her wrists. She couldn't stifle the moan of pain as she was raised up until she was hanging by her bound wrists a half a foot off the floor.

She forced her eyes open as far as they would go, they were swollen, and she knew the motherfucker had beaten her viciously while she was helpless and unconscious. She felt something sticky, wet on her back. Blood! Hers! She could smell it. Could feel the wide welts from his favorite belt and it dawned on her that he must have used the buckle end this time.

She stared at the black cement floor knowing they weren't in the Play Room this time. She heard him move from behind her and she rolled her head up and back, the movement making her head spin and her stomach churn. Her head was so heavy, it was almost impossible to keep it raised; she let it rest against her arm. She followed him with her eyes as he moved across the room, the world blurry around the edges. He entered a cage that was similar, only larger than the one in the Play Room and that was when she saw them.

Luc was chained spread-eagle to the bars of the back of the cage. His head hanging down and she could see blood dripping from the back of his scalp over the side of his face to the floor. His shirt hung in tatters and there were multiple gashes on his arms, chest and stomach. No one needed to tell her who had given them to him; she had born many similar ones herself. His chest rose and fell evenly and she gave a sigh of relief that he was still alive.

Her eyes slid over to her mate who was also obscenely bound spread eagle to the bars of the back of the cage. Unlike Luc though, both she and her mate did not have any clothes to hide them from Johnny's leering eyes. Buffy's head was dropped down to her chest, her blonde hair covering her face and Faith couldn't tell if she was awake or not. Her body once again covered in purple and black bruises. There were wide stripes across her chest, arms, stomach and legs and she knew Johnny had beaten Buffy with his favorite belt too. Every part of Faith cried out in pain and anguish for her soul-mate.

Silently she cursed herself for ever becoming a part of Buffy's life. Had she just stayed away none of this would have ever happened.

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Johnny stepped out of the cage, closing and locking the door after he had given the wake up shots to both Luc and Buffy. He could feel Faith's eyes following him the whole time he was in there, and now, as he moved over to the stainless steel table against the wall.

"Oh goody everyone's awake... I was getting so bored... Felt like you all were going to sleep forever...Though I did manage to amuse myself a little..." He grabbed a pack of cigarettes off the table and took one out, then started moving back across the room towards Faith.

"Faith..." Buffy's eyes grew wide with horror when she saw her mate.

Faith was covered in blood and angry welts across every part of her body that Buffy could see. Not one inch of her skin wasn't covered in inky-black bruises. Her eyes were practically swollen shut. There were shallow and deep cuts across her skin, from the buckle on the belt and from Johnny's razor-like nails. Sweat was pouring off her, and Buffy could feel in an echo the fever that was raging through her.

The skin surrounding where Johnny had bitten her was raised, swollen, and leaking a sickly looking ochre-colored pus. Blood was already trailing out from under the cuffs that were holding her suspended by the wrists. "Oh god... Faith... I'm sorry... I couldn't st..."

"B... no...t" Her tongue felt thick and swollen in her mouth. The words heavy, hard to form, "...yo...ur... f...ault..."

"That's right B not your fault it's all my baby girls fault... Ain't that right Faithy?"

Faith felt her stomach clench and churn even more as his foul breath wafted across her face.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!"

Johnny moved in close to Faith. He put his arm around her waist, pulling her more intimately into him. His other hand holding the cigarette came up. Razor-like nails traced affectionately over the burn mark high up on the inside of her underarm. A burn he had given her as one of her many sixteenth birthday presents.

"You will die for this. If it's the last thing I do you will suffer and die for this." It was not a threat that Luc gave, but a promise.

Johnny sneered at him. "You don't scare me Luccccc. You lost any power you had over me the minute you gave me to Glory! In fact, none of you look like a threat to me at all right now. So shut the fuck up or I'll gag you."

Buffy snapped her head towards Luc, before she could say anything Luc cut her off.

He whispered to her, for her Slayer hearing only, his voice full of remorse, sorrow, regret. "Not now! We have to work together to get out of this. You can beat me up later..."

"Count on it..." Buffy snarled at him.

They both struggled futilely against their bindings, straining with their effort. Luc tried to fade out of his chains and found that he couldn't. Fuck! Glory must have had one of her Clerics cast a spell preventing him from using any of his mystical powers. Johnny laughed at them, he rested his head against Faith's raised arm and shoulder, his eyes level with hers.

"So, I believe I was about to reintroduce you to the five basic torture groups before your slut of a lover over there so rudely interrupted us with her pitiful attempt at an attack. I gave you all a little something to make sure that none of you, especially you baby girl, didn't poop out on me. Otherwise, this is going to be over way to fast. We wouldn't want that now, would we?" He used almost the exact words from her past. Words she had said to Wesley when she was torturing him, teaching him the same lesson.

Faith felt sick to her stomach, sick that she had been emulating this man. She knew before he even continued that he would use the rest of the words to hurt her, to haunt her, to remind her of what she had been.

"Now we've only done one of the five basic torture groups. We've had Blunt, but that still leaves Sharp, Cold, Hot and Loud. Have a preference?"

Faith, was once again thrust back into the past, remembering now that the words she had said to Wesley were the same words that Johnny had said to her the summer she had turned sixteen. She felt even sicker, her stomach churning, cramping.

While he waited for her to answer him, he casually lit the cigarette.

