This Is How It Goes

They fought, twisted, danced for what felt like hours. Faith was fast, faster than them. Buffy blinked and Faith moved, weaved between them like they were standing still. Fists landed and bones shuddered, bricks disintegrated, dumpsters crumpled like aluminum foil. Buffy's shoulder felt like it was on fire, the fingers on her hand bent at odd angles, Angel was limping on his left leg, and Faith grinned lethally and looked invincible. What if they couldn't do this? What if they were both ended right here, because of some stupid spell gone wrong? Or what if she never got Faith back?

Buffy grit her teeth, felt a surge of resoluteness. No. She needed Faith. That couldn't happen. She looked around frantically as Faith and Angel were exchanging blows, picked up a trash can lid, and swung it as hard as she could at Faith's head. Faith spun, blood spurting from her lip, and Angel and Buffy moved in together, baseball bat and trash can lid flashing. Faith knocked Buffy's weapon out of her hand and slammed into her, sending her careening into the brick wall and pressing a forearm to Buffy's throat, pinning her. Through an oxygen-deprived haze Buffy saw Angel move up behind Faith, his face hard and determined, and swing the bat. Crack, and Faith was lying on the ground unconscious and Angel was holding onto half a bat uncertainly.

Buffy slumped against the wall, rubbing her throat and trying to inhale shakily. Angel grasped her arm gently.

"You okay?" he asked worriedly.

Buffy nodded. "How did you know?" she asked again, her voice hoarse and strangled.

"Giles called. He said Faith was acting strangely before, wanted to make sure nothing like this happened."

"Good old Giles," Buffy said, sighing. "Thank God for anal retentiveness."

They looked down at Faith's unconscious body. Buffy kneeled down, cupped her face with one hand and gently stroked Faith's cheek.

"How are we gonna get it out of her?" she asked, looking up at Angel.

He shook his head. "I don't know right now, but we'll figure it out. We always do."

Buffy stood up again and hugged herself, hearing Faith's savage words echoing in her head. Buffy Summers, hero and universal golden girl, Faith said, laughing and mocking. Buffy shut her eyes tight. Fuck the bad out of me, baby, Faith's voice said in a sardonic, twisted tone. She shivered. The real me, the one who's not crying like a little girl and stringin' you along like a bitch in heat.

Buffy felt arms around her and jumped, before realizing Angel was hugging her gently. He was just holding her, silently, strongly, and she pressed back into him. She didn't want to, knew she didn't have time, but she started crying, tears pouring out of her like those merciless words poured out of Faith. Angel held her as she shuddered, sobbing into his chest. Faith had said those things that existed deep inside Buffy, that gnawed at her self-certainty and hope in their relationship. That made her think that something deep and dark and twisted resided inside both of them. She felt a bright, burning drop of shame, thinking of how her body had reacted even then.

Angel held her until her sobs receded, until she was just left with a hole in her chest and an emptiness where Faith was supposed to go. Buffy pulled back, wiping her face. She gasped as her shoulder throbbed suddenly, clutching at it with white knuckles. Angel looked at it, grimacing. He grasped it with both hands, met Buffy's tight gaze, and suddenly wrenched it back into place. Buffy cried out, eyes shut tightly as the burning pain faded. She opened them to see him looking at her with a deeply empathetic, gentle gaze.

"I'm sorry," Angel said.

Buffy nodded, her eyes hard, her heart shattering. "Me too."

Chapter 26: How Things Work Smoothly

Author's Notes:

Buffy swung the library doors open roughly, marching in, eyes flashing at Giles and Wesley's startled faces.

"Get it out of her," she said without preamble.

Giles face fell while Wesley turned his head to one side and cursed. Giles sat down at the table, put a hand over his eyes and rubbed them gently.

Buffy opened her mouth to say more, possibly asking them why they were sitting on their asses while Faith was being devoured from the inside out, but she shut it as a woman, tall, slender, and rigid, walked out of Giles' office. The woman was surveying her with a type of detached interest, holding herself tightly, arms crossed in front of her chest. Buffy glanced at the sleek and obviously expensive suit she was wearing, at the impeccably shined high heels, and refrained, with difficulty, from sneering at her.

"Council, right?" Buffy asked insolently, looking her up and down appraisingly. The woman nodded. "Yeah, you guys have a certain smell."

The woman raised an eyebrow coolly. "Well, I can certainly see your reputation is warranted," she said, smiling slightly and looking utterly unfazed by Buffy's lack of politeness.

