A/N:Hello readers I have a huge apology to give to all of you. While I was looking back at older chapters I wanted to edit some of them for minor errors and such. However I ended up deleting Chapter 3 'Sacrifices.' When I went back to try to fix it, I ended up adding Chapter 3 as Chapter 12 (aka new chapter).
I'm trying really hard to fix this problem ASAP however when I go in to try to change the chapters it shows up perfectly fine on my page. I'll be contacting the site managers if I can't fix it within the next day. I apologize to all the new and old readers. Please accept my apologies with a new chapter.
To help everyone navigate this while I get this fixed here is the order of the chapters.
Ch.1 The Spark, Ch.2 Choices, Ch.3 Sacrifices, Ch. 4 Critical, Ch.5 Poison, Ch.6 Cure, Ch.7 Feelings, Ch. 8 Big Bad, Ch. 9 Keys, Ch. 10 Revelations, Ch. 11 Developments, Ch. 12 Changes, Ch. 13 Clarity
P.S. If anyone knows how to go about fixing this issue PM. I'm still kind of new to this and I would greatly appreciate any help.
CH. 13: Clarity
Buffy's knuckles were bleeding. She had disregarded the wraps for he hands when she had entered the training room. She locked all the doors, turned off the lights and began punching, kicking, and slamming the several bags around her. After a few hours she collapsed next to all the exploded bags on the mats. She knew she was being childish throwing a tantrum but she didn't care. She needed to let out everything she was feeling. Buffy didn't want to be around anyone in fear she would push everyone away.
The blonde sat up and looked at her bloodstained knuckles watching the red liquid run down her hand. Then she heard the commotion and without a second though switched to slayer mode. The blonde ran out of the room she unhinged the door as she felt a panic in her chest that warned her that Faith was in danger.
"Yeah I am. Who the hell are you?" Faith replied taking a step closer to the seemingly harmless man.
"He told me you'd be a feisty little thing." The blonde man approached Faith. "I'm God."
Faith cracked her neck and launched in to an attack. She went in for a punch and barely made contact with the man's face. Moments later she flew through the air into the wall by an effortless kick.
"That's no way to treat a new guess is it?"
Faith struggled to pick her self off the ground catching her breath and tasting her own blood. She was sure to feel this fight for a while.
"You're not a guest." The slayer walked closer to the man trying to make her stance as big as possible to intimidate him.
He only laughed and stepped towards her. He grabbed her arm and slowly began to add pressure. Faith gritted her teeth trying to contain the urge to grunt or scream from the pain that the man was causing.
"Now I'm only going to ask you once, where is my key?"
Faith stared into the blue orbs wondering if she could take this guy on, knowing that he was the hell god they had prepared for.
The blonde man tapped his foot while he continued to add pressure to Faith's arm. He stared into her eyes in search of the answers the slayer failed to tell him. As he grew impatient he threw her against another wall, this time forcing the structure to collapse on the slayer.
"I thought slayers were supposed to be harder to kill." He said as he looked towards Faith's buried body.
"We are." Faith slowly pushed pieces of the wall off her self and rose up to a standing position. Physically she looked like a whisper of a noise would knock her over but she stood there staring the man down. Faith was not going down so easily. She then smiled and spat out blood.
"You know what's harder to kill?"
The blonde man looked at her confused.
"Two slayers." A voice from behind the man spoke then he was propelled out the window.
"Faith" Buffy exhaled and ran towards the other slayer.
"Hey B, glad to see you." Faith said and fell to her knees. Buffy immediately went down with her. "We need to get you outta here pronto." Faith said.
Buffy shook her head "No. We need to get your wounds treated. Come on. " Buffy then helped the dark-haired woman off her knees and began to walk her out of the damaged room.
As the two slayers made their way into the 'hospital' part of the building, they the blonde hell-go intercepted them.
"I'm offended. Your hosting skills are so dreadful."
Buffy looked into the man's eyes and knew exactly who he was. He was the one that wanted to bleed her to send the world into chaos. As Buffy prepared her self to fight him he disappeared.
"Buffy!" Willow screamed as she and Giles walked up to the two slayers. "Are you guys okay?" Willow put away a charm she had in her hand and went in to help support Faith.
"I am, but Faith is in bad shape. That thing smashed her against several walls."
Faith chuckled and held her upper abdomen with her injured arm. "Yeah but I'll be all right. We need to get B out of here before it comes back."
"Don't worry I don't think he will be coming back anytime soon. I teleported him away." Willow said pressing the call button on the desk.
"It don't matter Red, he will come back and B here needs to stay away from him." Faith disentangled her self from Willow and Buffy. She supported her self on the desk and looked towards Giles.
"Faith is right. We need to get Buffy away from here as soon as possible." The librarian stated looking sternly towards his slayer.
"Giles I'm not running. You both said we would find a way to defeat it. So let's get on that. I'm not running." Buffy crossed her arms and looked at Faith.
"I thought I wasn't going to see you back here Faith" Mike greeted and immediately began to asses the slayer's injuries. "Lets take you into the room to take a look at you. Please sit on the bed while I go find some help." Mike pointed to a room and walked away. Buffy practically dragged Faith into the room and left Giles and Willow staring at each other.
"What do we do now?" Willow asked.
Giles struggled to formulate words. "We have to find a way to hide Buffy from that thing. " Giles took one last look to the room the two slayers had disappeared into and walked towards the elevator. Willow followed close behind.
Buffy stood a few feet away from the other slayer. Faith focused on breathing without hurting when she felt Buffy closer to her.
