Chapter Twenty-One

"B, you wanna talk?" Faith asks as she walks out to the back patio where I'm sitting on one of the rain-soaked chairs as the clouds finally break away in the sky. "Yo, Buffy?"

"No."

"I know this might seem weird coming from me, but you can talk to me if you need to."

"Go away, Faith," I mutter through clenched teeth. I don't even look at her. I can't look at her. I know if I do, I'll start crying and I won't stop. I'm not supposed to be so weak.

"You know you're getting soaked sitting there?" Faith points out as she steps in front of me. "And yeah, I know, you don't care."

"What do you want?" I ask her, still refusing to look up at her.

"Well," she sighs as she kneels down in front of me. "For one thing, B, I hate seeing you like this. And another thing?" She pauses and takes my hands in hers, forcing me to look at her. "You aren't weak, B. You are so far from it."

"What are you reading my mind or something?"

"No," Faith chuckles softly. "Although sometimes I wish I could just so I could figure you out."

I pull my hands away from hers and she shrugs as she stands up. She doesn't move away, she just reaches back down for my hands and pulls me to my feet. I close my eyes as she wraps her arms around me and I feel a few tears slide down my cheeks. It feels good to have her hold me in a non-sexual way. I didn't think she was capable of it. She just never stops surprising me.

"She left me," I whisper as I bury my face into her neck, soaking her skin with my tears.

"She'll come back, B. She knows she needs to be here. This sitch with Falken? It's bigger than you and her."

I stop my tears, sniffling a little as I pull back from her tight embrace. She reaches up and wipes away my tears gently, offering me a smile that only makes my heart melt and my knees weak. She nearly jumps back from me when the back door opens. I look over at Willow as she walks out with two cups of tea in her hands.

"Guess that's my cue to let an actual friend take over," Faith mutters under her breath, jamming her hands in the front pockets of her jeans.

"I don't think so, missy," Willow says as she places both cups of tea on the small patio table. "Sit. Both of you."

"Chairs are soaked-"

"Sit," Willow demands as she points to two of the chairs. I don't like the tone in Willow's voice and from the look on her face, she's pissed. Faith and I both sit down in the chairs and she stays standing, casually grabbing one of the cups and taking a sip.

"What's up, Red?"

"What are your intentions with Buffy?"

"Will-"

"Don't 'Will' me, Buffy," she snaps at me and I roll my eyes and lean back in the chair heavily. I look over at Faith and she has this confused look on her face that she quickly recovers with a sly smirk. "Whatever your intentions are with Buffy, Faith, I don't think right now is the time to act on them."

"What're you, my mother?"

"No. Thankfully not."

"I know now ain't the time to act on them. You think I got a choice?"

"Sure you do. Stay away from her."

"Will, stop," I say sharply as I shake my head. "This is ridiculous!"

"What is ridiculous is you throwing away a good thing you've had for three years for her," Willow says angrily as she points at Faith. Faith scrambles to get out of her chair and it topples to the ground.

"Watch where you point that finger, Red," Faith says shakily as she gets up from the ground slowly. She shakes her head, laughing as she pulls the chair upright. "You know what? Whatever. I'm just gonna let you two hash this out. I don't need to deal with this right now."

"Will, what the hell has gotten into you?" I ask angrily as I get up from the chair as soon as Faith is inside the house.

"I'd ask the same thing," she snaps as she steps closer to me. "What are you doing with her, Buffy? I know how you feel about her, but what are you doing with her? You're supposed to be with Satsu."

"I know, I-"

"Satsu told me before she left that she couldn't stand to look at you anymore because she knows how you feel about Faith and it's killing her. We just lost one of our best Slayers because you can't keep your pants on whenever you are around Faith!"

"It's not my fault that I fell in love with her, Will," I sigh as I sit back down in the chair and hang my head. "Do you think I wanted this? Do you think I even saw this coming? And why are you getting so pissed off at me, Will? This has nothing to do with you! I thought you understood how I feel about Faith?"

"I don't know," she groans as she sits down in the chair next to me and lets out a little yelp. "These chairs are definitely soaked."

"Everything is so completely screwed up right now," I say softly as I reach for the cup of tea Willow brought out for me. "I can't even be alone with Faith without my thoughts driving me crazy."

"What about Satsu?"

"I...I have feelings for her, but I'm not in love with her. I don't know how to explain this, but it's different with Faith. I...I crave her. I haven't felt like this since Angel. I've been trying to figure this out, figure out what I want, but I can't! No matter how hard I try, I just don't know what I want."

"I think you do and you're just afraid to admit it."

"After that little pissed off, overly protective best friend act, who can blame me?" I laugh softly.

