Chapter 31

“Don’t walk away from me, bitch!”

James - I Only Have Eyes For You

****

The door to the tower room slammed shut, startling him from his place at Dawn’s bedside. The young girl remained unconscious and with each passing minute Ethan became more and more anxious.

And now he was trapped.

The Slayer and her friends were inside the castle. If Buffy or Giles managed to reach the tower, he could only begin to imagine what would happen to him when they found him there with an unconscious Dawn. He had an awful feeling that there would be a great deal of pain involved.

Ethan turned back to Dawn, wondering once again what could have happened to cause her to fall into a coma. She had been perfectly alright before the joust. And while he understood that her friend’s death must have been painful to her, he was sure it couldn’t have initiated the young girl’s condition.

“Dawn,” he tried again to wake the girl but she remained unresponsive. “Dawn?” He rubbed his hands over his face as he slumped back resignedly in his seat. “Where are you?”

****

Spike sat next to Dawn on the back porch steps, a comforting arm placed awkwardly around her shoulders as she told him about Ethan. “He’s scared. I don’t think Darla and Dru gave him much of a choice about taking part in this little game of theirs, but he threw himself into it wholeheartedly. Now I think he’s worried about what’ll happen to him when Buffy and Giles catch up with him.”

Spike’s mouth quirked into a grin when he imagined what Giles would do to his old friend. He was sure he wouldn’t want to miss it.

“And then you died,” Dawn continued, backhanding him in the stomach before resting her head on his shoulder. “Do you know how awful that felt?”

“Well, I was the one with the lance through my heart ‘bit…”

“And then we ended up here…” she frowned as she trailed off, her line of though asking why Spike was there. “What are you doing here?” she asked, tilting her head up to look at him.

“To learn what I am part of,” Spike quoted. “Whatever that means. So far all I’ve seen is William playing happy families with your sis.”

The young girl smiled. “I so want to see her face when you tell her.” She paused, as if unsure whether or not to say any more and then sighed. “She loves you, you know. She pretends like she doesn’t, for the guys. But they don’t have to be with her all the time like I do. I see what they don’t.”

“What do you see?”

“I see that the way she always smiles when you come into the room. And the way she tilts her head when I talk about you to show she’s paying attention. She’s just a little bruised and a lot scared and… well… confused.”

“Confused.”

“This is so not how it was with Angel. And you’re exactly the opposite of him. She’s bound to feel weird about that.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before Spike stood and pulled Dawn to her feet next to him. “Well I suppose the sooner we get started Sweet Pea, the sooner we can go home. We’re here to learn what we are, and inside is as good a place to start as any.”

****

As the doors to the castle swung open and the group entered cautiously, Xander and Tara led the others into the enormous main hall. Anya and Willow stepped up next to their loved ones, reaching out around them through the dimly lit room with their senses, to detect any threat. As the former demon moved further into the room she stumbled and looking down, screamed in fright as she realised she was balancing on the very edge of the floor where it gave way to a seemingly unending abyss. Instinctually Xander reached for her, pulling her back from the edge and holding tightly to her arm as he drew her closer to him.

Buffy peered in vain through the darkness, her eyes searching for a way across the gaping chasm.  “There,” Angel’s voice cut sharply through the silence of the room and the other turned quickly to look at him, before following his outstretched hand to a point on the floor. As their eyes adjusted to the dark, they could vaguely make out the form of a narrow plank of wood, stretching from one side of the room to the other.

“That’s it?” Faith cried, not believing the simplicity of the challenge. “I thought these things were supposed to get harder.”

“They are,” Buffy answered, frowning at the door on the other side of the room. “Something’s not right here.”

“Maybe Ethan didn’t have time to finish,” Willow suggested hopefully.

Tara squeezed her girlfriend’s hand supportively. “Or maybe this isn’t as easy as it looks.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” Angel told them, stepping closer to the walkway. He looked back towards Cordelia, their eyes meeting over the short distance, confiding things they felt they could never say aloud. As he turned away, Buffy caught his gaze and, finding a mirror of her own feelings of pain and guilt, her lips quirked into a small reassuring smile.

Angel closed his eyes and nodded once at his former love before turning back to the task at hand. He inhaled deeply and stepped forward onto the makeshift bridge.

