Song is Invisible City by: The Wallflowers
~*~
Part 3
But all of these horses
That you chase around
In the end they are the ones
That always bring you down
This invisible city
Where no one sees nothing
We're touching faces in the dark
Feelin' pretty is so hard
"There have been increased vampire attacks in the hotspots around the caves." Willow was saying, scrolling through newspaper articles on her laptop while Dawn, Buffy, and Faith stared, searching for clues in the black and white text, at the screen. "The First must be gathering a following or something..."
"Or maybe the supernatural activity is what's doing it." Says Giles thoughtfully, "It could be working the vampires, not to mention other demons, into a sort of feeding frenzy."
Faith is sitting between Willow and Dawn, feeling very shut in and fidgety. Giles sat across from the four on the couch, Xander pacing behind him while Anya read from a pile of books that had taken over the living room. The Slayers-in-Training are variously reading or training. Faith allows herself a moment to watch them every so often. Their reactions to her had been strange. They had little knowledge of her, if any, and most of them wouldn't make eye contact. *Because, you're a murderer* something whispers in her mind, and Faith tears her gaze away from the girls. "What?"
"No one said anything." Dawn says, "Are you..."
"I'm fine." Faith says quickly, but Dawn scoots away from her on the couch. "So..." She looked upwards at the ceiling, as if staring through to the second floor, where Buffy had gone to check on Spike when they had first arrived, then to the chair where a skinny blond guy was tied up, "I've missed quite a bit, and I still haven't been introduced to scrawny over there. Can we take a break to catch me up a bit?" And it feels good to speak with the same confidence she did before...it's been three years since she said anything above a soft murmur and even longer since she knew what she was saying.
"That," Anya said, closing her book and getting up to cross over to the bound boy, "Is Andrew...Can I hit him?"
"No." Everyone but Faith chorused.
"I'm being held for no good reason." Andrew told her, "And my life has been endangered by these people constantly since I was dragged into this whole thing. They wouldn't even give me a weapon, and..."
Faith ignored him and turned back to the group, "Dork boy, check. What'd he do?"
"A lot. Let's move on shall we?" And Faith notices that Willow has closed the laptop and is standing by the boarded up window, staring off through the small crack, like she's looking for someone.
"We need to patrol." Xander is saying, and Faith realizes she's been watching Willow instead of listening.
"We definitely should." Buffy agrees, "Um...I don't want the girls coming. It's not safe. Xander, Anya, Giles, and Willow, stay here and make sure everything is OK. Spike can help in an emergency but...just leave him alone, OK? He's not...he isn't well. Dawn, I think you should get some sleep."
"But--"
"No. You aren't patrolling. Just Faith and I. Get some sleep."
Faith swallows, her hands curling around a stake someone hands her. The feel of a stake is so familiar, not even a few years in prison can erase the sense memories. She tucks it in her jacket, another in the waistband of her pants, and yet another in an ankle strap that Buffy hands her.
"Are you up for it?" Buffy asks, looking at her in the eye like she's done a million times before.
"You don't get it...You killed a man."
"No, you don't get it...I don't care."
Faith grits her teeth and nods, "Five by five."
Buffy smiles at the old saying, "OK. Let's go."
