Complement

XXIII – Welcome To My Nightmare

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Welcome to my nightmare ~ I think you're gonna like it ~ I think you're gonna feel like you belong ~ A nocturnal vacation ~ Unnecessary sedation ~ You want to feel at home 'cause you belong...
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She struggled to open her eyes, but they were so heavy and... and... the pain. The pain thrummed, raced through every part of her body. She felt it in every cell, her head was pounding, and she could smell singed hair. She whimpered low in her throat, she never knew such intense pain existed. She tried to reach out with her hands, seeking, searching, but her arms wouldn't move and then she slipped back into the darkness, the pain forcing her back there.
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Pain... Pain... Pain... It was all pain. Pain was nothing new to her; she had lived for years in pain. But not like this, never like this. Everything hurt; fuck, even her nails hurt. It felt like all her bones were broken, her muscles torn, her joints popped. She had to open her eyes, she had to find, she had to... to... to... The silence of sweet relief, of unconsciousness claimed her once again, giving her some release from the pain.
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They were all tired, they were all still in shock, their minds unable to accept tha that had happened to them over the last four days. They left Sunnydale right after sundown the day the Chosen Two wburiburied. They would have stayed longer, but they had left a disoriented Fred at the Hyperion all alone. They had asked her to come along but she had waved them off, she wanted some time to herself after spending the last five years in Pylea. Though she didn't tell them, she thought her presence in Sunnydale would only add more confusion, more stress to an already stressful situation.

Angel still hadn't said a word, not one word, not since he had told them in no uncertain terms not to use Faith's legal last name on her gravestone. She didn't use it, and although he didn't say why, they all could guess as to the reasons. So instead, he gave her the only thing he had left, his real first name, not his last. He thought if anyone could appreciate the irony of it, Faith could.

The four of them entered the dimly lit lobby of the hotel. Angel stood hesitantly just inside the doorway, he was lost. His mind reeling. He was over two-hundred years old and he couldn't remember ever feeling the kind of grief he was feeling now. He had lost two of the most important people in his life in one fell swoop. Buffy the first woman he had loved in he didn't even know how long, who had made him feel like a man again, had given to him the initial hope that he could actually achieve redemption. And Faith... Faith in who he had found a kindred spirit, someone who understood him in a way that no one else could. Faith who had changed her life around, found love, family. Faith who gave him hope. They both had given him hope, hope that he, like them, who had found their soul-mate in each other, despite all that had been between them in the past. Hope that someday he too would find his redemption, and the person that would complete him.

He ran the gamut between extreme grief, and extreme rage. He wanted to let his demon loose, wanted to let it rage, maim, punch, kick, scream. But he didn't, as aas afraid that if he did he wouldn't be able to control it, wouldn't be able to suppress it again. Because whether Angelus admitted it or not he too loved both of these woman. Their bravery, their sense of duty, their loyalty, to each other and those they cared about. The little bit of innocence they both managed to keep in spite of all the evil they had seen, had been inflicted upon one, if not both of them. But most of all he admired, loved them for their courage.

Cordelia walked over to her desk in a haze and sat down. Without thinking, she pushed the button for the phone messages.

"Soul-boy, big trouble in Sunnydale," her voice trembled; they could hear the fear in it. "I gotta get back there fast. We need your help. Need all the help we can get. Please... please when you get back from rescuing Queen C come to Sunnydale. I found some book on the street I'm taking it with me. Maybe it can help; this skanky-hellbitch is from another dimension. B's scared and so am I. Tell Wesley I'm sorry I took his bike, couldn't wait for the bus, takes too long. Please ask him not to call the cops. I'll make it up to him I swear. I gotta go, I can feel how scarhe ihe is, I gotta help them..."

They all stood frozen in place, they would have had to been deaf not to hear the fear, the panic in her voice, the desperation. Wesley shook his head, sad that Faith had even thought for a second that he would call the cops on her, sad that he not been able truly to convince her that he had totally forgiven her and counted her amongst his family. They continued to stand frozen as the impersonal computerized voice told them the message was left two days before the Chosen Two went to confront Glory. Before Cordelia could get herself together enough to stop the damn machine, Faith's voice floated out to them again breaking the silence.

