Chapter 3
*****
It's 6 AM in the morning and someone's at the front door, pressing the buzzer repeatedly and waking Faith up from her peaceful slumber, slowly Faith starts to wake up from the irritating sound.
"When I get that idiot in my hands that wakes me up at this god awful time", Faith grumbles to herself when she gets herself out of her warm and cosy bed and puts on a rob and sword. Centring herself for a moment Faith takes in the house, everything is safe and quite, no threats.
The idiot at least hasn't awaken Dawn yet, good. Approaching the door Faith takes a moment and looks trough the door to ascertain he/she/it doesn't pose a very big threat.
At the front door stands, overweight midget in a business suit, sweating like hell, looks like he wants to stay and run at the same time, being anywhere else being preferable than at this place and time. Keeping my hand on my sword I open the door in one swift motion, scaring the hell out of the midget.
"Who are you and what the hell are you doing here this early at my front door!" I ask the midget with my most threatening voice and expression.
The Midget jumps backward almost 2 meter and lands on his back when I open the door, holding his briefcase in front of him like a shield.
"Please don't kill me, please I was only hired to give you some papers and other items in the event you would show up here at your house." trying his best to get more space between himself and me.
"What do you mean, if I showed up here, no one knows I'm here and that the house belongs to me, who are you and who send you." I grab the midget by his collar and lift him into the air, keeping him there, he starts to turn red.
"Speak fast before I change my mind about ripping you to pieces." my mind takes off, imagining cause scenarios possible, who could it be, the council have been keeping tabs on the place in the event I would show up her. Or W&H still wanting to get rid of me for double-crossing them and not killing Angel. Before I could think up anymore the midget interrupted me.
"I was instructed by the late Mayor Wilkins, in the event you showed up in Sunnydale at this house to hand you this parcel, and these papers, that make you his only heir to all his money, fortunes and other properties. All are listed in the papers, The parcel contains a videocassette for you eyes only." In the most meek voice I've ever heard.
Hands me the papers and parcel from his case and I release my hold on him and he drops to the ground and scurries away as fast as he can and out through the gate. I'm not even looking at him anymore, another parcel from the Mayor. Close the door and head for the living room, to see what the Mayor has to say to me now, how did he know about the house? I didn't even know about it.
Opening the parcel, I put the cassette in the video and sit on the couch in front of the TV waiting for the message to start.
*****
The face of Wilkins appears on the screen sitting behind his desk, smiling in the camera, same getup like in his last message.
"First things first, forget everything I said to you in the first message I send to you. There where some new development between the first message and this one."
"When you came to me after dusting Trick, I was suspicious. You came to town on the run for Kakistos and holed up in that fleabag of roach motel. Never having enough money to get as much food as you needed, barely scraping enough money together for the rent."
"Being isolated from the rest of the of those accursed scoobie gang. Being kept out of the inner gang and alone."
"I couldn't figure out way they kept you so isolated, where they planning something for you, being a double agent? It made no sense, having such a powerful new alley and treating you so bad, like they didn't want you around."
"Then that unfortunate accident of killing Finch in the alley, doing me a hugh favour, he was going to betray me. And your consequent proposal to work for me."
"At the same time you had a trust fund of a million dollar, a credit card with a 3000 dollar limit on it and the House. Why would you want to work for me if you had all that? I couldn't figure it out and it really started to bother me."
"So I thought at first you where send by them to infiltrate city hall and find out what I was planning."
"I started to wait to see when you would stab me in the back, and when it didn't happen, I started to make more inquires to find out what was going on. I started to trust you, you weren't a double agent planted by the so called Scooby gang, they wouldn't have the brainpower and will to pull it of without slipping up"
"There had to be another reason for you living in that roach motel and was determent to find out what it was."
"And there it was, right in front of me the answer, You simply didn't know that you had money and a house to live in, that your first watcher had provide for you in the event of her timely demise. Neither that she had adopted you, I wanted to adopt you, but as it looked I was beaten to it already, your first watcher had adopted you."
