Portal

Quickly pulling the cloth from her mouth, I examined her, making sure she wasn't hurt.

"B, the bastards are going to fuckin' sacrifice me. We gotta get the hell outta here!"

I ran my fingers over the layers of chains pinning her down. There were too many for her to get out on her own. Sliding my hands under each one, I pulled, the metal protesting before snapping open. There were at least twenty chains I had to go through before she was free. She tossed the broken links off of her and jumped off the altar.

I looked up to see Faith flash me a dangerous smile, "I knew you'd come for me." Then she grabbed me, pulling me into a kiss. It was deep and long, and oh, so needed. Everything that had built up to this moment surfaced, and I couldn't help but return it. Picking her legs up off the ground, I carried her into the nearest wall, our bodies colliding on impact. Faith let out a low groan as I ground my hips into hers.

I'll be damned if that little voice in my head pulled me back from the moment. What if this isn't Faith? What if...I don't know. But, what if?

Moving my mouth over hers, I took this time to run my hand along her lower abdomen, searching for the mark I'd left on her. My heart dropped. Nothing. There was just smooth skin. I pulled back for a moment, grabbing her, and then slammed her into the wall.

My face was only inches away from hers, and my voice shook with rage, "what the hell are you trying to pull?"

"Fuck, B..."

"Don't call me that!" I slammed her again, my voice coming out more forcefully this time, "who are you?"

There was a familiar voice that came from behind. I quickly released the imposter, and turned toward the voice.

My jaw dropped as I took in the scene before me. "Sister Liana?"

She nodded in acknowledgement, "Buffy." Then continued walking toward me, " I know you're not used to this," she motioned to her outfit with her hand, "but here I am."

I couldn't help but trail my eyes down her `attire.' Hot pants, fishnets, stiletto heels, and a corset hardly screams `nun.' I momentarily fumed, knowing full well she had some gorgeous leather jacket somewhere that she kept from me. What a liar.

I shook my head, still trying to take everything in, "what's going on here?"

Liana looked at me from under her dark lashes, "you want the short version, or the long version?" She shot a wicked smile my way, "I know you've got selective hearing, so I guess it really doesn't matter, does it?"

The former nun took a few steps toward me, which caused me to take a few back.

"You see, Buffy, I collect souls. Not necessarily for myself," she buffed her fingernails against her chest, "but for the greater power. I do what they say and I reap the benefits. Our little Annabel over there, was my first choice, but then you, you intrigued me."

She shot me a glance, "you see, I struck up a deal with Annie after I noticed you'd been mistaking her for someone obviously important to you. I told her I'd return her to her body back at the convent's hospital once all was said and done."

I flicked a glance at Annabel as the realization hit me. I whispered to myself, "I was looking for Faith, not Annabel."

"My, you are a smart one, aren't you?" Liana let out a sadistic laugh, "anyway, long story short, my orders are to retrieve your soul," she pulled out an ornate dagger from the side of her corset, "and I plan on collecting."

I felt hands grabbing at me, too many to count, and before I knew it I was being lifted toward the altar. I tried to kick, tried to flail my limbs, but it wasn't working. There were whatever was holding me was too strong.

I watched as Liana sauntered up toward me, the dagger in her hand. "I'm just sorry it had to end this way, Buffy. I really am."

Her laughter echoed throughout the entire room as she raised the dagger above her head. As she brought her hands down my chest, I rolled with as much strength as I could, and I felt the dagger impale my shoulder instead. The hands holding me unexpectedly loosened, and I used it to my advantage, doing a backward roll off the altar. I swung my leg around, and I felt my boot connecting to someone's throat, the cartilage snapping against the pressure. Pulling the dagger out of my shoulder, I worked in a flurry, stabbing, slicing, kicking, until there were just bodies lying around me. Some were still alive, others were mortally wounded. I didn't care.

Pulling out her a twin dagger to the one I held, I saw Liana glance at me before she charged. I barely had time to duck, evading her first attempt to stab me. I grabbed her arm as she was recovering from the failed attack, and hip-tossed her onto the altar. Pinning her down, I saw the fight in her eyes. She wasn't even scared. This woman was outright sadistic.

