Before everyone jumps on me for the twisted character that is this Willow, I just want to assure you all that there is reason for her behavior, irrational as it is. It will eventually come to light. :)



Willow woke to the scent of magic. Really, did Tara think that she wouldn’t? She was far beyond the other witch’s capabilities, skilled enough that, at the very least, she knew when someone was playing in her sandbox.

For a moment, she wondered if it had just been something innocent, or a surprise for her. It wouldn’t be the first time that Tara had given her a magical gift, or showed her another stride she had made in her magic. But no, this was neutral magic, the sort that was generally used for defensive spells. Tara was up to something.

As if on cue, Tara walked into the room in a bathrobe, toweling off her hair as she entered. “H-hi W-Willow.” Willow frowned at the stutter. That was new. Tara’s stutter had gone away around Willow long before they had even begun their relationship, and suddenly returned after Willow had restored her sanity. And Willow didn’t like it at all. It meant that Tara was uncomfortable, and Willow never wanted that for Tara. She’d sworn after Glory that Tara would never have to suffer again, and she hated the idea that she wasn’t keeping her promise.

“Tara,” she said coolly, her eyes following the shy girl as she dressed quickly, almost as though she was unwilling for Willow to see her naked.

“I-I’ve g-got class in ten m-minutes,” Tara said apologetically. “I-I guess I-I’ll see y-you later?”

“Sure.” Willow stretched back on her bed, her arms propping her up on her side, waiting for her moment.

The instant Tara’s hand touched the doorknob, she pounced. “So, magic in our room last night? What were you doing?”

Jackpot. Tara’s head spun around to stare at her and she gave a little jump of surprise. “What?”

“What were you defending against, exactly, last night?” Willow asked, deceptively calm. “Some new Big Bad? The noisy girls next door?” She waited a moment before she asked the final question. “Me?”

Tara started guiltily. “W-Willow…”

“Why are you doing this, Tara?” Willow said beseechingly. “You know we can’t have lies between us, and hiding and-“

“H-hiding? L-lies?” Tara made a choked sound that might have been a laugh. “Y-yes, instead, l-lets just erase the l-lies! L-let’s make sure that T-Tara n-never has a thought that W-Willow doesn’t approve of!”

Oh. That. God, this was really becoming a pain. She thought that she’d erased that possibility from Tara’s mind last time, in the Magic Box, but no, here it was again.

Tara wouldn’t understand why Willow was doing this. She’d just see it as a violation, nothing more. But Willow was protecting Tara from anything unpleasant in life, anything negative that her beloved might have to face, and sometimes that had to include Willow, too.

She reached into her pocket for the ever-present Lethe’s Bramble, murmuring the words of the spell that would restore Tara to her prior happiness, and waited for things to be okay again.

Tara shook her head sadly. “I-It won’t w-work, W-Will. And n-neither will we.” She closed the door quietly, but the click resounded in Willow’s mind like the sound of a gunshot.

--

Faith turned in the mirror. Leather, check. Black and red, check. Ultra-exaggerated cleavage, check. If she was going to win back her man, she’d have to pull out all the stops. Okay, it wasn’t the first time she’d threatened to kill him, but it was definitely the first time she’d meant it, stake and all. Spike wasn’t going to be happy with her.

She sighed. She’d fucked up. She knew it. And maybe she was okay and human, like Willow had assured her over and over again yesterday, but she had had a right to worry. Spike could have been eating people! But maybe she should have had more faith in him. Xander had believed in Spike, and there was a time not so long ago when he’d have jumped at the idea of staking the vampire. She expected more of herself.

And she couldn’t have picked a better time to threaten hers and Spike’s relationship? Now that Slayer 2.0 was in town- bouncy blond, idiot smile Buffy Summers, who Spike stared at like she was the Holy Grail- Faith was replaceable.

At that thought, she hitched up her skirt a little higher, so that the curve of her ass was more than visible. No way was she going to give Buffy the chance to swoop in.

