Title: Half of my soul and all of my heart
Author: ladydewinter
Email: ladydewinter@gmx.net
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: W/K first, but I don't really like them...so W/T eventually :-) And this is becoming B/S as well, it seems.
Setting: The story takes place roughly after The Killer in Me, so spoilers up to then.
Disclaimer: Willow, Tara, Kennedy, Anya et. al belong to Joss Whedon and ME and - hey you know whom they belong to. The story however is mine. Oh, the title is taken from a book called "Magic's Promise" by Mercedes Lackey.
Feedback: Thanks again for the positive feedback. It's what keeps me going, and it makes me happy :0)
Distribution: If you want it, you can have it, just let me know where it ends up.
Summary: Lots of things happening in here, can't tell you about the best parts (as they wouldn't be that good without the 'surprise effect' ^_^). But they are looking for the body. Actually, maybe Willow should have come along, as it's usually her who...but no, it's better that way ;0)
***
Buffy, Spike, Xander, Anya, Dawn and Andrew and the SITs were at the High School now, forming little searching parties. Willow had stayed at the Summer's house, looking for another locating spell that might help them find the third Slayer's body more easily.
"Right, Kennedy, you and the other potentials, you'll look upstairs. Search the classrooms, the closets... all there is. Xander, Anya, Andrew...Dawn, you'll look here...the same applies for you. Spike and I will search for her in the basement," Buffy told them.
"Don't you think more of us should be looking in the basement?" Xander asked.
"No, I don't. Otherwise I would have suggested it. Now let's go. Every group got a cellphone? If it doesn't work in case of emergency, do it the old-fashioned way."
"What would that be?" Rhonda asked Dawn.
"Shriek, or scream. Just be loud," she answered.
"Okay, enough talking. See you all later." Buffy turned, grabbed Spike and went with him to the staircase that led down to the basement. "You've been there for weeks, Spike, so I guess you know your way down there. Or - can you smell anything suspicious?"
"Suspicious as in smokeable stuff, or suspicious as in dead Slayer stuff?"
"The latter." She smiled. She had always liked to patrol with him. Well, okay, that wasn't right...but - she liked patrolling with him now. It was different than with Riley - or even Angel. Angel had been all broody, most of the time at least, and Riley - she sighed. He always wanted to play the hero. Spike seemed to have accepted that she - as the Slayer - was the stronger one of them. She had to admit that it had taken him some time to accept that though. Well, but now - it was fun to do the patrol search group thing with him. And she didn't have too much of that at the moment.
"What is it?"
"Huh?" Buffy had been walking behind Spike, lost in her thoughts. "Nothing, I was just... thinking."
"Oh."
"So, any lead?"
"None that I can see or smell. But there is still a lot of basement left."
"I hope we can find her. I so need something to do."
"What do we do when we find her?"
"We try to identify her, and find out what she was up to. Why?"
"That's exactly what I've been thinking. Why? I mean, what use is knowing who the dead Slayer was?" Spike sounded a bit irritated.
"Well, it would proof that the prophecy Anya found is authentic. And that would be helpful, don't you think?" Buffy tried not only to persuade him, but herself as well. They didn't have too much to go on at the moment, and she was feeling a bit frustrated. She didn't need someone to - explicate her fears. Okay, maybe she needed it, but she didn't want it.
"I guess it would," he answered. "Are you really planning to resurrect Goldiewitch then?"
"I don't know. I know I definetely don't want to, but if that is that's our only chance...don't you think Tara would have wanted us to do that?"
"Probably. But wasn't she against everything disturbing the natural balance?"
"This would help us reestablish the balance, Spike. At least I hope so. No, I don't want to do the zombie voodoo thing. But if I have to do it, I will."
"I don't think Red will put up with that." He didn't sound convinced.
Buffy wasn't either. "She will, in the end. I'm sure. But there might be another solution, one we haven't thought of yet. Anya started to say something about the Powers that Be, right before Willow found that spell. Could you remind me to ask her about it when this is over?"
"I'll try." Spike smiled - he liked being asked little favours like that. It was as if Buffy was letting him more and more become a part of her life, a part that really mattered to her, that wasn't just physical. He enjoyed that, and it gave him a reason to hope. Maybe...
Right then, Buffy's cellphone started ringing.