"No...? No preference... Then how about I pick for you...? Let's see... Sharp...?" He flicked his razor-like nail carelessly across her skin, making her bleed. "No... No... I think... Hmmm... Hot! Hot that's it. Hot is what I want..." He pressed the glowing tip of the cigarette into the burn mark he had only seconds ago been tracing affectionately.

Buffy and Luc both started struggling harder against their chains. Screaming at him in vain, damming him, cursing him.

Faith choked back the grunt of pain, tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't remember the cigarette being this hot before, it felt like a torch against her skin. The smell of her own burning flesh assailed her nostrils, repulsing her, nauseating her. The bile came up fast from her stomach, hot, thick, burning, she rolled her head forward towards him and vomited into his face.

He was so stunned, that she managed to empty the entire contents of her stomach on him before he jerked back from her. He roared out his anger, his fist came up and he smashed her across the face. "You fucking cheap little whore... You'll regret this..."

She laughed in his face, then spit the rest of the vomit and blood that clung to the inside of her mouth in his face. "Thou-ght pigs liked this shit..." She laughed at him again, as he moved away from her stripping out of his soiled clothing and grabbing a wide leather and chain belt.

She wrapped her hands around the chains that bound her wrists and waited for him to get close enough to her. She dug down deep into the well of the source of what made her a Slayer and drew strength from there. When he was near enough, she pulled herself up and lashed out at him with both her feet catching him by surprise. The first kick hit him where she knew would do the most damage, right between the legs. He fell to his knees gasping in pain and for the second time that day he felt like his balls were lodged in the back of his throat.

The second kick caught him on the cheek and she growled loudly in satisfaction when she heard the bone break. She caught him on his temple on the other side before he could fall over. Again, she lashed out hitting with the ball of her foot under his chin, the equivalent of a foot-undercut. The force of the kick jerked him slightly up off his knees and sent him tumbling backwards.

He sat up dizzily, wiping the blood from his face, smiling like the madman he was. He was pissed, beyond pissed, but he oh-so loved it when she fought back. It made it all the more fun when he finally broke her and break her, he would. He had not one single doubt about it, not even for a second. He snapped the belt out at her, wrapping the strap tightly around her calf and yanked down hard trying to break her hold on the chains.

Faith let him pull her down and towards him. She used the momentum of the swing and her body weight to pull him towards her. She hit him in the face with the bottom of her foot, breaking his nose and knocking his front teeth loose again. She brought the leg up that still had the belt wrapped around her calf and wrapped the belt around his neck twice. He was gasping for air and he reached up trying to cut through the belt with his razor-like nails. She kicked with her free leg at his hands, keeping them away from the belt.

She started lifting him up, the belt growing tighter around his neck and her calf. Her arms were trembling with her effort and she didn't know how long she could keep this up. She could feel that the cuts on her back had reopened, the blood dripping and pooling on the floor below her feet.

He felt his eyes bulging and wished he could truly blink himself away. They thought he blinked from one place to another like Glory, but in reality, he just moved so fast they couldn't see him, not even with their Slayer sight. He was fighting for every breath, his head growing lighter. He couldn't believe that she was able to keep knocking his hands away. How the hell had she gotten so fast, so strong, over the last six days? How the hell was she even moving with all those drugs in her system, not to mention the venom?

He looked up and saw how her arms were trembling fiercely from holding up her own weight and his. He knew she couldn't last much longer, but then again neither could he. An idea came to him. He changed tactics, he feigned going for the belt then at the last second he grabbed her ankle with both hands as she lashed out at him.

He sunk his nails deep into her flesh and pulled down, using both his weight and every ounce of strength that he possessed. He was rewarded with a scream as his nails almost sliced the tendons in the back of her ankle completely in half. He let go with one hand and sliced through the belt. Then he 'blinked' himself across the room.

"Oh I am so gonna make you bleed..." He took one of his favorite thick leather belts, the one with small pointy spikes on it, off the wall. He turned around and started walking back towards Faith.

Buffy started struggling ferociously against her restraints and felt the flesh ripping around her wrists. She didn't care if it took tearing off her own skin to get out of them, she would do it, whatever it cost she was going to get out of them, she had to! She used her own blood to coat her wrists and started slowly to twist them within the cuffs, slicing off skin, determined to get free and help Faith.

Luc saw what Buffy was doing; within a second blood was dripping down from his wrists too.

He made sure he stayed out of reach of her legs and made his way behind her. Johnny snapped the belt out to the side once, just because he liked the noise it made and because he loved the shudder of fear it caused to ripple through Faith's body. He leaned in close to her ear and threw her own words back in her face again, "Before we get started, I just want you to know, if you're a screamer F, feel free..." He stepped back and raised his arm...

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The portal opened up right outside of the front door to the Log Cabin. They stepped through it one by one.

Angel and Spike looked at each other; they could smell the Slayers' blood, it was so thick it made even the demon in them sick and roar with rage. Something happened to Angel in that second, a sort of merging of the soul with the demon. They were united in their pursuit to bring the Chosen Two home. United in their goal to decimate, destroy and maim those who had hurt them.

Lachesis turned to Spike, she held out her hand to him, something clasped within it. Spike presented his own hand, palm up to her and she dropped her gift into it. He stared down at what lay in his open hand with utter disbelief. He dragged his eyes away from his open palm and looked into her light coffee-brown eyes in confusion.