"Soul-boy... Angel. I ed ted to call... Wanted to let you know just in case... Just in case something happens to me tonight, how much I appreciate, how grateful I am for all that you, that all of you, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn did for me. You were the first person to ever see the me inside and believe in me. You believed enough in me, to make me believe, and you never gave up. Thank you. Thank all of you. You all were the first true family I ever had and I can never tell you how much I... How much it means to me. Because of all of you, I feel like I've really got a shot at redemption. The Scoobs, Giles, and B have forgiven me, have become my family too. Because of all of you, I've learned what it is like to love, to give it and to have it returned. Something I never thought I could ever have. Something I never thought I ever deserved. Thank you again. Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, I... I... I... loveyouguys... I can never thank any of you enough... I gotta go... You know me Soul-boy not really good at this kinda stuff... Later..."

Angel tipped his head bacd rod roared, howled. It wasn't just Angel roaring but the demon too. Roared without words, in anguish, in grief, in anger, in sorrow, at how wrong this whole fucked-up thing was. He was roaring for them all, they all felt what he was feeling and wished that they could roar with him. They kept their distance knowing he would accept no comfort from any of them, knowing he needed to let it out, so they let him roar.
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They were all at the Magic Shop the day after the funeral. Willow was working on getting the Buffybot fixed. They had sent Spike late last night to retrieve it for them. He was still a little shell-shocked from the experience of going back to the site of his failure. He was sitting in the back corner of the shop, speaking as little as possible and not really looking at any of them if he could help it. He was surprised that they even wanted him around, considering how miserably he had failed them. Spike blamed himself for both Slayers' deaths. It was him they had been relying on to keep Dawn safe, to protect her from getting cut, to stop anyone from starting the ritual. He just had never figured on Doc being anywhere in the equation. He had underestimated the demon and couldn't help but feel that Doc should have never gotten the best of him. It was his fault and if it weren't for Little Bit he would have seen his first and last sunrise in over a hundred years by now. Guilt weighted heavily on his shoulders, along with grief. He had found himself crying at the oddest of times over the last four days.

Dawn was sitting on the ladder that led up to the loft, she shared Spike's guilt. It was she who was to blame for the death of the Slayers not Spike. Her, she was the one that was supposed to die, not Buffy and certainly not Faith. Buffy had given her life to save Dawn's, to save all of them. To save her life, when up until six months ago she hadn't had one, hadn't even been real. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Why 't 't she try harder to stop Buffy?

Why?

Why hadn't she reached out to stop Faith from going off the platform?

Instead, she had stood there frozen and watched first Buffy then Faith jump from the platform into the white energy of the portal. She hated herself, and she hated herself even more for being mad at both the Chosen Two for leaving her. Her hate was matched only by her grief.

Dawn missed them; it was like an endless ache that refused to go away. She missed hearing their laughter, their giggles. The smiles they bestowed on each other, on her. She missed their family meals; she even missed smelling the food that Buffy always seemed to burn. She missed their general silliness, even the tickle fights. Dawn missed teasing them with the Ewwww gross... Get a room already! every time she caught them kissing, which had been a lot. Missed, hearing their voices, even Buffy screaming for her to get up in the morning. Missed, fighting with her sister when she borrowed her clothes without asking. Missed playing Nintendo with Faith, which Buffy swore at first was going to turn their minds into mush. That was until Faith told her it was only 'cause she couldn't beat either one of them, which began the Nintendo wars, which Dawn had been currently winning. She missed them arguing over whether to watch X-Men cartoons or some mushy romantic movie on one of the movie channels. She missed the way they showed their love for each other, for her, for all of their family.

She just missed them.

Now she was living with the witches at the Mansion, she couldn't handle going back to her house, with both her Mom and Buffy gone. The Mansion was a little easier, though there were reminders of them everywhere. From their Slaying boots by the side door, to the obscenely huge coffee mugs they had, to the enormous amount of food in the refrigerator and freezer. To the pictures thinedined the mantel over the fireplace. To the stacks of CD's that ranged from Sade - Buffy's - to Nine Inch Nails - Faith's - piled on the floor by the stereo. When they were at the Mansion, it was like all three of them expected Buffy and Faith to come running in, chasing each other through the door. Every time they heard an unfamiliar noise, they all turned their heads expectantly towards the door, a little bit of hope in their hearts.

Dawn had thought that she would end up staying with Giles, but it was he, who had suggested that she have the witches move in with her. They had all agreed not to call her father, remembering that he had not even bothered to call back after receiving word of Joyce's death. Nor had he called once since then. Thus, the idea to resurrect the Buffybot to perpetuate the myth that Buffy was still alive blossomed. Dawn was just glad that school had let out for the year right before the shit hit the withwith Glory. She didn't think that she could have made it through the school day pretending that everything in her life was okay when it wasn't. Anger, hate, grief, sorrow, loneliness, betrayal, all of it and more warred with each other. She was on overload, not sure how to deal with any of it. Talking about it didn't seem to help at all, looking at pictures, talking about them, nothing seemed to help fill the emptiness inside her.

