Oh man!  He totally stole the slayer power!

Now Faith is really going to have to step it up, but is she ready?

Your writing is impeccable as always, thank you for sharing. :)

Author's Response:

He really did! He's a total fiend.

 

Certainly Faith is gonna have to do something right? But will the Scoobies even let her when they don't trust her!

 

Thank you so much for the continued support and interest. More coming soon. :D

Yay! I am so excited to see a new chapter of this fic, and a great one too! Also super glad to see our girls making some progress maybe? (Hand holding!) Hopefully things continue to go well for them as I am not sure they could withstand any more misunderstandings or perceived betrayals. 

Author's Response:

Hi there and thanks for the praise. Buffy and Faith are amking inroads but recent events have (gasp) put things in danger!

 

Less hand-holding and a bit more punching in the next few chapters is what I'm saying (and maybe some kissing!). :)

i am definitely hoping for an update. this is such a great story

Author's Response:

Behold! An update.

 

And thanks for the praise. :)

Yay, more chapters!

 

Good to see things unfolding.

 

I look forward to finding out about MArley and the Djinn :)

Author's Response:

Ha, thanks man.

 

Morley's schaemes will be ever unfolding. Someone has to bop her on the nose and we have two candidates.

 

Appreciae the feedback. :)

I was so glad to see this updated, you have no idea. Damn those vamps for interrupting Faith when she was grilling Buffy about something I want to hear the answer to. It was probably too soon to be pushing that but I still kinda wanted to see what would happen.

Poor Faith. She's hanging in there though. I think they both need a vacation. The domestic scene and the burning Waffles was a nice little touch. Moments like that really enhance a story :)

As for Willow... I dunno, I can sort of see where she's coming from. Still the part where the spell was possibly lethal is totally going over the line. She really couldn't find a spell that was non-lethal? Aren't there sleep spells or paralysis spells out there? I'd really hope Tara would talk some sense into her. All that might be a moot point however now that Willow is going to loose the bloodstone... presumably.

Really enjoyed it. Look forward to the next update :)

Author's Response:

There will be more Buffy/Faith talks and chats but communication has never been their strong suit so we might have to wait for real progress and revelations.

 

*sigh* I really have put Faith through the wringer right? Well, what can I say, I'm a sadist (reformed) and sometimes can't help myself. All I will say is that Buffy and Faith will get closer (and some closure ha).

 

The Willow thing will be resolved soon, with some stern talking and then some wacky team-up hi-jinks. All will soon be revealed.

 

Next update will be very soon. It's been a tough year (+ more)

 

Thanks for the feedback, always appreciate your thoughts. :)

Ah an update at last! XD I hope Buffy really lays into Willow once she discovers what she planned and makes her regret ever having the thought of such an un-scoobie plan.

Side note, I liked the little reference to sanctuary, with the remote being the substitute for a microwave lol

Author's Response:

Haha! Thank you.

 

Buffy and Willow will have a couple of strong disagreements soon enough, starting this coming chapter. Hopefully Willow should see the error of her ways and be redeemed.

 

Hee, thank you. I'm a big fan of Sanctuary and these next chapters try and do the Angel/Faith talks justice, just with added Buffy (and less Angel obvs).

 

Thanks for the feedback, always welcome. :)

The heart wants what the heart wants, quit trying to fool yourself Buffster.

Author's Response:

Yeah, Buffy is all confused and abstinant because of her previous experiences with Angel. That big jerk. :)

 

In all seriousness she is conflicted, we all know she's going to pick Faith eventually but there's always part of Buffy that likes the normal...Riley is VERY normal.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. :)

Oh man,  that was hot! I can't wait to see how Buffy will help her. Always thought it shouldve been Buffy instead of Angel in the show... The romantic in me i guess.  :) happy holidays! 

Author's Response:

Why thank you.

And although I did like how Angel managed to reach Faith, I wish Buffy could've taken her lead from him and gone on to forgive Faith sooner...or at all actually, since she hasn't really in the comics.

Belated Happy holidays! :)

New stuff! Woot!

I love the Buffy/Faith dynamic in the latest chapter. That was spot-on, and played extremely well into your plot. I was actually hoping you'd consider that Faith was self-destuctive.

I share others' concern for Willow's actions somewhat. I'm quite guilty of writing Willow as darker than canon, so I can't throw stones. On the same token, canon is particularly rife with plot holes in S3/S4. I could list them all, but that's probably just beating a dead horse that someone else killed a long time ago. Willow being instantly judgmental of Faith is one of those moments of 'plot convenience' where she, Giles and Buffy go completely out of character for the sake of pursuing the (suddenly expanded) 'rogue slayer' storyline, because of Faith's popularity. Especially Giles.

