A/N: Yet another chapter by the lovely drusilla891, formerly harmony910 (from neopets)!
Chapter 11
(Faith's POV)
Okay, what just happened? Where am I? I don't remember anything that happened last, just waking up with a blonde looking down at me. Oh, apparently I'm on my back on the grass. "Faith, are you okay?" the blonde asks me.
Slowly, I sit up and then rise to my feet. My head is dizzy, and I feel like I'm standing on Jell-O legs. My chest also hurts, feeling like it got hit with a wrecking ball or something of that nature. "Who's Faith?" I slur. Suddenly, my knees buckle, and I expect to get a mouthful of grass. Instead, the blonde catches me in her strong arms. "Who are you?"
"Oh my god, what did I do?" I look up to see the source of the new voice. A red haired girl is running towards us. "Buffy, I'm sorry, I didn't think, I just-"
"Stop, Willow," the blonde, Buffy, said harshly. "You didn't think, and you used magic. Who knows what could have happened to her? Faith could have died!"
"What?" I mumble, but it goes unnoticed.
"Please, Buffy, don't be mad at me," the red head, Willow, whimpers. It looks as if she's about to cry. What exactly is going on here?
(Willow's POV)
"Please, Buffy, don't be mad at me." I can feel the tears on the brink of spilling over. "It was honestly a mistake. I can fix it, I know I can. Just let me try."
"No. You've done enough." Buffy half-carries Faith into the house, leaving me on the lawn alone. I fall to my knees, defeated. My gaze goes up to the window on the second floor, feeling someone watching me. It's Tara. Oh god, I've let her down. What have I done?
And then the tears began to fall.
(Tara's POV)
I draw back from the window, letting the curtains fall back into place. How could she do that to me? Hurt me so much by using her magic again. I can feel tears trailing down my cheeks yet again, but I don't care. I don't care about anything right now. I just wish- I just wish Willow would stop. She could have killed Faith! Yeah, sure, Faith was trying to kill Buffy, but that wasn't an excuse for Willow to use magic on her like that.
Amy squeaks in her cage, and I take her squeak as a sign that she wants to comfort me. I smile at her. Her being a mouse was also the result of magic. Maybe not Willow's, but magic nonetheless.
I have to make a decision now. Either I can stay with Willow and help her out, or I can leave and hope that she stops on her own, refusing to come back until she's cut down her magic use.
As I looked towards the mirror, seeing my tear stained face in it, I know what I have to do.
(Buffy's POV)
I slowly ease Faith onto the couch, and she murmurs something inaudible. She's acting drunk; what kind of spell did Willow put on her? Whatever it was, it was the same one that caused all of us to lose our memories, but it seemed like it was more concentrated or something.
"Is she alright?" Angel asks, coming up to my side. I can't help but feel sorry for him, not knowing what was going on in our lives, and then suddenly being thrust into the middle of everything. He should have just stayed in Los Angeles. We would have been fine. Maybe even carry on with our lives how they were, me forever being Joan the Vampire Slayer.
"I don't know. I think she lost her memory as well, and she's acting really weird. Well, weirder than she usually acts," I add. I also can't help feeling sorry for Faith. Just a little bit, but still I feel sorry. "We need to reverse whatever Willow did to her."
"Uh, Buffy, in case you haven't realized, Faith just tried to kill you. I really don't think reviving her memory is going to help," Xander says, looking at me with an incredulous look. He doesn't believe what I just said. Well, he's going to have to. "Because she won't stop trying to kill you after we bring her back."
"For once, I have to agree with the whelp, Buffy," Spike says, surprising me. "Faith won't stop trying to kill you. We could always just leave her like this."
"No. I won't let her stay like this." Suddenly, I spin around towards the door and march outside. Willow is kneeling on the grass, weeping into her hands. With a little more force than I meant to use, I yank her up. She cries out in pain, but I ignore her cry. I haul her inside and shove her down on the couch next to Faith. "You did this, Willow, now you're going to fix it."