"One thing was to keep the house and money away from you, but to keep your new family away from you, making you believe you had nobody that went to far, you had a family waiting for you in New Orleans.
"I made some inquires to find out in what kind of family you ended up, there noting like those stuffy watchers from England, there just like your watcher. Your part of the wildest family of New Orleans, totally loyal and honourable, when they find out what the Council did, oboy what I wish to be there to see that .....
"But the best trait to a family man like me is that they're fiercely protective of their family, stopping at nothing to keep a family member save, once family you stay family. They'll stand by you, what ever happens."
"The bad thing is that the council account of what happened in Boston, made you look bad, I'm not sure what exactly was said, but they made it sound like you abandoned your watcher to the mercy of Kakistos and ran. You left her to die to save your own live, they don't know you're a family otherwise they wouldn't have believed the lies of the council. They made you out to be a coward, they can tell a lot of things about you, but my Faith isn't a coward."
The voice of the Mayor was steadily rising during the second part the bad news, the table the Mayor splintered with the last word. The next couple of minutes the Mayor calmed down, the anger was still visible in his eyes, but he was in control again.
"All right where was I, aha."
"But why didn't you know any of these things Faith, this was the one million dollar question, I was going to find the answer to. Who would deny you this, so I started to investigate who had their hands in this and to make them pay."
"What ever you think about those watchers the one involved with keeping you from your rightful inheritance, at least the one I could locate, were hard as nails."
"They held up to my personal interrogation of them between one and seven days, none of the couple of dozen I got my hands on talked in the end. They wouldn't give up their secret and give me an answer why they kept you from your inheritance of your first watcher."
"What ever it is, it has to be something big, be very carefully Faith, it's not over whatever it is, they're still after you."
"Like you already know I made you my heir, adding several millions to your trust fund and other properties that are all listed in the papers you received."
"Also enclosed copies of the papers from your watcher in the event you lost or never got them and anything I find out."
"When you entered the house, everything was clean and ready for you, wasn't it? It should have been under layers of dust after all the time it stood empty waiting for its owner to arrive. I made sure that the house is cleaned on a daily basis, we can't have you live in a dusty house can we, also made sure your freezer and cubarts are filled with all the fresh food necessary, so you should have a kitchen full of food at the moment."
"There is a contact number for the store that will deliver the food from now on if you want, you simply call them and they deliver, you got a store credit of 20,000 dollar a month for food."
"Be very careful of the watchers council, there up to something, there not finished with you, it won't end till your death. You have your legacy from your first watcher and what you got from me should be all you need to have a good live."
"Be save and happy, forget the past and make your own path."
"Get in touch with your family your now part of in New Orleans, tell them your side of the story, they'll listen to you and believe you when you tell them that your watcher adopted you."
"Be Save." A sad smile shows on the Mayors
With these last words the TV screen went black and the message ends.
*****
During the Mayors message, Faiths getting angrier and angrier, wanting to rip the Watcher's Council to pieces.
Walking out of the back door, sheathing with anger toward the Watchers, Faith leaves the house not to wake Dawn up when she releases her rage.
Faith leaves the house through the back door and walks into the garden, looking around for a place to fend of her rage at the watchers and seeing the structure she saw last night.
She walks down the path toward the building in the back of the garden. The house had no workout place, so the structure could house one, perfect place for it, reaching the entrance, Faith enters.
Looking around the workout space, that was housed in the building, it had everything that I needed to work of my anger, to my left a swimming pool, looks like I will have to get over my fear of deep water. To my right a couple of exercise machines, weights, exercise space and a punching bag in the corner.
Seeing the punching bag I walk right up to it, the perfect piece of equipment to work of my anger. The robe falls to the ground and I start pound away at the bag.
