A/N: I hoped you all enjoyed the last chapter, because that was the calm before the storm. Now here comes the disastrous winds.

Chap. 13: Battle Rages On- March 05

The usual quiet of the cemetery was absent, instead filled with yelling and screaming. "Kennedy, incoming!" Faith yelled to her second in command, pointing west where about ten more vampires were coming to join the party.

"Shit!" Kennedy yelled back. Grabbing several girls that were free, they ran, diving head first into a battle with the late comers.

Faith turned back to take out two more vamps that were headed her way, taking a split second to take stock of where they were. They had been fighting for over a half hour now, and there seemed to be an endless supply of the undead coming after them. Their army of thirty or so Slayers may not be enough.

Out of the corner of her eye, Faith caught sight of a lanky blonde vamp springing from a low branch on the tree a few feet away, heading straight for her. As the vamp flew through the air, Faith took a swing of the Scythe, easily beheading the woman, shaking the dust out of her hair as it fell around her.

A few of the younger girls lay motionless on the ground, the brunette wasn't sure if they were dead or alive. More of the undead came from the opposite side of where Kennedy's team was fighting. They were completely surrounded. Retreat wasn't a possibility any longer.

"Slayer," a voiced hissed behind her, making Tarzar's appearance known for the first time since the battle began. "It's about time we meet again."

Faith was ready to shoot back with a quick retort, but found herself unable to move. Her eyes surveyed the scene around them as another Slayer hit the ground. She could swear she heard a voice call her name, but she couldn't see who it was or even hear the voice clear enough to know who it was.

Before she had time to figure out where the sound was coming from, a sharp pain emanating from her stomach, was felt throughout her whole body, and she could only wonder how they got here.

Earlier that day…

Faith circled around, trying to find her opponents weak spot. It only took a minute, but she zeroed in on it, kicking out, she hit Kennedy square in the back of the knee, making her fall to the floor. Smirking, she reached a hand down to the younger girl, helping her back to her feet. "Your skills are improvin' nicely. Took me awhile to get the drop on ya."

Kennedy just gave an annoyed sigh, disappointed to be defeated yet again. All the Slayers in the world may have the power now, but it was apparent that Buffy and Faith would always be just a little bit stronger, a little bit faster. And it drove her crazy that no matter how many times her and Faith sparred, she always lost. "Next time," she told Faith with more confidence than she felt.

"Yeah, yeah, you always say that," Faith laughed, gently bumping her friend's shoulder. "How's things with you and the brat?" she asked, after a minute, realizing neither her nor Buffy had thought about the young couple much since this whole thing with Tarzar began. Dawn had come to Buffy a few times in the beginning, asking questions and getting advice. But the younger Summers girl had either finally started figuring things out on her own, or had simply left Buffy alone, knowing what she was dealing with.

"Things are good. Really good. I don't know if I dare tell you how good."

"Why not? You can tell me."

"You, yes. Buffy on the other hand, would probably kill me," Kennedy admitted, saying all she needed to for Faith to figure out what the other girl meant.

"Ah, I see."

"We took it slow, as in a sloth's pace kind of slow. We didn't want to screw it up, ya know? Knowing how things in our life worked. Plus the whole girl thing was new to Dawn. But it was just time. And it's been amazing," she admitted almost shyly. Not sure she wanted to admit such a thing to Dawn's own sister-in-law.

"I get it, and Buffy will too. Yeah she's protective of her sis, but she wants her to be happy. She's the one that encouraged her to talk to you. Don't worry so much, a'ight?" Faith gave her another gentle bump to the shoulder. "She might have a mini melt down, realizing baby sis is all grown, but she'll get over it."

~BF~

About this same time, Willow was deep in the net, searching through online copies of old occult books, trying to find anything she could. "Ah ha!" she squealed excitedly.

"Did you find something?" Giles asked.

"Yes, I think I did." She went on to tell the others in the room what she'd found, discussing what it could mean and theorizing on if she was right.

"Xander, go find Buffy and Faith, so we can tell them," the older man commanded.

