CHAPTER ELEVEN:

Whatever the cost…

Michael was back in the warehouse basement. He was going over the information that the vampire had been most forth coming in providing. He now had a little more intel on the situation to work with. He now knew that the Mayor was keeping tabs on Faith and that he had ordered the vampires to "remove" him as a potential threat and distraction to her. Before ending their "talk", the vampire had said that the Mayor had been getting more vampires to come into the Sunnydale area as his ascension day was going to occur soon. The vampire mentioned something about graduation day—that fit into the information that he already knew from Buffy, Giles and Faith from his time line.

He recalled what he knew from his time line and had a lot to consider. He knew that Faith and the Mayor would attempt to de-soul Angel to change him back to Angelus, which would be thwarted by Buffy and Giles. He also knew that Faith would try to kill Angel. In the ensuing fallout from that attempt, Buffy would nearly kill Faith—putting her in a coma.

Even knowing that Faith would survive, the thought of Faith getting nearly killed troubled him. It wouldn't take much to turn a near fatal wound into an actual fatal wound. The safe and logical play was to try and preserve as much of the threads of his time line. That would mean he would have to stand aside and let events play out, but he still needed to locate the 'Staff of Uman' in order to have a chance to get back. He needed to follow up with Giles and he hoped that there would be good news from that avenue.

Much like a pebble tossed into a pond creating ripples, Michael knew his presence had created ripples in this time line and he had no way of knowing what would happen now. He had made an impact and that there would be unintended consequences. He had tried to manage and control events which he had discovered was easier said than done. He was finding that trying to understand and manage temporal causality effects was like trying to hold jello together with elastic bands. Throw Buffy and Faith into that mix and it would have been easier for him to get the Covenant to celebrate a "We Love Humans Day".

Michael checked the time and he knew that he was supposed to meet Faith at the coffee shop in five hours. The Mayor had sent vampires to kill him and that as a "normal" human he should have been easily taken out. Those vampires would never be reporting back and if he showed up to meet her, while she was still being watched, then that would raise some unwanted questions.

Michael let out a sigh as he knew he was going to have to miss his date with Faith. He wasn't happy about this. He'd never broken a promise to her and wasn't happy that he was starting now despite the circumstances. He wanted to see her again, but he knew that he was going to have to play "dead" for the time being.

As the realization hit him of what he was doing, a moment of doubt crossed his mind. As he ran his hand over his face, he thought that maybe he should have gone with Virgil's option number one—finding a nice alternate dimension to retire to and leave a message for himself to avoid what would happen. He massaged his temples as his head started to hurt as the thoughts of all the temporal paradoxes and possibilities started running through his head once again. Michael sighed again and opened a storage compartment on his battle armor. He pulled out the pictures that Xander had given him before this whole nightmare started...

He looked at the pictures of Faith and him from their wedding day. He studied every line and contour of her face in each picture—she looked so happy. He got to the pictures of Adriana when she was born. A smile came to his face as his memory recalled every detail of that day. The picture he liked the best was one of just Faith holding Adriana just after she was born. Faith looked tired as it had been a long and difficult delivery, but you could see the joy, happiness, pride and love in her face and eyes as she held their daughter.

Michael's smile faded. That's all he had left now, these memories and these pictures to show him of what his life had been like. It felt like the universe was playing one big cruel joke and he was the punch line. He placed the pictures gently on a table beside him as if they were fragile pieces of china. He leaned his head back to rest against the wall and closed his eyes and tried to rest.

The image of that picture of his wife and daughter kept coming to him—it was burned into his memory. He swore that he would fix things and that he would get them back—whatever the cost.

"I promise…" he muttered to a dark and empty room.

oOoOo

Faith watched with red blood-shot eyes as the sun rose to start a new day. She had cried, screamed and raged all night after the Mayor had left. She had consider trying to go find Michael, but that idea died quickly as she realized she had no idea where to start looking. She had taken out her feelings of rage and helplessness on her apartment by trashing it.

She sat in the tattered remains of her apartment and stared out her window until the sun rose. Between her crying and screaming, she had spent the time being bombarded and taunted in her thoughts about what she'd done in her life—the decisions she had made and the results from those decisions. The Mayor's words rang in her head and haunted her…

"Remember this is the path you chose… Everything that happens is a result of what you decided to do…"

As she watched the sun rise higher into the morning sky, she was hit by a wave of anger and it kept building. She was angry at everybody… Her Mom… Dad… Buffy… Giles… Wesley… Mayor Wilkins, but in the end she found that the person she was most angry with was—herself.

She could still see Michael's face and smile in her mind. She felt that she'd finally found someone that she had connected with, someone that she could share her feelings and thoughts with. It was strange, but she actually had the feeling that he was someone, for the first time in her life, that she could consider sharing herself with—and now it was gone.

Faith couldn't think straight and she found herself at a loss of what to do. She found herself doing something she hadn't done since she was a little girl—she prayed to God for help and forgiveness. She found herself afraid—not of dying—but of what she would have to face for everything she'd done. She could almost see the blood on her hands from all those that she'd killed. She knew that the Powers were taking their revenge on her and in that dark moment she knew that she deserved everything she got. With the guilt of her actions coming to the forefront and weighing heavily on her, thoughts of killing herself crossed her mind—she debated with the idea and she considered the different ways she could do it. A part of her tried to push those thoughts away—saying it wasn't her style and it wouldn't fix anything or bring Michael back. She didn't know what to do or who to turn to. It was at this lowest moment, as she watched the sun rise that she remembered what the robot had said to her.