"Willow, hey, did you - what? Who's there?" Spike watched Buffy. She seemed shocked. "What happened to Willow? Oh. I see. I - I guess it's okay then.... We? We're at the High School right now. I and all the others. Yes, we'll be back soon. Do you think you can handle her? Okay. See ya." She put down the phone and looked at him.
"What's up, Buffy?" Spike asked her.
"It's-"
***
"Faith."
"What?" Anya asked.
"The other light...the one in L.A. It was moving, didn't you notice?"
"No, Harris, I didn't. I was busy watching the mysterious third fairy thing. But it's not really a surprise you're thinking about her."
"What are you - listen, An, you know you're being stupid, don't you? I wasn't thinking about her, well I was, but not in the sense you suggest. If Faith is out of jail, and if she hasn't changed, then we have a problem. As in 'we have a huge problem'."
"But Angel told Buffy she really had changed. And I think we should believe him," Dawn said.
"Yeah, Angel..."
"Look, Xander, we all know you don't like him, but that's no reason to think Faith is still bad."
"Ahm...question : who's Faith?" Andrew wanted to know.
"Weren't you a part of the Evil Trio? And you don't know about Faith?" Xander sounded unbelieving.
"Well, we had other things to think about than to do research on people we never heard of," he tried to defend himself.
"Jonathan didn't know about Faith?" Dawn asked.
"If he did, he never told us. Who is she? I heard her name a couple of times during the last days, but-"
"She's another Slayer. I mean, the other one we actually know of. She was the one who was called after Kendra was killed by Drusilla. And Kendra had been called after Buffy was dead for a few seconds because the Master had tried to drown her." Dawn told him.
"And I brought her back," Xander said proudly.
"Yeah, but it didn't last long, did it?" Anya sounded bored. He had told her about that a lot. She could understand it, in a way, but that didn't mean that she wasn't bored by it.
"And Faith was bad?" Andrew wanted to know. He started to understand now, but wanted to be sure. He desperately wanted to belong to the Scooby Gang, and for that he had to know what was going on.
"Yeah, she accidentally killed a man and then... she teamed up with the Mayor and in the end she tried to kill Angel and Buffy. The last time she was here, she switched her body and Buffy's. Buffy was almost killed. Then she went off to L.A. and then she went to jail, voluntarily, I think. And now we don't know if she really has changed. If not, we have one more problem to add on our list." Dawn sighed.
"She switched bodies? That sounds cool... I mean, only technically. And I guess it wasn't nice for Buffy."
"She almost got killed by some guys responsible for the wetworks of the Watcher's Council."
"And Buffy didn't kill her?" Andrew looked at Dawn.
"Buffy never kills humans, you should know that." Her voice sounded defensive.
"So Slayers are humans? Just with superpowers? But how do they get them? And why are some chosen and some not?"
"Will you shut up?" Xander hated this kind of talk. It reminded him that he didn't have any special powers. But at least Andrew didn't seem to have any as well, although he had told them he was able to raise demons.
"I think I found something." Anya was standing in front of an unused classroom. The door was locked, but she was peering through the window and she had noticed something that looked like a human body hanging from the ceiling.
Xander and Andrew threw themselves against the door. It took them some time, but finally they were able to open it.
"It seems as if that's our girl," Xander said. He really hated what he was doing. And that he wasn't really feeling anything. Sure, he was sad, a bit at least. But he wasn't shocked anymore.
Andrew however was. He looked at the third Slayer with a mixture of fascination and horror. It was similar to when Warren had killed his girlfriend. A part of him had been horrified at the thought that his firend had just killed someone. But another part couldn't help feeling all powerful at the knowledge that a human being could actually kill another one, that everyone had some power over other people's lives. Now it was a different feeling - his fascination was mostly due to the fact that it seemed totally unreal, this dead girl hanging from the ceiling. It was just like in the movies. He turned around, almost expecting a camera follwing his moves. But then again, why would they be filming him. They'd probably rather focus on the important people, like Xander, Buffy and-
***
Willow was sitting in the living room, leafing through the spellboks. She wasn't really looking for another locating spell - she was searching for some spells that might enable the others to reanimate Tara's body. She had already found four, and had put a magical mantle over them so the others wouldn't be able to read them. She knew that that wouldn't stop them in the end - Giles probably knew one by heart - but she wasn't going to let them do it with her - or even Tara's - spellbooks.