Dawn looked over at Giles who was sitting at the table idly paging through a book. He hadn't been quite able to look her completely in the eyes since that night. She knew he resented that it was her here and not Buffy, he wasn't alone in that feeling she resented it herself. She knew it shouldn't be her here, it should be Buffy. Further, she knew if Buffy had been here so would Faith, Faith would have never thrown herself off the platform had it been Dawn not Buffy who took a swan-dive off the platform. Not only had she lost her sister and Faith who was like a sister to her, but the man who had become more of a father to her than her own father. Dawn fought back the hot tears that threatened to spill; she bit her lip to keep them back until she bled.

Giles could feel the weight of Dawn's stare on him. He kept his eyes lowered; he had trouble meeting her gaze. He loved her, truly like a daughter but there was a part of him that blamed her. Blamed her that Buffy wasn't here. He also blamed himself, blamed himself for not finding out more before and perhaps putting and end to this before anyone's life was ended. Perhaps if he had found out more about the Knights, they may have found Ben sooner. But he had not pursued that avenue after Buffy had told him of her initial encounter with them. He had not even tried at all. He blamed himself for Faith's death as well. He should have never let her go after Buffy, it was illogical he knew. None of them could have known what Buffy was going to do; none of them could have known that Faith would follow her off the platform. He just couldn't wrap him mind around it. He knew she had promised Buffy to take care of Dawn if something should happen to her. The Faith that he had come to know over the last months would not have broken that promise on purpose. Something just didn't feel right about the whole thing to him.

His spent his nights crying over the loss of Buffy, the young girl who had grown into a beautiful young woman over the last five years. A young woman who was proud, independent, caring, loving, a young woman who in his heart was his daughter, a young woman he was honored to know, felt proud to have come to him as daughter would to a father. And Faith whom he had started to regard as a daughter too. To have gone through so much in her short life, and survived it all only to die when it had started to get better. Who had finally found happiness, forgiveness, and love, whose life had just truly started; he couldn't even begin to understand it. His grief threatened to overwhelm him. He hated the part of himself that resented Dawn being here instead of Buffy. It was one of his main reasons for deciding to return to England. He wasn't needed here anymore, and he was afraid that eventually Dawn would come to realize what he felt. She was struggling with her own grief, her own guilt, she didn't need his resentment to be added to all that.

Xander was sitting at the table next to Giles, watching Anya as she slowly moved around the shop. Thanking whomever was in charge for the zillionth time that she was alive. He didn't know what he would have done had he lost her too. There was a part of him that felt guilty he was glad she wasn't the one that died. Then again, like everyone else he felt partially responsible for Buffy's death and even Faith's. After all the times Buffy had saved his, all of their lives, they had failed her this one time. He had yet even to begin to deal with his grief, for him, like everyone else, none of this felt quite real yet. He expected to see her at every turn. He cried though when he was alone, he cried for Dawn who seemed so lost and so alone. She refused to talk to any of them. He cried over the loss of Buffy and even Faith whom he had come to love over the last few months. He looked over at Anya again, feeling the brief flash of guilt, but grateful none-the-less that she was still here with him.

Anya looked up and smiled at Xander, it was a sad smile. She knew he cried over Buffy and Faith too, when he was alone. Knew he felt a little guilty that he was glad it wasn't her who had died. For herself she was sad, she had lost two of her family, a family she had just realized she had thanks to Faith. After twelve-hundred odd years, she felt for the first time truly sorry over the loss of anyone. Though she kept quiet about it, she knew she expressed things the wrong way, and did not want to upset them anymore than they already were. They were all like ticking time bombs waiting to explode. She had seen enough grief over the years to know that it wasn't real to them yet that the Chosen Two were gone. She had a feeling that the explosion would be coming soon.

Willow pushed down the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. She was still in shock and couldn't shake the feeling that something about the whole thing didn't feel right. Tara shared this feeling with her. Though neither witch could put a finger on why, but something was wrong, something - but what? Somehow or another Willow had been put in the position of leader of their little band. Giles was merely functioning out of pure habit, his red-rimmed eyes betraying his nights of crying. He was making plans to return to England, would be leaving as soon as Anya was well enough to take over running the shop for him. He couldn't see the p in in staying, there were no Slayenymonymore to watch. They were all sure that if the Council did decide to send the new Chosen One here she would arrive with her own Watcher. So, there was no point in his staying here. Because despite the fact that he loved Dawn like a daughter, he felt a little resentment towards her. If the choice had been his on who had to die that day, well he had made his choice very clear.

