By the time I get to the pinhole on the map, I'm ready to give up and lay down for a nap somewhere. The only thing keeping me going is the idea that Buffy's out here somewhere, alone and probably freaked out. Or freaking other people out. Or both.

The thing that's bugging me, aside of that, is that these Shadowdudes didn't see fit to clue me into their little plan. I didn't even want to go to the damn desert and get conked in the head or chased up a tree by the cat from hell. None of this was my idea, and somehow I get stuck babysitting for the one whose idea it was.

I sigh and start walking slowly. The spot marked on the map is apparently a residential street, and since I don't hear any screaming, somehow I doubt she's wandering around someone's living room.

"Oh, duh," I mutter to myself as I reach the end of the street and find myself faced with a graveyard. You wanna find a Slayer, start looking at home. I start calling her name and making my way slowly between the rows of headstones.

The sound of a scuffle comes from behind a mausoleum, and I make my way cautiously over, worried it might be a demon. I'm relieved to see it's Buffy, and then I start feeling pretty nauseous when I realize she's leaning over a dead squirrel.

"Buffy," I say tentatively, not wanting to scare her. She turns quickly and stares at me. "Hey, yunno.. we have food at home. You don't.. you don't have to hunt here." She tilts her head quizzically, then glances back at the squirrel. "No, come on."

I wave my hand a little, trying to coax her to come with me, and she seems to debate for a minute before lumbering towards me. Instinctively, I put my hand out, and surprisingly, she takes it. Good, less chance of her running off if I've got a grip on her.

"So, uh.." What the hell do you say to someone who can't--or doesn't want to--talk back? "The gang's working on figuring out how to get you back to.. you. I mean, not that you're not you. But the you that doesn't look at a dead squirrel and think 'lunch'.. You know what I mean?"

She looks up at me. "Fuck?" she suggests helpfully.

"No. Lunch. What's with your obsession with the F-bomb?"

She snorts and looks back at the ground as we walk, but comes to a dead stop when we approach the exit of the graveyard. She suddenly looks terrified and moves behind me. I'm trying to figure out why she's wigging, when it hits me.

If she's gone prehistoric, she probably hasn't got a fucking clue what a car is. Or anything else in this world, for that matter. Except fuck, apparently.

I glance back at her cowering figure as she claws at my jeans, trying to hide. "We're so screwed, B."

"Fuck?" she whispers, wide eyed.
"Yeah, B." I back up with her slowly. She relaxes when we've moved a few yards from the gate, and sits down under a tree, playing in the dirt with her fingernails. "Totally and completely, utterly fuck."

I pace back and forth in front of the payphone for awhile, watching Buffy pick bugs out of the dirt and study them closely. Finally, I pick up the phone and collect-call her house.

"Hello?"

"Good. You're just the person I wanted to talk to. We're at Shady Hill. I need you to bring a couple things, though." I rattle off the items I need quickly and hang up without waiting for a response.

Buffy looks up at me and cocks her head to the side, holding out a worm for me. I sigh and sit next to her, taking it. "Thanks." She looks confused and frowns, glancing back at the street.

"Hey.." she looks back at me and I reach out to touch her shoulder lightly. "It's cool, B. I promise. No more street. We'll just stay here for awhile, yunno?"

She sighs and curls up against my side, resting her head on my shoulder. I shift a little and rest my head against hers. I can't remember being this exhausted in my life, ever. I can't remember the last time I slept, and I fight as hard as I can not to sleep, but my eyes won't stay open on their own any longer.

"Faith.." a soft whisper comes. "Don't hit me or anything, but.. you gotta wake up."

I let out a grunt and shift a little. Go away, go away. I'm tired, and I'm very comfortable right now, curled up with.. "Shit! Buffy?" My eyes fly open, and she's sitting next to me, staring up, bewildered. I look up as well.

"Thank god, Xander." I stand up and brush my pants off. "Did you bring that stuff?"

He nods, studying Buffy, who doesn't look pleased. "Yeah. Got your really random groceries, MacGuyver."

