A/N: I'm so sorry for taking this long to update. Also I know in the first and possibly second chapter I made a horrible mistake of making Buffy blue-eyed. I thought I went back and fixed that error but I will double check and fix it if necessary.
Thanks to all the readers who were kind enough to leave a review they always make me feel so awesome and motivated to keep going. I'm so excited I passed the 20 reviews mark. Thank you so much!
Disclaimer: I only own the computer I'm writing this on.
Warnings: I'm not sure, but a very small part of this could be a potential spoiler for the Angel series. You've been warned.
Ch. 5 Poison
It had been over a day since Faith had been brought into the makeshift hospital at HQ. Buffy had hardly left the sitting area outside Faith's room. She was currently reading a book trying to find a way to beat the First. She hadn't slept in over 24 hours and her eyes started to close. Before she realized it, she was deep asleep in her unconscious.
Faith opened her eyes and darkness engulfed her. She was on her back looking up at an emptiness that seemed to have consumed her. This was the millionth time she had ended up here again. She remembered the quote she had given Angelus just a few weeks ago.
"You know the definition of insanity is? Doing the something over and over gain and expecting different results" Faith chuckled at that.
'Great. I'm going insane. . again!"
Faith got up once again and began to walk around in the darkness. Like she had done before, she walked towards the fading light. She didn't bother to run, as that would only tire her out and make the events repeat faster. She was walking up to the light and this time it looked like she was finally getting closer to it and she could make out something on the other side of the light.
'Holy crap, am I actually getting somewhere here?' Faith thought as she picked up her pace, getting her closer to the light. After what seemed hours of walking towards it Faith stopped.
She wondered what the light was. She remembered being stabbed and for all intense and purposes dying. Was this light "the light" people go to when they die? Did she really want that? Why would she go to the light after all she's done? All the questions were put to the side once she finally reached the light source. It was a tree on the other side, and something on it caught her attention.
Faith weighted her options and decided to go through the light to go check the tree out.
Buffy was back in that park she had been a few weeks back. She immediately figured out it was a dream and hoped that maybe Faith would appear to her. She walked up to the now familiar tree, and made her request 'Please Faith, let me know your still with me' the slayer thought as she absentmindedly guarded her healed wound with her hand.
Buffy seemed to wait forever. She had taken a seat against the magnificent tree and patiently waited for any sign.
Faith made it through the light and jumped at the sensation of moist grass on her now bare feet.
'Interesting,' the dark-haired slayer thought, as she walked towards an object far in the distance that looked to be the only tree in the entire land. As she got closer, the tree seemed to grow toward the sky at an abnormal speed.
The shade the tree provided gave the fallen slayer a rare sense of comfort. She felt the sudden urge to go up to the trunk of the tree. As she got closer, her body started to react. Her stomach let the butterflies loose, her head became lighter. She knew then that she wasn't alone in this place. The connection she felt, alerted her to Buffy's presence somewhere near by.
At the same time, Buffy was struggling to stand up do to the feelings her body was going through.
"Faith?" Buffy said in a whisper.
Faith felt a breeze pass by her ear and heard Buffy's voice call out her name. She rapidly turned around but was disappointed to see nothing but sky and grass.
The blonde slayer awaited a response or Faith her self to make an appearance but noting happened. She proceeded to walk around the massive trunk of the tree to try and find the source of her heightened senses.
Faith felt a pull towards the other side of the trunk and began to walk towards the other side.
Unknowingly both slayers were walking away form each other.
As faith made it to the other side she saw the fateful knife that had caused so much more than just flesh wounds. Her knife, which represented the turbulent past, she had. Faith stood frozen looking up at the knife that was stuck in the tree. Her left hand guarded over her scar and her right hand slowly lifted to reach the knife. As she did so, Faith noticed her right arm had painful difficulty in getting up high enough to retrieve the knife. She figured it was because of the state her actual body was in.
Buffy had made her own way to the other side, and as sensing the recently vacant spot, she tried to rush back to the other side hoping to catch the other individual. However, the slayer was not able to make it all the way around, when she blinked, she was far away from the tree. Buffy was so far away from the majestic tree, that it looked like a small broccoli piece upon an enormous field. She talked out hoping Faith could hear her wherever she was.
