Buffy's Return
Her tombstone said ‘devoted friend’. It was a hell of a thing for Faith to swallow while she clawed at the ground, trying to unearth her greatest rival--and the only friend she’d ever had--from the ground.
The scratching from inside Buffy’s coffin continued. If she kept this up, she’d claw her fingernails right off.
“Stop it, B!” Faith called down into the hole she’d carved into the soft earth. “You’ll hurt yourself. Don’t worry, I’m comin’ to you!”
Buffy didn’t stop, because of course she didn’t. Faith probably wasn’t offering her any real comfort, anyways. And she had more reason to be fighting than Faith, so it wasn’t a surprise when her hand burst through the ground. Frantically, Faith began clawing around the hand, hoping to create more of a hole for Buffy to crawl through. Buffy’s head burst through the ground a second later, spilling clumps of dirt and grass across the two girls. Buffy was gasping for air, face pale and eyes wide.
She looked different than she had in Faith’s dream. She was wearing the same heavy black dress, but her face was pale and drawn, eyes wide and fearful like a frightened animal. Faith had never seen Buffy look so vulnerable before. It scared her.
Buffy looked to Faith, and jerked away, scrambling out of her grave as if Faith were threatening her with a knife. She was still breathing hard. Her hair was hanging limp and heavy around her face, and looking into her fellow Slayer’s eyes, Faith realized that the sucking hole that had been there since Buffy died was filled now. Again. Whatever. All she knew was that she met Buffy’s terrified gaze, and suddenly realized she felt whole again. She thought Buffy must have felt something too, because for a moment, all they could do was stare at each other. Faith felt the weight of Buffy’s gaze, the feeling of a knife sliding into her gut, the screaming rage and anger and loss. Then Buffy looked away, jumped up, and sprinted out of the cemetery, leaving Faith alone in Buffy's grave.
For a second, Faith thought about going after her. But what was the point? For whatever reason, the powers that be didn’t want Buffy resurrected, and that was a done deal now. Was her job done?
She was just a Slayer now. One of two, and when Buffy was the other one, Faith was pretty much irrelevant. Did it even really matter what she did? If she blew town tonight and went back to Cleveland, who would notice? Who would care?
But B seemed pretty shaken, and Faith couldn’t blame her. Coming back from the dead couldn’t be that easy. And there were all these demons running around. Faith wasn’t really sure why they were here turning the town into their personal playground, but they did need slaying, and she doubted Buffy was in a good headspace to take care of it. A good person would go after Buffy. But a Good Slayer would fight the demons, take back Sunnydale, and then get back to the Hellmouth she was assigned. And if Faith had to choose, she knew which one she would have to be.
…
She wasn’t sure how she ended up at the massive, unstable-looking tower somewhere past the downtown area. She hadn’t even known there was a structure like this in Sunnydale. All she knew was that she was walking back towards the motel, hoping she wouldn’t run into anyone that would require her to explain the demon blood covering her. It was making her skin itch, but Faith couldn’t tell if that was some kind of reaction to the blood, or just because the sensation reminded her of a night she preferred not to remember.
As she had been walking back, she’d stopped, suddenly getting a sinking feeling in her chest. That feeling of dread, in a familiar part of Faith she now knew belonged to Buffy, had led her to the tower. Once there, she quickly spotted the two figures: On the top of the tower, a familiar black shape, blonde hair whipping in the midnight breeze. And at the bottom, a small, slender figure with long dirty blonde hair, staring up at the figure at the top of the tower. Faith was moving before she could talk herself out of it. One of her hands touched the cold metal of the tower, and she realized she was going to climb it to save Buffy. She was so suddenly shaken by this realization that she let go of the tower. She didn’t sense Dawn approaching her until she felt small hands shove her from behind. She whirled.
“What are you doing here?” Dawn demanded, arms crossed. She glowered at Faith, even when her wide blue eyes kept flicking up towards the top of the tower.
Faith crossed her arms back, smirking at Dawn. It wasn’t a funny situation, but she couldn’t help being a little amused by Dawn’s attempts to be intimidating or angry. It was like being insulted by a puppy.
“Look at you, all grown up.”
Dawn ignored Faith’s teasing. “Why are you here?”
“I’m not here to kill her.” the words came smoothly, and she honestly wasn’t sure if they were true or not. They didn’t seem to appease Dawn either way.
“I heard you broke out of prison. Willow and Tara didn’t want to tell me because they thought I’d be scared, but I overheard them talking about you. Figures that you would be here right now. I bet when you heard the Slayer was dead, you came running with all those demons, huh?”
“I knew Buffy was dead months ago.” Faith said bluntly. She knew the rest of the Scoobies liked to shield Dawn from the bad stuff, but she had never been a big believer in sugar-coating. If she could handle stuff like this when she was a kid, so could Dawn. “And I’m not here to kill her. I was here to stop her from getting brought back, but not ‘cuz of our old beef.”
