AN: It occurred to me that this essentially two stories in one as you will see in consequent chapter, and that means I crave more reviews. Sorry it's an addiction. I know there's not as much Buffy fan fiction as there used to be but it's nice to hear from those who are still around. On a side note, I was flipping through the 50 most sexiest men and women in Hollywood and I found some of our Buffy characters. David Boreanaz (AKA Angel) was like number 20 something, but he could have been like number 4 (yummy), Sarah Michelle Gellar (AKA Buffy, all y'all should know that) was like number 30 something, and Eliza Dusku (AKA Faith) was number 17. I don't know if you guys have seen Dollhouse or not, but Eliza kills in that show, she's amazing. Anyways, enough Willow-babble, time for the story!
Cleveland
Willow's World
"Are you sure you're comfortable here Willow?" Buffy asked.
"Yes I'm perfectly fine," Willow said, "Faith has been very kind and helpful. She actually is cooking dinner for me tonight and we're watching a movie."
"That doesn't sound like Faith," Buffy said.
"Well it doesn't sound like the old Faith who was constantly trying to kill us, but it does sound very much like the new Faith who risked her ass to save Angel," Willow said.
Buffy nodded. "I'm not saying anything bad about Faith, I know she's on our side now, I'm just...not used to it."
"You came to see her right? Said there's a big problem?" Willow said.
"Yes," Buffy said, "I didn't wanna have to tell you this, but it has to do with Kennedy."
"Kennedy?" Willow said, "what happened to her? Did something happen to her on patrol?"
"Yes actually," Buffy said, "a few days ago she was bitten by an ancient demon called the Faystrak."
"Oh yeah she told me about that," Willow said, "Giles said it was nothing."
"Well we started noticing that Kennedy was acting very strangely," Buffy said, "she was getting angry too fast and very aggressive. We thought it was hormones until she attacked you. Kennedy would never attack a regular human. Even in her slayer duties she'd never attack a human who was working with the demons."
Willow's brow furrowed. "That's true. Even when she was hitting me it didn't seem, normal."
"Dawn found out in one of the older books that when you get bitten by a highly aggressive Faystrak, you become one," Buffy said.
"What!" Willow cried.
"Last night she went berserk on some new slayers and Rona, Vi, and I had to go stop her. She went into the portal station. Andrew said the logs show the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil."
"You have to go after her!" Willow said.
"She disabled the portals on her way out, Andrew says they won't be up until tomorrow morning," Buffy said. "I wanted Faith to come too. Kennedy is one of the top new slayers we got and now as a demon she is extremely dangerous."
"I wanna go too," Willow said.
"Willow that's very dangerous," Buffy said shaking her head.
"Oh please, I faced worse," Willow said, "Kennedy can't be more dangerous than Glory or Adam."
"Yes, but we'll be spread out around a dark forest where she is probably already memorizing," Buffy said. "She'll attack you before anyone else."
"I won't be alone Buffy," Willow said, "I'll be with you or Faith. And besides I can provide some magical protection so she wouldn't be able to kill me on the spot."
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Yeah that's comforting."
"Buffy I trust you and Faith to sense when Kennedy is coming before she comes," Willow said, "besides, tell me you can get a better witch to do a tracking spell. We can search that forest for months and never find her, but with a tracking spell we can narrow it down to a few days."
Buffy sighed. "I'm not gonna deny that that would be helpful."
"You know ever since I activated the slayers I've finally gotten control of my powers, and though Kennedy and I ended on bad terms I don't want anything bad to happen to her," Willow said. "Please let me help Buff."
Buffy sighed deeply. "Fine, meditate and recover because you can't be all injured. Get your camping gear together."
"I got a really cool sleeping bag I've been dying to try," Willow said with a grin.
"Giles is in charge of the tents and you're sharing with Faith since Kevin is going with us too," Buffy said. "You're not to be alone at any moment, you'll be either by me or by Faith at all times. As good as Rona and Vi are, I don't trust them with you."