 

Chapter 32

 “I’m undercover”

 “Not under much!”

Xander and Buffy – ‘Go Fish’

****

Angel crossed the bridge quickly without any ill effect. Stepping off the walkway on the ledge at the far end of the room he looked around cautiously, waiting for something to leap out at him after the ridiculously simple task. Buffy and Tara were right. There was no way it could be this easy. He frowned as he approached the door. The closer he got to it, the more it looked like…“Damn,” he swore quietly, but the sound echoed through the silent room, reaching the sensitive ears of Willow and Anya on the other side.

“What’s wrong?” the redhead shouted back as the others searched in vain for the cause of the vampire’s anxiety.

“It’s not a real door. It’s just painted onto the wall. Some sort of optical illusion.” He slammed his fist into the wall, trying to create an opening. “Damn,” he swore again as the sharp rock sliced open his hand.

“Are you ok?” Anya called out, the scent of blood reaching her and causing her stomach to churn. Cordelia forced her eyes away from Angel’s outline and turned to Anya. “What? What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s bleeding,” Anya answered shortly as she raised her hand to cover her nose and mouth. “I hate this,” she hissed at Xander, who placed a comforting arm around her waist.

Cordelia stepped towards the bridge. “Angel I’m coming over…”

Giles and Buffy immediately stepped forward to protest but Angel’s voice sounded before they could speak. “No. Stay where you are Cor, there’s no point in risking it. I’ll come back over to you.”

The young woman rolled her eyes and stepped onto the beam, holding her arms out to the sides for balance. Simultaneously, the vampire stepped onto the other side of the bridge.

“I thought I told you to stay over there.”

“You tell me a lot of things, oh master. The point you’re forgetting is that I always ignore you.”

“And you always get into trouble”

“That’s completely unfair and totally untrue.”

“Cordelia…”

“Sometimes I get into trouble and sometimes you get me into trouble, but I doubt that you can name a single time when me not listening to you got me into trouble.”

“How about…?”

“And I think it’s unfair of you not to count all the times I did listen to you and got into trouble. And all the times you listened to you and got into trouble.”

The Scoobies watched in mounting disbelief as the pair made their way towards each other, bickering with each other the entire time. Eventually they were standing inches from one another, no longer concerned about the unending blackness below them, content to argue with one another. A hint of a smile formed on Buffy’s face as Angel unconsciously took Cordelia’s hand and led her back to the ledge that he had started from.

 

Only when a determined silence settled between them did Cordelia notice that they were back on solid ground. She looked down and, seeing the aching void that lay between them and the others, swayed slightly on her feet. Immediately, Angel’s arms were around her, supporting her as she fought the attack of dizziness. She smiled up at him, thankful as always for his presence and Angel did the only thing he could think of. The thing he’d wanted to for the past two years.

He kissed her.

****

Dawn sat perched on the sideboard in the dining room her attention torn between the conversation at the dinner table and Spike who was staring at the baby lying in the nearby crib, with a mixture of delight and trepidation. “It can see me,” he declared as a small arm was extended towards him and a tiny baby fist clenched and unclenched in his general direction.

“She’s a she, not an it,” Dawn corrected, “and I doubt she can see you. No one else can.”

“I’m telling you,” Spike insisted, “it’s staring right at me.”

“Fine,” Dawn gave in with a roll of her eyes, “she can see you. But unless she starts talking in the next five minutes, that’s not going to be much of a help.”

“Buffy the Christening is on Saturday,” Joyce’s voice interrupted them and Dawn dragged her eyes away from the Master vampire making faces at the gurgling baby and listened to her mother. “Have you decided on a name yet?”

Buffy and William turned looked first at the baby, then at Joyce and then at each other. They sat in silence for several minutes, talking to each other solely with their eyes.

Dawn sighed. “Great, more baby talk. How is this supposed to help us?” Glancing back at Spike, she realised she may have been talking to a wall. Her friend was now crouched down next to the crib in vamp face, cooing and purring as he stared intently at William and Buffy’s child, who was slowly drifting off to sleep.

“Dawn.”

The brunette jumped as she heard her name and swivelled quickly to look at her sister. She smiled in delight as she realised they must have seen her, recognised her. She did exist here. She was meant to be in Sunnydale with Buffy.