"The choices you make are yours alone... We cannot make them for you... Only you can and they must be freely made... And now you are truly free to make your choices..."

Spike nodded at her. He moved up to stand with Angel by the door. He turned his hand over and let the gift the Fates had given him drop to the ground. He took another step forward impatiently, crushing the chip the Fates had removed from his head under his boot heel.

As far as he was concerned, his choice was the same with or without the bloody chip. The Slayers, all of them here, including Lucifer, those waiting back at the Mansion, even the bloody Watcher who was on his way from England were his family. And family did not hurt family. At least not their family. And no one, NO ONE ever hurt his family!

"Well... Open the bloody fucking door Peaches we have some Slayers to bring home. Don't we now..."

"Ready?"

"Ready." They all answered Angel together with quiet steel determination.

Angel swung the door open and they rushed into what should have been the main room of the cabin. Instead what they rushed into was a large open cavern that left them completely exposed and in the middle of an ambush.

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With every brutal strike of the belt on Faith, every hoarse tortured scream, every echoed ghost-like touch on her own skin, another layer that separated Buffy from that ancient, familiar, remembered thing, that ran through her blood was annihilated. Until finally in a blinding blaze of white-hot fury, it was free and Buffy finally recognized it for what it was.

It was primal, feral, rabid, without a conscious. It did not know the difference between right and wrong. It was a predator, and it knew, could smell evil. Its only mission was to destroy evil at all cost, including anything that got in the way of It killing that prey. It was the undiluted essence, source of the mystical energy of what made Buffy and Faith the Chosen One's.

It was her and she was It.

It was fully free for the first time in centuries. It was what had enabled the first Slayer to recognized Buffy as a sister-in-arms.

For centuries, It had owned the Slayer. Fueling Its rage and anger, obliterating all other emotions, by keeping the Chosen One isolated and alone. Its only goal to maim and eradicate evil in all forms, even to the extent had It been given free rein It would have killed Faith when she had been lost and trying to find her way. It mattered not to It, whether the evil was total or only a small black spot on the soul. Evil was evil to It no matter how big, no matter how small.

It was the reason the Council never taught the Slayer's how to tap into the true source of their powers, because once unleashed, It was uncontrollable.

Then again, there had never been a Slayer before quite like Buffy. Or Faith, for that matter.

She had a family, friends, and the love of her soul-mate. Had built a life, loved a souled-vampire, was soul-mate's with another Slayer. She had survived longer than any other Slayer before her, had died and returned, had beaten all the odds and prophesies, because she was neither isolated nor alone. When the source of her power came roaring to full life within her, Buffy recognized, accepted, wrapped, and made It a part of who she was, made it a part of her, immersing and entwining it forever within the lightness of her soul.

And in making It a part of herself, she controlled It.

It did not control her.

Buffy had immediately understood what the Council never did. To unleash the full potential of the Slayer's source of power within, and keep the Slayer herself from becoming just a mindless killer in her pursuit of evil, the Slayer needed to be more than just a Slayer.

Buffy felt the heady rush of power, strength run through every cell in her body as It flowed through, merging with her. All of the powers of the Slayer within her increased by a hundred-fold. She pulled at the magical chains that bound her to the bars of the cage in Glory's favorite dungeon, and felt them start to give a little. It would take too long to break them this way and time she knew was running out, for her, for Luc, but most of all for Faith. She needed just a little more strength; just a little more, that was all.

She remembered what she had seen in the Tapestry of Life, remembered how each Slayer was connected to the other by the ancient source of their power. How it was retained by each Slayer even after death, how this ancient mystical energy recognized itself in others, how a thin thread of it connected one Slayer to the next.

It was this thin ancient common thread that had allowed the Enjoining spell to work, allowed the First Slayer to add her strength to Buffy's in order to defeat Adam. With the awakening and release of the ancient thing within her Buffy realized that she didn't need the Enjoining spell to reach out to her sister Slayer's. She was connected to them in a way similar to her connection to Faith.

For a brief second she closed her eyes and visualized the thread that linked them together. Using the language of the ancient power that was now a part of her, she sent a silent plea to her sister Slayer's to lend their strength to her.

There was a loud roaring in her ears, then a rush as she felt the strength of all of her sisters before her flood her with their power.

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Words like violence break the silence ~ Come crashing in ~ Into my little world ~ Painful to me ~ Pierce right through me ~ Can't you understand ~ Oh my little girl...

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"Tell daddy you love him Faithy and he'll stop the pain..."

"P I T Y... Y O U... NOLOVENOLOVE..."

He roared with rage and moved to stand in front of her. He started raining blows down wildly, demanding again like a spoiled, whiney child, "Tell me you love me, you fucking little whore... Tell me now..."

"nodon'tdeservecan'thaveratherdie..." Her words slurred together as she tried to speak through the ravages of pain and the venom's fever surging through her body.

"FINE!" The blows started coming faster, harder...

Faith's head lolled backwards, the blows sending her reeling into a stupor. The drugs he had given her keeping her conscious, unable to escape as the pain rained down on her.

She broke out of her chains with a quiet snap of her legs first, then her wrists. She moved, a blur now to Luc and snapped his just as quietly. Buffy placed her index finger over her lips indicating for him to be quiet. He saw that her eyes were gold, the eyes of a panther; they glowed with a feral light, primal, but intelligent, none-the-less.