"Those bloody Watchers stole my Family" hit the bag "my money" hit the bag "my house" hit the bag "lied about Boston" hit the bag "lied about Kakistos."
Keep on hitting the bag.
"If I had the money, the house the family I wouldn't have felt so alone. I would have known there was someone out there who cared about me. That I wasn't alone, when I arrived in Sunnydale, everything could have been different." With each exclamation Faith hits the bag harder and harder.
Redoubling her assault on the punching bag, all the rage toward the deception of the watchers council is transferred to the bag.
Nothing exist anymore only the punching bag, the whole world is shrunk down to one punching bag.
The punches are starting to hit harder and faster, slowly the whole structure starts to vibrate to the hitting of the bag.
Faiths in her own world now, only her rage as companion, the rages growing in strength with each punch against the bag, never letting it lessen, she's not ready to release her rage just yet. Nothing can reach at this moment.
*****
Hours later, Dawn is starting to wake up in her bedroom where Faith laid her in, after falling asleep on the couch.
Dawn's awake, but has no intention to leave her warm bed yet, keeps laying in bed, taking in the room she's in, her very own room.
I fell asleep in front of the TV with Faith, and now I'm her in my own room and bed.
"I've got my own room and Faith's here in Sunnydale." Dawn yells to her self and jumps out of bed to find Faith, running out of her room to Faith's room. The door is open but nobody is there.
Walking through her room into the bathroom and on to the balcony, it's a beautiful day. Taking in the beautiful view from the balcony, looking around for Faith.
Hearing and feeling some kind of rhythmic pounding coming from the building in the back of the garden. Dawn runs through the room, down the stairs calling Faiths name all the way, no answer.
Walking out the backdoor the rhythmic pounding gets louder and louder as she nears the structure. Opening the door Dawn sees Faith pounding away at the punching.
Faith's clearly upset at something, having seen her sister doing the same thing when something is bothering her, but never this extreem.
However, the way Faith is going at it is unbelievable, she's really pissed of at something. The floor is covered in thick layer of white powder in a circle around Faith and the punching bag. Her fist are moving faster than Dawn can follow them, only a blur of movement is visible, only the tremors going through the building walls, floor and the moving of the bag show that Faiths even hitting the bag.
Knowing better than interrupt her, having seen first hand the possible consequences. Xander did it once to Buffy, never again, the next thing he knew he was flying, hitting the wall after Buffy's reaction.
Moreover, the way Faith is going at and react the same way, I am death. So I'll need a way to get her attention from a distance, far away from her as possible.
All the while Dawn keeps her eyes on Faith
First I tried calling her name, screaming my longs out, time after time at her for two three minutes from a save distance, no reaction. Totally out of breath, I sit down, trying to get my breath back and come up with another idea. Looking around for something to throw at Faith to snap her out of it, I see a towel. And with the pool I get an idea, take the towel and dump it in the pool soaking it full of water.
Faith's a blur of motion, fury and rage and still going at it.
Standing as far as I can and still hit Faith with the wet towel, I'm not feeling very save, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm myself, I aim and let it fly toward Faiths head. And towel flies straight at Faiths head and I'm heading for the pool. The towel just hits Faith full in the face as Dawn hits the water.
Next moment Faith's standing at the pool looking surprised, for the moment all the anger's forgotten.
"Why did you throw a wet towel at my head?" I ask when her head gets out of the water.
Dawn swims to side of the pool where I grab her and lift her next to me.
"When Buffy's pounding away at the punching bag, anybody whoever was dumb enough to interrupt her gets slammed against the wall, Xander did it once, and..."
"You thought that if you interrupted me I would react the same way and you would find yourself flying straight into a wall."
Faith starts to laugh, for a moment forgetting everything else but the picture Dawn describes of Xander flying into the wall. Still laughing Faith grabs Dawn and starts walking toward the house.
"Lets get you cleaned up and to eat something before I walk you home. B will be waiting for you to get home."