Xander came walking back in twenty minutes later with Buffy and Faith both in tow.

"What you got for us, G?" Faith asked, moving to take a seat in her favorite spot on the brown couch, where Willow and Tara also currently resided. Reaching out, she grabbed Buffy's arm, guiding her to sit in her lap. Times like this, she wanted the only person she would ever love to be by her side.

"Actually, Willow thinks she found something." The couple turned then to look at the redheaded witch.

"Yes, it took a lot of cross referencing, but I think I've finally found who our mysterious Tarzar is. He's not mentioned by name anywhere, but there are references that seem to refer to him nonetheless."

"There's more, isn't there, Will?" Buffy asked, when her friend seemed to not want to go on.

"Yes, there is. We were wrong assuming he wanted the Slayer line in some form. From what I've discovered, it seems as if he needs the essence of the last chosen Slayer, meaning Faith, to increase his power," Will finished, finally letting them know once and for all that Faith was in fact the key figure in all this.

"My essence?" Faith asked, unsure of what exactly that meant.

"From what I could gather, he has a special sword. Might be what he uses to steal a person's essence."

"Body shall be pierced leaving her cold," Faith all but whispered, remembering the words from the prophecy. "Makes sense I guess. So just gotta stay away from this sword and I'll be good."

"Why does he want her essence? What does he need the power for?" Buffy asked, needing to know more about what they were up against.

"Well in a sense, that's the good news. From what I've ascertained, in Mictlan, where I believe he is originally from, it is tradition that in order to become ruler, you must seek out a new source of power that the people hadn't yet seen. He's chosen Faith as his campaign ticket, if you will," Giles tried to explain as best as he could understand it.

"That's it? He creates havoc over here and then just goes home?" Buffy rolled her eyes, thinking this all sounded too much like the whole Glory situation.

"Most likely."

"Stupid demons," Buffy pouted, folding her arms over her chest and snuggling deeper into Faith's chest.

Faith smiled, and placed a kiss on the side of Buffy's head. Sometimes her wife was just too cute not to smile, even given the circumstances. "Demons are stupid, I agree with ya there," Faith told her, hugging her tighter. "So, what's the game plan?" she asked, turning to the others.

The core Scooby group spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with some way to get rid of Tarzar once and for all, whether just getting him to go home, or killing his ass. Faith was voting for the killing.

~BF~

By the end of the planning session, both Buffy and Faith could feel the emotions of the other, and a battle was going to be had between the both of them. But doing so in front of their friends was not something either of them wanted to do.

So instead, once the planning was done with for the time being, they both headed quickly home in silence, waiting until the door was closed tight behind them. Both women looked deeply into their wife's, waiting for the other to break or speak first.

"I'm going and you're staying home!" Buffy finally growled out.

"No, I'm going and you're staying home!" Faith yelled back.

"Then we're both going!"

"Buffy, no. Think about this for a second, baby," Faith tried hoping she could make her wife see reason. "We can't risk something happening to both of us. Nevaeh needs one of us to make it out of this. She needs you, B. And what if you're pregnant, we can't risk it."

"I'll be careful, I promise."

"Not good enough, B. I could never live with myself if something happened."

"And if you go, you might die. How do you expect me to live with that?" Buffy asked with tears in her eyes.

Faith sighed, pulling Buffy into her arms, placing a kiss in the soft blonde hair. "I know, baby. But this is my fight. You get that right?"

The smaller girl sniffled, "Yes, I know. But I still don't want you to go."

"I know, baby, I know." Leaning down, she placed a passion filled kiss on her wife's lips. "You need to stay behind though. For me, please. If you were there, I'd just worry about ya, and it'd be distracting."

"I love you, so much," Buffy told her, not agreeing, but for now she'd let Faith win this one, because if it was true and Faith was distracted, well she'd never live with herself if she was the reason her lover let her guard down enough to get her killed.