He knew she had merged with her mystical power and for the first time ever the Chosen One had control of the power, not the other way around. Then she was in front of the cage door and Luc never saw her move. With a push, the door opened soundlessly.

She motioned to Johnny then to herself. Johnny was hers and Luc had every confidence that she would take him down. Every confidence that she would make him suffer first as well. She motioned to the lever that was keeping Faith suspended by her wrists off the floor and then to him, with a wave cautioning him to wait 'til she had Johnny away from Faith.

She moved up silently behind her prey, her mouth drawn back in a silent snarl.

He was oblivious to the fact that the Slayer and the Devil were free. He brought his hand up high, and started swinging down aiming for Faith's breasts this time. He almost lost his grip on the belt when it stopped dead mid-swing. He looked up confused at the ceiling thinking it had caught on something, then he heard the low rabid growling behind him. The sound made every hair on his body stand on end and then the belt was suddenly ripped out of his hand.

He was pulled violently back away from Faith and then the Slayer-Runt was standing in front of him. He looked into her gold eyes as she stood tapping the belt lightly against her naked thigh. If he didn't know better he would have sworn the bruises on her had faded from black to indigo-blue. That wasn't possible, he knew how long they took to heal.

"My turn to play now! Your turn to bleed!"

For the first time Johnny truly feared for his demon-life at the low, hissing, snarling promise Buffy had just made to him.

"To Me!" he shouted and then blinked, only to find her waiting for him.

Luc had moved rapidly across the room towards the lever. He was halfway across the room when the doors to the dungeon crashed opened with so much force that when they hit the walls they bounced back and closed again.

A gang of demons came rushing in heading straight for Buffy. They surrounded her, she was completely outnumbered, and Luc didn't think even with her newfound power she could take them all on. He didn't know what to do. If he released Faith, he would have to get to her quickly, he knew she was in no condition to stand or protect herself. But if he did that there was a good chance that they, Buffy, would end up under the torturous, depraved thumb of Johnny again or even dead. He kept moving towards the lever still undecided.

The sound of the crashing doors jerked Faith out of her stupor. She forced her head to rise, everything looked a little fuzzy and seemed to be moving in slow motion. She saw the demons surround Buffy and knew she was in trouble. She looked towards the cage and saw that Luc wasn't there. She saw him moving towards the lever to release her. NO! He had to help Buffy, she would be no help to them released, in fact, she knew she would only be a hindrance. She didn't care about herself, all she cared about was Buffy and Buffy getting out of this, getting home. She didn't care if the cost was her own life, all that mattered to her was Buffy.

"Lu... he – hel -p...B, helpBuffy!"

Luc did not ignore the Dark Slayer's hoarse plea.

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They were bloody, wounded, hurt, tired, but all still alive. How they had managed to defeat the army of demons that attacked them not one of them knew. Defeat them all though they did.

"The Slayers and Luc aren't here."

"An' hon we know that."

"Well I was..."

Atropos stood in the center of the cavern, closed her eyes and put up her hand for silence. Using the same methods she had taught the Chosen Two, to expand and learn how to use their bond and one she had yet to teach them, she concentrated and found her center. She focused on the single thread inside of her that shined brighter than all the others. The thread that connected her to her soul-mate. She opened herself to it and silently without words implored Luc to lead her to him.

"Follow me... I know where they are... Glory obviously knows we are here, be ready for anything... Keep your eyes open for the sign..."

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It was down to three demons and Johnny against Buffy and Luc. Buffy turned her attention away from the demons and to Johnny. Luc forced the demons back and away from both Buffy and Faith.

Buffy backed up from Johnny moving in front of but slightly to the side of Faith protectively.

"B..."

Buffy wasn't sure if she actually heard Faith at first, her voice was so low. She felt the waves of pain her mate was feeling in the echoes they shared. It fueled her hate, her fury, even higher for the disgusting thing that stood in front of her glaring right back.

Softly on a shallow, pained-filled breath, her name came to her again. "B..."

"Faith..." She answered just as softly, with love so profound in the way that she said Faith's name, that it made even Luc catch his breath.

"Fa...vor..."

"Anything baby..."

The words drifted softly to Buffy with each of Faith's shallow pained breaths. "Kick... his... ass... for... you... and... me..."

"With pleasure..." Buffy purred to her, and looked up into Faith's eyes, which were almost completely black from the pain. She gave Faith one of her own lopsided grins, then with the ease and the sleek grace of a true panther Buffy moved forward.

She still stayed protectively in front Faith after she moved; anyone or anything would have to go through her to get to her mate. She felt the power of their sister Slayer's running through her, and the ancient thing that was part of her growling low. It quickened when it heard an answering call from its mate inside of Faith.

She beckoned for Johnny to come and get her.

He heard the low resonant sound of her growls over the sounds of fighting in the room and it sent a chill down his spine. It didn't matter though, he knew they, she couldn't beat him. Glory had seen to that. He stepped towards her with confidence, he liked it when the girls fought back, it made it more fun for him anyway.

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They fought their way through the winding corridors. It seemed as if Glory had an endless supply of demons at her command. It didn't stop them and they were all determined before this day was through that they would be bringing the Slayers home with them. Determined, too, that Glory and that lowlife whose name all of them refused to speak would be pushing up proverbial daisies by days end too.

