Author's Notes: I know there isn't really a lot of interest in this story, but I promise you guys that it will be worth it once Buffy shows up. It's a slow-paced story and the Fuffy isn't gonna just magically happen (but it will, this is me we're talking about here lol) So I'm hoping you guys stick with me on this one and don't be afraid to let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is good too :)
Chapter Four
Faith paced the living room floor, watching as Willow went through the book she'd taken from Kraal. Willow was having some difficulty translating the language it was written in, five to be exact, and three of them all demon languages that she barely had the materials and knowledge to properly transcribe it.
The last stop of the night was to the corner store. Faith grabbed a couple six packs of beer while Angel headed to the butcher shop that was conveniently still open so late at night. They met on the street, both with their drinks of choice and headed back to the apartment. And as soon as she put her beer in the fridge and cleared out a shelf just for Angel to store his pigs blood, she started pacing around the living room floor and she hadn't stopped for over an hour.
Angel had taken the chair in the corner and had dozed off as soon as he had sat down. Soft snores filled the room, but the sound of Faith's feet pacing along the hardwood floor sounded much louder than it really was. Willow sighed and it made Faith stop and look over at her.
"What's up, Wil?"
"I'm just tired. All the words, the letters, the little squiggly lines and pictures are all blurring into one."
"Go get some sleep."
"What about you, Faith?"
"Right behind you," she replied with a smile that was forced.
Willow didn't say anything, not like she normally would. She closed her books and headed for her room, saying goodnight to Angel that didn't even make him budge out of his dead sleep. Faith grabbed Willow's laptop off the couch and put it down on the desk once she'd cleared away a few piles of books. She plugged it in and started straightening the place up, which was hard to do with hundreds of books taking up every table surface they had and parts of the floor.
Faith picked up the notepad that Willow was using to translate the book they'd gotten from Kraal. There were only a few lines and none of what she wrote made any sense. Faith tossed the notepad back down on the couch and rubbed her throbbing temples. They needed help if they wanted to have any luck finding out what this book said. They needed it translated and fast, because if it turned out to be a fluke-no, she didn't want to think about the worst, but she really couldn't help it after everything that had happened over the last couple of days.
That feeling deep in her gut was nagging at her and she began pacing the floor again. They did need help translating and the only one qualified for that job was Andrew. But Andrew was busy in San Francisco being Buffy's loyal little lap-dog. Faith doubted that he'd come running to help them, even if his precious Buffy could be the next one to lose her slayer essence. Andrew was truly loyal to Buffy, she knew that much from what Willow had told her before in their brief and fleeting conversations of Buffy and company in San Francisco.
Faith looked down at the old book and picked it up. She tried to read and make sense of what was written on the first page, but it was all just gibberish to her, much like it was to Willow, even with her translator books and computer at hand. Shaking her head, she tossed the book back down and headed for the fridge to grab herself a cold beer.
She felt like she'd been lied to, just thinking about what Kraal had said about the vampires and demons that were working for Azri'el, attacking only under his orders. She had thought they were finally winning the good fight a few days ago.
How had she shaken off that anger, that frustration and came up with a plan that got them what, a tiny step closer to more answers? It was instinct, she realized and she laughed to herself for not picking up on that earlier. As a slayer, certain instincts came natural to her, good and bad, and she had never thought twice about most of them, certainly never questioned it like she was doing now. Where had it come from? What pushed her all of a sudden to slip back into her previous role as the one in charge, coming up with a plan that could've gotten her killed if she didn't have Angel watching her back.
The wheels in her head were spinning fast now, one thought blurring into another, one theory becoming something else, and so on. They kind of knew Azri'el's end game; wipe out all the slayers and pave the way for the First to return to a world that could feed all those that fed off of evil and darkness. It made Faith wonder why she wasn't the last, she carried the slayer line-the true slayer line-after all. Or had that all changed back in Sunnydale when Willow used the power of the scythe to activate slayers all over the world in an instant?
Groaning in frustration, she chugged almost half her beer back and stormed to Willow's bedroom door. She walked in without knocking and kicked the edge of the mattress, jolting Willow awake.
"Huh? What? Is there a fire?"
"Wil, get up."
"You-you told me to go to bed, get some sleep," Willow replied sleepily. She turned on the lamp beside her bed and rubbed her eyes. "Lucky for you I wasn't exactly off in dream land just yet. If I was, you'd be in big trouble."
Faith sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed heavily. "Why wasn't I the last one?"
"The last one what?"
"The last slayer to be stripped of my, you know, essence?"
