Five years later...
Chapter 2-The Arrival
LA International Airport was a busy place, but then again, that was LA for you, thought the raven-haired woman as she headed outside the terminal to wait for her ride. She didn't have too long to wait. Faith was no sooner walking through the doors when she saw a car waiting at the curbside. She knew the car was there for her because Angel was leaning against it, watching her.
Faith walked toward him and smiled coyly. "You don't waste any time, do you?"
Angel shook his head and he smiled wryly. "Not in my life. Time is too precious to waste." He paused. "How are you doing?"
She wanted to say "Five by five," but felt that maybe she should try something new. Something that wouldn't illicit memories of her former self from just a few years ago. So she bit her tongue and then she said, "Alive and kicking. How about yourself?"
He grinned. "Kicking."
She only had one bag and it contained everything she owned. She didn't have anything else. "So you've come to take me away from it all, right? Quentin Travers told me to be expecting you."
He opened the door for her. "What else did he say?"
"He said that this was the only way I could truly redeem myself. He also said if I wanted my freedom, I would do as you asked without question." She shrugged. "Other than that...he didn't tell me a damn thing."
"But you accepted his conditions?"
"I did." She looked up at him. "I will do as you say...but I will ask questions." She climbed into the car.
Angel closed the door and he walked over to the drivers side. He climbed in and he put the car into drive. As he pulled away from the curb, he glanced at her. "Do you have any questions?"
"Just one." Her eyes locked onto him with deep emotion, but she kept it back as much as she could. "Why am I here?"
Angel stopped at a red light. "I need your help."
She thought about that. If Angel wanted her help, she would give it. She owed him that much and more. "Angel, I will do what I can to make it up--"
"No," he suddenly told her. "Faith, let's get something straight right now. There's no score cards here. I'm not keeping a tally of all the wrong you've done in your life, or of the people you've hurt. If you want to do that, that's fine, but I know what you've been going through and you don't have anything to prove with me."
She swallowed nervously. "You mean...there's no slate to clean?"
He shook his head. "No slate to clean." He drove onto the main highway. "You don't need me to forgive you, Faith. I'm just as guilty of wrong doing as you are. The only difference is that I lost my soul and then got it back. You were just a little...messed up."
Faith nodded and laughed nervously. "Yeah. I really was fucked up, wasn't I?" She looked at him. "Sorry. Freudian slip."
Angel grinned. "That's okay."
Faith hesitated. "Look, Angel...then I have to know if this has anything to do with...with Buffy and the gang. Last I knew, they were sorely pissed off at me, and if I go back to Sunnydale now...what am I supposed to do? How can I make things right with them? I mean, God! I almost killed Willow! I switched bodies with B, and I know she'll want to kick my ass into the middle of next week. Angel, how do I fix this?"
"By helping someone in need."
"Who?"
Angel looked at her. He saw an all night diner and pulled into the parking lot. He and Faith got out and the entered into the diner. As they did, Faith realized just how hungry she was. Her stomach rumbled.
Angel grinned at her as they took a booth. A waitress came to them and filled their glasses with water. She handed them menu's and came back a few minutes later to take their order. Angel ordered a coffee, and Faith ordered a steak with mushrooms, a baked potato, green beans, and a cup of coffee.
"You really are hungry," Angel observed.
"You bet your ass I am, boyfriend," Faith retorted. "If you've seen the food I've been living off of, you'd be hungry, too."
They made small talk until the food arrived. When the waitress went away again, Angel wanted to be certain they wouldn't be interrupted, at least for awhile. The others back at the Hotel needed time to prepare anyway.
Faith recognized his look. He was getting ready for business. She took a sip of coffee and regarded him. "Am I going to be floored by this?" she asked.
Angel nodded his head. "Oh, yeah. I think you'll be floored by this. Actually, it was you who stumbled onto this whole mess to begin with."
Her face fell. "Oh, God." She dropped her fork. "You're saying this is my fault?"
"No," Angel quickly assured her. "No, Faith. You didn't do anything wrong. All you did was point the Council in the right direction and you let them know that something was wrong." He looked solemn. "It took them a long time to figure it out, but they finally did. Now...we have to correct the wrong that was done."
Faith picked up her fork and looked at him. "What direction did I point the Council to?" She began to eat her steak.
