Anyway, on with the story!
Chapter 19Minutes later, Death eaters on brooms were swarming forth to recapture the escapees. Though they were well ahead, Dawn knew that the broom was slower with two people, not to mention that it was a pretty old broom to start with. Faith was thinking along the same lines.
"DOWN!" She yelled through the roar of the wind rushing round them. Dawn nodded, and sunk into the trees, speeding through the forest, dodging in and out of the trunks.
It seemed as if they had been flying for hours, and Dawn only began to slow once they heard the yells of the death eaters fade. Some had flown right over them, not realising they'd taken to the trees. Others tried to find them in the forest, but soon realised that they had a much better chance from above. But eventually they flew away, no doubt moving the search rather than stopping it. Dawn hated to think what would happen to those Death eaters when they returned without their quarry, but couldn't bring herself to feel too badly.
Dawn set them down a little roughly, and they ended up in a pile on the forest floor.
"Sorry." She winced. "I've only flown once before."
"You serious?" Faith asked. Dawn nodded. Faith leant against a fallen log and closed her eyes momentarily. Despite her ability to up keep the outer wall of strength, Dawn could see that Faith was utterly drained.
"Are you ok?" she asked, knowing the answer already.
"Five by five."
Dawn frowned.
"What does that even mean? Five what?" She asked. Faith shrugged, smiling.
"Damned if I know." She replied. "So, spill Lit'le bit. What the f*ck is going on, other than a mad wizard wanting me to help him take over the world, and kidnappin' you from school even though he doesn't know who you are!?" Dawn laughed as Faith's face was vaguely reminiscent of Xander's expression during any complex explanation.
"Ok, where do I start? There's a whole different type of magic to Wicca. A whole world in fact."
"Different dimension?" Faith frowned.
"No, no, just another world within our own, that no one except those involved in it knows about. Just like the world of vampire slaying I guess. Its right there along side every day people, but no one notices it." Faith nodded in understanding. "So… some people are just born with the gift, and some people inherit it through their family. There are even some people who are born to magical families with no magic what so ever. But they're rare. They are called Squibs. Non magic folk are Muggles. The school I go to is for witches and wizards."
"But you…" Faith interrupted.
"It's complicated. I don't even know how to begin explaining why I have the gift… or why I only just found out…" A dawning expression crossed Faith's face.
"Is it cos you were the key?" She said quietly. Dawn was shocked.
"What? How did you know about that? Who told you?" Faith now just looked terribly sad, even though she tried her best to hide it. "Faith?" Dawn prompted.
"Even if I was locked up. I was… I am… still the slayer… a slayer." Dawn gasped as she realised her meaning.
"Oh god! You still had the dreams. The powers kept you informed on what was happening." She said. Faith nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
"But there was nothing you could do…" Dawn said, now understanding the sadness. "You had to see and feel things happening to people, even though there wasn't a damn thing you could do. How did that not kill you?"
"I remember the first time I had one when I was in there." Faith said, starring vacantly into the trees. "I saw a demon attacking a girl down the other end of my block. It could teleport, so I knew they wouldn't see it coming. …I told one of the guards that she was gonna be attacked. I wasn't sure whether he thought I was just totally wacko, or if I was threatening her. Anyway, he ignored me. She was killed the next night. They thought it was me, cos of what I said."
"But then why would you have warned them!? That's stupid!" Dawn exclaimed. Faith smiled inwardly, Dawn's indignation on her part warmed her greatly.
"I got off cos they knew damn well I hadn't left my cell, but from then on I knew it was pointless to say anything. I just took it. Then last summer, I started having these nightmares…nothing was clear. There were just flashes of stuff, then eventually they started to slow down, and I'd see scenes from the past, once with you, then once without, and I just knew… I woke up and found I just knew stuff about what was happening." Faith blinked. She wasn't entirely sure why she'd just told Dawn all that, but now she'd gotten this far, there was something she had to know or sure. "Buffy… she died, didn't she?"
"Yeah. You saw that too?"
"Not exactly."
"Then what?"
Faith spoke slowly, as if the memory was very difficult.
"I didn't dream it, but one night I just… I felt it. I sat up in my bed, and I knew Buffy had just died. …I just knew…" There was a moment of silence before Dawn spoke.
"It's ok though. Willow bought her back at the end of the summer."
"What!?" Faith cried. "Why?"
Dawn was very taken aback. She'd been beginning to think Faith was actually ok, but this anger at Buffy being alive hurt Dawn deeply.
"Faith…" she began. But the slayer was distraught.
"She bought her back!? How could she? Don't you know where she was!? Dawn… oh god!" As Faith raged, Dawn realised that Faith really had felt what had happened to Buffy. She knew where she had been. "Dawnie, she was happy!! That was where she was meant to be!"
"Yeah well I'm sorry if I find it hard to be sad that my sister is alive! You sound like she did at first, like she hates us, hates this world!" Dawn snapped.
"Oh, Dawn…" Faith said, calming. "You don't understand. She loves you more than anything, dumbass. That's why she did what she did! But where she was, there was no pain, no fear, no worry. She was happy in a way no living person can really comprehend- I know I can't. It's not that she doesn't want to be with you. She knew that you were safe, and she knew that it was her time. Back down here, she has to fear for you again. She has to fight. She has to feel pain, see suffering, even though she had had her share. She had been released from that, and Willow dragged her back in. I don't think any of us could really get what a huge thing that would be. You can't imagine how it would feel to suddenly have to face the life of a slayer after several months of total bliss!" Dawn was silent. She had never really thought about it that way.
