Chapter 10~

The entire room felt thick with tension. Faith facing off with a black eyed Willow had thrown everyone into a spiral of confusion and slight panic. Willow was grinning at Faith, the smile somehow as empty as her eyes seemed to be, "What are gunna do, Faith? Beat me up? Even if you could, it looks like you couldn't go two rounds with a dust bunny."

Faith's face was hard, she was posed for a fight, but clearly shaking from the pain of the sudden movements, "I said, get the fuck out of here. You ain't messin' with anyone's heads. I already know what you are, and they'll soon know, and then this shit ain't gunna work on them either."

"Oh Faith. I don't need to pretend to be anyone to mess with any of you. The zaney scooby antics for the last 8 years will do it for me. I just love rattling the cages a little bit extra," Willow explained as she looked over the rest of them, loving the shock on each face, "It's like Hanukkah came early, and instead of eight days, it's eight years of prezzies. You're gunna invite me when you tell them right? Spike's surprises for Buffy, how Giles was closer to death then he's ever been 'cause of little ol' me? Well, ya know, before his actual death."

Faith had enough, "Shut up!"

Before anything else was said, Dawn appeared on the floor in the doorway of the spare room, "Expello!"

Willow turned toward the source of the new voice, "Bitch," came the final word from her mouth before she disappeared in a blink, to the amazement of everyone at the table.

All eyes turned immediately to Dawn, who was now breathing heavy, before passing out on the floor, "Dawn!" Buffy was out of her chair and by her sister before anyone else could breathe. She checked for a pulse, and finding one, looked to Faith, "What the hell was that?!"

Faith knew Dawn was alright, though she had probably given herself at least an extra few hours of bed rest, if not a whole day, "Which part, B? The fuckin' torture of our existence for the last seven years, or the magic mojo D used to get rid of it for now? And I say for now 'cause D's not big on the mojo. Red don't allow it much, so it ain't gunna work for as long as if Red did it."

Giles had gotten up as well, checking the spare room, only to see Willow in the exact same position they had left her in. His face was full of concern, confusion, and anger, "I think it's time for you to tell us exactly what has been going on, Faith. Willow, her eyes…"

"Giles, just chill. That wasn't Red. It was the First. Like, the First evil," Faith finally made her way back to the chair, basically falling into it as her aching body shook.

"The First?" He looked towards Buffy as she came back out of the spare room, having carried Dawn back to bed.

"The thing that was messing with Angel in our senior year?" Buffy asked, crossing her arms, "It kept haunting him with people he killed. It can only be dead people though, right?" As she saw Tara turn quickly towards the room, eyes widening, Buffy immediately finished, "I just checked, Willow still has a steady pulse."

Tara visibly let out a shaky breath, still recovering from seeing what looked like Willow calling Dawnie a bitch. She suddenly remembered Willow had technically died, tears once again shining on her face, "Dawnie…. How m-much magic does she know? You said she did a healing spell on W-willow, too."

All eyes turned toward Tara at this new information, Giles speaking first, "Healing spell? When did she do that? Had she woken before we came home? Did we miss an injury on Willow?"

"All right! Fuck. There's eight years of bullshit I gotta go through here. Give a girl a sec," Faith rubbed her face, "and apparently I gotta do it alone, since D's outta commission for right now, Red's playing coma patient, and no one's kissin' awake sleepin' beauty on the couch!"

Giles took a seat on the part of the couch he had rested on earlier that day, Buffy stayed standing, while everyone else kept to their chairs at the table. Lunch was officially forgotten.

Xander decided to try and give Faith some reassurance, "It's ok, Faith. Just take your time. We aren't going anywhere. Well, until we move everyone, but it can wait until after a quick rundown of scary evil copycat things. Which is my first question… how is it able to copy the Willster? And what was with the creepy black eyes?"

"Ok, most important rule we are gunna follow here is, if I don't wanna answer a question, there's a damn reason. Xan man, no offense, but that second one ain't in my area," Faith gave him a look to show how serious she was.

Buffy instantly glared at Faith, "What's that mean? You're just going to refuse to tell us something about our best friend 'cause it makes you, what, uncomfortable?"

"Look, B, there's some shit I wasn't here for, ok? I didn't get here til like early 2003! It ain't my story to tell," She stayed calm, despite Buffy's apparent anger. However, she wasn't prepared for the next round.

"But you know. You were told what happened," Tara's voice held an edge that the rest of them rarely heard and her stutter was gone, "You know what went on! Something bad happened with Willow, and you refuse to tell me… us!"

Faith looked into angry blue eyes in shock, before defending herself and clapping back, "It ain't my story to tell, T, and has no fucking bearing on the shit we've been dealin' with since I been in the know how anyway!"