"Buffy, do you really think such force is necessary?" Giles asks me, stepping forward a bit. "She really didn't mean to-"
I interrupt him. "I don't care if she meant to, she's going to fix this. This is her fault to begin with, casting that spell on us. She fixed that, now she'll fix this." I turned toward her, my face set in a look of anger.
Willow looks like she's about to cry. "I-I'll fix it," she stammers. Taking a deep breath to calm her shattered feelings, she rises from the couch. "I need to look at her," she explains. "That way it'll be a little easier to do."
This better work. That's all I can think.
(Willow's POV)
I know they're mad at me. I knew it the second I did that spell on Faith. I just- I couldn't help it. It's like an alcoholic, always going to the bottle. Well, I'm always going to magic. I know I should stop, for my sake and for my relationship with Tara's sake.
I take another breath and close my eyes, running through the words in my mind. My eyes snap open, and I can feel that they are different. I don't know how I can feel it, I just can. The words spill from my mouth with little effort, in a language I don't even know. A blast of power left me, ramming into Faith at full power. I felt drained, weak. And yet I felt powerful. I could feel my energy restoring itself, and I felt like I could take out a small country. I wanted to keep using the magic, not really caring what I did with it, just wanting to feel its power.
But I felt someone else, someone's disappointment in my use of magic. That was what stopped me from continuing, what stopped me from possibly killing Faith. I glanced over my shoulder to see what it was. I saw only the other Scoobies, but none of them held the look of disappointment that I had felt with such intensity. I then realized that it wasn't anyone in the room; it was Tara. I could feel her disappointment.
(Faith's POV)
Somehow, I have wound up on the couch. I feel dazed at first, but then it all comes back to me. Why I came to Sunnydale. I came to teach Buffy the Bitch a lesson. And now I'm sitting on her couch, staring up at her and her little gang. The first thing that crosses my mind is 'why can't I have a gang of my own?' The second is I have a chance to rip her head off right now. With a feral growl, I leap at Buffy. And somehow, I am in Angel's tight grip, fighting to be released. But I feel weaker than I did before. Willow put some sort of spell on me. Now I know that they're all against me.
"Let me go!" I scream at Angel. "LET ME GO!" I manage to get an arm lose and I start swinging. It makes contact with something, although I'm not sure what. I feel Angel's grip loosen, so I can only assume that it's him.
I slip through his grasp and launch myself at Buffy. She pulls back and punches me in the gut, stopping me just a bit, but my rage fuels me on. I can feel her hair in my hands, and I pull, hearing her scream. The sound is like music to my ears. More arms wrap around me, pulling me off of Buffy.
I don't fight back this time. I'm starting to lose my original anger, and my strength is already fading. They put me back on the couch, and I begin to cry. I don't know why, I just do. "It's not fair," I weep. "She gets everything! I got nothing! She ruined my life! Why can't I just pull her hair out?" I cry some more, and then I find myself falling asleep. "Why does she always win?"
(Buffy's POV)
It hurts me to hear Faith say those things. I never win. I've died, twice, I've lost my mom, my parents got divorced, my sister was a ball of energy at one time, and the guy I love can't even give me the life that I want to have with him. She has more than I have, even if she doesn't think it. She's able to live life to the fullest. I'm a mom to my sister, I'm the "good Slayer", and I have to deal with tons of other things. Like the whole sleeping with Spike thing. I still don't even know why I'm doing it.
"I should take her back to Los Angeles. Well, when the sun's down," Angel said. "I'll just leave her here for now."
The squeaking sound of the stairs made us turn around. It was Tara. And she had suitcases. Not a good sign.
"Tara?" Willow sounded like her voice was about to break, and she was about to cry.
"I'm sorry," Tara whispers, and she heads for the door, not looking back at us. A taxi is waiting out front, and she gets in and they take off.
We're silent for a moment, but I go over to Willow. "Willow, I'm..." I can't finish. She breaks away from me and runs outside, calling Tara's name. It's painful to watch. I choke back tears myself, and I run after her.
She's kneeling on the road when I get to her, sobbing her heart out. I kneel down by her, and we hug. "It'll be okay. Eventually," I whisper.
I can only hope so.