"I-"
"I carried the line, didn't I? I was the last slayer called. I never died to the best of my knowledge, unless when Buffy stuck that knife into my gut and I went into a coma I flatlined for a minute or two-"
"You do carry the line," Willow interrupted, her voice quiet. "Or you did. But, something happened when I cast that spell on the scythe. And then in Scotland, when the younger slayers were being killed, Buffy received that extra doze of super slayer strength and everything."
"So I don't carry the line?"
"Faith," Willow sighed and she kicked off her covers and moved to sit beside her. "There was a reason for what happened to Buffy in Scotland with the sudden major case of the slayer strength. There was magic behind that and after the Seed was destroyed, that was gone."
"Doesn't make any sense."
"What doesn't make any sense?"
"I've been thinking about Azri'el and this plan of his. If he's going after all the slayers, wouldn't he have gotten to Buffy before me? I should've been the last one, right?"
"I don't know. Maybe. You know as well as I do that we have never fully understood what the scythe really did that day we activated all the potential slayers. Maybe the line was eradicated? Maybe it doesn't end with you. Maybe it doesn't end with anyone anymore? There's no way we'll ever know, Faith."
Maybe. There were too many maybe's for Faith and she could feel her anger starting to bubble up inside. She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes as she tried to remain calm. Willow reached out for her and instead of moving away, Faith let her wrap her arms tightly around her. She let Willow hold her instead of pushing her away for a few minutes and it was Willow who let go first, a shaky smile curling over her lips as she brushed a few strands of hair away from Faith's face.
"I promise you, we'll figure this all out, okay?" Willow said softly, her words sincere and clutching to Faith's hope like a moth to a flame. "I know it's hard, but try not to think too much about why, or how right now. I know you well enough to know that when you let your thoughts consume you like this, it's never good for you or anyone else within striking distance."
"Never had a friend quite like you, Wil."
"Ditto," Willow replied and they both laughed.
"I was stupid, you know that?"
"Why?"
"Didn't realize that we got more in common than what meets the eye," Faith replied. "I mean, when you lost your ability to do magic, the power that flowed inside of you, it didn't physically hurt, but in a way it's exactly what I've gone through and here I am being a total asshole about it and you? You handled it a helluva lot better than me."
"I didn't handle it that great," Willow replied under her breath, sadness filling her eyes. "I went off in a rage on Kennedy one night. I don't know where it came from or why, but I was so angry that she still had power running through her and there I was, just another normal human being, pathetically clinging on to hope that maybe I would get it all back one day. I pushed her out of my life like she meant nothing to me."
"Don't believe that."
"What part?"
"The going off in a rage," Faith replied with a smirk. "You're Willow. The angriest I've ever seen you is nothing compared to me." Willow frowned and Faith stood up from the bed. "And I don't believe you when you said that Kennedy meant nothing to you."
"I loved her, but I was never in love with her."
"There's a difference?"
"Big difference."
"Wouldn't know."
"You know what love feels like," Willow said and Faith shrugged a little. "I love you, Angel loves you, Giles, he loved you too. But being in love with someone, there are no words that can ever really explain how it feels, how it makes your heart and soul feel when you're with the one that you're so hopelessly, madly in love with."
"How'd we get here, Wil?" Faith asked, laughing weakly as she sat back down beside her on the bed.
"You mean to the topic of love? No clue."
"I ever tell you how happy I am that you're here?"
"Not once, but a few dozen times at least," Willow replied, laughing as she stuck her tongue out at her. "You feel any better now, Faith?"
"Little bit," she shrugged. "Kinda wigged about this whole situation and not knowing nearly enough. I'm scared, Wil. I'm scared that Azri'el will come to me and kill me. That is his end game, isn't it?"
"That won't happen," Willow said, her voice full of confidence. "If he wanted you dead, you'd be dead. I promised you we'll figure this out, didn't I? We just need some time to find the answers that we need to fix this, to put a stop to everything that Azri'el is doing. It won't be easy, we both know that, but we never fail, do we? In the end, we always win, we always come out on top, stronger than ever."
Faith smiled. She knew that Willow was right. They always came out on top in the end no matter what the world, the fates, whatever it was threw their way.
"Have a little faith," Willow said, winking as Faith stood up from the bed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "Get some rest if you can. Tomorrow is another day, a new day and a fresh start. We'll find some answers tomorrow no matter what it takes."
"And if we don't?"
"We'll go from there."
