Archive of Our Own

Buffy tapped her nails on the tabletop and stared around the room.

"So, that's it then?" Willow asked, tugging at her hair gently, where it had long since gone grey - from her magic use, at first, but now at the age where she only looked slightly prematurely old for her age. "We're doomed?"

"I'm afraid so," Giles leaned back in his towering armchair, taking off his glasses and polishing them, and Buffy sighed, letting herself pretend for a moment that it was once again back when they had first met, and that his voice wasn't cracking with age, that his skin wasn't sallow and his hands shaking.

"But all we need is some book," Buffy pleaded, plaintively. "Right?"

"Not just any book," Giles rolled his eyes. "The Kathodicon Libram was one of the most significant texts in the demonic arts. And there were only three extant copies at the turn of the nineteenth century - one lost in the Great Fire of Boston in 1872, one in the First's bombing of the Council's headquarters … and the last, I am most ashamed to say, was entrusted to my care and was lost during the Mayor's ascension, when the Sunnydale High School burned down. I thought I had recovered all the truly invaluable works at the time, but when I conducted my audit afterwards …"

He trailed off, and Buffy let her eyes drift around the table, taking in who was there, and more importantly, who wasn't. Their gang had dwindled over the years, leaving the core of their planning council to shrink. Tara had been the first to die, but neither Anya nor Spike had made it out of Sunnydale either, falling into the sinkhole just like her when the town collapsed. Xander had died, next, a few years later, after they had left Sunnydale, in a worse apocalypse than usual, falling with a lot of the younger Slayers. Angel had passed away, having achieved his Shanshu, but still fighting evil, passing away in an unremarkable back alley against a normal vampire he would have had no trouble against just a few years earlier.

The list of casualties in their war had grown over the years and decades, both those Buffy knew well and those she only knew in passing. Slayers, demon hunters, witches, watchers. Robin Wood, Shannon, Wesley, Kennedy, Riley. No one had seen Oz in years. Buffy tried to remember all the names, but there were simply too many to learn them all these days. She had done so, for many years, committing every name to memory. She had insisted on gathering everyone together once a year for a memorial ceremony, reciting them, remembering their dead, but these days, she simply had to read them off a paper and didn't even recognize half the names.

No one was safe, anymore, either, as even Dawn had been killed by a demon almost a decade ago. Buffy had been absolutely distraught, and felt as if a piece of her had died that day. She had done everything she could to keep Dawn out of the fighting, but it hadn't been enough. As distraught as she had been, she hadn't been surprised. Things had clearly been going downhill for the past few decades, and only getting worse.

"So, if we need a copy of this book, and there aren't any left," Willow began, tentatively, her hand reaching up to toy with a strand of her grey hair. "What if … can we go get one?"

"How so?" Giles scrunched up his brows.

"Well, what if we went back in time?" Willow continued hesitantly.

"Willow," Giles admonished. "We can't."

"It's not possible?" Buffy groaned, burying her head in her hands.

"It's too dangerous," Giles corrected, and Buffy instantly perked up, staring at him.

"You mean, it can be done? I didn't know we could do that!" Buffy startled, looking back and forth between the two, taking in their grim expressions, only making the wrinkles on their faces look ages older than they already were. "How come we've never done that?"

"Because, Buffy, it's incredibly dangerous," Giles sighed, wearily. "You will be altering the timeline by going back in time. Those changes can have vast, unintended consequences - that you cannot predict. History is a delicate thread, stitched between the fabric of time, and by altering it, you can unravel everything that matters to you."

"That's not all, though," Willow winced. "Temporal Entanglement Implosion. If you meet your past self, it can have catastrophic consequences."

"What sort of catastrophic are we talking about here?" Buffy tilted her head.

"What sort of - it's called implosion, Buffy, take three guesses and discard the first two," Giles rubbed his head.

"Are we really considering this?" Willow asked. "Just to be clear?"

"It was your idea," Buffy rolled her eyes. "Why are you surprised?"

"I mean, it was my idea, but," Willow shrugged. "I wasn't sure we were that desperate."

"I think we might just be at last," Giles admitted, slumping down. "Without the Libram, we will not be able to avert this apocalypse and there are no copies left. The Council looked for centuries before it was destroyed, and found no copies besides those three."

"Which one are we going after, then?" Willow asked.

"Sunnydale," Buffy nodded decisively, and shrugged when the other two looked at her. "Boston in the 1800s, it's too far back - we won't fit in at all. Too much risk of being noticed, drawing attention, changing history or causing some sort of scandal. Plus, we don't know the area, the people, or anything about what to expect. Too many unknowns. Then, the Council Headquarters … they're not expecting us there, and while things got better about our relationship in the last few years, after Glory, I'd still never set foot in it, none of us ever had except Giles, and they might not be best pleased to see us. And any sort of delay, or unexpected problems and we'll still be inside when it explodes. And there absolutely will be unexpected delays and problems because the First is running around loose to mess with us. It has to be Sunnydale High."

"Two problems, Buffy," Giles sighed. "First, that is the only one of the three that risks temporal entanglement."

"That's a risk we'll have to take," Buffy shrugged.

"And second," Giles stressed. "You keep saying we. This will not be a group trip. At most, we can send one person back."

"He's right," Willow nodded apologetically. "And it can't be me. I have to hold the gate open on this side when I cast the spell for whoever it is to go through."

"It has to be me," Buffy nodded, feeling the assurance settle through her.

"No," she heard from off to her side, and turned, startled, to the last person who hadn't spoken yet, her right hand.

"No," Faith repeated, and leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "It has to be me."

"You?" Giles asked, tilting his head to the side quizzically, and Faith nodded.

"Think about it, G-man," she said, and leaned back again, her feet lifting up to rest on the legs of the table underneath.

Buffy took her in, her constant companion over the past few decades. Of all those who had fought, Faith had been in the front lines, right next to Buffy more often than not, and leading the other front whenever there were too many battlefields for just one general. She had never wavered, and despite being in the center of all the most pitched fighting, had come through all of it alive. She had scared Buffy more times than anyone, coming so close to death, but always pulling through.

"This is right before you blow up Sunnydale High, right?" Faith continued. "I'm in a coma, then. No chance I run into myself wandering around and trigger any sort of temporal entanglement, no imploding for me. Plus, bonus, every minor evil running around back then knew I was the Mayor's girl, and not to mess with me. If they see me running around, out of a coma, they won't question it, they just will leave me alone. All I have to do is keep a low profile, duck into the library, and retrieve the book from your valuable shelves when everyone starts filing out for the ceremony and is distracted. I'm the safest choice to send."

Buffy bit her lip, and prepared to counter her argument, but Willow turned to her. "She makes a good case, Buffy."

"Do you remember the library well enough, though?" Giles asked her. "You didn't exactly spend much time inside there."

"I remember," Faith smiled mirthlessly. "I can never forget."

She flicked her gaze over to Buffy, and gave a small, subtle gesture, who suddenly understood her meaning. Her dreams.

Their dreams.

Slayer dreams. On some level, every Slayer dreamed together, and as more and more Slayers had been activated over the years, Buffy's dreams had become more and more crowded. After Willow's spell to activate all the Slayers, after they had closed the Hellmouth, that night when they parked at a motel, every Slayer there had shared the same dream, startled awake at the same time. Buffy had gotten used to sharing her dreams with Faith over the years, had grown to accept it, to appreciate and enjoy it, even. Suddenly losing that privacy and sharing the most intimate parts of herself with all of her new sisters had been a much steeper learning curve.

She reminded herself that it was the price for her choice; that she had chosen the path they had set out on, she had chosen to activate the Slayers, she had chosen to awaken her sisters. That they were now joined together, permanently, had been her choice.

And over the years, she had learned that the dreams were not always the same. She didn't always dream with all every Slayer. Proximity made it more likely, as did familiarity, but some were just more in tune with each other than others were. Some Slayers she dreamed with once and then never again. Some she shared her nights with a few times over the years, despite sharing every one of her days with. And Faith, her most constant companion during the day, was also her most constant companion at night as well.

Slayer dreams were a strange mix of past and future, soothsaying prophetic foreknowledge and memories, and ever since more than one was active at the same time, a mix of the knowledge each brought to the dream as well.

And Buffy, she brought Sunnydale to the dreams. Slayers who had never fought in the final battle, who had not been in the Hellmouth before Spike closed it forever into a sinkhole, learned what the home of all Slayers was like.

Faith was right, in her assessment, that she would never forget the Sunnydale library, because she and Buffy spent most nights there, and the Bronze, and the Initiative headquarters, and the back alley where the Deputy Mayor had died, Buffy's house, Giles' apartment, the Espresso Pump, the Magic Box and everywhere else in the city that mattered to them.

"She's right," Buffy nodded, confidently. "She knows the library. She'll be able to find it, no problem."

"If that's the case," Giles nodded, in agreement. "Then I think that Faith is correct. She's the best choice to send back."

-

Faith walked into the room they had picked out, not in the Headquarters itself, but nearby, on some of the local ley lines that Willow had specially chosen. She nodded to the two Slayers standing guard at the door, before tilting her head back and forth to crack out her neck. This was one of the more terrifying assignments she'd had in the past decade, but she felt ready. She saw Willow kneeling on the floor by the ritual circle, taking in her appearance, eyes going wide, and Buffy stood up from the wall, also suddenly looking alert.

"What's up with the get up?" Buffy asked her, looking her up and down.

Faith tugged at the jean jacket she had dug out of the depths of her closet, and posed in the leather pants gone out and bought the night before. "Well, I figured if I was going to be back in the past, might be best if I looked the part. I know it's not my usual style these day, but, when in Rome …"

"Well, you'll probably get away with it if no one looks too closely," Buffy shrugged.

Giles walked in, taking in her appearance, with only a raised eyebrow, before walking over to sink to his knees next to Willow, and inspecting the markings on the floor carefully but quickly. "Are we ready to begin?"

But before anyone could answer, there was a disturbance at the door, and Buffy and Faith turned as one to face it. Faith could hear the clang of steel and impact of flesh from down the hallway as the exterior guards were engaged in combat, and the Slayers at the door grabbed the handles to the chamber and pulled it shut, locking the four of them inside.

"Start the ritual," Faith warned Giles. "Now."

Giles nodded, and he and Willow started chanting, in a language that Faith only barely recognized. She exchanged a glance with Buffy, who gestured her behind her sharply. Faith narrowed her eyes, not used to falling behind Buffy, but fighting by her side, but realized a moment later what her intent was.

If she was to take the portal, she wasn't the front line this time; she was a non-combatant, to be protected, just like Giles and Willow. Buffy would have to be the last line of defense - and based on the way her enhanced hearing could make out the sounds of violence coming closer, just outside, even through the heavy steel door, Buffy would be needed to provide that service.

Giles and Willow sped up their chanting, getting closer, but before they could finish, the door burst inwards, steel plates bending and shredding into ribbons as the demon on the other side appeared.

It was massive, taking up most of the corridor, a hulking, hunchbacked abomination, with scythelike talons for arms, that had clawed easily through the door and Kaley beyond, who Faith could see slumped dead against the wall beyond the creature. It had spikes sticking up from its shoulders, and with how it leaned forward, it was easy to see it charging and goring any opponent caught off guard. But most unnerving, its legs bent the wrong way; not the wrong way, Faith realized, but like a horse, the joints were all down at its foot.

She recognized it, one of the extradimensional invaders that represented the latest apocalypse threat they faced. Demons from another dimension that had opened a portal and whose scouts were trying to open a larger one, to let their entire army through.

Buffy swung the scythe down, preparing to meet the demon head on when it charged. It finally muscled its way in through the hole it had made in the door and leapt at her and Faith felt her heart freeze for a moment.

Buffy managed to parry its talon with the scythe though, and ducked and slid under it before popping back up and slashing at its side, eliciting a scream of pain from the creature which turned back around to face her. Just then the last of the Slayers still standing made her way in through the doorframe, bleeding heavily, and the two started circling the demon, warily.

The three took a few tentative slashes at each other, but held off on any major moves. And then, something changed in the air - Faith could feel it, and knew Buffy could too, at least, even if the junior Slayer might not be able to, their experience and attunement letting them sense the currents of magic. Giles and Willow were close, the ritual almost complete. And the demon could sense it too, shifting suddenly, its powerful leg coiling under it preparing to leap for the two spellcasters. Buffy's eyes widened and she started sprinting forward, trying to intercept it.

Faith found herself in motion too, aiming for the circle where the portal would form. "Finish the spell, now!"

Everything seemed to happen at once, the demon launching itself forward, and Faith saw out of the corner of her eye that Buffy managed to slash it with the scythe again, this time across the back of the neck, a killing blow. But the demon had already been in the air, and its blood sprayed, bright green, in a wide arc, splattering across the ritual circle and Faith herself, just as Giles and Willow finished chanting, and the air shimmered and she felt the familiar tingle on the back of her neck as her hairs stood on end and goosebumps erupted across her skin, the high voltage electric field sensation of powerful magic, as the time travel ritual finished and Faith found herself swallowed up by the magic, not knowing what effect the demon's blood would have.

Fuck.

-

Faith smashed into the grass, hard, and rolled, before getting her hand under her, just in time to control herself slightly before smashing into a tree. She found herself grateful for the leather pants and denim jacket she was wearing, giving her a weak armor to absorb the impact and protect her skin from the scrapes she would have suffered otherwise. She stood up, dusting herself off, and froze when her fingers brushed against the neon green blood on her sleeves.

The demon had died, Buffy had killed it, as she always did, but it had died in the ritual circle, gotten its blood everywhere. And these demons were from another dimension. It almost certainly messed up the ritual somehow.

She took a look around her, taking in her surroundings - the woods were familiar, not least because of the graveyard she well recognized that was just visible, poking through the trees ahead. If that was Restfield, then that meant she needed to go that way to get back to the center of town. And if she was in Sunnydale, which she apparently was, then the ritual had put her in the right place but the only way it could have gotten messed up was when it dropped her off.

She reached up, breaking off a small branch from the tree, and tucked it into her waistband, before she started trudging through the woods to town. Soon enough she found herself walking down the paved streets. She spotted a newspaper box in front of the Espresso Pump and walked over, bending down to check the date on it. She'd come a long way - back when she'd lived through this time period the first time, she'd have just want-take-have popped the lock and grabbed the newspaper, even though she didn't need to. Now, she just leaned down and checked the date.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the date, then winced. She was in roughly the right time frame, but too early. It was still May of 1999, but she hadn't fallen into a coma yet … which meant she didn't have long to wait to pick up the Libram, but that her past self was still running around on the Mayor's behalf around the town, and that there was danger of the whole implosion nightmare Giles had warned about.

