Complement

XXIV – Hell Is For Children
(Part A)

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They cry in the dark, so you can't see their tears ~ They hide in the light, so you can't see their fears ~ Forgive and forget, all the while ~ Love and pain become one and the same ~ In the eyes of a wounded child ~ Because Hell ~ Hell Is For Children ~ And you know that their little lives can become such a mess ~ Hell ~ Hell Is For Children ~ And you shouldn't have to pay for your love with your bones and your flesh ~ It's all so confusing, this brutal abusing ~ They blacken your eyes, and then apologize ~ You're daddy's good girl, and don't tell mommy a thing ~ Be a good little boy, and you'll get a new toy ~ Tell grandma you fell off the swing ~ Because Hell ~ Hell Is For Children – Pat Benatar
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"ATROPOS!!!!"

Atropos jumped up from her settee, the intricate needlepoint she had been working on for years fell to the floor forgotten. Quickly she rose to her feet, fear churning in her stomach; she hadn't heard that much fear in her sister's voice since the ill fated lovers from eons ago. She ran from the sitting room to the Tapestry of Life room, trampling the delicate needlepoint under her feet. It was the first time in over a century that she had run, or for that matter, had physically moved from room to room, such was the state that she was in. Contradicting her incalculable age, she ran as if she were a spring flower in its first bloom. She skidded to a halt in front of the Tapestry of Life where her two sisters were staring confused, crying. Another thing that hadn't happened since the ill fated union of Romeo and Juliet; yes, whether he knew it or not Shakespeare had written a true story. A story, a tragedy that had happened at almost the beginning of mankind. A tragedy that the Fates themselves had missed in the endless possibilities that the Tapestry of Life held for each Life Thread and as was their roles in the grand scheme of things, now, like then, they were forbidden to change or influence what had or was to happened.

"What? What has happened?"

Lachesis just pointed down at the Tapestry of Life, not speaking, she was crying too hard. How could she have missed this? This should have been there... they, SHE, should have seen this.

Atropos looked down at the Tapestry of Life, she watched, as her sisters' watched with her again the events unfold starting with the night the Chosen Two fought their final battle against the Hellgod, Glory. Watched as the last four days within the mortal realm for the loved ones of the Chosen Two unfolded. She mourned with the mortal and immortal family that the Chosen Two had surrounded themselves with. Wishing most desperately that she could offer them some kind of hope, some kind of comfort, even a small sign of something, anything.

Hesitantly she moved her eyes to the entwined Life Threads of the Chosen Two. Afraid almost to look, to watch, to see what had happened that would cause her sisters to sob so heart-wrenchingly. Ther her eyes were upon their Life Threads and she watched as the last seven days of the Chosen Two unfolded before her, holding back the tears that came to her own eyes. She could not hold them back any longer as she watched them beaten more than once, as they lay helpless and unconscious, as the brunt of the lunatic's anger was taken out on Faith with fists, with feet, and with belt. She cried harder as she watched them wake, weak, almost helpless, in pain to the nightmare monster that had ruled Faith's childhood.

"But......... How? What?" She asked her sister, unable for the first time in over a millennium even to form a sentence.

"I-I-I don't know? I didn't see this as a possibility while I was weaving... It was almost as if my eyes were blinded to it. What can we do?" Lachesis looked at her sister with pleading eyes, praying that for once Atropos would forget the damn rules, knowing though that she, they, could not.

"Nothing. I wish that it were so that we could. We can only hope that she remembers... That she will..." Atropos trailed off, her tears falling harder, joining that of her sisters. They watched with horror and sorrow, their time now at pace with that of the Chosen Two as the Tapestry of Life continued to weave the Life Treads of the chosen Slayers.
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Come show daddy how much you missed him. The words thundered through her brain, echoing, as familiar to her as her own name. Faith launched herself at him from the recliner when he was only a step or two inside of the room, the words bouncing and crashing around her head, causing something deep inside of her to rise up in fury.

'I'll fucking show you just how much I missed you, you fucking sadistic scumbag!'

She let loose the rage in her that had been trapped inside since she had been a child. Let it loose for the first time ever, consciously, with bad intent. Rage that had been created by his hands, by his abuse of her over nine long years. From the time she was seven, until she had escaped him the fall after her sixteenth birthday, the same year her mother had died. The same rage that had given birth, life, breath to her dark side. Fear, terror, she had felt then, was feeling now, added fuel to the already white-hot flame of her rage making it burn brighter, hotter.