"I'm not a child Buffy," Willow said.
"It's the only way you're going with us, if not you stay here with Xander and Andrew," Buffy said.
"Fine, fine," Willow said. "I'll go call Faith."
Sunnydale
Vamp Willow's World
Angel glanced at Spike and said, "so I can have sex?"
"Yes mate," Spike said, "you only lose your soul if you find true happiness and you can only have that with Buffy. She's dead so you're in the clear."
"So you lied to Willow?" Angel said.
Spike smirked. "I have a soul but that doesn't mean I'm not as devious as before."
Angel chuckled softly and said, "I have to admit that it was genius."
"She's on our side for sure now," Spike said, "and she's the only one who can go in there and get Faith out. Kakistos is a very old vampire and he can smell a soul out like no other."
"I know," Angel said. "I was in hiding after the Master came to power, and it was Kakistos who found me and took me to the Master for imprisonment."
"Well Willow doesn't have an inch of a soul in her," Spike said.
Angel's face suddenly looked worried. "Hey what if she hurts the girl? I mean she's still human and she doesn't know anything about slayers yet, Willow could hurt her."
Spike shook his head. "I don't think so mate, and not because Willow would be cursed into a world of oblivion if she did, but because Willow and Faith always had a connection, even in my world.
"In my world, Faith was activated while Buffy was still around because she had died for a minute and resuscitated, so there were two slayers. Two slayers is unnatural and something threw the whole thing out of whack. Faith went rogue and tried to kill everyone. She nearly strangled Xander, you had to save him."
Angel made a face, "me? Save that bastard?"
"He wasn't a bastard in my world...well maybe a little, but not in the some way as Vampire Xander," Spike said. "Anyways, there was one time that Faith captured Willow during a fight and held her captive. She threatened her with a knife and everything."
"That doesn't sound like much of a connection," Angel said.
Spike shook his head, "let me finish. Faith was ruthless at that time, but she still had a conscious, so everything she was doing was destroying her little by little and you had to save her to find redemption."
"I save a lot of people don't I?" Angel said.
"You live up to your name mate," Spike said. "Anyways, back to the story. The truth is, if it were anybody but Willow, if it was Xander, or Oz, or Cordelia, Faith would have sliced their necks open without hesitation, but something made her stop from killing Willow. No one knew it at the time. They just said that Faith couldn't kill her only bargaining chip."
"That makes sense."
"Sure, but how do you explain the fact that after Faith's departure from Sunnydale to find redemption, Willow is the one to bring her back?" Spike said. "You had some big trouble in my world, and Willow went to go save you. Faith was trying to save you too. I wasn't there personally for it, but Willow returned to help with Sunnydale's problem with Faith in tow. No one wanted her there cause they didn't trust her, but Willow defended her and insisted that they give her a chance."
Angel nodded slowly. "Willow believed in Faith's redemption even though she threatened to kill her and everyone else mistrusted her. I can see why you think there's a connection."
"No, I know there is," Spike said. "Faith and I became friends during that ordeal. She told me about her redemption and what had happened in LA with Willow. I noticed that she had a certain tenderness when she spoke about Willow, and I hadn't noticed it before. She was very fond of you but she never spoke about you in the same way she did about Willow."
Angel nodded and said, "so you think that Vampire Willow won't hurt Faith even if she hadn't done the vow?"
Spike nodded and said, "to be honest, I don't she can hurt Faith. Just like Faith hesitated to kill her, I think the same thing will happen with Willow."
"Well, we'll find out soon enough won't we."
Cleveland
Willow's World
Faith pouted and said, "I don't like this you know."
"Faith just relax," Willow said, "the tracking spell barely takes up energy, so most of my power is strengthening my force field."
"But what about at night when we're sleeping?"
"The force field will hold if I'm asleep," Willow said, "I'll put it around our whole tent."
