Buffy's POV
I hold her tighter to me, desperate to find some kind of comfort with her in my arms.
"Are you sure you can do it? I can't say I like the thought of you killing someone. Even an evil someone."
She shifts against me in my arms.
"I mean, I know it's different than before. I'm not worried about you... falling back into old habits or anything like that, I just hate the idea of you having more blood on your hands."
Faith looks down at her hands and I look with her, sliding my hands down her arms to hold her wrists as we do.
"There'll always be blood on my hands B, even after the real stuff washes away. What's important is why it's there."
I take her hands in mine and pull them to her chest, holding her close.
"I hope it doesn't come to that Faith. Things were about to get better, we were all on the mend. I was just starting to think that our family might actually come together, that we might be happy and now this happens."
I kiss the top of her head as we sit here together in the back room of the magic shop, dreading what's to come.
"My mom is in the hospital, she almost died. You've got this huge gash on your head and Dawn..."
I feel like I want to cry as I say her name. Faith sits up and turns to face me.
"Hey..."
She takes my head in her hands and kisses me sweetly.
"Your mom's gonna be fine remember? And so am I. My head's almost completely healed thanks to slayer healing... you don't have to worry about me or your mom."
There's a long pause between us.
"We'll just have to wait and see about Dawn."
I reach out and put my arms around Faith, who wraps her own around me.
Dawn...
"Why blood? Why did it have to be a blood ritual Faith?"
Her hand strokes the back of my neck and I hold her tighter.
"I don't know B."
"If Glory starts the ritual, she'll be in so much pain. I can't stand the thought of Dawn that way."
"I couldn't stand the thought of you in that much pain when Glory captured you, but Dawn..."
I pull myself back to look her in the eyes.
"We have to save her from that baby. We can't let our daughter go through that. Maybe it won't be as bad as Glory did to me, but it will still be bad. Dawn's just a little kid."
Her hands rest against my cheek and I turn my head, kissing her palm.
"We will B, one way or another we will. That's why we're going in just before the ritual begins, so we can keep Glory from hurting Dawn and starting the ritual. Giles said the ritual doesn't start till just after the sun goes down tomorrow, and he should have the location the ritual has to be done in a few hours. We'll save her Buffy, whatever we have to do, we'll save her."
I pull my hands from her back and hold her hands in mine. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
"Do you think it was right to tell Giles, Xander and Anya they couldn't come? They love Dawn very much and they want to help."
"They won't be a hundred percent and they know that. Giles has his broken hand which Glory would zoom in on to throw us off, not to mention her minions, and he is still gonna have that limp tomorrow. As much as Xander loves Dawn like the little sister he never had, he has a hard enough time walking let alone fighting. You and I are the only ones who have a shot at going up against Glory. And, that's probably how it should be."
How it should be?
"What do you mean?"
"It's our job to protect her B, we're her parents."
Dawn's POV
Help me...
She pinches my cheek and I try to hold back from screaming at how hard she's pinching.
"Oh you're so cute..."
She lets go and I grab my cheek, burying my head between my knees, which I've been hugging ever since I got carried here kicking and screaming for my parents... my real parents.
"So young and cute..."
Glory pats me on the head really hard and I bite my lip and hug my knees even harder, trying to hold back the tears.
Someone save me...
She sits down across from me and looks at me.
"Aww, hey what's wrong kid?"
I can't save myself. I'd never get far enough before she caught me. Then she'd probably hurt me worse then pinching me and patting my head.
"I asked you a question sweetie."
She hits me in the forehead with her palm. I finally look at her, trying my best to look mean and not cry.
I don't want to cry anymore, but I'm trapped in a room with a hell god who wants to hurt me. I can't help but cry. Crying isn't going to save me, if they're even going to save me.
"What's wrong honey?"
"I want my mommy..."
"Aww! You want your mommy? Well too bad, you don't get to see them, not right away anyway. They'll probably try and show up to stop the ritual, but nothing is going to get in the way of me getting the hell out of this hell god forsaken dimension. Besides, don't you mean mommies? As in plural? You know, those sneaky little idiot monks must've had a serious mother complex to give you THREE mothers."
She gets up and starts walking around, talking to me like we're friends. I just bury my face into me, my forehead resting on my knees.
"I mean were they TRYING to screw you up? It's hard enough to deal with one mother when you're a kid, at least that's what I hear anyway. Me? I never had a mother, well, not my own mother anyway. Ben's mother tried to be all mother figure on me for a while when I first managed to siphon some energy out of Ben so I could start looking for a way out of this crap hole dimension. She really bugged me, asking if I was okay and stuff. See when I first figured out how to take over Ben's body I didn't really have enough power to do anything, I just sort've laid there for a while before I had to go back inside Ben."
She knocks something down off a table because I hear a crash, don't look at what it is though.
"His mother saw it happen one time and for some stupid reason she decided to take care of me instead of finding out what was going on. I guess she figured this wasn't something a hospital could fix... anyway, so she starts taking care of me right? Talking to me when I started to last longer and get enough energy to kinda move. That kinda went on for a couple of years. I think she thought of me as her daughter or something, telling me I was pretty and crap like that. I really hated getting treated like a human. So naturally when I got up enough strength I had to kill her to make her shut up."
They have to save me. I need them to save me.
"But YOU!"
She grabs me by the hair and pulls my head back so I'm looking up at her.
"YOU'VE got THREE of them. They must drive you even more insane than me."
I just try and block out the pain of her hand pulling on my hair as I start to cry again.
"Asking you how you're feeling, caring about you even after you tell them not to. Worrying about you when something's wrong, and worrying about you even more when nothing's wrong because something MIGHT happen. It's really pretty pathetic don't you think?"
She lets go of my hair and I grab the back of my head. A few seconds later she slaps me in the back of the head, making my tears worse.
"Isn't it pathetic?"
"No..."
"What's that?"
"I said no, it's not..."
She comes around and crouches in front of me.
"It's not? Why?"
"They're parents, they're supposed to worry. They love you."
"So you're saying all the stuff they do. The worrying and all that... that's love?"
"Yes..."
"Ugh, how horrible. And you like that?"
"Yes..."
"Why?"
"Because... I love them."
"Which one?"
"Doesn't matter..."
It really doesn't matter which one, I love them all.
"You love all three of them?"
"Yes..."
"Why?"
I wipe the tears out of my eyes.
"They're my parents..."