FF: Redemption 1/?

["The Fool" <honouredfool@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Redemption 1/2.

Disclaimer: All the Buffy Characters belong to Joss and company. I'm looking into buying them but I don't think he'll trade for my cd collection.

Feedback: Is like a box of cho-okay I'll stop now. But seriously I crave feedback.

Authour's Notes: I switched to // to denote thoughts. Shyfox continues to be my most favourite of beta-readers. Well actually my only beta reader but that doesn't make her any less favourite. :)



Interlude

Buffy and Willow had finally managed to chase everyone out of the house for the night. As she closed the door on Spike's heels Willow felt strong arms wrap themselves around her narrow waist.

"Mmmm that's the best thing I've felt in hours. We're alone now right?"

"Just you, me and an empty house." Buffy let out a contended sigh as Willow turned in her embrace.

"So," she paused and swallowed nervously, "What're we going to do now?" Buffy grinned evilly.

"I have a few ideas." Slayer leaned up to kiss her Beloved. It was a chaste kiss, full of love that quickly deepened into a passionate tongue duel. <Its like I'm floating. Oh wait. She picked me up. That's sort of floating?.Oh Goddess! Where'd she learn that?>

A low groan of pleasure escaped Buffy's throat as Willow wrapped her waist

"Bed. Now."

"Good Idea."

Buffy carried Willow upstairs and laid her gently on the bed, pulling back gently to break contact for the first time since the front door had shut.

"Comeback." Willow whined "What're you doing?" The Slayer straddled Willow's legs and pulled her lover into a sitting position.

"This better?" Kiss.

"Much." Kiss. Willow felt hands drifting towards the hemline of her shirt. "What're you-Oh" Willow gasped as cold air hit her now bare back. "How'd you?" Her question was cut off by a kiss.

"It's a slayer thing." Buffy's hands made short work of the clasp holding Willow's bra on. Willow gasped again as Buffy's hands drifted forward and lightly cupped her breasts.

"Goddess, I love you Buffy." She reached down and began to tug at Buffy's own shirt. "Arms." Buffy raised her arms over her head. Willow carelessly tossed the shirt into a corner.

"Hey, that's my favourite." Both girls giggled as Willow hastily removed Buffy's bra and pulled her back down, pressing flesh against flesh for the first time. Five years of repressed desire exploded as hands frantically explored bodies and tongues, mouths. Pants and underwear were promptly disposed of all the while maintaining very close physical contact in a series of shockingly agile moves.

Buffy let her hand wonder down to gently explore Willow's hot center. She stroked the redhead's lips gently before slipping first one, then two fingers into her lover's core. Willow gasped as she felt Buffy enter her and pushed her hips up to meet her. Willow tossed, bucked and moaned as Buffy's fingers continued their relentless exploration. <It's just like I always dreamed it would be.>

<You dreamed about this?>

<Hey! You can hear my thoughts?>

<I guess so. How's this?> Willow screamed in pleasure. < I take it that's a yes?> Willow was too spent to respond, even mentally. <Sleep now my love, we'll do this again in the morning.>

<I love you Buff.> Then they slept.


***

Chapter One.


When I was young I knew everything

She a punk who rarely ever took advice.

Verve Pipe-The Freshmen


A few days later Willow was sitting on the couch in Joyce's living room gently stroking her love's hair as she slept. <How I love this woman.> Suddenly Buffy's head jerked up, her eyes wide in, <Not quite fear, but almost.>

"Buff, what is it? Nightmare?" Willow was really worried, Buffy was constantly tormented by nightmares.

"No, not a nightmare." Buffy paused and looked around the room. "She's back." Willow didn't have to ask who was back, Buffy had been yelling her name out in her sleep for days.

"You're sure?"

"I can feel her. Owen must have brought her back. He said we needed her, that I had to forgive her. I told him I couldn't, that I needed more time. I guess he wasn't listening." She reached out and took Willow's hand for support. "How can I? After everything she did to me? She wanted to kill you. She tried to kill Angel. She helped the Mayor." Emphasis was placed on this last part.

"I know its hard Buffy but you have to believe that Owen wouldn't bring her here unless he really needed you to forgive her. I know she wanted me dead but I'm still alive and so's Angel and your mom. We beat the Mayor and everything turned out fine. If Owen and Angel think she's alright then that's good enough for me." Willow nodded her head in a firm assertion of this belief.

"It's not that easy for me Wills. She's a Slayer, maybe it's that only I know exactly what that means, but she betrayed what we are, everything that we stand for. I can't just up and forgive her."

