Faith lay awake in her cell, staring at the ceiling. Trying to quiet her thoughts. For the past three days, she's had an increasingly urgent desire to leave prison. She always knew she could leave anytime she wanted, she just hadn't wanted to until now. After Buffy had died, she had felt great sadness and regret. Regret that she was never able to repair their relationship. While she still had enormous guilt, she had been feeling better about everything that had happened, understanding more of why she did the things she did. She just needed to find a way to earn Buffy's forgiveness. Now that Buffy had been resurrected, maybe this was her chance.
Rolling over on her side, she grinned and decided that tomorrow was the day. She'd escape prison and find a way to talk to Buffy, to show her that she had changed. If she had the time, she'd try apologizing to everyone else as well. The irony of escaping prison to prove she was a good person was not lost on Faith. She knew the absurdity of it, but still, she felt she had to do it.
Escaping would be easy, she already had it planned out. She could leap over the fence in the farthest corner of the yard and be into the woods before anyone noticed. Then she'd just have to count on luck to find some clothes and transportation to Sunnydale. It wouldn't be the first time she traveled with no resources. She'd just have to get back in time for count, and even if she didn't, she didn't care about getting a few more years added to her sentence. Repairing her relationship with Buffy was more important to her than any future for herself, she had never expected to have one anyway.
xxx xxx xxx
Faith was crushed when she heard that Buffy had died. She wasn't quite sure what she felt about her resurrection, it's part of why she needed to come back and see everyone. She just hoped they wouldn't completely freak out and attack her. First, she'd have to find them all, which so far hasn't been going too well. She had no idea where anyone but Buffy lived, and no one was at the Summers' home when she checked there.
Wandering around the main street, she notices a magic shop. She went in thinking they might know Willow and help her locate the witch. When she entered, she was shocked to see the entire gang was there, and they were all lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. She was stunned to find that Spike was also there. "What the hell is going on?"
She rushed over to check on Buffy, she seemed to be breathing – that was a good sign. Faith lightly shook her to see if she'd wake up, but there was no change. She checked on all the others with the same result. A little surprised to find Willow and Xander looking so cozy, especially with Tara also being in the room. She looked around the shop for any indication of what might have happened, but she was never really into the magical side of things – so had no idea what to look for.
She opted to lock the shop's door, just to be sure there were no more surprises. She paced around the space trying to think of what to do. She tried being a little more aggressive with trying to wake Spike up– figuring no one would mind if he were bruised up a bit. She shook him aggressively and tried smacking him across the face. Nothing seemed to be working.
Finally, after two hours of pacing around and wondering what to do, they started to wake up.
"Don't freak out guys, I'm not here to hurt anyone."
"Um, that's good to know... who are you?" Willow replied.
"What? A chick goes away for a couple of years, and you forget all about her?" Faith smirks at the redhead, not understanding their confused looks.
"Err.. yeah... I'm not sure who any of you are. I'm not even sure who I am." Dawn says, backing away from everyone else. Buffy moved towards her protectively.
"It's okay. I don't think anyone here wants to hurt you." Buffy smiles at Dawn.
"So none of you have any idea who you are?" Faith asks in exasperation.
"No, it would appear not," Giles replies.
Faith sighs, her hands on her hips as she looks around the room. "This is a magic shop, there must be something here to get your memories back."
"Magic? As in real magic? There's no such thing as magic." Giles scoffs, wondering what he would be doing in a magic shop.
"Alright, listen. I have no idea what's going on – but you are Xander, Willow, Anya, Spike, Giles, Tara, Dawn, and Buffy." She goes around the room pointing at everyone. "And I am Faith."
"How do we know you're telling the truth? And what kind of name is Buffy? It sounds like you just made that up." Buffy pouts looking around at everyone for some support.
"Check your ids, you'll see that I'm right. And Dawn – your necklace."
Everyone but Buffy and Spike are able to confirm their names.
"That doesn't exactly prove anything," Buffy says. "You still could have done this to us!" Buffy doesn't know why, but she senses there is something otherworldly about Faith and something else she doesn't trust.
"What kind of name is Spike? My jacket says my name is Randy." Spike offers up pouting a little as he looks at the tag.
"Oh look! I own this store!" Anya calls out excitedly. She opens the register with her key and starts shuffling the money around. "And look, I'm engaged! This is so exciting!" She's holding up her hand, showing off her engagement ring.