The dark side of her, and the child within were screaming in joy. Joy at finally being given the chance to take out its, their rage, fear, pain, and shame on the cause of their existence.

The light side of her, the Faith side of her joined its cries of joy with the dark side and the child. Joy because her Slayer senses were telling her that he was no longer completely human, that part of him was demon. Joy because she would not be hurting, perhaps killing, a human, no matter what he had done. This time there would be no blood added to her hands, no misplaced guilt over what she was about to do.

For the first time in her life, Faith's dark and light sides were in complete agreement with each other. They wanted to hurt, to maim, to rage against the man-demon coming towards her. To inflict even the smallest fraction of the pain, the fear, that he had forced, inflicted upon her, them, for all those years.

Faith was literally growling at him as she flew towards him with all of her Slayer strength and rage, unable even to formulaordsords. There were no words that could ever come close to conveying the riot of emotions, the hate that she felt for him. The hate, shame, pain, guilt that she felt now, had felt then, that he had made her feel for herself.
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Not more than a second behind Faith, Buffy flew out of the recliner in her wake.

'Show you! Fucking A! I'll show you scumbag! Show you my fucking fists asshole!' Buffy's own thoughts echoing Faith's as she moved towards him.

She didn't need Faith to tell her who this man was, what he had done. She felt everything Faith was feeling, was familiar with the echo, remembered, could never forget it; it was seared upon her soul. This echo that only came when Faith's past came back to haunt her. Buffy could remember each and every time this echo had come to her, knew it because like Faith was, it too was a permanent part of her. Buffy's own rage joined with Faith's, turning her white-hot flame into a cold-steel blue, she was going to enjoy helping Faith rip him apart. Yes, she admitted to herself, this time she was going to enjoy causing pain. Enjoy making him suffer, feel pain, make him bleed.

For the first time in her life, Buffy knew deep down inside that it would not matter to her had he still been just human. She knew from her Slayer senses that he wasn't. She was, in fact, a little thrilled that he wasn't, simply because that meant that they could make him suffer, make him bleed all the longer. This was the man who had hurt her mate and the rage inside of her was purely primal.
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Johnny took in both of them in just a glance. Loving the way they looked together, light and dark. His baby girl had grown into a beautiful woman and he was getting excited just by the thought of what it was he was going to do to her. Excited by the fact that now she was a Slayer he could make it last all the longer. Excited by the fact that she would be able to take, five, ten times more than when she had been just a normal girl. Excited, that she would heal that much faster because of her Slayer healing, excited because he wouldn't have to wait so long now between their play time. Excited because both his baby girl and her lover Buffy, or B, as Faithy liked to call her, had been given to him. Given to him to do with what he wanted, more or less.

He broke from his internal fantasies as Faith launched herself at him. It was one of the many things that he loved about her, her spirit, her fight. She had fought him even as a child, refusing just to submit, even knowing that it would only make things worse. Loved it because it meant he didn't get to break her just once, but over and over again. He smiled amused when he saw Faith's blonde-haired lover fly out of the chair a step behind her. Damn they were magnificent.

Johnny waited until Faith wasn hin him before he swatted her from him like an irritating gnat.

Faith was sent airborne from his casual backhand to her chest. She flew across the room slamming hard into the log wall, cracking some of the logs from the force of her impact. She bounced off the wall and fell to the floor, gasping, feeling a little dizzy as the edges of her world blurred. New pain joined with the pain from the vicious beating she was now sure both she and Buffy had received at Johnny's hand when they lay helpless and unconscious.

He stopped Buffy's charge by snapping out his arm and grabbing her by the neck. He lifted her with ease, holding her a good foot off the floor.

Immediately Buffy began kicking out at him, but she might as well have been trying to kick through ten-foot steel. He giggled at her like a two-year-old and told her in a totally out of place teasing tone, "Stop that! It tickles!"

His giggles trailed off, and his whole face changed when he smiled maliciously at her. Slowly he started to tighten his grip around her throat, cutting off her air.
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'FUCKFUCK! B! Gotta help her! Shit!'

Faith struggled back up to her feet pushing down the pain coursing through her. She ran across the room at him, full Slayer mode kicking back in, adrenaline pumping, numbing the pain, sending energy throughout her body.