"Sure you can, it's easy. Look her right in the eye, square on like this," Willow looked right into Buffy's eyes, "and say I forgive you."

"Will I--" She was cut off by resolve face.

"I forgive you." Buffy tried to look away. There was no arguing with resolve face.

"Alright, I'll talk to her."

"That's all I ask." Willow grinned inwardly. <Resolve Face. Gets'em every time.>.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you wanna?" She let the question hang.

"Yeah, let's go." The two lovers ran upstairs. Willow was breathless by the time she got to the top. "Do you think we should? With your mom and Giles right downstairs?"

"Wills, its not a federal crime to eat ice cream in a bedroom." (haha get your mind out of the gutter ;)


***

"Faith, if you don't stop moving I'm going to have your dad tie you to a chair the next time we stop. I mean god!" Cordelia loved her Slayer, she really did but if she didn't stop moving-

"C, do you have any idea what this is like for me? Buffy's like, my hero. Have you ever betrayed your hero?" Faith looked into her lover's eyes. /God, it's like she's staring into my soul./

"You're right, I'm sorry. God, I've been saying that a lot lately. You see how much I love you? Apologies every two seconds. I feel like a guy, all I ever get to say is 'Yes Dear', 'You're right' and 'I'm sorry." The Slayer grinned mischievously.

"Well maybe if you didn't run your mouth off all the time?"

"WHAT!" The car careened towards the shoulder as Cordelia spun her head towards her lover's face. "If I didn't what?" She screeched. 
"She's right you know. You do have a tendency to talk first think later." Owen spoke up for the first time from the back seat.

"You stay out of this old man." Cordelia glowered at him. "I don't think you know what you're talking about." Faith tugged at Cordelia's arm.

"C, uh C?"

"What?"

"You want I should steer or are you going to just run into that guard rail?" Cordelia turned and looked in horror at the rapidly approaching guardrail for about two thirds of a second before wrenching the wheel back onto the road. 
"That's it. No one says a goddamn thing until we get to Sunnydale." So they didn't.

***

"What happened to you guys?" Angel asked worriedly as they piled out of their cars just inside the city limits. The old man grinned before answering.

"Cordelia was running her mouth off again."

"HEY! That's the last time--"

"It's alright C, I still love you." Faith grabbed her girlfriend's hips and spun her around, capturing her mouth with her own.

"Mmmph." Faith broke the kiss.

"Is that a word?"

"I love you too." Owen loudly cleared his throat.

"Right then, Faith and I will go to meet Buffy--" He was cut off instantly.

"Hold it. Faith isn't going anywhere without me. I won't have her going into this without support. I need to be there."

"Fine. Cordelia, Faith and I will go meet Buffy--" Interrupted again.

"Uh, is Spike going to be there? Because I really think I should talk to him."

"Alright then, Angel Cordelia, Faith and I--"

"And leave me to just go off by myself? I should think not. I shall speak to Giles."

"Fine then," the old man bit out, "We'll all go to Buffy's we'll all make a big scene and then perhaps we'll have a family photo taken after. Does that suit everyone's liking?" To say the old man was being sarcastic would like calling Jerry Falwell sort of a religious psycho.

***


"Hi B." Faith looked at the cold, hard eyes from across the room.

"Faith."

"Uh, we're just going to go upstairs and not eavesdrop." Will stammered. The tension in the room was so thick you would've needed at least an axe to cut it. "Come on guys." Cordelia, Xander, Anya and Willow all scrambled up the stairs, hoping to get away before the furniture started flying. 
"I should've stayed down their with her." Cordelia turned to go back downstairs.

"No Cordelia, we need to let them sort it out themselves. They'll tell us when they're ready." Willow watched the struggle in Cordy's eyes. "I know its hard," she whispered to Cordelia, "I feel the same way about Buffy."

Downstairs there remained three people, all watching each other from different corners of the room. Finally one spoke up.

"You two aren't going to do this the easy way are you?" Owen looked sternly from one girl to the other and gave an exasperated sigh. "Very well. Come over here, both of you." The Chosen Two took up positions on either side of the old man, eyeing one another warily.

There was a surge of power and Joyce Summer's living room was replaced with a landscape of apocalyptic horror. 
"Um, where the hell are we?" Buffy asked.

"Sunnydale, after the you lost the battle. You're mutual refusal to come to terms led to a spiraling depression for Faith and distracted you from your task. By the time it came time to fight Faith was absolutely helpless when the demons came for her. There she is over there." Buffy and Faith turned to see Faith's twin, her face distorted by vampiric features bent over someone, feeding. As they looked on VampFaith looked up from her meal, giving the slayers the opportunity to see who it used to be.

