Act2

The two girls walked unhurriedly between the grey tombstones at the ‘small’ cemetery. The sky was overcast and only some stars could be seen among the clouds. The ground was covered with a slight mist, which intensified the deathly ambiance. The Chosen two were silent but it was not an embarrassed silence. On the contrary, it was a comfortable silence each of them built on to let their mind wander to former times when they already had the chance to pace cemeteries together. From these two distinct times – the one preceding Faith’s fall to rage and madness, and the one when both girls were in turns then together, leaders of a cruel war – there was little left. And even if the extroverted and enraged Faith from before sometimes came back on the surface, even if the happy and funny Buffy aimed at coming back more often, both of them knew they were far away from those moments of still innocent tentative friendship.

“I was surprised when you asked me to go for a quick patrol with you” Faith eventually admitted.

“I’m leaving tomorrow” Buffy replied. “I thought we could use some time to talk”

Faith had a small and bitter laugh.

“Obviously, everybody wanna talk to me today” she said.

Buffy didn’t bat an eye to her counterpart’s critical tone and resumed as naturally as possible:

“How are things for you with the new Council?”

Faith looked at the blonde Slayer, showing her openly she clearly saw where she was going with that. But she decided to answer anyway:

“Nice enough to me” she said. “Lot of vampires to kill, lot of Slayers to kill them. Board and lodge. Less chance to die each night with all those Slayers”

Buffy smiled slightly and cast a glance to Faith.

“So why do you risk to face enemies alone most of the time?” She asked.

Faith shrugged and didn’t answer.

“Faith” Buffy insisted. “Gilles is worried about you”

“That’s it” Faith grumbled and looked away.

“Why do you take such risks when you can be here to train and lead the newbies? You’d be useful here.”

Faith snorted.

“To what? Leading? Strategizing? Thinking? You should know it’s not my thing B »

“I know, I do” Buffy answered dryly.

Faith slightly winced when she heard Buffy’s hard tone and saw the severe look she was wearing.

“I’m trying to do my best” she spat.

“Your best?” Buffy exclaimed. « Doing what? Staying away from the council and the other Slayers?”

The blonde Slayer stopped walking and her dark-haired counterpart did the same to face her.

“Faith you’re gifted and you could do better with that gift. And I thought you wanted to …”

“A gift that’s yours too. And you use it for what?” Faith cut her sharply. “Teaching gymnastics? Screwing vampires? Oh wait, you already did that before!”

“It’s not about me!” Buffy answered in an icier tone with each word she said. “It’s about you”

“Then, if you wanna know everything,” Faith said, opening her arms and gesturing around her. “I use my gift. I may kill more vampires and demons than dozens of Slayers here. Believe-me, I don’t get much rest”

“There’s nothing else interesting you?” Buffy asked hard? “Being a role model and a leader for those girls is not interesting to you? Now that you can do something else with your power than killing, it does not interest you?”

“Being a role model and a leader is your thing B, not mine”

“It could be yours if you really wanted it. But you have to want it. And but you’d need more generosity and courage that you currently possess.”

“Generosity and courage that are yours, right?” Faith asked in a sardonic tone.

“I fought during seven years” Buffy replied sharply. “I died twice and I came back twice. I saw those I loved dying without being able to do anything. I saw my friends risk their lives, suffer, be threatened by MY enemies. Should remind you something Faith?”

The last question was asked clearly to hurt. And the goal was perfectly reached. Faith felt the hurt caused by Buffy’s words as she has been physically hit. Her shoulders suddenly seemed crushed by an invisible weight and she clenched her fists until her short nails cut into her palms’ skin. She was about to answer something but Buffy – who hadn’t notice the change in the other Slayer’s composure- went on in a hardly calmer tone:

“So don’t come talking about generosity or courage to ME, not you when you’re running away from your responsibilities. When everybody needs you. When everybody gives you a second chance and you’re unable to take it”

“A second chance?” Faith exclaimed in a slightly shaking voice. “ A second chance? Look at you, B, listen to you. You trusted me against the First cause you had other choice, but you still blame me. Whatever I’ll do, you‘ll never see I’ve changed, will you?”