"Who?"

"..never mind. What are we doing?"

I glance at Buffy, whose brows are furrowed. "We're getting her home." I kneel down and spread out the wool blanket near Buffy and pat it a little. She raises an eyebrow at me in yet another one of her classic expressions, but obediently crawls onto the blanket, laying down and looking up at me.

"I don't get it."

I pop open the bottle and pour some of it into the cup. "She's s-c-a-r-e-d of the c-a-r-s." I hold the cup of Benedryl out to her and the trust in her eyes when she sips it kind of freaks me out. Not used to seeing that from anybody, much less her.

She lays back down and curls onto her side, and Xander sits down as well, a few feet away. "Here's another question for you.. why me?"

I knit my brows and glance back at him. "What?"

"Um.. you said on the phone. I was just the person you wanted to talk to. Why?"

I look down and watch Buffy's face starting to relax, shrugging a little. "You'd die for her." I look at him again. "So would I." Xander studies me for a minute, then nods. "You tell anyone that, and I'll gut you like a fish."

"I won't." His voice is soft and serious. "You think that's why they picked you?"

"What?"

He shrugs. "To be the Guardian. Because you'd die for her."

"No. I think it's cause I was there."

"Yeah. You were." He picks up a stick and starts peeling the bark off it. "And why's that again?"

"Cause I went in after.." I trail off. He's being insightful, and it's kind of annoying. "When did you get so damn logical, anyway?"

"Somewhere between going for jelly donuts and saving the world. You love her."

I snort and scoot back a little, away from her. "Who said love? I said I'd die for her. Nobody said anything about love."

He just smiles and goes back to playing with the stick. "Okay."

"I don't."

"Okay."

I groan with frustration and glance over at Buffy. "She's out cold. Let's roll." I stand up and carefully wrap the blanket around her. "Check it out. Buffy burrito."

He grins and tosses the stick aside, standing up. "You didn't mean actual rolling, did you? 'Cause burritos never stay together."

"I had something a little different in mind. Here." I shove the bottle of Benedryl at him. He takes it and watches as I slide my arms under Buffy's body and lift her up, cradling her to my chest. She curls up against me and nestles her head against my shoulder.

"I can do that," Xander offers quickly. "You're all beat up and stuff."

"Thanks, but.. I'm a Slayer. And she weighs about five pounds soaking wet. It's fine." I move forward slowly, double checking my grip on her.

"You looove her.." comes the singsong voice from behind me. I pause and lift my leg backwards, kicking him in the shin. "Ouch."

"See?"

"Doesn't change the truth," he mumbles. "Sissykicker."

I start walking again, checking every once in awhile to make sure the blanket is pulled over her face so she doesn't see anything but me if she wakes up.

It's a long walk home carrying Buffy. She might be a lightweight, but dead weight is dead weight and my arms are going numb. I'm huffing and puffing pretty loud by the time we hit main street and Xander helps me lay her down on a bench so I can rest for a minute. Luckily the area's pretty empty. Most people seem to be taking the back roads on their way out of town. I slump onto the stoop and light a cigarette, and he sits next to me, pulling a bag of Skittles from his pocket and popping a few in his mouth. I look at him, amused.

He shrugs. "Have food, will travel." I put my hand out and he pours some in, and suddenly I realize that I haven't eaten since whatever that thing Buffy killed in the desert was.

"What are we gonna do?" I say softly, picking out the orange ones and giving the rest back to him. "I didn't think we were gonna win before Buffy went all Clan of the Cave Bear. But with her out of comission, I don't think we even stand a chance."

Xander sighs heavily and starts handing me more orange Skittles. "I don't know. The First has Bringers, and Turok-Han, and.. evil, on its side. We have.."

"A bunch of scared little girls, a retired Watcher, a Wicca School dropout, and a cranky ex-con who, by the way, hasn't showered in two days."

He smiles and pats my back a little. "I noticed the last part."