She'd have to keep a low profile - and given that every vampire and demon and law enforcement officer and half the businesses in town were all reporting to the Mayor, and therefore her younger self these days, that narrowed her options considerably.

She winced again and started trudging back for the graveyard - maybe she could find an abandoned crypt to use for the night, and figure out something more long term in the morning.

Her good luck had run out though, as apparently getting through the graveyard once and into Sunnydale downtown and back was all she could hope for without running into a commotion of some sort in these days. She heard the sounds of a struggle from up ahead, and glided, silently, through the graveyard to observe what was happening, to see if she needed to rescue anyone or hide away.

But as she came upon the clearing in the trees, even before she saw who was there, fighting, she sensed it. Every type of demon had a specific sense, and there were two that she could recognize above all others: vampires, and her sisters. And what she felt ahead, was another Slayer. Which, in this time, could mean one of only two people, not hundreds. And she recognized the exact tingling sensation of who was in front of her, knew that feeling by heart; she had felt that frequency so many times, that she couldn't not recognize it, the exact flavor and frequency. The Slayer sense wasn't like any other sense, there was no direct analogue for it, not touch or smell or sight or taste or hearing. It was information that was never meant to be interpreted by the brain, that it was stuck trying to make sense of, and it came across as a jumble of information as a result.

And Faith felt the familiar rush of high voltage-hairs on end-danger-funhouse mirror that meant Slayer and the fresh cut grass-lollipop-kip up-sunrise-gravedirt that had always meant Buffy. She slowed down, traveling as stealthily as she could to take stock of what lay ahead, pausing behind a tree.

Buffy was fighting a pair of vampires, and doing alright, but as Faith watched, she slowly started to get overwhelmed, though Faith couldn't see why. There was nothing special about those two vampires; they were just like any other vampires that Faith had ever seen, not particularly powerful or notable in any way.

And then she suddenly realized what it was, why Buffy was on the back foot, getting pressured backwards, and slowly being driven to the point where she would be soon in danger.

It was her.

It was Faith.

Buffy had never developed her Slayer sense as much as some of the others, but she still could obviously sense there was something out there, someone out there, watching her, waiting. She was struggling against those two lesser vampires because she could sense Faith, even if she couldn't sense what she was, couldn't sense where she was in the darkness, could tell that something was out there watching her, and thought Faith was hunting her.

One of the vampires held back for a second, and Faith could see his plan, the way he would wait a moment for the other one to attack and then lunge for Buffy when she was distracted parrying him, and how she would be in trouble.

Faith had been told to stay out of things, to avoid changing the past, to not have any impact on what had already happened. But she had only been here for a few hours, and already just her mere presence had already warped things to the point where Buffy's life was in mortal danger, not even with her doing anything.

Faith moved then, not stopping to think things through, springing out of the trees, pushing down with all of her enhanced strength to go flying straight at the vampire preparing to ambush Buffy. Her hand flicked to her waist, picking out the impromptu stake she had broken off earlier in a well-practiced motion. She reached out with her other hand, grabbing the vampire's shirt collar, and tugged as she passed him by, dropping down to the ground, flipping him over her, and then continuing to rise upwards and pressing the stake into his heart in a single smooth motion.

She spun around, but Buffy had already taken advantage of the distraction to dispatch her own vampire, and followed through to face Faith, stake still raised. Then she paused, as they faced off against each other, breathing heavily.

"Faith?" Buffy asked, panting, confused.

Faith took a moment, hoping she could still salvage this. Maybe she could convince Buffy that she was her past self, here to mess with her, and get out of this situation without ruining history too badly.

"That's right, B," she started, trying to remember how she had talked back then.

"Why are you here?" Buffy said, tensing, flexing, and slowly stalking around her, and Faith started circling in turn.

"Why you think?" Faith said. "Gotta keep you on your toes, sis."

Buffy's nose scrunched up but she kept circling. "That's why you're doing this? To what, test me? Test yourself?"

Why had she done all this, Faith thought to herself, racking her memory.

"No," Faith shrugged. "Because I couldn't trust the Watchers to have my back. So of course I had to get away. And then the Mayor didn't really care that I had killed anyone, so I felt safer with him, than I did with you all."

"That's crazy!" Buffy protested, her feet crossing over each other as they circled. "The Mayor is evil! He's killing people! Don't you care?"

"Of course I care," Faith rolled her eyes. "What choice do I have, though?"

Buffy paused then, her motions freezing for a second, stuttering. It was nearly imperceptible, but then her steps slowed, and she eventually came to a stop. She stared at Faith, quizzically, as if trying to put a puzzle together, as if staring at one of those magic eye images that was one thing and then suddenly shifted into something else.

"You're - you're not Faith," Buffy blinked.

"What?" Faith tilted her head. "Yes, I am!"

"No, you aren't," Buffy repeated, slowly gaining confidence.

"Come on, can't you feel it? That electric little thrill of wrongness that's the universe telling your Slayer sense another Slayer is right there in front of you when there should only ever be one of us?" Faith asked her, shifting her stance aggressively, but Buffy just relaxed and dropped her stake down to her side, letting her guard down.

"Oh, I feel it," Buffy admitted. "I don't know how you're doing that, no one's ever fooled that sense before. But you aren't her. You're different. Too ... mature. Faith isn't you. Not in a million years."

"A million?" Faith smirked at her, before sighing and dropping her own stake, letting her own muscles untense. "No. But thirty? Yeah, that'll do it."

"Thirty -" Buffy started before trailing off. "Wait. You're, you are her."

"Thought you just said I wasn't, B," Faith shrugged and tucked her stake away before tucking her hands in her pockets. "Make up your mind."

"You're her, but, from the future?" Buffy asked, lips quivering.

"Fuck, I shouldn't have admitted that," Faith rubbed her hand through her head. "Can we just pretend I didn't say anything?"

"You're Faith ... from the future ..." Buffy repeated. "And you're back here. But you aren't trying to kill me?"

"No?" Faith tilted her head. "I'm not supposed to be seen by anyone but I kind of blew that already."

"You saved me," Buffy continued, trying to process her way through Faith's change of personality from what she was used to. "From those vampires. But why?"

"Cause I'm not supposed to change anything in this time period, but then I accidentally got too close to you and you could sense me, got distracted fighting those basic vampires, cause you kept expecting the lurking supernatural horror to ambush you when your back was turned, and almost got yourself killed way too soon," Faith threw her hands up exasperatedly.

"Too soon?" Buffy paled and her hand clenched around her stake again. "Damnit, I thought you were redeemed, but this is all just so, what, you can kill me at the right time?"

"What? No, B," she groaned. "When I come back from, which is decades from now, by the way, literal decades, you are still very much alive. And healthy. In fact, you were the last person I saw before I jumped in the portal. You're back there in the future guarding the portal, waiting for me to return, and the only reason I'm the one back here and you're the one up there and not the other way around is because you are busy running around Sunnydale right now and really bad time implode-y things happen if you meet your past self and we agreed it was a lot safer to send me instead of you."

"No, that can't be right," Buffy shook her head, disbelievingly, and Faith threw up her hands. "You can't be from the future!"

"Why?" Why not?" Faith grumbled.

"Because!" Buffy waved at her. "You look exactly like Faith does right now! How can you be, what, forty, fifty years old? And still look like, like -"

"Ah," Faith's mouth worked open and closed. She looked around her, where they were still standing in the middle of a graveyard. "Look, it's a long story and I'm really supposed to be keeping a low profile - I was going to find a crypt to crash in for the next week or so - you can tag along if you really want to keep asking me questions."

"Eww," Buffy scrunched her nose up. "A crypt? You're really gonna sleep in a crypt?"

"Well, I'm not exactly spoiled for choice," Faith shrugged, and started walking out of the clearing, deeper into the cemetery, scouting out potential crypts. "I can't let anyone know I'm here so I can't crash with anyone and the Mayor has his eyes on every hotel and motel in the city. Besides, it's not like it'll be the worst place I've ever stayed - beats prison."

"Prison - no, wait," Buffy held up her hand. "You let me know you're here."

"I didn't have a choice!" Faith protested. "Your life was in danger just by my being here apparently, cause you could sense me just being in town, and I had to intervene to save your life and I tried to convince you that I was just me from back now, but you wouldn't believe me!"

"Well, so, my point was," Buffy blushed slightly and continued, undeterred. "I know you're here, now? So, why couldn't you come back to my place, instead of a crypt?"

Faith stopped, turning to face Buffy.

"I mean, you can probably crash in the basement or something, if you really don't want mom to know you're here? It has to be nicer than a crypt," Buffy trailed off.

"You serious, B?" Faith asked her, disbelievingly.

"Yeah?" Buffy tilted her head, confused.

"I'm just saying," Faith shrugged slightly. "The other me is out there trying to murder you. How can you be trusting me to stay in your house?"

"You saved me though," Buffy shrugged back, and started walking again, turning to start angling towards her house, Faith following along, knowing the exact path she was taking. "And I mean, I guess … you're from the future, right? So, you know what this Faith, what she's thinking, right?"

"Yeah," Faith agreed, hopping up onto the curb and walking alongside it, balancing easily with her reflexes, subconsciously, as they reached the sidewalk. Buffy rolled her eyes, and simply walked along the sidewalk instead. Faith, egging her on, instead turned around and started walking backwards on the curb.

"So, I just, ever since the alley - she said how she didn't care that she killed a man -" Buffy blinked, looking away. "I don't get how she can really feel that way? And the few times I've seen her since, I guess, I kind of felt like maybe there was still some good left in her? Something to be saved? Am I crazy?"

Faith let out a deep sigh. "You're not crazy. She can be redeemed. I did feel guilty, felt awful about what happened, what I did. But I was just in so deep, in so far, that I didn't see a way out that didn't end with me going down. I didn't trust Giles. I barely knew him, and after that whole Cruciamentum thing he put you through, how could I expect him to have my back? I sure as heck didn't trust Wesley, or the rest of the Council. There's only supposed to be one Slayer, B. Why wouldn't they just ice me when they had you, the golden girl? Course, you were the original model, and I was the one the line was running through, so if they did kill me off, they could just get rid of their problem child and start all over again with a new girl. One who was a lot easier to control."

Buffy went to protest, but Faith waved her off, before doing a backflip, over a mailbox that was blocking the curb, landing perfectly and continuing to walk along the curb without breaking her stride.

"You told me once, about the girl who came between us - Kendra?" Faith told her. "How she was raised practically from birth to be a Slayer, trained by the Watchers, taken away from her parents. That she was the one they wanted, their little pet. I guess, in my head, all I could see was that any normal girl would go to jail for murder, or worse. Why wouldn't they get rid of me, when they never wanted me as their Slayer in the first place?"

"That's why you joined the Mayor?" Buffy asked her. "Because you thought he would protect you from the Watchers?"

Faith nodded. "Yeah. Any port in a storm, right? I knew he wasn't a good guy. But hey, he didn't care that I'd killed a guy. Considered it a plus. I felt safer with the guy trying to end the world than with the good guys. Crazy, right? But that's the state of mind I was in."

"That - that actually helps," Buffy admitted. "Makes me think there's a chance I can talk you around?"

"Oh, you can't do that," Faith shook her head. "No chance of that. You get the chance, and you will, you take me down, hard. Understand? There's going to come a moment, not too long from now, when you have a choice. Her or you. And you have to take me down to save someone you care about a very great deal."

"But - wait, but if I kill you -" Buffy tilted her head, confused. "How can you be here -"

Faith sighed. "A lot happens, B. Just - don't let your emotions get in the way, okay? Promise me that. That moment, it's one of the most important moments between us, the two of us, in our history. That moment defines the next decades."

"You keep saying decades," Buffy protested. "But you haven't explained how you're still only eighteen! Are - wait, did you get turned into a vampire?"

"No, worse," Faith shook her head. "I got made a Slayer."

She balanced on first one foot, then the other, hopping back and forth, to navigate between a series of overturned garbage bins laid across the curb, never once breaking her stride.

"How are you doing that?" Buffy finally gave in and asked her, as she turned, backwards, onto Revello Drive, her many dreams of Sunnydale granting her perfect familiarity with the city.

"Let's get inside, B," Faith bit her lip. "This isn't the sort of thing we should talk about out in the open."

She finally stopped walking along the curb, hopping downwards, leading the way to the Summers residence, waiting for Buffy to enter. Buffy disappeared inside before returning a few moments later.

"It's all clear," she reported. "Mom's out on a buying trip down in LA tonight. She'll be back tomorrow, though."

"Right," Faith nodded, hopping up the porch steps, before stopping right before the door, crossing one hand across the threshold to prove her humanity. "Not too late to change your mind. Those crypts really aren't that bad, Sunnydale has a primo scene for them."

"Just get in here," Buffy rolled her eyes, before stepping backwards. "I grabbed some blankets and pillows from the linen closet, and a spare pair of my pajamas, if you want them?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Faith nodded. "Actually, you mind if I toss these in the wash and take a quick shower? I'm concerned about the demon blood affecting the return ritual, messing it up, so I wanna get it off."

"Oh! Sure, the washing machine is -" Buffy started but Faith interrupted her.

"In the basement, yeah," Faith nodded, already starting for the stairs down. "I got it."

"You do your clothes here a lot?" Buffy asked her, following behind her.

"I mean, things got pretty cramped here that last year, and we all pitched in with chores," Faith shrugged, reaching the bottom of the stairs and starting to strip out of her clothes before throwing them in the washer. "But besides that, there's a good chance we'll both be doing the laundry tonight."

"What?" Buffy asked as she turned the corner and came down the stairs. "Oh! You're - you're very naked."

"What - oh, shoot, sorry, B," Faith apologized, already loading the detergent up. "You said it was just us? I - I kind of forgot you weren't - well, you, given how you look just like yourself. We've never really been that self-conscious around each other. I mean, not anymore. Not after the first few decades. And I had any modesty burned out of me in prison."

"Okay, that's it, start explaining the whole, whole not aging thing," Buffy protested, squeezing her eyes shut tightly and wagging her finger at Faith. "And the whole prison thing! And the extra gymnastic-y thing! And the dream thing! Why are you so, so -"

"More? More of a Slayer?" Faith chuckled, pressing the start button, and hopping up on the dryer to sit down as the washer rumbled to life.