~

Spike gulped at Faith’s ensemble. “Slayer,” he finally managed. She was dressed to seduce him, that was clear enough. Which meant this wouldn’t end well. Picture Buffy, picture Buffy, picture Buffy… He smiled at the thought of the last night. Buffy had decided to patrol with him, since Faith had work, and they’d fought a pack of vampires together. It had been exhilarating, more so than it had ever been with Faith. Faith was all about brute force and love of the violence, followed by the hunger and horniness that used to make Spike laugh when she’d try to have sex with him while eating a burger. But Buffy… Buffy was something else entirely, graceful and vicious all at once, loving the fight far more than the kill. He remembered the old days fondly, remembered the joy of the fight in those first few months when he’d come to Sunnydale and before the wheelchair. She’d been like a cub back then, feisty and small but already a fighter. Now, though, she was the lioness, stalking her prey instead of letting it come to her, never showing fear or hesitation… beautiful. He couldn’t wait until he could knock down the bloody walls Angelus had built around her and dance with her in the way he dreamed of.

Faith scowled at him. “Are you even paying attention to me?”

“What’s that, love?” Spike asked, frowning. He’d managed to distract himself from Faith’s attire, and now his hard-on was for something else entirely. Faith was smoking, sure. But she wasn’t Buffy.

As soon as she saw that she had his attention, Faith sidled up to him. “I’m trying to…apologize,” she said in a sultry voice, cupping his crotch with her hands.

He jerked away as if he’d been burned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said evenly, priding himself in the way his voice didn’t shake. There were few men alive who could resist Faith. And he planned to be one of them.

“Come on, Spike, I know you’re mad, but we can move past this!” Faith said, annoyed. “I forgave you when you sold us out to Adam, and when you almost fed Dawn to Dru…”

Spike felt a pang of guilt. He’d been through a lot with Faith, and even if he wasn’t in love with her, he did care deeply about her. He knew that apologizing didn’t come easily to her, and it wasn’t right that he just ignore it.

“I know,” he conceded. “I don’t blame you for last night…although you could have had a little faith in me!” he added swiftly, then groaned inwardly at the inadvertent pun.

Faith’s eyes glittered in amusement. “And you could have a little Spike in me, too, so what are you waiting for?”

“Oi! Little?”

Faith smirked. “Okay, big, big Spike in me.” She stretched expansively, letting Spike see very clearly that she wasn’t wearing any underwear. “I’m waiting.”

Spike turned away, berating himself. He was a bloody saint for resisting this, and yet he’d never get any credit from Buffy. Because she was never going to find out about this. She was insecure enough without knowing that her new vampire was getting visits from Faith wearing practically nothing.

Oh, yeah. He was definitely hers.

“Spike?” The pretense was gone, and now it was just plain Faith, not the seductress, who moved back into his line of sight. He felt a shudder of distaste at her outfit, finally realizing just how tacky it was. Buffy would never demean herself by wearing something like that in public. She was better than that. And really, so was Faith.

He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, now confident that he could touch her without becoming crazed with lust. “You’re better than this, Faith.”

Her expression darkened as she processed just what he meant and what he wasn’t going to do. “Screw you,” she spat, and stalked off.

He breathed a sigh of relief and settled back into his armchair, unzipping his pants and envisioning Buffy fighting him in his mind’s eye.

--

“Life sucks,” Faith grumbled, sinking down in the seat opposite Willow’s in the corner of the Espresso Pump.

Willow sighed. “Tell me about it. I’ve tried everything in the book, and nothing’s worked. Tara hasn’t even come back yet.”

“Tara’s gone?” Faith asked, frowning.

“I just wanted to protect her!” Willow growled, slamming her fist on the table. “And I have no idea how it all backfired. How could she have possibly known what I was doing? I was so careful!”