Faith nodded and left Willow's room to let her sleep. She found it kind of funny how the two of them got along now, how no matter what kind of craziness was going through Faith's head, that Willow was always willing to listen to her at all and any hour of the day. She really didn't know what she'd do without her.
Willow had become that one friend she never truly had, the friend who trusted her, who was there for her, who joked around for her and offered a shoulder to cry on if she needed it. She was the friend who learned to love her despite her flaws, her past mistakes and her sometimes real shitty attitude. Willow was the friend to her that she had once been to Buffy and even just thinking of it, Faith knew how pissed Buffy would be knowing her former best friend had formed a solid friendship with her.
Laughing, she grabbed her beer off the counter where she'd left it and headed out on to the balcony. It was late, or early depending on how one looked at the time. The sun would be up in a few short hours and a new day would start again. And Faith knew she wouldn't be able to sleep, her mind full of questions, thoughts and emotions. She knew she wouldn't be able to rest until they knew more than they already did.
Faith couldn't help but think about what she and Willow had talked about. She wanted to know if she still carried the line, or if she did before she had her slayer essence stripped from her. There had to be a way they could figure it out. When there was a will, there was a way and when there was a Willow, she always figured it out in the end. And Faith couldn't help but think that if Willow hadn't decided to come there to Cleveland, where would that leave her? Alone, afraid, and unable to find and use the resources she needed to help her.
And Faith knew in that moment that this wasn't just about her or the other slayers. It was about Willow too, about her being able to grasp that tiny sliver of magic that was left and use it. If she could find a way to use it, she'd be able to save them all.
The air was crisp, cool, but Faith kept a steady pace as she jogged through the park late in the morning. She knew how important it was to keep up with her training, slayer or not. She needed the regular jogs, the regular work-outs now more than ever. She had ignored Willow and Angel when they tried to convince her it was safer for her to stay in. She needed to escape for at least an hour, she needed to run and feel the pavement beneath her feet and the wind whipping through her hair. She needed to feel that burn in her lungs, the strain of her muscles as she pushed herself to the edge.
Staying alert, she veered down the path that took her through the patch of forest, out of view from the few others that were out in the park and enjoying the crisp, cool November morning. It was dangerous and reckless running out of sight, but she didn't care. She was pushing herself to the max, finding the edge she'd been seeking.
She hadn't slept since the day before and although she felt the fatigue, it was gone once she'd started jogging. It put her mind at ease too, finally for once having a clear head and the only thought was of putting one foot down in front of the other and avoiding colliding with any other people out there on the path.
Faith turned herself around and headed back to the openness of the park. The warmth of the sun hit her as she exited from beneath the shade of the trees, most of which still had yet to lose their colored leaves.
And she found her max, her edge as she broke out in a run, running as hard and fast as she could manage as she headed for the entrance to the park. She could barely breathe and she slowed down to a jog before coming to a stop. Nearly collapsing on the bench, she breathed heavily and closed her eyes. Her heart was racing wildly and her whole body burned and ached in the way she had been craving for it to since she left the apartment.
Giving herself a moment to recover, she headed back to the apartment. She took her time and stopped at the café on the corner to grab a coffee for herself, one for Angel, and a green tea for Willow. She fumbled with the tray and her keys when she reached the main door to her building. After dropping her keys twice, she grumbled angrily and headed for the call box, ready to punch in their number and get Willow to buzz her in.
"Good morning, Faith," the old lady that lived across the hall said as she opened the door. "Not having much luck with those keys today, are you dear?"
"Just having a clumsy morning, Mrs. Greene."
"Ah, we're all allowed to have those once in a while," she chuckled, her voice soft and warm, friendly as ever. "Oh, Faith? If you have a moment to spare, can you come and help me with a few things later? I have some boxes in storage I'd like to get rid of and I can't seem to move them myself."
"Yeah sure, I'll stop by later," she replied with a smile and headed inside, watching as Mrs. Greene pulled her little cart out behind her as she stepped out into the street.
Faith hit the button by the elevator and waited. There were a lot of elderly people in the building, but of all of them, Mrs. Greene was her favorite. She was a sweet little old lady who lived alone and had no family nearby and very little of her friends were still alive. Faith had, on several occasions, helped her out with a few odd chores around her apartment and even went as far as driving her to the other side of the city for a doctor's appointment at a special clinic.
Willow loved to tease her about helping the helpless, especially when there weren't demons or vampires involved. But for Faith, she felt the need to help the lady when she asked. In a way, it was just another part of the path of redemption for her, something that Willow understood, but never truly did at the same time.