Buffy looked at Faith and stared at her from head to toes and looked like she was thinking about the question before she answered simply:

“I really thought you had changed”

“And I’d like that one day you’d be convinced I really had. I still got a debt toward you. I’ll pay it”

***

“So, you’re leaving this time?”

Willow was sitting on Dawn’s bed with her legs crossed and was looking at the young Summers finishing to get her suitcase ready. Both young women had the same sad look on their face at the evocation of the Summers sisters’ departure.

“It’s incredible that Buffy agreed to stay that long” Dawn answered. “But she has to get back to work in a few days. She can’t really stay much longer”

Willow winced. Dawn closed her suitcase and came to sit beside Willow.

“And you’re leaving tomorrow too, aren’t you?”

Willow nodded thoughtfully.

“Yeah. We didn’t plan to stay that long either. Kennedy was happy to see some girls she knew here again. But we’re awaited in Rio.”

“I don’t know how we’ll find things!” She added in a dubious tone.

Dawn let escape a small laugh.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the whoopee without you and Kennedy!”

Saying this, Dawn lied down and rested her head on the witch’s knees and the redhead thoughtfully began to caress her hair.

“I bet!” She said, arching an eyebrow. “But we have a good team. And there’re some watchers to watch after the kids!”

There was a brief silence before Willow totally changed the subject:

“It’s going to be your last year in high school, right? Did you think about what you’re gonna do after?”

Dawn shook her head thoughtfully.

“Not really. I don’t even know if I’ll stay in Europe”

Willow considered the young Summers with surprise.

“You’d get back without Buffy or Buffy plans to come back?”

Dawn shrugged.

“I don’t know. I don’t think she plans to come back right now. But…”

Dawn fell silent for a second then resumed:

“I hope she’ll change her mind. I hope that seeing you all here again will make her want to come back here. That it’ll make you all want to come back here.”

“Dawn, I think Buffy really needs a break. And if we’re all living close again, it’ll be too hard for her to stay – to make you stay- away the council when Giles, Xander and I work for it.”

“I don’t want her to make me stay away from the council” Dawn replied. “I understand her choice but I want to make my own choice”

“Buffy does what she thinks is the best for you”

“I know” Dawn answered. “And to be honest, life really feels good with her there. We hardly fight. I mean we normally fight for two sisters. But… I miss you?”

Willow squeezed Dawn’s shoulder in a gesture of understanding and care.

“I know. I miss you all too.” She answered. ”But Cleveland is the last place on earth where Buffy will come to live”

“We’re not forced to come here” Dawn said. “We could find a place… quieter?”

Willow smiled sadly.

“We can’t Dawn. Not now in any case”

“Maybe later? In some years?” Dawn asked with hope.

“Maybe” Willow confirmed.

***

The ambiance between Faith and Buffy wasn’t quite warmer and a terrible silence had fallen between them since their previous talk.

“So, how’s patrol girls?”

Buffy jumped at Xander’s happy tone. Both Slayers stopped walking and turned around to see the carpenter heading toward them.

“Xander!” Buffy exclaimed in an almost hysterical tone. “What are you doing here alone? Are you crazy?”

“Easy Buffy” He answered with a smile. “I’ve got weapons and don’t forget my great experience with vampires”

Saying this, he got a cross, a stake and a knife out of his coat.

“Plus, that cemetery is full of Slayers. I already met two groups before finding you”

“And that’s the reason why we have nothing to kill” Faith grumbled.

They resumed their walk, Xander between the girls.

“So, what are you doing here?” Buffy asked. “Cemetery nostalgia?”

