ic inbox.

[bronze]

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BUFFY SUMMERS
@BUFFY — if the apocalypse comes, beep me!

TEXT

CALL

VIDEO

CODE BY

✟ AU INBOX.

Comments

@faith

[stake]

we can cover both angles between the two of us
you going after him or your old man?

[bronze]

( not even a question of faith's help, which honestly — buffy is a little surprised to find, she already expected. )

him
i have these restraints that i think will work for angelus. i mean. we could just kill him, but what is that going to do, really?

( we could just kill him. but — would you really, buffy? because it was so simple the first time. )

[stake]

[ In the urgency of the situation, Faith doesn't have time to question why Buffy is keeping super restraints, but she definitely takes note. ]

we could always go back to basics
babysit his grave and make sure he doesn't make it out

— hours later.

[bronze]

( afterwards, buffy snags up her phone almost mechanically, turning off the feed with shaking fingers, ending the whole business. she wants to go see giles. of course she does. but she's — half a person right now, sopping wet and bloody, alone, staring in the blank, dark nothing of spike's crypt.

felt like the place to go, or at least it was the place her feet took her. no one will bother her here. she sends a message. )

angel's dead.
giles and amy ok?

[stake]

yeah
giles is in the clinic, should make a full recovery
amy was fine with first aid

[ Three dots indicate she has something else to say. The message takes a moment to come, with Faith briefly distracted by the dried blood on her jeans. ]

he got someone else
his name was cassian

[bronze]

koby told me

( she'll figure out what to do about that tomorrow. or never. a little bit of a wait. then, )

thanks, faith. you did good.

[stake]

[ Wherever she is, Buffy can't hear her, so Faith is free to laugh — if you can call it that. The sound she makes is bitter, humorless. ]

i said i'd help him

[bronze]

i know. i just appreciate it. thanks.

[stake]

is this how you felt when he killed that teacher?

nah
sorry
it's not the same
she didn't get to come back

[bronze]

( a small wait. her hand's so bloody, the phone keeps slipping out of her grip. )

yeah. guilty.
knowing if i was better, i could've saved someone.
knowing i failed.

[stake]

yeah
exactly

[ What else is there to say? ]

how are you?
i mean physically

[bronze]

hurt my hand. a little roughed up. nothing too bad.
i don't know why i'm not healing.

[stake]

can't help that you haven't slept

[ An educated guess. Neither has Faith. ]

[bronze]

ha. that's probably true.

( except buffy never really sleeps, not since grave dirt. )

can you ( do you want to she types first, before rewriting it. ) come over?

[stake]

[ Faith's response isn't immediate. She has to reread the message a few times first, make sure it actually came from Buffy. ]

be right there
your room?

[bronze]

no i'm in the crypt

( she does want to qualify it with it's not what you think, except what else could it possibly be? it is what you think. i am here for all the reasons you'd expect me to be here. sitting on the floor, hand bandaged by stephen's doctorly assessment, lighting a cigarette like a candle and letting it turn to ash in her fingers. like angel did, after she staked him. it doesn't feel good to be anywhere else, and she doesn't want to be above ground. a crypt is just a fancy word for a grave, and that's all buffy is yearning for, lately — reunion to the last place she felt whole. )