Chapter 15:
Int: Buffy's Room
"What do you think?" Buffy stands facing all of her friends, excitement in her expression.
"That depends. Are you in any way…kidding?" Xander asks, incredulous.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Buffy frowns, deflated.
"It's pretty radical, B." Faith is standing opposite Buffy, arms folded across her chest, characteristic smirk on her face.
Buffy smiles gratefully at the brunette.
"It's a lot more than that." Giles chimes in, he stands and turns to address Buffy and the group, "Buffy, what you said, it—it flies in the face of everything we've ever—every generation has ever done in the fight against evil." He removes his glasses and smiles warmly at the blonde, "I think its bloody brilliant!"
Overcome with relief Buffy looks fondly at her x-watcher, "You mean that?"
"If you want my opinion." Giles says softly.
"I really do." In that moment all the tension between them melts away, they know they are going to be ok going forward.
Willow, becoming increasingly agitated throughout the whole exchange, interrupts the banter, "Whoa, hey. Not to poop on the party here, but I'm the guy that's gonna have to pull this thing off."
Faith is standing next to Willow, she places a hand encouragingly on the witch's shoulder, "It is beaucoup d'mojo."
Buffy glances at Faith, "You know French?" she asks, dumbfounded.
Faith just smirks and shrugs and turns her attention back to Willow.
"This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control, and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way."
Faith almost chokes as she stares straight at Kennedy, snickering. The potential slayer's mouth opens, stunned, but she quickly joins in the snickering.
Rolling her eyes Buffy continues, trying to keep a straight face, avoiding eye contact with Faith who is struggling to maintain her composure, "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it."
"I—I'm not sure that I'm stable enough." Willow is genuinely concerned.
"You can do this, Willow. We'll get the coven on the line, and we'll find out how they can help." Giles says gently.
"Yeah, Red." Faith gently slaps her on the shoulder, "We're all here to help." She smirks at Kennedy, "Maybe I should get my tongue pierced when this is over." She mutters softly under her breathe. Willow laughs nervously, ignoring Faith. Buffy stares wide eyed at Faith, mouth open, her Slayer hearing allowing her to hear what the brunette had muttered under her breathe. Faith catches her eye and smirks, "Ya catching flies there, B." she chuckles, causing the blonde to snap her mouth shut.
"Oh!" Dawn exclaims and nods her head, "Pierced tongue." She says knowingly.
Buffy panics, "Dawn needs to do a research thing"
"Yes, you do." Giles chimes in quickly.
Rolling her eyes Dawn stands to walk out, "It's cool. Watcher junior to the library."
Giles follows her, "I'll go dig up my sources. Quite literally, actually." He mutters, cleaning his glasses awkwardly as he leaves.
Anya turns to Xander, "Come on. Let's go assemble the canon fodder."
Faith snickers and shakes her head at Anya; embarrassed Xander quickly follows the ex-demon, "That's not what we're calling them, sweetie."
Buffy and Faith are left standing in the room with Willow and Kennedy. The witch smiles at them, looking a bit nauseas. Buffy hands the scythe to her, "You'll be fine, Willow." She says encouragingly, before heading out the door. Faith just smiles at the witch, her expression saying it all, that she will be there to help but also to do what the others might not be able to do, what Kennedy will not be able to do, if Willow turns evil and veiny again. Willow smiles at the brunette and mouths, thankyou, to her as the dark slayer follows after Buffy.
Int: Living room at Summers' residence
Faith is leaning against the mantlepiece, watching Buffy address the room full of potential slayers and her friends. Girl has guts, the last time she addressed everyone we staged a mutiny. Faith frowns slightly, regretful for her part in that.
"I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army is ready, now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the hellmouth, and I'm finishing this once and for all. Right now you're asking yourself, "What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?" It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power...now? In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman, " she points to Willow who smiles nervously, "is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny."
Faith sneaks out of the living room, she is well aware of the plan and to be honest, she is wound up after spending the night in Buffy's room, in the blonde's bed. She needs to let off some steam and seeing as she can't drag Buffy to her bedroom as that would negate the whole, taking it slow, thing, she heads down in to the basement to spend some quality time with the next best thing, the punching bag.
Int: Basement of Summers' residence
Faith is panting and she is flushed, sweat dripping off her face; she has been pounding the punching bag for the past 45 minutes. She steps back to catch her breath, wiping the sweat from her brow with her wrist guards. She feels a familiar tingle getting closer but the pleasant, safe, feeling is overridden by an unpleasant nauseating sensation, this is a warning, alerting a Slayer to the presence of a vampire.