*****
*****
It's 6 AM in the morning and someone's at the front door, pressing the buzzer repeatedly and waking Faith up from her peaceful slumber, slowly Faith starts to wake up from the irritating sound.
"When I get that idiot in my hands that wakes me up at this god awful time", Faith grumbles to herself when she gets herself out of her warm and cosy bed and puts on a rob and sword. Centring herself for a moment Faith takes in the house, everything is safe and quite, no threats.
The idiot at least hasn't awaken Dawn yet, good. Approaching the door Faith takes a moment and looks trough the door to ascertain he/she/it doesn't pose a very big threat.
At the front door stands, overweight midget in a business suit, sweating like hell, looks like he wants to stay and run at the same time, being anywhere else being preferable than at this place and time. Keeping my hand on my sword I open the door in one swift motion, scaring the hell out of the midget.
"Who are you and what the hell are you doing here this early at my front door!" I ask the midget with my most threatening voice and expression.
The Midget jumps backward almost 2 meter and lands on his back when I open the door, holding his briefcase in front of him like a shield.
"Please don't kill me, please I was only hired to give you some papers and other items in the event you would show up here at your house." trying his best to get more space between himself and me.
"What do you mean, if I showed up here, no one knows I'm here and that the house belongs to me, who are you and who send you." I grab the midget by his collar and lift him into the air, keeping him there, he starts to turn red.
"Speak fast before I change my mind about ripping you to pieces." my mind takes off, imagining cause scenarios possible, who could it be, the council have been keeping tabs on the place in the event I would show up her. Or W&H still wanting to get rid of me for double-crossing them and not killing Angel. Before I could think up anymore the midget interrupted me.
"I was instructed by the late Mayor Wilkins, in the event you showed up in Sunnydale at this house to hand you this parcel, and these papers, that make you his only heir to all his money, fortunes and other properties. All are listed in the papers, The parcel contains a videocassette for you eyes only." In the most meek voice I've ever heard.
Hands me the papers and parcel from his case and I release my hold on him and he drops to the ground and scurries away as fast as he can and out through the gate. I'm not even looking at him anymore, another parcel from the Mayor. Close the door and head for the living room, to see what the Mayor has to say to me now, how did he know about the house? I didn't even know about it.
Opening the parcel, I put the cassette in the video and sit on the couch in front of the TV waiting for the message to start.
*****
The face of Wilkins appears on the screen sitting behind his desk, smiling in the camera, same getup like in his last message.
"First things first, forget everything I said to you in the first message I send to you. There where some new development between the first message and this one."
"When you came to me after dusting Trick, I was suspicious. You came to town on the run for Kakistos and holed up in that fleabag of roach motel. Never having enough money to get as much food as you needed, barely scraping enough money together for the rent."
"Being isolated from the rest of the of those accursed scoobie gang. Being kept out of the inner gang and alone."
"I couldn't figure out way they kept you so isolated, where they planning something for you, being a double agent? It made no sense, having such a powerful new alley and treating you so bad, like they didn't want you around."
"Then that unfortunate accident of killing Finch in the alley, doing me a hugh favour, he was going to betray me. And your consequent proposal to work for me."
"At the same time you had a trust fund of a million dollar, a credit card with a 3000 dollar limit on it and the House. Why would you want to work for me if you had all that? I couldn't figure it out and it really started to bother me."
"So I thought at first you where send by them to infiltrate city hall and find out what I was planning."
"I started to wait to see when you would stab me in the back, and when it didn't happen, I started to make more inquires to find out what was going on. I started to trust you, you weren't a double agent planted by the so called Scooby gang, they wouldn't have the brainpower and will to pull it of without slipping up"
"There had to be another reason for you living in that roach motel and was determent to find out what it was."
"And there it was, right in front of me the answer, You simply didn't know that you had money and a house to live in, that your first watcher had provide for you in the event of her timely demise. Neither that she had adopted you, I wanted to adopt you, but as it looked I was beaten to it already, your first watcher had adopted you."