"I guess you're right… sorry." Dawn sighed. Faith nodded.
"So now that's outta the way…"
"Yeah." Dawn prepared to continue. "So… cos I was the key, I have all this mystical power in me, and that basically makes me a witch. There was this ancient prophecy saying that it would happen, and the people at the school… it's a wizarding school, did I say that?"
"Yeah. So they only found you now cos you didn't actually exist in human form before, right?" Dawn continued to explain the whole of the wizarding world, and how McGonogall had told her of her destiny. Faith eventually reached the question of what had happened when Voldemort took her. She immediately knew it really wasn't as simple as all that when Dawn's face fell dramatically.
"Dawnie?" she said quietly.
"He… they… they were gonna kill all muggleborns, or anyone with any muggle blood… All of us in the whole school. But first… y'know I said there was a boy who stopped him before?"
"When he was a kid, right?"
"Yeah. Harry. Voldemort wanted to get him out of the way first… I tried, Faith! But I … he killed him! Oh god…" Dawn hadn't even allowed herself to think about Harry since she'd been taken, and now she sobbed.
"Dawn…" Faith breathed. She'd never been any good at emotional stuff… unless you count anger of course…
"I tried to stop him, but it can't be blocked!"
"Dawnie, what do you mean?" Faith said frowning.
"He… there's a curse- the killing curse, that can't be blocked. I knew that's what he would use, so I figured, even if wizard magic can't block it, maybe Wicca can, y'know? So I tried a protection spell Will' taught me once… but it didn't work. He flew across the room…" she trailed off, her eyes wide and vacant. Faith was still frowning. She didn't want to get Dawn's hopes up, but she'd seen the killing curse in action- she'd seen the deatheaters kill the prison guards- they'd just collapsed, not flown across the room. She shook her head, and decided that it was probably best to keep that to herself, and instead put an awkward arm around Dawn's shoulders. The girl was shivering. Faith shifted her weight to move closer in, and lost her balance, landing hard on her cut hand. She winced,
"Damn it." She cursed. Dawn took her injured hand in her own.
"Why did you do that?" she asked quietly.
"Had to make it look realistic, di'n't I?" The slayer replied.
"You could've cut me. He might have realised you'd cut yourself, and then we'd have been trapped."
Faith shook her head slowly.
"No. I couldn't have."
"But, Faith…"
"Leave it, Lit'le bit!" Faith snapped, snatching her hand away. "Try to get some rest, we'll have to move soon." Dawn opened her mouth to speak, but knew it was pointless, so instead she leant her head on the slayers shoulder and closed her eyes. Faith was startled, but didn't pull away. She gently leant back against the log, glad that the other girl could not see the confusion written on her face.
-----------------
"Willow, didn't you find anything?" Buffy asked again.
"I'm sorry, Buffy, no."
Buffy held her head in her hands. She was at a total loss. She sighed, then remembered something,
"Hey, is Wes around?" Both McGonogall and Dumbledore frowned.
"What?" McGonogall asked.
"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Is he around?"
"Um, yes. Of course, but I don't see… I'll get him." She left, still frowning. Buffy turned to Dumbledore.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Dawn told me he was teaching here."
"Yes yes, what I meant was how do you know him?" The head master asked.
"He was my watcher, didn't you know that?"
Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"No, no I didn't. I knew he went to be trained, but I didn't imagine… oh."
A few minutes later, Wesley entered with McGonogall.
"Buffy!" he gasped. "What's going on?"
"Voldemort has Dawn."
"Really?" the ex-watcher gasped.
"Yes, and I think… I think he has Faith too." She added.
"Faith? How?"
"I don't know!" the slayer cried, "But I had a dream- Voldemort's guys had her."
"Then we must work quickly and save them both." Wes said. Buffy frowned.
"Save them b…?"
"Well we can't just leave Faith behind, can we?" He voice was tinted with a little bitterness, as if he would actually have loved to do just that.
"But surely she would join him!" Buffy said, losing her temper. Wesley looked terribly sad.
"Buffy, time was I would have agreed, but I saw how she was in LA… She was… she begged Angel to kill her for what she'd done, Buffy. She turned herself in… I don't see her joining Voldemort."
"Really? Even when the alternative is to be tortured to death? I'm sorry, but I know what she is capable of, and I know that she would not sit there and bring on the pain when there was an easy way out!"
"Don't you understand, Buffy? She wanted to die! She didn't want to live with herself anymore. She hated herself for her actions, Buffy. If she is still the way she was then, then she will sit back and 'bring on the pain'. Nothing Voldemort can do would make any difference to her while she believes that she deserves it!" As much as she tried to throw the words off, Buffy could not help the remembering the words that Faith had screamed at her own likeness when they'd fought in Sunnydale. Disgusting Murderous bitch! You're nothing! Tears came to Buffy's eyes as she folded into the nearest chair, shaking.
"I just don't know anymore!" she gasped. "I have to find Dawn." She was regaining her resolve quickly. "I can deal with Faith later. Right now we have to find Dawn. Will, could you try again?"
"Way ahead of ya." Willow said, already laying her tools out on the floor before her.