But Buffy wasn’t looking at Dawn. No one at the table was.

They were looking at the baby.

Slowly Spike stood and walked towards Dawn who had slid off the sideboard and was now gazing wide eyed at the cradle where the baby slept. “Spike,” she whispered as he approached her, the look in his eyes mirroring hers as they both slowly came to the same realisation.

“We’re going to call her Dawn.”

They heard the words but there was no need. They already knew the truth in their hearts. Buffy and William’s daughter was Dawn.

 

Chapter 33

 “Someone wasn’t worthy.”

 Spike – ‘Becoming Part 1’

****

“Guys?” Buffy shouted after a few minutes of silence from the couple on the other side of the room. “Angel? Cordelia?”

The vampire and seer slowly broke apart, knowing that they had to return to the problem at hand. Reaching down, Angel took hold of Cordelia’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She looked up sharply and met his gaze, her eyes showing her surprise at his action, but also relief that he wasn’t running away from this again, like he had so many times in the past.

“Hey!” Buffy’s voice greeted them again, more insistent than before and Angel smiled briefly at Cordy before answering his former love.

“Yeah, Buffy, everything’s ok. We’re fine.”

“Good,” the blonde Slayer sighed with some relief. “Now see if you can find a way out of here. That door, or whatever it is, still looks like our best chance.”

Angel guided Cordelia over to the wall and together they ran their hands over every inch of the painting. “Buffy, Angel’s right. There’s nothing here. It’s just a picture of a door. The wall seems as solid here as everywhere else.”

“No. There has to be something,” Buffy insisted. “You’re just not looking properly.”

“Buffy,” Giles said gently, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Slowly he drew her away to one side, excusing them from the others.

“Buffy,” Giles began again once they were separated somewhat from the others. “Angel and Cordelia are doing everything they can to find a solution. We are just going to have to try and be patient and give them any assistance they need when they ask for it. I do realise that all of this has been distressing for you but…”

“Giles, my sister is up in that tower. I have to get to her. She needs me.”

“And you need her?”

“Oh don’t get all Watchery and psychological with me now. You have no idea exactly how distressing all of this has been for me. The one good thing that ever happened to me, the one reason I’m glad I was called to be the Slayer was kidnapped by your insane, evil Wizard friend on the orders of two of the most feared vampires of all time. I’m stuck in a game I don’t understand with none of my usual Slayer abilities, which leaves me feeling vulnerable and I’ve just had to watch the man I love die at the hands of another of my lovers. Distressing doesn’t even begin to cover it. This is hell Giles. Darla and Dru finally got their way. We’re trapped in hell.”

Turning away from her friends, Buffy missed the stunned look on several of their faces. Willow and Tara shared a sad smile, both wishing that Buffy had had more time to realise her feelings before Spike’s death. Giles closed his eyes trying to force back the pain the sight and knowledge of a heartbroken Buffy caused him. Whatever hurt her, hurt him, and right now his pupil, his Slayer, his daughter was being consumed with loss of a man she probably didn’t even realise she loved. He was certain she hadn’t been conscious of saying it.

“Did she just say…?”

“Yes. Look don’t say anything ok. She’s already hurting enough right now.”

Xander turned Anya to face him, ready to protest when he noticed tears running down cheeks. “An? What’s wrong?”

“”I was just thinking. About Spike. About him dying. And how much I’m going to miss him. I mean we were just buying my wedding dress. That’s how all of this started. One minute I was there, with Spike and I was so happy and the next moment I was here. And the next time I saw Spike he…”

“I know,” Xander said softly, gently as Anya began to shake.

“And then I thought about how Buffy must be feeling, and that led me to how I’d feel if it were you and…”

“Shh. Shh. It’s ok,” Xander soothed, holding her tightly against him. “I’m here. I’ll always be here. I’m never letting you go.”

“I love you,” she whispered and he dipped his head to kiss her tenderly in answer.

Don’t say anything to Buffy,” she requested again as he pulled back. “Promise?”

“I don’t know where you got this impression of me as a bigoted ogre,” her fiancée responded, slightly hurt that she would believe he would knowingly hurt one of his best friends.

Anya’s eyebrows rose slightly as a look of disbelief passed fleetingly over her face. “Xander.”

“Alright I don’t like vampires and Spike and I took a great deal of pleasure in taunting each other but…”

“But?”