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He never saw the belt or her hand move. He just felt the after-streak of fire as it struck him, tearing into his skin leaving a trail of blood from his left hip down across to his right thigh. He was struck again with the belt as it lashed upwards between his legs, which collapsed out from under him instantly. It left a trail of bloody fire from the bottom of his ass, over his balls, his manhood, to the bottom of his stomach. Never in his life, not even when Glory had tortured him for four days had he felt such excruciating pain. He was afraid to look down, sure that the blonde-haired Slayer had ripped off the head of his manhood.

"That's for the first time you touched her when she was only seven-years-old you fucking pathetic scumbag piece of shit. The next one is for..."

He never saw her or the belt move, not once, as she rained blow after blow down on him. Not once, as she shredded his flesh, muscles and flayed him down to the bone, causing him exquisite pain, leaving him bleeding and begging for mercy, as she rattled off his crimes against Faith to him.

He was curled up into a ball on the ground when the blows finally stopped. Insane rage and fear ran through him. This wasn't supposed to happen! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING, NOT TO HIM!

Buffy reached down and pulled him up by his hair, he was nothing more than a quivering, helpless, shredded, bloody mess now. She smiled, then spit in his face and smiled again at his look of total disbelief. She let go of his hair and slid her hand down from his head, over his face, neck, to his chest, down his stomach, to his groin leaving bloody trails with her nails. She paused for a second, gave him a malicious smile, then grabbed him between his legs, lifting him up off the floor and started to squeeze. "This is so you never do it to anyone else again."

She growled with pleasure hearing his pleas for mercy. She began to growl louder as she felt the blood dripping out from between her fingers, and she squeezed harder. Buffy gave to him the same mercy he had given to Faith.

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They made their way through the final tunnel and paused in front of the steel double doors.

"They're in here. Be ready for anything."

"Oh shit..."

Angel caught Cordelia as she pitched forward when a vision assailed her. It lasted less than a minute.

Cordelia straightened up, ignoring the hammering pain in her head. She swiped at the tears that had leaked out of the corner of her eyes. She got her breathing under control and forced down the bile that had risen to the back of her throat at what she saw in the vision. Everyone looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to answer their unspoken question.

"No... this wasn't the sign... but I know what the sign is... If we don't defeat Glory none of us will get out of here alive... No matter what... no matter what we see... we have to wait... Here's what..." Unknowingly she was crying as she told them what they needed to know.

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Spike and Angel threw open the doors. They entered, their steps faltering, their minds not wanting to comprehend what they were seeing. They all heard Cordelia's words again and they moved quickly into position.

It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye and an eon at the same time.

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Luc had just finished killing the last demon when they burst into the room. He was covered in his own blood, demon blood, as well as Johnny's, whose blood was all over everything and everyone in the room. To Luc, it felt like he had been pelted by pebbles as Johnny's blood splatter around the room off of the belt when Buffy had been flaying him alive.

Atropos waved him over to her and her sisters, away from the others.

They created a protective circle around the Chosen Two and Johnny. They stood unmoving, almost unbelieving looking at Buffy. She was still holding up the piece of raw, bleeding, flayed meat that once was Johnny, and squeezing the life right out of him. She was covered head to toe in blood, her blond hair streaked crimson.

They watched in a daze as the blood streamed out from her squeezing hand, over her forearm, to drip off her elbow, joining the large pool at her naked feet. The belt hung limply in her other hand and it was stained crimson with both Johnny and Faith's blood. They saw her eyes, which were focused solely on her prey, glowing gold, feral. She was growling low in her throat with savage satisfaction at the pain she was causing the man within her grasp. Both Angel and Spike's demon started growling low along with her.

Faith saw the others make a circle around the three of them. The fever was raging through her; she was delirious, not sure if they were really there. Why were they just standing there doing nothing? She tried to form words to ask them, when suddenly Glory manifested herself out of thin air between Buffy and herself.

This time Faith saw the true face of the Demon-Goddess. She was an inky-gray-blue-black, smoke-like translucent mass, of filth and pestilence. Her eyes burning black coals of lust and evilness, her face hideous, deformed, twisted, and baring the mark of plague and disease, she smiled at Faith showing jagged sharp teeth then turned around.

Faith watched as Glory rose up her clawed-hand, her razor-like nails glinting dangerously, aiming for Buffy's exposed back. The others stood and watched, not making a move to help Buffy. Faith didn't know if she was hallucinating it or not.

Was she hallucinating Glory was there because of the fever or maybe, just maybe she was the only one who was seeing Glory because of the fever, she didn't want to wait and find out.

She did the only thing she could think of...

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Once again, she wrapped her hands around the chains that bound her wrists keeping her suspended by her arms off the floor. Using what was left of her strength she lifted herself up as high as she could. She lashed out with both of her feet, biting again through the gash under her bottom lip to keep herself from screaming out from the pain that streaked through her body with the move. She caught Glory high on the shoulder spinning the Demon-Goddess around towards her and away from Buffy's exposed back.

The clawed-hand with the razor-like nails that had been moving forward to sink into Buffy's unprotected back, sunk instead into Faith right above the jagged knife scar on her abdomen. Glory's other hand came up and sliced through the chains holding her suspended from the ceiling. The weight of her own body, now free of the restraints sank further onto Glory's talon-like hand.

Two voices screamed loudly, echoing through the room.

One voice screamed in delight and ecstasy.

The other in agony and pain.