"I love you, too. So much more than I'd ever be able to tell you. You have no idea how just knowing I had you and Nevaeh, even if it's only for a little bit, has meant to me. I never thought I'd get this. I wished, but I never dared dream it would happen. You gotta stay strong, not matter what happens. Remember, you and me, we're connected. That won't die, even if I do."

"Don't talk like that, you're coming home!" Buffy tried one last time to make herself believe that everything would be okay.

"I love you, Buffy Summers," Faith said one last time, kissing her on the lips with a second passion filled kiss. Before the blonde even had a chance to realize the kiss was over, Faith had grabbed her weapons and was out the door.

~BF~

Buffy sat unmoving on the couch, her mind focused on what could possibly be happening in a cemetery not too far from where she sat. She knew Willow and Tara were upstairs putting her little girl to bed. She should be doing it herself, but she didn't know if she had it in her to face her daughter and pretend that everything was okay right now.

Instead she put all her focus on trying to feel Faith. So long as she could feel her, even just the tiniest bit because of the distance, she knew she was at least still alive.

"Brought you a drink," Dawn approached Buffy, a glass of water in her hand.

"Thanks," Buffy said softly, taking the clear class from her sister's hand and taking a sip. She wasn't sure she could handle much more than that. "Everything's going to be alright, right?" Buffy asked hopefully, desperate for Dawn to tell her everything was going to be fine.

"I can't even imagine what you must be going through. I'm a little freaked myself over Kennedy being out there, but she's not the one he's after."

At the mention of Faith's second in command for the night, she turned to really look at her sister. "How's that going? You two, I mean."

"Good, great actually. I'm really happy," Dawn admitted almost guiltily, because her sister was far from happy at the moment.

"I'm glad. And I'm just going to pretend I have no idea why you are so happy," Buffy smiled, fully determined to stay in her own little world of denial that her baby sister even knows what sex was.

"Probably for the best," Dawn agreed, as Willow and Tara came to join them in the living room. Anya had been wandering around the house, restlessly. Xander had gone with the girls, he wasn't going to try and fight, but he wanted to be an extra ear and eyes if he could to help the girls out.

They sat in relative silence for well over thirty minutes, before Buffy started to swear she could hear Vaeh tossing and turning from upstairs. She was starting to get a not pleasant feeling in her stomach.

When a scream came from upstairs, Buffy dashed up the stairs. When she reached the little girl's room, she was sitting up in bed, rubbing tears from her eyes. The feeling in her gut increased. "What's the matter, baby?" Buffy asked as calmly as she could.

"Bad dream, Mama got hurt," the four-year old all but cried.

Buffy wrapped her arms around her daughter, cuddling her close. "Shhh, baby," was all she could offer her. She wasn't going to lie to her girl. So she couldn't tell her everything was alright, or that it was just a dream.

When everyone else finally made it into the room, Buffy let her thoughts tell Willow exactly what she needed to do, knowing the witch would be able to read her mind. "Your aunts are going to stay with you while you go back to sleep, okay?"

"I want you, Mommy," Vaeh cried.

"I know, baby, I know. But I'm going to go check on Mama. I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Okay."

Vaeh let Willow take Buffy's place on her bed. As soon as she was clear of her daughter's hold, Buffy ran for the door. Barely bothering to grab a weapon on her way out. Something wasn't right, and she could feel it in her gut.

She made it to the cemetery in record time. All over Slayers were deep in battle, a few were on the ground. Hurt or dying she wasn't sure, but she couldn't worry about them right now. She had to find Faith.

She started screaming her name, hoping she'd get a response. No response came, so she slowly made her way through the bodies, staking whatever came near her. Finally she caught sight of the familiar brown hair, and behind her stood a man with a nasty looking sword.

"Faith!" she screamed again, trying to get her wife to turn and see what was behind her. Pushing her way through the crowd she was helpless as she watched the human-like demon bring his blade back and slide it through Faith's stomach.

She felt as if she was moving in slow motion as a blue like light or mist surrounded the woman she loved. It held place for several seconds. By the time Buffy was a few feet away, the blue mist dissipated and Tarzar was gone with it. She watched in horror as Faith's body fell to the ground, not moving.