I whack him in the arm and draw my knees to my chest, resting my chin on them and closing my eyes. "We're screwed, aren't we?"

"You could say that." His voice is a little shaky and I open my eyes quickly to see a Turok-Han headed our way. I scramble to my feet and back up quickly, shaking Buffy's shoulder.

"Buffy.. B, come on. Get up. We gotta go." But she's totally out. "Shit. Xander, get her home!"

I leave her sleeping on the bench. I hope I can provide enough of a distraction for Xander to get her home before the Turok-Han gets tired of beating up my corpse. I take a running start and fly at it feet-first, my heel damn near bouncing of its chest before I hit the ground on my back.

The thing growls at me and grabs me by the throat, squeezing. Well, that was a lot less successful than I was hoping it would be. My vision gets a little blurry and starts to darken around the edges as its claws dig into my neck. I kick my feet uselessly, tearing at its hands with my nails, but it doesn't even seem to notice. It pulls me closer, still squeezing my throat, and sinks its teeth into my neck.

I start crying and all I can think is please, god.. please.. don't let it make me one of them. I'd rather be dead than undead. Anything but that. I guess it's true what they say, there are no atheists in fox holes. Cause right now I'm praying to any god that'll listen to just let me die in peace, and not be turned.

The dark closes in, and I give up. I hear Xander screaming my name from far away, and I close my eyes, letting go, my feet stilling as I relax and let myself float away.

Suddenly, I'm released, and I hit the ground hard enough to rattle my jaw. Instinctively I try to pull myself up to see what happened, but I only manage to roll onto my side with a groan of pain. I open my eyes, and through my blurred vision I see hands wrap around my chest and pull me further away from the street where the Turok-Han is facing off with..

"Buffy!" I gasp weakly, my voice sounding strange and gritty even to my own ears.

Xander pulls me onto my feet and puts his arm under my arms to hold me up. "Faith, look."

I look closer, my vision clearing a little, and can't believe what I'm seeing. Buffy's tearing into the Turok-Han like it's a turkey and she's armed with and electric carving knife. She rakes her nails across its face, and it howls in pain. It grabs her by the throat, but she quickly flips out of its grasp and jumps at it again. They fall to the ground, rolling across the pavement and growling at each other as Xander and I watch in shock. Buffy rolls the thing onto its back and wraps her hands under its chin, grabbing its head and twisting it clean off.

She lands directly on the street as it dusts beneath her and quickly pulls herself to her feet.

"Whoah," Xander whispers. I try to nod, but my head swims with the effort. The lack of oxygen and blood loss, combined with pure exhaustion, finally gets to me. I lean into Xander, letting him hold me as I pass out.

When I open my eyes, I'm laying in Buffy's bed. Kennedy is sitting in a nearby armchair reading a comic book, but Buffy's nowhere in sight. I open my mouth, but all that comes out is a rasping sound. She looks up immediately. "Well, look who's back among the living." She tosses the book aside and comes over, sitting on the edge of the bed and grabbing a cup of water. She bends the straw a little and I suck it in greedily, closing my eyes for a minute. It feels like ice cubes sliding down my throat. "Your neck and your throat are probably gonna hurt for a bit. You really got fucked up."

I open my eyes and struggle to sit up a little. "Buffy," I rasp.

"She's fine," Kennedy says quickly, pushing me back onto the bed. "She's sleeping it off in Dawn's room while everyone else tries to figure out what the hell happened."

"The demon," I mumble, my voice still incredibly hoarse. "The demon they put in her, gave her more strength. She's like.. super-Slayer."

Kennedy frowns. "The strength part I get. What's with the cave-girl act, though?"

I shrug a little and look up as Dawn comes in. "When they put the demon in the first Slayer, she became less than human. The Shadowmen, they created a monster. She had no thoughts but to hunt and kill." She sits on the opposite side of the bed from Kennedy, crossing her legs Indian-style. "She could barely even communicate any more, and she became so destructive that the village that created her in the first place cast her out. They were afraid."