"Good run, Faith?" Angel asked once she'd managed to get the door to the apartment open without dropping her keys or the tray she held in her left hand.
"Ooh, you brought tea!" Willow shrieked happily. She jumped up from the couch and grabbed the cup with her name written on the side.
"Thinking I should've got ya the decaffeinated one, Wil," she chuckled and she pulled the last two out of the tray and handed one to Angel. "I figured you'd want some coffee. I got it black, just the way you like it. Half full so you know, you can do that disgusting thing you do and put some of your pigs blood in it."
"He does what?" Willow sputtered as she flopped back down on the couch. "Are you serious? That's ten thousands levels of disgusting, Angel!"
"I'm a vampire," he mumbled under his breath and headed for the kitchen.
"Does he really do that?" Willow asked Faith as she sat down next to her. "Really?"
"Yeah. It's pretty gross, but hey, vampire right? What better way to eat and get a dose of caffeine than to mix it together?" Faith replied and she shuddered a little. "Angel, the sugar is in the cupboard above the sink!" She yelled when she heard him rummaging around in the kitchen.
"Do you feel better now?" Willow asked her and she nodded. "You also stink."
"Hey!" Faith laughed, playfully swatting her across the shoulder. "I don't stink. I'm just a little sweaty and gross and-"
"You stink."
Willow was giggling uncontrollably as Faith started to chase her around the living room. They landed on the floor, both laughing like they'd lost their minds and they both looked up at Angel as he stood by their heads and looked down at them.
"It's nice to see you two getting along so well," he said, struggling to keep a straight face. "And why is it that you two are chasing each other around for?"
"Trying to rub my stink all over her for telling me I stink," Faith chuckled and she pulled herself up and offered a hand to Willow. "Yeah, yeah, don't even say it, big guy. We're acting like a pair of crazies who escaped the mental hospital."
"Twice and we always go back," Willow added, swatting away Faith's hand and getting up from the floor quickly.
Angel laughed and sipped from his cup which caused the two to pull a face at him. "Back to business now, shall we? Willow, have you translated that page yet?"
"Gee whiz, when did you turn into Gi-" Willow stopped herself, her hand flying to her mouth before she finished saying Giles' name. "I'm almost there. Just a few more words and hopefully they'll make some kind of sense. The whole page is cryptic."
"Cryptic how?" Faith asked, their moment of silliness now long forgotten.
Willow motioned for her to follow her back into the living room and she handed her the notepad she'd been translating the first page of the book on. She had crossed out the lines she had translated the night before, the lines that Faith had briefly read. Under them was a string of sentences, some just single words, some a jumble of them that if read out of order would make more sense.
"What does this all mean?" Faith asked her, handing the notepad back.
"It's a history, an origin of a spell," she replied. "A spell that can be used even if there if very little to no magic left in the fabric of this dimension. I'm still working on the rest of this page and so far it looks like an index for the rest of the book."
"But we can't jump to any conclusions," Angel said solemnly. "These are just loose translations and if one word is out of place and you try to cast-"
"I'm not going to try to do anything," Willow replied, shock resting in her eyes at the fact that Angel would accuse her of such a thing. "The most important thing right now is finding out just exactly what this book contains, why Kraal had it, and what its purpose is, if anything."
"What if it is a fluke?" Faith asked and Willow shrugged. They all knew that was a possibility that the book was a fluke, something to distract them from finding out the answers they really needed. "Guess we'll find out soon enough, right?"
"Yeah."
Faith could tell that Willow was anxious to get not just the first page, but the entire book translated. At this rate, it could take weeks before she got there and time was something they didn't have on their side. There was no telling what would happen that day or that night. Anything was possible and anything could happen.
Leaving Willow to it, she headed for the bathroom, anxious to get out of her work-out clothes and into a nice hot shower.
"We should've told her," Angel said once he could hear the water running in the bathroom.
"I know," Willow sighed, frowning as she stared down at her cup of tea. "I-I didn't know how to bring it up. You so much as say Buffy's name to her and she shuts down."
Angel knew that all too well, the few conversations he had had with Faith about Buffy had ended with Faith blowing off, usually running off into her room or off somewhere else just to avoid talking about her at all. He knew why she reacted that way when it came to Buffy, he had even confronted her about it shortly before she decided to move back to Cleveland. Faith had unresolved feelings when it came to Buffy, it was obvious to everyone but her.