"I'm sorry. Kinda got out of hand, didn't I?" Willow says sheepishly. "I just saw you and Faith out here and after Satsu leaving the way she did, I guess I just thought Faith was taking advantage of you."

"You're wrong. She wasn't taking advantage of me."

"I realize that now," she says and rolls her eyes. "So, she was just hugging you?"

"I was upset. She was..."

"Being a friend, trying to tell you everything is going to be okay?" Willow asks and I nod my head slowly. "Who knew?"

"I didn't," I laugh. I take another sip of my tea before I breathe out heavily. "Faith is...she's...different, Will. None of us really knows her. We've never given her a real chance. Don't you think she deserves more than we've given her all these years? She's always been around when we need her, no questions asked."

"She's also been around whenever she's gotten evicted, looking to crash on the couch or in the spare room for a couple days to a couple weeks at a time. Sometimes I wonder if she purposely gets evicted from the places she's staying just so she has an excuse to hang around all of us for a little while."

"Maybe. I don't know and don't care what it is. She's a part of our family," I say without hesitation. "Granted she's like the black sheep of the family, but that doesn't mean we can't be there for her when she needs us, right?"

"Buffy, sorry to interrupt," Vi says as she steps out the back door. "We've got a problem."

I roll my eyes and follow her inside to where Giles and Robin are standing in the kitchen talking quietly to each other. "What's going on?"

"Buffy, I need for you, Faith and a couple others to get back to the Hellmouth right away," Giles says quickly. "Lane, Veronica's sister, started hallucinating an hour ago in the hospital."

"Only she wasn't hallucinating, was she?" I ask him and he shakes his head no. "Okay," I sigh and I look over at Vi. "Go get your team and I'll go find Faith. We'll head back as soon as we eat."

"There isn't enough time-"

"Giles? I haven't had a decent meal in two days. Let me eat something, a muffin even!"

"What was Lane saying?" Willow asks and she motions for me to grab something to eat while she distracts Giles.

"It seems as if Falken is leading us on a chase," he replies and I stuff my face with the blueberry muffin as soon as I grab it out of the bowl. "He knows exactly what he is doing to us."

"What did she say, Giles?" Willow tries again, stamping her foot on the tiled floor impatiently.

"I ah," he clears his throat as he looks over at me as I grab a second blueberry muffin from the bowl. "It was a subtle message from Falken. It seems he can get inside other's minds, but only for a few minutes at a time. He only had enough time inside her mind to tell us, or Veronica rather since she was at her side when it happened, that we're too late and that he's found his sacrifice for the Hellmouth here."

"How much time do you think we have?" I ask as soon as I manage to swallow a mouthful of the delicious muffin.

"I am not sure," Giles says and if I didn't know any better I'd think he was a little scared right now. "We cannot afford to waste another moment. Buffy, get a team together and get out there. The rest of us will be right behind you as soon as we make sure the girls in the hospital are all right."

I eye a third muffin and without thinking about it, I grab it and head off to find Faith. I find her sitting in the small living room. She's fidgeting as she flips through a magazine and she leaps up from the couch as soon as I walk in the room. I know she's overheard everything that was said in the kitchen and she doesn't even look at me as she gets up from the couch and heads straight for the front door. Even with what's going on right now, I'm only thinking about what had happened outside. I need to get it together. I need to stop trying to sort out my life when we have a big bad to deal with like yesterday.

We managed to run to the Hellmouth as the rain began to fall again. There are only a dozen of us, give or take. My heart was racing, not just from running as fast as we had, but from the adrenaline of the upcoming fight I knew we were running into. Literally. Faith had made a quick stop at the shack to grab the weapons and as I reached the mouth of the cave with the others, I keep looking back for her.

"Buffy, she's right behind us, let's go," Rona urges as she grabs on to my arm. Screams are echoing through the passageway in the cave and it sends chills down my spine. "Come on!"

"I'm waiting for her. We can't walk in there without any weapons, Rona!"

Rona pulls out a small sword strapped to her back and laughs as she turns and heads inside the mouth of the cave, motioning to the others on her team to follow her. I look back and see Faith running towards us and I let out a sigh of relief as she comes to a stop and hands me a sword.

"Shack has been ransacked. No second guesses who was there. At least the weapons weren't touched," she says breathlessly and she gasps as she tries to catch her breath. "Remind me when this shit is over to quit smoking."

I laugh as I take the lead and head inside the cave. We catch up to Rona, Vi and their team at the junction in the passageway. I step forward and instruct the girls to follow me without a single word. We make our way towards the chamber where the Hellmouth seal is and we come to a stop before we're seen. Ahead of us I can see a small group of vampires surrounding the seal with Falken standing over it with a young girl, barely ten years old, bound and being held by the scruff of her neck by Vivienne. The little girl is terrified and shaking as Falken looks around at the vampires surrounding him and holds out his hand.