That said, I am *so tired* of Willow being Faith's antagonist in nearly every single story I read. In S2, Xander was the manipulative one that tried to get Angelus killed permanently. I was massively disappointed that he didn't try to get Faith arrested in S3, and even more so in S4. Of all the Scoobies, he had the biggest grudge (pre-body swap).

Sorry. My disrespect for canon is leaking out.

I am thrilled with the updates, and wholeheartedly look forward to more.

~OW

Author's Response:

Thanks for the enthusiastic response!

Faith wanting Buffy to end things- I always thought that Faith was MORE self-destructive when it came to her and Buffy's relationship so it completely made sense to me that she's act this way.

Hell, that's what half of S3 is about. Faith can't take not being Buffy so she goes off the deep end. Okay theres all that death, jealousy and unrequited love, but after Finch's death its mostly self-hate on Faith's part.

Willow always seemed wierdly OOC around Faith. She likes her just fine, follows Buffy's lead in ignoring her, and then is the FIRST one to turn on her. I think even before Faith tried to straggle Xander she was nursing some serious grudge/jealousy.

Is it weird that I ship Faith/Willow so hard post S7?:D

Willow/Kennedy can suck it but Willow/Faith totally works in my eyes- but only after Willow has returned from the dark side. So I guess I'm of the opinion that theres SOME attraction there on Willow's part (What is Kennedy but just a weak shadow of Faith with most of the good parts removed?) but theres also a lot of denial there.

Faith and Willow's relationship (It's going to be a bit more complex that antagonism) will be something running through this and further stories.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Yay another chapter!!. Faith really seems to love bottling things up eh?

What is interesting about Faith is that no matter how much she hates herself and wants to die, she cannot commit the act herself, too much survival instinct maybe, what is funnier is that she wants die for what she has done and to prevent anymore badness but getting someone to kill her i.e Buffy, Angel is pretty much like corrupting them.

 

What you explained about Willow in the review comments to me and the other more recent reviewer who also noted Willow's behavior, is indeed partially true (though I doubt she would use the death spell, even if she could undo it, its like shooting someone to kill but slow enough so that they can be saved, its still bad and an act too immoral for Willow to do, not that either spell would ever be needed now with faith accepting her actions) but....what you got to remember is that unlike Xander (going by the Angelus analogy here) who was motivated by petty jealousy, Willow remains moral no matter how much she hates someone as far as I recall, it literally took magic addiction to actually degrade her morality (mind raping Tara) and even darker magic to be corrupted to the point of her being capable of killing someone.

Her morality is such that she rightfully called out Buffy for what she planned to do to Anya (when she was vengeance demon again, which she didn't like anymore and she wasn't evil or planning to wipe out earth unlike dark willow) which is another reason I am not fussed on season 7, Buffy's morality went out of the window when it suited her.

But you are right in many aspects, willow can be insanely petty, two faced, judgemental, can be controlling and her hatred for Faith was uncalled for, willow was indeed jealous too but only for the friendship thing, not romantically like Xander which is why he is more aggressive and don't forget, Angelus/angel is not human, so Xander was more comfortably in wanting him dead.

I trust that you got something planned with Willow and I can't wait to see what it is XD.

Oh and excellent chapter, good to see Faith calling Buffy out on her actions and I am curious to see what Rayne has planned. He was an awesome character, really sad about Robin Sachs :(

kudos.

 

Author's Response:

Thanks for the enthusiasm. And yeah, Faith is all about putting on a front while all those true raw emotions bubbles away underneath. It's a character flaw she still seems to have in the comics by the looks of things...

And yes...Faith is going to feel some badness for trying to get Buffy to do the evil deed- perhaps deep down she thought that Buffy would want to do it. Guess she was wrong on that score- and thats just one more thing for her to feel guilty about. :(

 

About Willow and morality- I agree with you mostly. Would Willow actually kill another human being? Not really, but I believe that with Faith she would at least consider it and plan for than eventuality, even if- as you say- she found that in the end she couldn't go through with it.

Still, Buffy doesn't know that, so she might be a little shocked if she ever finds out...

Faith did some venting and now, hopefully with Buffy's help, she can start to get better. Although I don't see her relationship with Willow or Xander improving any time soon!

And I'm glad you like Ethan- I love him and thought they could've used more of him on the show- hence his return.

Thank you for your thoughts- very interesting! :)

Love this story even if you are keeping all the Fuffy away from all of us!  Great chapter, I didn't see that coming!

Author's Response:

Thank you very much. There will be Fuffy coming soon. The next chapter will have some definite Fuffy-ness, even if it's just memories.

That will have to tide you over for the next few chapters. ;)

Oooooh!! I really like it. Finally a turn around! 

Author's Response:

Thanks! I'm glad you like this turn of events.