"Well, I can at least confirm dark magic is involved," Anya piped up, "I've seen those eyes before. Known many a witch who messed with dark magic. And we all know Willow's been going overboard with the magic. Am I the only one who's going to say that out loud? I mean, she's in a coma, so it's not like it's hurting her feelings."

The room went silent for a moment, as Anya's words sank in. Not only the reminder that the redhead may not wake up, but her abuse of magic as of late was gnawing at everyone except Faith. The dark Slayer's silence was more to calm herself down.

"Let me repeat this shit again," Faith spoke up again, as calmly as she could, "That wasn't Red. That was the First." Taking a deep breath, she continued, "As I explained to T earlier, we almost lost Red once. She took a knife aimed at D, it landed damn close to her heart. D put pressure on it while I fought off the Bringer. We didn't have any fucking Docs, D been studyin' with the help of Red to learn as much as she could, but this was gunna be too much. So she did some magic mojo she learned from T at some point, which did enough repair to at least get Red out." She paused momentarily.

They were all mesmerized by Faith's every word, the only response during Faith's slight pause was Giles, "Dear lord."

Faith let her head fall back, trying to get somewhat comfortable, "When we were running, I was carrying Red while Mermaid kept watch for any fuckers at our backs. I was listenin' to make sure her heart was still goin' and it stopped. We set her down, D did CPR for like two minutes, she came back. D also had to do the mojo a couple of times for the first few hours. Somethin' 'bout it only being basic and speedin' up the bodies normal process. Dawn said this wasn't what it was for either, so it was a fuckin' miracle it worked."

Buffy was having a difficult time taking the information in. Willow had taken a knife to the chest to protect her sister, effectively killing her, even for only a moment. She realized that this was only one of a million stories she was about to hear, and she didn't like it, "Did you lose her again? After the first time her heart stopped, I mean."

"No, but it took awhile of us having to slowly feed her, and D setting up an IV somehow to keep her hydrated. She was out the whole time. We finally got a break when she woke up, like, a week later," Faith's voice was tired. Reliving one of her worst memories was not on her list of fun things to do.

Xander had a white knuckle grip on the back of his chair, as he was sitting in it sideways, tears visible on his face, "Willow was dead for two minutes? That was enough for this thing to be able to copy cat her?"

"Well it was long enough for a new Slayer to be called," Buffy filled in, reminding Xander of her own death and him saving her with CPR as well, "It can copy me too, then?" She looked toward Faith.

"Ya, it can be anybody here except me, D, and funny enough, Mermaid. At least, I think it can. The whole time travel thing is kinda mixing me up," Faith's brow furrowed and then she lifted an eyebrow thinking, "I mean, none of you have died now. So I don't know. It's been everybody who's died except T. Best, for now, to reach out and physically touch whoever your talkin' to before you spill any big secrets and talk about serious shit."

Something caught Giles attention, "It hasn't been Tara before? I assumed Tara had been lost as well, as she didn't return with you all during the spell."

"Red keeps dodgin' that question and won't admit shit, but ya, T did die. It ain't something brought up anymore, but everyone's bettin' Red did somethin' to prevent the First from copying T," Faith answered.

"You said it was funny that Melody couldn't be copied. Why?" Buffy had caught her off remark about the woman, finding it concerning.

Rolling her eyes, Faith started again, "Mermaid's a vamp, sorta. Before any of you start with the questions on the whole 'she's alive' thing, I know. And she is. It's somethin' to do with magic again, and you're gunna have to wait for that until she wakes up and feels like tellin' it. Though it ain't nothin' Red did. It was from before she started up with us four years ago," off everyone's looks of uncertainty, she added, "She's fine. Not gunna hurt no one and ain't dangerous."

"Alright, putting that particular information aside, for now," he underlined the last bit with a warning tone, as this information astounded him, "the First seems to be the reason for your sudden appearance in our timeline," Giles summed up for the group.

Faith pointed at him, then clapped, "Give the man a prize, yo. He got it right."

The group took a few seconds to collect themselves for round two of Faith's story, but before she could continue, a groan came from the couch.

"Look at that. Sleepin' beauty rises. Finally. Thought I was gunna have to toss you in a cold shower there, Mermaid," Faith sounded both relieved and slightly angry at her.

Hazel eyes opened, "Why do I feel like I jumped off an overpass and belly flopped the pavement?"

"Well, call it karma for givin' in to Red's idea without chattin' with D and I," Faith answered snidely.

Melody rolled her eyes, wincing as she attempted to move, deciding to stay put for the moment. She took in the surroundings she could see, her eyes settling on Giles, "Mr. Giles? Well, hell. Look at that. At least it worked."

"Hello, there. It's nice to meet you, Melody," Giles replied, always the polite Englishman.