He backhanded Faith across the shoulder, spinning her around, knocking her off her feet. He turned his attention back to the blonde-haired Slayer who was now franticly clawing at his hand around her throat.

She was seeing black spots in front of her eyes. She was lightheaded and knew it wouldn't be long before she passed out, everything was a little bit out of focus. Buffy redoubled her efforts to get free when she saw how easily he had knocked Faith away from him again. She grabbed hold of his thumb, trying to pry it loose from her throat. He laughed in her face, the enjoyment, excitement he was feeling, getting from this, showing in his eyes. He grabbed one of her arms by the wrist and began to twist it away from his hand, she fought against his twisting, she stopped fighting him the second before he would have broken it.

Faith forced herself back up to her feet again. She had to help Buffy! He had turned his back to her, and she looked at it as an advantage, you never turned your back on an enemy. She ran at him again full force, hoping to hit him hard enough that he would let go of Buffy.

Johnny whirled around to face Faith, swinging Buffy by teck eck with him like he was holding nothing more than a stuffed animal. He punched Faith hard in the chest, knocking the air right out of her, causing her legs to collapse out from under her. She fell to her knees, gasping painfully for air, seeing proverbial stars. Right up until that moment, she had thought that seeing stars was nothing more than a quaint metaphor, she knew better now.

It was getting harder and harder for Buffy to lift her arms. They felt like they were made out of lead. It felt like she was moving underwater, her limbs were laden, slow, her senses dulling, her head was spinning relentlessly.

From her knees, Faith saw how pale Buffy was, could hear her desperate attempts at getting air into her lungs. How hard it was becoming for her eto mto move. A ghost of a long suppressed memory flittered across her mind. She was intimately familiar with what he was doing, she remembered now that she had experienced it many times at his hands. Now she knew why she had done this to Xander that night, she had been taking out her rage for Johnny on him. Doing to Xander what had been done to her so many times, doing it to him because she had thought he was pretending to care, just like Johnny had.

She felt Buffy beginning to slip away into the darkness and she was pulled out of the ghost memory's grip. Afraid now that Johnny might actually kill Buffy. 'Do something,' her mind screamed; she c not not, would not let Buffy die. She had failed her too many times before, had let her down, this was all her fault, this was her nightmare and Buffy shouldn't be here at all. Physically Faith knew she couldn't beat him, not now, and not ever when she was a child, so she did the only thing she could think of to help Buffy.
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Faith lowered her eyes and head, lowered them away from his triumphant familiar stare. She forced the rage back down to its former home inside of her. All that was left now was the terror, the shame, the pain, and the guilt. She tried but she could not force them down too, they had too strong a grip on her battered, bruised soul. The child inside of her was already screaming in fear at what she knew was to come, and what Faith had tried for so long to forget.

"Please.................. please Johnny..............." Faith's voice trembled, the words heavy, thick as they fell from her tongue.

"Please what, Faithy?"

She could hear the enjoyment, excitement, the lu..., - she couldn't even let her mind go there - in his voice that her fear created in him. But she had already known that from her past, known how much he enjoyed both hearing and creating the fear in her. How much the sick bastard got off on it. Faith risked peeking up at Buffy through her hair; she saw that Johnny had loosened his grip slightly. Saw that Buffy no longer had to fight for every breath. She bit back the angry words, knowing that Buffy was still far from safe. Instead Faith gave him the answer she knew he wanted, knew what it was from experience. "Please don't hurt her. I'm...... s-s-sorry. Please let her go! I'll d-d-do whatever you want. Please Johnny!"

"Faith! NO! Don't!" Buffy managed to croak out. She couldn't, she would not let Faith do this, not to protect her. She couldn't bare to think of Faith having to do something like this. 'Not for her, oh please god,' she thought 'don't...' But Buffy too couldn't bear to let her mind go there, afraid if she even thought it, it would come true. She had to help her, she had to get free, had to protect Faith from him! This was her greatest fear, not being able to help, to save the innocent, and in this Faith was the innocent. Only this time the fear of failure wasilliillion times worse, because this time, it was her heart, her soul, her Faith, that she might not be able to save. She had failed her before, had failed to be there when Faith had needed her help. She couldn't, WOULD NOT fail her now.

Johnny shook Buffy, "Shut up bitch!"