There will be some pain relief up ahead as Buffy and Faith start getting closer. Aw.

Ok I gotta say this, some bit of (hopefully contrstuctive) criticism. Willow got together a spell that will kill Faith? What the hell? That is just... wildly out of character for Willow especially in season 4. I mean yeah she had absolutely zero love for Faith, but going all "final solution to the Faith problem" behind everyone's back? Killing a human being with magic? It just... I dont know it doesnt ring true for me. That isnt who Willow was in season 4 by a long shot. Just had to get that out there. Unless there is something else at play here affecting her mind I just dont buy that little detail.

The fight was cool and well done. It felt very Buffy-ish, what with little details like missing a swing and smashing a pillar instead. Just the kind of thing that happened on the show. Hehe hope they actually got that demon good. They just kinda threw the fire down the hole... they didnt actually visually confirm he totally burned to a crisp. That was mighty sloppy of them.

Well the end there was definatelly cliffy. Hmmm personally I dont think its going to be all that bad even though it did end on a very ominous tone. I dunno we'll see. From a Doylist perspective I'm kind of skeptical that at this point in the story we're going to go two steps back yet again and destroy the very tentative trust between the two of them. Then again I could be wrong, who knows? Glad we'll finally get to see what has been going on in Faith's head though.

I dont think you're getting predictable in your plot. In some ways being "predictable" so to speak is a GOOD thing from time to time. It can mean that your universe/story/characters are so internally consistent that we (the reader) can extrapalate what is likely to happen next to a certain degree. In fact a lot of stories that are very good have a lot of 'predictable' in them just as they have the unexpected twist thrown in there.

BTW I saw your first story on Fanfiction dot net. Very cool. I'd suggest posting this story on there as well even if it is still in progress. As you might imagine you get more reviews if you post your chapters one by one over a period of time like is normal for stories that are in progress. Just a way to maximize reviews, I wouldn't worry too much about chapter length :)

Great Chap. Can't wait till the next one.

Author's Response:

Firstly, thank you very much for your thoughts- always appreciated, especially commentary/critisicm, it gives me pointers about where I might be going wrong and so forth. :)

Let me answer a couple of easy ones- goat-demon is dead. Way dead. Stick a fork in him he's done.

Faith's heel/turn will be dealt with in this very chapter. *gasp*

We will see what's going on n Faith's head...soon I promise. Next chapter. Probably. See, I'm unpredicatable that way. :P

I will be posting this story, in this chapter arraignment, on fanfiction not net early in the new year. But I'm swamped with Christmas chores lately- kinda go my hands fun.

Tis' the season *grumble grumble*

To address your other concern- allow me to explain.

Some people seem to think Willow's behaviour is out of character- which is fair. I tend to think of the Willow/Faith dynamic a little differently than some.

Basically Faith is to Willow like Angelus is to Xander. Willow disliked Faith LONG before all the nastiness of S3. She disliked her as soon as she found out that Faith slept with Xander, called Faith a 'murderer' after she accidentally killed Finch, pretty much called her a crazy psych in Doppelgangerland (before anybody knew Faith was a traitor) and so it goes.

In S4 Willow calls Faith 'a cleavage-y slut-bomb' to Tara's face, and then we have this little line:

'After what she's done to you? I just wish those council guys would give me an hour alone in the room with her… If I was larger and had grenades.'

I mean, this is Willow we're talking about here- the girl who empathises with the guy who cuts up corpes for his zombie brother, who sorta admires Ted for his genius even after its reveiled that he's a psycho, who feels sorry for James the ghost who killed the woman he loved and then killed himself.

Willow feels compassion for the bad guys- just look at her sympathy towards Spike in S4. Spike the vampire who tried to kill/rape/turn her just weeks earlier- she feels sorry for him because he tried to commit suicide.

Willow is compassionate...except with Faith, and Imo opinion it is only partly explained by the fact that Faith hurt Buffy or whatever- her motives will be explored as the story goes forward (although it's not like its a huge thing or anything, just a little character stuff ticking along in the background)

Secondly- Willow and spells. Willow has been happy to use magic for her own wants and needs since early S3. Remember trying to cast that 'de-lusting' spell on an unwitting Xander? kinda risky. Then there's the spell/curse she was going to cast on Oz (who she LOVED btw, so she couldn't do it), and then 'Something Blue' where she tried another 'easy fix' with magic.

So if Willow thinks that Buffy is acting a little out of character (and she does) would she at least consider using a nasty spell (that she knows how to reverse) as a fix to deal with a nasty, evil person like Faith.

 

I think that maybe she would- but we'll have to wait and see if that comes to pass.

Anyway- thanks again for the constructive critisicm, we'll see what's up with Willow later but for now...

enjoy the new chapter. :)