Angel hesitated. Then he took something out of his coat and he placed it onto the table between them. Faith took one look at the object and she hissed between her teeth.
"Jesus Christ, Angel!" she exclaimed. "What the hell is that thing doing here?" She seemed to back away from it. She even slid her dinner away from it as if it could contaminate it somehow. Faith found she could not take her eyes off the cheerleader trophy. "God, I feel like that fucking thing is watching me. It freaks me out!"
Angel let out a sigh. "You were the one who discovered it."
"Me? What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about what you told the Watcher's Council. How you woke up from your coma and then you went on a little sight-seeing tour through the ruins of the old High School. That's when you found this."
Faith nodded. "Yeah. I remember that, but how the hell did you get it? When I picked that thing up..." She shivered. "Damn it, Angel. That was one freaky thing I felt. I can't even begin to describe it. It was like for one whole second, I was trapped in this dark prison with some other girl." She pointed at the trophy. "After it passed, I dropped that thing where I found it and I ran like hell."
"Most of the Council thought you had made it up."
"What? They said that?" She frowned. "Those bastards."
"Some of them said you might have been hallucinating." He watched her.
She ground her teeth in anger. "Son-of-a-bitch! Hallucinating?!"
"Well, those who said that meant you had just come out of a coma and your mind could have been susceptible to hallucinations."
"I wasn't hallucinating anything," she protested.
Angel regarded her. "Faith, why don't you tell me what happened?" He waited.
Faith put her fork down and looked at Angel. She sighed. "It's not easy to describe, man."
"Try."
She paused in thought. Finally, she shrugged. "Okay." She let out a deep breath. "I'll tell you what I told the Council. After I left the hospital, I did go to the school to check it out. I mean, Jesus, Angel...I wake up and some girl I never saw before tells me that the whole school blew up...I mean, what a way to come back to the land of the living." She shook her head. "So I was curious. I went to the school and I even ventured into it's halls. What was left of them. Must have been a hell of an explosion."
"It was," Angel told her. "I was there."
"Right. Anyway, I found that trophy in the rubble. I don't know why I did it, but I picked it up. When I saw it there..." She took a deep breath. She tried to form what she had experienced into words. Finally, she looked at Angel. "I felt like the damned thing was calling me, Angel."
"It said your name?"
She shook her head. "No. It was more of a feeling than anything I can describe accurately. I felt some kind of presence and whatever the presence was..." She frowned. "It felt like terror. The presence was terrified."
Angel nodded. "You felt this...from the trophy."
Faith nodded. "Yes. So, God help me, I picked the freaking thing up and my mind took me to another place. It was like waking up from a coma again. I was in this place...but I don't know where or what it was. It was dark, and yet I could see clearly, and there was this girl..."
"What did she look like?"
Faith hesitated. "I...I'm not exactly sure. I only saw her for a second or two, and she was beyond FUBAR, you know? I mean, she was screaming in hysterics, Angel. Blood curdling screams that make your blood freeze. You know?"
Angel looked at her. "FUBAR?"
She returned his look. "Wait a minute. You're almost two hundred and fifty years old and you've never heard FUBAR?"
"Humor me."
Faith hesitated. Then she rolled her eyes. "It means, 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.'"
Angel paused. He suddenly looked weary. "Faith...did you recognize this girl?"
"I said I wasn't sure, Angel. It was only an image."
"But...?" Angel pressed her.
Faith sighed. "For just a second, I thought the girl I had seen was Willow Rosenberg." She shrugged. "But that's insane, right? So what are we even talking about?"
Angel looked at the trophy. "We are talking about Willow, Faith. Willow is trapped inside of this trophy, and she's been trapped in there for five years."
Faith froze. "Huh?"
"Ever since you told them about what you found at the school, the Council has been watching Willow closely...or at least the person masquerading as Willow. The trophy was taken to the Council and they examined it thoroughly. It seems they have discovered that there is a fifteen year old girl trapped inside the trophy."
Faith stared at him. "Are you shitting me?"
"No, Faith. I am not shitting you. Willow, the real Willow, is in this trophy and we have to get her out."
Faith picked up the trophy and stared at the eyes. She moved it back and forth and back and forth. She remembered once that the eyes had followed her, but this time, they didn't. "Are you sure, Angel?" she asked. "The eyes aren't following me this time."