She sighed. She was rather relieved that whatever she had had with Kennedy was over now. But now - she missed Tara more than she had during the last months. It had begun to get better, not just because of Kennedy...no all she wanted was Tara. She wanted her to sit next to her, doing research with her...she wanted to snuggle with her, to kiss her... she closed her eyes.
She must have fallen asleep, because she was lying on the couch when there was a knock on the door. Willow was startled. Whoever was outside seemed quite anxious to get in, as the knocking continued. It sounded pretty impatient.
"I'm coming, just a sec!" Willow shouted, getting up. She walked to the door and opened it without stopping to look who was standing outside.
It was someone she had never seen before... a boy, a boy who probably liked to be called a young man. He was a bit taller than she was and had longish brown hair. And there was something strangely familiar about him. She had the feeling she somehow should know him. But she totally didn't.
"Can I help you?" Willow asked him.
"Is Buffy Summers here?" He started to walk past her, into the house.
"Hey, not so fast." Willow stopped him. "Who are you?"
"Connor. Where is she?"
"She's not here. But she'll be back soon. But when I asked who you were I didn't just want to know your name. What do you want from her?" She was a bit afraid. He seemed to be quite strong, and although she probably was at an advantage as he wouldn't know that she was a witch, she was very reluctant to use her powers, even to defend herself.
"I'll rather tell her myself, thank you. So, can I come in?"
Willow was just about to say yes, when she thought better. She just stepped aside. If Connor - if that was even his real name - if this guy was a vampire he wouldn't be able to come in. But he obviously wasn't, he followed her into the house without any problem. But who was he? He took a look around and then went into the living room. He picked up one of her spell books.
"So you're a witch?" So much for the surprise effect. "You must be Willow then."
Now this was getting creepy. How did he know her name?
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" Willow realized she sounded pretty scared. She felt the fear mix with the anger that seemed to be always inside her...this definetely wasn't good.
"Angel told me." Connor didn't look at her, he had sat down on the couch and was leafing through the spellbook. "There seems to be nothing useful in here. Whatever, that's not what we came for anyway."
"What did you come f- wait a minute, we? Who's we? And how do you know Angel? Is he here as well?" She was confused now.
"Angel's my father. And we are-"
"Connor and I." The voice came from behind Willow. She froze. She knew this voice, knew it too well. She was so scared she didn't even wonder about what Connor had just told her.
"Hey Red. How you're doing?"
Willow turned around. Faith was standing at the door, leaning against it, as she always did. She hadn't changed a bit, at least not from the outside. She was wearing one of these shirts, just a little too tight, and leather pants and a jacket.
"Faith."
"You remember me? That's good. Listen- " Faith moved towards her. Willow started to back away. "I'm not going to hurt you. Or anyone else." She put her hands in the air, a defensive gesture. "I'm sorry, I guess I should've called, but there wasn't really time to and-"
Willow stopped walking away from her. Faith sounded different, and she didn't have the impression she was just pretending. She remembered the Slayer was a pretty bad liar.
"So what do you want? And what does he want?" She asked her, pointing at Connor.
"I'm here to help. Cordelia had a vision that told her that I would be more useful here. And Connor just accompanied." She lowered her voice. "He told me he wanted to see I was safe, but actually I think he just wants to meet B. As she was his Father's great love and all. And he has a way with - well, he slept with Cordy, it seems."
Willow was confused. First of all, she had finally understood that Connor was supposed to be Angel's son. But why did it matter that Cordelia had slept with hi - "Oh. You mean - Angel and Cordelia are" Now she really was shocked. Cordelia, of all people. Well, she certainly had been attracted to him from the beginning, but Angel? She shook her head. But there was something else. "How can he - sorry." She realized she was being rude. She turned to Connor. "How can you be Angel's son? I would've thought vampires aren't able to have children...as they're dead. Or undead. Who's the mother, anyway? And how come you're so grown up?"
"My mother was Darla. She's dead. And I've grown up in another dimension." Connor looked at her for a second, then turned his attention back to the books.
"Well, you're as talkative as you're father," she murmured.
"And he has his hearing," Faith told her.
"Oh." Willow smiled apologetically.
"So - how are you? And how's your - she is your girlfriend now, right? When I met the both of the Bronze, she seemed to be head over feet in love with you. What was her name? You know, I have this thing with names...are you alright?"
