Between a Rock and Faith

Chapter 3

The spider crawled around in Buffy's gut for the next hour, its sharp legs jabbing at the soft tissue and making her cry out every few minutes. She desperately avoided looking down at her stomach, because when she did she could see the lump of it moving around under her skin. The professor and the Russian left her alone with Riley, who stood with his back to her, unspeaking. Buffy didn't bother trying to ask for help.

When Buffy was in so much pain from the pinching of the spider that her toes curled, she felt it jolt toward her esophagus. She gasped, and it stuck its legs into the inside of her throat and began to pick its way upwards, a terrifying sensation that Buffy felt every moment of. When it hauled itself into her mouth and jumped out onto her chest, she gagged and screamed.

Riley snatched the spider and took it away, returning momentarily to roll Buffy back to her cell. She ignored the catcalls of the vampires and demons, breathing so rapidly that she thought her heart would explode. After Riley had slammed the glass panel shut behind him, Buffy erupted into desperate, gasping tears, clutching her stomach at the memory of the spider. Though Buffy had often felt like it, she hadn't cried since she'd woken up in this place.

"Hey, knock it off!" Faith rose from the floor and walked to stand beside Buffy, her hands on her hips. Buffy continued to gasp and sob.

Faith grasped her by the shoulders and shook her. "Will ya stop? You're tougher than this, Bee."

Buffy stopped sobbing for a moment to take a deep breath, taking in Faith's irritated expression, but then only melted down in tears again.

Rather than shaking her or yelling at her again, Faith sighed and slid onto the gurney beside her, pulling Buffy onto her lap and wrapping her arms around her. Buffy stopped crying for a second, shocked, but then the warmth of benevolent human contact only plunged her into tears once more, wracking the both of them with her sobs. This went on for several minutes, until Buffy's sobs settled into slow heaves of her chest, and finally into calm breathing.

The moment this happened, Faith slid out from beneath Buffy and stood up, brow furrowed. "Ya done?"

Buffy sniffed and sat up, placing her hands on her knees as her legs dangled from the gurney. "Yeah. Thanks."

Faith looked at her sternly. "That wasn't really acceptable. I can't have you breaking down, Bee. That's the kind of behavior that's gonna keep us stuck in here forever."

"Riley. You were right about him. He's not going to help us."

Faith blew air out her lips. "Duh. I've been telling you that from that start. Think you can move on now?"

"I don't know what else to do! I can't take much more of this, Faith. Pretty soon I'm going to crack. I don't know how you're keeping it together."

Faith slapped her hands onto her hips. "Me? It's because I don't have any delusions about the world. I don't think people are good, so I don't expect them to be, and I'm not surprised when crap like this…" She gestured at their small cell. "happens."

"Yeah, but even if people aren't totally good, most of them aren't locking each other up and experimenting on them like animals. This is way worse than the average human yuckiness."

Faith shook her head. "It's all the same, Buff. You might not like it, but everybody's capable of this. Give 'em the wrong life circumstances, the wrong influence, and anybody could do anything."

"I don't think I can believe that."

"Then you're gonna keep breaking down, aren't you? Quit being surprised about the inhumanity of humanity and maybe you'll be able to focus on getting the heck out of here."

Their talk was interrupted by the sound of boots clomping down the hallway. Buffy leaped off the gurney and backed into the wall, breathing fast.

"They're not supposed to be back yet."

Faith raised her palms. "Calm it down, Bee. They're probably going to get somebody else."

But the soldiers stopped outside their glass panel, tazer guns raised at both Slayers. Buffy covered her face with her hands. "No!"

"Will you knock it off?" Faith hissed.

But the sight of the soldiers coming for her again had snapped something in Buffy, and she found herself charging towards them, fists raised. She heard only the first part of Faith shouting at her to stop before the soldiers shot six wires at her chest. Electricity exploded inside her, causing her to writhe to the floor and plunge into unconsciousness.

She awoke much later, though how much later she couldn't say. Her head pounded painfully, and there was something in her mouth. She rolled her tongue against it. It was a tube, she realized, and it slid down her throat. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in a different room than usual, a much dimmer room, and there was a blue curtain pulled around her gurney. Her wrists and ankles were cuffed down. Near her bed, a machine pushed air in and out, connected to the tube in her mouth. It was breathing for her, she realized. What had happened?

"The electric shock stopped your heart." Riley stepped out of the corner, where he must have been watching her as she woke up. Oddly, his forehead was shiny with sweat, and his cheeks were red. "We had to connect you to a ventilator."

Unable to say anything with a tube in her mouth, Buffy merely stared at him. She wished the throbbing in her head would go away.

Riley kneaded his hands together. "I wasn't always like this, you know. Enslaved to Professor Walsh. She's done something to me." He scratched his head in a frantic way. "I'm telling you, she's controlling me somehow."

He took a step closer to Buffy, his eyes wide with desperation. "I'll get you out of here."

Buffy's heart leaped within her chest. For a split second, she allowed herself the luxury of imagining herself home with her mother, with Giles, with Willow.

"But you have to kill Professor Walsh."

Riley leaned in close, until Buffy could feel his breath on her face. His next words came out as a whisper. "You have to kill her for me. Please." He shivered. "I can't do it myself. And if you do it, I'll walk you out of here. You can go home."

Buffy's heart raced. Could she kill Professor Walsh? The professor wasn't a vampire, or a demon, or supernatural in any way. She was just evil. She was an evil, sadistic, human being.

Buffy shook her head so slightly it was almost imperceptible. Riley's forehead crumpled.

"Please!" he cried. "I can't keep doing all these things, but I can't get away from her."

Buffy shook her head again, squeezing her eyes shut. She heard the whoosh of the curtain as Riley flew from the room, and she thought she heard him desperately crying. For the second time that day, Buffy sobbed.

#####

Buffy remained in the curtained room for several days. When she returned to her cell, Faith was lying on her back on the floor. She whipped to her feet when she saw Buffy. "Bee, I thought you were dead."

"I was. Briefly." Buffy sank to the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Don't freak out on me now."

"How am I supposed to not freak out?" She clenched her fists and unclenched them. "Riley came into the room. He said he would get me out of here."

Faith's eyes went wide. "He didn't."

"He did. If I kill Professor Walsh."

Faith laughed and lifted her arms. "Awesome. When do we leave?"

"Faith, I can't kill her. She's a person."

"So? Bee, she tortures you on a daily basis."

"It doesn't matter. If I kill her, I'm not a Slayer. I'm a murderer."

Faith loped across the room, her forehead set with anger. "This is about me, isn't it? You just can't stand the idea of sinking as low as the Dark Slayer."

Buffy shook her head. "This has nothing to do with you."

"It does though, doesn't it? You were always the good one, the righteous one, and you can't deal with the thought of being the evil one. Even if it'll save your life."

"I can't kill someone, Faith. I just can't."

"Then you're damning the both of us, because as far as I see that's the only way we're getting out of here. Don't you care about your life? You want to see your mother again?"

"You know I do-

"And what about all those people getting killed by vampires because you're trapped in here, huh? What about them? Is being righteous worth getting them killed?"

Buffy ran her hands through her hair. "I don't know, alright. All I know is it's wrong to kill a person, and I won't do it."

"You're an idiot." Faith slammed onto the floor and shut her eyes. "A complete and total idiot."