Chapter 2
Incan Temple. Somewhere around 1540 AD
He liked being one of the Gods of the Incas. They would give him whatever he wanted, as long as he gave his people good fortune, which was easily done with magick. Word had arisen among the townspeople that there were now other white men in the land, and that they had come in great ships. He didn't worry too much about this, until he heard that the men carried sticks of thunder that would strike down others, and that the men were moving across the country, in his direction. For the next two weeks, he had his people prepare to fight the invaders. He trained them, and helped them make sufficient weapons. He taught the local priests some magick, which they thought were divine acts that he let them perform. A week after his town was ready, they came. They came in large, large numbers, and all of them had the sticks of thunder that he had heard about. Realising that there was no possible way to win the fight, he called for everyone to evacuate and flee into the forest, however he stayed behind. He watched as they all ran past him, fleeing for their lives. He, and a few of the town's bravest and best warriors would stand up to the invaders. Turning his head, he saw twenty men, all armed to the teeth, standing behind him, ready to charge on his word. He looked ahead and saw the invaders coming through the village, burning and pillaging anything they could. "Finally, Rome has found this new land," the man whispered to himself. He watched as the small band of invaders marched his way. He was surprised when, what was obviously their chief, told them to stop. The two races stood facing each other, each ready to charge and kill as many of the others as they could. He stood, looking at the invaders' commander. He was a large, fit man, who wore what only looked like light armour. The leader walked up to him and said something that he could only just interpret. After five minutes of thinking, he realised that the commander was speaking a form of morphed Spanish to him. He remembered the mighty nation of the Spanish. It was a great and proud people, before the Romans came and conquered them. From what he had heard when he was back in his homeland, the Spaniards liked being ruled under the Romans, and he could never understand that. He spoke back to the commander in his native tongue: Gaelic. He saw that the commander realised that he was speaking Gaelic, and called another man forward. They talked between themselves for a bit, and then the man stood beside his commander, looking at him. The commander said something, and the man repeated it in Gaelic. "At last, we get to meet the mighty white god," the commander said. A look of surprise crossed the immortal magician's face. He was surprised that the invaders had heard of him. "Finally, Rome has found the new land," he said after a while. The commander looked confused. "Rome fell, a very long time ago. We are Spaniards," the commander replied. "Now step aside and we will let your people live." "No!" he replied, thinking that they were going to kill his people. He raised a hand and spread his palm out, and faced it towards the commander. He flew back and landed amongst his warriors. When the commander got up, he could see the rage in his face. He saw the commander order the warriors to advance on his people. He raised his palm and the air in front of the warriors started to shimmer and blur. They ran into an invisible wall. From what he could see, the commander had a complete look of shock on his face. He watched as the invaders knelt down on one knee and pointed something at him and his warriors. He guessed that they were the mighty sticks of thunder that he had heard about. He was confident that they wouldn't get through his wall. They pointed the sticks at his men and then they exploded in a loud bang. He watched as his wall shattered and his men fell to the ground. Three quarters of them were dead, blood spurting from their heads, and some without what could be called a head. He saw the invaders run forward. He raised his palm to make another wall, but one of the men was too fast and shot the stick of thunder at him. He immediately raised his hand to where the stick of thunder had hit him; in the stomach. There was a gaping wound there and blood was pouring out of it. He did the only thing he knew how to do, and pushed all the men back, sending them flying thirty metres. He turned and ran, and so did his remaining men. He had become weak in his days as a 'god'. Only using magick to impress his people, and to give them good fortune. He hadn't practiced the other areas of magick, therefore becoming weak. He ran through the forest, and he didn't know when he stopped, but when he woke up, he was surrounded by his men, dead on the ground. He felt a wound in the back of his neck, and realised that he had been hit with one of the sticks of thunder. He wondered why he wasn't dead like the rest of his men, but then he remembered. He was immortal. He had forgotten that, and over the last hundred years, he had taken his everlasting life for granted. He realised that he couldn't die, and that he just had 'died' but his immortality had brought him back to life. For the first time in his life, he was glad he had spent all those years in the forest.
He had fought bravely beside the people that had come to know him as a god, but ultimately, he failed. The invaders were winning, and he could do nothing about it. He had journeyed all throughout the new land, raising support for an army to be created by all the civilisations of the land he now called home. Nothing would happen, slowly, the Spaniards, as they like to call themselves, were overrunning them. He realised that he would have to go back to his real home in order to find out how to defeat them. And so he did. At the dead of night, he snuck onto one of their ships and journeyed back to his home land.
