"Bring back Buffy?" Spike asks. "What the hell are you talking about? Who's bringing her back?"
Angel glances at him. "I don't know. Maybe Willow…Dawn, I don't know. But someone thinks we're going to try…and wants to make sure we don't succeed."
I'm a little stunned. "How could they even do that?"
Xander turns to me. "I told you, Willow's a little freaked. She might be stupid enough to try something."
"How strong, exactly, has Willow gotten?" I ask, remembering her black eyes.
Spike and Xander exchange glances. "Strong," they say together. Oh, great. Way to go Faith, piss off the witch.
Spike clears his throat. "Our little Samantha's past the wiggling her nose to make a pencil float stage, let's put it that way."
Angel's quiet. He looks around us. "We should go see Giles," he says.
I nod. "Sure. Let me check in with Sloan first."
"We don't have time for that," Spike says.
I glare at him. "I have to," I tell him, and walk out. Xander follows me.
"It'll only take a minute," I say, heading towards Sloan's apartment.
He nods. "I know," he says as Spike and Angel catch up with us.
We take off only to discover Sloan's not home. "Guess he's got his own night life," I say, and scribble a note to him and sticking it through a nail on the front door.
"Maybe he's out looking for you," Xander suggests.
I shrug. "Maybe…who cares? We gotta get to Giles."
"And more importantly, Red," Spike says.
"Willow's really strong enough to do this?" I ask as we hustle to get to the Magic Box.
Spike nods. "She very well could be. The little Wicca's done some freaky stuff in recent times. Brain-sucking Glory, the voice of God act she pulled on me that night…"
Xander looks confused. "Oh, right. When you started talking out loud to no one. That was pretty cool, though. Very Yoda."
"Huh?" I ask.
"She's got the power to talk to you, inside your head. Only you can hear her. Funky," Spike explained. "Pulled that on me when we were fighting Glory…got me upstairs to help Dawn. Fat lot of good I did."
"You tried," Xander said.
Spike looks surprised at this. "Not hard enough. Let Doc push me right over the side."
"You fell several hundred feet onto concrete."
"Yeah, and I walked away," Spike says, bitterly.
Angel's quiet. Then—"At least you were there," he says softly.
We look at him. "Mate, you weren't even in this dimension. You couldn't have known," Spike says.
Angel looks disgusted. "The night of her mother's funeral…I asked her how long she wanted me to stay and she said, "How's forever?" And I left anyway."
Xander, Spike and I have stopped walking and are just staring at him. Angel's not big on opening up. He realizes we're not with him and turns around.
"Angel," Xander says, "she told me about that night. I was ragging on you for not showing up," Angel's eyebrows raise up, "and she told me…you were there…that you stayed with her all night. And that she's the one who told you to leave."
Angel looks away, turns around and continues walking. "No…I left her…again," is all he says, regret in his tone.
No one knows what to say to this. We walked the rest of the way in silence.
***
We reach the Magic Box and I suddenly get really tense. Xander puts a comforting hand on my arm and I try to smile like I'm fine, this doesn't matter to me, but I know he knows it does. "You've got three people right behind you," he tells me.
We walk inside to find Giles putting some stuff on shelves. He turns at the sound of the door opening. "Well," he says.
I stick next to Spike as Xander and Angel head for the Watcher. "We've got a problem," Xander says.
"A problem?" Giles asked, walking towards us.
"Of the bad variety," Xander tells him. "Where's Willow?"
"And the niblet," Spike adds.
"I-I don't know. They left here earlier, I suppose they went home."
"I'll call," Xander offers and rushes to the phone. "Ahn?" he calls to the back of the store out she walks a moment later. "Hey," he grins at her, picking up the phone.
"What's going on?" she asks.
"Anya, did Willow, Tara or Dawn say anything to you about doing a spell?" Angel asks.
"A spell? No, not today. Why?" she asks, then notices me.
"Um…." She says, pointing to me.
"Yeah, Faith. She's here to help," Spike says.
"Help with what, exactly?" Giles asks.
"We got boosted tonight by some vamps," I tell him. "Angel did, actually. They told him they have to stop us from bringing back B."
I think Giles eyebrows flew off his head and stopped somewhere about three miles up. "Bring her…bring her back? But who…Oh God. Willow? She wouldn't be that stupid. She'd think this through."
"May I remind you that she was all for trying to bring back Joyce? And that after her girlfriend got brain-sucked, she told you all she was fine, and you sods believed her, and she went after the bitch-god? She's not fine," Spike says, lighting up another cigarette.