Buffy opened her eyes, agog, at the rumbling noise. "You know how to work the washer? I don't even know how to do that, mom has to!"

She stared for a moment, before realizing that Faith was still naked and then let out a squeal and hurriedly slammed her eyes shut again and turning around to face away from Faith in a desperate attempt to avoid seeing her.

"B, chill, you can stare," Faith rolled her eyes. "You've seen all this before. And will again. Assuming I haven't broken time permanently. But to answer your questions … the answer is that I am. More. More of a Slayer than you are."

"What?" Buffy whirled back around, and opened her eyes, giving up her attempts to avoid seeing Faith. "What does that mean?"

"Okay, so," Faith ran her hand through her hair, fully aware of the way that Buffy's eyes dropped down to her breasts at the motion, smirking slightly, enjoying the way she could fluster the younger version of her friend. "We got called as Slayers, right? Got the full upgrade package? Be all you can be? Ten out of ten on the supernatural powers scale compared to any demon or vampire? But a few years go by from now, and along comes an apocalypse. A really, really bad one. Worse than any we'd had up until then. And we'd had some really mondo killer bad apocalypses -"

"That's the plural?" Buffy muttered to herself.

"Some really bad ones up until then," Faith repeated. "So, remember we're grading on a curve here. But, and trying not to spoil too much and jeopardize the future here, we come up with a plan. We find a way to cast a spell. Not every girl can be a Slayer, you see. It takes … Potential. Only some have the mystical spark buried in them to even be able to get called in the first place, right? So we find a way to call them. All of them. Every girl who could be a Slayer, is a Slayer. Every Potential activated, just like that."

Faith reached in front of her chest, and snapped her fingers, and watched as Buffy's eyes went wide.

"All of a sudden, we had an army of girls, an army of Slayers," Faith continued. "But you and me, we were the last two who were Chosen. The only two who got called before that spell got cast. And that spell … well, it was kind of a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type deal, made at the last minute to deal with the end of the world. The witch who wrote it, she didn't plan out every possible loophole and contingency with the thing. The sort of jump first and figure out where the parachute is once you're out of the plane type of spellcaster, yeah? It activated everyone who was a Potential, ever. And we were Potentials. Weren't anymore because we had already been Chosen. But we had once been. Spell didn't care. So it pushed that Slayer upgrade package onto us, the one we had already received. Instead of ten out of ten on the supernatural power scale, you and I, we suddenly went to eleven out of ten. Be even more than you can be."

Faith swallowed heavily. "Those weren't fun weeks. We didn't realize what had happened, at first. After the world didn't end, everything was just … chaos. Sunnydale was just … uninhabitable, so we had all left, and had to find new places to live. Watchers were basically gone so we were stuck picking up the pieces, and with hundred of new Slayers out there, suddenly discovering their powers - well, you can imagine just how insane everything was. Suddenly we were General Buffy and General Faith, trying to piece together everything that had broken in the world. And if our powers were a little on the fritz, well, we weren't weaker, we were just hitting the bad guys harder, had a little trouble controlling ourselves in sparring sessions, hey, it just added to our legendary status and it was understandable, we were dealing with the weight of the world."

She shrugged, uncrossing and crossing her legs, and watched Buffy swallow as her eyes tracked downwards before firmly fixing upwards.

"Fast forward again, a decade or so, and we've gotten things mostly under control," Faith kept explaining, leaning forward and dropping her voice lower. "More apocalypses come and go, but we have it handled. Then along comes another one, another really bad one. The worst one yet. One we can't handle. Can't possibly handle. Not our fault, just, they're cheating. It's like a wedding. We need something old. Something really, really old to beat them. Fortunately, we just so happen to have that something old lying around in the basement of our headquarters. A … primal upgrade kit, for Slayers. Passed down, from generation to generation, all the way back from the founding of our line. You'd considered using it before, but the price for it was really high. You thought it wasn't worth it and just said no, flat out, and threw the thing in a box to collect dust. But now, you didn't have a choice."

Faith paused, to take a deep breath. "But you jump, I jump, Jack. So we both took it, that primal upgrade to stop that really bad apocalypse. I wouldn't let you go alone. And now, the two of us went from an eleven out of ten to a twelve out of ten. We'd crossed over the line where most Slayers live, where they're mostly human but pushed beyond, still human but upgraded, extra, and you and I have gone so far past that line that we're … we're not really human anymore. I mean, we still walk the walk, talk the talk, look the part, B."

Faith gestured down at her body, emphasizing how very human she looked.

"But inside? I know your Slayer sense was never the strongest, B," Faith bit her lip. "But I gotta feel different to you, compared to how I used to feel, back in this era, right? I feel more intense, right?"

"You … you do kind of have more tinglies," Buffy admitted.

"That's cause we passed human by a long ways back, Buffy," Faith sighed deeply. "We both regret it. It - it really sucks that this happened to us. Especially because we didn't know it was happening. We made our choices, every step of the way, we made them willingly, but we didn't know what it would cost us in the end. We've talked about it, though, and the thing of it is, we'd both still choose this path, even if we had known. All our sisters, all the other Slayers, we wouldn't give them up for anything. And we've saved the world, so many times, saved so many lives, people we care about, people we barely know. We didn't know the bargain we were making when we made it, and we hate that we didn't get to choose with full knowledge, that that wasn't our choice, but we wouldn't change it for anything in the world."

Faith let the admission hang heavy between them for a long moment, allowing Buffy to process the terrible fate she'd laid out for her. Buffy crossed over to the couch in the basement, sitting down, burying her face in her hands.

"Anyway," Faith spun around, crossing her legs under her, facing Buffy, after the silence had dragged on so long that the washer beeped. "That's where all the rest of it comes into play. Our abilities got heightened, more and more. Strength, reflexes, balance. That's how I can walk backwards balancing like that, how we can take on demons that other Slayers can't. We can hear things that our sisters can't, see further in the dark than they can. It turns out, we didn't know this until recently, because there hadn't been any Slayers who had lived that long, that the whole Slayer magic extends your lifespan. Kind of ironic, given how we all die so young."

She rubbed her hand through her hair again. "It extends our lifespan for most Slayers. For us, you and me … that triple whammy, we just don't age, at all, period. Ever again. We're going to live forever, barring a violent end. We didn't realize for a while. For a long while. We got lots of teasing about being "well preserved" and "aging like fine wine" but it wasn't until Xander and Willow and even Dawn had wrinkles and grey hair and we still looked like this - just like this - that we actually sat down and tried to figure out what was going on. And by then … it was too late for us to do anything. We'd already made our choices."

"It's not too late," Buffy looked up at her, plaintively, face still half buried in her hands. "I mean, for you it is, but for me …"

Faith instantly hopped down off the dryer and crossed over across the room, sitting on the couch next to her and pulling her into a hug from the side, cradling her.

"Don't, B," she pleaded. "Please. I know it's scary, I get it. Believe me, I really do. But you and I, we're happy. There's a lot in our time that isn't great, believe me, but this? This isn't one of the things that we want to change."

They sat there in silence again, Faith leaning back, with Buffy cradled against her chest, sobbing, while Faith stroked her back.

"Tell you what," Faith told her. "Why don't I go take a quick shower and wash off this demon blood and then I'll grab you some ice cream and we can cuddle, okay?"

"Only if you put clothes on," Buffy muttered.

"Like I didn't see you staring at the goods," Faith teased her. "And hey, upside, you never have to worry about sagging or stretch marks."

She stood up, walking over to the stairs, stretching out, making sure to flaunt her curves and put an extra wiggle in her step as she walked away. "We always look this good."

Just before she headed up the stairs for a shower though, Buffy called out after her. "Faith? You said before - 'even Dawn had wrinkles'? Who's Dawn?"

Faith groaned, and buried her head in her hand.

Fuck time travel.

-

The air was thick and heavy in the cave as the clang of steel and roar of monsters echoed around her. Faith finished off her opponent, only to turn and see Buffy laying down, on the ground, red spreading across her stomach from a wound. Another version of Buffy hung over herself, taunting her, but disappeared when Faith approached.

"Hold the line," Buffy told her, her voice resolute, and passed up her weapon, the scythe. Faith took it, awestruck, and returned to the fight, clearing a path in front of her friend, her sister, her companion, ensuring that she stayed safe behind her, the other newly called Slayers falling in around her to form a defensive line anchored around her.

The battle raged on and on, until Buffy signaled the retreat, their mission complete. Faith stopped on the way out to squeeze Spike's hand in acknowledgement, before rising back to the surface.

She startled awake, the quiet of the Summers residence a sudden change from the cacophony of the fall of Sunnydale. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting her senses stretch out, to see if there were any disturbances nearby, but she couldn't hear anything in the vicinity that didn't belong.

She shook off the blanket, and padded her way up from the basement to the first floor, intent on heading out to the back porch for some fresh air. It was times like these that she regretted giving up smoking, as it was the perfect ritual for her to help relax at times like these, and with her enhanced healing, she didn't need to worry about petty downsides like cancer.

She got to the back door, but before she could open it, a sound interrupted her, and she froze. It was quiet, a muffled voice, not quite screaming, but in pain.

It was Buffy's.

Faith changed direction, heading up the stairs, opening the door to her room, and sat down on her bed, shaking her awake gently. "B. B, wake up."

Buffy didn't react for a long moment before finally startling, reaching for a stake, which Faith parried with ease, and then slumping as she realized where she was and exactly who was with her.

"Sorry," Buffy whispered. "I thought you were ... you."

"Your 'Let The Good Times Roll' bowling pajamas weren't a tip off that I'm the version of Faith who isn't homicidal?" She quirked her eyebrow up and watched Buffy giggle slightly. "You alright?"

"Huh?" Buffy asked her, then nodded, blushing shyly. "Oh, yeah, I was just having a nightmare, apparently. Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"That wasn't a nightmare," Faith shook her head back and forth. "It was the dreaming."

At Buffy's blank look, she ran her hand through her hair and slid up on the bed to sit next to her. "Shit, we haven't had it yet, have we?"

"No? The dreaming? What?" Buffy asked her, confused.

"Slayer dreams," Faith explained. "You've had them, right? Prophetic, can show you the future? Mix of foreknowledge of what's to come, but interpreted through the lens of your memories and experiences. Deeply meaningful and profound? And they can be shared by Slayers. Every Slayer."

"Oh no," Buffy groaned. "There's another catch to this whole thing?"

"Not really?" Faith shrugged. "You and I, well you and mini me, the kid, you two should start sharing dreams soon if you haven't already. Physical proximity, being in the same city is enough, intense emotions, those things can trigger it. At first, we share them every once in a while, maybe once a year. But more Slayers around, means more Slayers to have a dream to be shared, means it happens more frequently. If you're in a small town on patrol, by yourself, you might get them rarely or never. If you're in our Headquarters with dozens or more of our sisters nearby, you could be in the dreaming every single night."

"Okay," Buffy nodded along.

"And there is a bit of a catch, it's another one of those powers that you and I got pushed harder," Faith shrugged. "We tend to dream more often than the rest of our sisters."

"You keep calling them our sisters," Buffy whispered.

"This is why," Faith told her. "Because in the dream, you see everything, can know everything. That fight in the cave, that really happened. It's never a hundred percent accurate, but, that's basically how that battle really went down."

"I - wait, that was real?" Buffy paled. "I got run through!"

"Yeah," Faith nodded at her. "And I held the line until you could heal up enough to rejoin the fight."

"I, I saw another me, taunting me -" Buffy started and Faith nodded again.

"Yeah, that happened too," Faith admitted. "Bitch loved using your face most of all. Could only use the face of those who had already died, and, well, you counted, cause, I'm here, aren't I?"

"The First," Buffy realized, groaning, and banged her head back against the wall. "You and I fought it at Christmas. It comes back?"

"Oh, with a vengeance," Faith nodded. "What it taunted you with, that's private, just for you, though. I don't even know what she said to you."

"Wait," Buffy wrinkled up her nose, confused. "If you don't know what it said to me, how could it say that stuff to me, then?"

"Because," Faith smiled at her. "That's how the dreaming works. You, the other you, your future self, knows what she said. Dreamed it. Into my mind. So now that information is in my head. We, all of us Slayers, we're much more than the sum of our parts these days. I still have messages and memories up here from girls, our sisters, who have died. Their last wills. It's what we do. Share pieces of ourselves so that if and when we fall in battle, the rest of our sisters can still remember us, we can still live on in the dreaming."

"That's ..." Buffy bit her lip. "That's kind of sad. And beautiful? We're haunted, but ..."

"You started the tradition," Faith told her. "I mean, yeah, we're haunted by the dead, but it means we get to live on. No Slayer forgotten. Not while any of us draw breath. We've come a long way from now, from when we could just die and disappear and no one would know our name or remember us. The Watchers keep their records but that doesn't really mean anything. Names and dates don't mean anything about who a Slayer was, what she liked, what her personality was."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "I, I think that was my greatest fear. Even more than getting turned into a vampire. Than losing my humanity. Being forgotten."

Faith reached out, squeezing her hand reassuringly, and let the silence of the late night overtake them.

"So this is going to happen more?" Buffy eventually asked her, after a long quiet.

"I'm here for a week, so, might be every night. Probably will be," Faith admitted. "I'm sorry."

"No, it," Buffy bit her lip. "It's kind of reassuring? Seeing what happens? Getting a hint of what to expect."

"Yeah, that makes me feel way better," Faith snorted. "Knowing I'm screwing up the past even more."

Buffy squeezed her hand back.

"Do you think, though," Buffy asked tentatively. "Maybe you could stay up here for the night? Just in case we enter ... the dreaming? ... again? I think I'd feel more comfortable if, knowing that you were here with me, rather than all the way downstairs? I just need to get a few more hours if I'm going to be any use at school tomorrow and I don't think I'll be able to alone."

Faith blinked and looked at Buffy, and nodded slowly.

"Yeah," she said. "I can do that. Lay down."

Faith scooted down the bed herself, reaching out to pull Buffy into her side, wrapping an arm around her, letting their breathing start to synchronize and slow. She made sure she was on the outside, trusting her own finely honed reflexes to deal with any threat quicker than this Buffy's more green ones.

-

Somehow, Faith made it through the rest of the week without causing any more damage to history that she could see. She had managed to stay hidden in Buffy's house or in the various graveyards around town; Buffy had convinced her mom to stay out of town on Slayer business, with Giles' help, with the upcoming Ascension looming over things. Once Joyce had packed her bags and left town, Faith had had free run of the Summers house at Buffy's invitation.