As Faith had started talking about Tara, Willow felt the grief stir inside her...the grief and the anger. The anger that Faith had just walked in in here and asked her about Tara...something the others never did...they almost never mentioned her...except for talking about zombies...Faith, of all people. Suddenly she realized there was something else inside her...not just the anger, but...it was something evil. It seemed as if the First was taking advantage of her anger...
"Faith -" Willow started breathing heavily. "You -" As she felt the power surging inside her, she knew she had to do something. She felt the urge to kill... "Faith, you have to knock me out, and call Buffy. The First - you remember the shapeshifting thing, when there was snow...?"
Faith was watching her, worried. She didn't know what to do, and when Willow's eyes went black, she was freaked. What was happening here? "Red, what's up? What do you want me to do?"
Willow gritted her teeth. "Just knock me out before something bad happens." Then she got lost.
Faith couldn't move. She just stood there, watching Willow who started muttering something that sounded like a spell. She couldn't possibly attack-
Connor had done the job for her. He had grabbed one of the heavier spellbooks and knocked her out. "I thought she was one of the good guys," he said.
"She is... I don't think that was her. Did you see her eyes? They were all black..." Faith shuddered. Willow. She had always thought of her as weak... not a coward, but weak, as she wasn't useful for anything except for doing research...it seemed as if she had been wrong though. She wondered what had happened here while she had been in jail. She obviously had missed a lot.
She grabbed the phone, hoping Buffy's cellphone number was written down somewhere or even saved in the phone itself. She found the number and called her. She noticed she had butterflies in her stomach. Of the 'I am totally scared' kind. But now wasn't the time to think about that.
"Hey B. It's not Willow - it's me. Faith... Willow's - we had to knock her out. She - her eyes went all balck and she told me to do it- she said something about the First. Where are you? Oh. The last time I saw it it was completely destroyed. Could you perhaps hurry up a bit? I don't know what to do if she's all Evil Witch of the - Yes, I guess. If she wakes up, we'll just put her back to sleep. Right. See ya."
She put the phone down and looked at Connor. "Let's make it more comfortable for here." Together, they carried her to the couch. Faith sat down beside her, book in her hand. "I'll take the first watch," she said to Connor. He nodded but sat down on the floor. "Might as well have another look through the books while we're waiting. There might be something useful about the Beast somewhere."
Author: ladydewinter
Email: ladydewinter@gmx.net
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: W/K first, but I don't really like them...so W/T eventually :-) And this is becoming B/S as well, it seems.
Setting: The story takes place roughly after The Killer in Me, so spoilers up to then.
Disclaimer: Willow, Tara, Kennedy, Anya et. al belong to Joss Whedon and ME and - hey you know whom they belong to. The story however is mine. Oh, the title is taken from a book called "Magic's Promise" by Mercedes Lackey.
Feedback: Thanks again for the positive feedback. It's what keeps me going, and it makes me happy :0)
Distribution: If you want it, you can have it, just let me know where it ends up.
Summary: Lots of things happening in here, can't tell you about the best parts (as they wouldn't be that good without the 'surprise effect' ^_^). But they are looking for the body. Actually, maybe Willow should have come along, as it's usually her who...but no, it's better that way ;0)
***
Buffy, Spike, Xander, Anya, Dawn and Andrew and the SITs were at the High School now, forming little searching parties. Willow had stayed at the Summer's house, looking for another locating spell that might help them find the third Slayer's body more easily.
"Right, Kennedy, you and the other potentials, you'll look upstairs. Search the classrooms, the closets... all there is. Xander, Anya, Andrew...Dawn, you'll look here...the same applies for you. Spike and I will search for her in the basement," Buffy told them.
"Don't you think more of us should be looking in the basement?" Xander asked.
"No, I don't. Otherwise I would have suggested it. Now let's go. Every group got a cellphone? If it doesn't work in case of emergency, do it the old-fashioned way."
"What would that be?" Rhonda asked Dawn.
"Shriek, or scream. Just be loud," she answered.
"Okay, enough talking. See you all later." Buffy turned, grabbed Spike and went with him to the staircase that led down to the basement. "You've been there for weeks, Spike, so I guess you know your way down there. Or - can you smell anything suspicious?"
"Suspicious as in smokeable stuff, or suspicious as in dead Slayer stuff?"
