"Okay girls, we're going to split up once we get down there," I say to the other slayers that have come along with me. We're standing at the mouth of the cave—at least what we're hoping is the mouth of the cave—and Faith has completely avoided me ever since she walked in on Satsu and I. "Faith, you take Veronica and Allison and head south. I'll go with Kennedy and Satsu and head east. We'll meet up in an hour."
"Sounds good," Faith says evenly. "What's the plan exactly here, B?"
"This is simply a stakeout mission. We're not here to fight," I remind her and the others. "Keep a low profile, only fight if you must. Do not provoke anything you run across down there. We don't want Falken to know we're looking for him."
"I have to say, I really don't like this splitting up plan," Kennedy speaks up. "I think we should just stick together, Buffy," she continues, crossing her arms over her chest almost aggressively.
"I'm with Kennedy on this one," Satsu chimes in. I roll my eyes, which brings a small frown to her face but she continues. "Buffy, think about it. Six of us together is better than just three of us on our own. What if this simple stakeout mission turns into a full-blown fight? What'll we do then if we're badly outnumbered?"
I sigh as I look down at the ground. I don't like having my leadership undermined, especially not by Kennedy of all people. I'd love to put her back in her place, but I need to check myself and think about this, not just blow it off because of who spoke up. So what are the possibilities here? I start running scenarios through my head, weighing the pros and cons of splitting up versus the larger group. I look up at Faith, watching her as she stands at the mouth of the cave, cigarette dangling from her lips and a bored look on her face. For some reason, even behind that bored mask, I get the feeling she does agree with them. What I can't figure out is why she's not speaking up about it. Whatever the reason, I seem to be the only fan of splitting up and I do have to admit they're right. I'm not going to let my personal issues get somebody killed.
"We'll go together then," I say, and it's almost comical when everyone else lets out a big sigh of relief.
I motion for Faith to lead the way inside the cave, which she does after flicking her cigarette to the ground. I place myself ahead of the others, walking right behind Faith through the narrow passageway, which soon begins to slope down. It's darker than night, but we agreed not to bring any flashlights. The less we do to attract attention to ourselves the better and safer it'll be for us and the better chance we have of keeping this a simple stakeout mission.
We've been walking through the darkness for about ten minutes before I finally can see that the passageway is beginning to widen. I can also see a soft flickering light off in the distance. Not a minute later I hear voices and quickly join the others in looking around for a place to hide. There are big boulders near the wall and I know Faith is thinking the exact same thing as I am. The voices are growing louder and none of us waste any more time, everyone scrambling to crouch behind their boulder of choice. Unfortunately Faith and I seem to have the same taste in boulders, and I can feel the tension between us as we crouch there holding our breath while two bulky looking vampires walk past, too engrossed in their conversation about their next meal to sniff us out.
I wait until they are far away from us before softly calling the others from their hiding spots so we can continue on our way towards the soft flickering light. We all seem to be staying closer together now and every couple of steps my arm brushes up against Faith's, which is giving me this slight shock that tingles through my entire body at the small contact. I try not to focus on that, on Faith, but my mind is clouded and the tension between us is almost suffocating. I never did get that chance to talk to her after she caught Satsu and I together, but even if I had the chance to before we headed out here tonight I'm not sure what I would've said to her.
"Split up. Now!" Faith says quickly in a hushed whisper and before I can even react she grabs onto my hand and I find myself pulled into a narrow opening in the wall.
"Faith-"
"Shut up," she hisses as she pulls me a little deeper inside the narrow opening. We remain there for less than a minute before what looks like hundreds of vampires come walking—marching?—down the passageway. "Shit, that's a lot of fuckin' vamps," she says so quietly that I can barely hear her.
I'm not focused on anything else other than the fact that I'm acutely aware of how our bodies are pressed right up against one another's. The narrow opening is too small, but at least we're hidden. I'm worried about the others, but there hasn't been any sign that they've been spotted by the hundreds of vampires still walking down the passageway. I'm getting far too distracted by Faith and when she turns to look at me I reflexively suck in a deep breath, knowing just how close we are right now, our lips barely a breath apart.