He arrived back, in the nation that called itself England. This was where he was originally from, and the land had changed greatly. For years he journeyed the land, seeking knowledge about all the weapons that had developed while he was gone. He learnt battle strategies and learnt how to command an army. He was disgusted with how many creatures of the night there were in his homeland. Then, one night, he learnt of a true Warrior that roamed the land and destroyed the creatures. Perhaps he could get the Warrior to come back with him and help free his people. He sought the warrior out, and when he found her, was very surprised. He had not known of Slayers before. He had met one, in 1600 AD in London. She was helping to free a woman from the creatures of the night. When he watched her, he saw how good she was, and recognised something inside of her. It was a spark. He then realised that this Warrior didn't choose to fight against the creatures of the night, but the fight was thrust upon her. She was chosen by the highest power to fight against these creatures. He decided he had to know more about the warrior: he had to feed his craving for knowledge about her. After learning that Europe had started colonising his home land, which they called the 'New World', he gave up hope. There was no possible way he could fend off the people of Europe. He gave up on his people, hoping that they would get a decent life. Instead, he adopted himself a name, which he had learnt he needed over here. He found out about the Watchers Council, and recruited himself. After learning all the arcane lore that he had to know, he became a Watcher. Slowly, he ascended the ranks of the Watchers Council, learning of various schemes that only the highest knew of. He masked his identity well, slowly creating the illusion of ageing on his body. He wasn't, and he could see that he wasn't, but everyone else thought so. When it came time for him to die, he faked his own death, and created another profile in the Council's records at the rank he was at. This all lasted until 1900 AD when the leader of the Council found him out. He was then recruited by the Council Leaders to go undercover, and do their jobs for them. He agreed, as long as he was able to sit in on the meetings of the Inner Council.
Faith stood before this man now. He was sitting in a wooden chair with his hands tied behind his back, and his feet tied to the chair. Faith just stood and stared at him. She watched as he slowly regained consciousness. When he was fully awake, Faith just stared at him. "You know, these restraints aren't going to hold me," he said to her. "Wanna bet?" Faith replied to him. With a quick blur, the man was out of the restraints and running towards Faith. Faith put her right leg on the couch that was near her, and jumped off of it, and swung her leg at what appeared to be thin air. In the last second, his head appeared in Faith's foot's path. It hit him right on the side of the head, and sent him crashing to Faith's left. She watched as his head slammed into the wall again, knocking him unconscious, yet again. He was only out of it for ten minutes this time. And in that time, Faith had found chains and had tied his hands together with the chains, and locked them together. She also locked one of his legs to the chair, the other to the security screen on one of Michael's windows. Faith saw him look up, and was utterly disgusted by what she saw. She backhanded him across the face. He just recovered and looked at her again. "What's your name?" Faith asked coldly. "Why should I tell you?" The man asked her. "Oh, I don't know. I'm only the one that's holding you prisoner, and is ready to kill you," Faith replied in a sarcastic voice. "What's your name?" Faith asked again, the rage evident in her voice. The man just grinned at her, and before long, Faith punched him in the nose. "Name?" She stated simply. The man said nothing. Faith punched him again. "Name!" she said again. He still didn't say anything. She punched him again, but this time, when his head snapped back, she punched him again, harder. She was sure that she had broken his nose by now. "Name?" she asked simply again. "Ok-Ok-Ok. I'll tell you," the man said desperately. He expected an answer from Faith, but didn't get any, so he continued. "M-My name is. Santa," the man said. "Last name?" Faith bluntly asked. "Claus," the man replied. "It's going to take a lot more than that to make me confess." "That's it," Faith said while walking away from Michael to the kitchen. She pulled out a large kitchen knife from the draws. She turned the gas stove onto it's highest and put the blade against it. She waited until it was red hot and ready to melt, and then returned back to the man. "You really want to know something?" Faith asked him, but didn't expect an answer. "I love this part." She plunged the red hot blade into the man's leg and let it sit there for a minute. She pulled the blade out and waited for the man to stop screaming. She put the blade up against the wound and seared the skin around it, effectively closing the wound. She waited for him to recover. "Name?" she asked again. "Charles," the man replied. "Other name?" Faith asked. "Edmond Smith," the man replied. "Who do you work for," Faith asked him. "T-Th-The Council," he replied. With a fit of rage, Faith threw the knife against the wall. It didn't stick in, but it made a rather large indentation in the wall after it bounced off. She charged out of the room and left Charles Edmond Smith behind.
At the Magic Box, everyone had been alone with their thoughts for a while. Buffy was in the back room, while everyone else was spread out through the front of the shop. Giles knew that they were all thinking about what had happened to Buffy: What they had done. He knew now, more than ever, Willow was agreeing with what he said before to them, about bringing Buffy back was stupid and dangerous. He looked at her, and watched as she limped around the bookshelves. That was another thing that had come to his mind. He had wondered how Willow and Tara had gotten hurt. He called everyone over to the round table. "Willow? Tara? Could you please tell us how you got hurt?" Giles calmly asked both of them. After a long wait, Willow was the first to reply. "When we were in the astral together. I felt something, wrong, with me, Tara, Xander, Anya and Buffy. I don't know what it is. Me and Tara decided to go into the astral planes again, to try and find out. At the oracles. When we got there, there was no one there. But then, the land shifted, and we were surrounded by demons," she started. "We held them off, but I got cut. I don't know what happened after that," Tara said. Everyone looked to Willow. "When I saw Tara get cut across the throat, I went ballistic. I couldn't tell the difference from anything. The only thing that mattered was Tara and keeping her safe. I did terrible things Giles," Willow said while looking at Giles. "Like what?" Anya asked. "I-I killed things. Lots of them. Now that I think about it, I don't think they were demons. They didn't look too demony. I think they were animals, and they just saw us and the Slayers as a food source," Willow said "Slayers?" Giles asked. "There were spirits of Slayers around us, fighting he demons. W-When I saw Tara get cut, I think I killed them. I-I think I killed half of them," Willow said. Not allowing herself to think about it too much, she continued. "The land shifted again, and we were back at the oracles. I didn't know how to get out, so I tore. I tore a tunnel through the dimensions and brought Tara back." Giles could feel his eyes widening, looking at Willow. He couldn't believe that Willow was able to achieve such a thing. He watched as Willow started crying. "You did what you had to do Will. It's okay," Xander said. "I-It's not that. I'm scared. I'm scared of what I can do. I-I mean. If any of you were there then, I-I.I would have killed you and not cared," Willow said while trying to hold back the tears. "I was totally out of control." "All you have to do is learn to control your emotions, that's all," Anya said. "You don't get it. There was no such thing as control. How would you be if you saw Xander cut down in front of your eyes?" Willow said. Anya stood there, and didn't say a word as she thought about it. She slightly nodded at Willow, signifying that she understood.