"Senaya," Kennedy offers. "That was her name, right?"

Dawn nods. "Before she was chosen, anyway."

"Even with her crazy strength," I force myself to sit up again, knocking Kennedy's hand out of the way. "She can't fight them all. What are we supposed to do, ask the Turok-Han politely to form an orderly queue, and we'll slay them just as soon as we can?"

Downstairs, the front door bangs closed and a voice rings out. "Where the bloody hell is everyone? I've got news!"

I roll my eyes and Kennedy smirks as Dawn jumps off the bed and heads out. "I take it you're not crazy about him?"

"If by 'crazy about' you mean 'totally annoyed by', then yeah," I croak, resting against the headboard. "Hey, Ken. Do me a favor."

"Does it involve a sharp wooden object and a bleached blonde vampire making his way onto the end of it?"

I manage a smirk. "No. Just check on Buffy real quick? I know she's probably fine, but.. she gets freaked out real easy, yunno?"

"Sure." Kennedy slides off the bed. "I'll find out what Vampire Barbie's talking about, too."

"Thanks."

She's barely been gone a minute when half the people in the house burst into the room, all talking over each other excitedly.

"Yo!" I yell out, and they all go relatively quiet. "Do you think you could all try to scream at me one at a time?"

"I found something at the mission," Spike offers. I try to focus more on the information he's giving me and less on the fact that his face looks like a carved out turkey carcass with wax paper stretched over it.

"The mission?"

"Yeah," he says impatiently. "Rupert thought he found a connection between the First and an old mission south of here and sent me to check it out. By the way," he turns to Giles and holds out a receipt. "I'm getting comped for the petrol, yeah?"

Giles closes his eyes. "Just tell her what you found, Spike."

"Right then," he looks back at me. "The place was fairly well thrashed, but there was a survivor. Filled me in a bit. There's a preacher, calls himself Caleb, working for the First. He about tore the place apart looking for this." He holds out a photo and I take it. It's a wall with some kind of weird carvings on it.

"They look like hieroglyphics."

"Close enough," he agrees.

I hand him back the photo. "What do they mean?"

"It is not for thee, it is for she alone to wield. Best I can tell, it's describing some kind of weapon. Slayer thing, you know?"

"Tell her what we saw," comes a whisper from the back. One of the potentials--I think it's Vi--raises her hand.

"This isn't school," I point out, grabbing the glass of water off the nightstand. "If you got something to say, speak up."

Vi shuffles forward slowly, with Amanda nudging her lightly from behind. "We uh--we were out doing recon, and we saw one of those guys. The ones with the big x's where their eyes should be."

"Bringers," Amanda pipes up.

"Yeah," Vi glances at her. "A Bringer. So we followed it, to see where it went."

"They've got a headquarters, the old vineyard at the edge of town," Amanda takes over the story, and Vi looks relieved as she steps back. "There were a whole bunch of them milling around, going in and out."

"They had guards," comes another voice. The crowd parts a little and Caridad blushes a little. "Three on each door. We.. we think they're protecting something."

"The weapon," I say, sliding out of the bed. "Okay, here's the deal. Buffy's out of the game for now, which means I'm in charge. Will, you and Xander are in charge of Buffy. Keep dosing her with the Benedryl so she doesn't freak, and try not to let her realize I'm not there. Giles and Dawn, you guys keep up the studying. See if you can find anything else about this Caleb guy."

They nod agreeably. I glance over the girls and point to them one by one. "Kennedy, Caridad, Rona, Molly, and Spike. You guys are coming with me." Spike looks pleased and Molly looks terrified.

"Where?" Caridad asks.

"The vineyard. If they've got a weapon hidden there, we're gonna take it away from them."

"That's a suicide mission," Molly cries out. "They'll tear us to pieces in a heartbeat. You can't bloody well expect us to walk into the lair of the people who are trying to kill us!"

"Fine," I nod. "Amanda, you game?" She nods, setting her jaw. "Okay. Anybody else got objections?" Silence. "Good. Let's move out."

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