While Faith had been out on her run, Buffy had called. She sounded frantic and scared and she had spoke so quietly that even Angel could barely hear the words she was saying. Once she had calmed down, she started over, telling him that she had lied to him when he called her a few days ago. She wasn't fine, she wasn't okay. She had encountered Azri'el while out on patrol and he had nearly killed her before he used his power to strip her of her slayer essence.
Buffy and her team in San Francisco had already been working on researching Azri'el for months. Angel nearly lost it on her when she revealed that little fact that could've changed everything they were doing there in Cleveland. After Willow managed to wrestle the phone away from him before he said something that he would later regret, she talked to Buffy, staying calm as she asked her a string of questions, each one getting a one word answer out of her.
It came down to the fact that Buffy had been without her slayer essence for nearly three weeks and she had hid it from everyone, even Dawn, Xander, and Andrew. Her guilt had been what made her call that morning, her guilt was what made her fess up to lying. And it was her guilt over the fact that maybe she could've stopped this from happening to Faith that made her make that call. At least that is what she had told Willow.
The entire situation just proved to Willow that Buffy really didn't care about anything or anyone outside her little circle of friends in San Francisco and it hurt knowing that she was shut out of Buffy's life, just like that. The phone call had ended on a bad note, with Willow losing what was left of her cool and telling Buffy that she was too selfish for her own good. She even used words she never would've, bad words, words that still made her feel dirty just thinking about them.
"Faith is going to completely lose it when she finds out that Buffy lied to us," Willow said softly. She frowned when Angel didn't say a word. He didn't need to. "How do we even-I mean, how do we even tell her any of this, Angel? You know things are going to-"
"Get bad and then worse, yeah, I know," Angel nodded. "She still needs to know, Willow."
"Well," Willow coughed as she cleared her throat. "I vote you be the one to tell her."
"Why do I need to be the one to tell her? You're her best friend, maybe it's better if it came from you?"
"Why me? I wasn't the one who Buffy lied to in the first place and you believed her, Angel! That one is all on you!"
Angel growled and it made Willow stand down. She could hold her own, she'd changed a lot in the past six months since she'd been living with Faith. She was more confident, more sure of herself and in a way she had changed into a completely different person and she knew Faith was a core reason for that. But when Angel growled and looked at her that way, it stirred up deep memories of the time she had seen him as Angelus and it still scared her.
"How about we both tell her?" Angel said after a few long minutes passed. "Despite the inevitable, Willow, she needs to know and the sooner we tell her, the less she's going to feel like we were keeping this from her, betraying her."
"I know. She's still going to be really pissed."
"That's a given."
"Is it too early to start drinking?" Willow asked, laughing half-heartedly as she glanced at the clock. "I don't know if I can tell her. I don't know if I can stand seeing how she reacts, Angel. Whether we tell her now or wait until tomorrow or the next day, the fallout is going to be the same."
"What fallout?" Faith asked, standing by the bathroom door in her robe, towel in hand as she dried her wet hair. "What's going on, guys? Tell me what?"
The only thought that came to Willow's mind was; oh crap.
Faith stood there staring at Angel and Willow. What had she just walked in on? She could feel the tension, the intensity of it as soon as she had opened the bathroom door and caught wind of their heated conversation.
"What aren't you telling me?"
"Faith-"
"What aren't you telling me?" She yelled, cutting off Willow and the level, the tone of her voice made Willow back down like a dog who had been thrown in its cage for being bad. "And cut the bullshit. I'm tired of bullshit. Just lay it all out. Come on. Give it to me."
"Faith, maybe you should just-"
"Should just what? Wil? Forget what I just heard?"
"Uh," Willow coughed, looking uneasy. "Maybe you should uh, get dressed first?"
"Maybe you oughta tell me what the hell is going on here first, huh?"
Faith watched the uneasy looks passed between Willow and Angel. The wheels in her head started turning and she didn't like the results that came from that. This had something to do with Buffy. She was more than certain of it.
"Look, I'm calm okay," Faith said, dropping the towel to hold up both her hands. She even offered an uneasy and forced smile. "Just tell me what the hell is going on here before I start jumping to all these crazy conclusions."
"It's Buffy-" Willow stated, cutting herself off abruptly. "I-it's complicated, Faith."
"Then spell it out for me if ya gotta, Wil. What is complicated?"
"Faith, maybe you should just go and throw some clothes on and then we'll sit down and talk about this," Angel interjected and she flipped him off, staring straight at Willow. "Or maybe not."
"Willow? You been keeping something from me?"
"No! I mean, not for long. Just since you got back in from your run. She called. Buffy called. Words were exchanged. I may have called her a selfish b-i-t-c-h. before I hung up on her."