Everyone turns to look at Anya but doesn't know what to say. They all wonder how she can be excited about anything at a time like this.
There is some commotion outside the front door. "Everyone, just be cool. I'll handle whatever is going on out there."
Faith goes up to the window in front of the store to see several vampires standing outside. She sighs and opens up the door. "Do you guys need something?"
"We're here to see Spike – he owes us." The larger of the group replies.
"I'm sure he does, but now really isn't a great time. You can leave now, or I can kill you." She shows that she has a stake and is ready to fight if needed.
"Why should we listen to you, you're just a girl. We're not afraid of you."
"You should be," she stakes the closest vamp before any of them have a chance to react.
"Slayer!" One of the vampires hisses.
"Why is the slayer protecting a vampire?" Another of the vampires asks as they all begin retreating slowly.
"Just get out of here, you can bother with Spike later."
"Our boss isn't going to be happy about this! We'll be back."
Faith watches them leave and sighs again. What the hell is going on in this town? Maybe she should just have turned Spike over, but she wasn't sure if he was important to whatever is going on. She shakes her head and goes back into the shop.
She can see the fear in everyone's eyes. They must have heard what she said. She can see them slowly inching away from her, except Buffy who stood her ground and seemed to be poised for a fight.
"Why did you threaten to kill those guys?" Willow asks, she's shaking a bit and retreating further into the room.
"I know this is wicked confusing for you all, but trust me. I'm not the bad guy here. They were going to hurt you, I had to scare them off." Faith is trying to stay as calm as possible, trying to keep her demeanor passive and non-threatening.
"They looked weird, what was wrong with their faces?" Dawn is cowering next to Buffy as she asks this.
Faith is torn, should she try to explain things to them? It seems like that will just make them more scared and upset. She needed a plan, and fast. "There's a lot I can't explain right now. It will all make sense once you remember who you are. For now, magic is real, vampires are real and so are a lot of other wicked nasty things." She watches as their eyes all pale in fear and confusion. "Willow, Tara – you are both witches, maybe you could take a look at some of those books and see if there are any memory spells?"
"Witches!" they both reply.
"Yeah... and not to freak you out more, but I'm pretty sure you're dating."
"But! She was all cuddled up next to me, and she's wearing my jacket!" Xander pouts.
"Not sure what the cuddling was about - but I'm thinking Anya is your fiance."
"Nice." He leers appreciatively at the blond behind the counter, who also seems pleased by this news.
The two witches looked at each other with confusion, but their eyes soften the longer they look. After a few moments, they look away, both blushing slightly. "I guess it can't hurt to check the books," Willow says quietly and heads off to the shelves.
"Hang on a minute. We have no idea what's going on here. If it is magic, maybe more magic isn't such a good idea." Giles calls out.
"There has to be something we can do. Maybe I should call Angel." She would have called him earlier, but she was afraid of how mad he would be that she escaped. Faith is pacing again, frustrated that there doesn't seem to be much of an answer. She came here to explain herself, but she can't do that if no one knows who they are. "It's not safe to stay here – those guys are going to come back. We need to get to Buffy's house. They won't be able to get to us in there."
"Why are you in charge?" Buffy starts to approach Faith somewhat aggressively.
"Because I'm the only one who knows who they are!" Faith is not in the mood to fight with the blonde slayer. She sighs, knowing she'll have to tell them all something to try to get them to trust her. She calms herself and hopes if she explains about slayers it will awaken something in Buffy. "You and I are special we sort of have super powers."
"What kind of super powers?" Buffy's eyes go wide with excitement. She had felt a weird tingle when those guys were at the door, maybe this is why.
"We're wicked fast and strong, and we have super healing. Our purpose is to protect the world from evil. We are known as vampire slayers." Faith knows there's a whole lot more to explain, but now doesn't seem to be the time.
Buffy pauses, taking all this information in. Not at all sure what to make of it. "Are we... friends?'
"That's complicated." Faith doesn't want to lie to Buffy, even if she won't know it's a lie until they get their memories back. "I want us to be friends."
Buffy narrows her eyes at this but doesn't reply. Still not sure what to believe.
"I bet there's a training room in this place. I can show you." Deciding to focus on the slayer part of the confusion and not the 'are we friends' part. Faith spots a door in the back and heads towards it. Opening the door, she is relieved to see the training area is here as she'd hoped. "Take this staff and attack me with it." Faith says, handing Buffy a staff while grabbing her own. She moves to a battle ready position and waits.