“Well, I could say that but to be perfectly honest, the girls left to have girlie talk, Slayers have Slayers talk and I couldn’t stand pool with Andrew any more. I’m pretty sure that boy could get a statue bored”

Buffy and Faith chuckled to Xander’s comment. Both understood what he meant. Buffy in particular knew what Andrew could come up with as the boy had lived in Rome for some time with her and Dawn. By dint of efforts, he had eventually almost tamed the younger Summers who was very reluctant about him though. But there were still moments you would have prayed that Andrew had been born mute or became mute just for a minute.

“So you decided to come alone for a walk at the cemetery?” Buffy asked, arching severely an eyebrow.

“Everything’s all right” the carpenter replied. “I’m here all good and now surrounded by the two best Slayers ever. Couldn’t be safer”

He smiled to them and his eyes were shining with sincerity. Buffy had to drop her severity in front of her friend’s expression and Faith was only to happy to get the compliment.

“You should have asked Kennedy to come with you” the blonde added nevertheless as they resumed their walk.

Xander shrugged.

“Poor Kennedy” He said. “She’s in full Slayer mode tonight, all talking with the girls about the best way to kill demons. For her last evening here, I didn’t want to bother her by asking to play bodyguard for me”

“You could have” Faith said. “Doing things is all better than all this talk!”

“Kennedy enjoys sharing with the other groups of Slayers” Xander noticed. “All of them hadn’t the same habits or ways to do things. Sharing can be good and help to get better”

Faith shrugged and was about to add a bitter comment but Buffy was quicker.

“Sharing is a word Faith doesn’t know”

The dark haired Slayer cast her a dark look but before she never got time to answer. A vampire chose that precise moment to come their way.

With perfect coordination, both Slayers ran to him and one of them gave him a violent kick in his ankles that throw him off balance, which allowed the other to sink her stake right through his heart. The vampire immediately disappeared in dust.

“Good job” Xander said. “Beautifully done”

Faith winced.

“Too quick” she said. “No fun in there”

“There’re days like that” Xander answered with philosophy. “One day, you just have a little vampire to sink your teeth in and another day you have a whole nest to sink your teeth in…Well, maybe it’s the nest that sink teeth in y… Hey!”

A figure beat down on Xander, leaving his sentence unfinished and sending the young man fall on a tombstone some feet away. Both Slayers reacted immediately and kept the aggressor off, Faith pulling him violently away from Xander. Buffy jumped beside him and rained kicks on the vampire, quickly mimicked by Faith. Understanding who they were, the vampire tried to run away but his retreat was cut shortly by the dark-haired Slayer who sent him back to Buffy with a powerful punch. Buffy seized the vampire by his collarbone and ran resolutely her stake to his heart.

“Hey” Faith protested. “You could have let me”

Buffy rolled her eyes and gave her a half-grimace.

“Sorry, my turn. You dusted the last one”

Faith mumbled some incomprehensible words as Buffy got Xander to his feet.

“You okay?”

Xander cleaned his jacket and jeans quickly and touched several parts of his body to check what Buffy asked.

“I’m okay. No damage” He concluded.

Buffy stared at him from head to toes to check herself. She didn’t find nothing more than some bruises.

“We get back to work?” Faith asked impatiently.

Buffy and Xander exchanged a quick glance. Buffy sighed with lassitude and Xander offered her a sympathetic smile. Then, both friends followed the former rogue Slayer.

***

Faith kicked the vampire in front of her in his shinbone before elbowing violently in his face another one who was about to attack her from behind. The aforementioned vampire stepped back several feet away and bumped into one of his counterparts who was trying to escape Buffy’s blows.

Faith turned around sharply to face this enemy and both Slayers took advantage of the confusion following the shock of the two vampires bumping into each other to dust them at the same time.

A brief light of appraisal passed in their eyes before they got back to the fight.

“Six for Buffy and five for Faith!” Xander yelled from where he sat, on a stele at a distance from the battlefield.

The remaining vampire turned surprise eyes to the carpenter and frowned, trying probably to understand what he meant. Faith took advantage of this brief lapse in concentration to send the demon against a crypt’s door where she crucified him. When he had disappeared in dust, Faith scrubbed her hands with a satisfied smirk and came to Xander where Buffy was already.