"B you gotta get out of here." Faith looked up to meet Buffy's green eyes. They both reflected the look of defeat in their eyes. Now that the hell god had been unleashed Buffy's life was in astronomical danger.
"I don't want to run anymore. I'm tired." Buffy stated.
Faith took a sharp breath in and stepped closer to the blonde and leaned in to kiss her. They both needed the unique feeling of each other's touch. Faith entangled her busted hands in Buffy's blonde hair drawing her closer to her own body. They slowly separated only when they heard footsteps outside the door.
"Faith please have a seat on the bed." Mike pleaded as he and two other nurses walked into the room and began to examine her.
Buffy stood by as the nurses tended to Faith's fractured ribs and her injured arm. They had once again insisted on keeping Faith in the hospital room to monitor the slayer but Faith refused. After Mike ensured that Faith would be okay and gave her medicine for the pain, the two slayers made their way to the research room where Giles, Willow, Xander, and Kennedy were all in research mode.
"Hey Faith, how's it going?" Xander greeted as he got up to offer some chairs to the slayers.
"I've been worse." Faith responded and took a seat.
"Any new info?" Buffy asked a bit hopeful.
Giles slowly shook his head and began to clean his glasses. "We don't know much. I was hoping Faith would have more information on the matter. She had the first contact with this thing."
Faith looked around the room and landed her eyes on Buffy's green orbs. "It's Angel. He changed in front of me."
Giles stopped cleaning his glasses. "How?"
"He came to me yesterday he was worried because he was getting haunted by the First. It was using the faces of all his victims. He was in pretty bad shape when I talked to him." Faith recalled seeing him so distressed.
"But that's not possible, I personally enchanted this whole building to keep the First away." Willow said picking up another book worried her spell didn't work.
"I don't know Red, the man saw those things. But that's not the worse part; he also told me he was craving human blood. After the meeting he asked me to help him with something. He had set up a meeting with a healer and he wanted me as back up. The next thing I know I'm on the ground and Angel is gone. When I came back here he was in his office then he changed into that thing." Faith finished retelling what had happened. She waited for Giles to lecture her on keeping that information from them but that didn't happen. Instead she was bombarded by questions.
"Do you know what the healer's name was? What exactly was he doing with Angel?" Willow asked ready to look up any information in the books spread out in front of her.
"Do you know how long he was being haunted?" Giles asked jotting down information in his journal.
"Look I can give you the address to the healer's place but he's dead. He was supposed to do something with his energy while Angel was in a trance. He told me he began seeing things when he was watching me one night while I was still recovering. That's about all I know."
Buffy looked at Faith trying to calm her counterpart since she began to feel the anxiety radiating from her.
"I think Faith needs to go and Rest. Come on I'll take you." Buffy extended her hand out to help Faith up from her chair. They walked out of the room in silence until the made their way into Faith's room.
As Faith sat on her bed Buffy began to walk towards the door. Faith's simple request stopped Buffy from walking out the door. "Can you stay here for a little while?"
The blonde took a few seconds to decide whether to go or stay. She walked back towards Faith and took a seat next to her. Faith timidly reached out to entangle her hand with Buffy's.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Buffy whispered and leaned in closer to Faith.
"I don't know." Faith answered truthfully feeling a bit guilty for making the other slayer stay with her. "Are we okay?"
Buffy nodded and leaned in for a kiss. Faith used her free hand to pull the blonde closer. It seemed that every time they kissed there was too much space between the two. They were letting go of all the fear and regret they were feeling from the previous days. They focused on each other. Buffy slowly pushed Faith back into a laying position. As they broke the kiss no words were spoken only silent communication through their slayer connection. The blonde settled down next to Faith and closed her eyes.
"Hello love," Buffy turned to face the familiar bleached blonde vampire.
"Spike?"
"The one and only." The man smirked and began to walk down an alley. "Hurry up slayer, wouldn't want you to miss this."
Buffy fully knowing she was in a slayer dream followed without a question.
As they arrived she realized where she was. The tower once used to open a portal to a hell dimension stood menacingly. Buffy swallowed hard and continued to follow the vampire up the tower.
Once the two got to the top Spike smiled. "You remember this place slayer?"
Buffy nodded. "What are we doing here?"
The vampire walked up to the edge of the platform and began to tie himself to the two poles. "You know that you weren't supposed to die that day right?" Spike finished tying himself as Buffy approached.
"What are you doing?" Buffy questioned
"How should I know? You should ask your pretty little sister." He says as he points behind Buffy.
Dawn's figure is standing by the stairs wearing the same dress she was in that fateful night.
"Dawny?" Buffy asks hoping that this nightmare ends soon. However there is no answer and when she turns to ask Spike another question someone else in in his place.
"B? What the hell is going on?" Faith asks as she tugs at her restrains. She looks over to where Dawn is standing.
"I . . . I don't know" Buffy makes her way towards Dawn. As she is about to place her hand on her younger sister, a bright light begins to form from Dawns figure and shoots through Buffy and into Faith.
Buffy and Faith wake up gasping for air and both search for each other immediately entangling their hands.
"B are you all right?"
Buffy struggles to catch her breath and quietly shakes her head. Seconds later the blonde is clinging to Faith letting he tears fall relentlessly as she settles back to reality and away from the awful nightmare they just had.
A few minutes later Buffy's sobs die down as the blonde whispers, "I'm not the key."
A/N: Again I apologize for the mess regarding the order of the chapters. More interwebs cookies for all of you. Please review and let me know what you think.
Also if you can help me with this mess I've made please PM I would greatly appreciate it.