Time slowed to a crawl, almost to a standstill, as Faith felt Glory's hand sink into her. She stared into the black eyes of the purest evil she had ever seen. Into eyes that held nothing but sinfulness, hate and pain. Into eyes that were the ultimate abyss, were the unfathomable, bottomless pits of Glory's soul. She felt the abomination that was Glory seep into her body from the fingers now embedded inside of her, as her own life force seeped out.

She stared back at Glory's with all the hate, fury and rage she had in her heart as Glory's fingers spun an intricate web of evil through every cell of her body, looking to capture and devour her soul. Her hands that had been clutching at Glory's arm fell uselessly to her side. Her head grew heavy and fell down to her chest. Her eyes fell to where Glory's hand pierced her body and she watched as she started slipping into the darkness, her blood dripping, spilling, then splattering onto the cold hard floor.

Buffy doubled over as she felt the echoed ghost-like-touch of the fingers with the razor-like nails sink into her, at the same time that Glory's hand ripped into Faith. She threw Johnny across the room. As she started to spin around, she saw Luc drag Johnny up by his hair and rip his still beating heart right out of his chest. Time slowed for Buffy as she spun around. She was seemingly pushing against an invisible wall of solid nothingness. Faith's cry of agony ripped through her, in her, endlessly, as she felt like it was taking days to turn around.

An anguished cry of 'FAITH!' tore from her lips, ripping through the air, thundering, shredding the silence as she felt Faith begin to slip away into the darkness. It was a cry of heart-wrenching loss, of denial, of fear, that came from the depths of Buffy's soul.

Faith forced her eyes open, her head to rise at Buffy's cry. She saw Glory smiling at her as she tried to focus, tried to find Buffy with her eyes. Glory's smile was filled with lust, with hate, as she fed on her pain, her hate, and Faith saw herself reflected in that smile.

She had lived most of her life trapped within a gilded cage built out of pain and hate. And now she was going to die ensnared once again within its confines and Glory's spider-web of pain and hate that was entangling, blackening her soul.

Faith moved her eyes away from the black eyes of hate and found the golden-hazel eyes of love. She locked her eyes with Buffy's, and in a moment of clarity, Faith realized she didn't want to die within that gilded cage of fury, of pain, of hate. It would be the final corruption of everything, all that she had fought so hard to become, it would be like throwing a 'Fuck you' in the face of all of them, the only true family she had ever known. A family who had given her peace, tranquility, a home, happiness and the most precious gift of all, love. It would defile, sully all of what Buffy had given and taught her about loving and being loved.

To die with nothing but hate in her heart would desecrate, soil the love that she and Buffy had fought so hard to find with each other.

Faith let all the hate, the rage, the fury, and even the pain drain from her body. She locked her eyes with her soul-mate's and let herself be filled with the eternal, unconditional love that they felt for each other.

As Buffy moved towards Faith and their eyes locked, it all came to her in an echo, a visual image so strong of the cage of pain and hate that Faith had lived in for so long. She felt as the essence that was her soul-mate slipping from her, and Buffy had her own moment of clarity. If Faith was going to die, and Buffy had no intention of letting that happen. But if it were to happen, Buffy didn't want Faith to die trapped forever within the cage whose bars were built out of suffering, pain, and hate. Not Faith's and not her own, so Buffy let her own hate and rage go. As she did, she felt the undying love of Faith blanket her and fill her, and she gave to Faith in return her own undying love.

Like it always did for them, the rest of the world ceased to exist. Neither noticed that the room was eerily still, quiet, as the others watched them, frozen in place. Nor did they notice the inky gray-blue-black translucent mass of the banshee-like creature that was the true face of Glory, which was standing between them.

There was no one, nothing else, but them, this moment and what they felt for the other. It was pure, undiluted, and eternal.

They reached towards each other...

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They watched, as Faith seemed to kick out and strike the empty air.

Watched, as an invisible hand severed the chains that held her off the floor.

Watched, as her abdomen was sliced open, and blood began to seep out of the wound, falling to pool upon the ground.

Watched, as a scream of ecstasy from an unknown voice seemed to ripple the very air.

Watched, as Faith screamed in torment and fell towards the floor, only to stop suddenly. As she was held up high and in agony by some unseen force.

Watched, as Faith struggled to open her eyes.

Watched, as Buffy flung Johnny from her, and spun around screaming out Faith's name in anguish.

Watched, as Faith eyes sought out and found Buffy's, as Buffy moved towards her.

They watched and waited for the sign Cordelia had seen in her vision as the Chosen Two reached out towards each other...

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The Chosen Two reached right through Glory and their hands touched.

The second their hands touched all the others in the room saw what up until now only the witches and the Incarnates could see. At the Chosen Twos' touch, their auras, souls, essences, grew brighter, expanding out from them. They were entwined, separate, but one. They surrounded and bathed in each other's souls, a beautiful woven Tapestry of their eternal love for each other.

What none of them saw was the translucent mass that was Glory. As she expanded, weaving a spider-web of pain into the souls of the Chosen Two the second they had touched hands within the mass of her smoke-like body, as pieces of Glory floated and started to run over them, boring into them, looking to corrupt both their souls. As Glory tightened the web around them, feeding on them, their pain and agony, freezing them both and herself in place.

The touching hands of the Chosen Two was the sign that Cordelia had told them to wait for and the second they touched the Wicca's began the spell the Fates had given to them...