Faith sighs and scowls as she realizes Spike is heading down to the basement and worse, he is with Buffy. He strolls down the stairs nonchalantly, a smirk on his face. He knows Faith is down there so he goes out of his way to aggravate her by sidling up close to the blonde Slayer who is walking down the stairs behind him. He pauses at the bottom when he notices the dark Slayer standing there, body tense, wound up, ready to pounce. She is scowling at the vampire, letting him know his presence is unwelcome. Buffy doesn't notice him stop and bumps into him almost losing her balance. Spike grabs her around the waist to prevent her falling. His arms lingering around the blonde a little longer than necessary.
Faith's expression darkens, she takes a step towards the vampire, "Take your hands off her." She says softly but with venom in her tone.
"It's ok, Faith." Buffy shrugs out of Spike's grasp and steps a bit further away from him.
Spike continues to leer at the brunette, "She has the leash wound tight, doesn't she." He directs at Faith, baiting her, he can see that the only thing holding her back from destroying him is that it would hurt Buffy.
"Fuck you." Faith snarls and takes a step closer to the pair; she is clenching and unclenching her fists, fury coursing through her being.
Spike takes a step forward, taunting the brunette, "Come on love, show me what you got." He challenges, winking at her.
"Oh, you asked for it." Faith is upon Spike in the blink of an eye, her fist connects with his face as she sweeps his legs out from under him. He crashes to the floor, grunting as he lands.
"Faith!" Buffy grabs the brunette, pulling her off Spike. She manages to land one more blow to his face before she is pushed across the room away from the vampire.
Buffy stares exasperated at the dark Slayer before she turns to Spike, blood pouring from his nose, and holds out her hand, helping him up.
Spike smirks at Faith triumphantly as he wipes the blood away with the back of his hand.
"Un-fucking-believable." Faith glowers at Buffy, storming past the two of them and up the stairs.
"Faith, wait!" Buffy calls after the brunette but her plea is ignored. She turns to the vampire and scowls at him, "You're an ass, Spike." She shoves his chest, forcing him to take a step backwards, "You baited her on purpose!"
"Hey, she attacked me!" Spike raises his hands defensively, "She's out of control if you ask me."
"Shut up, Spike" Buffy shakes her head exasperated as she shoves past the vampire and heads up the stairs after Faith. Fuck! I have totally stuffed up.
Ext: Front yard at Summers' Residence
Buffy finds Faith standing under the large oak tree on the front lawn. She has obviously hit the tree a few times as her hand wraps are in tatters and her freshly healed knuckles are bloodied again.
"Faith." Buffy says softly, gingerly approaching the brunette, stopping a few feet behind her.
"Save it, B." Faith snaps, clenching and unclenching her bloodied fists, her posture tense.
"Look, Spike and I have history." Buffy takes a step backwards as Faith slowly turns to face her. The brunette's expression is dark.
"He tried to rape you." Faith says softly, struggling to hold back her rage.
Buffy can see the tension in Faith, her expression scaring her, "I know."
"Yet here he is, still corporeal, not dust in the wind." Faith's voice is even, steady but the tone is deadly.
"I know, and I can't explain it." Buffy tentatively takes a step closer to the brunette.
"How can you trust him?" Faith stares at the blonde, incredulous, "Near Dawn."
"He would never hurt Dawn." Buffy defends her actions or rather inaction when it comes to Spike.
Faith stares at Buffy, she is still clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to stop shaking, fury coursing through her body, the slayer in her screaming at her to kill Spike.
"I don't understand this power he has over you." Faith continues, her voice remains steady.
"He has a soul, Faith." Buffy sighs, her shoulders slumping.
"Having a soul doesn't make you good." Faith looks at Buffy, her expression saddens, "I would know." She mutters under her breath, dropping her eye gaze to the ground.
"Faith." Buffy takes another step closer to Faith.
"You defended him from me." She ignores Buffy, her voice less steady, she is struggling to maintain her composure, the rage bubbling at the surface, "You chose him over me." She directs her intense stare at the blonde Slayer.
The hurt, broken expression on Faith's face breaks Buffy's heart, "I know." Buffy drops her gaze, ashamed to look at the dark slayer.
Faith sighs and absently runs a hand through her hair; she can see the blonde is filled with remorse, tears are streaming down her face. Faith takes a deep breath, controls her rage and closes the distance between them and embraces the blonde. She can feel the relief in Buffy when she returns the embrace, nuzzling her face into Faith's neck, inhaling the scent of the dark Slayer.
"I am so stupid." She says between sniffles, breaking away from Faith so she can look in to her eyes, "I am so truly sorry." She says from the heart.
Faith sighs, "I know." She holds Buffy's hands in front of her, looking at the ground, "Spike is an issue we are going to have to address." She says, "But not tonight." Faith looks up and stares in to Buffy's hazel eyes, "We have a big battle ahead of us tomorrow and as much as I hate to admit it, we can use his skill in this fight."
They both stand under the tree, holding each other for a while, basking the others presence.
"We should get some rest, big day." Buffy breaks the silence, holding Faith's hand, and leads her back inside the house towards her bedroom.