Disclaimer: I own nothing Buffy.
Warnings: Giles/Faith implications in this chapter and out and out next chapter. This chapter rated K, next M
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Rupert Giles avoided going to Cleveland for many reasons. At least that's what he told himself. There was really only one reason, however, despite his carefully designed list of many excuses. His favourite, and the most laughable, was that he couldn't get the time away from his job overseeing The Protection Alliance of Watchers and Slayers. PAWS: Dawn's contribution. Giles referred to it as 'The Alliance' and he could leave whenever he chose. PAWS ran extremely smoothly now, designed specifically to be self-sustaining; no one person with exclusive control. Giles oversaw that things worked the way they were supposed to but he had no more power than anyone else in The Alliance. Giles had been the one to see that this was so – that PAWS was self-sufficient.
Cleveland – or the one person Cleveland represented in Giles' mind – saw the excuse of not being able to get away from work as a slap to the face.
There were times however when Giles reached the end of his list of excuses and went to Cleveland, arriving at The Institute for Troubled Slayers unannounced. A place whose name was more trouble than it was worth. Buffy had been concerned about copyright infringement, sure there was some school with called ITS. Dawn had reassured Buffy by saying it was TIFTS. Then Fa… Cleveland had laughed and said it was TITS, making several people laugh with her and several more blush. Giles referred to it as 'The Institute'.
There were other reasons to go to Cleveland, despite the list of excuses not to. Sometimes there was no one else capable of dealing with the sort of problems The Institute faced. Sometimes he just needed to see the one person he spent the rest of his time avoiding.
Faith ran The Institute for Troubled Slayers and though she claimed it was just on paper, she could never leave for more than a day or two at the most without major preparations. She organized the staff, worked one on one with every one of the thirteen permanent residents and every temporary resident as well. She alone would face the girls in the depths of their darkest terrors. She would handle nightmares and tantrums. As well, she handled staff concerns and disputes.
Faithwas The Institute.
On top of the work she did there, she patrolled nightly, keeping the Cleveland Hellmouth in check with little support.
Faith was Cleveland.
With all Potential Slayers called, and many of them active in The Alliance, the demon population around the world was suffering.
And thriving.
The strong, the powerful and the smart had gone underground to regroup and contemplate the uprising of The Chosen. They watched and learned and made plans to bring the Slayers crashing down.
There were some in the demon world who had felt it was pointless to bring down a single Slayer. Another would be called immediately it would begin again. Now, however, all the Potentials were Slayers. To wipe them out would be to exterminate the Slayer line entirely. In the mean time, to bring down their foolish Alliance would shatter their confidence and initiate fear and discord among them.
The first targets had been decided. There would be vital strikes around the world in a single night. Then the true target would make himself available.
-----v-----
Buffy slammed the phone down in frustration. Tessa McFay, a young woman rather like a secretary at The Alliance, had just called informing her that Tokyo had just reported the loss of Minako. This was the fifth such call tonight. Skye in Sydney, Richard in Montreal, Padma in New Delhi, Anastasia in Moscow and now Minako in Tokyo – all dead in a single day. They had all been people of influence in their cities. This was no coincidence, no accident. This was a well-planned strike.
The phone rang again and Buffy cringed, terrified someone else was dead. It was Tessa again and her words made Buffy's heart drop. "Giles went out."
Buffy knew this was bad but it was worse than she thought if Giles had taken off to attempt to get a handle on it. "Where?" Buffy demanded.
"I don't know, Buffy. All five cities are in a panic. It could be one of them or perhaps somewhere he suspects is the next target."
"Here." Buffy closed her eyes. "They aren't hitting that big yet…"
Tessa sighed softly. In truth, she had meant Cleveland. What with the Hellmouth, a Slayer with a shaky past and a Institution full of rebellious, disturbed super powered girls who were all closer to the dark side than The Alliance was comfortable with. "I'm sure he'll check in with someone soon, Buffy." She reasoned.
"I'll call when he gets here."
-----v-----
Giles never showed up in Rome where Buffy had been so sure he was headed. He never went to Tokyo, Moscow, Sydney, Montreal or New Delhi. He never checked in with Tessa.
He had been headed to Cleveland as Tessa had suspected. He'd had similar thoughts and he had abandoned… Cleveland too many times before. He'd thought about turning back, about going to Rome instead. He'd thought about a lot of things. Before he even got his ticket, everything changed.
He had been prepared for an attack, he always was, but he was alone and the dozen or so vampires quickly overpowered him. The ones who attacked him were nothing compared to the one who watched – the one who was something past 'Master vampire', hands and feet cloven and face permanently distorted in the guise of the demon. It wasn't Kakistos, now long dead. It was something else – something older still and stronger.
Giles woke up with two thoughts on his mind. First – he was hungry. Damn hungry. So hungry he was seeing red. Second – it was time to stop avoiding Cleveland – to stop avoiding Faith. The last time he'd been there, she'd looked at him with something akin to desperation. She was afraid of herself and the power she wielded. She was afraid of the darkness that hovered so close she could feel it. She looked at him silently begging him to save her. She looked at him with hopelessness because he had never responded to her looks before and she didn't expect him to now. It was time for Giles to show Faith just how much she meant to him.
Someone came into the room however. "Wonderful. You're awake." The voice was rich and cool and knowing.
Days past with Giles learning the things a demon with his power needed to know and still, he thought of Cleveland… of Faith.
-----v-----
Faith sat with Ava. The girl was making progress – slowly but steadily. Ava had a rather colorful history – one that reminded Faith of her own. She'd suffered brutal abuse – the kind that drove her mad – and one day she hit back but she was stronger than she knew and his neck snapped with the force of her strike and she screamed because much as she'd fantasized about him being dead, she'd never thought she could… She'd slipped then, not able to tolerate any offense and striking the offenders dead quickly.
Faith thought Ava was saner than she was. She had tortured, killed for pleasure, begged for pain like a drug. She felt her stomach turning. She should have been used to these talks, these 'sessions', but it still made her hurt. Each one reminded her she was here because she had seen the darkness, dove in with glee and managed to get back out. She would never be one of them… never be the golden perfection that was Buffy Summers. She knew now that no one else saw Buffy as perfect… but Faith still did. Buffy was everything that Faith would never be. When there was a knock at the door, she was startled from her exchange with Ava that had continued despite the familiar thoughts in her head. Ava jumped up into a tense fighting position. Faith rose and put her hand on Ava's shoulder. "It's okay. No one can hurt you here, Ava. It's someone looking for me. You know a lot of people need my attention." She crooned.
Ava relaxed and nodded. "I'm sorry."
Faith stroked the girl's strawberry-blond hair. "Five by five." She grinned. "Why don't you go get ready for bed? We can talk tomorrow."
They left the room together. An older woman named Mariko told Faith that Mr. Giles had dropped by and was waiting in the foyer. Faith nodded and bowed politely before walking Ava to her room and heading to the foyer to meet the one man she expected the most and the least from. The one man she believed could make her world make sense. The one man she believed never would.