"The latter." She smiled. She had always liked to patrol with him. Well, okay, that wasn't right...but - she liked patrolling with him now. It was different than with Riley - or even Angel. Angel had been all broody, most of the time at least, and Riley - she sighed. He always wanted to play the hero. Spike seemed to have accepted that she - as the Slayer - was the stronger one of them. She had to admit that it had taken him some time to accept that though. Well, but now - it was fun to do the patrol search group thing with him. And she didn't have too much of that at the moment.
"What is it?"
"Huh?" Buffy had been walking behind Spike, lost in her thoughts. "Nothing, I was just... thinking."
"Oh."
"So, any lead?"
"None that I can see or smell. But there is still a lot of basement left."
"I hope we can find her. I so need something to do."
"What do we do when we find her?"
"We try to identify her, and find out what she was up to. Why?"
"That's exactly what I've been thinking. Why? I mean, what use is knowing who the dead Slayer was?" Spike sounded a bit irritated.
"Well, it would proof that the prophecy Anya found is authentic. And that would be helpful, don't you think?" Buffy tried not only to persuade him, but herself as well. They didn't have too much to go on at the moment, and she was feeling a bit frustrated. She didn't need someone to - explicate her fears. Okay, maybe she needed it, but she didn't want it.
"I guess it would," he answered. "Are you really planning to resurrect Goldiewitch then?"
"I don't know. I know I definetely don't want to, but if that is that's our only chance...don't you think Tara would have wanted us to do that?"
"Probably. But wasn't she against everything disturbing the natural balance?"
"This would help us reestablish the balance, Spike. At least I hope so. No, I don't want to do the zombie voodoo thing. But if I have to do it, I will."
"I don't think Red will put up with that." He didn't sound convinced.
Buffy wasn't either. "She will, in the end. I'm sure. But there might be another solution, one we haven't thought of yet. Anya started to say something about the Powers that Be, right before Willow found that spell. Could you remind me to ask her about it when this is over?"
"I'll try." Spike smiled - he liked being asked little favours like that. It was as if Buffy was letting him more and more become a part of her life, a part that really mattered to her, that wasn't just physical. He enjoyed that, and it gave him a reason to hope. Maybe...
Right then, Buffy's cellphone started ringing.
"Willow, hey, did you - what? Who's there?" Spike watched Buffy. She seemed shocked. "What happened to Willow? Oh. I see. I - I guess it's okay then.... We? We're at the High School right now. I and all the others. Yes, we'll be back soon. Do you think you can handle her? Okay. See ya." She put down the phone and looked at him.
"What's up, Buffy?" Spike asked her.
"It's-"
***
"Faith."
"What?" Anya asked.
"The other light...the one in L.A. It was moving, didn't you notice?"
"No, Harris, I didn't. I was busy watching the mysterious third fairy thing. But it's not really a surprise you're thinking about her."
"What are you - listen, An, you know you're being stupid, don't you? I wasn't thinking about her, well I was, but not in the sense you suggest. If Faith is out of jail, and if she hasn't changed, then we have a problem. As in 'we have a huge problem'."
"But Angel told Buffy she really had changed. And I think we should believe him," Dawn said.
"Yeah, Angel..."
"Look, Xander, we all know you don't like him, but that's no reason to think Faith is still bad."
"Ahm...question : who's Faith?" Andrew wanted to know.
"Weren't you a part of the Evil Trio? And you don't know about Faith?" Xander sounded unbelieving.
"Well, we had other things to think about than to do research on people we never heard of," he tried to defend himself.
"Jonathan didn't know about Faith?" Dawn asked.
"If he did, he never told us. Who is she? I heard her name a couple of times during the last days, but-"
"She's another Slayer. I mean, the other one we actually know of. She was the one who was called after Kendra was killed by Drusilla. And Kendra had been called after Buffy was dead for a few seconds because the Master had tried to drown her." Dawn told him.
"And I brought her back," Xander said proudly.
"Yeah, but it didn't last long, did it?" Anya sounded bored. He had told her about that a lot. She could understand it, in a way, but that didn't mean that she wasn't bored by it.
"And Faith was bad?" Andrew wanted to know. He started to understand now, but wanted to be sure. He desperately wanted to belong to the Scooby Gang, and for that he had to know what was going on.
"Yeah, she accidentally killed a man and then... she teamed up with the Mayor and in the end she tried to kill Angel and Buffy. The last time she was here, she switched her body and Buffy's. Buffy was almost killed. Then she went off to L.A. and then she went to jail, voluntarily, I think. And now we don't know if she really has changed. If not, we have one more problem to add on our list." Dawn sighed.
