Disclaimer: still don't own any of it.

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Chapter 6:

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The entire walk back to the house, was made in silence. The tension between them weighing heavily on each of them. Buffy's hand hovered over the doorknob nervously now as they reached the door. She felt Harry's hand rest gently on her shoulder and took a deep breath, steeling herself. With her mask of confidence firmly in place, she strode through the back door. At seeing most of the potentials along with the Scoobies gathered in the kitchen, she stopped.

Giles…

Willow…

Xander…

Dawn…

God, how had they gotten like this? They had all been through so much together over the years. When had it all started to fall apart?

Her face revealed nothing as she met each set of eyes. Buffy's gaze came to rest on the scythe in her hands as she lifted it, making it clearly visible to all in the room. She flung it down on the table, and had to suppress a satisfied smirk as nearly everyone jumped slightly at the noise. Without a word, she walked past them.

When Spike moved to follow her downstairs, Harry held out a hand to stop him. Oblivious to them both, Faith snatched the weapon up from the table just as Willow reached out to pick it up. "Keep in mind, she was right," she threw over her shoulder as she followed Buffy downstairs.

"They need to talk, and so do we," Harry said quietly. He motioned for Spike to follow him outside.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Spike demanded as he found himself shoved against the house, unable to move.

"Are you stupid, Spike? Do you remember what I said I would do to you if you ever came near her again?" Harry asked coldly.

Spike's eyes widened. "She won't let you-"

"She asked me to try not to stake you on sight. She knew better than to ask for more than that. Why do you think she didn't say a word when I punched you earlier? This is me trying, Spike, but if you ever hurt her again, in any way, what I did to you last time will pale in comparison." His eyes narrowed. "Do you understand?" he ground out.

"I'm not going to hurt her, mate, I promise."

"Make sure you don't," Harry said as he released Spike and went back inside.

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Buffy's eyes followed Faith's pacing from her seat on the cot. She couldn't help the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Am I in trouble?"

Faith stopped her pacing at the teasing tone. "What the hell were you thinking, B? That stunt you pulled was reckless, stupid, and-"

"And it worked," Buffy gestured to the weapon Faith was holding, as proof of the success.

"You got lucky," Faith countered.

Buffy shook her head. "Getting lucky would be Andrew pulling that off."

"No, that would be a miracle," Faith smirked.

Buffy smiled before continuing. "I know what I can do; I know what Harry can do; and I know what Harry and I combined can do. Regardless of what you believe, I didn't go blindly into that fight."

"I don't want you going off on your own next time, B. Strength in numbers and all that shit, you got it?" The Slayers were locked in a staring match, and Faith refused to back down until Buffy nodded her agreement. "Good. Now what's going on with you and Harry? If he's your brother, why doesn't anyone know about it?" Faith sank down on the cot beside Buffy. "Especially Dawn," she added as an afterthought.

Buffy's eyes widened slightly, "What makes you think that…" she trailed off at the disbelieving look Faith sent her. "All right," she rolled her eyes, "Before Harry and I were born there was a war going on in England's magical society. One faction wanted to kill off anybody who wasn't from a purely magical family. The other faction was trying to stop that from happening. Because of a prophecy that Harry was going to defeat the leader of the Nazi wannabes, our parents went into hiding. During that time they had me, but because no one even knew that our mother was pregnant, they were able to hide me. I was placed with Joyce and Hank Summers, whose memories were altered so they didn't even realize that I wasn't their daughter."

"Damn," Faith said quietly.

"I found out when I was fourteen when the Powers sent me to teach Harry how to fight. Albus Dumbledore, who was his principal at the time, was the one who helped our parents hide me. He recognized me, and the magical society found out that I was related to Harry, but we were able to keep people from connecting the dots to me being the Slayer. It adds a whole 'secret weapon' element if the big bads don't know who we've got on our sides," Buffy smirked.

"And Dawn?" Faith asked after a moment.

Buffy shrugged. "The monks didn't know that I was related to Harry, so when they rewrote my memories, I didn't know that we were related. The real memories came back after I died though."

Faith ran a hand through her hair as she tried to wrap her head around it all. "Damn, that's a lot to take in."

"And that's not even the cliff notes version," Buffy smirked.

Faith shook her head, "That's-"

Both Slayers' attention was instantly drawn to the basement door as it creaked open. "Liz, Faith! Moony just mirrored. He thinks he has a lead for us." Harry said as he walked downstairs.

Faith's brow scrunched up, confused. "Who's 'Moony'? Please tell me he's not named for what I'm thinkin' he is."

Buffy smiled. "He's a werewolf," she explained.

"He's owling the books he found, but he said it has something to do with a hellmouth that was once where Hogwarts is now."

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to be continued...

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