The Inner Council heard of Willow's actions from the magician that they sent there. He was, as far as they knew, the only powerful magick user on the Inner Council of the Watchers Council. They decided that they needed to bring Willow in and hold her for questioning. If she was deemed responsible, she would live. If she was not, she would die as the Council saw her as a 'threat' to humanity.
It seemed to Buffy that she had only been sitting in the back room for an hour at most, but she realised that it must have been a lot longer than that when she saw that it was late in the afternoon. She was just snapping out of whatever she was in, when she heard shouts from the front of the shop. She got up and ran to the door only to find that it was blocked by something. She tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. She heard Tara scream out Willow's name. Buffy kicked at the door as hard as she could, but it wouldn't move. She tried ramming it, but still it wouldn't move. Buffy did the last thing she could think of. She ran at the door, jumped and kicked out with both legs. She heard the thing in front of the door come crashing down, and she saw the door open. It was a large row of shelves that was holding the door closed. As Buffy looked around her, she saw that the shop was in ruins and that all her friends were lying on the ground. Xander held himself "They took Willow," he managed to say. "Who?" Buffy asked urgently. "They looked like the Council's goons," Xander said. Before he got to finish, Buffy was heading towards the door. When she got to the door, she saw a white van with heavily tinted windows speeding away from the shop down Main Street.. She knew that she couldn't keep up with it, so she returned into the shop and helped everyone get up. "How did they put the shelves against the door?" Buffy asked. "Magick," Giles managed to reply. "We have to get Willow back!" Buffy emphasised. "Where would they take her? Why would they take her?" Buffy asked. She saw everyone look at each other, all of them had the same thought. "If they found out what Willow did?" Giles said, not finishing the sentence. "What did Willow do!" Buffy demanded. "F-For her to get back from the astral, she had to rip her way through the fabric that separates dimensions," Tara said. "If they found out she put the world in danger, they would take her," Giles said. "W-We have to find her!" Buffy said. "Where would the Council have a base? Somewhere large and out of the way," Buffy said, answering her own question. "The Factory!" Xander exclaimed. "No, somewhere larger," Giles said. "More open." "The warehouses," Dawn said. "Warehouses?" Almost everyone asked at the same time. "Y'know. The big abandoned warehouses in the outskirts of town. They are probably holed up in there. There's like 4 huge warehouses not being used by anyone," Dawn explained. "That sounds like the perfect place," Tara said. She looked to where Buffy was meant to be, but she wasn't. She only heard the door closing.
Buffy charged across town. It was a fair way across Sunnydale, and any normal person would be tired after completing what Buffy did in the same amount of time. She stood out the front of one of the warehouses and looked up at it. She tried to go further, but her feet couldn't move. She looked down at them, and they were perfectly fine. She wasn't standing in quicksand or wet cement, so she had no idea why her feet couldn't move. Then it hit her: Magick. Buffy watched as three men came out of the warehouse. They were holding crossbows aimed at her, and one had a long sword. They put her in handcuffs and took her inside the warehouse.
Faith couldn't believe she couldn't get the Assassins to attack her. She had tried everything she could. Usually, when she least expected it, they would attack, but not now. She ran through the streets of Sunnydale yelling out for them to attack her, but nothing. She decided that she'd do something to draw attention to herself instead. She went into an extreme sports shop and found the archery section. She took a compound target bow down from the wall and broke the case containing arrows. She turned around and noticed the store owner's hand tapping a button that must have been behind the counter. Faith presumed it was an alarm to call the police. "I-I-I've called the police," the woman behind the counter said. "Good," was all that Faith said back. Faith found a quiver and strapped it around her back and put the arrows in. She looked through the glass cases in front of her, and found what she was looking for. Knives. She smashed that case and picked three knives that interested her. She put one in the back of her pants, another in the front of her pants, and she put the last one into her sock. "There we go. All done now. And by the way. When the police get here, tell them that it was that girl, or the girl or something like that. Okay?" the woman behind the counter only nodded nervously. Faith slipped out the door carrying the longbow and the quiver around her back. It was then she noticed that it was the same shop she and Buffy had robbed three years ago to get supplies to kill vampires. She grunted to herself at the thought. She went around to the Sunnydale cinema and climbed up onto the roof using a ladder that was around the side. When she looked down, she was happy to know that the store she had just robbed was on the same side of the road as her and only seventy metres away. There, she waited for the police to arrive. She was disappointed when only one car turned up out the front of the store, she was suspecting more. She had to tell herself that the cops didn't know that they were dealing with her yet. She hoped that the Watchers Council had told the police about her and Buffy, and that the police would ring the Council if they came across either her or Buffy. She watched the two police officers get out of their car and when they were almost in the shop, she lined up her sight. She thanked her Slayer training which taught her to shoot a bow by sighting down the arrow, not using the new sight that was built into the bow. She would have never hit her target as she would never have been able to get her sight right. She pulled the string back as far as it could go, aimed up a bit more, and then released. The arrow went soaring through the air silently and went through the police car's window. She saw the two policemen spin around and look at their car. "Dammit. Where did that come from?" one of them said urgently. Faith knew that the next part would be hard. She had to hide her location while she kept firing on the police car. That was the down side of using a bow. The police would be able to tell where it was coming from. She had an idea. She knew that it would be risky. She looked back at the two policemen and she saw that they were telling people to stay away. Faith knew that this method could easily hurt someone. Part of her cared, and the other part didn't. she aimed the bow up towards the sky. She had to get this perfectly right. She pulled the string back and let the arrow go. She watched it as it shot up into the sky, and then curved back down. She saw it go through the roof of a four wheel drive that was ten metres down the road from the police car. She aimed the bow higher this time. She needed to shorten the bow's trajectory. She let another arrow off and saw it shoot off into the sky. She smiled as it just missed the police car and hit the pavement. She saw the policemen go inside the shop, covering their heads with their hands. Faith smiled. She now knew that she had open house at the police car. She only hoped that the shop attendant told the cops what she had told her to say. She let another arrow go, and saw it stick into the car's hub-caps.
