Tara's POV
"She was... she was h-happy?"
Oh god...
"What do you mean Faith?"
Oh god what have I done?
"Where she was when she was... I think it was heaven."
I knew this was wrong from the start.
"Are y-you sure?"
I knew there was gonna be bad consequences, but this? I couldn't have thought this would be what happened. I...
"Pretty sure, Willow. She, told me herself."
This is so much worse than what I could've imagined.
"But, I mean... no I, she w-wasn't..."
Willow doesn't wanna believe it, but it's real. Oh god it's real.
"It is Willow. Buffy told me she was happy, and she blames me."
"But... no she was... she was being tortured in an untold hell dimension, wasn't she?"
Willow's still in denial about it, that's what got us here in the first place.
"The only hell dimension Buffy's been to, is this one."
God it must be so horrible for her. I should have done more to convince Willow not to do the spell. I should've found a way to stop her. Buffy and Faith wouldn't be going through what they're going through if I had done more. I can see the pain all around Faith and it's all about Buffy.
Anya tries to help.
"This, this isn't a hell dimension. It's just a dimension, believe me I know the difference."
"Maybe... but after where Buffy's been, this world, has to feel like hell to her."
"We have to do something. Something to make her feel better."
"And what would you suggest Xander?"
"Well I don't know. Research is your department G-man."
"I don't believe there is a research department for something of this nature. Buffy's problem is emotional, not mystical. Research can not help Buffy."
"I figured that but... we still have to do something. We have to find a way to help her somehow. Buffy needs us to show her that things aren't as horrible as they seem. I mean... I know that the world can seem really bad sometimes but, it's not all bad. There are good parts to it, really good. We should find a way to show her."
I don't know that anything will help.
"I um... I already tried..."
"You already... Faith what, what do you mean you already tried? What did you do?"
Faith gets really uncomfortable.
"Stuff..."
"Like what?"
"Doesn't matter... it, it didn't work. I just, I don't think that we can help her."
"We can cause, cause we're her friends and... and we love her."
Willow still thinks this'll be okay, I'm not so sure. What Buffy's been through, what she's going through is worse than anything any of us have ever been through. I'm not sure we can do anything at all.
"Love isn't gonna get it done this time guys. We need something more."
"More? What could be more important than love Faith?"
"I don't know but... I have to figure it out or I'm never gonna get her back."
"WE have to figure it out Faith. We're gonna help."
Are we now?
"Yeah cause, that's what we do. We help."
"I dunno. I think maybe I gotta do this on my own. Be all self-reliant and independent like. That's what slayers do right? They solve problems on their own, don't they? That's what Buffy does."
"Perhaps but one of the most important things that any slayer, and Buffy in particular, has done is ask for help when it's needed. Now Buffy is clearly reluctant to ask for help in this instance which is to be expected given her, circumstances. Our task now is to put our heads together and determine what course of action would be best to help Buffy deal with them."
"Okay but, how?"
Everyone gets very quiet at Xander's question, except Anya.
"Well um... what about, food?"
"Food?"
"Yeah, food is a comfort thing, isn't it? People who are depressed, they eat food and they feel better. Isn't that what people do in this situation? Maybe we should do some sort of, food related gathering thing. Like that ritual sacrifice we had on thanksgiving that time."
Faith raises an eyebrow at us.
"You had a ritual sacrifice on thanksgiving?"
Xander steps in.
"No, no, no... we had thanksgiving dinner. Anya just thinks of eating the turkey as a ritual sacrifice. It was just dinner. Is that what we're talking about here? Just dinner? We're not looking to go all intervention-y on her are we? Cause interventions never really work out when it comes to Buffy."
Faith sits back and lets out a deep sigh.
"No, intervention isn't gonna get it done either. If we're gonna do some get together thing it shouldn't be for intervention purposes. We just need to show her things aren't so bad, if that's even possible."
"We will try, not to worry Faith."
Giles might say not to worry but I can't help it. This is bad and I don't know that anything we can do will make things better.