"See," I struggled to hold her down with the dagger still in my hand, "there's one thing you don't know about me, Sister." I grinned, "I'm the Slayer, and I kill people like you for a living." I brought the dagger down with all my strength and felt it slip with little resistance through her chest.

There wasn't even a scream, just an instant blast of light that sent me flying into a wall. Or at least, there should have been a wall. I opened my eyes to see that familiar green light that I just loved so much.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

Chapter 8: Alphabet Confusion

Author: LilJemsey

Rated: NC-17

Once the light from the green portal disappeared and her stomach stopped churning Buffy was able to take in her surroundings. The room she had landed in had stark white walls and was completely bare except for the bed in the middle of the room with a heart monitor and IV stand next to it. The bed was empty and the blonde Slayer wondered briefly if all her portal jumping had been a dream. Maybe she'd hit her head during patrol last night and ended up here. She checked herself over for any sign of injuries or a tell-tale hospital wristband, but came up empty.

"What the hell was in that brownie Andrew gave me last night?" she muttered under her breath, her voice echoing eerily in the silent room, "I've told him time and time again that I don't want to try any Klingon food and I swear to God if he's poisoned me with some outer space disease I'm gonna kick his ass back to, well back to last night so I can refuse the brownie."

The sound of someone screaming pulled her from her thoughts of seriously kicking a nerd's ass and she peered curiously through the window of the door that separated her from whatever it was that was outside the room. For a hospital, the hallway was relatively clear of activity, only a bored-looking woman sitting behind a large reception desk and a pair of orderlies who chatted amongst themselves as they pushed a bed down the corridor. Somehow the screaming she had heard didn't seem to bother them even though it had chilled Buffy to the bone.

Once the orderlies had passed, she inched the door open casting a glance to the receptionist whose gaze hadn't strayed from the small TV she was watching. She made it out the door and halfway down the hall, her boots clicking loudly on the tiled floor, before the screaming began again, this time much closer than before. The person screaming sounded terrified and Buffy was completely perplexed as to why no one seemed to worry. The Slayer in her begged her to investigate but the eight year old in her told her to run and leave because she still didn't like being in a building that was so sterile.

Since she wasn't quite sure where she was, the uneasiness won out and she walked quickly towards the exit sign, hoping that once outside she would be able to get a clue as to where the portal had dropped her. She was nearly there, could feel the fresh air of outside calling to her when the screaming began again and the double doors in front of her burst open and two orderlies pulled a hospital bed through.

She had to jump out of the way of the bed when the corridor, which had been previously still, burst into activity. The woman who was on the gurney was thrashing and the orderlies were having a hard time holding her down, her anguished screams echoed down the hallway and doctors and nurses seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Hold her down," a dark skinned doctor yelled over the screaming, a syringe in his hand.

"No no, I'm sorry, oh God I'm so sorry, please just leave me alone, no," the woman screamed as the orderlies restrained her.

"What happened?" the dark skinned doctor asked as he pushed the syringe into her arm. The woman's screams tapered off as the drug began to take effect and her body slumped back against the gurney.

"Cops found her in St. Michael's up the road Dr. Parks," the larger of the two orderlies told him. "The priest called it in, said she had come in to question him about the alphabet killings and then started screaming at him and threatening him with her gun. Said she ran out into the church and was firing randomly, yelling that she was sorry before she collapsed."

"She'd made so much progress," Dr. Parks sighed. "Get her to her room and then get a blood sample; I want to know if she's been taking her meds."

The blonde Slayer watched as one of the nurses wiped the hair from the prone woman's forehead and Buffy felt her heart thudding in her ears as there was no mistaking who the woman was. From the shape of her eyes to the mole above the corner of her lip, this woman was all Faith. She wondered if the brunette Slayer had been portal jumping as well and had and somehow landed herself in hospital again.

Only the man, Doctor Parks, seemed like he knew her, like he had treated her before. Maybe this was another Faith doppelganger. Whoever it was, however, Buffy knew she couldn't just leave her dark counterpart here. Faith hated hospitals as much, if not more than she did, and she couldn't abandon her as much as it would be payback for the time Faith left her in the emergency room with a broken arm so she could go and get a milkshake.