Willow still expected to see, to hear Buffy at every turn. She still couldn't believe that she was gone, that both she and Faith were gone. She had been so sure that they would beat all the odds, would live long healthy lives. So sure...

Tara stood by the counter watching Willow work on fixing the Buffybot. She had been trying to stay so strong, except for when they had first seen the Chosen Two laying on the ground at the bottom of the tower she had not shed a single tear. Willow had become the strength of all of them. Keeping them all together, the shoulder that everyone else, including Tara had cried on. She already had Tara researching into how they could resurrect both Slayers with their original bodies and souls intact. Willow was convinced that there had to be a way. Though they had not spoken to anyone about this yet, they didn't want to raise any hopes.

Over the last four days, the Wicca's had talked well into the night about the Chosen Two. Now they could laugh over the fact that Faith had been the first to recognize what had been going on between them. What they remembered most vividly about Faith though, was the excited childlike innocence of her the day the Wicca's brought back the present she had custom made for Buffy. Neither one of them though could shake the deep down feeling that they were missing something. There was something nagging around the edges of their minds about the whole thing. Something just didn't feel right. T's m's memory of that night's events as well as Willow's were foggy, the spell had taken a lot out of both of them. Tara was hoping that with time they would remember. The one thing they could not reconcile was Faith breaking her promise to Buffy to take care of Dawn should something happen to her.

"Hey," she called softlyhow\how's it going?" The Buffybot gave her the creeps, and she didn't know if she could do what Willow was doing. If she could be strong enough to work on a robot that looked exactly like her best friend that had just died.

"Just finished, was going to turn her on and see."

Tara walked over to stand next to Willow, neither one of them saw Dawn as she moved over behind them. Willow reached behind the Buffybot and switched her on. The Buffybot's eyes snapped open. She looked at Tara, then Willow, and smiled.

"Hey Wills!" She said in a perky voice, a voice that sounded exactly like Buffy's.

Willow burst out crying, unable to hold the tears back anymore, she crumbled to her knees. Tara by her side immediately her own tears falling, pulling her tightly to her. Dawn stood in shock looking at that thing that wire and metal thing that looked just like her sister, sounded just like her sister. Her anger rose to the surface, her anger at her sister, the world and she flew at the Buffybot in a rage.

"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" She screamed at the robot, punching it, smacking it, kicking, crying. "How could you leave me? How? It wasn't supposed to be you... You weren't sued ted to die. I was... I was... It was supposed to be me, not you, ME! Why? Why? Why? why.... why..." Dawn sobbed, the fight going out of her.

The Buffybot gathered up the crying girl into her arms awkwardly, she patted her back lightly, a confused look on her face.

Whatever resentment, blame he had been placing on Dawn flew out the window when he realized the depth and breath of her guilt, of her grief. She may have not come into this world in the normal way, may not have been real before six months ago, but she was real now, and she was only just a child. A child who had lost her Mother, her sister, and another who was just like her sister, and now had been losing him, the man she looked upon like a father.

Giles realized within those brief seconds how he had been hurting not only her, but himself. And how he had been disrespecting everything Buffy stood for, and the sacrifice she had made by acting this way towards her sister, towards the child he considered his own daughter.

Giles rose from the table quickly, he gently pulled Dawn into his embrace. He murmured comforting words, holding her impossibly tight to him, his own tears joining hers, as they comforted each over their loss.

Spike launched himself at that obscene mockery of the Slayer he had built for himself and shut her off. He was breathing hard, trying to contain his own grief, his own guilt over adding two more Slayers to his numbers. He held back his tears with shear willpower; he needed to get out of here, away frore. re. He was a fucking vampire. A master vampire, for Christ sake! He could not act like this. He turned to leave and was stopped by a gentle hand on his arm. He turned around to find it was Willow.

"Stay. I know you don't want to be alone. No one should be alone at a time like this." He opened his mouth to reply but she stopped him, "Not even you Spike. Stay with us."

They all gathered around the table, really all there for the first time in four days. They smiled weakly at each other, tears in all of their eyes.

"Do you remember the time that Buffy...." Willow began.