The arrangement had worked out wonderfully for both of them; Faith had somewhere safe and quiet to stay where she didn't risk discovery, while Buffy was a disaster at basic household chores like cooking and cleaning, which Faith had an entire lifetime of experience with by this point in her life.

And somehow, every night, Faith fell into bed with Buffy. Not in a sexual way, just holding her, comforting her, from the inevitable dreams that came along with her presence. Buffy would wake up and ask her questions, questions that Faith tried to avoid giving her too much information about, to avoid letting her know about the future in too much detail, but it was obvious that Buffy was figuring things out, putting the puzzle pieces together.

And then, finally, came the day when Buffy didn't come back. Buffy had always returned in the afternoon to at least drop her stuff off and let Faith know what was happening in the outside world, but that day, she didn't. She didn't return all afternoon, all evening. Faith kept pointedly not glancing at the calendar, knowing exactly what day it was.

It was the day she shot Angel with poison. The day she and Buffy fought. The day she fell off the roof and into a coma. The day Buffy let Angel drink from her and wound up in the hospital room right next to her.

She tried so hard not to panic, not to worry that something went wrong, that her presence had altered things somehow. She knew she had to let events play out just the way that they had, that if she interfered further it could only make things worse, but also knew that not doing anything was driving her mad. Finally, she raided Buffy's weapons chest for a pair of hatchets and went into the backyard, practicing her forms on a tree there, devastating the trunk, whirling and slamming the blades home over and over.

Hours later, when her body was coated in sweat, she finally felt it, the reassuring tingle at the nape of her neck, the fizz of swimming in the ocean-cherry cola-pom poms-fresh brewed coffee-mourning veil and she smiled, relief flooding through her as she slammed the hatchet home once more.

"Took your time getting back," she called over her shoulder.

"I was in the hospital," Buffy told her, weakly.

"I know," she admitted, and leaned forward, resting her forehead against the tree. "I'm in the coma?"

"Yeah," Buffy said.

"And Angel, he's alright?" she asked. "Got the blood he needed?"

"Yeah," she said again, voice quiet.

"You okay? I know the Mayor was there," Faith asked her, her chest heaving.

"I'm fine," she admitted.

"The kiss?" Faith tilted her forehead, and could feel Buffy startle.

"How do you know about that?" Buffy asked her.

"How do you think, B," she shrugged. "No secrets in our dreams."

"Apparently there are," Buffy's voice hardened. "You didn't warn me about tonight."

Faith let out a deep breath and turned around to face her at last, taking in her wan complexion, the bandage on her neck. "It was the hardest thing I've done since I came back here. I was terrified to. That moment, tonight, it, it defined me. Defined us. For years. Defines who we are. Tonight, even as much as the night I stabbed Allan, this night made me who I am. I couldn't risk changing it."

Buffy stayed hard, stern, for a moment, but then took in her shaking, shuddering body and crossed the yard, taking her up in a hug, wrapping her arms around her, and Faith let herself go limp in her arms, let the tension that had been filling her all day leave her body, and started shaking more.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," she admitted. "I wanted to be at the hospital for you, to hold you. But, well, your friends, Giles, the Mayor - they were all there. I -"

"I get it, Faith," Buffy nodded. "Way too dangerous for you to be anywhere near there."

"I'm glad you're okay," she said, hugging Buffy back.

"Me too," Buffy said. "And I'm glad you turn out okay, too. That the coma isn't permanent."

"Almost time for me to go back home," Faith reminded her. "Graduation is tomorrow. I need to get the book from the library for Giles, and then I'm out of here before I can cause any more damage."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded, and shook her head. "I get it now. Why you're doing this during the graduation ceremony. That's when the Mayor has his Ascension ritual planned. And our plan we came up with to stop him - we're blowing the school up to stop him. That's why you're taking the book tomorrow, isn't it? Because it's going to get destroyed during the explosion. It all just clicked when we came up with the plan."

"You figured it out," Faith chuckled. "Yeah. I duck in during all the chaos of the fighting and then pop back out before anyone notices I'm there."

"Then we both have a busy day tomorrow," Buffy nodded. "We should get to bed."

-

Faith lay in Buffy's bed, one hand tucked behind her head, feeling much more clean after her quick shower. Buffy had then disappeared into the bathroom for her more elaborate nightly self-care routine.

Buffy reappeared at the door, acting much more hesitant than she usually did. "Faith?"

Faith sat up in bed, sensing something was different, but not sure what. "B? Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded, shutting the door quickly, and stepping inside, then hesitating again. "I just - okay, this is dumb."

"No, what is it?" Faith asked her, sitting upright fully, and reaching a hand out to her, to pull her down to sit on the bed next to her.

"I just - I know we win tomorrow," Buffy started, and let Faith pull her down into the bed. "I mean, in the original timeline, at least. I know the plan works, or can work. And I guess - it made me even more nervous? Normally, I'm too worried about what might go wrong, but this time, I know it will go right. And then, Angel, I think he's going to -"

"Fuck," Faith tilted her head back. "Yeah, I'm sorry, B, I completely forgot that part - he's going to LA. After graduation."

"I knew," Buffy nodded. "I mean, he didn't say anything, but - I knew."

"I'm sorry," Faith said again.

"It's okay," Buffy told her, and squeezed her hand. "But, well, this is going to sound dumb?"

"It's not dumb," Faith assured her. "We've been through too much together."

"Well," Buffy looked away, at her closet, the window, anywhere but at Faith. "I just - I've never been with anyone except him? And I know the world won't actually end tomorrow, because we win, but - but I was …"

She trailed off and took a deep breath, and then turned to face Faith, looking her straight in the eyes. "I don't want my one time, my only time, to be with Angel. I was - I've always gotten the sense that you kind of like … me?"

Faith's heart started stammering a staccato rhythm in her chest and she nodded weakly. "B - are you sure?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded again.

"I mean, you know we look the same age, but, I'm a lot older than you right now," Faith reminded her. "I'm a lot older than the kid laying in a coma right now."

"Angel's a lot older than he looks, too," Buffy shrugged. "We're Slayers, Faith. We don't get long lifespans. We come with expiration dates. Really short ones. I had to grow up, and fast. At least, that's what I always thought until you came into my life this past week and gave me a new way of looking at things. I've always been mature for my age."

"You don't have to be that way anymore," Faith reminded her.

"But now, I have a new perspective," Buffy smiled. "I have seen my future. I thought I didn't have one, but now I know I do and it's - I mean, it's going to be violent, and full of death and loss and blood and fighting, but it's going to be full of life and happiness and joy and it's going to be long and I get to have sisters, too. I get to have a family. Friends. I get to have you in it. The one person in the world who gets me, really gets me. Angel, he, he tries, but, but no one has ever really gotten me the way you have. I - I need to know if - if we can be more. If I'm crazy, or if you could be the partner that I always hoped Angel would be. And even if you're not, I just don't want to go off to college and have my only time be with him. I'm glad he was my first, I loved him, I'll always love him, but I don't want him to be my only. Does that make sense?"

"You've really thought this through," Faith told her.

"Living with you this past week," Buffy shrugged. "It's given me a lot to think about. Not just at night, with the dreaming. But during the day, too. I've been so used to living with mom, to having someone take care of me who was, who was a parent, but I've never had a partner do that? And you've been here and taken care of me in a way that is completely different from her. It felt … right."

"You're really sure?" Faith asked her, again, her hand lifting up to brush against her face, but hesitating at the last moment, not quite closing the distance.

Rather than answer with words, Buffy lunged forward, taking Faith's face in her hands, and kissing her, hard. Faith's eyes fluttered shut, and she let herself get lost in the kiss for a long moment, enjoying what had felt like a lifetime of building up, before she opened them again, and twisted their bodies around, laying Buffy down gently on her bed. Her hands drifted over Buffy's body, gently, teasing, giving her exactly the experience she needed and deserved, the experience that she knew from drunken nights together that Buffy hadn't gotten for years after this time.

-

"Showtime," Faith smiled at Buffy, weakly.

"Yeah," Buffy smiled back at her.

"Here, let me get a picture," Faith said, grabbing the camera real quick from the living room. "For your mom. Joyce will want a photo, since she's missing the ceremony."

"The ceremony that's a pretense to murder everyone and use their deaths as sacrifices to ascend to pure demonhood," Buffy deadpanned.

"Yeah, the one where her daughter gets to wear a gown and graduate a high school she didn't burn down," Faith joked.

"Oh god, mom's gonna kill me," Buffy moaned. "I'm gonna be two for two on burning down high schools now! Why didn't you warn me about this before?"

"Because it works?" Faith laughed, and then snapped a photo of Buffy as she moaned. "Alright, you got your assignment?"

"Yeah," Buffy sobered up. "I'll lead him inside to the explosion. You sure you'll be clear by then?"

"I'll be fine," Faith assured her. "It's a simple in and out. Don't worry about me, just detonate it as soon as he's in the right place."

"I'll miss you," Buffy told her.

"Only for a little while," Faith shrugged. "Then I'll be out of the coma."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "Any advice for dealing with her?"

Faith thought for a second. "Make sure I don't wake up alone. Some clothes, a protein bar, a note. Something in there, in my room, so I don't wake up confused and alone and having to rob people right away."

"Thanks," Buffy smiled, and gave her a kiss. "Showtime?"

"Showtime," Faith agreed.

-

Despite her assurances, it didn't turn out nearly as easy as Faith had thought it would. Her first approach had been to take the tunnels, but they were absolutely crawling with vampires, and she'd had to back up and out and circle around to get back to the school. She'd managed to slip inside, behind some of the parents, but it had taken all of her margin of safety to do so.

By the time she finally was able to duck away from the crowd and reached the library, she could hear the speeches wrapping up.

Her heart was racing, and she tore through the library, looking for the right stack of books, finally finding it, picking out the volume she needed just as she heard the roar of a demon from outside, and felt the slither of wrongness down her spine as her Slayer sense alerted to the presence of the primordial foe that her kind was first created to fight.

She didn't waste any time, starting to enact the reverse ritual, when she heard the sprinting of footsteps, cursing in her mind, as she saw Buffy go sprinting through the stacks, chased after by the slithering form of the Mayor. Only moments later, the concussive wave of the blast front impacted.

It ripped through the library, demolishing it, exploding the Mayor, and his viscera and guts exploded everywhere, and Faith jumped, trying, to roll with the explosion, as the return ritual completed, sending her back through a portal, for the second time covered in demon blood.

 -

Faith tumbled and rolled, the impact once again jarring her whole body, as the concussive force accelerated her forwards into a faster roll than she ever could have managed on her own. She winced as she stood up, brushing herself off, plaster and demonic guts coating her, and checked inside her jacket for her precious cargo.

The Libram was still intact, thankfully, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief as she looked up, taking in her surroundings.

She was not, however, where she expected to be, surrounded by Buffy and Giles and Willow in the small safe house in London over the ley line convergence they had used to open the portal in the first place.

So, where was she?

Faith stumbled forward, realizing the impact had jarred her worse than she thought, leaving her balance a little off and her left leg a little weak for the time being. She rubbed it, trying to work some circulation back into it, but her hand came away bloody and she winced. She took a strip off her shirt, tying it over her thigh, where apparently a piece of shrapnel had left a deep gash, and started walking again.

She was in a backyard, not one she recognized, though. And judging by the smell of the air and the skyline, it wasn't Sunnydale or London, but while she had traveled many places in her life, she wasn't intimately familiar with any of them the way she was with those two cities.

But what she was familiar with, was the rush of barbecue-bubblegum-basket toss-mist scattering-a single rose, wilting, petals falling off, that sang across her nerves in that way that only her Slayer sense could process, coming from the house in front of her.

"Buffy?" she called out, hesitantly, and started walking across the yard, leg limping beneath her. She heard the motion inside the house, and soon enough, the tiny blonde was at the back door, looking down at her, a wide smile on her face that turned anxious at the sight of her injuries.

"What the heck happened to you?" Buffy cried out, racing across the yard to meet her halfway, quickly taking stock of her wounds and running her hands all over Faith's body.

Faith gasped at the casual intimacy, but let her explore to her heart's content. She tried to figure out when exactly she had ended up - obviously she was some point in the future, some time after Sunnydale, given that Buffy wasn't living there anymore, but aside from that, it was impossible to tell. Faith didn't remember this house at all - it might have been a safe house that B stayed in for a night or two on one of her many journeys, so it was impossible to pin down when, exactly, from the residence, and given that neither of the two of them aged, and Buffy looked exactly as she always did, there weren't any context clues she could use to figure out the timeline that way either.

Buffy's examination continued across Faith's body, up her torso, and Faith wriggled as her hands explored her ribs, her chest, taking in every bruise, cataloging every busted rib, then up to her shoulders and down to her hands, where Buffy froze.

"Faith," she spoke slowly, softly, a note of danger in her voice. "Where's your ring?"

"My what?" Faith asked, instantly alerted by Buffy's tone, scanning the horizon around them for any threat, pivoting slightly to put Buffy a little behind her, where she would be safer.

"Your ring," Buffy repeated, her tone relaxing slightly at Faith's protective behavior, although turning more confused. "You know, your wedding ring?"

"My-" Faith started to repeat before cutting herself off halfway, and turned to stare at Buffy, shocked.

Buffy slowly lifted her hand up to wiggle her hand at Faith.

"Don't tell me, you got hit with some amnesia, mind erase mojo, witchcraft?" Buffy groaned. "I thought this was supposed to be a simple mission!"

"I'm not - I didn't lose my memory!" Faith protested, reaching out to grab Buffy's hand and inspect it. "Shit, we really got married? I messed the timeline up that badly? Wait, are you pranking me, B? Because if so, this one was world series level, like 2004 Red Sox level, B. Or, wait, is this even further in the future? Damn, I knew that demon blood messed up the ritual - what year is this, anyway?"

"What year- wait," Buffy held up her hand, her face going pale. "You, you're Faith. The one from Sunnydale. From the future. You were looking for the book?"

Faith reached into her jacket and held it out, wiggling it for Buffy. "That's me."

"But, wait, why are you all confused?" Buffy tilted her head. "Are you from the past? But we never needed that book, that doesn't make any sense. So why don't you know that we got married?"

"B, what year is this?" Faith asked, nervously.

"Two thousand twelve?" Buffy answered hesitantly, and Faith groaned, and shook her head.

"We better go inside," she said. "Cause something has gone very, very wrong. We're still way in my past, like, a decade, but you and I, we never got married in my timeline. Which means whatever I did in Sunnydale back in '99, I changed things. The one thing, the only thing I wasn't supposed to do."