"Stupid growing as a person," she muttered under her breath as she sat down in one of the chairs outside the room they had taken Faith into.

The hallway had cleared again and no one seemed to be paying any attention to the mysterious blonde girl who was hanging around. For that Buffy was glad as she still wasn't sure where she was and she didn't want to find herself on the receiving end of one of those needles should someone deem it necessary to ask. She waited until the doctor and orderlies had left Faith's room, flipping idly through a magazine until the corridor was completely empty again. The receptionist still sat at her desk, not bothered by the commotion earlier, her eyes still trained to the soap opera playing on her television.

The woman didn't even spare her a glance as she inched her way towards Faith's door. With every sound her boots made against the tiled floor, she looked instinctively over her shoulder expecting someone to stop her. Taking one last glance at the woman sitting at the desk, she slipped quietly into Faith's room closing the door softly behind her.

It was almost unnatural for her to see her dark counterpart so still. Whilst the brunette Slayer had been off searching the globe and picking up new Slayers they had still managed to rebuild their relationship and she would even consider them close. They had on occasion undertaken the century's old tradition of a movie night and sleepover and the blonde had always wondered how the dark Slayer could feel rested in the morning as she tossed and turned so much during the night.

Buffy looked around the room, knowing she couldn't break Faith out wearing a hospital gown and nothing else. In the small cupboard near the door she was lucky enough to find a pair of grey sweats and a simple white T-shirt.

"Faith," she hissed, once she grabbed the clothes and went back over to the bed.

She didn't want to draw attention to herself but also didn't want to invade the other Slayer's privacy by undressing her without her consent. The sedative the doctor had given her was strong and the brunette woman didn't stir. Buffy didn't have time to wait; she could be caught at any second and trying to explain why she was breaking a patient out of hospital was a conversation she'd rather avoid. She pulled the IV out of Faith's arm, apologising when blood trickled out of the small round laceration it left. She dressed the other woman quickly, making sure that she kept her eyes on the brunette's face; she only peeked once and that was only because Faith told her she'd checked herself out naked when she'd been wearing Buffy's skin and blonde had never had the chance to reciprocate.

"An eye for an eye," she muttered pulling the sweat pants up over Faith's legs.

Once she had Faith adequately dressed, she threw another glance over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't been spotted before moving over to the window. The hospital was only one storey high for which she was grateful because it made escaping through the window an easier task. There were steel bars across the window probably to discourage any such escape, but they proved to be no match for Buffy's Slayer strength. She had to twist them right off so that they would be able to fit through and she was positive the whole hospital had heard when the metal screeched loudly.

The Californian tried shaking the prone Slayer again but the sedative still kept her unconscious. Being careful not to knock the other woman's head on the edge of the bed she picked her up and threw her over her shoulder fireman-style to allow her to use her hands. Throwing one last glance over her shoulder, Buffy held Faith with one arm and manoeuvred them both through the window and down the short fall to the ground. She sighed in relief when no alarms went off and no one screamed out at her and she moved as quickly as she could towards the main street.

She could tell they definitely weren't in Cleveland anymore, it felt colder and the sky was overcast, and it was daytime, something it hadn't been when she was pulled through the portal. There went her idea of having hallucinated the past few realities. Buffy still didn't know if the person she had just rescued from the hospital was Faith, however.

She felt awkward carrying the taller girl over her shoulder and the few people that were walking along the sidewalk gave her weird looks before moving quickly past. It was difficult but she managed to flag down a taxi, noticing the sign on the side that proclaimed they were in Rochester, New York.

"Well at least I know it wasn't an evil portal," she said, relieved to finally have an idea of where she was.

The cab driver gave her a wary look when he pulled over and she manoeuvred the prone woman over her shoulder into the backseat.

"She's a drunk, you know hitting the booze early and then she'll be like this and it's always up to me to go and get her. I've said to her time and time again, Faith, you're going to kill yourself if you keep this up, but does she listen no and it's up to Buffy to pick up the pieces and I just don't know how much more of this I can take," Buffy said ready to turn on the crocodile tears if needed.