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"As we bind ourselves to each other so too shall you be bound." Willow and Tara wrapped the long, wide, pure white, thick silk thread known as Quintessence around their wrists and joined hands.

The others in the circle each drew out from the scabbards on their backs the gleaming silver swords with the obsidian, inlaid hilts they carried. They each pierced the pad of the index finger of their left hand with the tip of their swords until a single drop of blood glistened there.

"Foolish humans you can't hurt me!" Glory's sickly, sweet, irritating voice came to them on the air, followed by a triumphant laugh.

Willow and Tara ignored her, and continued with the spell, grasping each other's hands tighter.

"Let the one with the sight be the first to strike and show the others the way..." Cordelia stepped forward and thrust Foreshadow into the space between where the Slayer's hands were joined, exactly where and how her vision had shown her.

Her sword thinly sliced along the clasped hands of the Chosen Two. They started to bleed, and a single drop of each of the Slayer's blood combined with the single drop of Cordelia's on the tip of the sword. Six more drops of the combined blood of the Slayers' fell within the confines of Glory's body.

Cordelia remained holding the sword steady within the depths of Glory's body.

"Let the observer give testimony and strike true for having the vision to see the light within the dark..." Wesley stepped forward and stood to the right of Cordelia. He thrust Witness into the drop of blood of the Chosen Two that shined brighter than the others, mixing his with theirs. He too stayed in place.

"Let the heart strike now with the power of a pure soul..." Xander moved next to Wesley and slid Fortitude into the drop of blood that shined brightly for him, mixing his blood with theirs too. He held his place as well.

"Let the one with the courage be the next to strike with strength..." Gunn moved next to Xander with the flick of a practiced wrist, Valor slid into Glory mixing his blood with the shining drop of blood of the Chosen Two that was for him.

"Let the one who found mercy be the one to break the spider's web..." Anya moved next to Gunn and thrust Amnesty into the writhing body of Glory and the drop of blood that shined for her.

With the mixing of Anya's single drop of blood with the Chosen Twos' combined blood, they all could now see the semi-translucent shape that was the true face of Glory. They saw how she was encompassing, burrowing, encasing the Chosen Two. They saw where her claw-like hand with the razor-sharp nails was sunk deeply in Faith.

They watched as Glory began to collapse into herself, releasing her black web of hate that was surrounding the Chosen Two. She screamed out in rage and agony as she fell to the floor for the first time ever feeling all the pain that she had inflicted upon others.

They all knelt down keeping their swords embedded in the Demon-Goddess.

Buffy jumped over Glory the second she fell as both she and Faith were released from the web of hate that had kept them frozen in place. She caught Faith as she started falling to the floor. She sunk down to the floor cradling Faith gently to her chest. She began rocking, her tears falling softly onto Faith's face.

Willow and Tara never hesitated, knowing that if they did the spell would be broken.

"Let the redeemer shake free this evil black soul..." Angel moved next to Anya and knelt. He raised his sword Emancipator high over his head and brought it down with all of his vampire strength into the drop of blood that beckoned to him, mixing his vampire blood with theirs. It sliced through Glory, who let out a scream that made all of their ears ring.

"Let the one who was a reaper take a life for the last time..." Spike knelt next to Angel, he raised his sword Harvester high up over his head. Using his vampire strength, he brought the sword swiftly down into the Demon-Goddess's chest where his drop of blood mixed with the combined blood of the Chosen Twos' that called out loudly to him.

"As we are bound to each other by love, so shall this evil be bound by its hate. Take it now... And send it into oblivion forever bound, never to return, caged within its own gilded cage of pain and hate..."

They all stood letting go of each of their silver swords. The silken thread Quintessence unwove itself from the Wicca's hands. One end of it pierced the index finger of Willow's left hand, staining itself with a single drop of her blood; the other end did the same to Tara. It then floated magically over to the swords and entwined itself around all the swords, drawing up from the tip of the swords the drops of blood each had mixed and pierced with their own. Absorbing it within its silken threads, binding one sword to the other with the blood of the Chosen Two and theirs in the same order of the spell.

The swords began to glow brightly, shimmering, flowing, and then to change. They became millions of tiny unbreakable silver threads that weaved their way through Glory, binding her, from both the inside and out. Becoming enmeshed forever with her soul, bringing with them all the pain, suffering and anguish she had inflicted on others.

For all eternity, they trapped her within a gilded cage of her own making. They glowed ever brighter and with a final explosion of white, silver and red light, they took her into the eternal darkness of the abyss.

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No one moved for a second or two after Glory disappeared. Angel was the first to break his paralysis, he moved quickly over to Buffy's side, kneeling beside her and Faith. He reached out towards them speaking softly, "Buffy..."

His wrist was captured by her hand so fast that even with his vampire sight he never saw her move. She whipped her head towards him her eyes were solid gold, she snarled, hissing at him in warning. Then let go of his wrist and shoved him back away from them in one seamless invisible move.

She gathered Faith closer to her and began rocking again. Faith lay completely lifeless in her arms. Her head hanging off the arm Buffy had behind her neck. Her eyes closed, her breathing labored, slow, the blood still seeping out of the wound where Glory had sliced into her. Buffy could feel the life slipping out of Faith with every second and she felt helpless to stop it. She tried to reach out to her through their connection, she could feel her, but got no answering response from her unconscious mate.