"Faith, I'm not sure if you can hear me, but if you do, please wait for me."
The blonde slayer committed to finding Faith, began to run towards the tree.
Faith pulled the knife out from the tree and she saw something begin to appear around the gap the knife had left. It appeared that the tree was being carved by an unknown source and Faith looked on as she waited to make sense of what was being written upon the wood.
'Please wait for me'
Faith dropped the knife as she heard an almost silent whisper begging her to wait. When she looked back down to pick up the knife, the weapon had disappeared. Faith saw the knife back in the tree cutting through what had been carved. Faith tried to make out what it said or what it was but before she could something caused her to fall to the ground.
"Faith!" She heard from behind her and then braced her self for impact.
"Whoa B," Faith said turning around to face the slayer as the blonde slayer lay on top of her. "Why so happy to see me?"
Buffy had just spotted her dark counterpart from several yards away and she had vowed to get to her before any more crap got in the way. Buffy had to talk to the other slayer.
"Because," Buffy chocked out in a raspy voice, "you are alive"
Faith saw the tears Buffy was attempting to hold back. She could feel the tension in the other girl's body and the emotions that were running through her. Faith moved so that Buffy was sitting next to her and against the tree.
"Well I wouldn't be too sure about that B," Faith countered but decided not to continue with the thought and instead changed the conversation.
"Is Dawn okay?"
Buffy caught on to Faith's diversion.
"She is missing you terribly, you need to come back to us." Buffy stated.
Faith smiled, "Good, I'm glad she got out of there, things got crazy, as in evil Faith crazy," the dark-haired slayer chuckled a little on her own reference.
The chosen two remained silent for what felt forever until Faith spoke up again. She turned to look at Buffy in the eyes.
"Buffy, if I don't wake up from this, I want you to know something." Faith prepared a speech that she didn't think would ever come out from her mouth. However, after the realization that she most likely would never get out of this place, she wanted to let the beautiful green-eyed slayer know much she meant to her.
"No Faith, don't give me any last words speech, you are going to recover and you are going to come back to us, don't you dare give me a farewell speech." Buffy demanded mainly hurt and scared. She didn't want to think about a world without her counterpart. She hated that Faith was apparently okay with that idea and was now using her full name. Somehow the simple nickname Faith gave her comforted the older slayer and the moment Faith stopped using it made her that much more scared.
"Buffy," Faith said once again attempting to get through the difficulty of formulating words. "I. . . I"
"Save it, Luv" Both slayers looked up and immediately stood up shocked by the owner of that voice.
"Spike?" Buffy questioned more than stating the fact that the thought to be dead vampire, was standing in front of them in a slayer dream nonetheless.
"The one and only," the British vampire bragged.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Faith asked unconsciously taking a step in front of Buffy as to protect her from this intrusion.
"Hell if I know," he said looking a bit offended.
"Spike aren't you dead? Well more dead dead?" Buffy questioned the vampire.
"Well, it complicated," He walked towards the tree and grabbed the knife that was stuck in the trunk. "Is this the infamous knife?"
"It's a knife," Buffy replied. "What do you have to do with it?"
"I was sent for a reason," He looked at Buffy and walked his way to the blonde slayer. He spun the knife in his hand making Faith tense up.
"What might that reason be?" Faith questioned while her fist clenched.
"To do this," the vampire lashed forward and stabbed Buffy in her lower stomach in the same region Faith had her scar.
Faith watched on as he whispered something in her ear and then disappeared, leaving Buffy on the verge of collapsing due to the wound. Faith stepped up and held Buffy up.
"Faith," Buffy smiled and momentarily closed her eyes. She brought her hands up to her face and saw her hands covered in her own blood "I have to go."
"Buffy, what's going on?" Faith asked confused as hell and terrified just as much.
"Faith I'll see you soon," Buffy said and disappeared leaving a puddle of her blood for Faith to stare into. The dark-haired slayer stared at the blood hoping her blonde counterpart would wake up safe and sound. She waited for anything to happen.
Green eyes opened up to look in to dark eyes full of concern.
"Buff, what the hell is going on?" Xander asked completely freaking out.