Dawn’s eyes widened, apparently missing the part where Faith said she tried to stop Buffy's resurrection. She looked up at the figure at the edge of the tower. “It’s... it's really her? I thought… I thought it might be, but with the Buffybot-” Her eyes met Faith’s, and she suddenly hardened again, as if she had remembered who she was talking to.
“Bringing her back was dangerous, kid.” Faith said, ignoring Dawn's mention of a 'Buffybot', whatever that was. She decided she really, really didn’t want to know. “Your friends would have been lucky if it didn’t work.”
“Well, of course you’d say that.” Dawn replied with a toss of her hair, but there was a flicker of doubt on her face. Above them, the tower creaked, and Dawn flinched. Faith sighed.
“Look, I’m sorry about what happened, okay?” When Dawn didn’t respond, Faith continued, “I know you want to see her, but I can’t let you go up there alone. But obviously, someone has to go and get her, and she’ll probably respond to you a hell of a lot better than me. So you lead, and I’ll follow.”
“You want to save her?”
“I… I shouldn’t." Faith admitted. "But I can’t let her die.”
Maybe it was just that Faith had actually said those words, or maybe it was the genuine emotion behind them, but Dawn seemed to believe Faith. She made a move for the tower, and Faith followed.
As she began climbing the tower again, she realized that she had apologized. And she had meant it. She really was sorry about what she had done to Buffy, and what she had done to Dawn and Joyce when she had woken up from her coma. She remembered Dawn crying. The girl couldn’t have been very old then--she was what, fourteen, fifteen now? At least all the other people Faith had hurt had been adults.
They reached the top of the tower, every step eliciting a groan of protest from the rickety tower. As soon as they reached the top, Dawn lunged for Buffy, but Faith could hear every groan in the metal more than Dawn. She grabbed the girl’s arm. Dawn’s head whipped around, glaring at Faith like the Slayer had stuck a knife in her back.
“Careful,” Faith warned, nodding at the metal floor beneath them. She released Dawn’s arm a moment later, and while the girl seemed glad, she didn’t make any further moves.
“Buffy,” she called plaintively from their spot at the other end of the tower. She sounded young, pleading, like a child calling for their mother. Buffy turned. She looked dazed. Her lip was bloody. She had probably gotten in a fight with some of the demons on her way here. She regarded Dawn and Faith with a vague kind of confusion, which would have been concerning if it was just Dawn, but the added addition of Faith made it downright creepy that she didn’t react.
“What are you-” Dawn started, but the tower suddenly groaned and shuddered, the floor slanting beneath their feet. Dawn gasped, and Faith lunged, grabbing the girl by the arm with one hand while she grabbed onto the tower with another. Dawn jerked away, grabbing the tower by herself. She shot a resentful little glare to Faith over her shoulder, and Faith rolled her eyes. God, she hated teenagers.
Buffy’s attention had drifted from the two of them to the ground beneath the tower. Her whole body was angled towards it, almost as if…
“B, no!” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Buffy didn’t react, but Dawn seemed to realize what Faith had, and cried out, “Buffy! Buffy, don’t!”
“Don’t jump, Buffy!” Dawn called, her voice high and shrill with fear. “Don’t move!”
Buffy turned and stared at her, face still eerily blank.
“Just,” Dawn's voice turned soft, pleading, “Walk to me. Please.” She started forward. Faith stayed in her position at the other end, watching the scene carefully. Buffy turned back towards the edge.
“Please,” Dawn begged again. “I’m your sister, Dawn. And that,” she turned towards Faith, “Well, she tried to kill you, but she promised me she wasn’t gonna do it again, and I believe her! So walk over to me, and punch her in the face, or tell me I’m stupid for trusting her or something!”
Buffy didn’t turn back. “Buffy, talk to me. Say something!”
“Is this hell?” Buffy's words were soft, scared, but they cleaved through the wind-chilled night like a dagger. Dawn’s brow furrowed in confusion, her lips moving to form a silent 'what?'. But Faith knew. Faith had seen the peaceful meadow in her dreams. I fought for this, she had said. I died for this. And now you’re going to take it away from me? And that's exactly what her friends had done. Faith felt sick.
When neither of the stunned girls responded, Buffy turned, that scared, vulnerable look back on her face. “Is this hell?” she repeated.
“No!” Dawn cried, before Faith could formulate an answer. “Buffy, no! You’re… here, with me. And whatever you’ve been through, it’s over now.”