"Oh God. C." Faith turned away in horror.

"Every night you feed on her until she is almost dead then you have her transfused during the day so you can do it again the next night." Both girls gasped as the old man turned and began to walk away. "Come on then, there's still more to see." As the three walked away the old man continued to talk. "You're the in the same state here Buffy. You turned Willow and the two of you work out of the Bronze. Everyone here is afraid of you, even the Betrayer. You are rumoured to be the resting place of the essence of the Dark. They say it took you over the moment you lost the battle. Unspeakable horrors take place at the Bronze. Giles is dead," Owen continued as they turned the corner to the Bronze. "Willow killed him and-" His monologue was cut of by choked sobs. Looking up he saw what Buffy was crying about. "Stuck his head on a pike outside the Bronze." He continued relentlessly. "You both had a hand in turning Xander and Joyce. They live in LA now, almost as feared as you are. Utter debauchery and dreadfulness. Children are involved, I'm not even going to show you. Angel's dead, killed in the battle, Spike too. Anya's in a cage in Xander's lair, that is if she's still alive. Everyone you love dead or demonic." Both girls were openly weeping now.

"What happened to you?" Buffy looked up, her eyes imploring at least one piece of good news.

"Me? Oh, you were going to kill me but the Betrayer convinced you not to. Faith suggested you turn me, but that's impossible. Then the Betrayer got a Morag demon to impale me against a wall with its horn. Have you ever seen a Morag demon? Its horn is 6 feet long and has a 3 foot diameter. It's coated in some sort of poison that causes incredible pain when it touches you. I'm still up there. Unable to die if you don't chop off my head or tear out my heart. You did neither, and I don't think you're planning on it anytime soon." As he finished his litany of terror the Chosen Two looked at each other, horror, despair, revulsion and a host of other unpleasant emotions flitting across their faces.

"Oh God, Buffy. I kill her every day. Please, please don't let this happen. Faith choked back her sobs long enough to plead "I'm sorry. For all of it. I'm sorry." Buffy didn't say anything at first, just leapt forward to embrace her younger companion.

"I forgive you. I should have tried harder to bring you back. I shouldn't have been such a royal bitch when you came back." As the Slayers wept into each others shoulders there was another surge and the Hell they had seen was replaced by Joyce's living room..

"I knew you'd see it my way."

Willow and Cordelia tentatively stuck their heads into the living room. Seeing their respective lovers locked in a fierce embrace they looked over Owen standing with an enigmatic grin on his face.

"I take it they're over their differences?" Willow asked him. Hearing the sound of her love's sweet voice Buffy pulled herself from Faith's arms and ran to Willow, collapsing against her, crying tears of joy and relief. Faith was a little slower to respond but no less effusive than her fellow, rushing into Cordelia's arms.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Cordelia looked into her lover's eyes. Faith reached out and tenderly stroked the other girl's cheek, shuddering as she touched her neck.

"Nothing C, just saw some pretty freaky shit."


***

"So, it was pretty horrible huh?"

"You should've seen it. Actually no, you shouldn't have. In fact I'm going to make damn certain you never, ever see what I saw. That's a promise." 
"And that's why I love you." 
"I love you too. Why don't we?" Buffy gasped as Willow began to nibble on her neck. //Nevermind.//

***

Spike decided he needed to find a new place to live. //Whoever thought that both of them would be screamers?//

***

Faith didn't sleep at all. She sat and watched Cordelia dream peacefully. //How could I ever do that to her?// \\It wasn't you, it was Vamp-Faith. They're completely different.\\ //Horseshit. When I was talking to Angel about Willow being gay he told me about Vamp-Willow and personality "aspect" enhancing. Somewhere down there I really want to kill her, or at least hurt her a lot.// \\You're going to make a big deal out of this aren't you?\\ //Of course I am. This is a big deal. I need to get away for a while. I need time to think.// \\If you leave I'll never speak to you again.\\ //Can you do that?// \\I think so. I can sure as hell try. If you leave her it'll be the biggest jack-ass move you ever made. Even bigger than the whole being the Mayor's buddy thing.\\ //I'm going. That's final. Now shut up.// She stood up and gently kissed Cordelia on the forehead. "I'll be home soon lover."

Faith slipped off into the night watched only by two pair of yellow eyes.



The Fool

Unofficial List Hermit and Skittles Addict.

ICQ: 6412938

AIM: honouredfool


Faith: You can't trust guys.

Buffy: You can trust some guys. Really, I've read about them.

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