"You okay, B?" Faith asks softly. I feel her warm breath tickling over my lips and somehow her hands are suddenly resting on my hips. "You're shaking. You ain't scared, are you?"
Terrified. I won't tell her that, though. There's no way I want her to know that being this close to her scares me more than the hundreds of vampires just a few feet away. It scares me more than my relationship with Satsu and I'm not about to tell her that either. There are suddenly just too many things I need to say right now and I can't. It's not the time nor is it the place to have a deep, meaningful conversation. Especially a conversation that should never ever be had between the two of us.
"B?"
"Mm-hmm?"
I watch her slowly lick over her lips. She's staring at me and I just can't focus on anything else. Oh god, how I want to suck on that full bottom lip of hers. I can't believe the thoughts I'm having about Faith. It's never been like this before. I've never had the urge to kiss her, ever. Maybe it's the whole thing about getting caught with my hands down Satsu's pants and seeing that look on her face before she'd walked away. I swear it looked like she'd just caught me cheating on her or something. I bite my lower lip and hold my breath, wondering how much longer we'll be stuck in here together.
"How come you never told me?"
"About what?" I ask quietly, trying to keep my voice as low as possible. "Told you about what, Faith?"
"That you're with Satsu."
"Are we really having this conversation now?"
"Well, when the fuck else are we gonna have this conversation, B?"
"How about when we get out of here and aren't risking being caught by hundreds of vampires!"
"At least it makes sense," she says after a moment. "All those times you two just look at each other, the way she'll touch you when she thinks nobody is looking. Fact of the matter is, B, someone is always looking. You think you can keep your little relationship this big secret when the truth is, everyone has been talking about you two for months now. So tell me one thing, Buffy: How long has it been?"
"We've been together for three years."
"Fuckin' hell, B. Three years? Here I thought it was some new thing for you two," she laughs bitterly and her hands leave my hips. "How come you two haven't told anyone that you're fucking each other?"
"Because it's nobody's business what we do together!"
"You're just being a pussy. Too afraid to tell everyone 'cause then you'll out yourself as this big lesbian," she chuckles like she's making a joke, but it's pretty obvious she's mocking me and I wish I could just slap her. "Truth is, B? Nobody fuckin' cares if you're fucking Satsu."
"But you do?" I ask her. She's so obviously jealous, to the point where I can almost feel it layered on top of the tension that was all ready there.
"No. I don't care," she says, and then she tries to slip out of the narrow opening and away. I stop her even though the coast is now clear.
"One?" I say softly. "I am not a lesbian, bisexual at best. Two? You really suck at trying to hide the fact that you are jealous."
"One," she mocks me, and ouch! as she slams me hard against the stone wall. "I ain't fuckin' jealous. Two? You ain't been with a guy for how long now? I'm guessing longer than three years, that makes you a lesbian. Three..." she trails off, then suddenly moves in close. Her lips are just barely brushing against mine, her heavy breaths mingling with my own.
"What's three?" I ask softly and before she says anything more, I kiss her. It's soft at first and I know she's a bit shocked that I made that move first. Join the club, because I'm a little shocked I made that move first too. I keep the kiss short and pull back slowly. "Is that three?"
"Maybe."
She sounds a little nervous as she steps away and makes her way out of the opening. I take a moment to compose myself, licking over my lips and tasting her there, only faintly. She tastes like cigarettes, like cherry chapstick, and something else I can't quite figure out. I join her and the others and once we make sure the coast truly is clear, we continue down further into the cave. It's not much longer before the passage suddenly becomes wide open and I stop dead, looking around in shock.
Everything that had just happened between Faith and I momentarily disappears from my mind. I'm looking down at some sort of little city with hundreds of buildings, roads, and thousands of vampires and demons roaming about. My brain kicks back in and I quickly move to keep myself hidden, the others following suit. I can't believe what we're looking at right now. I know in an instant that we've entered a situation we are definitely not prepared to enter. We need to find Falken, it's what we came down here for, but with the vast area and the thousands of vampires and demons, it won't be easy to get down there and remain unnoticed for very long. My brain is screaming 'retreat, retreat!' but Faith is moving towards a set of stone stairs that lead down into the vast hole the little underground city spreads out in.