“He earned his Scooby membership this summer. With Buffy gone. I mean, he’s one of us right? One of the gang. Even if we didn’t get along, I still…”

“You miss him,” Anya deduced with a smile, from her lover’s shaky confession.

“No I don’t, I just…”

“Hey, guys!”

Cordelia’s shout broke everyone from their own unhappy thoughts and refocused their attention where it was most needed. “I think I found something.”

“What is it?” Giles called back anxiously.

“Some writing,” Angel called. “I can’t read it. I think it’s… Giles. We’re going to need you’re expertise on this. My Latin is no where near as good as yours.”

“What does it say?”

“Uh.” Angel peered at the inscription in the stone. “Fides et amor et benevolentia viam ducunt.”

“Giles?” Buffy questioned impatiently. “Do you know what that means?”

Giles nodded once to acknowledge that he did. “Faith, Love and Benevolence Guide the Way.”

 

Chapter 34

 “Hello cutie.”

Spike – ‘Becoming Part 2’

****

“Dawn!” Spike called out as the teenager raced past him out of the house and down the street. “Dawn stop!” he shouted from the doorway before sprinting after her. He followed her across town, allowing her to stay ahead of him, hoping she’d run all of the anger and confusion out of her.

He didn’t know what to make of all of it himself. A succession of emotions flooded his system, all battling with one another, none actually winning for any reasonable length of time. There was anger certainly. That the Powers had interfered with his life, had given him a daughter without his knowledge and then concealed the truth from all of them. Fear also, that Dawn didn’t seem to be taking this that well and that his relationship with her and her sister could have been damaged by this piece of ‘divine intervention’.

Uppermost in his mind at all times however was elation. Dawn, his precious Nibblet, this beautiful, confident, intelligent girl, was his. She was part of him. Something pure and untainted had been created from him.

“What’s your name?”

“Spike.”

The small brunette giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Spike’s a stupid name.”

Spike growled. “Run along and hide bite size. Before the nasties get you.”

Dawn giggled again. “You’re funny.”

Spike grinned as he remembered his first meeting with Dawn. His smile grew with each passing moment until he was laughing wholeheartedly as memories of her flooded his mind.

****

Dawn raced down the street, vaguely aware of Spike calling her name as he followed. She knew he'd catch her eventually, he was probably only letting her continue now because he realised she needed some time.

He knew her.

Spike.

Her friend, her confidant, her brother.

Her father?

"No!" she shouted aloud, hoping to drown out the voice in her head. "It's not true. This isn't real. None of this is real." She could hear the steady beat of his feet as he pounded along behind her.
She needed to get away from him.

****

Ahead of him, Spike saw Dawn change direction and head for one of the cemeteries. His laughter died away and his face became tense, first with worry and then with anger. He watched as she sprinted forward as she entered the gates and ducked quickly out of sight. “Dammit!” Spike swore, finally allowing himself to speed up to find her. “Bloody, buggery hell! Dawn!”

He rounded the corner and stopped short as he saw her, kneeling on the ground, pounding at the ground with her fists. He looked around sharply as he experienced a strange feeling of déjà vu. Then he realised which graveyard Dawn had chosen to run to.

“She’s not there, sweetheart.”

“Shut up!” the young girl growled as her hands clawed at the ground beneath her.

Spike frowned when he saw her hands were bleeding and stepped forward to pull her away and stop her from hurting herself. “Dawn, stop,” he urged gently, but she refused to be comforted and pushed him away.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted as she moved away from him. “Leave me alone?”

“Dawn that’s enough!” Spike shouted in frustration and the pair faced each other squarely, eyes flashing.

“Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not my father!”

“Wanna bet?”

“I hate you!” she screamed at him, her face and eyes red from crying.

Spike smirked and folded his arms across his chest, clearly unimpressed. “Is that the best you can do? Surely you can come up with something a little more original. We had plenty of practice at this over the summer. I’d hate to think you’d lost your touch. Your mother and I are both so good at it.”

He knew he was being a heartless bastard but he understood that the only way Dawn was going to deal with this was if she worked through it. If she stayed in denial forever, she’d probably drive herself crazy.