"She switched bodies? That sounds cool... I mean, only technically. And I guess it wasn't nice for Buffy."
"She almost got killed by some guys responsible for the wetworks of the Watcher's Council."
"And Buffy didn't kill her?" Andrew looked at Dawn.
"Buffy never kills humans, you should know that." Her voice sounded defensive.
"So Slayers are humans? Just with superpowers? But how do they get them? And why are some chosen and some not?"
"Will you shut up?" Xander hated this kind of talk. It reminded him that he didn't have any special powers. But at least Andrew didn't seem to have any as well, although he had told them he was able to raise demons.
"I think I found something." Anya was standing in front of an unused classroom. The door was locked, but she was peering through the window and she had noticed something that looked like a human body hanging from the ceiling.
Xander and Andrew threw themselves against the door. It took them some time, but finally they were able to open it.
"It seems as if that's our girl," Xander said. He really hated what he was doing. And that he wasn't really feeling anything. Sure, he was sad, a bit at least. But he wasn't shocked anymore.
Andrew however was. He looked at the third Slayer with a mixture of fascination and horror. It was similar to when Warren had killed his girlfriend. A part of him had been horrified at the thought that his firend had just killed someone. But another part couldn't help feeling all powerful at the knowledge that a human being could actually kill another one, that everyone had some power over other people's lives. Now it was a different feeling - his fascination was mostly due to the fact that it seemed totally unreal, this dead girl hanging from the ceiling. It was just like in the movies. He turned around, almost expecting a camera follwing his moves. But then again, why would they be filming him. They'd probably rather focus on the important people, like Xander, Buffy and-
***
Willow was sitting in the living room, leafing through the spellboks. She wasn't really looking for another locating spell - she was searching for some spells that might enable the others to reanimate Tara's body. She had already found four, and had put a magical mantle over them so the others wouldn't be able to read them. She knew that that wouldn't stop them in the end - Giles probably knew one by heart - but she wasn't going to let them do it with her - or even Tara's - spellbooks.
She sighed. She was rather relieved that whatever she had had with Kennedy was over now. But now - she missed Tara more than she had during the last months. It had begun to get better, not just because of Kennedy...no all she wanted was Tara. She wanted her to sit next to her, doing research with her...she wanted to snuggle with her, to kiss her... she closed her eyes.
She must have fallen asleep, because she was lying on the couch when there was a knock on the door. Willow was startled. Whoever was outside seemed quite anxious to get in, as the knocking continued. It sounded pretty impatient.
"I'm coming, just a sec!" Willow shouted, getting up. She walked to the door and opened it without stopping to look who was standing outside.
It was someone she had never seen before... a boy, a boy who probably liked to be called a young man. He was a bit taller than she was and had longish brown hair. And there was something strangely familiar about him. She had the feeling she somehow should know him. But she totally didn't.
"Can I help you?" Willow asked him.
"Is Buffy Summers here?" He started to walk past her, into the house.
"Hey, not so fast." Willow stopped him. "Who are you?"
"Connor. Where is she?"
"She's not here. But she'll be back soon. But when I asked who you were I didn't just want to know your name. What do you want from her?" She was a bit afraid. He seemed to be quite strong, and although she probably was at an advantage as he wouldn't know that she was a witch, she was very reluctant to use her powers, even to defend herself.
"I'll rather tell her myself, thank you. So, can I come in?"
Willow was just about to say yes, when she thought better. She just stepped aside. If Connor - if that was even his real name - if this guy was a vampire he wouldn't be able to come in. But he obviously wasn't, he followed her into the house without any problem. But who was he? He took a look around and then went into the living room. He picked up one of her spell books.
"So you're a witch?" So much for the surprise effect. "You must be Willow then."
Now this was getting creepy. How did he know her name?
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" Willow realized she sounded pretty scared. She felt the fear mix with the anger that seemed to be always inside her...this definetely wasn't good.
"Angel told me." Connor didn't look at her, he had sat down on the couch and was leafing through the spellbook. "There seems to be nothing useful in here. Whatever, that's not what we came for anyway."
"What did you come f- wait a minute, we? Who's we? And how do you know Angel? Is he here as well?" She was confused now.
"Angel's my father. And we are-"
"Connor and I." The voice came from behind Willow. She froze. She knew this voice, knew it too well. She was so scared she didn't even wonder about what Connor had just told her.