Ten minutes later the Council arrived. Faith smiled to herself. She climbed back down the ladder to the Sunnydale Twin Cinema. She couldn't care less if she hit a Council member or not. She lined up the black van in her sights and let an arrow go. It went straight through the drivers and then the passenger's side window. She looked around the corner to where the police car was, and she saw three Council Assassins talking to the police officers. She scanned what else she could see and she smiled as she realised they had only sent three Assassins after her. She stepped out of her hiding spot and whistled as loud as she could. The Assassins spun around to face her, and the policemen raised their guns. Faith was surprised to see the Council Assassins tell the cops to lower their guns. She charged towards the Assassins and they did the same. When Faith was almost there, she lined herself up on one of the Assassins and jumped at him, literally throwing herself at him. He fell down onto the concrete, and Faith was immediately up. Faith realised that these must have been the same Assassins from the hospital as they were dressed the same. She knew that they could handle themselves pretty well, but not well enough. Faith actually thought she might break a sweat this time. She spun around and saw a fist flying to her face. There wasn't enough time to block it and Faith didn't try. Instead she punched her attacker as hard as she could in the throat. He fell down gasping for air, but not before he had hit her in the forehead. "One down, two to go," Faith muttered to herself. The other attacker had managed to get beside Faith, and Faith delivered a snap kick to his mid section, that he caught. "What the." Faith started, but didn't get to finish. The Assassin twisted her leg around and called to another one of the team. "Get her. Now!" Faith saw that the first Assassin she had attacked was up again, and coming towards her. Faith tried to free her foot, but he had an iron grip on it. Faith hopped on one leg and then in one quick movement, she hopped towards him and bent her caught leg. When she landed, she kicked out with all her force. His hands were thrust back into his stomach, and he was sent crashing against a 'no parking' sign. She turned around and ducked the punch that was coming at her. She leant on her side and brought her knee up into the attackers mid section. She was surprised to see that he had blocked it. They kept on fighting for five minutes before Faith got a blow through. She occasionally had to knock back another of the Assassins as they got up. She resorted to her street fighting skills. The next time the Assassin kicked at her, she grabbed his foot and twisted it. She heard the satisfying crunch as it broke, and let him go. He fell onto the ground and clutched his foot. The other two weren't as tough. Faith knocked one out easily by ramming his head into the brick wall of the shop they were fighting outside of. She needed the next man conscious. He swung two fists at her, and she ducked them both. Then, in an instant, she sprung around behind him, grabbed the knife that was in the back of her jeans and held it to the Assassin's throat. "You even try anything! I kill this guy here," she yelled to the policemen, who had their guns drawn again. "Don't even try to follow me!" Slowly, she and the Assassin backed away from the policemen and turned a corner into an alley that lead into a street parallel to the one they were in. She made the Assassin come with her as she walked down the alley. She and the Assassin's wrist in her hand, and threatened him that she'd crush his wrist if he tried anything. When they were almost at the end of the alley, Faith spun around and grabbed the man by his shoulders and pinned him up on the wall. "Where is your base!" she demanded from him. "Where!" Faith lowered him to the ground, stepped back, and then with all her power, she stepped forward and uppercut the Assassin's mid section. He immediately bent over and vomited. She just allowed him time to recover, and when he stood up, she did the same again. "Headquarters! Where is it!" Faith said again, readying to hit him again. "No-no-no-no-no-no," he said frantically while waving his hands around. "I'll tell you. Just don't hit me again," he said. Faith stood up and crossed her arms. "They're at the warehouses. On the outskirts of town. Don't go running off. They're magickally protected. Anyone who isn't wearing one of these," he said while grabbing something out of his pocket. "Will get stuck in place and can't move until our guys come out and get them." Faith grabbed a small shiny disc from the man and began to walk away. She turned back and hit the man as hard as she could again in the gut. Then she walked away.