-

They sat down around the kitchen counter a few minutes later, Buffy grabbing Faith a glass of some protein shake that Faith tried to pawn off but eventually caved and drank under her insistent glare. To her surprise, it actually tasted quite good.

"Of course I know your favorite flavor," Buffy rolled her eyes. "Like I don't know my wife's tastes?"

"Okay, that's just weird," Faith grimaced, as she walked around the kitchen, taking it in. Everything was so strange, a space she had never lived in, and yet, felt like a place she could have lived in. She recognized traces of herself, from the photos and decorations on the walls, to the way that spare knives were tucked under the cabinets periodically. "That you know my taste better than I do. Why do you want me drinking this health junk anyway, though?"

"You're injured?" Buffy rolled her eyes. "It helps speed up our healing, kickstarts our metabolism. I know we heal fast, but even Slayers can use a boost to get things going."

"Oh," Faith blushed, not used to being cared for, and hurriedly finished the drink off before scrunching her nose up. "Wait, don't you - aren't we - you said this was 2012, right? So we should both have gotten the second call by now, right? After we activated all the Slayers?"

"Yeah," Buffy admitted reluctantly. "You always say that. You could let me take care of you once in a while, though."

"Shit, B, you had me worried I messed up more than I thought," Faith chuckled, before another thought came to her and she sobered up. "Wait, if this is 2012 ... when, exactly? Have we taken the shadowcaster trip yet?"

"The what now?" Buffy asked, as it was her turn to scrunch her nose up in confusion. "Oh, that thing that, what's his name, that Slayer's kid, the principal from Sunnydale -"

"Robin," Faith supplied. "Robin Wood. His mom was Nikki."

"Right," Buffy snapped her fingers. "That weird thing he had that was supposed to be all, an upgrade kit for Slayers? Wow, I haven't thought about that in years."

"You tried it out, right?" Faith asked her, carefully.

"Yeah," Buffy's voice hardened. "Back in Sunnydale. Found out how they made the first Slayer. The Watchers, the first ones, they were even worse to her than the ones these days were to you and me. Chained her down to the earth and shoved a demon inside her. That's where our power comes from."

"Right," Faith agreed. "And you still have the kit, right?"

"Umm," Buffy tilted her head. "No? We destroyed it. That thing was ... vile."

"You - you did what," Faith's eyes widened, and she reached out, gripping the marble countertop hard, hard enough that she had to carefully control her strength to not break it.

"What?" Buffy protested, unsure what she was protesting.

"You remember back when I was here the first time, B, back before graduation, I told you how we didn't age?" Faith swallowed heavily. "Because we had been called twice, and because -"

"Because we took the primal upgrade for a really bad apocalypse," Buffy repeated, half from memory, her eyes slowly widening. "That's what you meant?"

"Yeah," Faith nodded. "This one, I mean, I don't know how far along the calendar path you are, but, it's bad, obviously. Things are only going to get worse as we get closer to December, but the signs are already manifesting and you should be fighting the war now - what date is it?"

"What apocalypse are you talking about?" Buffy tilted her head, confused. "It's August. They usually happen in summer, not winter."

"August? That doesn't - B, you haven't had any disturbances down in South America yet? There's no way I changed things that much ..."

"South America? We don't have any Slayers down there, really, but -" Buffy's eyes grew wide and panicked.

"What?" Faith asked her, reaching out for her arm.

"We don't have any Slayers down there," Buffy repeated, slowly. "We just don't have the resources for it. We've had to consolidate, fall back, extract every girl we can get to the United States just to deal with the Turok Han. But Riley's new, reformed Initiative, they're down there, in the jungles, and they ran into something a little too rough for them. Which, I mean, it's Riley and his commandos, that could be anything. They asked for help, and given how we're taking advantage of their resources ... Faith volunteered to swing by and give them a little escort for a few days. It was supposed to be a milk run. What the hell did my wife walk into?"

"B, it's the end of the fucking world," Faith ran her hand through her hair. "Call me. Call me right fucking now and warn me. We can figure out what went wrong later, but you need to get a warning to her, now."

"What do I tell her?" Buffy asked, already pulling out her cell phone and dialing.

"Miss me already?" echoed through the phone's speakers, and Faith had the strangest out of body experience of hearing her own voice but not saying words she was choosing to say.

"Where are you?" Buffy asked, her voice urgent and flat, and the other Faith, the one of this time, must have caught the urgency.

"With the boys," she stated, quickly and devoid of any humor. "Why? What happened? Are you okay?"

"I am," Buffy smiled weakly. "You're not. You showed up. The you from the future. The one I told you about."

"The - that me? She showed up again? What did she say to you this time?" A hint of humor had re-entered Faith's voice, a hint of jealousy and Faith rolled her eyes at her past self and leaned forward to the phone.

"That you're about to die if you don't do exactly what I fucking say, kid," she snapped, and heard a sharp intake of breath from across the line. "It's the apocalypse. Again. They're demons, blood demons."

"Blood demons?" Buffy asked. "Like vampires?"

"Not exactly," Faith shook her head. "The last demon to leave this world fed off a human, mixed their blood, and infected the human. That's how you got the first vampires, the Turok Han. That demon was an Old One, one of the true demons, the pureblood demons. Like what the Mayor was trying to ascend into. But that demon wasn't the first to try that little trick. And one of the other Old Ones to create a little blood plague of half blood demons left its progeny down in the jungles of South America. Still a plague, still spread by blood, but the abilities they grant are completely different to vampires. And the calendar is ticking over and waking them up this year - the young ones started waking up a while ago but as we get closer and closer to December, the older ones will start waking up. The truly ancient ones."

"Like their Turok Han," Buffy paled, and Faith heard herself curse over the phone.

"Injuring them, drawing their blood, might seem easy at first," Faith warned. "But that's a trap. Once they're hurt, they can siphon blood out of the living around them to heal themselves. You hurt them and they then draw blood from you to repair themselves. You have to kill them without injuring them. Back of the head, base of the skull, soft spot. Aim there. You have to go straight through the spinal column to the brain."

"Got it," Faith heard herself acknowledge.

"Warn the soldier boys," Faith cautioned. "They're your biggest threat right now. They start shooting, start injuring them -"

"Yeah," her past self agreed. "How prevalent are these things? We haven't seen any sign yet and we're almost back to town -"

"It's already August," she shook her head. "If you've gone into the jungle at all, if you guys haven't been cleaning them out at all, they're everywhere. They know you're there. They are incredibly stealthy in the jungle. They're just waiting for the right moment to ambush you. They will attack you. Be on guard. Have them on guard. Better for them to take a hit than cause one if it's not instantly lethal."

"Got it," she acknowledged. "Do me a favor?"

"Anything for you," Faith shrugged.

"Take care of B for me, will you?" her past self asked. "She's going to be a wreck. And I've got a spare ring in the dresser by the front door, in case anything happens to mine on patrol. Hold on to it until I get back?"

Faith paused, blinking wide, stunned. She'd always felt on the outside of things, even with Buffy, even after all the years together, even after everyone else slowly died around them. To be just invited in like that felt so foreign to her.

"You sure about that?" she asked, her ears straining carefully.

"You're getting me out of this alive, old maid," her past self chuckled. "Helping me keep my vows. So you can keep them over there for me in the meantime, yeah?"

"Faith?" Buffy interjected. "Stop talking to yourself. Focus. Get out of there and come home to me alive."

"Yes ma'am," Faith heard herself chuckle over the phone, at last a trace of mirth back in her voice, even if it was laced through with tension. The next thing she heard was the click of the dial tone as her past self hung up, and her heart clenched in nervousness over a mission in a way it hadn't in years.

They sat there in silence for a long moment.

"She'll be okay, right?" Buffy asked her.

"Yeah," Faith nodded, with more confidence than was in her voice. "I'll be okay. I have to be."

"I hate this part," Buffy admitted, twirling her ring nervously on her finger.

"Me too," Faith admitted, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "Do you want to tell me about her? About you two?"

"Yes," Buffy smiled. "Come on, let's sit on the couch. You want a beer?"

"Sure," Faith blinked. "I never pictured you for a beer girl."

"I'm not," Buffy rolled her eyes, and gestured at the couch for Faith to go ahead. "But you are."

Faith made her way over to the couch, leg already healing up, still a little sore, but at least she was mobile now. She sat down, before wincing, and twisted, and then sat up against the armrest and stretched her leg across the back length of the couch. Buffy reappeared a few moments later, and curled up on the couch, passing her a beer in a tall glass, while she held her own rounded wine glass.

"Here," Buffy said, and then flipped her hand over. "And this is yours, too."

Sitting in her palm was a ring that made Faith inhale sharply at the sight of it.

"You sure?" Faith asked Buffy, looking up at her.

"You keep asking me that question," Buffy smiled at her. "First, in my bedroom before graduation. Now here. Faith, she wants you to have it. Please?"

"Fine," Faith allowed, and reached out to pick it up, sliding it onto her finger, where it fit perfectly. She swallowed heavily at the reminder that her other self was the same size as her, the same person as her. That they fit into each other's lives perfectly. That this could have been her life, had she made different choices along the way.

"Cheers," Buffy said, holding her glass out, and Faith clinked hers against it, taking a sip.

"Damn, that's good," Faith stared at it appreciatively. "What is that?"

"Your favorite," Buffy smiled. "It's from a little local brewery we found on our honeymoon. We order in a case every other month or so."

"Where did we go?" Faith asked her. "It's hard to imagine we've had a whole life I don't know about. It's been - what, thirteen years since I saw you last?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "We had some ups and downs. Things were rough for a while after you came out of your coma. Your advice definitely helped, though."

"Yeah?" Faith tilted her head. "What did you do?"

"Well," Buffy blushed. "I just did what you said! I gave her a little care package in her room. A fresh set of clothes, and something to eat, and a note … that told her exactly where to find me on campus and that I was the one who left her the note … and gave her a spare key to my room."

"You … left me a key to your room … when I just woke up from my coma?" Faith spluttered out some of her beer. "Are you insane? You're lucky I didn't try to kill you!"

"Well," Buffy blushed harder and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I did wake up to you kneeling over me with a knife …"

Faith groaned and threw her head back, laughing. "B!"

"You were really confused by what was going on, though," she shrugged. "Couldn't figure out why I invited you to find me. It kind of reset things between us a bit? Helped get us started talking."

"I'm glad it didn't go worse," Faith shook her head. "And somehow you went from that, to all this? Where are we, by the way? I don't recognize this city."

"Arizona," Buffy told her. "Flagstaff. It's kind of the keystone of our defensive lines. Also, I just - I wanted to get out of California. I'd never left the state. And now I live somewhere else."

"Good," Faith nodded. "We got out in my timeline, too. Traveled all over for a bit. Settled in London. That's where we both live these days."

"London? Really?" Buffy asked her, astonished. "Like, England, London? Not like, Texas, or Canada?"

"Yeah," Faith chuckled. "The old Watchers' Council had their Headquarters there, before the First blew it up, and they still had a ton of resources stashed away in caches and people's houses, so it made sense to go there to grab all that stuff, plus it was the center of their information network. And Giles really missed home, and you and I just wanted to get out of California, so, it seemed to make a lot of sense at the time. Now we've been there for decades and become a bit entrenched. It's become home."

Faith kept fidgeting with her ring, not used to the feel of it on her finger as they sipped on their drinks.

"You two are happy?" Faith asked, suddenly, her voice quiet.

"Yeah," Buffy smiled at her. She hesitated, before setting her wine glass down on the table and shuffling across the couch to settle in Faith's arms, cuddling into her chest. "Yeah, we're happy. I mean, things aren't going great in the whole war against the darkness, good versus evil thing, there's constantly fighting, but, we have our own little corner of the world that we get all to ourselves. It's more than I ever thought I'd have and it's enough for me."

Faith stroked her hand up and down Buffy's back, and felt her shudder under her touch, the stress and fear over the danger her younger self was in finally showing. She adjusted her position slightly, hugging Buffy more closely, and Buffy let her, hugging her back in a gesture that felt familiar to her and well practiced.

"We should get to bed," Faith suggested.

"Mmm," Buffy nodded her head against her chest, relaxing more fully, wiggling against her.

"I really need a shower, I still have bits of Mayor on me," Faith tried again.

"In the morning?" Buffy countered. "I don't want to move. Want to just lay here for a while."

"Alright, B," Faith caved. "We can just lay here. It's a nice couch."

"Best couch," Buffy agreed sleepily. "Great for naps and waiting for you to come back from patrol. Comfy."

"Very comfy," Faith smiled, and shifted, letting her eyes flutter shut and sleep overtake her as she sank deeper into the soft cushions with the warmth of the girl she'd never thought could be her wife blanketed over her.

-

Faith was in the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her, fresh out of the shower, the mirror steamed over and cloudy. She felt herself reach up and wipe it off, revealing her face, and then she took a deep breath, staring at her reflection in the mirror over the sink.

"Hey, me," she heard her mouth say, without any conscious input from her mind, and she suddenly realized what was happening.

She wasn't really in the bathroom - she was dreaming.

"I have no idea if this is going to work, but, well, from what B tells me, you apparently once told her that you didn't know what the First was whispering to her in your head, your dream," she shrugged. "Your dream that you shared with her. So, I figured, if you could dream a message from her future self to her, maybe I could dream a message the other way, from me to you? Might be stupid, but hey, worth a shot, right?"

She took a deep breath, and then continued speaking. "You were kind of a big fight for us for years, you know. I never knew if she really liked you and I was just some kind of substitute. But I finally figured it out, that she likes us, likes me, likes Faith. And that you were just showing her the potential I could grow into, mature into, but that she still liked me, wanted me."

She bit her lip then and smiled, a wry twist of her lip and held up her hand, showing off her ring, the twin to the one that now sat on Faith's finger. "This is weird, you know, having this here - not quite used to it, yet. Ah, we just got married yesterday, this is our honeymoon - first time I've ever had this jewelry here. I really like it, but, still takes some getting used to, adjusting, you know? Anyway - even after I got past the whole anxiety about whether or not she was really into you, and not me, and realized we were just the same person, just different facets, I had a whole different fear."

"What happens when you come back?" her past self leaned forward, looming over the sink, until she was only a few inches away. "I mean, you went into the past, right? I'm not the brightest bulb in the shed, I won't pretend to know how this whole time travel thing works, but I've seen like, two movies in my life, I can put A to B together. You went back in time to retrieve the book, you have to return at some point. And that means, well, either you just pop back up and there's suddenly two of us hanging around - which, don't tell B, but might secretly be one of both of our fantasies, not just hers - or I have to go back to get that book too, and then I go back and you come forward and I just … disappear."