“She is not my mother. Buffy is not my mother. Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. It’s not true,” Dawn snarled through clenched teeth. “My mom’s dead. And you’re not taking any more of her away from me.”

Spike sighed and felt his own anger leave him as he watched her body heave as continued sobs escaped her. “No one wants to take your mum away from you Nibblet,” Spike said stepping forward and making sure she wasn’t going to run before raising a hand to gently stroke her hair. “Of course Joyce was your mum, for all the important things. And Buffy’s your annoying older sister, and I’m you’re loveable older brother. And we’re here to make sure nothing ever hurts you.”

Relaxing somewhat at his words, Dawn leant against him and rested her head against his chest, her arms clasped firmly about his waist. His arms came up to encircle her and they stood like that for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts.

 

Chapter 35

“You’re hair is fine.

"Willow – ‘Anne’

****

“Faith, love and benevolence?” Buffy echoed Giles, hoping that one of them would suddenly have some form of epiphany and find the way out of the room. She looked at Willow, who shrugged regretfully, biting her lip as she held Tara’s hand. With a slight groan she turned back to her Watchers who were talking quietly together. “Does it mean we have to have faith and love, or that we have to show them?”

Both men shook their heads. “We don’t know Buffy,” Giles told her, battling to remain calm for all their sakes. “Maybe it’s an act of faith.”

“Like what?” Xander asked as the others drew closer, forming a small circle around Giles and Wesley.

“I really have no idea, Giles answered, removing his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. “It could be as simple as actually believing the door to be real. Willing it into existence as it were. Or it could be a task we have to perform. At this point your guess is as good as mine.”

“I highly doubt that,” Xander joked, making both Anya and Giles smile slightly for which he was extremely grateful.

“Is there any more writing over there guys?” Buffy shouted across the room to her friends who replied that there wasn’t anything else besides the picture of the door and the one small inscription. “This is going to take forever.”

Faith listened to the whole exchange in silence, a tiny thought nagging at the back of her mind. “Maybe it’s really an act of Faith,” she said finally, breaking the silence.

“I just said…”

“No Giles not faith. Faith. Me.

****

“Do you think they’re having any luck?” Cordelia asked, sitting down on the ground, her back to the door painted on the wall.

“No,” Angel told her, his vampiric hearing easily making out what was being discussed on the other side of the room.

“Well as we’re stuck here for a little while, or a long while I suppose, what do you want to do?”

Angel smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his embrace. Cordy sighed feeling strangely at peace with what was happening and laid her head against Angel’s shoulder, her arms around his waist.

“I’m not in love with her anymore,” the vampire suddenly announced and Cordelia jerked away from him involuntarily at the unexpected statement.

“What?”

“I mean, I know that somewhere, somehow, she touched a part of me I had buried so deep even before I became a vampire, that I barely even remembered it. And having it back, having her there was like heaven. After all that time in the dark I was in the light, and there was so much light and love and happiness. And it almost destroyed the world.”

Cordelia watched Angel, listening intently to his words but afraid to move for fear that he might stop and not tell her why he had started.

“I can’t see you and me ending the world Cor,” he said with a smile as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. It took her a moment to realise what he had said and her furious reaction therefore came as an even bigger surprise to him.

“What?!”

“Huh?” Angel’s head snapped forward, his eyes locking with hers as the former cheerleader stared him down angrily.

“So what you’re saying is, you don’t care enough about me for our relationship to cause an apocalypse.”

“No…”

“Whatever you had with Buffy was sooooo much more intense than anything you feel for me, so we obviously don’t have to worry about Angelus and his Armageddon fetish.”

“Cordelia, will you shut up and listen to me?”

The seer’s eyes flashed and she tossed her hair crossly as she slumped back against the wall away from him. Angel sighed. “I did not mean any of that,” he told her sincerely, willing her to listen to him. “I meant that Buffy and I almost destroyed each other and the world. Proof if any more were needed that we were just not meant to be together. It won’t be like that for you and me. Because we are supposed to be together Cor. And nothing bad could ever come from that. This is the way it’s meant to be.”

Cordelia looked down at the ground, a little embarrassed that she had automatically thought the worst. “So you really don’t love Buffy anymore?”

“I’ll always love her,” Angel corrected, “but I’m, not ‘in love’ with her.”

“And you’re…I mean are you in love with…?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Can you say that again please?”