Faith cringed, recognizing the mistakes in the words that Dawn didn’t know she was making. She stepped forward, and Buffy’s eyes snapped to her. Still no recognition, none of that familiar rage or determination, but maybe that was for the best. Faith wasn’t sure any of them could survive a battle on this creaky fucking tower. As if to punctuate her thought, the tower creaked and buckled again. Dawn yelped and grabbed onto Faith. Faith’s free arm shot out for balance, but Buffy didn’t even flinch.
“B,” Faith began once the tower had settled somewhat, and Dawn had stopped clinging to her, “I’m sorry. I tried to stop them. I know… I know you were happy where you were. But you can still be happy. You're Buffy frickin' Summers, for Christ's sake. You can do whatever you want. It's not over for you. Not even close."
Dawn didn’t miss a beat. “That’s right.” she agreed. “Now c’mon. We have to get off this tower.” Faith nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off of Buffy.
But once again, Buffy was distracted by the call of the ledge, the call of heaven, happiness and everything Faith couldn’t have. She was mumbling something to herself, something about the last time she had been up here, clarity and peace and all that.
“Buffy-” Dawn started again, but Faith could feel the metal buckling underneath her feet. Dawn couldn’t, because she wasn’t a Slayer, and Buffy was clearly preoccupied, but Faith knew this tower was going to collapse any minute. And she knew what she had to do.
“Dawn, you need to go.”
Dawn turned to her, eyes wide. “What? But, Buffy-”
“I’ll get her down, I promise. Now go.”
“No.” Dawn said, jutting out her jaw defiantly. God, she was so much like Buffy it made Faith want to scream. “Not without my sister.”
“I mean it, kid. Go, unless you want to end up as a scrape of bone and brains on the side of the pavement.”
Dawn looked helplessly from Faith to Buffy, seemingly torn until Faith shoved her towards the stairs. “Go. Now.” And then, as soon as Dawn’s hands were grasping the rungs of the ladder, Faith was turning towards Buffy.
“I guess I’ve made my decision.” she said to the girl at the end of the tower. “I’m not letting you die again.” And then, before either of them could register the weight of what Faith had just said, she was sprinting towards the end of the tower. She could feel the metal giving away under her feet (Jesus, who had built this crappy thing?) but she kept running, always one step ahead of the crumpling building until she reached Buffy, grabbed her, and jumped off the tower with Buffy in arm.
They soared for a moment. It was just long enough for Faith to grab a rope, one that slowed their fall as Faith skidded down it. She could feel the nylon ripping open her palm, but she ignored it. Over at the tower, Dawn, who was halfway down it by now, screamed.
Her scream seemed to jolt Buffy out of her reverie, and the other Slayer started twisting in Faith’s arms. “Dawn!” Buffy called, and it was the first lucid word Faith had heard her utter. She held tighter to Buffy, and thanked whoever was listening that Buffy was still weak from her resurrection. Too weak to fight a Slayer at full strength like Faith.
“Kid, jump!” she called, the wind ripping the words out of her mouth. Dawn, whether she had heard Faith or not, dropped off the tower in a surprisingly graceful move just as Faith and Buffy ran out of rope. Buffy was still writhing around, trying to break Faith’s grasp, so it was somewhat difficult for Faith to maneuver herself so she was under Buffy as she released the rope and the two of them began free-falling towards the pavement.
Faith felt like she was falling forever, and at the same time, felt like there was no time at all between the moment she let go of the rope and the moment she hit the ground, the impact singing through her body as she lay there, stunned. Buffy got up and sprinted to Dawn as soon as they landed, but Faith lay there for another minute, quietly assessing the state of her body. She sat up and felt a couple of ribs groan. She was gonna be sore as hell tomorrow, but she at least had no injuries her fast healing couldn’t fix.
Over by the base of the tower, which had crumpled into itself and was now a heap of scraps, Dawn and Buffy were hugging. Buffy was back, and she was alive, and she remembered everything. Which meant Faith had to go. It was time for her to go back to Cleveland, anyways, now that she had officially failed her mission. Faith sighed and brushed the dust and dirt from her clothes. Maybe it would have been kinder to let Buffy die. All in all, she wasn’t even really sure why she had saved the other Slayer. Maybe she was some kind of sadist, eager for the punishment that would no doubt arise from Buffy being back. Once the other Slayer was in fighting shape, she was screwed. Better get out of dodge while she has the chance.
One night, she decided as she trudged alone back to the motel, trying not to think about how Buffy was going home with her loving, doting little sister, to a mother and a houseful of friends and a British guy she had an inexplicable relationship with. She would allow herself one night of rest, and then tomorrow she would figure out how to best get back to Cleveland without being caught. Because oh yeah, she was still a fugitive, too.
“Fuck,” muttered Faith as she walked back into her motel room. “This fuckin’ sucks.” And she wasn’t sure if she was talking about Buffy, or Sunnydale, or just her whole fucking life, but it didn’t matter, because now at least she was done, and she could go home.