"One thing was to keep the house and money away from you, but to keep your new family away from you, making you believe you had nobody that went to far, you had a family waiting for you in New Orleans.
"I made some inquires to find out in what kind of family you ended up, there noting like those stuffy watchers from England, there just like your watcher. Your part of the wildest family of New Orleans, totally loyal and honourable, when they find out what the Council did, oboy what I wish to be there to see that .....
"But the best trait to a family man like me is that they're fiercely protective of their family, stopping at nothing to keep a family member save, once family you stay family. They'll stand by you, what ever happens."
"The bad thing is that the council account of what happened in Boston, made you look bad, I'm not sure what exactly was said, but they made it sound like you abandoned your watcher to the mercy of Kakistos and ran. You left her to die to save your own live, they don't know you're a family otherwise they wouldn't have believed the lies of the council. They made you out to be a coward, they can tell a lot of things about you, but my Faith isn't a coward."
The voice of the Mayor was steadily rising during the second part the bad news, the table the Mayor splintered with the last word. The next couple of minutes the Mayor calmed down, the anger was still visible in his eyes, but he was in control again.
"All right where was I, aha."
"But why didn't you know any of these things Faith, this was the one million dollar question, I was going to find the answer to. Who would deny you this, so I started to investigate who had their hands in this and to make them pay."
"What ever you think about those watchers the one involved with keeping you from your rightful inheritance, at least the one I could locate, were hard as nails."
"They held up to my personal interrogation of them between one and seven days, none of the couple of dozen I got my hands on talked in the end. They wouldn't give up their secret and give me an answer why they kept you from your inheritance of your first watcher."
"What ever it is, it has to be something big, be very carefully Faith, it's not over whatever it is, they're still after you."
"Like you already know I made you my heir, adding several millions to your trust fund and other properties that are all listed in the papers you received."
"Also enclosed copies of the papers from your watcher in the event you lost or never got them and anything I find out."
"When you entered the house, everything was clean and ready for you, wasn't it? It should have been under layers of dust after all the time it stood empty waiting for its owner to arrive. I made sure that the house is cleaned on a daily basis, we can't have you live in a dusty house can we, also made sure your freezer and cubarts are filled with all the fresh food necessary, so you should have a kitchen full of food at the moment."
"There is a contact number for the store that will deliver the food from now on if you want, you simply call them and they deliver, you got a store credit of 20,000 dollar a month for food."
"Be very careful of the watchers council, there up to something, there not finished with you, it won't end till your death. You have your legacy from your first watcher and what you got from me should be all you need to have a good live."
"Be save and happy, forget the past and make your own path."
"Get in touch with your family your now part of in New Orleans, tell them your side of the story, they'll listen to you and believe you when you tell them that your watcher adopted you."
"Be Save." A sad smile shows on the Mayors
With these last words the TV screen went black and the message ends.
*****
During the Mayors message, Faiths getting angrier and angrier, wanting to rip the Watcher's Council to pieces.
Walking out of the back door, sheathing with anger toward the Watchers, Faith leaves the house not to wake Dawn up when she releases her rage.
Faith leaves the house through the back door and walks into the garden, looking around for a place to fend of her rage at the watchers and seeing the structure she saw last night.
She walks down the path toward the building in the back of the garden. The house had no workout place, so the structure could house one, perfect place for it, reaching the entrance, Faith enters.
Looking around the workout space, that was housed in the building, it had everything that I needed to work of my anger, to my left a swimming pool, looks like I will have to get over my fear of deep water. To my right a couple of exercise machines, weights, exercise space and a punching bag in the corner.
Seeing the punching bag I walk right up to it, the perfect piece of equipment to work of my anger. The robe falls to the ground and I start pound away at the bag.
