**I am a loser geek, crazy with an evil streak. Yes. I do believe there is a violent thing inside of me.**

She could feel the blondes eyes on her. Something about that made her uncomfortable. She wasn't sure why, she had always liked being watched. Made her feel in control...like she had some kind of power over her watcher. No...not *that* kind of watcher. Not the bad ones with suits and accents. Those...she was never in power with those ones. It was either fighting against them, or for them. Either way, it was a lose-losesituation.

Her watcher. Why couldn't she have saved her? What had happened? Was it her own fear? Her own weakness? Was she that much of a failure? Yes. If she wasn't careful...always on the lookout...the same thing would happen to Buffy. Faith wasn't sure she could live with that. Maybe if Buffy knew that...if she knew how Faith felt...so alone and scared. No. She wasn't ready to tell her. All she wanted in the world was to be able to open up and yet...she couldn't. Something stillheld her back.

**She is just a girl, she is doing what she can**

Faith wanted to cry. Big wet tears. She couldn't though. Since she was little...since her step-father had beat her for crying to much. She had lost her stuffed teddy at the park, his name was Teddy. She never did have any imagination or smarts. When she lost Teddy...he was her only friend, and well, she cried. She was only four years old. It was such a sad, sad thing. Not only did he refuse to take her back to the park to find Teddy...he hit her when she cried about it. He hit her again and again and again. The only thing she could feel afterwards, was a sting from where the tears had fallen on her pale cheeks.

She hadn't cried since that day. Teachers, adults, all of them had wondered why such a young child wouldn't cry. Even when her mom died, the doctors wondered how a six year old could stand stock still, and not shed a single tear as she was informed her mother had gone to a better place, away from the earth. They wondered, but they weren't exactly suprised. They had seen this kind of thing. The junkies kids, obviously beaten,numb as ever

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she looked down at Buffy. Her green eyes were closed, but Faith knew that sleep wasn't behind them. She was just pretending. Though she wished things could have been different... different in that, they weren't always avoidingeachothers eyes...why was that?

**Such a pretty girl, happy in an ugly place. Watching all the pretty people doing lots of ugly things.**

Faith didn't like eye contact because she knew that people could see inside her. Why was that? Why was sheso...obvious?

She wasn't. She didn't know it, but she was enigmatic to almost everybody. Just Buffy....only she could see what lay just under the surface. Only Buffy's eyes hadthat ability.

The blanket rose and fell slightly with Buffy's breathing. It was such an amazing sensation. Just being with her...just loving her. Everything she did was so monumental for Faith. Something as simple as breathing. The soft gusts of air making light sounds in the dark of the room. Faith smiled silently,invisibly.

**I think it's getting better for the two of us, yes I think it's getting better almost everyday. I could give a damn what those people say.**

Nothing really mattered anyways. Sure there would be vampires and demons, witches, werewolfs...none of that mattered as long as she had Buffy. As long as her precious jewel was with her until the end, that was all that had any importance. Buffy vilified her. Inevery way.

That was when she heard a noise. Jumping out of the bed she strode to the window purposefully, and ripped open the venitian blinds with a little to much vigor. She heard a muffled giggle from Buffy. Every single thing was a reminder of their differences. She couldn't even work the blinds from Buffy's world.

The shorter slayer remained in the bed. Apparently not concerned about whatever the noise was. Faith knew better. She knew that even suburbia wasn't safe. There was another thing. Buffy was smart, sure she could get high marks and so on...but she wasn't wise to certian things. She didn't just know. It wasn't a survival instinct built into her. She didn't have to train her ear so that when her step father came in drunk, she could run out before it was to late. She didn't know what every single noise meant.

Innocence. Buffy had it, and Faith would give her life to preserve it. From the window, she could see them coming. The white men in the black suits. The watchers. It was time. They had outlived their purpose as slayers, and the end was upon them. Buffy was going to stay innocent. She wasn't going to die in the unwinnable fight against some secret society.

Faith turned around and walked to Buffy. She hoped the sadness in her eyes was gone.

**All I want to do is lose myself in your room, all you want is just a slowfuck in the afternoon."

She leaned into her lover and kissed her gently. Passion lingering between them as sparks were set off and she felt her body being engulfed in the invisable flames of love. She pulled away and lay back on thebed. For the first time in her life, she prayed. It wasn't like she had thought it would be, it wasn't for herself. It was for Buffy. She prayed with all her might that it would be painless and merciful. That she wouldn't even know what hit her.

**I still see those scary guys when I am all alone at night, I kiss the ring you gave me and swing with allmy might**

Buffy was asleep. Good. It would be alot easier thisway.

Faith got up from the bed and walked to the door.

What seemed like an army of them walked up the stairs and approached the room. The ones in the front carried bags...bags that looked like the kind the doctors had in all those weird old war movies. The sounds coming from the bags gave away their contents. Metal objects. This wasn't going to be easy at all.

She shut the door as tightly and as quietly as shecould. Moving to the desk in Buffy's room, Faith went inside and pulled out an old box. Her only possesion. The only thing she owned, the thing she had always owned. She pulled it out of the box. Silver metal glinting in the slivers of moonlight coming through the bentblinds.

**I think it's getting better for the two of us, I think its getting easier for you and me to agree that the white men in the black suits, they are diminishing. Yes I think they are diminishing, yes I think that they diminish you and they diminish me, I think that they are diminishing, you know sometimes Ihear those people say...**

The door opened slowly, surrialy. In they came. Not caring that she was standing there, not noticing. What were they doing? Quickly, like they had years of experience, they set up a table. On it they lay all the metal things she had hear making noise. They were scarier than even she had thought.

WHY? Why did it have to be this way? They had fought for the good of the world, of humankind! Why did they want to take it all away in such a horrible mannernow?!!It wasn't fair. Life's not fair Faith. She could still hear him saying it as he hit her, as he used her. She was so little...so young. It was sowrong.

**I refuse to be afraid of almost anyone, afraid of all the things they do or the words they say.**

Gritting her teeth, she watched as they picked up the sleeping Buffy and lay her on the table. She wasn't going to take this. No way she was going to let themdo this to her Buffy.

Stepping out of the shadows she advanced on them.

**Let's live the way we want to live and hope they go away**

The only sound that could be heard was the safety clicking off, and then the bang. The shot echoed throughout the walls of the room, throughout the city, throughout the world. Faith was sure that whoever she had been praying to had heard it as well.

**I really hope they go away, I really hope they find a nice place, I hope they find it somewhere, I hopethey go away**

Then they came. At first she didn't know what it was, or understand it. The tears. It had been so long since she had cried, she barely knew what it was.

Her Buffy was gone forever now, and it hadn't hurt her.

Faith felt the pain though. The pain that could never go away. Maybe there would be something better outthere.

She felt the stunned men move on to her, and put her where Buffy had once lay. There was nobody left for her now. Had there ever really been anybody? Yes. Yes there had. Buffy had been there for her. She lovedher.

Calmness overtook her and she knew, that in the end, she was going to a better place. A better place, andBuffy would be waiting.

**I can still hear all those people say...**