“It’s all Buffy’s fault,” Faith mumbled, tugging her skirt down a little more. It kept riding up and giving everyone in the shop a view of far too much of her. No one got to see that except Spike. There was a time when she would have laughed at the idea of monogamy, but Spike had been everything she’d needed and she’d never needed to bother with anyone else. Why did he have to be so difficult now?

“Buffy?” Willow’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

I mean that she’s stealing away my man, and she’s going to pay. Faith shrugged nonchalantly. “We were in the Magic Box during your last breakup. She was pretty gung-ho about telling Tara about what you were doing.”

“That bitch!” Willow practically snarled. “I should have known. She comes into town and ruins everything!”

“Tell me about it,” Faith agreed. It was refreshing to spend time with someone else who didn’t think the sun shone out of Buffy’s ass. Even Dawn had joined the Buffy-loving train, that traitor. She tried to hide it, but Faith had walked in on one too many movie nights to suspect that Dawn actually liked hanging out with Buffy.

“We have to get rid of her,” Willow said suddenly. “She’s a liability.”

“You mean like make her leave town?” Faith asked, grinning at the idea. “Think we can pull it off?”

“Leave town?” Willow laughed. “Yeah, right. You know what we do with liabilities.”

A chill ran down Faith’s spine. Willow couldn’t possibly mean what she thought she meant…

She remembered another time when it had just been her and Willow, discussing their last liability. Glory’s defenses had been failing and they’d finally realized that Ben and Glory were the same. Dawn had been in danger, and the two girls had seen no other choice.

“We decided that Ben had to die because he was a danger to us.” Willow echoed Faith’s thoughts with a shake of the head. “And Buffy’s causing far too much trouble, too.”

Faith laughed nervously. “Don’t you think you’re taking this whole magic-power-vendetta thing a little too seriously?” She knew where Willow’s irrational hate was coming from, Willow had explained as much to her, but this was pushing it. “It’s not like we actually killed Ben in the end.” Willow didn’t move, and Faith was suddenly uncertain. “Right?”

Willow shrugged. “If we had succeeded in closing the portal, which we did, Glory wouldn’t have let it rest. She would have targeted us each, one by one, and made us suffer. I did what had to be done.”

Faith was stunned. “You didn’t.” Talking about it was one thing. But murder? Actually killing a defenseless person? That was something completely different. You didn’t just come back from it!

“Of course I did,” Willow said with a confidence that Faith saw through instantly. Sometimes, Willow still reverted to the nervous follower who needed her best friend’s approval. Something that Faith wouldn’t- couldn’t- give this time. Willow scowled at Faith’s uncertainty. “Well, it’s not like I was the first one to kill someone. And yours was innocent!”

“Don’t,” Faith said tiredly. She’d confessed the accidental murder to Willow years ago, when she’d been unable to pretend anymore. That Willow had been horrified and not even close to supportive, and it had taken hours before she’d finally agreed not to go to Giles. This Willow, however, was going to use Faith’s greatest sin against her. “We both know that that shouldn’t have happened. And I’ll never forgive myself for it.”

“Whatever,” Willow said dismissively, and Faith had to choke back her anger at Willow’s uncaring. “I’m just saying that maybe Buffy has to go.”

“No!” Faith was adamant about that. “No more killing. Let’s just get Buffy to leave town.”

“So she can come back in another few years and destroy everything again?” Willow demanded. “Or so that Spike can follow her away and we can lose him, too?”

Faith winced at that. Willow was really pulling out all the stops. “I’m just saying, there must be a way to isolate her again. Even make her want to leave. Without Spike,” she added hastily.

Willow’s eyes lit up. “I have an idea. Just give me a day or two to do the research…” She shook her head. “I’ve only done this once before, but it should be much easier this time, since I know where to go and there’s no actual res-“

“Will?” Faith asked curiously. At least she wasn’t still focused on killing Buffy, but she had a shine to her eyes that made Faith worry.

Willow grinned. “I’m on it.”