"Those bloody Watchers stole my Family" hit the bag "my money" hit the bag "my house" hit the bag "lied about Boston" hit the bag "lied about Kakistos."
Keep on hitting the bag.
"If I had the money, the house the family I wouldn't have felt so alone. I would have known there was someone out there who cared about me. That I wasn't alone, when I arrived in Sunnydale, everything could have been different." With each exclamation Faith hits the bag harder and harder.
Redoubling her assault on the punching bag, all the rage toward the deception of the watchers council is transferred to the bag.
Nothing exist anymore only the punching bag, the whole world is shrunk down to one punching bag.
The punches are starting to hit harder and faster, slowly the whole structure starts to vibrate to the hitting of the bag.
Faiths in her own world now, only her rage as companion, the rages growing in strength with each punch against the bag, never letting it lessen, she's not ready to release her rage just yet. Nothing can reach at this moment.
*****
Hours later, Dawn is starting to wake up in her bedroom where Faith laid her in, after falling asleep on the couch.
Dawn's awake, but has no intention to leave her warm bed yet, keeps laying in bed, taking in the room she's in, her very own room.
I fell asleep in front of the TV with Faith, and now I'm her in my own room and bed.
"I've got my own room and Faith's here in Sunnydale." Dawn yells to her self and jumps out of bed to find Faith, running out of her room to Faith's room. The door is open but nobody is there.
Walking through her room into the bathroom and on to the balcony, it's a beautiful day. Taking in the beautiful view from the balcony, looking around for Faith.
Hearing and feeling some kind of rhythmic pounding coming from the building in the back of the garden. Dawn runs through the room, down the stairs calling Faiths name all the way, no answer.
Walking out the backdoor the rhythmic pounding gets louder and louder as she nears the structure. Opening the door Dawn sees Faith pounding away at the punching.
Faith's clearly upset at something, having seen her sister doing the same thing when something is bothering her, but never this extreem.
However, the way Faith is going at it is unbelievable, she's really pissed of at something. The floor is covered in thick layer of white powder in a circle around Faith and the punching bag. Her fist are moving faster than Dawn can follow them, only a blur of movement is visible, only the tremors going through the building walls, floor and the moving of the bag show that Faiths even hitting the bag.
Knowing better than interrupt her, having seen first hand the possible consequences. Xander did it once to Buffy, never again, the next thing he knew he was flying, hitting the wall after Buffy's reaction.
Moreover, the way Faith is going at and react the same way, I am death. So I'll need a way to get her attention from a distance, far away from her as possible.
All the while Dawn keeps her eyes on Faith
First I tried calling her name, screaming my longs out, time after time at her for two three minutes from a save distance, no reaction. Totally out of breath, I sit down, trying to get my breath back and come up with another idea. Looking around for something to throw at Faith to snap her out of it, I see a towel. And with the pool I get an idea, take the towel and dump it in the pool soaking it full of water.
Faith's a blur of motion, fury and rage and still going at it.
Standing as far as I can and still hit Faith with the wet towel, I'm not feeling very save, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm myself, I aim and let it fly toward Faiths head. And towel flies straight at Faiths head and I'm heading for the pool. The towel just hits Faith full in the face as Dawn hits the water.
Next moment Faith's standing at the pool looking surprised, for the moment all the anger's forgotten.
"Why did you throw a wet towel at my head?" I ask when her head gets out of the water.
Dawn swims to side of the pool where I grab her and lift her next to me.
"When Buffy's pounding away at the punching bag, anybody whoever was dumb enough to interrupt her gets slammed against the wall, Xander did it once, and..."
"You thought that if you interrupted me I would react the same way and you would find yourself flying straight into a wall."
Faith starts to laugh, for a moment forgetting everything else but the picture Dawn describes of Xander flying into the wall. Still laughing Faith grabs Dawn and starts walking toward the house.
"Lets get you cleaned up and to eat something before I walk you home. B will be waiting for you to get home."
*****