Buffy looks down at the weapon in her hands. Feeling it, she senses she knows exactly what to do with it, and a smirk grows into a wider smile on her face. She swings expertly at Faith, who was ready and waiting for the blow and easily deflected it. Buffy continues her assault, the two slayers parrying and attacking with great speed and strength. Both reveling in the feeling of the battle. Faith hadn't had the chance to spar like this in a long time, so she was a little rusty. Buffy eventually started to gain the advantage and managed to sweep Faith's legs – knocking her to the ground.
Giles and Xander had been watching the fight with great fascination; they both let out a gasp when Faith was knocked to the ground. Faith turned to look at them and laughed. "No worries boys, I'm five by five." She lept to her feet and smiled at them.
"Five by five? What the hell does that mean?" Buffy was breathing a little heavy from the exertion of the battle. She had a sense that she and Faith used to do this sort of thing, but haven't in awhile. Her body was buzzing with excitement from the fighting. There was also something else, she felt a strong connection to this dark haired woman. She just couldn't tell yet if it was a good or bad connection.
"Once we get your memories back, I'll explain it to you." Faith winked and left the training area, leaving Xander and Giles in stunned silence at the display. She enters the main shop area hoping the witches had found something. "Any luck Red?"
Somehow Willow knew that Faith was talking to her. "Not so much, since we don't have any idea what to look for."
"Alright, I still think we should head over to Buffy's. Maybe you have some magic junk there that will explain all this."
Not having any better ideas the rest of the gang agrees to this plan.
Looking over at Spike, Faith realizes she has to try to explain him somehow. If they discover on their own that he's a vampire, they might freak out and Buffy might stake him.
"There is one other thing I need to tell you guys. I don't want to scare you any more than you already are – but Spike.. he's a vampire. Like those guys were outside of the shop."
Everyone looks to Spike and backs away from him.
"Am not!" Spike shouts in reply.
Faith slowly approaches him and punches him in the face. His face instantly transforms, and everyone can see what he is. He responds by striking the slayer back only to be rewarded with blinding pain in his brain. "Well, that's new and exciting." Faith remarks. "I'm not sure why he's with you guys, but it looks like maybe he can't hurt anyone without pain."
"Are we taking him with us? That doesn't seem safe." Dawn asks, holding on to Buffy's arm.
"I think that we all stay together, in case he has something to do with your memories. Don't worry about him, if he gets out of line, I'll take him out." Faith looks over at Dawn surprised by how much she seems to care about comforting Dawn. "Alright, let's get out of here. Since I'm the only one who knows where we're going, I'll lead the way."
She heads out the door, hoping they'll all follow quickly. A small smirk reaches her lips. She's never thought of herself as a leader, she never figured she had the smarts required to lead anyone. Somehow finding these people, some of whom were once sort of her friends, completely helpless as awakened something in her. Something that made her want to guide others and keep them safe.
As the group approaches Revello drive all seemed quiet. They managed to avoid any conflicts along the way, but Faith is surprised to see a figure waiting on the porch.
"Angel? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question! What is going on here, why did you break out of jail?" He's startled to see the group behind her and their shocked looks at the mention of jail.
"It's complicated, let's get inside and discuss it." Faith pushes past him to go inside.
Once the group is safely inside, Angel and Faith move to the kitchen to talk. Leaving the rest of the gang to stay in the living room.
"How did you know that I would be here?" Faith had hoped her escape had gone unnoticed, if Angel was here, that likely meant she was in trouble.
"I thought maybe you had found out about…" He looks around nervously. He hadn't wanted to worry Faith about the condition Buffy was in. He was afraid she would do exactly what she did and that she wouldn't be ready to be out in the world.
"Found out about what?"
"Buffy… she's not handling being resurrected all that well."
Faith frowns and leans back against the counter but says nothing.
"Tell me what's been going on here," Angel asks, grateful that Faith isn't pressing him on the issue of Buffy's state of mind.
"I found them at a magic shop, apparently owned by Anya, they were all passed out, and when they finally woke up, they had no idea who they were."
Angel pauses and thinks. He knows that Buffy has been going through a difficult time since she was resurrected. He doesn't think she would cast a spell to erase her pain, but maybe someone else would have. "I'm going to look around, maybe there's a clue as to what happened."