"She used the C word too," Angel added and Faith couldn't help but laugh at little at that.
"What's going on, guys? Just tell me."
"Buffy lied to Angel when he talked to her a few days ago," Willow started and she gulped when Faith clenched her fists at her side. "She wasn't okay like she claimed to be."
"He got her too, didn't he?"
"Three weeks ago."
"You knew about this before today?" Faith asked and they both shook their heads no. "Figures. So tell me, what's the what?"
Angel did most of the talking, but the whole time Faith's eyes were trained on Willow, trying to catch her wandering gaze. She felt betrayed. She felt like she had been gutted a second time by Buffy, hearing the things she was hearing. But as Angel told her everything Buffy had told him and Willow during that phone call, she felt like she didn't matter. She didn't matter to Buffy enough for her to call, to warn her, to try to save her. She felt like Willow didn't matter to her anymore either.
"What a fucking bitch," Faith muttered, halting Angel in the middle of his sentence. "What? She is! She's a selfish, self-centered cunt of a bitch who is only looking out for herself. Screw her former best friend, screw her fellow slayers, screw everyone but her fucking self!"
"Faith-"
"She knew, Wil. She knew what was happening and she lied when Angel called her. She lied! Guess we can't expect anything more from her now, huh?"
"Faith-"
"What?" Faith snapped, causing Willow to recoil as she was about to reach out for her.
"I'm just as upset as you are right now, but being upset right now isn't going to help. We need to stop and just think about what we're going to do right now. Buffy and her team, they have information that we don't. But," Willow said and a small smile curled over her lips as she held up the small book. "We have something they don't have. This book. This could have all the answers we need to stop Azri'el and to fix this."
"So," Faith sighed as she started pacing the floor. "What are we going to do now, guys?"
"Are you going to tell her or should I?" Angel asked Willow and she just stared wide-eyed at him. Angel sighed and stood in front of Faith, placing his hands on her shoulders to get her to stop pacing. "Faith, there's something else you need to know."
"What now? You gonna tell me that Buffy and company are coming to Cleveland now?"
Upon the look on both their faces, Faith burst out laughing and pushed Angel away from her. Faith kept pushing Angel away when he tried to grab on to her and she ended up throwing a hard right hook, yelling in pain as her fist collided with his jaw.
"Are you kidding me here, guys?" Faith half laughed, half cried as she held her sore hand.
"Despite the fact that Buffy had kept this from us, we need to band together right now. We don't know what Azri'el has planned, but we have to be prepared and if that means we have to band together, then that is exactly what we're going to do," Angel said calmly. He rubbed his jaw where Faith had hit him and laughed softly. "You still pack a good punch, Faith."
"Yeah well, it hurt like hell," she muttered under her breath. "What do we do then? We play nice to Buffy and company, we pool our resources together and we put an end to this, lemme guess, together as a team, and when all is said and done, Buffy and company prance on back to San Francisco, likely taking all the credit and we just go back to our merry old lives?"
"That's the gist of it," Willow nodded. "But wow, Faith, that was a lot of sarcasm, even from you. That's kind of scary."
"Thanks," Faith grinned, but it fell short, the bitterness, the anger, the betrayal being the dominator of all her emotions. "I ain't happy about any of this."
"Neither are we," Angel replied. "But you're right. We need to come together as a team right now. It's a bit late, yes I know, and before you get pissed about that, you need to know that we don't have much of a choice. Things are different now, Faith. Yet, when it comes down to it, when it's something as big as this, we need to forget how different things are, how far apart everyone has become and band together."
Faith sighed loudly. She knew it was something that had to be done and it was inevitable that they'd end up teaming up with Buffy and company from San Francisco. This was a huge situation they had been pulled into and she knew, she had that feeling, that they couldn't do this alone anymore, not if they wanted to survive this and move on with their lives. And Faith knew she shouldn't be so angry about the change in events, but she couldn't help it. Buffy was now very much involved and had been for much longer and now they had to be in the same city as each other?
Faith hadn't seen or talked to Buffy since she had come to Cleveland for Giles' reading of the will. Things had been tense then and all Buffy had done was cry. They left things on a sour note, not through words, but just through what they were feeling over the loss of Giles. Faith couldn't even talk about Buffy, not with Angel and not with Willow. When it came to Buffy, she made her feel a complex of emotions, most of which she had tried so hard in the last eight years to ignore, to repress, to push away like they never even existed in the first place.
She loved to hate her and she hated to love her. It was just the way it was and always would be.
