Chapter 2: A Little Smackdown and a Little Venting

Disclaimer: I own nothing but an intense hatred for this episode.

A/N: Thanks to my betas for their help...BkwrmDancer, DawnDreamer, AshDawnSoulmates, and last, but certainly not least, Vicki.

A/N2: I'm re-posting due to changes suggested by a beta. Chapter 2 is now two separate chapters. Hope the changes are worth it.

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After Amanda told the group that the newcomers had left the house to go look for Buffy, Willow wheeled on Giles and demanded, "What do you make of these people?"

Taking off his glass and cleaning them in a habitual fashion, Giles frowned, "Well, I vaguely recall some mention of a trio called the 'Charmed Ones.' It's a different segment of the magic world so we didn't learn that much about them. They are from a long line of witches from the Warren family. We only know about them because there are a couple instances of them showing up in prophecies about Slayers."

Xander, upset that he couldn't get his eye fixed by the angel, snarked, "Are they evil? Maybe they're here to try to lure a Slayer on their side."

Faith rolled her eyes, fed up with the insane rantings of these people. "I'm going to guess since one of them was healing us, they are the good guys. Plus, if they were recruiting for evil they'd probably start with me – ya' know, the one who's been evil?"

"But Buffy is the one who's alone and vulnerable right now. It might not take that much to sway her, especially if she's leaning that way already. The whole Spike thing--" Dawn started, suddenly worried about what their earlier 'intervention' could have caused.

Faith stared at her, flabbergasted at her sheer audacity before she snapped, "Yeah, and whose fault is it that she's alone? God, you people drive me nuts! I forgot how self-righteous and controlling you people are!You kick her out of her own home in the middle of the night during an apocalypse and then have the nerve to pretend to care about her?"

"You have no right to--" Xander stood up angrily, not willing to back down from what he knew was the morally correct point of view.

Faith shook her head; she had really let herself romanticize how perfect B's life was. These people claimed to love her, yet continually treated her like a cross between a tool and a puppy: using her when it served their purpose and hitting her on the nose with a rolled up newspaper when she got out of line.

She walked over and got right in their faces, "You're kidding, right? You people voted me in; that gives me the right." She still saw the defiance in their eyes and could tell that they wouldn't relent. "What? You want to kick me out too? Go ahead! If it weren't for B asking me to stay and protect you sacks of shit, I'd have left with her. I'm a Slayer and my loyalty is to that and to her!"

"But you agreed with us--" Willow backpedaled, trying to point out that Faith had done nothing to stop them earlier.

"Yeah, that she was seriously too tightly wound and needed to loosen up before she snapped for good. And that she definitely needed to let the wannabes cut loose after last night before they became more of a liability. I never thought you'd be stupid enough to stage a mutiny."

Glaring at the Scoobies with visible contempt, she spat out, "I should've known better. As long as she's being your little lapdog and following your commands obediently, she may get a pat on the head and a 'good girl!' from you…if she's lucky. But let her try to step away from you for even one second, and you tear her apart; even for things that are beyond her control."

Now in full rant mode and not caring one bit that the Potentials were hearing all of this, she went on, "You continually throw it in her face when things go to hell, even when it's your fault it happens. And don't get me started on the way you keep telling her about how she'd be dead without you! If you'd care to look at the tally sheet, you'd see she outnumbers you in saves 10 to 1."

The Scoobies looked decidedly uncomfortable about the airing of their dirty laundry, especially in front of the Potentials. Willow tried to interrupt, but Faith cut her off sharply, "Then there's the brilliant plan of tearing her away from her rest! Yeah, I heard about that from the Fang Gang. You decide that you can't do without her and so you rip her out of heaven to force her back into the never-ending cycle of fighting and death. I especially loved that you left her to claw her way out of her grave! Gee, I don't understand why she didn't just shower you with thanks and hugs!" she finished derisively.

Seeing that they were going to defend their actions, she brutally steamed ahead, "Before you try that 'We were afraid she was suffering' crap, let me remind you that you never even bothered to check first!" Her eyes narrowed at Willow. "At least you better not have; if I found out that you knew she was in heaven and still yanked her out, I'll have a serious setback in my plan for redemption."

Everyone looked horrified and half the Potentials looked physically ill at what Faith just implied. Willow quickly denied, "Of course we didn't know she was in heaven!"

Faith went on like Willow hadn't even spoken, though visibly calmer and even a bit sad, "You know, even though I was jealous of her because of her 'perfect' life and everything she had that I didn't, your treatment of her was the part of her life I actually pitied her for. But I figured that since the rest of her life was so perfect, maybe she sort of deserved it."

"Now I finally understand that it's your fault that she can't unwind. I bet if she tried, you'd all be there droning on about sacred duty and demanding that she follow your requirements. You guys are no better than the Council that you pretend to despise. No…actually, you're worse. At least they were upfront about their opinions of the Slayer."

Finally fed up with the whole situation, she stormed out the front door for a smoke and some peace and quiet. The Scoobies sat there in dazed silence and the some of the Potentials began to wonder if maybe they had condemned themselves by siding with the wrong people.

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Meanwhile, Buffy was thinking out loud as she wandered the abnormally empty streets of Sunnydale, searching for a new place to stay. In her heart though, she knew where she would bunker down. She just needed to burn off her hurt and shame before settling in.

"Am I really that bad? Did I deserve to get kicked out? Okay, maybe I'm not the best den-mother, but this is a war and I'm the General. The Scoobies were supposed to be my Lieutenants – serve as go-betweens for the Potentials and me."

All of a sudden, she side-kicked a mailbox halfway down the street as her emotions shifted into rage. "How can I concentrate on the big picture if I have to fuss over the wannabes? Seriously, why should I have to? They want to fight with me, then they have to pull their own weight too. My god, it's not enough that they tear me out heaven and forget to even dig me up first? Now I have to do everything for them?" she screamed into the dark night.

Her eyes teared up as her thoughts turned to her Watcher. "And that whole thing with Giles? I get that I went overboard with what I said to him but he completely undermined me and my leadership by conspiring with Wood to kill Spike. What was the whole point of his leaving to let me grow up if all he was going to do when he came back was treat me like a child again?"

She sat down against a tree to think for a second. "Okay, so I don't think he would have been able to change my opinion about Spike and maybe I didn't do a good job of explaining it. But the Slayer in me says Spike's important somehow. Otherwise the First wouldn't have worked so hard to control him. Hell, if it were up to me personally, I think he'd look good in an ashtray for what he tried last year."

Running her hands through her hair in frustration, she fumed, "But nooo, because I hesitated with Angelus five years ago, it's automatically assumed that I'm in love with the evil vampire and can't think straight. 'Cause, you know, I couldn't possibly have learned from my mistakes," she finished sardonically.

Thinking things out loud helped her to calm down and put things into perspective again. Now that her mind was clear again, she started to consider her options.

"All right, so here's the recap: I think there's something at the vineyard that's important for our side to get. And they think I'm nuts. Since I can't get them to follow me, I guess I'll have to check it out by myself. Actually, that should make things easier; I won't have to worry about anyone else getting in my way."

With that, she ran to the mansion to retrieve the right weapons for her new assault on the vineyard.

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A/N1: Okay, first, I'm sorry that she didn't meet the Charmed Ones. After looking over what one of my betas said, I added a lot to this chapter and decided that this was a good place to stop. I absolutely promise that the next chapter will have them meeting, it's kind of unavoidable. But hopefully you'll enjoy the little surprise I have for you there.

A/N2: Next…Meeting the Charmed Ones.