"It's not too late to change…"

oOoOo

Mayor Wilkins found himself feeling anxious and somewhat distracted as he tried to work in his office. He looked again at the clock, noting that it was nearly 1pm. A grimace came to face as Faith had still not checked in with him. He had called her place several times—with no answer. He had considered going over there to checkup on her, but he then quickly reconsidered as it didn't seem to be a good idea considering the events from last night as he recalled how happy she'd looked when she'd entered the apartment. It was obvious that she had developed feelings for this fellow even if he appeared to be much older than her.

Michael… That's what his name was…

Wilkins briefly considered that if maybe the ascension wasn't so close to happening and maybe there weren't so many threats against him, then maybe he would have considered letting Faith have her fling. He pondered the idea of Faith dating a much older man and found a small part of him upset about the idea. He found he was concerned about her getting hurt in that type of relationship.

Not that it matters now… There are more important things to take care of… She was just infatuated with this fellow… The idea of Faith being in some kind of relationship…that's just silly.

The Mayor pushed those inconsequential thoughts aside. Besides the troubles with Faith, he was also troubled that he hadn't heard back from the vampires that he had sent to kill that man. He should have been notified once they were done, but there had been no word from them nor had anyone seen them. He assumed that the vampires were off somewhere sleeping off after they most likely gorged themselves on the man. He would have to remind them of their place and that they answer to him.

The Mayor had sent word for those vampires to be tracked down and brought to him to report in. He would deal with them after they reported their success. Even though he'd sent three vampires to deal with one man he was still bothered that there had been no word. A brief and most preposterous thought crossed his mind…

He had one of his assistants watching and following Faith. If for some bizarre reason the man did show up again on her doorstep, then this would be most troubling and would require further investigation.

oOoOo

Faith had managed to drift off to sleep for a couple of hours, but it wasn't a restful sleep. Nightmares of every bad thing she'd done slammed at her. She finally woke up and made her way to the bathroom. She took a hard long look at herself in the mirror—she didn't like what she saw.

She saw her reflection and the haunted look in her eyes. She felt her anger and sadness start to swell up again. She was alone—with no one. She had found someone and that had been taken away from her—it was her actions that had led to his death. She couldn't stand to look at herself in the mirror anymore and she turned away. Her eyes caught a glance of the clock and saw the time—it was nearly 1pm.

For some strange reason, she was struck by a faint glimmer of hope. She couldn't explain it, but she had to go, she had to be sure. Faith rushed as she cleaned herself up and tried to look somewhat presentable. She hurried out of her apartment, making her way to the coffee shop still with a faint hope and prayer that he would be there.

Faith made it to the coffee shop before 2pm and she quickly found a seat on the patio and sat and waited. Minutes passed by and as each minute passed by, she felt whatever glimmer of hope she'd had slip away. As her faint hope died—her mood darkened. As the minutes continued to tick by, she replayed the time she had spent with Michael over in her mind—it was truly one of the best times of her life. She could swear that she could still feel the kiss they had shared. She recalled the passion that was behind it and how it made her feel. She felt her heart ache at what had been taken from her.

It was way after 3pm and it finally and really sank in. She knew that Michael wasn't coming today or on any other day. She didn't cry or scream. She was filled with anger and rage and she knew who was to blame.

Faith finally decided what she was going to do. She knew that there would be consequences, but she didn't care anymore. She had made her choices and she was responsible for those choices. She would have to face the consequences no matter what they were.

oOoOo

Buffy and the Scoobies were gathered in the school library as usual for another of Wesley's briefings. There was the usual small talk, but it was obvious to everyone that there was some tension between Buffy and Giles—she barely acknowledged him when he came into the room.

Giles let out a soft sigh as he looked at Buffy finding he was filled with mixed feelings. He hated holding back information from her, but he had given his word. He'd run out of time and he expected a visit from the robot very soon. He wasn't looking forward to that visit as he'd had limited success in the short time he'd been given. He let out an involuntary shudder as he recalled that the robot had said he would have to go to his "Plan B" if Giles hadn't been successful.

Giles let out another sigh as Wesley took center stage and cleared his throat to signal that he was going to start another one of his briefings.

Wesley took a look at the assembled group as he cleared his throat to begin his briefing. He noted that everyone was present except for Faith—as usual. He did observe the tension that seemed to be occurring between Buffy and Giles. He had to suppress a smile at seeing this positive development.

This could be the wedge I need to get Giles out of Sunnydale and out of my hair.

Wesley began his briefing by going over the previous meeting's items. He quickly covered those areas and then moved on to the new topics of importance—those that were important as he determined.

"There have been no more sightings of that robot in the Sunnydale area. I don't know what it means, but we can't let our guard down like we did previously…" Wesley stated to the assembled group.

"What's this 'we' stuff…" muttered Buffy.

Wesley either didn't hear or chose to ignore Buffy's remark. He moved on to the next important item in his briefing.

"We still have no leads or information about the Mayor and this so-called ascension. All our research so far has not provided any leads. I must be honest and say that I am not hopeful that we will be able to find any useful information that—"

Wesley was suddenly interrupted by a voice from the library entrance that startled him and everyone else causing them to turn towards the voice.

"Whatever you want to know about the Mayor… I'll tell you everything I know…" Faith said as she walked out of the shadows into the light.