"Hey Red. How you're doing?"
Willow turned around. Faith was standing at the door, leaning against it, as she always did. She hadn't changed a bit, at least not from the outside. She was wearing one of these shirts, just a little too tight, and leather pants and a jacket.
"Faith."
"You remember me? That's good. Listen- " Faith moved towards her. Willow started to back away. "I'm not going to hurt you. Or anyone else." She put her hands in the air, a defensive gesture. "I'm sorry, I guess I should've called, but there wasn't really time to and-"
Willow stopped walking away from her. Faith sounded different, and she didn't have the impression she was just pretending. She remembered the Slayer was a pretty bad liar.
"So what do you want? And what does he want?" She asked her, pointing at Connor.
"I'm here to help. Cordelia had a vision that told her that I would be more useful here. And Connor just accompanied." She lowered her voice. "He told me he wanted to see I was safe, but actually I think he just wants to meet B. As she was his Father's great love and all. And he has a way with - well, he slept with Cordy, it seems."
Willow was confused. First of all, she had finally understood that Connor was supposed to be Angel's son. But why did it matter that Cordelia had slept with hi - "Oh. You mean - Angel and Cordelia are" Now she really was shocked. Cordelia, of all people. Well, she certainly had been attracted to him from the beginning, but Angel? She shook her head. But there was something else. "How can he - sorry." She realized she was being rude. She turned to Connor. "How can you be Angel's son? I would've thought vampires aren't able to have children...as they're dead. Or undead. Who's the mother, anyway? And how come you're so grown up?"
"My mother was Darla. She's dead. And I've grown up in another dimension." Connor looked at her for a second, then turned his attention back to the books.
"Well, you're as talkative as you're father," she murmured.
"And he has his hearing," Faith told her.
"Oh." Willow smiled apologetically.
"So - how are you? And how's your - she is your girlfriend now, right? When I met the both of the Bronze, she seemed to be head over feet in love with you. What was her name? You know, I have this thing with names...are you alright?"
As Faith had started talking about Tara, Willow felt the grief stir inside her...the grief and the anger. The anger that Faith had just walked in in here and asked her about Tara...something the others never did...they almost never mentioned her...except for talking about zombies...Faith, of all people. Suddenly she realized there was something else inside her...not just the anger, but...it was something evil. It seemed as if the First was taking advantage of her anger...
"Faith -" Willow started breathing heavily. "You -" As she felt the power surging inside her, she knew she had to do something. She felt the urge to kill... "Faith, you have to knock me out, and call Buffy. The First - you remember the shapeshifting thing, when there was snow...?"
Faith was watching her, worried. She didn't know what to do, and when Willow's eyes went black, she was freaked. What was happening here? "Red, what's up? What do you want me to do?"
Willow gritted her teeth. "Just knock me out before something bad happens." Then she got lost.
Faith couldn't move. She just stood there, watching Willow who started muttering something that sounded like a spell. She couldn't possibly attack-
Connor had done the job for her. He had grabbed one of the heavier spellbooks and knocked her out. "I thought she was one of the good guys," he said.
"She is... I don't think that was her. Did you see her eyes? They were all black..." Faith shuddered. Willow. She had always thought of her as weak... not a coward, but weak, as she wasn't useful for anything except for doing research...it seemed as if she had been wrong though. She wondered what had happened here while she had been in jail. She obviously had missed a lot.
She grabbed the phone, hoping Buffy's cellphone number was written down somewhere or even saved in the phone itself. She found the number and called her. She noticed she had butterflies in her stomach. Of the 'I am totally scared' kind. But now wasn't the time to think about that.
"Hey B. It's not Willow - it's me. Faith... Willow's - we had to knock her out. She - her eyes went all balck and she told me to do it- she said something about the First. Where are you? Oh. The last time I saw it it was completely destroyed. Could you perhaps hurry up a bit? I don't know what to do if she's all Evil Witch of the - Yes, I guess. If she wakes up, we'll just put her back to sleep. Right. See ya."
She put the phone down and looked at Connor. "Let's make it more comfortable for here." Together, they carried her to the couch. Faith sat down beside her, book in her hand. "I'll take the first watch," she said to Connor. He nodded but sat down on the floor. "Might as well have another look through the books while we're waiting. There might be something useful about the Beast somewhere."