She shrugged. "Not exactly looking forward to that second option, if I'm honest. I mean, I'm going to do it, in a heartbeat - world needs saving, that's the mission. Like you told B, we made our choices. But, I thought, what if there's a way to have our cake and eat it, too? Nothing we love more, after all."

"So, here we are," she stood back up and gestured around herself expansively. "In our dreams. Night after our wedding. It was kind of amazing, actually - we did this wedding on the beach, in the middle of the day, with these gorgeous white gowns, and all our friends around. Just close friends for the ceremony. I gotta admit, I never thought I'd ever be a wedding girl, but Buffy really wanted one, she's always been big on that sort of thing, and so I kind of got into it for her, originally? But actually going through the ceremony, it felt so wonderful, I get why people are into it, now. Being able to stand up there and say that I loved her and hear her say that back and that we were going to stand by each other and fight for each other, it really meant a lot, after everything we've gone through to get here."

She continued on, narrating the experience, from her point of view, focusing on all of the emotions she had felt, in the lead up to the ceremony, the proposal, the preparation.

"Faith?" Buffy called out from the other room, muzzily, clearly having just woken up from sleep.

Faith smiled at the mirror and winked. "Sorry - I'd love to keep talking, but duty calls. You're welcome to ride along, though."

She turned and opened the bathroom door, stepping through into the bedroom, dropping her towel and walking over to the bed, where Buffy was just waking up.

"Hey, wife," she called out, and saw Buffy blush at the title, as she crawled across the bed to give her a kiss, leaning over her. "Ready to start our honeymoon?"

-

Faith woke with a smile on her face, still on the couch downstairs, as the sun started to shine through the windows onto her face. Buffy had wormed her way during the night into a position between her and the back of the couch, trying to find a warmer position, burying herself beneath the cushions and Faith's body. In the process, she'd pulled Faith's shirt up until it was riding high on her stomach, her hands burning against Faith's stomach and breasts where they cradled her.

Buffy stirred above her, her fingers tensing into grabbing little fists as she woke up.

"Mmmmmmm, morning," she smiled into Faith's neck.

"Morning, Buff," Faith smiled back, stroking her back from where her arm was still tucked behind her. "You have good dreams?"

"You know I did," Buffy laughed. "You were there."

She opened her eyes then, taking everything in and blinked, slowly. "Oh, right. Faith."

"Yeah, B," she nodded. "Original flavor, unfortunately."

"Not unfortunate," Buffy shook her head against her chest. "I like all the flavors. I like original. I'm just worried about - what flavor is my wife in this metaphor? Cool Ranch? Wildlicious Wild Berry? Rocky Road? Flamin' Hot?"

Faith laughed. "Let's go with Flamin' Hot, I think she'll appreciate that one the most."

"Mmm, well, Flamin' Hot Faith is currently trapped in the jungle with a bunch of idiot soldier boys and some insanely dangerous demons," Buffy's hands tightened around her. "So while I'm really glad to have Original Recipe back with me, safe and sound, I hate that it only happened when my other Faith was in danger."

"I get it, B," she nodded. "I do."

She let out a long sigh, and adjusted her position. "We should get up. Get something to eat, I don't know if you have things you need to be doing today."

She glanced down at herself and groaned.

"And I need a shower and a change of clothes," she admitted. "I'm still covered in Mayor bits. Let me raid Flamin' Hot's closet real quick and hop in the shower."

"I've got a better idea," Buffy smiled shyly, and looked up at her, resting her head on her hands. "Did you know we got ourselves a really nice bathtub? With a jacuzzi?"

"Oh yeah?" Faith raised an eyebrow.

"Mhmm," Buffy nodded. "Why don't I join you?"

"Why, Mrs. Summers, are you trying to seduce me?" Faith smiled at her.

"Always, Mrs. Summers," Buffy stretched up and kissed her. "Come on, you're going to love the jets."

She stood up, taking her shirt off, and balling it up, throwing it at Faith, before turning and walking towards the stairs.

Faith laughed, realizing that Buffy was copying her move, but excitedly followed behind her, and the trail of clothes she left behind her like breadcrumbs.

-

"Okay," Buffy toweled her hair dry, again. "I have a call with the regional directors of the Slayers this evening. Before that happens, we need to figure out what the hell happened to send things so off course. It can't be that we got married. It just can't be that. I refuse to accept it."

"I don't believe it either, B," Faith shrugged, and flipped the pan on the grill. "You ready to eat?"

"Please," Buffy nodded. "I need some calories."

"Yeah, you do," Faith smirked at her, and Buffy threw her towel at her.

"Tease," Buffy shook her head, but then yipped in excitement as Faith plated up the food she had cooked, and served it to the both of them on the kitchen island.

"Okay, Faith said, as she leaned over the island. "Let's start at the beginning. You mentioned something about defensive lines, I think? What was that all about?"

"Huh? Oh, the Turok Han," Buffy tilted her head as she took another bite. "Yeah, after Sunnydale fell, we had to fall back and form a defensive perimeter around it. We got more Slayers recruited and down there to help out, but, it just took too long, by the time we got more people, they had already spread out and we had to fall back. Now we've got a wide circle around the region. LA is still … mostly safe? A lot more deaths than there used to be, especially at night. But we have a big circle from the Baja peninsula through Phoenix to here in Flagstaff to Vegas to San Francisco, containing the threat."

"What?" Faith blanched. "They got loose? How - how did that happen? I - wait, what happened in that battle? You, me, the Potentials, we went down into the cave, right?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded along, taking another bite. "It was just like in the dream you showed me. I mean, just like it."

"Okay," Faith nodded her head. "And the others, they stayed up above, Willow cast the spell to activate all the Potentials? We got hit with it, too?"

Buffy nodded along.

"So, that all sounds right," Faith tilted her head. "I don't get it. How come it didn't work then? Why didn't they die when Sunnydale collapsed? Did some of them slip past, maybe? Some sort of like, butterfly flapped its wings, type of thing? We lost one Turok Han and suddenly there's an outbreak?"

"What? Wait, what do you mean Sunnydale collapsed?" Buffy dropped her fork and leaned forward.

"You know," Faith shrugged. "The whole, amulet thing that Angel brought over from LA, Spike wore it, he went up like the sun, burned all the vampires down there, every Turok Han incinerated, it took out the Hellmouth, sealed it up for good, and when it closed, it caused the entire town to collapse down on top of it, like a sinkhole?"

"That - that never happened, Faith," Buffy shook her head. "Spike was long gone. He left like - like two years before. After Glory. He had some kind of crush on me, and when he realized we were together, like, together together, and you weren't going anywhere, he decided not to stick around anymore? And Angel - he never came by with any amulet. I stopped talking to him, told him I didn't want to see him anymore. It - there was a whole thing, after - ugggh, there was this whole incident after you came out of your coma, but -"

"But that explains why it happened differently here," Faith nodded. "In my timeline - in my timeline, I went to LA and tried to kill him because he was your boyfriend and I was trying to hurt you and then he decided to redeem me and help me out? He helped negotiate the deal that got me in prison for a while for killing Allan."

"That's … helping?" Buffy tilted her head, her hand clenching on her fork. "Getting you thrown in jail?"

"Yeah," Faith nodded. "I was in a bad place at the time. I needed to feel like I was doing something to atone for what I'd done."

"I'm just saying," Buffy grumbled. "We got you feeling happier and all atone-y without getting you thrown in jail in this timeline."

"Well, that's what makes me Original Recipe and not Flamin' Hot," Faith shrugged.

"Ooooh," Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Did you get any prison tattoos? I feel like if you got prison tattoos, that should qualify you for some sort of spicy flavor status."

"B, focus," Faith laughed. "We have a theory. Because of what happened when I was in the past -"

"Well, more in the past," Buffy shrugged, getting more serious. "More in the past than you are now."

"More in the past than now," Faith nodded. "We, the two of us, changed what happened. And that meant that Angel never brought you the amulet, because your relationship with him got really bad, and that Spike left town, and wasn't here to use it. Either one of those, might have made the difference. But both, together -"

"Means that we never closed the Hellmouth," Buffy continued for her, getting more excited.

"And that means, that during the final battle, when you were fighting the ubervamps," Faith began.

"They started to overwhelm us," Buffy began, haunted. "And we had to fall back. Make a fighting retreat out of Sunnydale. The whole town fell to the First and its Turok Han -"

"And now they're spreading outwards?" Faith raised her eyebrow and Buffy nodded, gravely. "And that's why your resources are all tied up in this area, and you didn't have the Slayers to check out the rest of the world. Deal with all the hot spots."

"Why we never saw this apocalypse in South America coming," Buffy groaned. "Okay, that explains what happened but now how do we fix it. Because - I don't think we can at this point? Faith, I'm - I'm worried."

Faith walked around the counter and wrapped Buffy in her arms, reassuringly.

"You don't know how bad it is right now," Buffy told her, leaning into her hug. "It's taking all of our Slayers trying to hold back the Turok Han. I think - I think we need a miracle."

Faith bit her lip, hugging Buffy tighter, and looked around, her eyes landing on their discarded clothes trail.

"What if we had a miracle?" Faith asked her.

"Huh?" Buffy pushed her away gently, looking up at her. "How so?"

"I mean, I was supposed to go back to the day before graduation, but I wound up a week before, because of that demon blood that landed on the ritual circle and on me," Faith started. "And then, when I was trying to go back home, after getting the Libram, I got hit with the Mayor's blood, after the explosion, which sent me here."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded.

"What if we do it again?" Faith shrugged. "Do the ritual one more time, try to send me home, but this time, we intentionally mess it up?"

"That - that sounds insanely dangerous," Buffy's eyes widened. "What if it kills you? What if it sends you somewhere useless in the past, after it was too late to change anything? What if it sends you to the future instead of the past?"

"We know the mission," Faith shrugged her shoulders, quoting her other self from her dreams last night. "We make our choices, you and me. We've always picked this."

"Faith," Buffy's voice choked up.

"Buffy," Faith shook her head. "You walked down to face the Master, knowing it would kill you. You ran Angel through with a sword, the love of your life, to save the world. You jumped off the tower, made the sacrifice play, to save Dawn and the world. You've made this choice, over and over and over again, even just to this point in time. Between now, and when I come from? You've made this choice a dozen more times. At least. And so have I. We both have. More times than I can count."

Faith took a deep breath and ran her hand through her hair, looking every bit her fifty years of actual age and not the eighteen her body looked, as she slumped down. "It's a risk, yeah. But - what other choice do we have?"

"You're right," Buffy told her, reaching out and squeezing her hand. "I just - I guess I'm grappling with the sudden realization that if we change things again, then if we do things right, we won't wind up here. We are trying to make it so we never have to set up a defensive perimeter for the Turok Han, which means the two of us never have a reason to be in Flagstaff. We'll still be together, but, our life here, in this city, it'll be … gone. Different. Our lives will be different."

"Maybe Rocky Road Buffy and Faith will have an even nicer house," Faith smiled, leaning forward, resting her hands on Buffy's hips. "Still have a jacuzzi, but like, a hot tub out back."

"You're trying to tempt me," Buffy smiled.

"I am, but I know two things you don't know," Faith smiled back at her. "That will make you feel better."

"What are those?" Buffy tilted her head.

"The first thing, is that I brought the book back with me from the past, right?" Faith smirked, her hands sliding up under Buffy's shirt to tickle her ribs. "So, I can bring things back and forth with me. Like, say, if you wrote a letter to your past self. That I could give to her and you could tell her all about what happened in this lifetime and also warn her about what to look out for."

"Mmm," Buffy moaned as Faith's hands continued upwards to the bottom edge of her bra. "That is a good thing to know. What's the second?"

"Flamin' Hot Faith is even smarter than I am," Faith smirked. "Or at least, she's had more time to think about this problem than I have. She realized that she could leave me messages in your dreams. That dream we had last night, about the first night of your honeymoon? That was only half the dream. The other half was her telling me everything that happened about your wedding. What happened, how she felt about it. Which means that whatever changes you make, we make to the past, when I get back to the future, I can learn all about them."

"She did?" Buffy smiled broadly. "She really did that?"

"Yeah," Faith chuckled. "She left a little ghost of herself in your head. Just for me."

"You really are so clever," Buffy shook her head. "Every flavor of you."

She leaned up to press a kiss against Faith's lips.

-

"Showtime?" Buffy asked her anxiously, biting her lip, and Faith nodded.

She was dressed in a fresh set of clothes, carrying an axe from their weapons chest and a variety of other weapons, just in case, the Libram, and Buffy's thick letter tucked into her waistband.

They had taken two days to work through it, Buffy making sure she got every detail right in the letter, Faith reading and re-reading it for her, suggesting improvements, while Buffy dutifully typed them up, until they were finally both satisfied with the final text. In between, they had taken the opportunity to comfort each other, in every way they could.

They'd finally gotten another call from Faith, just a few hours ago, who had only just made it back to civilization. Things had gone as disastrously as it was possible to go without her dying. They'd been ambushed, sure enough, and not just once, but multiple times. Most of the soldiers with her had fallen, and she'd been badly injured herself, partly from hits she'd taken, but mostly from getting her blood leeched by the demons, who had been just as lethal as Faith had warned her, and had just kept coming. Wave after wave, for days, before she'd finally managed to get out to somewhere safe with the few men she'd been able to keep alive.

The two of them had run their plan past her, and she'd endorsed it fully, having seen the demonic horrors that were waiting in the jungle firsthand, slowly waking up, and were now threatening the rest of the world. Between the Turok Han and them, she agreed they needed a drastic plan.

Now, she stood as well equipped as they could get her for whatever time she found herself in, holding the jacket she had worn when she first arrived, still splattered in demonic blood.

"Showtime," Faith agreed.

Buffy stepped forward and kissed her, cradling her face in her hands.

"Be safe," she admonished her. "Come home to me alive."

Faith gave her arms a squeeze. "Yes, ma'am."

She started repeating the ritual, and Buffy took a step back, wrapping her arms around herself as she watched, until Faith disappeared in a shimmer of sparkles.

Her stomach flipped over, wondering when exactly she'd wind up and where, hoping that it would be somewhere useful, sometime that would let her finally fix things once and for all.