"That's another thing I'm uneasy about, tents," Faith said.
"Tents are pretty comfortable, you just need a nice warm sleeping bag and you'll be fine."
"That's not the issue," Faith said. "After my days in the slammer, I definitely don't like enclosed spaces."
"Well I'm not a nasty inmate and you are definitely free to step outside for a smoke or whatever, even though cigarette's are bad for you."
Faith narrowed her eyes. "Are you gonna give me a lecture Red?"
Willow shrugged, "just sayin'."
"I suppose it won't be too bad, you'll be in there with me so it's okay I guess."
Willow smiled. "That was surprisingly sweet."
Faith blushed but said nothing. Instead she crossed her legs and held out her hands to Willow, "let's do this meditation thing and get it over with."
"It's a very long process, so we might as well have some conversation," Willow said.
"I'm not much for small talk."
"Well learn! Here, I'll start." Willow straightened up and grabbed Faith's hand starting the meditation process. The moment their hands touched there was that spark, but both women attributed it to the magical healing. Willow quickly composed herself and began talking, "so I talked to Angel last week. I was meaning to tell you. I worked my magic on and changed your face in the police files. I put in one of the potentials we lost in the beginning of the fight. The first had taken her form and penetrated our camp when we first started. We barely had Kennedy and few of the other potentials.
"Angel and his team we able to track down her body, the Bringers had done quite a number on her. Evidently, she was an orphan girl. No family, no friends, barely any records at all. Wesley and Angel put her body in your cell and I worked my magic to change all your pictures and records to her identification. The memory part was the hardest of the spell. To get that one detective who arrested you and everyone else involved to forget your face and name and think that this girl, Hannah Berkley, I think her name was, was the one responsible for all your crimes. It took a lot out of me."
Faith sighed deeply. "Wow, you can talk."
Willow blushed, "sorry."
"No, no don't apologize," Faith said, "the more you talk the less I have to. Besides I rather listen than talk."
"Don't you wanna talk about this though? I mean I cleaned your record at last. Hannah was declared dead after a kidnapping and attack which no one can prove because Angel was the only one who walked in front of the cameras, and vampires don't appear in them."
Faith sighed and said, "well I'm very grateful for what you did. I'm a new Faith Lehane, I can go get a job and start a new life, so thanks. But that poor girl. She was an innocent potential we couldn't save, and she had to be buried as a low-life murderer who was slaughtered and left in her cell. Nobody is mourning for her. They're saying that she deserved to die, and she didn't."
Willow looked saddened and said, "I know. I felt bad about it too Faith, Angel didn't want to do it either. Wesley said he cried when they found her body and he had to do most of the carrying at least until they reached the prison."
"You couldn't find and actual criminal to put in there?" Faith said, "or a dead human-looking demon?"
"The only demon other than a vampire that looks human is a vengeance demon and even then they are extremely hard to track down and Xander is still sensitive to that."
Faith nodded. "Poor guy. I never really liked him much but I feel bad for him."
Willow made a face. "Didn't you sleep with him?"
"That was a dumb girl mistake," Faith said.
"Anyways, this girl was the only one we knew of who could help us do this," Willow said. "I couldn't find a way to just erase you from the system and from their memories. I can change memories but I can't erase them."
"So you had no choice."
"I know the poor girl had to be buried with a bad reputation because of it, but I was planning to make a memorial service for her and the slayer lounge. We can get all the slayers and watchers together and hold a nice service where she would be remembered and treated as she should," Willow said.
Faith smiled. "I like that idea."
"We'll definitely do it when we get back from the forest," Willow said. "I was gonna come over and tell you all this the day Kennedy attacked me."
"Did you know she was possessed by demon venom?"
"No idea," Willow said. "She looked absolutely normal. She just flipped when I told her I wanted to break up."
"I guess she got upset and the venom made the reaction get triple worse," Faith said. "Now I feel bad for kicking her ass."