"Give me the dagger," he demands and the vampire closest to him steps forward with a dagger that looks older than the Hellmouth seal itself. "Now, the time has come for me to put my plan into action. Hell on earth. Isn't that such a lovely picture of your dreams coming true?"

The vampires around him murmur in agreement as Falken paces back and forth over the seal. Faith steps forward and I grab onto her, shaking my head no. We have to time this right and we can't just go storming in there and fight.

"What's the plan?" Rona whispers quietly as she steps up beside me.

"One of you save the little girl," I say as I point over to her. "Someone needs to take Vivienne out. She's strong and Falken won't have a chance in hell if she's gone. The rest," I pause as the vampires all turn to look over at us. "Are fair game. Take them out!"

"Ah, company," Falken laughs as he shakes his head. "I did wonder when you Slayers would wise up and come back. It was quite fun watching you two," he says as he points to Faith and I. "I thought you two would never leave last night. You realize you almost ruined my plans up until the moment you did leave? I thought the Slayers were supposed to be smart creatures? But no, you are just built to fight. Nowhere in there are there any brains. No, you have others that do the thinking for you."

Falken motions behind him and another vampire pulls Andrew out, bound and gagged from the passageway that leads to the smaller chamber where we'd found the girls. Faith and I look at each other and I know we're both thinking the same thing. Andrew is supposed to be in Italy looking after the small team of girls there, not here being held captive by Falken. Nobody seems to move as Falken's vampires stay where they are and we stay standing by the passageway opening.

"I believe this one belongs to you," Falken says as he strolls over to Andrew slowly. "His mind is fascinating."

"What do you want with him?" I ask, trying to keep the fear out of my voice as I take a step forward.

"Oh I've already gotten everything I needed from him. It's almost crazy how easily his mind gave up everything I wanted to know. I know everything about your little organization, Slayer. Can I just say props for trying to do the right thing with all those innocent little girls you activated out of selfishness?"

"And the little girl?" I ask him, ignoring most of what he's saying because I know he's trying to rile us all up. "What do you want from her?"

"Oh, she's a perfect little angel, isn't she? Innocence is key in opening this Hellmouth and you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find an innocent slayer. Kids sure grow up fast these days, if you know what I mean," he chuckles as he steps back to the little girl and trails the tip of the dagger over her jaw. "I could've gotten one of the younger ones, but you know parents these days. Overly protective of their tykes with all the what, sexual predators and other nasties lurking about. This one however, as innocent as she may be," he smirks as he eyes the little girl up and down. "I caught her trying to run away from home. Don't you just love it when everything goes your way?"

"New plan," I whisper to the girls.

"Tut tut, Slayer," Falken says as he points the dagger in my direction. "There will be no 'new plan'. The only plan here is mine and you will not stop me."

"Oh yeah? Maybe I will instead," Faith says as she steps forward, gripping tightly on to her sword. "Maybe I'll finish off what Buffy started. How you like being one armed, Falken? Makes life interesting, doesn't it?"

"I've heard what a bitch you can be," he laughs, unfazed. "Feisty little fighter you are too, aren't you? Fight first think later. Isn't that how you are? Careless. Utterly careless."

He's stalling us, I know he is and for whatever reason he's stalling us for right now, it can't be good. I switch my sword to my other hand and watch as Faith takes another step forward. I can almost sense that a fight is about to start and that it isn't going to go well for us. We're outnumbered and Giles, Willow, and the others are taking far too long to get here.

It all happens so quickly. The vampires charge at us all at once and we all fight, dusting them as we use our swords to slice off their heads. I make my way through the chaos and come face to face with Vivienne. She drops the little girl and pulls out a sword of her own. She blows me a kiss and we fight, the sound of our swords hitting echoing throughout the chamber. The handle of my sword has a wooden point and I flip it around and plunge it deep inside Vivienne's chest, the surprise in her eyes making me smirk as she turns to dust.

I spin around to look at Faith and my heart nearly stops when I watch Falken grab onto her sword and plunge it through her stomach in one swift movement. He backhands her hard and pulls the sword out from her stomach. I can only watch as she grips her stomach and falls back to the ground, her eyes rolling back in her head as she passes out. I run over to her and fall to my knees as I grab onto her, shaking her, trying to get her to open her eyes.

I lift my head, eyes full of tears and watch as Rona charges towards Falken. She slides across the ground, picking up Faith's sword and with one quick unexpected movement, she slices Falken clean in half. The look of horror in his eyes as he takes his last breath, his appearance changing back to his demon aspect, should make me relieved he's finished, but all I care about is Faith in my arms, dying.