-

Faith appeared in the darkness, and her sense were going wild with the familiar electric tingle of vampires all around her up ahead. She swung the axe in her hand experimentally and let out a deep breath, shutting off the part of her brain that was still human and letting the part of her that was the Slayer, that was a demon chained within, take control.

Her vision sharpened, and the darkness suddenly resolved into the irregular rocky lumps of a natural cave, as her night vision heightened. She could sense the vampires up ahead, and started stalking through the cave, her footsteps silent, a predator in her element.

She was upon them before they realized, flying forward and spinning, her blade flashing out and beheading the closest vampire.

"Shit, it's the Slayer!" one of the others called. He charged at her with his own axe.

"Oh my god, Faith?" she heard Dawn cry out from the side, and saw her chained to the wall, and the part of her that was still human cataloged her as not a threat, extreme importance to protect.

She focused back on the vampire charging her and flicked her blade across, low, faster than he could react, faster than any other Slayer, straight across the haft of his axe, severing it cleanly and dropping the blade down. Her motion carried her arm onward, slicing through his arm holding the remains of the axe, which turned to dust even as it fell.

"Oh my god, ew!" Dawn cried out again behind her.

Faith spun on her heel, shifting her momentum, burying the base of the axe in the vampire and the rest of his body followed him into dust a moment later as the sharpened stake of the handle finished him off.

"Wait, come on, you're not Buffy!" she heard another voice complain, and her eyes flicked around again, landing on a blonde she vaguely recognized before placing her - Harmony, another one of Angel's projects for redemption. "This is so not fair! I worked so hard to set this ambush up!"

The last of her minions was already charging Faith, the largest by far, and the strongest, but Faith wasn't bothered, letting him get close and swing before she grabbed his arm and threw him, following after and staking him straight away.

"My minions! I worked hard for them!" Harmony protested.

Faith stood up, feeling the Slayer in her still radiating off of her, stalking towards Harmony and pinned her to the wall with her free hand, her other hand hovering the stake end of her axe over her heart.

"Harmony," she spoke, voice quiet and cold, and felt the other two instantly still. "You have two options. You can get out of town right now. Go somewhere else. Los Angeles is a good choice. Angel, Buffy's ex, he's there. He could use some help."

"And option two?" Harmony asked her.

Faith just rolled her eyes and pressed the tip of her stake into Harmony's chest slowly.

"Option one! Option one!" Harmony cried out.

"Buffy might have a soft spot for you," Faith warned her. "On account of the whole you were at graduation and died helping save the world thing. That's the only reason you're getting this chance. I ever see you in town again, you die. Find Angel, help him."

"Fine by me! Harmony nodded. "Why'd they break up, anyway?"

"He's a vampire and she likes girls," Faith deadpanned.

"Two very good reasons," she nodded. "But he was kind of a hunk if I remember right?"

"Sure, if you like them full of muscle and brooding," Faith agreed. "Now, go."

Harmony swallowed hard at the note of finality in her voice and started running as fast as she could. Faith turned to face Dawn, grimacing.

"What the heck happened to you?" she asked her.

"Look, it wasn't my fault!" Dawn protested, her words undercut by the way her hands were chained above her head. "I stepped outside for two seconds and Harmony's goons grabbed me in the backyard!"

"You went outside, alone, after dark? Did anyone know you were there, at least?" Faith asked her, and watched her wince.

"Well, I mean, Anya came out, after I did," Dawn started, her voice trailing off. "But they hit her and she was unconscious -"

"She's fine, by the way," Buffy spoke up from where she had entered the cave. "What the heck happened in here? Faith? What are you doing here? I thought you said - never mind, it's not important. I - thank you. For saving Dawn. Who is totally gonna be grounded, by the way, when mom hears about what you did."

She grabbed one of the weapons laying around and started hacking at the chains holding Dawn up, slowly but surely. Faith took her axe, however, and in one swift blow, sliced clean through the other chain. Buffy looked at her, confused.

"We need to talk, B," she told her, voice serious. "In private. No prying ears. Now."

"Well - it will have to wait, we have to get Dawn home?" Buffy raised her hands helplessly.

Faith growled, lifting the axe again and sliced the other chain, that Buffy had been working on, letting Dawn free.

"Dawn?" she leaned in and bent over slightly to put her at eye level with the girl. "Earmuffs."

"Oh, come on, I'm not twelve," she protested.

"Dawn," Faith repeated. "This is an adult conversation. You really, really don't want to hear it. I'll tell you all the juicy parts that I can, later, promise, but there are some really serious things Buffy and I need to talk about and we need to do it now, and we need privacy to do it. Which means you are gonna sit here and cover your ears, for real and not pretending, so that we can make sure you don't get eaten by a demon or kidnapped, again, and we can talk, now. Got it?"

"You're so much less fun than normal," Dawn grumbled, but obediently sat down on her crossed legs.

"There's some really dangerous stuff going on," Faith told her, giving her a hint. "A big threat out there. We're a little tense right now."

"Oh," Dawn blushed. "That makes sense."

"Earmuffs," Faith repeated, and Dawn covered her ears with her hands and at Faith's quizzical look, started humming to prove she couldn't hear anything.
Faith stood back up, tilting her head towards the entrance of the cave in a wordless gesture to Buffy, and started walking there herself.

"What do you mean, we need to talk, right now, Faith?" Buffy paled, as they both stood in the mouth of the cave, Buffy with her arms crossed over her chest, Faith leaning against the wall. "Are you breaking up with me? Over a stupid fight?"

"I - what?" Faith tilted her head. "You think we're breaking up?"

"I said I was sorry!" Buffy threw her hands up. "It's not like I was trying to be thralled by Dracula! And yes, of course I think we're breaking up! We have a huge fight and then you disappear and say you need 'space' and then the next thing I know, here you are again, rescuing Dawn, but you can't even wait until we get home to talk, you have to do it in Harmony's grody cave lair, what am I supposed to think? Of course I think you're breaking up with me!"

"Oh my fucking - what the hell drama do you two children," Faith pinched the bridge of her nose. "Flamin' Hot Buffy never mentioned anything like this when she was telling me about the whole story of Faith and Buffy."

"Flamin' Hot?" Buffy blushed furiously. "You think I'm -"

"Right, we haven't had that conversation yet," Faith banged her head back against the rock wall. "Fuck, I hate time travel."

Buffy's eyes grew huge, and she suddenly was looking at Faith again, taking her in, before stretching her other senses out. "Faith?"

"In the flesh," she shrugged.

"I mean, I mean," Buffy said. "Faith? Like, you're Faith Faith? The one from the future?"

"Now you see why we're going with flavor names to distinguish us all, gets way too confusing way too quickly," Faith shook her head. "Original Recipe at your service."

"You're the one, the one who -" Buffy blushed.

"Yeah, B," Faith nodded. "I'm the one unstuck in time. Who visited you before graduation. Who made love to you."

"You're really back?" Buffy squeaked. "But, why? I thought you were going home?"

"I thought I was too," she shrugged. "But then the explosion in the library happened too soon, and demon blood got on the ritual circle, and sent me to the wrong time, again. I only got back to 2012, not my time. And things were going incredibly wrong."

"Oh no," Buffy groaned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we were married," Faith smirked at her. "Which was completely different from how things went the first time around but also the only thing going right, because there was a five car pile up of apocalypses. Buffy and Faith of that era still hadn't managed to deal with the last few and weren't in place to deal with the new one, so it was going to be the end of the world, two decades before I ever got sent back to pick up this book."

"We were married?" Buffy asked, rubbing her hands on her arms. "We, we didn't break up?"

"I don't know," Faith shrugged. "I never heard about this part of the story. Either it was a minor fight and you got past it, or you did break up, but you got back together. But, yeah, we made it. We got married in the end. And we were deliriously happy. And I wouldn't be back here messing with things again except for the whole world was about to end factor."

Buffy slumped down, her shoulders drooping, and she stumbled backwards until she was leaning against the cave wall. Her hand came up to her face, and it was only then that Faith realized she was crying.

"Whoa, hey, it's gonna be okay," Faith told her, stepping forward to take her in her arms, wrapping her up in a tight hug. "What's wrong?"

"We, we just," Buffy started, sniffling through her tears. "We'd had a huge fight, and you went off, said you needed some space, and then you were here and wanted to talk and I thought you were going to break up with me, but, but it's you, not her, and it's all going to be okay? But I still have to fix things and I don't know how to do that."

"Okay, one thing at a time, B," Faith reassured her, rubbing her hands up and down Buffy's arms. "We got this. We're gonna get through this. We can get through anything."

"Yeah?" Buffy asked her, still crying.

"Yeah," Faith smiled down at her, and took a half step back, lifting her hand up to show her. "See? Future us had a spare ring made up when we got married, for me. Just in case I showed up again. Same as the one the other me is wearing. It's real. We really get there. There's proof."

"That -" Buffy reached her hand out, holding Faith's, trembling, stroking the ring gently, as if afraid it was an illusion. "It's real?"

"Yeah, Buffy," Faith nodded. "It's real. Here, you should have it."

Faith worked the ring off her finger, handing it over to Buffy.

"But, this one is yours," she looked up at Faith with a tremulous note in her voice. "I can't take this."

"Yeah?" Faith shrugged, with a smile on her face. "So? You can hold on to it. You need the proof right now that things will get better, just because they're rocky right now. And when it's time, you can give it back to me. Just make sure you get a second one made up so that both of us can have one."

"You're getting married!" Dawn squealed from behind them, and Faith winced.

She spun around, and saw Dawn, with her hands off her ears, watching them intently.

"Dawn? What happened to earmuffs?" Faith admonished her.

"What? I saw Buffy start crying and I had to know what was going on, and then I heard her talking about you two breaking up and then I saw you giving her a ring and then - wait, are you from the future, did she say?" Dawn goggled.

"For fuck's sake -" Faith rubbed her forehead.

"Faith!" Buffy smacked her arm. "No cursing in front of Dawn!"

"B, she knows about the whole time travel thing, when is an appropriate time to curse in front of her?" Faith rolled her eyes.

"I won't tell anyone!" Dawn hurriedly assured her.

"Yeah, well, if you're here, we got bigger problems to deal with, anyway," Faith rubbed her forehead.

"What?" Dawn gasped. "Look, just because I got kidnapped one time -"

"That - that's not what I meant," Faith banged her head back against the rock wall. "Okay, so - I really shouldn't be talking about this."

"What?" Buffy and Dawn asked in unison.

"I've already messed the past up enough already," Faith rolled her eyes.

"No, come on!" Dawn protested. "You have to tell me!"

"Faith," Buffy bit her lip, hesitating. "Is Dawn in some kind of danger? If she is, we - we both should know."

"That's not what you said the first time around," Faith said, dropping her voice to a whisper.

"Well, I changed my mind, then," Buffy shrugged. "Tell me? I learned my lesson from your last visit. Tell us."

"Dawn - okay, Dawn, this is kind of big news, and no one's told you because no one knows yet - you don't know yet, right?" Faith turned to face Buffy, who just looked confused. "Right, okay, this is going to be a lot to process. You know how your sister and I have our big special mystical destinies and all these supernatural powers?"

"Yeah?" Dawn stood up, and slowly walked over towards them.

"Well, turns out you do, too," Faith revealed. "Only, no one knows about it yet. They'll all find out in a couple weeks. But, you haven't really existed until just recently. Most of the memories you have, they're fake. You've only been around for, I don't know, a week, a month, a few months at most? We were never really sure when the monks cast the spell exactly. But there was this interdimensional key, a mystic artifact, that they gave human form."

"I'm not a real girl?" Dawn's lip quivered.

"No!" Faith shook her head. "You're definitely real. And you're definitely a Summers. You're a real person, with real feelings and real blood in your veins, and that blood is Buffy's blood. I know this sounds crazy now, but we proved that, the hard way, in the future. You're really a Summers girl. They made you out of her. You're Buffy's sister. It's just everything else that is fake - your memories, Buffy's, mine, everyone's about you until just recently."

"Why would they do that?" Buffy whispered. "Why would they mess with our heads this way?"

"They didn't have a choice," Faith shrugged. "They needed to hide the key, protect it, and you were the only who could. There's a big bad out there who wants it, wants you, Dawn, and will stop at nothing to get you."

"Great," Dawn whimpered. "That makes me feel so much better."

"Yeah, but this has to stay secret," Faith shook her head. "You can't tell anyone about this. The best protection you have right now is secrecy. They don't know you're human, don't know you can be human."

"I can keep a secret," Dawn assured her.

"You have to," Faith said. "Can't tell anyone about you being the key. Can't tell anyone about me being from the future. It's way too dangerous - it can destroy everything, if you do. Literally fate of the world. This is what Buffy and I do. Make the hard choices, make our sacrifices, to save the world. Can we count on you to do the same? To keep this secret, not brag about it, not ever let on that you know?"

"You can," Dawn puffed up, at the trust Faith was putting in her.

"Course we can," Faith reached out and rubbed her head, mussing up her hair. "Never had any doubt. You know why?"

Dawn ducked, moving away from her hand protestingly, and shook her head at the question.

"Like I said," Faith smiled. "The monks who made you, made you a Summers. That's Buffy's blood in your veins. You're a hero. Just like us."

"Yeah?" Dawn smiled up at her.

"Yeah," Buffy chimed in, reaching out and rubbing her shoulder.

"Okay, but seriously, we need to talk about the other thing," Faith looked at Buffy.

"Which other thing?" Buffy scrunched her brows together.

"The Dawn go back to the corner and earmuffs thing," Faith said.

"Oh, come on!" Dawn protested. "I already know about the time travel, what else is there to know about?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I wasn't supposed to curse in front of the kid," Faith teased. "Now it's okay?"

"There's going to be cursing?" Buffy raised her eyebrow.

"If I'm going to call Rocky Road flavor me and sort out your relationship drama, there will be," Faith nodded. "I don't think I'm capable of having an honest conversation with myself without cursing."

Buffy sighed, and turned to Dawn and raised her hand to gesture to the corner of the cave, but Dawn clasped her hands together.

"Please, Buffy?" she pleaded. "How many times will I get to hear Faith argue with herself? This is invaluable blackmail material! Plus, if you're going to be fixing the timeline to stop the end of the world, you're going to need help, and, and, and, I can help you! Nobody suspects me! I can be your secret assistant to save the world and stop things from going badly! But I'll need to know what's going on to do that!"

Buffy wilted, clearly wanting to keep arguing, but visibly deflating from the relief over getting Dawn back safe and sound from her earlier kidnapping.