Wesley stepped forward, gesturing at the woman and eyeing her with something close to sycophantic terror. "Buffy, this is Meredith Taft. She is serving as the Council's envoy to assess Faith's involvement in the, uh, docks incident."

"I'd give you a house-warming cactus, Mere, but this isn't really the best time," Buffy said sweetly. She turned to Giles, her face hardening. "We used the shackles in Angel's mansion. She's unconscious, but we don't know how long that's gonna last. She's strong, Giles. Stronger than me and Angel together."

"I assume this is Faith Lehane you're discussing?" Meredith interrupted.

Buffy was momentarily distracted by the divulgence of Faith's last name. Had she really not known that? Lehane?

Buffy shot Meredith a quick glance before turning back to Giles. "You do have a plan, right?" she asked, half-hopefully, half-austerely.

"In the process," Giles admitted, and Buffy groaned, ran a hand through her hair.

"Giles," she stated firmly, taking a deep breath. "Some evil biblical demon has taken control of my girlfriend and is hollowing her out," she said through gritted teeth. "We don't have boatloads of time for processing."

Giles stood up, looking lost. He began pacing, rubbing his face. "Buffy, I — I don't even know where to start."

"Evil demon possession? Isn't that, like, what you butter your scones with?" Buffy asked irately. "Exorcism, anyone?"

Giles shook his head, stopping to look at her. "It's distinctly different from a demon possession, Buffy. This is — is Azazel's essence, not corporeal form. It's deeply intertwined with Faith's soul and body now. Attempting to remove it may kill her."

"Don't tell me that!" Buffy shouted furiously. She walked over to the table, put her palms out, her head down and arms shaking. "What about your contacts?" she asked abruptly, turning to Giles and Wesley.

Giles shook his head. "Nothing," he said quietly. Wesley wasn't looking at her, staring at the ground. "The box must have been endowed with some type of defense mechanism," Giles was muttering to himself, stroking his face wearily. "Any magic would have caused Azazel to abandon it, transfer to another body."

"This isn't happening," Buffy muttered hopelessly. "There has to be something. What — what about some sort of energy," she made a clenching motion with her fist, "sucking thingy? Like, extract it from her?"

"That may be our best hope. I'll begin researching potential spells, but Buffy, I cannot promise anything," he said gravely. "This is something we haven't dealt with before."

"I don't want to hear it," Buffy said heatedly. "You find me something. I'm not watching the girl I love be destroyed." She walked behind the library counter and grabbed the tranquilizer gun they used for Oz's transformations.

Without glancing at any of the people in the room, Buffy wrenched the doors open furiously and strode out. She heard Meredith's distant, cultured voice saying dryly, "She's certainly doesn't shy away from giving out orders, does she?"

~ — ~ — ~

Buffy was barely aware of her surroundings as she walked towards Angel's mansion. Her head was whirling with ideas, desperate denials, Faith's wild, black eyes, the words that felt more like corkscrews in her stomach. She strode into the mansion, seeing Angel standing with his back to her, watching Faith's still limp body on the ground.

"She waking up?" Buffy asked, walking over to stand beside him.

"She twitched a couple of times," Angel responded quietly. He glanced at the gun Buffy held. "Tranq?"

"Yup. We use this baby to keep wolfy Oz from tearing our throats out." She hefted it, cocked it. "And now we can use it to keep demony Faith from tearing our throats out. Wonder how many of my friends are gonna have to be forcibly sedated at some point."

There was a soft moan from Faith's body as she shifted slightly. Angel and Buffy tensed immediately, muscles tight and fingers gripping weapons. They stood, staring intently at the body on the floor for several moments, and then began relaxing as it appeared Faith wasn't regaining consciousness.

"Got a plan?" Angel asked.

"Define plan."

"I'm gonna take that as a 'no'."

Buffy sighed. "Giles said exorcism is out because whatever's inside of Faith is — is connected to her now. Like twisted up in her." She tried to keep her voice steady. "So, he's looking for some spell to remove the energy without — without killing her."

"He will," Angel said softly, looking at Buffy as her voice broke. "You'll get her back, Buffy."

Buffy didn't trust herself to answer. She forced a weak smile and walked over to the wall across from Faith, sliding down and leaning against it, the gun resting loosely in her lap. Angel joined her after a few moments, his back against the wall a couple of feet away.