Faith is relieved that he isn't more angry with her for breaking out, but she's annoyed that he didn't tell her sooner that Buffy was struggling. Not that she thought she could in anyway help Buffy with her problems.
They enter the living room to find questioning stares from everyone. "So, uh this is Angel. He's a vampire too, but a good one."
"Like me? Am I a good vampire?" Spike asks hopefully.
"What! No, totally not like you." Angel answers with a scowl. Spike frowns and leans back against the wall.
"Why am I friends with so many vampires?" Buffy asks. "Aren't we supposed to kill vampires?"
"Mostly – yeah. Just like a lot of things, it's complicated." Faith smiles down at Buffy, unsure of what Angel meant earlier about her not handling being resurrected all that well. She was surrounded by family and friends, how could she not be happy to be back?
Angel has been looking around while the others were talking. He notices a burnt bag by the fireplace and inspects it. "Well, this explains some things." He turns back to the group. "Everyone, please check your pockets for a crystal. It should be black."
"L-like this one?" Willow holds up a black crystal she found in her shirt pocket.
"Yes, just like that one." Angel takes it and sighs. "Faith, let's talk in the other room for a moment."
Faith follows him into the dining room and waits for him to explain.
"Once I break this crystal their memories will return."
"Ok, so then smash it already, let's get this over with." She reaches for it, intending to crush it right away. Angel pulls it away before she can complete the action.
"Wait, once it's broken, they'll remember who you are too."
Realization dawns on her what that might mean. "Oh, so I should probably get out of here before you do it."
"I have another idea. You came here for a reason. This might be your only chance to talk to Buffy and actually have her listen. She will remember what you tell her once the spell is broken."
Faith's eyes light up a little. She did not expect a chance to explain herself to Buffy without a fight. The opportunity to explain herself to a compliant Buffy is tempting. She thinks about it some more. "No, I can't do it like that. It isn't fair. B is either going to give me a chance, or she isn't. Doing it this way would be like tricking her, I won't do it."
Angel smiles in reply, he had hoped Faith would say this. A sure sign that she has changed that she does deserve forgiveness. He hopes Buffy can find a way to accept that she's here to help. "There's one more thing you should know before we do this. When Buffy died, before they resurrected her, she was not in a hell dimension. She was in heaven."
Faith's eyes widen in shock and horror at this news. "They pulled her out of heaven! How could they do such a thing!"
"They didn't know, they just needed her to come back. They didn't think about where she was. I'm pretty confident Willow cast this spell to remove Buffy's memory of heaven. It just went a lot too far."
Faith's face is full of fury now, she grabbed the crystal from Angel's hand and crushed it. Turning to charge back into the main room determined yell at Willow when Angel restrained her.
"You can't go in there angry, they expect and fear angry Faith. They need to see that you can be something else."
Faith relents and nods at his words, knowing they are true.
"I'll talk to them first." Angel heads into the living room, and Faith stays behind.
The scene in the living room is not great. Willow is crying, Tara and Dawn have run upstairs, and Buffy is staring off into space.
"Well, I think I'll just be on my way," Spike gets up to leave.
"We're right behind you," Xander and Anya quickly exit the house as well.
"Buffy?" Giles calls out cautiously.
Her cold eyes snap up to him, "just go." She replies with quiet venom.
He nods, feeling terribly guilty about leaving, but believes that it's the right thing to do. He knows Buffy can handle anything the world throws at her. He exits the house with a slight nod to Faith who is standing in the hallway.
Angel looks between Buffy and Willow, not sure what to do. He wants to yell at Willow for her misuse of magic but can see the sorrow on her face. If he knew more about what was happening with her and magic he might have taken more action. But he didn't know, he only assumed she was sad because her spell backfired.
"Buffy?" Angel gently says, afraid to frighten the despairing blonde slayer.
"Is she still here?" Buffy's tone was shaky and a little hard to determine.
"Yeah, I'm still here." Faith replies as she slowly steps into the living room. She's expecting Buffy to be furious and attack her. The sadness she sees in Buffy's eyes is devastating. She's never seen the usually upbeat slayer look anywhere near this defeated.
"I don't know why you came here today," Buffy says quietly, watching Faith carefully. "Thank you for keeping us safe." She says in almost a whisper.
This was not at all the reaction Faith was expecting. Yelling, punching, kicking maybe even some stabbing, but not a thank you. "Uh, yeah. No problem, B."