Chapter 21

"Willow?" Willow clacked the lid of her laptop shut. It had become a reflex whenever someone walked into the room while she was working, except for when it was Faith. She was the only one who knew. But right now it was Giles who had interrupted her.

"Nothing." Willow answered him before he had asked. "I haven't found anything on the scythe." The magical Slayer scythe was lying a few feet away on the bed with books strewn all around it. They'd been searching for hours. Or at least, Giles had. Willow had been doing something else, researching something he wouldn't approve of.

Faith forced herself to get out of bed. She was not going to lay around like some lazy idiot while everyone else was preparing for war. She dressed quickly, and dragged a comb through her hair until it looked good enough. When she reached the kitchen, Andrew was waiting eagerly by the microwave as a hot pocket spun slowly inside of it. As the microwave beeped to a stop, Faith shoved Andrew out of the way and took the hot pocket out of the microwave. Something about picking on Andrew was just fun. Faith wasn't an awful person anymore, but to see the little blond dude's eyes spark with pathetic fury and his lips pout somehow made her day better.

"What do we got?" Faith plopped onto the sofa and propped her sock feet on the table. She was talking to Dawn, Xander and Buffy, who were both reading books among the injured Potentials. Andrew and Anya had gone to the hospital for supplies, and most of the girls seemed better off, and just needed rest.

"So far?" Xander asked. "We have a good chunk of jack, and even more squat."

"Great." Faith said. She didn't feel like studying right now, but she could hear the sound of Giles coming back downstairs after checking with Willow, so she picked up a nearby book and opened it at random.

"Faith, if I have to tell you to put your feet down once more, I will personally cut them off." The Brit said as he tugged the book out of her hands and shooed her off the couch. "Why don't you go help with the girls' training?"

"Will do, captain." Faith said. She didn't much like being bossed around, but she would much rather be training with the girls than flipping through musty pages of ancient tomes.

Faith assumed the girls were outside, and she was right. The Summers had a good sized backyard, and the Potentials were scattered here and there, some sparring, some talking, some hefting swords or axes.

"Hey, ladies!" Faith called out, jumping off the porch. "I want y'all to pay attention to this." She looked around. Every eye was on her now, and she settled her own gaze on a small, shy redhead nearby. "Vi." She said. "C'mere."

"Yeah?" Vi said in a small voice as she stepped forward. Faith knew this girl was going to need to toughen the hell up if she was going to make it through this.

"Hit me." Faith said to her.

"What?"

"Hit me. As hard as you can. Come on, it won't hurt me." She watched as Vi drew back and arm and punched her on the shoulder, fairly lightly. "Ohhhh-kay." Faith said. "I think we need a demonstration here." Her eyes scanned the girls gathered all around until they fell on one girl who Faith knew would at least attempt to kick her ass, no matter how civil they were acting to each other now. "Kennedy."

The dark-eyed Potential came forward eagerly, and Vi cleared off, leaving a large area to spar. "Take me out, man." Faith said. Kennedy did not hesitate, but dashed in much quicker than Faith had been expecting. Faith felt the knuckled of Kennedy's left hand hit her cheek, and her right hand sink into her gut almost right after. Faith stumbled backwards, and Kennedy aimed a high kick at her head. Faith caught the girl's foot with practiced ease and made to flip her upwards. If it had been Buffy she'd been fighting, Faith wouldn't dare do that, because she knew B was a pretty good gymnast. Kennedy, on the other hand, fell clumsily backwards and landed in a heap.

"Damn." She hissed. She'd clearly been looking to get the better of Faith. Not likely.

"Good. That was good." Faith said. She did not offer her hand to help her up, because she knew Kennedy would never take it. "Rona. You next."

"Go get Faith." Willow heard Buffy's voice out in the hall, and slammed her computer shut again. She had researched to scythe a little more, and had found a weapons website. Giles had pointed out one of the axes listed, and rushed to look something up, and then tell Buffy. Now Buffy poked her head in the door.

"What's up?" Willow asked.

"We think we've figured something out. Xander's getting Faith, we're gonna have a Scoobie meeting." Willow jumped up at once. It had been ages since they'd had an actual 'Scoobie meeting'.

"So…what do you think?" Buffy asked after nearly a half-hour of her explaining her idea. Everyone said they agreed, even Willow, but she had a sick feeling in her stomach. If she was so busy doing this spell Buffy had asked her of, when was she going to get a chance to do what she, Willow, had been planning? This scythe spell would drain her for a day, maybe two, and she would have to wait to recharge for ages before she could attempt her own plan, which also required tons of magical energy to do alone.

"It is beaucoup de mojo." Faith said. "I think it's a killer plan, but Will…this is probably double anything she's ever done, right?"

"Double…" Willow's brain was almost making sound it was whirring so fast. "Yeah." Once again, something Faith said had given her an idea. Once the meeting was dismissed, Willow dashed back to her computer and opened Google as fast as she could. Typing so fast she had to go back twice to fix mistakes, in the search bar she typed: 'two spells at once'.

Author's Note: We're nearing the end, readers! Two, maybe three more chapters left. I don't want to go too fast, or it'll be over, but if the story is starting to move far too slowly, let me know. Please, please review!!!