“So?” the dark-haired Slayer asked.

“Six for you both” Xander announced as he looked at a small paper sheet in his hand.

“It’s ridiculous!” Buffy exclaimed in an exasperated voice. “It’s not a game where we count the points!”

“Why not?” Faith asked. “There’s nothing wrong to put some fun in this”

Saying this, she gave her hand to Xander to get him to his feet.

“I thought killing vampires was fun enough for you” Buffy grumbled and resumed walking between the tombstones.

“Most of the times, it is” Faith confirmed. “But why not get more fun when you can?”

Buffy shrugged.

“I wonder more and more why you don’t patrol more often with the Slayers. If you’re all about the contest, you’d have lot of opponents!”

Faith smirked.

“It ain’t no fun if it’s not with the infamous Buffy Summers!”

Buffy looked at her for a second, wondering if she was kidding or not.

“It’s not a game” she repeated.

Then, after thinking a second, she added:

“But if you really wanna play, I heard Kennedy’s really good”

Faith winced.

“Yeah, that’s what I heard too. And I saw her at work, she’s not too bad”

“She’s been trained since she was kind and her training with Will seems to do her good” Xander noticed.

“She’s naturally skilled” Buffy said. “All those Slayers are not equals when it comes to the…”

The blonde Slayer searched for the good word to say what she meant.

“Slaying?” She asked, arching a questioning eyebrow to her comrades.

Faith shrugged with disregard for that matter. The three young people went on wandering trough the cemetery in silence. But just three minutes later, both Slayers stopped dead in their tracks and looked at the same point in the distance. Xander was already three steps away from the girls when he noticed he was the only one left to move. He came back to them with a questioning look on his face.

“What? Your super-senses smelled a rat?”

“Vampires” Faith explained seriously.

“I feel them too” Buffy confirmed. “And something else…” she added.

She seemed really concentrated, all her attention turned to the aforementioned direction.

“They found a prey…”

As she finished her sentence, both Slayers had already left running.

“Hey!” Xander exclaimed when he saw them start this way. “Wait!”

He ran after them, trying to catch up with them but unable to get closer despite his best efforts. Before he had crossed a hundred meters, he saw the girls arriving near a group of three vampires. Faith knocked the first one almost out with her first blow and Buffy easily dusted him. The dark-haired Slayer turned then to the other two, closely followed by her blonde counterpart. When Xander finally arrived, he saw a human figure huddled up on the group, back against a tombstone and face hidden in arms. The young man cast a glance to the Slayers and saw a second disappear in dust under the blonde Slayer’s stake, as Faith was about to finish the last one off.

The carpenter went closer to the shaking figure who hadn’t moved in the least since their arrival. Buffy caught up with him and they bent over the victim together.

The Slayer put a reassuring hand on the young woman’s shoulder.

“It’s okay” she said. “They’re gone”

Saying this, she cast a quick glance behind her to confirm Faith was done with the last vampire. When she saw the dark-haired Slayer brush the dust off her hands, she felt relieved and turned again to the victim of the attack.

“You’re gonna be okay” she said, her hand still on the girl’s shoulder.

“Are you hurt?” Xander asked.

The sound of their voices made the young woman react. She slowly moved her hands aside her face and began to stand up. Long blond hair fell on her frail shoulders and in front of her eyes before she shake it and laid her eyes on them.

“Oh my God…” Xander blurted out.

Both friends felt like they stopped breathing at the same time. Air remained blocked in their lungs and they felt like their hearts had missed a beat or two. Buffy’s mouth remained stupidly half-opened as she gazed at the familiar face, unable to pronounce a sound.

“So, Xan, how many?

Faith’s loud and abrupt voice didn’t even make them jump. And none of them bothered to turn to the dark-haired Slayer. And finally, Buffy managed to move her lips enough to articulate in a low voice:

“Tara?”