"Where is Mike?" She asked ignoring her friend's question.
"Buff," the tall man spoke louder "you are bleeding"
Buffy immediately ran her hands down to her stomach expecting to find blood there, however a single drop of blood landed on the back of her hand. She moved her hand to the source of the blood. Somewhere during the dream she had began to have a nose bleed.
"Oh, it's okay Xan, get me Mike I know how to save Faith!" Buffy smiled.
Three floors above the room Faith was currently still unconscious in, Willow was working endlessly to find a cure. She had tested Faith's blood for traces of any drugs or magical poisons.
"Oh my god!" Willow exclaimed, "I should have known!" Willow dropped her notebook and made her way to her stack of books.
"What is it?" Kennedy questioned her wanting to know what her beautiful redhead had figured out.
"You are going to laugh, but the cure is so cheesy" Will chuckled.
"Cheesy?" Kennedy repeated
"Yeah as in Snow White, kinda cheesy," Willow said realizing a problem.
"Huh?" the witches' girlfriend looked on confused.
"Faith has been poisoned, and according to this," Willow shook a book in the air "The cure is her soul mate's blood. Sure it's a bit gorier than snow white, but still, oh god how are we going to find them in time. Oh I'm sure I can do a spell or something, or I can . . ." Her girlfriend kissing her deeply stopped her from continuing to babble.
"You are amazing," Kennedy said and then began to giggle.
"What are you laughing about? I still need to find this person," Willow exclaimed as she began to gather her equipment.
"Are you sure about this?" Mike asked as he preparing the needle.
"Yes!"
"Buffy how do you know?" Xander asked as he entered the room.
"I had a slayer dream and it was really weird, Spike was there and he told me that my blood is the key," she closed her eyes momentarily and remembered being stabbed by the British vampire.
"At first I thought it had something to do with Dawn but then it just clicked for me. Faith is a slayer more than human, of course normal blood wouldn't do. It has to be slayer's blood." Buffy explained while Mike began extracting the red liquid from her arm.
Half an hour later, the doctors where getting ready to give Faith the other slayer's blood. They were hesitant to try the new transfusion but Buffy was so determined she physically had threatened them to do it. Angel had ordered the doctors to go ahead and proceed.
The doctors had hooked up Faith to multiple monitors before they began the procedure.
The blonde slayer held he breath for what seemed forever, waiting for some sign of life. After several minutes of the same beeping noises in the room Mike spoke up.
"It seems her body is taking in the blood just fine. We will continue to monitor her to check of any signs of complications." He turned to Buffy and Xander, "now if you guys would step our of the room we will finish up the tests."
Buffy and Xander exited the room and made their way to the sitting area. The two sat silently waiting for a miracle to happen. Buffy spotted her red-haired friend and smiled.
"Buffy! I think I figured it out," Willow said holding a book in her hand "I figured out how to save Faith."
Buffy looked up at Willow and her smile grew. Her best friend had worked so hard to save Faith. Through the entire excitement she had forgotten to talk to her best friend.
"Willow, I had a slayer dream and I figured it out too," Buffy said trying to catch her friend up to speed. "It's my blood. The doctors said that she had accepted the blood. Will she's going to be okay," Buffy smiled hoping she was right.
"Your blood?" Willow questioned looking at Kennedy for answers.
"Yes, I figured that since she's a slayer she needed slayer's blood, it was so simple," Buffy said standing up to hug her friend.
"But the book said the cure was . . . oh wow," Willow stopped her out loud thoughts. Kennedy took a hold of her hand to stop her girlfriend from dropping this new development in the Chosen two's lives.
Buffy looked at her friend questioningly, "Was my blood not the cure?"
"Um, well it wasn't too specific but yeah it seems about right, if you excuse me I have to go clean up something," Willow hugged her friend one last time and made her way back towards the elevator with her very smug girlfriend following her.
"I told you so," Kennedy mocked
"Shut up," Willow said running her hand through her hair "It could be a mistake, after all they were two slayers exciting at once. That might have affected this," Willow tried to find an explanation but after several silent moments in the elevator.
"Do you think they know?" The witch asked.
Kennedy chuckled "I think they will soon find out."
A/N: What did you guys think? Please leave a review.