Incan Temple. Somewhere around 1540 AD
He liked being one of the Gods of the Incas. They would give him whatever he wanted, as long as he gave his people good fortune, which was easily done with magick. Word had arisen among the townspeople that there were now other white men in the land, and that they had come in great ships. He didn't worry too much about this, until he heard that the men carried sticks of thunder that would strike down others, and that the men were moving across the country, in his direction. For the next two weeks, he had his people prepare to fight the invaders. He trained them, and helped them make sufficient weapons. He taught the local priests some magick, which they thought were divine acts that he let them perform. A week after his town was ready, they came. They came in large, large numbers, and all of them had the sticks of thunder that he had heard about. Realising that there was no possible way to win the fight, he called for everyone to evacuate and flee into the forest, however he stayed behind. He watched as they all ran past him, fleeing for their lives. He, and a few of the town's bravest and best warriors would stand up to the invaders. Turning his head, he saw twenty men, all armed to the teeth, standing behind him, ready to charge on his word. He looked ahead and saw the invaders coming through the village, burning and pillaging anything they could. "Finally, Rome has found this new land," the man whispered to himself. He watched as the small band of invaders marched his way. He was surprised when, what was obviously their chief, told them to stop. The two races stood facing each other, each ready to charge and kill as many of the others as they could. He stood, looking at the invaders' commander. He was a large, fit man, who wore what only looked like light armour. The leader walked up to him and said something that he could only just interpret. After five minutes of thinking, he realised that the commander was speaking a form of morphed Spanish to him. He remembered the mighty nation of the Spanish. It was a great and proud people, before the Romans came and conquered them. From what he had heard when he was back in his homeland, the Spaniards liked being ruled under the Romans, and he could never understand that. He spoke back to the commander in his native tongue: Gaelic. He saw that the commander realised that he was speaking Gaelic, and called another man forward. They talked between themselves for a bit, and then the man stood beside his commander, looking at him. The commander said something, and the man repeated it in Gaelic. "At last, we get to meet the mighty white god," the commander said. A look of surprise crossed the immortal magician's face. He was surprised that the invaders had heard of him. "Finally, Rome has found the new land," he said after a while. The commander looked confused. "Rome fell, a very long time ago. We are Spaniards," the commander replied. "Now step aside and we will let your people live." "No!" he replied, thinking that they were going to kill his people. He raised a hand and spread his palm out, and faced it towards the commander. He flew back and landed amongst his warriors. When the commander got up, he could see the rage in his face. He saw the commander order the warriors to advance on his people. He raised his palm and the air in front of the warriors started to shimmer and blur. They ran into an invisible wall. From what he could see, the commander had a complete look of shock on his face. He watched as the invaders knelt down on one knee and pointed something at him and his warriors. He guessed that they were the mighty sticks of thunder that he had heard about. He was confident that they wouldn't get through his wall. They pointed the sticks at his men and then they exploded in a loud bang. He watched as his wall shattered and his men fell to the ground. Three quarters of them were dead, blood spurting from their heads, and some without what could be called a head. He saw the invaders run forward. He raised his palm to make another wall, but one of the men was too fast and shot the stick of thunder at him. He immediately raised his hand to where the stick of thunder had hit him; in the stomach. There was a gaping wound there and blood was pouring out of it. He did the only thing he knew how to do, and pushed all the men back, sending them flying thirty metres. He turned and ran, and so did his remaining men. He had become weak in his days as a 'god'. Only using magick to impress his people, and to give them good fortune. He hadn't practiced the other areas of magick, therefore becoming weak. He ran through the forest, and he didn't know when he stopped, but when he woke up, he was surrounded by his men, dead on the ground. He felt a wound in the back of his neck, and realised that he had been hit with one of the sticks of thunder. He wondered why he wasn't dead like the rest of his men, but then he remembered. He was immortal. He had forgotten that, and over the last hundred years, he had taken his everlasting life for granted. He realised that he couldn't die, and that he just had 'died' but his immortality had brought him back to life. For the first time in his life, he was glad he had spent all those years in the forest.
He had fought bravely beside the people that had come to know him as a god, but ultimately, he failed. The invaders were winning, and he could do nothing about it. He had journeyed all throughout the new land, raising support for an army to be created by all the civilisations of the land he now called home. Nothing would happen, slowly, the Spaniards, as they like to call themselves, were overrunning them. He realised that he would have to go back to his real home in order to find out how to defeat them. And so he did. At the dead of night, he snuck onto one of their ships and journeyed back to his home land.
