Chapter Three:

They had been researching for over an hour now, separating into two groups. Faith, Xander and Hope were in the dining room while the remainder of the group were in the living room. Willow and Kennedy occupied the sofa while Giles, Andrew, Dawn and Buffy sat around the small table at the back of the room. Which left Spike patrolling the streets for any sign of the killer slayers. Xander came into the dining room from the kitchen holding two glasses of soda, looking up he saw that Hope was asleep at the table using her arms as a pillow.

"Whoa I was only gone a few seconds." he said handing one of the glasses to Faith before sitting back down.

"Should we wake her?" he asked Faith who shook her head in answer to his question.

"She hasn't slept in two nights." She informed him before taking a drink.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because I haven't slept in two nights." Faith said not looking up from the book in front of her.

"You two get along. She look's up to you y' know." Xander said.

"Not so sure I'm the world's best role model." Faith said.

"The old you? Not so much, the new and improved version...maybe." Xander shrugged.

"Yeah, even after I stabbed her." Faith joked remembering their latest stint in the demon dimension.

"Faith." Xander said.

"Why are you doing this Xand?" she asked still not looking at him.

"What?" Xander asked.

"This talking to me like we're best buds." she told him.

"You didn't seem to mind after you're little visit from the First." Xander said not meeting her eyes.

"That was different I..." she stopped not knowing what to say.

"Well I look at it this way. If any of us held a grudge after some one tried to kill us we'd have no friends." Xander joked trying to lighten the mood.

Faith remained silent. Her mind wondered back to that night.

Flash Back

"You keep looking for love and acceptance from these people, these "friends" of yours, but you're never going to find it. The truth is nobody will ever love you. Not the way I love you." he told her.

"Get out." Faith said

"They'll forever see you as a killer." he said landing the final blow.

"I said get out." Faith repeated.

"I'll always be with you, firecracker. In everything you do." he said before disappearing in a flash of light.

Faith stared at the empty space in front of her, trying to deal with the flood of emotions The First had woken in her. A hand on her arm pulls her back into reality.

"Faith." came Xander's voice from behind her.

"Now's not a good time Xander." she said shrugging off his hand before putting some distance between them.

"Then when is, Faith? The next time it decides to show up?" he asked

"What'd you see?" she asked, still not turning to face him.

"Enough to know it's got you spooked." Xander told her stepping forward.

"So what, you here to catch the show?" Faith asked turning to face him.

"It'd make thing's simpler for you wouldn't it? If I hated you" he asked.

"You don't?" she asked.

"No, Faith I don't. Even after everything that you ..." Xander stopped.

Faith finally looked him in the eye. It was then when Xander saw how scared she was how vulnerable she looked it was something he had never seen before.

She sat down on the end of the bed, staring blankly at the space in front of her. Xander remained still for a few seconds before moving over to the bed and sitting beside her.

"It was him, he... the cloths the way he talked, everything," Faith said in a distant tone.

"Guess you're really in the game now, the first only shows up if it thinks you matter." Xander said remembering how it had used Spike and Andrew.

"Lucky me, I'm a player." Faith said not really frilled about this information.

"Man, look at that. My hand's shaking, Demons, vampires, women in the penitentiary system. None of that freaks me out." Faith said.

"Well that's what the First does it finds you weakness..." Xander began.

"Human Weakness... It never goes away." Faith said the word's chillingly familiar but she didn't know why.

"It said that we've got to watch out for Buffy. That Buffy's dangerous." Faith told him.

"Is that what you think?" Xander asked.

"Could be. I mean, we've given her a pretty good reason to be pissed off. You know the messed-up thing? The First is telling me to worry about her and I just wish she was here." Faith admitted.

"When it came to you, did The First tell the truth?" Faith asked.

"It never has, I guess I'm not so important after all." he said lowering his head.

"You always do that, put yourself down. You shouldn't. While I was in prison Angel would visit me, he'd tell me about all the stuff that happened before I came to Sunnydale, I use to think that it was because of him that B lasted as long as she has. But after hearing him tell the stories I realised something it wasn't because of him it was because of you. Even Angel thought so... not that he'd ever say it." Faith began.

Xander remained silent listening to what Faith was saying to him.

"He told me how you went to his apartment, and forced him down to The Master's layer with a cross so that you could save Buffy, how it was you who brought her back. How you stood up to Angelus at the hospital stopped him from getting to Buffy." Faith told him.

"It's what I had to do." Xander brushed it off.

"Ok then how about zombies and disarming bombs?" Faith asked.

"Yeah that too. Wait how did you...?" Xander asked.

"After the fight in the high school we found a couple bodies in the lounge, looked like the demons work at first but Angel told me he did some digging, spoke to a couple of the local's at Willy's said something about zombies and a kid with a Chevy." Faith told him.

Xander didn't say anything instead he just smiled.

"You saved us, and from how Willow tells it you saved her too." Faith said.

"But not you huh?" Xander said with a small smile.

There was silence after that, neither of them speaking for the moment both lost in their thoughts.

"This is it isn't it, I've only been back a few days but I see it." Faith said breaking the silence.

"Look's like, seven year's, the vamp's, the demon's, the apocalypse's it's like that was just the warm up but now... I don't know something about this one just feels..." Xander began.

"Final." Faith finished for him.

"Finishing my sentences, soon you'll be talking like me." Xander joked before heading towards the door.

"Hey Xand." she called out to him.

"Yeah" He said stopping in the door way.

"Don't die." she told him with a small smile.

'You too." he said with a lopsided smile before leaving the room.

End Flash Back

"Yeah I guess you're right." Faith told him with a small smile.

"I kinda feel bad for her you know, she's just so ..." Xander paused searching for the right word.

"Young?" Faith offered.

"Yeah, she should be out there doing... I don't know something other then this, it just doesn't seem fair. She should be able to the things that every normal..." Xander stopped suddenly being cut off by Faith.

"We're slayer's Xand we don't get normal." Faith told him.

"And apparently we don't get to sleep either." Hope chimed in before raising her head to look at them, seeing guilty looks on both their faces.

"Sorry." Xander offered.

"So… what'd I miss?" Hope asked.

Ethan sat in a small wooden chair, inside the ware house, watching as the slayer in front of him paced back and forth, impatiently. The power and energy of the slayer coursing through her, Energy that she desperately wanted to use. He had known when he had escaped the initiative's facility that he would need power if he stood any chance of exacting his revenge.

The power of the slayer was exactly what he had needed, and luckily for him there were plenty to choose from. That and a few new trick's as well, He chuckled to himself as he opened his hand, watching as an electrical current began to pass through his finger tips. He watched it for a few second before closing his fist, allowing the current to disappear. He turned his attention back to the slayer in front of him who was still trying her best to wear a hole into the ground.

Sensing that she was being watch Claire stopped and turned to face Ethan who sat watching her from the shadows.

"How long is this going to take?" she asked.

"Patience Claire." he said, chuckling softly.

"I don't get how you can just sit there." She told him

"Well it's quite easy really." he joked before leaning forward.

Claire gave him a smallest hint of a smile before sitting on a wooden crate opposite him.

"I don't see why we can't just hit the streets, one of them is bound to show up sooner or later." she told him

Before Ethan could reply he spotted one of the girls walking towards him.

"Good news master the vampire was spotted on the town's main street half an hour ago, the slayer's shouldn't be far behind." she told him.

"Well Claire looks like you got your wish after all." Ethan said before turning back to the other slayer.

"Gather the other's we're going out." he told her before turning hi s attention back to Claire.

"I don't think I need to remind you but just in case..." Ethan began.

"Capture, don't kill." she said referring to Hope.