They talked, they cried, they reminisced, they got angry, they began to grieve, to heal.
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She was in a place between consciousness and unconsciousness. The pain was still present though not as bad, or was it just that she had gotten used to it so it didn't feel quite as bad. Her jumbled thoughts were beginning to reorganize themselves. Somehow, this wasn't quite right, she shouldn't be feeling pain if she was dead. Should she? She shouldn't even have a body at all. She didn't remember it being like this when she had died at the hands of The Master. She remembered floating then, remembered seeing her body laying upon the hard cold ground, then drifting away. None of that happened at all this time. This time there had only been pain streaking through her body nonstop for what had felt like hours, days. Until her body, her mind, exhausted and unable to handle it any longer had sucked her into the darkness of sweet oblivion.

She tried to remember all that had happened; it was all a little fuzzy still. Dawn! She had taken Dawn's place, had taken a nosedive off the platform so that the portal would close, so the fabric that separated realities would not be ripped away. The blood, hers and Dawn's were what opened the portal; their blood was the same. Was this her punishment then, for taking her own life? Had all the good she had done been outweighed by that one act of sacrificing, taking her own life? Was she in hell? Was that why there was the pain? But no, she didn't feel dead, she could feel her body struggling to repair itself from the damage the lightning, the electricity had done to her. Although, she felt like she had taken a vicious beating as well.

As her mind started to clear, she remembered even more. Falling into the white energy of the portal, the lightning hitting her, the electricity streaking through her veins, burning like liquid fire. Starting to lose the ability to form coherent thought, floating, then feeling her. Faith! Faith had been in the energy with her. Oh my god! Faith had jumped, no, she remembered thinking something else, then the only thing she had thought of was reaching out for her. Searching for her, reaching out her hand, feeling Faith's find hers before all thinking had ceased. Was Faith here too, were they together? Where was she? Buffy tried to reach out to her with their connection, but her body, her mind, was exhausted from even this little bit of effort.

She slipped back into the darkness, calling for her lover in her mind...
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She could see the spotted light from behind her closed eyelids. Her body still in pain but repairing itself thanks to her Slayer healing. She should be dead though, shouldn't she? If she was, then where was she? Why did she even still have a body? Why was there all this pain? Was this her punishment for all the wrong she had done in her life? Was she in hell?

'No you're in fucking heaven ass, a few months on the side of right makes up for year's worth of wrongs and taking a life. Good one Faith!'

The snort of self-depreciating laughter hurt her raw, dry throat. Had she been screaming? She felt fear rising up in her at the possibility that she was in hell. Scared of what the devil might have planned for her. FUCK! She couldn't really remember what happened. Buffy had decided to take her sister's place. She had staggered after her down the platform, crying, fighting within her mind over what it was she was supposed to do. She had stopped two steps from the edge, and then she had been flying through the air. Had she jumped? No she wouldn't have, would she? She had promised Buffy she'd take care of Dawn. So she wouldn't have jumped. So how then? How did she end up in the energy storm with Buffy? How? She couldn't really remember.

She let herself drift back to that night. It had felt like it all happened in slow motion. Falling towards the white energy in the center of the portal, her eyes locked on Buffy. She had watched and felt in an echo the pain of the lightning as it struck Buffy. Then she was floating in the eye of the storm, feeling her own pain as the lightning hit her as well. She had pushed the pain down, focused using the last bit of her strength she had reached out, and found Buffy's hand, which had been seeking hers too. Then nothing for a time, there had been a very brief moment of intense pain since she had been here, then nothing again. But Faith didn't know how long ago that had been. How long had she been here?

One thing she did know was that all the damage to her body wasn't jusom tom the lightning. She knew this type of pain, had lived with it for years. Someone, something had beaten the living shit out of her while she was unconscious.

The pain was bearable now; she had lived with worse pain than this before. She slowly found her mind clearing, as it swam up from that place that wasn't quite consciousness. So if she wasn't dead, and she sure as shit didn't feel dead, then where was she? She couldn't hear any noise, so unless she had somehow lost hearinaring, she wasn't in the hospital. And if she wasn't dead, did that mean Buffy wasn't either? Was Buffy here somewhere too? Faith quieted her mind and sought her out, she sighed in relief, she could still feel her, but fretted when she got no answering response. What did that mean? And if she was dead did that mean she had dragged Buffy somehow here to hell with her? Because hell, Faith knew, was where she would be if she was dead.