"No I still think she deserved it," Willow said. "When Buffy was bitten a while back she nearly killed me, Dawn, Tara, and Xander. Spike barely saved our asses."
"Buffy was bitten by a demon?"
"It was more like poisoned, I'm not sure if the thing actually bit her," Willow said. "And she wasn't turning into the demon or anything, it was completely psychological. It was fucking with her from inside her brain."
"Twisted."
"You're telling me! She tied us up in the freakin' basement and tried to kill us."
"Wow, you need to tell me more about these stories, I've been gone a while and it sounds like a lot of interesting things happened," Faith said.
"Yes, well there was the Buffybot."
"I'm sorry, the what?"
"It was a robot replica of Buffy," Willow said. "She looked exactly like Buffy and had all her fighting skills, but she had this creepy too-nice personality that was almost like a step-ford wife."
Faith laughed aloud and said, "where can we get another one of those?"
"The Buffybot was used in a practical sense not just for fun, though at first Spike was using it to...well you know, he was in love with Buffy, and at that time Buffy wanted nothing to do with him..."
"No. No!" Faith said in shock. "He used it as a sex toy?"
"Basically."
"Oh my God! That is sick!"
"Well trust me he wanted nothing to do with it after Buffy died," Willow said. "We used the bot to help us keep Sunnydale safe and make the vamps believe Buffy was still alive."
"Well we should have made an army of those bots to help us with the first," Faith said.
Willow looked sad. "I was only able to make some minor repairs, but I wasn't the one who built her."
"Who did then?"
Willow hesitated and gulped.
Faith looked worried. "What did I say? Damn it, I always fuck it up. I'm sorry Red, I di..."
"No Faith, it's not you," Willow said sadly, "it's just uh...W-Warren made the bot."
Faith bit her lip.
"He built the bot for Spike after Buffy saved his ass from his own bot," Willow said. She dropped her head and started shaking it. "You save a guy's life and he..."
Faith grabbed Willow's hands tighter and said, "don't think about it Red. Not everybody appreciates when people help them. What happened with him, was something you couldn't control. You can't keep beating yourself up over it."
"I just remember what I did to him..."
"Don't!" Faith interjected. "You think I didn't have nightmares of Alan Finch's face when I buried that stake in his chest? Every night I would see his face looking up at me saying 'why? I just wanted to help.' I would see his body falling to ground and then I would see Buffy's face looking surprised and disappointed. That was the worst part of the dream."
Willow's brow furrowed. "Wow, I had no idea you felt that way."
"Of course you didn't," Faith said. "If you had maybe I wouldn't have joined the Mayor, I don't know. I mean Xander did sincerely try to help me and I nearly killed him."
"But you wanted Buffy to help you," Willow said, "your sister slayer."
"I was condemned from the start in her book Willow," Faith said.
"I suppose in retrospect I understand what led you to do the things that you did," Willow said. "Emotions can destroy you if you let them. The guilt and the hurt you felt from Finch's death and Buffy's disappointment was too much to handle and the Mayor's affection for you made all those emotions go away."
Faith nodded. "Didn't think anyone would ever understand that."
"The old me wouldn't have," Willow said. "But now I know what it's like when painful emotions take over. You want to do anything to make the pain go away, and for me in my veiny state revenge was what I thought would do the trick."
Faith gave her a slight smile. "So that's why you brought me back from L.A? You actually understood me a bit?"
"That was part of it," Willow said. "Another part of it was the fact that Angel trusted me after my whole incident when Buffy and Xander wouldn't. If he didn't trust me completely there's no way Fred would have called me to help re-ensoul Angel. It felt so good to have people trust me when I wasn't even sure I trusted myself. And I realized, with you there too, that Angel trusted you too regardless of everything you did, including almost killing Angel himself, if not Wesley wouldn't have sprung you out right?"
