"Dead," Faith repeated slowly.
"Um, yes," Giles affirmed.
Toying with the sleeve of her orange jumpsuit thoughtfully, Faith
sat in silence for several minutes. "Why are you telling me this?" she
asked finally. "I mean, after all that Iíve done to you and all."
"Angel," coughed Giles delicately. "Um, Angel managed to convince
us you were honestly attempting to change for the better. Besides..."
"Not too fond of the Watcher's Council, huh?" Faith grinned.
"Don't worry, Giles, I'm with you there." She frowned suddenly. "But what
good is you telling me going to do? Seriously. I came here of my own free
will, Giles. Are you really sure it wouldn't be better if there weren't
a new slayer, someone... well, someone not me? Look," she sighed. "Iíve
done a lot of really bad stuff. Plus some. And yes, I'm trying to reform,
but how do you know I wouldn't go all psycho on you if I got slaying privileges
again?"
"I don't," Giles said seriously. "But we can't just let them
kill you."
"Sure you can. I would've killed you guys five times over, if
I'd had the chance." Faith laughed bitterly.
Giles smiled sadly. "But you didn't, Faith. And that's the point."
Chewing her lip thoughtfully, Faith glanced around her at the
hellhole she had called home for months. Then, with a look of supreme determination,
she fixed her eyes on Giles. "What are you planning to do?"
"Get you out of here," he answered simply.
"So, uh, how exactly are we planning on getting Faith out of a
maximum security prison?"
Willow Rosenburg gave her lifelong best friend as annoyed a glance
as she could. "Don't be so pessimistic, Xander," she replied. "We have
two witches, a nice soul-y vampire, a former vengeance demon, weapons,
and, uh," she glanced around at the rest of the assembled people, "a whole
lot of pep."
"Oh, good, we'll cheer our way into the prison," Xander groaned.
The room fell silent. Cordelia, sensing the uncomfortable silence,
finally cut in nervously.
"I know some cheers," she offered.
"Dear God, we're doomed," Giles murmured.
"Wouldn't it be great if there were some kind of spell or something
that could help us?" Anya mused.
Every eye in the room turned towards her.
"Anya," Willow grinned. "I think you just may be a genius."