Angel paused as he took a sip of coffee. "The Council had a spell placed on the trophy. They put Willow to sleep in the hopes that when we restore her, we'll be able to help her."
Faith frowned. "Do you think she'll really be FUBAR when she is restored?"
"Let's hope not, but that's why you're here. You saw her in there. It's our hope that maybe if she sees you, she'll recognize you."
"I don't mean to sound redundant, Angel...but are you shitting me?"
Angel frowned. "Can't you just ask me if I'm serious?"
She grinned. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. So will you help?"
"Hell, yeah. If I can." She thought of Buffy and the others. "Does the gang know about this?"
Angel shook his head. "With the exception of Giles, no. Buffy, Xander, and the rest of the Scoobies haven't a clue. In fact, we only told Giles a few days ago."
"And you convinced him?"
"We did."
"Angel...how did this happen?"
Angel sighed. "Buffy once told me about a powerful witch named Catherine Madison who had visions of living the life of someone young again. This woman used black arts to switch bodies with her own daughter, but Buffy thought that Giles had foiled her plans to live foot loose and fancy free. It's the Councils belief that somehow, she had switched bodies again with someone weak who was nearby. Someone she had to have made a link with somehow. That someone was Willow."
Faith paused to let it all sink in. There was a lot to swallow there. "So...what now?"
"We'll go back to the hotel." He looked at his watch. "Right about this time, Giles will have brought Willow, and the others will have her in a binding spell." He looked at Faith. "That's if all goes well."
Faith nodded. "How is Giles getting Willow here?"
Angel shrugged. "He said he would be able to convince her that we needed her help in the area of magic. He believes she would jump at the chance to show off her knowledge of the black arts."
"Jesus, Angel...was she still dating that Tara?" She shook her head. "I think that relationship just went south."
Angel paid for the dinner and then he took the trophy. Together, he and Faith headed back to Angel's car. They climbed into it and headed for the hotel. If they succeeded, they intended to put Willow back where she belonged. After that, the healing process was going to take a very long time.
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TO BE CONTINUED--
Chapter 2-The Arrival
LA International Airport was a busy place, but then again, that was LA for you, thought the raven-haired woman as she headed outside the terminal to wait for her ride. She didn't have too long to wait. Faith was no sooner walking through the doors when she saw a car waiting at the curbside. She knew the car was there for her because Angel was leaning against it, watching her.
Faith walked toward him and smiled coyly. "You don't waste any time, do you?"
Angel shook his head and he smiled wryly. "Not in my life. Time is too precious to waste." He paused. "How are you doing?"
She wanted to say "Five by five," but felt that maybe she should try something new. Something that wouldn't illicit memories of her former self from just a few years ago. So she bit her tongue and then she said, "Alive and kicking. How about yourself?"
He grinned. "Kicking."
She only had one bag and it contained everything she owned. She didn't have anything else. "So you've come to take me away from it all, right? Quentin Travers told me to be expecting you."
He opened the door for her. "What else did he say?"
"He said that this was the only way I could truly redeem myself. He also said if I wanted my freedom, I would do as you asked without question." She shrugged. "Other than that...he didn't tell me a damn thing."
"But you accepted his conditions?"
"I did." She looked up at him. "I will do as you say...but I will ask questions." She climbed into the car.
Angel closed the door and he walked over to the drivers side. He climbed in and he put the car into drive. As he pulled away from the curb, he glanced at her. "Do you have any questions?"
"Just one." Her eyes locked onto him with deep emotion, but she kept it back as much as she could. "Why am I here?"
Angel stopped at a red light. "I need your help."
She thought about that. If Angel wanted her help, she would give it. She owed him that much and more. "Angel, I will do what I can to make it up--"
"No," he suddenly told her. "Faith, let's get something straight right now. There's no score cards here. I'm not keeping a tally of all the wrong you've done in your life, or of the people you've hurt. If you want to do that, that's fine, but I know what you've been going through and you don't have anything to prove with me."
She swallowed nervously. "You mean...there's no slate to clean?"
He shook his head. "No slate to clean." He drove onto the main highway. "You don't need me to forgive you, Faith. I'm just as guilty of wrong doing as you are. The only difference is that I lost my soul and then got it back. You were just a little...messed up."