He arrived back, in the nation that called itself England. This was where he was originally from, and the land had changed greatly. For years he journeyed the land, seeking knowledge about all the weapons that had developed while he was gone. He learnt battle strategies and learnt how to command an army. He was disgusted with how many creatures of the night there were in his homeland. Then, one night, he learnt of a true Warrior that roamed the land and destroyed the creatures. Perhaps he could get the Warrior to come back with him and help free his people. He sought the warrior out, and when he found her, was very surprised. He had not known of Slayers before. He had met one, in 1600 AD in London. She was helping to free a woman from the creatures of the night. When he watched her, he saw how good she was, and recognised something inside of her. It was a spark. He then realised that this Warrior didn't choose to fight against the creatures of the night, but the fight was thrust upon her. She was chosen by the highest power to fight against these creatures. He decided he had to know more about the warrior: he had to feed his craving for knowledge about her. After learning that Europe had started colonising his home land, which they called the 'New World', he gave up hope. There was no possible way he could fend off the people of Europe. He gave up on his people, hoping that they would get a decent life. Instead, he adopted himself a name, which he had learnt he needed over here. He found out about the Watchers Council, and recruited himself. After learning all the arcane lore that he had to know, he became a Watcher. Slowly, he ascended the ranks of the Watchers Council, learning of various schemes that only the highest knew of. He masked his identity well, slowly creating the illusion of ageing on his body. He wasn't, and he could see that he wasn't, but everyone else thought so. When it came time for him to die, he faked his own death, and created another profile in the Council's records at the rank he was at. This all lasted until 1900 AD when the leader of the Council found him out. He was then recruited by the Council Leaders to go undercover, and do their jobs for them. He agreed, as long as he was able to sit in on the meetings of the Inner Council.
Faith stood before this man now. He was sitting in a wooden chair with his hands tied behind his back, and his feet tied to the chair. Faith just stood and stared at him. She watched as he slowly regained consciousness. When he was fully awake, Faith just stared at him. "You know, these restraints aren't going to hold me," he said to her. "Wanna bet?" Faith replied to him. With a quick blur, the man was out of the restraints and running towards Faith. Faith put her right leg on the couch that was near her, and jumped off of it, and swung her leg at what appeared to be thin air. In the last second, his head appeared in Faith's foot's path. It hit him right on the side of the head, and sent him crashing to Faith's left. She watched as his head slammed into the wall again, knocking him unconscious, yet again. He was only out of it for ten minutes this time. And in that time, Faith had found chains and had tied his hands together with the chains, and locked them together. She also locked one of his legs to the chair, the other to the security screen on one of Michael's windows. Faith saw him look up, and was utterly disgusted by what she saw. She backhanded him across the face. He just recovered and looked at her again. "What's your name?" Faith asked coldly. "Why should I tell you?" The man asked her. "Oh, I don't know. I'm only the one that's holding you prisoner, and is ready to kill you," Faith replied in a sarcastic voice. "What's your name?" Faith asked again, the rage evident in her voice. The man just grinned at her, and before long, Faith punched him in the nose. "Name?" She stated simply. The man said nothing. Faith punched him again. "Name!" she said again. He still didn't say anything. She punched him again, but this time, when his head snapped back, she punched him again, harder. She was sure that she had broken his nose by now. "Name?" she asked simply again. "Ok-Ok-Ok. I'll tell you," the man said desperately. He expected an answer from Faith, but didn't get any, so he continued. "M-My name is. Santa," the man said. "Last name?" Faith bluntly asked. "Claus," the man replied. "It's going to take a lot more than that to make me confess." "That's it," Faith said while walking away from Michael to the kitchen. She pulled out a large kitchen knife from the draws. She turned the gas stove onto it's highest and put the blade against it. She waited until it was red hot and ready to melt, and then returned back to the man. "You really want to know something?" Faith asked him, but didn't expect an answer. "I love this part." She plunged the red hot blade into the man's leg and let it sit there for a minute. She pulled the blade out and waited for the man to stop screaming. She put the blade up against the wound and seared the skin around it, effectively closing the wound. She waited for him to recover. "Name?" she asked again. "Charles," the man replied. "Other name?" Faith asked. "Edmond Smith," the man replied. "Who do you work for," Faith asked him. "T-Th-The Council," he replied. With a fit of rage, Faith threw the knife against the wall. It didn't stick in, but it made a rather large indentation in the wall after it bounced off. She charged out of the room and left Charles Edmond Smith behind.
At the Magic Box, everyone had been alone with their thoughts for a while. Buffy was in the back room, while everyone else was spread out through the front of the shop. Giles knew that they were all thinking about what had happened to Buffy: What they had done. He knew now, more than ever, Willow was agreeing with what he said before to them, about bringing Buffy back was stupid and dangerous. He looked at her, and watched as she limped around the bookshelves. That was another thing that had come to his mind. He had wondered how Willow and Tara had gotten hurt. He called everyone over to the round table. "Willow? Tara? Could you please tell us how you got hurt?" Giles calmly asked both of them. After a long wait, Willow was the first to reply. "When we were in the astral together. I felt something, wrong, with me, Tara, Xander, Anya and Buffy. I don't know what it is. Me and Tara decided to go into the astral planes again, to try and find out. At the oracles. When we got there, there was no one there. But then, the land shifted, and we were surrounded by demons," she started. "We held them off, but I got cut. I don't know what happened after that," Tara said. Everyone looked to Willow. "When I saw Tara get cut across the throat, I went ballistic. I couldn't tell the difference from anything. The only thing that mattered was Tara and keeping her safe. I did terrible things Giles," Willow said while looking at Giles. "Like what?" Anya asked. "I-I killed things. Lots of them. Now that I think about it, I don't think they were demons. They didn't look too demony. I think they were animals, and they just saw us and the Slayers as a food source," Willow said "Slayers?" Giles asked. "There were spirits of Slayers around us, fighting he demons. W-When I saw Tara get cut, I think I killed them. I-I think I killed half of them," Willow said. Not allowing herself to think about it too much, she continued. "The land shifted again, and we were back at the oracles. I didn't know how to get out, so I tore. I tore a tunnel through the dimensions and brought Tara back." Giles could feel his eyes widening, looking at Willow. He couldn't believe that Willow was able to achieve such a thing. He watched as Willow started crying. "You did what you had to do Will. It's okay," Xander said. "I-It's not that. I'm scared. I'm scared of what I can do. I-I mean. If any of you were there then, I-I.I would have killed you and not cared," Willow said while trying to hold back the tears. "I was totally out of control." "All you have to do is learn to control your emotions, that's all," Anya said. "You don't get it. There was no such thing as control. How would you be if you saw Xander cut down in front of your eyes?" Willow said. Anya stood there, and didn't say a word as she thought about it. She slightly nodded at Willow, signifying that she understood.