I follow Faith down, the others coming behind me one by one. At the bottom of the stairs is a small wooden sign that reads 'bienvenida hasta infierno paraíso'. My Spanish might be rather rusty, but I know exactly that that means: welcome to Hell's paradise. I stifle a laugh and catch up to Faith, who's now walking towards a small building that's set back from one of the roads. We stick together, moving from one building to the other and managing to avoid any direct contact from the thousands of vampires and demons we had seen from above. I finally find myself crouched behind a crumbling wall along with the others, that little bit of masonry all that separates the six of us from the main road with its traffic of vampires and demons.
"Jesus, this place is fuckin' insane," Faith whispers from beside me. "What's the plan now, B?"
"Find out where Falken is. That is the original plan and right now we're going to stick to it."
"Have you seen the size of this place?"
"No, I haven't. I was completely struck blind before you led us down here," I reply sarcastically. "Of course I've seen the size of this place and I've also seen the thousands of vampires and demons that we have zero chance of fighting if we get caught walking around down here. We don't exactly blend in!"
"In case you missed the sign, it said welcome, B. We got every right to be down here as much as they do."
"Guys," Kennedy interrupts, and I look over to see her shaking her head, "whatever you two are trying not to bitch about, now really isn't the time to get into it. Let's just do what we came down here to do and get the hell out of here!"
She's got a point. With a last glance at Faith I take the lead and work my way down along the crumbling wall to the building we've been working toward, the biggest one we've come across yet. I look back and see the others staying behind a little ways—too afraid to get any closer?—but Faith is right by my side. Seems she's more than willing to do whatever it takes to get through this stakeout mission. I give her a nod and she moves to the only door and opens it slowly. She freezes and I copy her, waiting to see if anything heard her open the door. After a full minute passes with no nasty surprises, she gives me a wink and slips inside quickly. I motion to the others to stay right where they are and follow her in. From the look on all their faces, they are more than willing to stay behind.
"Definitely looks like a place for a big bad like Falken to hang out in, call home," Faith mutters under her breath as we make our way down the dark hallway. "Place seems empty right now though."
I nod as I keep all my senses on high alert, ready for anything that decides to pop out of the shadows or from behind one of the many doors we're passing by. I reach into the pocket of my jacket, making sure my stake is still tucked inside, but I'm starting to wish I brought something more than just a stake with me. We aren't dealing with a vampire; we're dealing with a half-demon, half-human hybrid. We don't even know if any weapon can hurt him, at least the demon aspect of him. I'm starting to doubt walking into this situation without trying to find out as much as we could about Falken, about this underground world and the huge demon and vampire population that live down here.
"Definitely empty," Faith says as we reach a door that's open a few inches. "Want to poke around, see if we can find anything that'll help us figure out what Falken is up to?"
"We didn't come all the way down here just to leave without at least finding something out about him. Seeing how we won't be able to find him down here, it'd be best we find out what we can."
"B, about before-"
"Okay, one thing, Faith? Now is seriously not the time to start talking about what happened between us. We'll talk about this when we get out of here."
"Yeah, y'know, whatever," she says nonchalantly, pushing the door open and motioning me forward.
I walk into the room slowly and, aside from a huge wooden desk and a big cabinet along the far wall, it's empty. Faith walks over to the desk and starts going over the papers that litter the top, letting out a groan just as I walk up beside her. Everything that's written down on the papers is written in either Latin or Spanish and I know neither of us knows either language well enough to know what we're looking at. Faith pulls out her cell from her pocket and begins taking pictures of every piece of paper on the desk.
"Gonna get Willow or Giles to translate this shit when we get back," she says quietly.