Faith nodded and laughed nervously. "Yeah. I really was fucked up, wasn't I?" She looked at him. "Sorry. Freudian slip."
Angel grinned. "That's okay."
Faith hesitated. "Look, Angel...then I have to know if this has anything to do with...with Buffy and the gang. Last I knew, they were sorely pissed off at me, and if I go back to Sunnydale now...what am I supposed to do? How can I make things right with them? I mean, God! I almost killed Willow! I switched bodies with B, and I know she'll want to kick my ass into the middle of next week. Angel, how do I fix this?"
"By helping someone in need."
"Who?"
Angel looked at her. He saw an all night diner and pulled into the parking lot. He and Faith got out and the entered into the diner. As they did, Faith realized just how hungry she was. Her stomach rumbled.
Angel grinned at her as they took a booth. A waitress came to them and filled their glasses with water. She handed them menu's and came back a few minutes later to take their order. Angel ordered a coffee, and Faith ordered a steak with mushrooms, a baked potato, green beans, and a cup of coffee.
"You really are hungry," Angel observed.
"You bet your ass I am, boyfriend," Faith retorted. "If you've seen the food I've been living off of, you'd be hungry, too."
They made small talk until the food arrived. When the waitress went away again, Angel wanted to be certain they wouldn't be interrupted, at least for awhile. The others back at the Hotel needed time to prepare anyway.
Faith recognized his look. He was getting ready for business. She took a sip of coffee and regarded him. "Am I going to be floored by this?" she asked.
Angel nodded his head. "Oh, yeah. I think you'll be floored by this. Actually, it was you who stumbled onto this whole mess to begin with."
Her face fell. "Oh, God." She dropped her fork. "You're saying this is my fault?"
"No," Angel quickly assured her. "No, Faith. You didn't do anything wrong. All you did was point the Council in the right direction and you let them know that something was wrong." He looked solemn. "It took them a long time to figure it out, but they finally did. Now...we have to correct the wrong that was done."
Faith picked up her fork and looked at him. "What direction did I point the Council to?" She began to eat her steak.
Angel hesitated. Then he took something out of his coat and he placed it onto the table between them. Faith took one look at the object and she hissed between her teeth.
"Jesus Christ, Angel!" she exclaimed. "What the hell is that thing doing here?" She seemed to back away from it. She even slid her dinner away from it as if it could contaminate it somehow. Faith found she could not take her eyes off the cheerleader trophy. "God, I feel like that fucking thing is watching me. It freaks me out!"
Angel let out a sigh. "You were the one who discovered it."
"Me? What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about what you told the Watcher's Council. How you woke up from your coma and then you went on a little sight-seeing tour through the ruins of the old High School. That's when you found this."
Faith nodded. "Yeah. I remember that, but how the hell did you get it? When I picked that thing up..." She shivered. "Damn it, Angel. That was one freaky thing I felt. I can't even begin to describe it. It was like for one whole second, I was trapped in this dark prison with some other girl." She pointed at the trophy. "After it passed, I dropped that thing where I found it and I ran like hell."
"Most of the Council thought you had made it up."
"What? They said that?" She frowned. "Those bastards."
"Some of them said you might have been hallucinating." He watched her.
She ground her teeth in anger. "Son-of-a-bitch! Hallucinating?!"
"Well, those who said that meant you had just come out of a coma and your mind could have been susceptible to hallucinations."
"I wasn't hallucinating anything," she protested.
Angel regarded her. "Faith, why don't you tell me what happened?" He waited.
Faith put her fork down and looked at Angel. She sighed. "It's not easy to describe, man."
"Try."
She paused in thought. Finally, she shrugged. "Okay." She let out a deep breath. "I'll tell you what I told the Council. After I left the hospital, I did go to the school to check it out. I mean, Jesus, Angel...I wake up and some girl I never saw before tells me that the whole school blew up...I mean, what a way to come back to the land of the living." She shook her head. "So I was curious. I went to the school and I even ventured into it's halls. What was left of them. Must have been a hell of an explosion."
"It was," Angel told her. "I was there."
