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"Faith... I.." Giles stammered out.
Fatih just continued to stand there motionless, but Willow, who had shouted out, spoke for her, "What do you mean? How do you know?"
"We have been researching all night..." Giles started.
"WE?!?! What do you mean we? Why weren't we called in? Why just them?" Willow glared.
He looked sheepish at this point. "There wouldn't have been anything for you do but worry. Jenny could look up everything we needed on the computer, Angel and I translated many of the texts, and Xander had a few books that were part of his personal collection that we needed him to get. We didn't want to worry you without knowing.. if we were right."
"How long have you been keeping this quiet?" she continued.
"The others didn't know until last night, but I had suspicions that something was coming since yesterday."
"Okay, fine. Now, how do we stop this?"
"We don't," came the whispered reply.
"But we've stopped these prophecies before. Why is this any different?"
Giles sighed and waved them over to the Codex. "This. The Codex. There is nothing in it that has not come to pass. This was where it is written that Faith will face the Master, that she will die, and then he will be free."
This entire time I watched Faith to gauge her reaction. At first, I could only see shock over her face. Worry quickly replaced it, but was controlled, barely. Anger flashed through her eyes when Will asked how long we had been hiding this from her, and passed when Giles explained. Confidence flowed back across her demeanor when Willow asked how to stop it. Then, when the answer came... nothing.
Not Fear.
Not Anger.
Not Confusion.
Nothing.
Her face, her stance, and even her eyes emptied of emotion as she heard Giles explained why we couldn't change what was destined to happen. Her words came as a shock to everyone, me included, when they came out:
"How?"
Willow and Giles stopped their arguing to turn to Faith. "Um... What?" Giles asked.
"How am I supposed to die?" Faith asked stonily.
"It.. It doesn't say," he said as he moved forward.
Faith was quiet for a moment as she thought. "Will it hurt?" she asked child-like, as if her most cherished illusion had been shattered.
By now, Giles had moved close enough to reach out to her. "Faith, I.. I can't possibly know what you are going through..."
This seemed to snap her back to reality. Faith shruged off his arm. "NO! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! I FINALLY GET A LIFE LIKE I WANTED AND NOW YOU TELL ME I'M GOING TO DIE! NO WAY!"
"Faith, I know this is hard..." Angel started
She glared at him making him shrink back. "What the hell would you know about it, Deadboy? You're not dying anytime soon."
"Faith, please we.. we have been looking..." Giles stammered.
"Lotta good that did," she snorted and continued with glistening eyes. "No, this isn't.. I can't do this. Not after I found something I never had before..."
"Faith, can I talk to you alone?" I said.
She looked at me surprised for a moment before nodding. I asked Giles for his keys to unlock the school doors then I guided her to the back entrance to the library. Faith looked at me confused as I led her out and along the side of the building well past hearing distance, even Angel's, before stopping to turn to her.
I took in her appearance once more. Her face showed her fear and pain, but underneath was trust in us that right now was wavering. I sighed as I started. "Faith, when I heard what the prophecy really was, I was like 'no big', been there done that, right? After a while, though, I started to realize that nothing in those books or the computer or anything else was going to just say 'here's the answer'. And I panicked. Big time. I couldn't really handle the fact that we would lose you..."
"This isn't a comforting speech, Xand," Faith remarked bitterly and looked away.
I continued as if she hadn't spoken. "But sometime during that little conversation back there I realized a few things. One, Giles doesn't know everything. Neither do Angel or Ms. Calendar."
"Still not helping."
"Two, prohecies are written by people, for the most part. And people make mistakes, whether it was how it was written to how they interpret what they saw."
"But remember Giles said..." she started, but I could see the spark of hope in her eyes.
I interupted her again. "Three, your destiny isn't set in stone, no matter what some stupid book says. I realized that the day I first decided to start fighting vampires. There may be something that pushes you in a certain direction, but in the end it will be up to you." I smirked as I said, "You were also forgetting Point Number One."
The beginnings of a smile appeared on her beautiful face. "Anything else?"
"And Four," I smiled, "you have us to help you. We'll back you up whenever you need it. You know I'm always ready to back you up." I paused as I reached for her shoulder. "I won't let this beat us, got it?"
I stared directly into brown eyes trying to show her how much I meant what I said. She looked into my eyes, and when her face broke out into that devil-may-care grin that I love, I knew she understood.
"Thank you," Faith replied as she held back unshed tears. And then, surprisingly, leapt forward giving me a bone crushing hug, literally.
"No prob," I wheezed. "Not to be rude, but can I breathe now?"
She released me, hesitantly it seemed. "Sorry, didn't think you'd ever want me to let you go," she smirked.
"Never said you had to," I grinned. "But since I kinda like the whole breathing thing, I figured I should ask you to ease up. I fully intend to be around for your hugging pleasure."
"More like your pleasure," she retorted.
"I'm not denying that. What do you say? Do we head back inside, and see what we really can do about this thing?"
Faith looked over at me for a moment and then said, "Why not?"
As we headed back inside, I silently prayed to whoever might be listening that they might help us get through this. Please, I thought, help us keep her safe and alive.
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