"She makes a good point," Faith shrugged. "She already knows everything important."

"Fine!" Buffy threw her hands up, before pulling out her cell phone and tossing it to Faith. "Contribute to the delinquency of a minor! A really, really minor, who's only been alive for a month, apparently! What do I care!"

Faith scrolled through the speed dial on the brick and selected the one labeled Faith and pressed send, mindful of making sure that she kept the call as quick as possible.

"I thought I told you I needed space, B," echoed the tinny voice across the line.

"Yeah, well, if this was Buffy, that would apply, kid," Faith rolled her eyes. "But it's not."

There was a long pause and then finally the response. "Who is this?"

"You know who," Faith told her. "It's you, kid. Back from the future. Again. Cause apparently you two can't get your shit together."

"Do you know what happened? What she did?" her past self objected over the line, angrily. "You think I can just forgive that? Just like that?"

"Yeah," Faith said. "Because you love her. And that's what you do. You get angry, sure, and then you let it go and forgive her. Because you love her more than you hate her. And I've seen the future, and fuck, we make it. We're happy. Happy beyond belief there. If we can only just get past all of the drama you two have right now. And you need to get past the drama, because in the long run, it doesn't mean a damn. And saving the world kind of depends on us getting over ourselves."

There was another long pause.

"Really?" she said over the phone.

"Really," Faith agreed. "I wouldn't have come back here, if it wasn't the end of the world. Again. I'll give Buffy all the details, and she can fill you in when you get back, but - look, I know you. I've been you. And I know why you're mad. You're hurt because you feel betrayed and abandoned and left behind and want to lash out at the person who you feel was responsible. That's who we are. But at some point, we have to break that cycle. Have to stop being so self destructive, if we're ever going to find happiness."

"It's not that easy," she protested.

"Then make it that easy," Faith shrugged. "What's more important to you? Hurting Buffy? Or being happy? Because I know which I would choose. In a heartbeat. Buffy needs you. And that should be all that matters to you."

There was a loud thump, as if her past self slammed her fist against something.

"Fuck," she said.

"I'll be gone by the time you get back," Faith told her. "But just - choose happiness. For me. Okay?"

"Maybe," she said. "I'll try."

"And get back soon," Faith warned her. "Time is of the essence. Alright, I gotta go. Make smart choices, kid."

With that, Faith pressed the end call button and tossed the phone back to Buffy.

"So," she prefaced and took a deep breath. "That just leaves one thing left to fix. Everything that went wrong that led to the world ending two decades early."

"Oh, so, no tall order," Buffy smiled weakly.

"Yeah, well, we have a plan," Faith smirked at her. She reached back and pulled out the letter Buffy's future self had written, handing it over. "Detailed notes. From you. In the future. About everything you need to fix to stop the world from ending."

"That … is a very thick envelope," Buffy goggled at the size of it, but took it gingerly.

"There's a lot that goes wrong," Faith shrugged. "The short version is that we need Angel or Spike, preferably both, to stick around to help deal with an apocalypse coming in a few years. If they don't - it sets off a chain reaction that ends the world really, really slowly. So slowly we don't realize it until it's way too late to do anything about it. There's some other useful notes in there too - you always were a perfectionist."

"That … is a tall order," Buffy winced.

"If it was easy, it wouldn't be our problem," Faith said.

"And that's it?" Buffy said, incredulous. "Just, follow the instructions and the world is saved?"

"That's it," Faith agreed. "Which means it's time for me to get back home. We've done all we can do to fix things. The rest is up to you. But i have faith in you. Even if you have to take the long, hard way."

"Great," Buffy winced. "So, how are you getting back? Just casting the ritual again?"

"Not … exactly," Faith bit her lip. "I've done it so many times, and it's been corrupted so many times, and I still have some demon blood on me that bled over when I came back here. I don't feel that confident it will take me back when I need to go."

"So - you're stuck?" Dawn whimpered. "Just forced to hop around time hoping to find sometime close enough to the future?"

"Actually, there is a way," Faith turned to face her. "There's a stabilizer I can use to guarantee I get back to when I need to be."

"What's that?" Buffy asked her. "Is it something we can find easily?"

"We already have it," Faith winced. "You see, the reason the key is so valuable is that it's a key to interdimensional portals. And Dawn … is the key. A few drops of her blood should stabilize the ritual and let me get back home for sure."

"You want to cut me and make me bleed?" Dawn squeaked.

"I start the ritual, then you prick your finger and drip a few drops of blood on the magic circle that forms," Faith assured her. "Nothing super painful necessary. Do you think you can manage that?"

Dawn squared her shoulders. "Yeah. Yeah, I can. I'm a Summers, right? I'm a hero?"

"Yeah, you are," Faith nodded. "Alright. Showtime?"

Buffy stepped forward, grabbing Faith and pulling her close, wrapping her in a tight hug, squeezing her with every ounce of her Slayer strength.

"Come home to me alive," Buffy whispered in her ear, and then pulled back, giving her a kiss. "I still need to give you your ring back. That's a promise."

"I can't wait," Faith smiled at her.

She took a deep breath, and took a step back, well away from the other two, and started the ritual. The magical circle of symbols slowly formed around her, and Dawn stepped forward, pricking her finger with a small blade Buffy passed her, letting her blood drip on the circle, which suddenly flared green, before stepping back. The symbols continued to solidify as Faith chanted, until, finally, a shimmering portal opened one more time and Faith disappeared.

-

Faith stepped through the shimmering wave of magic that constituted the portal, not in a falling dervish of flailing limbs as she fell or was tossed, as she had gotten used to, but calmly walked.

An instant and three decades later she stepped back out, finally home in a familiar basement in London, the thrum of the ley lines tingling against her Slayer senses as she glanced down at the ritual circle. She looked back up, though, just in time to see a familiar blonde come barreling towards her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Hey, wife," Buffy whispered into her ear, her arms engulfing her and squeezing her.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Faith responded, reaching up to grab her elbows and squeeze her back. "So, you remember..."

"Everything," Buffy acknowledged. "Starting with your naked butt on my dryer."

"Hey," Faith shrugged. "In my defense, you were kind of dense when we were younger. I don't think you would have noticed anything less."

Buffy snorted but finally let go of her, and Faith felt relieved. Despite what she had told Spike, despite meaning it, this was the future she was hoping she was coming back to, the timeline she wanted more than anything.

"The apocalypse in 2012?" Faith asked her quietly.

"Dealt with," Buffy nodded. "And we took the 'primal upgrade' I warned about in my letter."

"I hate to interrupt this charming reunion," Giles spoke from the side. "But you were successful, yes? You have the Kathodicon Libram?"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Giles, got it right ... here ..." Faith trailed off as she turned to face Giles, waving the book at him, and took in who else was present next to him. Kneeling on the ritual circle was not Willow, but Tara. "That's ... different."

Now that she was aware of the change, actually looking around the room, she noticed everything else that had changed. The door wasn't smashed in and with a giant demonic corpse covering half the room. And there was one more person in the room as well.

"Dawnie?" Faith blinked, tears stinging her eyes.

"Hey, sis," Dawn rolled her eyes, before making grabbing motions towards the book. "You two all done being gross? We need to start deciphering as soon as possible."

"Wait, Faith," Giles interrupted. "You said 'that's different'. To what were you referring? Even if it was something small, it could represent consequences of the ritual we just performed. I know you were only in the past for a few moments, but think carefully. Is it possible you disturbed anything while you were there besides the Libram? Another stack of books? What changed here? No matter how small, whether it was the color of someone's shirt or their exact placement around the circle -"

"Tara's alive," Faith cut him off and watched everyone's eyes go wide and her let out a squeak. "Dawn, too. So I wouldn't call that small. Also, people are standing in different locations around the room on account of the lack of a giant dead demon invading the ritual and disrupting it by bleeding all over the circle while you were mid-chant - speaking of, B, did our perimeter -"

"They're fine," Buffy nodded. "We got attacked by one of these new extra dimensional demons, but between the Slayers we had on duty and Willow backing them up, they were able to drop it before it got inside the outer perimeter."

"That explains where she is," Faith nodded, and turned back to Giles.

"I'm sorry, are you saying that before the ritual, both Tara and Dawn were deceased?" Giles thundered. "What happened in the past?"

"Well, you know how you warned me not to let anyone see me? You warned me not to change anything?" Faith laughed nervously. "Oops?"

"Do you have any idea what could have happened?" Giles roared. "The consequences of your arrogance could have been disastrous!"

"I know exactly what could have happened," Faith stood her ground. "The world could have ended in 2012 as a result of the apocalypse that year from the unforeseen consequences of the very necessary meddling that I did to try and set the timeline back on track after the ritual got distorted because it spat me out in the wrong time and place because, again, a demon from another dimension bled all over it and me. Can't emphasize the demon attack enough."

"Giles?" Tara slowly stood up and dusted her knees off. "I think Faith didn't change things on purpose."

"I didn't," Faith nodded at her. She took a long breath and then begrudgingly shook her head and tossed it at Buffy. "But she did."

"Yeahhhhh," Buffy admitted. "I've kind of been conspiring with future Faith for thirty two years to try to fix the future and save everyone's lives and make the world a better place and get tips on how to seduce her past self. Is this my turn to say 'oops'?"

"Buffy!" Dawn looked scandalized. "You've been secretly disrupting the fabric of time with your wife's future self for thirty two years? And didn't tell me?"

"Dawn!" Giles reprimanded her.

"Yeah, Dawn," Faith rolled her eyes. "That protest would be a lot more effective if you also weren't in on the whole save the world and everyone in it conspiracy with me and Buffy."

"Hey!" Dawn protested, and held her hand up to her chest as if wounded. "You told me not to ever let anyone know! I was just being dutiful and maintaining my cover."

Giles deflated slightly. "You were both in on this reckless endeavour?"

"It was a risk, Giles," Dawn said, sitting up straight. "And we knew that. But we made our choice. We saved the world. That's what we do. That's what we've always done. Also, I can't believe you didn't tell me that I die in the future, too. Way to undersell the importance of fixing the timeline, Faith!"

"We're Summerses," Buffy continued. "We would make the same choice again, if we had to. It's what we choose, every time. You've known that since I walked down into the sewers to face the Master."

Giles' anger left him fully, and he smiled at the two girls, reaching his arms out. Dawn walked over to hug him, needing the comfort in all the emotional revelations.

"Wow," Tara sniffled, rubbing her hand through her greying hair. "I can't believe you two were doing this the whole time and kept it from us. Any other changes we should know about? Anyone else miraculously alive?"

"I dunno," Faith shrugged. "I just got here. Who else is still alive? Xander? Anya? Kennedy? Angel? Robin? Riley?"

As she rattled off the names, she watched everyone's eyes growing wide with horror, as they slowly processed the list of the dead. Tara stumbled over to a chair in the corner, sitting down, just as the outer doors opened and Willow stepped inside, accompanied by two Slayers - both that Faith knew should be dead, one Faith had seen fall in this very building, and one that had died over a decade ago.

"Tara, sweetie? Everything go alright in here?" Willow asked, crossing over to her.

"Fine," Tara nodded, reaching out to take her in a hug. "Just a lot to process, it turns out. All those people, they really all died?"

"Shit, they're really all alive here?" Faith quirked an eyebrow and turned to Buffy for confirmation.

"Xander and Anya are retired from Scoobying these days," Buffy shrugged. "And Riley is a General, and doesn't get out into the field anymore. But everyone is still alive, and everyone else is still active. It looks like we lost most of our people either in the retreat when Sunnydale fell or in 2012, from the notes you and the other Buffy left me? It turns out that when we fixed those two events, most everything else was just attrition from those two bleeding us dry. Coming out of them stronger meant that we had way more people, were able to rotate Slayers, have more girls to watch each others' backs. Everyone was safer."

Faith breathed a sigh of relief and felt tension leave her stomach at the confirmation, tension she hadn't realized she had been holding. "We did it?"

"We did it," Buffy nodded at her, crossing back over and giving her a hug again. "Oh!"

"Oh?" Faith asked. "What now?"

"Good things," Buffy smiled at her, and stepped back. She reached into her shirt, pulling out her necklace, and revealing a ring on it. Faith's ring. She undid the clasp, sliding it off, and handing it back to Faith.

"Here," Buffy said, taking Faith's hand, and sliding the ring on to it. "This is yours."

"You kept it safe," Faith smiled.

"All this time," Buffy smiled at her. "And your other self left you a gift, too. You've got a lot to catch up on. Faith left as much of herself in the dreaming as she could with us all before she took her trip back. She knew it might be a one way journey, that you would probably be coming back instead."

Faith's heart ached for her past self, in some other world, some other timeline, hoping she found love there and didn't just disappear from existence.

"We've been planning for this, you see," Buffy shrugged. "Ever since the letter about her plan, she has been pushing herself into the Slayer dreams with everyone, but especially me. For years now. So that when you get here, you can get her back. Merge together. She's gone, but not lost forever. No Slayer is. She said to tell you, that you didn't know the bargain you were making when you jumped back through the portal, you didn't get to make an informed choice, but she would still make the same choice all over again. She didn't regret it."

 Faith felt the echo of her words from their conversation in the basement slam into her like a hammer, and nodded, slowly.

"Fuck, B, the dreams are gonna be weird tonight," she confessed.

 "Come on," Buffy nodded at everyone. "It's been a long day for all of us, but an even longer day for Faith. Let's get the Libram back to Headquarters where it's safe and we can start researching and I think a lot of people are going to want to take some time tonight to process things."

They started making their way out of the basement, Faith leaning against Buffy, semi-drunkenly from the rush of endorphins in her system, from being able to touch her in public the way she had always desired, from the sheer amount of physical contact and affection.

"Oh," Faith remembered as they got to the surface and she saw the sun shining down on them, cutting through the London fog. "What about Spike? I forgot to ask about him. Did he make it out alive and okay?"

Buffy groaned and jabbed Faith in the side. "That's all your fault! Three decades I've been waiting to complain to you about him!"

"Yes," Dawn giggled from behind them. "Spike is still alive. Very much alive. And very much a nuisance to Buffy."

"Why? What happened with him?" Faith asked, confused.

Buffy's eyes grew indignant and she sputtered, clearly winding up for a rant, but Dawn just groaned.

"Faith, just kiss my sister," she muttered. "I don't want to hear this rant again."

Faith complied happily, wrapping her hand in Buffy's hair and dipping her. Buffy tried to push her away at first, to continue her indignant rant, but eventually gave up, and happily, joyfully kissed her back.