"Fuck you scumbag! I'm gonna kill you!" Buffy rasped, snarled out at him. She lashed out at him with her foot again, her strength returning fueled by her fear for Faith. She aimed for the one spot she knew was vulnerable to every man and demon alike she had ever met.

He laughed in her face again as he felt her kick out. He was quickly choking on his laughter as her kick caught him hard in the groin! A high-pitched howl of pain came from him; he barely managed to keep his knees from buckling. Buffy smiled, purred with satisfaction, she pulled her foot back intending to kick him again, but, she never got the chance. Johnny flung her from him with brutal force.
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Luckily, for Buffy, she hit the couch toppling it over with the momentum of her flight. Had she hit something less soft it would have probably caused severe trauma to her spine. He followed her across the room, jumping over the fallen couch to get at her. Snarling he started kicking her rapidly, chortling with glee as each kick landed. His kicks were so randomly placed and rapid fire that Buffy had a hard time blocking or protecting herself from them, she didn't even have a chance to try to get up off the floor. A kick caught her hard in the ribs, cracking them. She curled up into a small fetal ball trying to protect both her ribs and her head from the brutal force of his kicks. She was whimpering low in the back of her throat in pain as each kick landed, adding layers of pain on top of her already bruised, pain wracked body.

Faith scrambled across the floor on her hands and knees after them. She heard him break something, and each whimper of pain coming from Buffy was like a knife through her heart. She had to do something! She began begging and pleading with him to stop as she made her way across what felt like the endless expanse of a black hole to reach them.

Johnny ignored Faith's pleading; he was enjoying too much the sound of the blonde Slayer's whimpers of pain. Was enjoying too much causing that pain, enjoying too the pleading of his baby girl for her lover. He never had any intention of killing the Slayer at his feet, but neither Slayer ever needed to know that, because that would just ruin everything. Despite how it had looked, he knew exactly how much pressure he could exert before he would have crushed her windpipe. His kicks, though they may have looked random, were carefully placed, as well as the force with which he was delivering them. His objective was to cause, bring about the highest level of fear, anguish, and pain in both Slayers, not about killing them. He had been born, then reborn to do just this, it was his calling, just like being Slayers was the Chosen Two, as they had named themselves, calling. After all, he had already done it to Faith once. Hadn't he?

He had been reborn into something more than just a mere human so that he could do it to them both this time. Reborn so that he could reshape them into living human vessels of pain, anguish, terror, fear. Reborn so that he could do what he did best and the one that had given him new life could live, feed off, bathe in what he reshaped the Slayers into.

When she finally reached them, Faith wrapped herself around his legs, stopping his next kick, giving Buffy a chance to move out of his reach.

Buffy half crawled, half dragged herself across the floor away from him, her lungs filling with what felt like fire. She never remembered ever being in this much pain, never even knew pain like this could exist.

Johnny let the Slayer crawl away from him, grinning like a madman at the sight of her naked on her hands and knees. This was definitely more fun than he had ever imagined. He reached down and grabbed one of his baby girl's wrists forcing it loose from his leg. He yanked her up hard almost dislocating her arm from her shoulder. When he had her almost standing, he grabbed her with his free hand under her armpit. He lifted her and threw her, as he let go of the wrist he was holding.

Faith found herself airborne again, she landed on her back, her head snapping backwards, sing ing into the hardwood floor. She groaned in pain, feeling blood dribble down the back of her scalp, saw saw stars again.

"POP!" he giggled.

Snarling Buffy regained her feet and charged him. He stood amused, they sure did have spirit these two, he had to give them that. This was going to be so much fun! He waited for her to get close enough then punched her in the stomach.

Buffy doubled over from the blow, stumbling backwards, she tripped over Faith, and started to fall.

Faith managed to sit up in time to catch Buffy. She cradled Buffy in her arms, looking into those beautiful, loving eyes. For a timeless second they gazed at each other, nothing but them existed, nothing but them and the love that was between them. But that timeless second wasn't really timeless and they were once again back in the log cabin being held captive by a madman now half demon from Faith's past. Not knowing where here was, or even how they had gotten here. Looking into those eyes Faith saw a fierce determination, a determination that Buffy was going to try to protect her at all cost, including her own life. Faith couldn't let her do it. She had survived Johnny before. She could survive him again. But never would she let Buffy have to survive more than what he had already done to her.