Buffy stared at Faith as they sat in silence. The entire situation had a disturbing, unpleasant sense of dИjЮ vu to it. A lover changing dramatically and unexpectedly, suddenly turning cruel, sadistic, violent. It brought her back to last year, to memories she never wanted to remember again. She glanced at the vampire beside her, taking in his soft, brown eyes, how he had held her just hours ago. It had felt so surrealistic back then, so utterly and bizarrely jarring, because the creature he had turned into was the complete opposite of Angel. Nothing in Angelus retained any of his gentleness, his reverence, his silent affection.

Faith, though. Buffy closed her eyes, visualizing the other slaying, smirking and laughing. Faith had always straddled that line between cocky and dangerous, between rebellious and malicious. There was something so unstable about her, something jagged behind those steady, confident eyes. Everything she said tonight was something Buffy had thought about, every word about the false pretense Faith maintained, about discovering who she truly was, strengthened that little voice inside Buffy's head. The voice that said, "Doesn't it look like Faith enjoys fighting too much?" and, "She doesn't give a shit about the world — why would she give a shit about you?" Buffy compared how the two people she loved had transformed, and asked herself if it made it better or worse — the fact that what Faith changed into was so much closer to her true self than Angelus ever was to Angel.

"Thinkin' about me, B?" a rough, sardonic voice asked, and Buffy was jarred out her thoughts, snapping her eyes open.

Buffy jerked her head to see Faith on her back, propping herself on her elbows and smirking at her. She flinched as she met Faith's eyes, so black and fierce, saturated with violence and lust.

Buffy and Angel both stood up, positioning their limbs, shifting their weight automatically to prepare for attack. Buffy hefted the gun, put her hand close to the trigger.

Faith rose too, pushing herself up slowly and seductively. She leaned against the wall behind her, crossing her arms casually, the chains clinking against the each other. "You don't need that, B," Faith said, motioning her head at the gun and smiling. "I'll play nice."

Buffy didn't answer, her face tight and hard.

"What, don't believe me?" Faith asked, cocking her head. She laughed abruptly. "Nah, I wouldn't either." She pinned Buffy down with a piercing, searching gaze. "Bet I know what you were just thinking, B."

Buffy stared back, giving nothing away.

"Well, besides imagining me naked with chains, you were thinking that I've never played nice," Faith said, smirking and licking her lips slowly. "Even when you're trying to pretend that this isn't me, that I would never say those mean, hurtful things," she pouted, "some part of you wonders, doesn't it?" She pushed off the wall, walked towards Buffy languorously, her eyes glittering. "And some part of you, the nasty part, the one that gets high off killing and screams while I'm fucking you against a tree, wants to say screw it and join me."

Faith stopped several feet away, the chain stretching from the wall. She was smirking nonchalantly, but Buffy could see how the other Slayer was trembling, barely repressing the furious energy inside her. Buffy still didn't say anything, her stomach churning, her hands shaking.

"You think you can ignore it? You think you can ignore me? I know exactly what's inside of you, princess, because it's inside of me." Faith stopped smiling, just looked at her with wild eyes. "Give in, B. Feels too good not to. Do you remember how you begged me? Do you remember how good it felt to just let go? To let me spread those sweet thighs, to -"

"Shut up!" Buffy yelled furiously, suddenly, raising the gun and stepping forward. Angel stepped forward too, flicking his eyes back and forth between the two Slayers.

Faith grinned widely and moved. Buffy blinked and Faith was two feet in front of her, straining against the chain and smirking.

"Yeah, B. Shut me up. We'd both get off on it."

Buffy aimed the gun and pulled the trigger with a growl. The dart whizzed out and buried itself in Faith's thigh. Faith snarled and wrenched the chains, her face contorting in inhuman rage. Buffy backed up, began frantically reloading the gun.

"Buffy," Angel said anxiously.

She finished, cocked the gun, and shot a second dart into the other Slayer's stomach. Faith stared down at it, her face going slack, her eyes unfocused and eyelids fluttering, and collapsed onto the ground.

Buffy was breathing heavily, her blood coursing fast and hot. She turned her head to meet Angel's searching, concerned eyes.

"Well," a voice suddenly said behind them. "Certainly seems like you kids have your hands full."

They both whirled around, Buffy instinctively raising the gun again, and froze as the Mayor of Sunnydale met their startled gazes.

~ — ~ — ~

The Mayor was standing casually, hands in his pockets, small smile gracing his face, two vampires flanking him. Buffy and Angel gaped at him for a few silent moments before Buffy remembered that he was most definitely evil. She moved forward threateningly and the Mayor held up his hands in surrender while the vampires growled.