"Meet me? You've met me, sir. I been around at least a year," her eyes held confusion.

"Red did us a doozy, Mermaid. We got the whole package," Faith filled in, "We even got Anya and Tara."

"So you do know my name..." Anya stated randomly.

Melody's head whipped toward where Faith's voice came from, regretting the sudden move as her vision blurred from pain, "Tara? Like, Willow's Tara?!"

"Ya, 'cause we know so many other Tara's," Was Faith's sarcastic reply.

Despite the obvious pain she was in, Melody began chuckling slowly, before going into full blown laughter. The room once again filled with confused faces. Faith's eyebrow lifted, she was wondering if the woman was losing her mind.

"You good there, Mermaid? We gunna have to send you to the looney tune buildin'?" Faith asked.

Giles was clearly uncomfortable in his seat, as the woman seemed not to pay any attention to Faith. Tara was also looking uncomfortable as it was slowly dawning on her that she was probably the first to die, "I s-seem to be fascinating to everyone. The reactions I'm getting to being alive rival the ones B-buffy got."

Melody slowed down her laughter, finally stopping to breathe through the pain she had just put herself through, "I'm sorry. I just realized that, once again, I severely underestimated the willpower of someone who is altogether depressingly insane, dangerously intelligent, and extremely protective of her family."

Buffy looked toward Faith, who shrugged, then back at Melody. Her patience, once again, wearing thin, "So, that means what exactly? And Willow's not insane."

"She's insane. It's a character flaw, and dangerous when paired with those other two traits," Melody filled in, though she couldn't see Buffy, "But it would figure that Willow would be able to zap us back far enough to bring Tara back in the fight. The only person that can rival Willow is Tara. I was laughing cause I'm happy. We can wake her up."

All eyes seemed to light up, though no one was smiling, as they were fixed on this new woman. Tara though, was not about to let everyone believe something she wasn't completely sure she could even do, "I'm not Willow. She's a lot more advanced in the magics than I am, and has a lot more p-power. Not to m-mention I've never done any dark magics."

Melody could hear Tara, and knew from all the stories that she was definitely a different witch from Willow. That didn't mean she was correct though, "The first spell you two ever did together. Remind me? Something about soda?"

Tara eyebrow lifted at this, "Um, we couldn't speak, the G-gentlemen were chasing us. We used magic to put the soda m-machine against the door to block them."

"You had never done a spell together before. Never even spoken to each other. Couldn't speak at the time, but somehow were so completely in sync that you could move an extremely heavy machine across a room in seconds," Melody summed up. Her head was pounding, but she needed to make a point.

Giles decided to speak up at this point, "She's not incorrect. It's incredible. To be that in sync with someone without knowing them. I've personally never seen that before myself."

"Yes, but they are kinda meant for each other. As Will says, love makes you do the wacky," Xander put his two cents in.

"That's not the point, Xander," Anya came back into the conversation, "You can love someone with everything you are, but that kind of immediate synchronicity is very rare. Most witches have to work for years, sometimes decades for that. I've only ever seen it once before, and I'm apparently ancient according to Giles."

Melody smirked at Anya, the stories of the ex- demon made her quite excited to get to know her. She liked the straight forward type of personality that people had said Anya possessed, "Exactly."

"Again, I ask what all this means for those of us who don't speak witch," Buffy reiterated.

"Tara's just as powerful as Willow. You can't have that synchronicity so immediately without the same power levels. I mean, there's more to it then that. I don't know specifics. I've never been a witch either," Melody answered, "And to cover the whole 'dark magics' comment, Tara, it doesn't have to be dark magic. I definitely can't say it won't be dangerous, and I don't know a spell off hand. Research is needed, but it doesn't necessarily mean dark. Dark magics don't make you more powerful, they just bend rules allowing for more freedom in situations. Usually at extreme cost, though you probably know all that."

Tara's thoughts were everywhere. She couldn't be that powerful. She'd never done near the stuff Willow had accomplished, and it had taken her love only a short time to get so far. She'd never thought about it before, though. Their instant magical connection and synchronization had always just been associated with their feelings for each other.

Faith yawned, which caused a widespread yawn fest in everyone else, the gang not having slept the night before and the two who had were still recovering from the spell. Buffy saw this as a stopping point for now, "Look, we're all exhausted, and obviously some tempers are flaring. I'd also really like to get Dawn back in her own room. I have a feeling, knowing my luck, that her missing school is going to throw a red flag at child services to come check on her. Her not being at home is probably not going to work in my favor. So, how about we take a break, get everyone moved before evening sets in, possibly rested a bit, then we can continue story time."

Everyone nodded their agreement, Giles moved to collect the books he and Anya had brought, Xander joining him. They left the room to take them down to the jeep. It was going to be a very long and interesting night.

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