Faith leaned down towards Buffy, softly she whispered, "I'm sorry..." She gently kissed away Buffy's protest, and before Buffy knew what was happening Faith cold-cocked her on the temple, knocking her out cold.

"Sniff, sniff, that was so sweet. Who would have ever thought that my little baby girl could be so gallant." The sarcasm, the contempt dripped sickly sweet from his tongue like honey. He stared down at Faith waiting for her to look at him. In reality he was extremely pleased by her actions, this was going better than he expected. Actually, both of their actions pleased him, they were playing right into his hands, so to speak, it was as if they were acting out the twisted, sick script that played in his head.

Faith tenderly moved Buffy off her lap and put her gently on the floor. She gazed down at her one more time, then shut down the connection, the echoes, between them. She found however, that it was no longer possible to cut herself completely off from Buffy. The parts of themselves that now lived, entwined with and in the other, would now and forever always leave a little of the connection open to the soul it had once belonged.

Faith rose pally,lly, slowly to her feet, her mind racing a mile a minute trying to find some way, any way to get them out of this. Find a way to prevent what was about to happen. There was no way out, and even if she could escape right now, there was no way that she would ever leave Buffy behind. She would rather endure the tortures of hell for eternity than leave Buffy to him. She could do this; she would do anything to keep Buffy safe from him. She stood tall in front of him and lo him him squarely in the face, unable to hide the revulsion she felt for him as she saw the victorious sneer that marred his otherwise angelic face. Often she had wondered how it was possible such an angelic face could harbor, contain so evil, so black a soul as his. Faith felt his eyes raking lazily over her body and her skin crawled every placed they touched. Though she tried, she could not stop her body from trembling. A knot of fear coiled deep in the pit of her stomach, and bile rose up hot, strong, and thick in the back of her throat at the thought of this sick twisted bastard touching her again.

He smiled expectantly at her, his tongue sneaking out to trace his upper lip, his eyes growing harsh, cruel. She could not look at him any longer; she dropped her gaze afraid that her reactions other than the fear would anger him further. She could not incur his wrath until she was sure that Buffy was completely safe from him. She wasn't really surat hat he wanted from her, than a fleeting ghost of a memory came to her and she knew.

"I'm sorry......." she mumbled, the words eating away at her, going against all that she had fought so hard to become.

"I'm sorry......... who?" he prompted her.

Faith swallowed rapidly, forcing the bile back down, afraid that it would come up, out with the words, she choked out, "I'm... sorry d-d-daddy."

'Sorry that I didn't fucking kill you when I had the chance!'

"That's okay, baby girl, daddy forgives you." He punched her in the stomach just to show her how much, hell it was only a tap.

A tap that doubled Faith over, causing her legs to buckle. A tap that sent her down hard again onto her knees, her immediate reaction to jump back up and go at him. But, she stilled herself, clenching her teeth, her hands balled up into tight fists at her sides, hissing in pain, and stayed as she was. She kept her head lowered and just prayed that he wouldn't turn his attention back to Buffy laying helpless on the floor. She flinched out of age-old habit, a habit she had broken herself of, a habit that she had relearned quickly today, as she saw his hand coming towards her face through the curtain of her hair.

His impossibly large hand, a hand that had looked so large to her when she was young, had been large compared to her own seven-year-old hand. It came to her in that second, that all of it, him, the cabin, and everything in it was too large in relation to her and Buffy. It was as if things were proportioned to her the same as when she was only seven. So that now, like then, the size of him was intimidating just like when she was a child. Now, like then, he was large, she was small. He was powerful, strong, while she was weak. Only now it was a million times worse because it wasn't just her he was hurting but Buffy too. He was the predator, and she and Buffy were the prey.

Johnny dropped his hand and moved behind Faith, and smiled yet again as he saw her whole body tense, tremble. Leaning down he picked up the still unconscious blond Slayer and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. He reached out behind him and grabbed Faith by the hair. Carrying Buffy, and dragging Faith, he starting walking tos ths the door on the other side of the room.

Every instinct in Faith yelled at her to get away from him, even if it meant having the hair on her head pulled out by the roots. But she couldn't, not while he had Buffy. She knew where that door led to, she wished she didn't but she did, oh god she wished she didn't! It was his special, their special room, the room he fondly called the Play Room.
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Continued in Chapter XXIV – Hell Is For Children (Part B)