Finding her courage, pushing down the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Faith forced herself to open her eyes. Opened them to the place her nightmares were made of, opened them to the hell she knew only too well for years. A hell that had been her real life nightmare for years,

"OHNOONONONONOPLEASENOGODNO!"
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Clawing she fought to bring herself to consciousness. The fear, terror, shame, was making thin oin of her body feel insignificant, and dimly even in her state she could hear Faith's hoarse pleading. It was her emotions Buffy was feeling, was getting in such a strong echo that it had pierced the veil of her unconsciousness. She struggled to open her eyes, finding her voice, which would not come out as more than a very hoarse whisper, "Faith! Faith!"

Buffy took in her surroundings. It looked like she was in an oversized cabin. A large fireplace dominated the wall across the room from her. There was a deer's head mounted over it, a rifle, and one of those white bear rugs with the head and claws still attached on the floor in front of it. There was a brown leather recliner that had been so popular in the late eighties and a plaid couch, with a couple of quilts thrown over the back of it. The hardwood floor had a few of those thick-corded throw rugs strewn across it. It looked like a hunting cabin, one of those pseudo-log cabins. Buffy scanned the main room of the cabin quickly but didn't see Faith, she could hear her though.

"Faith baby..." She tried again forcing her voice above a whisper.

"B - b - b? B-b-buffy?" Faith's voice came to her from the other side of the couch.

"Over here," Buffy made herself move, it took almost all of her energy to raise herself into a sitting position and then to her knees.

Faith pulled herself up using the sideboard table next to her for leverage. Her bruised body screamed at her in protest. She turned her head towards where Buffy's voice had come from. Her eyes disbelieving what she was seeing. Buffy's face, her body, was one big massive contusion, and she was naked as the day she was born. Buffy looked like someone had beaten the hell out of her. Belatedly Faith realized that Buffy wasn't the only one that was naked. She glanced down at her own body and saw the bruises and welts across them. Faith stumbled over to the couch and grabbed the quilts off the back of it. Slowly, painfully, stopping every few steps to catch her breath, she made her way across the room to Buffy.

Buffy gasped when she saw Faith, her earlier thought of feeling like someone had beaten her now confirmed by the condition Faith was in. There didn't seem to be a square inch of her body that wasn't covered in bruises or angry red welts. She took a quick look down at her own body, and saw that whoever had beaten her had beaten Faith about ten times worse.

Who the hell had thi this to them?

Where the hell were they?

What the hell was going on?

She ignored the protesting of her body and got up to her feet. She swayed dizzily for a second, praying she wouldn't pass out, praying that there was someone even there to hear her prayers.

If felt like it took hours to reach each other. They fell into the other's arms, Faith wrapping one of the quilts around them both. Together they staggered over to the recliner and collapsed into it. Faith covered them with the other quilt, and ignoring the pain pulled Buffy into her arms, who wrapped her own arms around Faith and pulled them even closer together.

"I'm sorry. So sorry," Faith whispered to her, unable to stop the tears that ran down her face.

"Sorry? For what?" Buffy felt the wave of fear again. It was familiar somehow and yet different too and then it dawned on her. It felt the same as the fear that always came from Faith when something reminded her of her childhood. Oh God! Where had the portal taken them?

"I don't know how... how... but somehow... I dragged you here with me... my nightmare... my hell... This... this... this place... B... it's where... it's...."

Faith didn't get to finish, the cabin door burst open, slamming against the wall with force. Making the pictures on the walls shake, a knickknack fell off the bookshelf from the impact. A man, a very large muscular man, at least six-feet tall stood in the doorway. He had a ruddy complexion, pitch black hair, thin mean lips, and piercing gray eyes. The look he was giving them made Buffy's skin crawl. Buffy pulled Faith tighter to her as she felt her begin to tremble and smelled the fear coming off her.

The man smiled at them, "Faithy, baby girl... Did you miss me?" he waited for her to answer him. "No? Well I missed you... If fact I missed you so much I couldn't even wait for you to wake up to show you how much. Show you both how much. Don't worry though I saved the real fun for when you were awake." He moved out of the doorway, closing the door and locking the deadbolt, putting the key in his pocket.

Faith shoved Buffy behind her in the chair, shielding Buffy with her body, shielding her from his evil eyes.

He started moving towards them, "Welcome home baby girl. It's been what? Four, five years? Now be nice, and come show daddy how much you missed him."
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...Welcome to my nightmare ~ I think you're gonna like it ~ I think you're gonna feel that you belong ~ We sweat laugh and scream here ~ 'cuz life is just a dream here ~ You know inside you feel right at home here ~ Welcome to my nightmare - Alice Cooper
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Continued in Chapter XXIV – Hell Is For Children