Buffy
concentrated on the target hanging on the wall of the training
room.
Giles had insisted waking Buffy up at the crack of dawn.
Fingering
the knife in her hand, she finally released it. It landed
a little
to the right of the bulls-eye.
"Very nice Buffy,"
Giles said as he inspected the location of the
weapon, "but
it could be better."
"Story of my life," Buffy
mumbled as she walked over to sit on the
bench.
"I'm sorry Buffy what was that?"
"Um, nothing Giles. I…just…sneezed, yeah, it was really weird"
The
Englishman took off his glasses and began to clean them on his
shirt,
an obvious sign of annoyance.
"Look Buffy, I know things
have been hard for you lately, with…um…
your mother…but you
can't slack off on your training. I don't have
to remind
you…"
"Yeah, yeah I know. One girl in every
generation, whose life is
completely forfeited without her even
getting a say in it. I've
heard. I know it. I get it."
"You know Buffy, I don't think you do."
Buffy stood up from
the bench, clearly frustrated. "I don't want to
have this
talk right now Giles."
Just then the bell rang out in the Magic Box.
"Buffy wait, just let me help this customer. I
want to continue
this conversation."
"Can we postpone til tonight?"
"I'm sorry we can't Buffy,
I'm going up to LA for the Magik
Convention."
"Fine,"
Buffy said, defeated. She gathered up her stuff to make a
quiet
exit. She didn't feel like talking to anyone, let alone
Giles. He
couldn't possibly understand. No one could.
"Can
I help you?" Giles said to the brunette who was checking out
the
books. He almost had a heart attack when she turned around.
"Yeah,
I'm looking for a Rupert Giles. My name's Tru Davies and I
really
need to talk to him."
"Um well, yes, that's me. But perhaps we could go somewhere else…"
He was interrupted by Buffy coming out of the training room.
"Giles, it's the weirdest thing. I thought I heard you talking to…"
Buffy
stopped in her tracks when she saw the brunette standing in
front
of her.
"…Faith," she said with more shock than anger.
"No Buffy, please wait, let me explain…"
Giles pleaded, trying to
stop a confrontation before it
started.
Buffy stared at the dark-haired girl as she walked
towards her. "I
knew you'd come back one of these days."
Tru looked behind her. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
Buffy
laughed. "Nice Faith, very nice. Playing the innocent girl,
I
like that one."
"Look there must be some mistake. My name's Tru, not Faith."
"The hell it
is," Buffy said as she moved towards the dark
haired
girl.
"Buffy wait," Giles said as he stepped in front of her.
"Don't you even try to stop me."
"It's not Faith?"
"What?" Buffy asked, shocked.
"She isn't Faith."