"Right. Anyway, I found that trophy in the rubble. I don't know why I did it, but I picked it up. When I saw it there..." She took a deep breath. She tried to form what she had experienced into words. Finally, she looked at Angel. "I felt like the damned thing was calling me, Angel."
"It said your name?"
She shook her head. "No. It was more of a feeling than anything I can describe accurately. I felt some kind of presence and whatever the presence was..." She frowned. "It felt like terror. The presence was terrified."
Angel nodded. "You felt this...from the trophy."
Faith nodded. "Yes. So, God help me, I picked the freaking thing up and my mind took me to another place. It was like waking up from a coma again. I was in this place...but I don't know where or what it was. It was dark, and yet I could see clearly, and there was this girl..."
"What did she look like?"
Faith hesitated. "I...I'm not exactly sure. I only saw her for a second or two, and she was beyond FUBAR, you know? I mean, she was screaming in hysterics, Angel. Blood curdling screams that make your blood freeze. You know?"
Angel looked at her. "FUBAR?"
She returned his look. "Wait a minute. You're almost two hundred and fifty years old and you've never heard FUBAR?"
"Humor me."
Faith hesitated. Then she rolled her eyes. "It means, 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.'"
Angel paused. He suddenly looked weary. "Faith...did you recognize this girl?"
"I said I wasn't sure, Angel. It was only an image."
"But...?" Angel pressed her.
Faith sighed. "For just a second, I thought the girl I had seen was Willow Rosenberg." She shrugged. "But that's insane, right? So what are we even talking about?"
Angel looked at the trophy. "We are talking about Willow, Faith. Willow is trapped inside of this trophy, and she's been trapped in there for five years."
Faith froze. "Huh?"
"Ever since you told them about what you found at the school, the Council has been watching Willow closely...or at least the person masquerading as Willow. The trophy was taken to the Council and they examined it thoroughly. It seems they have discovered that there is a fifteen year old girl trapped inside the trophy."
Faith stared at him. "Are you shitting me?"
"No, Faith. I am not shitting you. Willow, the real Willow, is in this trophy and we have to get her out."
Faith picked up the trophy and stared at the eyes. She moved it back and forth and back and forth. She remembered once that the eyes had followed her, but this time, they didn't. "Are you sure, Angel?" she asked. "The eyes aren't following me this time."
Angel paused as he took a sip of coffee. "The Council had a spell placed on the trophy. They put Willow to sleep in the hopes that when we restore her, we'll be able to help her."
Faith frowned. "Do you think she'll really be FUBAR when she is restored?"
"Let's hope not, but that's why you're here. You saw her in there. It's our hope that maybe if she sees you, she'll recognize you."
"I don't mean to sound redundant, Angel...but are you shitting me?"
Angel frowned. "Can't you just ask me if I'm serious?"
She grinned. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. So will you help?"
"Hell, yeah. If I can." She thought of Buffy and the others. "Does the gang know about this?"
Angel shook his head. "With the exception of Giles, no. Buffy, Xander, and the rest of the Scoobies haven't a clue. In fact, we only told Giles a few days ago."
"And you convinced him?"
"We did."
"Angel...how did this happen?"
Angel sighed. "Buffy once told me about a powerful witch named Catherine Madison who had visions of living the life of someone young again. This woman used black arts to switch bodies with her own daughter, but Buffy thought that Giles had foiled her plans to live foot loose and fancy free. It's the Councils belief that somehow, she had switched bodies again with someone weak who was nearby. Someone she had to have made a link with somehow. That someone was Willow."
Faith paused to let it all sink in. There was a lot to swallow there. "So...what now?"
"We'll go back to the hotel." He looked at his watch. "Right about this time, Giles will have brought Willow, and the others will have her in a binding spell." He looked at Faith. "That's if all goes well."
Faith nodded. "How is Giles getting Willow here?"
Angel shrugged. "He said he would be able to convince her that we needed her help in the area of magic. He believes she would jump at the chance to show off her knowledge of the black arts."
"Jesus, Angel...was she still dating that Tara?" She shook her head. "I think that relationship just went south."
Angel paid for the dinner and then he took the trophy. Together, he and Faith headed back to Angel's car. They climbed into it and headed for the hotel. If they succeeded, they intended to put Willow back where she belonged. After that, the healing process was going to take a very long time.
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TO BE CONTINUED--