"We don't know," Angel says. "We need to talk to her."
"Yes, I'd say so," Giles says, taking off his glasses.
Xander returns. "They're on their way over here, all three of them." He looks at me. "Um, I didn't tell them you were here."
Okay, fine. That's fine. They wouldn't come if they knew, I understand. I nod. "'Kay." I turn to Giles. "Can I use your phone? Need to see if Sloan's home yet."
He watches me for a second, then nods. "Of course. By all means."
"Thanks."
As I walk away I hear Xander tell them, in what I assume is supposed to be a lowered voice, "That's the second time tonight she's gone to check in with the new Watcher, Giles. That's a good sign, right?"
I don't hear Giles reply. I reach the phone behind the counter and dial. Sloan's still not home, so I leave another message. I guess checking in with my Watcher, willingly, is a new thing for me. It occurs to me that I didn't even think twice about doing it, either. And I think that's a good thing.
I walk back out into the main room and join them all sitting at this cool round table with a big lighted section in the middle. "No dice," I tell them.
"You can't locate your Watcher?" Giles asks.
I shake my head.
He clears his throat. "How are you, ah, getting along with the American?" he asks me, his words sounding just a teensy bit forced.
I nod. "He's cool. Wild strong, good training partner."
"And your slaying? I assume you've made your presence known?"
I nod again.
"They know she's here," Spike says. I glance at him gratefully.
"Tonight's the most action I've seen since I got here," I say. "Three vamps alone before the five holding Angel."
Anya sits up. "We heard they didn't call another Slayer," she says brightly. She's a perky little thing, in't she?
"No, they reinstated me."
"Only Slayer I've heard of who gets called twice," Spike says, dragging long on his smoke.
I'm really, really uncomfortable. "Yeah, I guess."
Angel clears his throat. "So, Willow didn't say anything about planning a spell?" he asks Xander.
Xander shakes his head. "No, but I didn't expect her to just come clean over the phone."
"What spell?" Anya asks.
"Word on the street is that we're going to try and bring back Buffy," Xander explains to her and her eyes go wide.
"And if they don't want her back, you can bet they don't want Faith here, either," Angel says. "You need to be extra careful out there. Someone should patrol with you."
I mentally count my list of friends…that pretty much just leaves him.
"I will," Spike tell me softly. I nod at him.
"Resurrection spells are dangerous. I've seen them performed. They almost always go horribly wrong. The person is…different," Anya says, worried.
"How so?" Spike asks.
"Sometimes they're just the opposite of what they were before… you know, if they were quiet now they're loud, if they were nice now they're mean, but most of the time it's drastic. Homicidal different. And they're…physically different. You're talking about taking someone and stuffing them back in their body. It's not pretty," she tells us.
"It's not right," Giles says softly. "The whole thing isn't right. Things are…the way they're supposed to be. We have to let it be. She's gone."
Everyone's quiet. Then—"It's not the way it should be," Angel says. "They told me she'd live," he says, almost to himself.
"What? Who told you?" Giles asks.
Angel looks up, pain in his eyes. "The Powers That Be. They told me that if I gave up my life, she'd live."
Xander squints his eyes at Angel. "What are you talking about?"
Angel hesitates. "Last year…I became mortal…for one day. Buffy…she was there, she came to visit me in LA and it happened while she was there."
We're floored. No questions…this is huge.
"You gave it up?" I ask softly. He nods. "Why?"
He hunches over, buries his face in his hands. "Demon's blood mixed with mine and made me mortal. But I lost all my strength. When the demon regenerated I went after it…Buffy had to rescue me." His voice is muffled from beneath his hands, but there's no mistaking the pain in his voice. "I realized that I was no good that way…I'd get her killed, or others, or myself. So I went to the Powers. They told me that if I stayed mortal Buffy would die. So I asked them to change me back."
"Buffy never mentioned this," Giles says, stunned.
"She didn't know. The Powers swallowed the day. She doesn't remember, the day doesn't exist," Angel says, moving his hands from his face.
"How do you remember then?" I ask.
He looks up at me. "It was the only way to make sure we didn't do the same things over again. Only I remember."
"You never told her," Spike says. Angel shakes his head. "And these Powers, they told you if you gave up your humanity, the Slayer would live."
"More or less."
"Then go to the Powers!" Xander cries, "Make them honor the deal! You gave up your life for hers, they should be fair."
"It's not like I got it in writing, Xander," Angel says.
I can't get past this. "You could have had it all," I say and everyone turns to me. "She was there with you…you two were together in LA, and you gave it up so she could live."
Angel stares at me, then nods.