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How long Willow knelt there on the floor, flipping pages, trying to make heads or tails of what she found, carefully—but quietly—removing selected pages that looked as though they would be useful to Giles, she didn't know. She got lost in the learning, applying her intelligence to the problem at hand.
So she didn't hear the door open or Faith step in until Faith's voice interrupted her studies. "Check out the bookworm."
Willow whipped her head around, startled, and not a little afraid. Faith could easily kill her, probably wanted to, and then where would everything she had learned and stolen from these books be? "Faith," she said, hoping to distract the Slayer with conversation. Buffy was better at that than she was, but she could try. She had to.
Faith came closer and hunkered down next to Willow and the open book that lay across her lap. "Anyone with brains—anyone who knew what was going to happen to her—would be tryin' to claw her way out of this place."
Willow wanted to point out that her problem was too many brains. It always had been. But Faith would take that as antagonism. She stayed silent, instead, trying to buy herself some time, waiting to see where Faith was going to take this.
Shifting to her knees, just that little bit closer, Faith went on, "But you—you just can't stop Nancy Drewin', can ya?" She closed the book with a thud, as Willow tried to memorize just what was on that last open page before it was out of view, and picked it up. "Guess now you know too much, and that kinda just naturally leads to killin'." Faith was trying to look reluctant, but making a bad job of it. They both knew that each would happily see the other one dead. But Faith could kill, and Willow couldn't, so this situation looked as though it had already been won. Willow tried to remain calm—surely someone would come for her. Surely Buffy would burst through the door. But until she did, it was Willow's job to get out of here if she could, and stay calm if she couldn't. She wasn't going to let Faith make her cry.
She got to her feet hastily, and Faith rose also, with an easy grace. Willow envied both the Slayers their complete lack of awkwardness. "Faith," she said breathlessly. "Wait. I want to talk to you."
"Oh, yeah, gimme the speech again, please. 'Faith, we're still your friends'; 'we can help you'; 'it's not too late'."
Willow's mouth curled up. "It's way too late," she said, and had the satisfaction of seeing the smug smile on Faith's face begin to fade as her reaction wasn't the mealy-mouthed whining the Slayer had expected. "You know, it didn't have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life; I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo-hoo! Poor you," she sneered. "You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends like Buffy! Now you have no one. You were a Slayer, and now you're nothing." She wasn't sure where she had meant to go with this, but she was getting carried away by the chance to finally tell Faith exactly what she thought of her. It was freeing. And Faith was standing there and taking it, which kind of surprised Willow. "You're just a big, selfish, worthless, waste."
That did it. Willow didn't even see the punch coming, but it was a good one. It connected solidly and snapped her head back, knocking her sprawling to the floor.
"You hurt me, I hurt you," Faith said, coming after her. "I'm just a little more efficient."
Willow was surprised she could still see, much less that it was so easy to get back up off the floor. Maybe she really had touched something in Faith. She was surprised the Slayer had admitted to having been hurt by what Willow had said. She got to her feet. "Oh, and here I just thought you didn't have a comeback."
"You're beggin' for some deep pain." Faith put her hands on Willow's chest, then let them fall, making her power clear.
Even though she was afraid, Willow was exhilarated, too. Faith was taking her seriously, treating her like an adversary and not like a helpless bug—and she was still alive, still in possession of the stolen pages and everything she had learned. "I'm not afraid of you," she said, and meant it. Afraid, yes, but not in the way that would make her cower, or beg, or even back down. She had power of her own. Not physical power, like Faith had, but other power that Faith could never begin to understand.
Then Faith drew a really big, sharp, shiny knife and held it in front of Willow's face. "Let's see what we can do about that," she whispered.
Willow closed her eyes briefly, but then she opened them and steeled herself. Whatever Faith could dish out, she would take it, she promised herself.
Then, from the doorway, came the voice of the Mayor. "Girls. I hope I don't have to separate you two."
Faith took the knife away from Willow's face, looking disappointed and chastened. For all her bravado, she was the Mayor's lap dog, Willow thought with satisfaction.
In a stronger, more commanding tone, the Mayor said, "Faith, you can play with your new toy later. Something's come up."
He came into the room while Faith drew the cold steel gently down the side of Willow's face again, although she was careful not to let it cut.
"Faith!" the Mayor said again, sharply.
She turned and looked at him, drawn from her bloodlust for the moment.
"You know I don't like repeating myself."
Faith put her face close to Willow's and whispered, "I got someone. I got him." She backed away as the Mayor seated himself behind his desk. Faith hitched a hip onto the corner, leaning there with her arms folded.
The Mayor said, "I just received a heck of an interesting phone call." He smiled.
Willow looked over at both of them.
"Seems like you must be pretty important to someone." He looked Willow over. "I don't see it, myself. You lack the snap and pizzazz of my Faith here. But to each his own. They're willing to trade my box back for you, and in the end, that's all I really care about. So be a good girl—I'd hate to have to send back damaged goods."
His voice was friendly, affable, but his eyes were dead and cold as a snake's. Taunting Faith was one thing—going against this man wasn't something Willow intended to do without the full power of Buffy and the others behind her.