The Inner Council heard of Willow's actions from the magician that they sent there. He was, as far as they knew, the only powerful magick user on the Inner Council of the Watchers Council. They decided that they needed to bring Willow in and hold her for questioning. If she was deemed responsible, she would live. If she was not, she would die as the Council saw her as a 'threat' to humanity.
It seemed to Buffy that she had only been sitting in the back room for an hour at most, but she realised that it must have been a lot longer than that when she saw that it was late in the afternoon. She was just snapping out of whatever she was in, when she heard shouts from the front of the shop. She got up and ran to the door only to find that it was blocked by something. She tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. She heard Tara scream out Willow's name. Buffy kicked at the door as hard as she could, but it wouldn't move. She tried ramming it, but still it wouldn't move. Buffy did the last thing she could think of. She ran at the door, jumped and kicked out with both legs. She heard the thing in front of the door come crashing down, and she saw the door open. It was a large row of shelves that was holding the door closed. As Buffy looked around her, she saw that the shop was in ruins and that all her friends were lying on the ground. Xander held himself "They took Willow," he managed to say. "Who?" Buffy asked urgently. "They looked like the Council's goons," Xander said. Before he got to finish, Buffy was heading towards the door. When she got to the door, she saw a white van with heavily tinted windows speeding away from the shop down Main Street.. She knew that she couldn't keep up with it, so she returned into the shop and helped everyone get up. "How did they put the shelves against the door?" Buffy asked. "Magick," Giles managed to reply. "We have to get Willow back!" Buffy emphasised. "Where would they take her? Why would they take her?" Buffy asked. She saw everyone look at each other, all of them had the same thought. "If they found out what Willow did?" Giles said, not finishing the sentence. "What did Willow do!" Buffy demanded. "F-For her to get back from the astral, she had to rip her way through the fabric that separates dimensions," Tara said. "If they found out she put the world in danger, they would take her," Giles said. "W-We have to find her!" Buffy said. "Where would the Council have a base? Somewhere large and out of the way," Buffy said, answering her own question. "The Factory!" Xander exclaimed. "No, somewhere larger," Giles said. "More open." "The warehouses," Dawn said. "Warehouses?" Almost everyone asked at the same time. "Y'know. The big abandoned warehouses in the outskirts of town. They are probably holed up in there. There's like 4 huge warehouses not being used by anyone," Dawn explained. "That sounds like the perfect place," Tara said. She looked to where Buffy was meant to be, but she wasn't. She only heard the door closing.
Buffy charged across town. It was a fair way across Sunnydale, and any normal person would be tired after completing what Buffy did in the same amount of time. She stood out the front of one of the warehouses and looked up at it. She tried to go further, but her feet couldn't move. She looked down at them, and they were perfectly fine. She wasn't standing in quicksand or wet cement, so she had no idea why her feet couldn't move. Then it hit her: Magick. Buffy watched as three men came out of the warehouse. They were holding crossbows aimed at her, and one had a long sword. They put her in handcuffs and took her inside the warehouse.
Faith couldn't believe she couldn't get the Assassins to attack her. She had tried everything she could. Usually, when she least expected it, they would attack, but not now. She ran through the streets of Sunnydale yelling out for them to attack her, but nothing. She decided that she'd do something to draw attention to herself instead. She went into an extreme sports shop and found the archery section. She took a compound target bow down from the wall and broke the case containing arrows. She turned around and noticed the store owner's hand tapping a button that must have been behind the counter. Faith presumed it was an alarm to call the police. "I-I-I've called the police," the woman behind the counter said. "Good," was all that Faith said back. Faith found a quiver and strapped it around her back and put the arrows in. She looked through the glass cases in front of her, and found what she was looking for. Knives. She smashed that case and picked three knives that interested her. She put one in the back of her pants, another in the front of her pants, and she put the last one into her sock. "There we go. All done now. And by the way. When the police get here, tell them that it was that girl, or the girl or something like that. Okay?" the woman behind the counter only nodded nervously. Faith slipped out the door carrying the longbow and the quiver around her back. It was then she noticed that it was the same shop she and Buffy had robbed three years ago to get supplies to kill vampires. She grunted to herself at the thought. She went around to the Sunnydale cinema and climbed up onto the roof using a ladder that was around the side. When she looked down, she was happy to know that the store she had just robbed was on the same side of the road as her and only seventy metres away. There, she waited for the police to arrive. She was disappointed when only one car turned up out the front of the store, she was suspecting more. She had to tell herself that the cops didn't know that they were dealing with her yet. She hoped that the Watchers Council had told the police about her and Buffy, and that the police would ring the Council if they came across either her or Buffy. She watched the two police officers get out of their car and when they were almost in the shop, she lined up her sight. She thanked her Slayer training which taught her to shoot a bow by sighting down the arrow, not using the new sight that was built into the bow. She would have never hit her target as she would never have been able to get her sight right. She pulled the string back as far as it could go, aimed up a bit more, and then released. The arrow went soaring through the air silently and went through the police car's window. She saw the two policemen spin around and look at their car. "Dammit. Where did that come from?" one of them said urgently. Faith knew that the next part would be hard. She had to hide her location while she kept firing on the police car. That was the down side of using a bow. The police would be able to tell where it was coming from. She had an idea. She knew that it would be risky. She looked back at the two policemen and she saw that they were telling people to stay away. Faith knew that this method could easily hurt someone. Part of her cared, and the other part didn't. she aimed the bow up towards the sky. She had to get this perfectly right. She pulled the string back and let the arrow go. She watched it as it shot up into the sky, and then curved back down. She saw it go through the roof of a four wheel drive that was ten metres down the road from the police car. She aimed the bow higher this time. She needed to shorten the bow's trajectory. She let another arrow off and saw it shoot off into the sky. She smiled as it just missed the police car and hit the pavement. She saw the policemen go inside the shop, covering their heads with their hands. Faith smiled. She now knew that she had open house at the police car. She only hoped that the shop attendant told the cops what she had told her to say. She let another arrow go, and saw it stick into the car's hub-caps.