“I’m in love with you Cordelia.”

Cordy smiled. “Yeah that’s what I thought you said.” With that she threw her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to hers for a kiss.

 

Chapter 36

 “‘Do you like my mask? Isn’t it pretty? It raises the dead.’ Americans!”

Giles – ‘Dead Man’s Party’

****

“Why are we here again?” Dawn mumbled into the front of Spike’s leather duster as she sat nestled in his lap in the middle of the cemetery.

“Dammed if I know,” Spike replied softly, as though scared to break the night’s silence.

“Dammed anyway,” Dawn reminded him helpfully. “Vampire.”

“Half vampire.”

Dawn raised her head to look at him. “Hey. You’re right. I must have some really great power buried inside me.”

“Dawn…”

“I mean Key, Slayer and vampire. I could probably kick some serious demon a…”

“Dawn!”

“Ooo, sorry dad,” Dawn laughed, her eyes sparkling.

“Stop teasing me you little devil,” Spike laughed back as she relaxed against him once again.

“They said I had to fulfil my destiny,” the brunette explained, returning to her earlier question.

It took Spike a moment to realise what she meant. “And I have to complete some sort of task.”

“To find out who we are?”

“Yeah.”

“I know who I am.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m Dawn. Key, Slayer and Vampire. Daughter of Joyce. And of Buffy… And Spike.”

Spike grinned proudly at his girl. “Yes you are sweet thing.”

“And I am meant to be here. My destiny.” She smiled at him. “So, uh, if I’m all that… who are you?”

“I am Spike, William the Bloody,” the vampire announced, tilting his chin and straightening up, proudly. “Slayer of Slay…”

Dawn rolled her eyes and interrupted. “Yes but, who are you?”

“You’re starting to sound like them now.”

“Hey, the pushy and annoying genes come from my parents.”

“It’s not very nice to talk about Buffy like that.”

“Spike!”

“Look I’m just…” Spike sighed and shook his head. “I’m the same as I’ve always been. I’ve spent a hundred and twenty years trying to get as far away from William as possible but there he is. Living with your sister.”

“But you’re not…”

“Dawn I’m not stupid. William is there because that’s what she makes me. That’s what you make me. The man and not the monster. And I think the purpose of this little visit was to help me accept that. I’ve been moping around for so long now. I’ve lost all sense of who I am. But now I can see that I have both inside me. Whatever happens in the future is my choice.”

Dawn hugged him tightly. “I knew that,” she whispered in his ear and he closed his eyes, squeezing her back as tightly as he could without breaking any of her bones.

****

“Huh?”

Faith’s lips twitched as Buffy stared at her in confusion, but she sobered when she realised Wesley was watching her intently. Her eyes remained locked with her former Watcher’s even as she addressed her sister Slayer.

“Look this is a game. Some sick and twisted plot set up by Darla and Drusilla and Ethan Rayne. All of whom have some kind of grudge against you. But not against me. I never met any of them before this thing started. So why am I here? I’m not part of the gang. I never have been.”

Giles tilted his head slightly to the side as he considered this. “So you think that you’re here as part of the challenge, rather than one of the team?”

“They gave me to the winner of the second task.”

“So you were obviously needed by whoever progressed through to this task.”

“Exactly.”

To Giles the whole thing seemed perfectly reasonable. Buffy however took a little more persuading. “I don’t mean to rain on your objective reasoning parade,” she said, looking back and forth between her Watcher and the younger Slayer. “But even if that’s true, how is Faith supposed to open a door that is painted on the wall? And where does the love and benevolence come in?”

The brunette shrugged. “Maybe I just have to stroll on over and take a look.” She walked confidently toward the beam and turned back to Buffy with a determined smile. The blonde Slayer nodded at her once and the animosity that had existed between them for the past two years seemed to disappear in that instant. In the time between their last meeting and this one, they had both had to do a lot of growing up. Each saw in the other a part of themselves and the absence of the last traces in innocence. Both had been through enough to scare away hell’s fiercest hounds and both had things to regret. But none of that mattered now. She slate was wiped clean for both and them and they started anew.

Faith turned back towards the bridge, peering into the darkness to try and make out Angel and Cordelia on the other side. She raised her right foot and stepped onto the bridge.

And fell into nothing.

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