She felt weariness come over her as the strength that her sister Slayer's had lent to her left her body. She lifted her eyes and saw all the concerned faces surrounding her. She saw the Fates and Luc move over towards them. Atropos squatted down in front of them and Buffy rose up tearstained eyes to the ancient woman. "Help her..."

"I wish I could but I don't have that kind of power... You do though... remember what we taught you... and show her the way, help her to embrace what you embraced today... it will be enough to get her home... but she needs to be awake..."

Buffy gathered Faith up closer to her with a gentleness, and tenderness that brought tears to the eyes of all there. She leaned down close to her soul-mate as her hand soothingly caressed Faith's face. She reached out to Faith using both the connection they shared and her voice as she whispered softly into Faith's ear.

"Faith... Faith you need to wake up baby..." Buffy stopped, she was choking on her own tears. "Faith I know you can hear me, I know you can feel me... You have to wake up baby so I can help you..." She paused again she could feel an almost answering coming from Faith through their echoes and at the same time she could feel her slipping further away. "Please Faith, please don't leave me... Please I need you... You can't die... I love you please baby wake up... Please open your eyes... pleaseohgodFaithplease..."

Faith could hear Buffy calling out to her in the darkness. She struggled trying to find her way back, but she was so tired, it felt like she had been tired forever. She just wanted to sleep, just wanted to escape. There was pain, intense pain waiting for her in the light she knew that, but there was also Buffy. Her eyes fluttered open once, and she mumbled out painfully, "TiredB..." Then she started sinking back down into the darkness.

"Faith please I know you tired please you have to open your eyes... Please Faith for me, open your eyes..."

She struggled back up out of the gloom but it was harder this time. "Hurtshur..."

"I know it hurts but you have to open your eyes..."

Faith's eyes fluttered open again then closed. "B..."

"Faith! Open your eyes... You can't die on me I won't let you! Do you hear me... OPEN YOUR EYES DAMNIT... OPEN THEM...! I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DIE I'LL KICK THE SHIT OUT YOU! NOW OPEN YOUR EYES FAITH!" Buffy was frantic, she felt Faith's life force still seeping out of her, her will to live leaving. Buffy was desperate, angry, panicked, babbling, yelling in a hoarse whisper. Faith couldn't die, she wasn't going to let her damn it!

"YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO DIE! I SWEAR I'LL TELL EVERYBODY YOUR NEW NICKNAME... I'LL HAVE IT PUT ON YOUR GRAVE STONE... I SWEAR I WILL, NOW OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES FAITH, NOW!"

"YOU PROMISED ME FAITH! YOU PROMISED! Idon'twanttolivewithoutyoupleasebaby...pleaseFaithpleasedon't

leavemeIneedloveyouI'lltellthemIswearifyouleavemeI'lltellthemyournicknameopenyoureyesbabyplease... baby please Faith please open your eyes..." Buffy was pleading hoarsely, begging, tears falling down onto Faith's face like a waterfall. Her chest was heaving, her heart breaking; it felt like someone was ripping her soul right out of her.

She started to struggle fiercely against the darkness that was trying to claim her. She grasped onto that thin thread that connected them to each other for eternity and with all the love she felt for Buffy she pulled herself up, following towards the broken pleading sound of her soul-mate's voice. The pain she felt when she reached the light almost sent her reeling back into the darkness, but she forced it down with the strength of will that had enabled her to survive for years. Her eyes fluttered open once, twice, then with an excruciating gasp, her eyes sprang open.

"U... don't... play... fair...B..."

"Faith...oh..." Buffy started to sob almost uncontrollably...

"Buffy..." Atropos whispered to her softly, "...cry later..." The words were harsh but Atropos knew Buffy didn't have the time for, or the luxury of tears right now.

Buffy got herself back under control, she locked her eyes with Faith's, and she almost started sobbing again when she saw the depth of the pain and the love in them. "Faith you need to stay awake baby... You need to listen to me... do as I ask... listen, see and feel what we share in our echoes."

She placed her hand over the wound that Glory had given Faith and then began to guide her toward embracing the ancient source of the mystical power that made them Slayers. She felt the ancient source inside of Faith answering to her in a language that was as old as time, and she responded to it in kind.

She used every method the Fates had taught her about sharing energy and helping each other to heal quicker. She let the source of her ancient power flow into Faith once Faith had merged with her own, adding her strength to Faith's like their sister Slayer's had added to hers before. She had no idea how long they stayed connected that way. Connected they stayed until Buffy felt the bleeding under her hand stop, and Faith released Buffy's mystical energy back to her.

They were both beyond exhausted and in tremendous pain. Buffy looked into Faith's heavy lidded pain-filled eyes and smiled. She knew Faith wasn't going to die. Knew it would be a long time before either of them were out of pain and healed completely. She had to smile anyway because she knew with absolute certainty that Faith was not going to die!

"Sleep baby... everything's all right... we're going home... I love you Faith... sleep baby..."

Faith felt the eternal love that Buffy felt for her surround and embrace her, she tried to tell Buffy she loved her too, but she couldn't form the words. For them though words weren't necessary, she let her own eternal love for Buffy flow back to her through their connection in return.

Faith drifted off to sleep safe in the arms that for her would always be home, as Buffy's tears of relief and joy rained softy down upon her face, and their love blanketed her in warmth.

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...All I ever wanted ~ All I ever needed ~ Is here in my arms ~ Words are very unnecessary – Depeche Mode

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to be continued...