Faith nodded and said, "I never understood Angel's trust in me."
"No one knows more than Angel what it's like to kill mercilessly and live with the guilt later," Willow said. "I think he understands us more than even we do."
"I definitely agree with that," Faith said. "It's like he could read my mind."
"I trust Angel too, with my life," Willow said. "And I knew that if he could trust you just as much as he trust me and every single person on his crew, than I could trust you too. It felt so good to be trusted again and I thought you deserved the same courtesy."
"Hmm, and did I live up to your expectations?"
"You beat the shit out of my ex-girlfriend for beating me up, I think that's pretty much my highest expectation."
"So what I did in the First battle was nothing?" Faith said with a playful grin.
Willow laughed and said, "well that too! See how easy small talk is?"
"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Faith said. "It was pleasant."
"Okay, so now you bring up a new topic."
"Oh I don't know..."
"Oh come on, anything you think might be interesting."
"Well, hmm," Faith stammered. "Robin called me two days ago."
"Really? I thought you broke up with him?" Willow said.
"We ended on good terms," Faith said. "He wants marriage and kids and I'm not really a marrying kind of girl. I wasn't a relationship girl even before him, so I can at least say that he was a good influence but he was just moving way to fast."
"So it was a mutual breakup? I never heard the details, just rumors," Willow said.
"Yeah, we both decided that it was better to just be friends," Faith said. "We were better off as that."
"So then the phone call was a regular thing then?"
"Yeah, he's living in Paris now," Faith said. "He's engaged to a teacher at the new school he's the principal for. She's a very pretty girl, he sent me pictures."
"D-does it, um, bother you that he, uh, moved on?" Willow stammered. She cleared her throat unable to figure out why she had stammered so much.
"Not in the least," Faith said confidently, "I'm genuinely happy for him."
Willow let out a sigh of relief and her brow furrowed.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Faith said worriedly.
"No, no I'm fine," Willow said nervously. "Just tired is all. The magic has been flowing this whole time, but look, all my wounds have healed real nice."
Faith looked Willow over and said, "hey all the scratches and bruises are gone! Incredible!"
"That's magic for ya."
"Cool," Faith said. She moved to get up, "I'll go double check that all the doors are locked and then we can get some shut eye. Tomorrow we're going to the damn forest."
"Wait," Willow said grabbing Faith's hand, "I just took a lot of your power, you might be woozy."
Faith scoffed, "I'm a slayer I'll be fine."
"Faith..."
Faith didn't listen. Instead she shot up off the bed and the moment that happened she started wobbling. Willow moved immediately to catch her and pulled her arm as Faith was falling so that she would land on the bed. Of course Willow being as clumsy as she is, pulled Faith in the wrong direction and the brunette slayer landed flat dab on top of her pinning Willow's small frame underneath her.
"Ouch," Willow groaned.
"Whoa," Faith murmured shaking the dizziness away. She lifted herself off of Willow weakly but wasn't coordinated enough to roll off just yet. "You okay Red?"
"Are you okay?" Willow said.
"Guess I got up too fast, sorry about that," Faith said blushing.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
Faith nodded and said, "Just give me a minute."
Willow gulped and nodded nervously. Faith's body on top of her was extremely arousing even though a lot of her weight was on her legs making it slightly painful. The entire length of Faith's body was pressed firmly against her and Willow was finding it very difficult not to sweat like a pig. She struggled to keep her breathing in check and tried not to look at Faith's face for fear that seeing it would only arose her more.
Faith had recovered in a few seconds but she didn't get off of Willow. She knew she was probably crushing the smaller redhead with her body weight but it felt so comfortable being there on top of her. She was a bit confused by Willow's reaction though. She looked slightly uncomfortable like if she was trying not to writhe or something and she was started to sweat from her forehead.
Faith recognized those signs in men as arousal, but that could never be the case with Willow. Of course not.
Or could it?
TBC