Ten minutes later the Council arrived. Faith smiled to herself. She climbed back down the ladder to the Sunnydale Twin Cinema. She couldn't care less if she hit a Council member or not. She lined up the black van in her sights and let an arrow go. It went straight through the drivers and then the passenger's side window. She looked around the corner to where the police car was, and she saw three Council Assassins talking to the police officers. She scanned what else she could see and she smiled as she realised they had only sent three Assassins after her. She stepped out of her hiding spot and whistled as loud as she could. The Assassins spun around to face her, and the policemen raised their guns. Faith was surprised to see the Council Assassins tell the cops to lower their guns. She charged towards the Assassins and they did the same. When Faith was almost there, she lined herself up on one of the Assassins and jumped at him, literally throwing herself at him. He fell down onto the concrete, and Faith was immediately up. Faith realised that these must have been the same Assassins from the hospital as they were dressed the same. She knew that they could handle themselves pretty well, but not well enough. Faith actually thought she might break a sweat this time. She spun around and saw a fist flying to her face. There wasn't enough time to block it and Faith didn't try. Instead she punched her attacker as hard as she could in the throat. He fell down gasping for air, but not before he had hit her in the forehead. "One down, two to go," Faith muttered to herself. The other attacker had managed to get beside Faith, and Faith delivered a snap kick to his mid section, that he caught. "What the." Faith started, but didn't get to finish. The Assassin twisted her leg around and called to another one of the team. "Get her. Now!" Faith saw that the first Assassin she had attacked was up again, and coming towards her. Faith tried to free her foot, but he had an iron grip on it. Faith hopped on one leg and then in one quick movement, she hopped towards him and bent her caught leg. When she landed, she kicked out with all her force. His hands were thrust back into his stomach, and he was sent crashing against a 'no parking' sign. She turned around and ducked the punch that was coming at her. She leant on her side and brought her knee up into the attackers mid section. She was surprised to see that he had blocked it. They kept on fighting for five minutes before Faith got a blow through. She occasionally had to knock back another of the Assassins as they got up. She resorted to her street fighting skills. The next time the Assassin kicked at her, she grabbed his foot and twisted it. She heard the satisfying crunch as it broke, and let him go. He fell onto the ground and clutched his foot. The other two weren't as tough. Faith knocked one out easily by ramming his head into the brick wall of the shop they were fighting outside of. She needed the next man conscious. He swung two fists at her, and she ducked them both. Then, in an instant, she sprung around behind him, grabbed the knife that was in the back of her jeans and held it to the Assassin's throat. "You even try anything! I kill this guy here," she yelled to the policemen, who had their guns drawn again. "Don't even try to follow me!" Slowly, she and the Assassin backed away from the policemen and turned a corner into an alley that lead into a street parallel to the one they were in. She made the Assassin come with her as she walked down the alley. She and the Assassin's wrist in her hand, and threatened him that she'd crush his wrist if he tried anything. When they were almost at the end of the alley, Faith spun around and grabbed the man by his shoulders and pinned him up on the wall. "Where is your base!" she demanded from him. "Where!" Faith lowered him to the ground, stepped back, and then with all her power, she stepped forward and uppercut the Assassin's mid section. He immediately bent over and vomited. She just allowed him time to recover, and when he stood up, she did the same again. "Headquarters! Where is it!" Faith said again, readying to hit him again. "No-no-no-no-no-no," he said frantically while waving his hands around. "I'll tell you. Just don't hit me again," he said. Faith stood up and crossed her arms. "They're at the warehouses. On the outskirts of town. Don't go running off. They're magickally protected. Anyone who isn't wearing one of these," he said while grabbing something out of his pocket. "Will get stuck in place and can't move until our guys come out and get them." Faith grabbed a small shiny disc from the man and began to walk away. She turned back and hit the man as hard as she could again in the gut. Then she walked away.