"I figured that," I reply, and I can't help rolling my eyes. I make my way over to the tall, narrow window and carefully peek out at the underground city. "Why do I get the feeling we've walked into a trap here? It can't be this easy, Faith."
"Whatever, B. Nobody is here and we ain't gonna get caught."
I'm currently looking at the masses of vampires and demons as they stroll through the street below and despite Faith's bravado I know we're damn lucky we haven't been spotted yet. I really don't know what'll happen if we're discovered down here, but if they just want to kill us outright, us versus them, then we'll lose that fight no matter how hard we try not to.
"Coming, B?"
"You done?"
"Think so, yeah. Let's get the hell outta here."
I follow Faith as we make out way back out of the building and meet up with the others. They look relieved but I know we can't leave without at least trying to figure out just who Falken is. We need to know what he looks like just so we know exactly what we're dealing with here. The others seem to have other ideas and are all ready making their way back to the stairs that lead up and out to our eventual freedom. I hesitate, hanging back a little. I want to get more information about this big bad, but I know we've been extremely lucky to not be caught so far. My common sense is screaming at me to get the hell out of here and I'm about to be left alone anyway if I don't get moving. Screw it. I catch up with the others just before the stone stairs and we make our way up quickly and quietly.
Nobody says a word on the long trek back to the mouth of the cave. When we finally step out into the cool, refreshing night air I feel a wave of relief wash over me. Faith and Kennedy are in the lead, talking quietly now as they light up and share a cigarette and I can't help but feel frustrated in a major way as I watch them. What happened between Faith and I needs to be talked about, but knowing Faith the whole talking thing—at least in any serious and productive way—won't happen any time soon if she has her way. And if the whole Faith-and-me thing is not frustrating enough I can always dwell on our mission and how we walked away basically with nothing. Grr.
"What happened down there?" Satsu asks, appearing by my side as I fall further behind the others. "You're acting strange, Buffy."
"Nothing happened," I reply as I shove my hands in the front pockets of my jeans.
"Are you sure?" Satsu asks, putting her hand on my arm and stopping me from taking another step. "Buffy, if something happened down there between you and Faith, you'd talk to me about it, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah," I lie and shrug it off. "But nothing happened so can we drop it?"
"Was she giving you shit about us?"
"No," I say quickly. "Satsu, can you just drop this please? I am really not in the mood to talk about this right now."
She sighs loudly and starts walking again, catching up with Veronica and Allison and leaving me behind to dwell on what happened between Faith and I. I'm really kicking myself for even kissing her. I probably sent her a whole mess of mixed signals and screwed whatever chance we had at finally forming what could be called a long overdue friendship. To top it all off, I'm standing here obsessing over her instead of focusing on things that are actually a bit more important. I probably need to be a lot more worried about the fact that our great information gathering mission netted nothing but some pictures of unknown documents on Faith's cell phone.
I know I shouldn't feel like we walked away with nothing. We are making progress from what we had before, which was actually next to nothing, and I need to try to stay positive. All these thoughts pinballing through my head at least make the walk home go by quickly, though I am the last to reach the house. I walk inside and head to the living room and instantly feel like I've done something wrong as everyone turns to look at me. I notice that Faith, Giles, and Willow are hovering over Willow's laptop, all ready uploading the pictures Faith took, and they quickly go back to talking quietly among themselves as they read over what they can make out on the screen.
"How'd it go, Buff?" Xander asks as I sit down next to him on the couch. "Was it creepy down there? Was it everything those fabled tales of that place made it out to be?"
"Pretty much," I reply as I look across the room at Faith who has her back to me now. "You wouldn't believe the amount of vampires and demons that were down there. It was as if we'd walked into Hell, literally."
"You slay-gals are lucky you all walked away without a problem," he says with a soft smile. "Got a big situation on our hands, don't we?"
"Huge."
I can only hope that we can get through it just like we've gotten through everything else before. What's saving the world, yet again, from another big bad? That thought barely has time to take hold before I register the grim expression that has appeared on Giles' face and I have a sinking feeling this whole situation is a lot worse than we originally thought.