Chapter Eight
"We shouldn't have left the manor." Tara repeated her concern one more time.
"Tara it is best that they figured the truth by themselves, before we interfere and another one of their spell hit us." Wesley dismissed Tara's concern and continued to ponder on the books.
"I don't know how we are helping by sitting here. Shouldn't we be somewhere else or doing something else?" Tara was getting more and more impatient.
"No, we can help more from here." Willow replied.
"How?" Tara asked.
"This is how." Willow replied and turned her laptop so that Tara could see what was on the screen. "To prove that we were right. The sisters did not put the memory spell on themselves."
"What do you mean?" Tara asked.
"There was no reason for Piper or the sisters to cope with any truth." Willow told Tara who hadn't realized what was happening.
"They already knew everything. Piper agreed to it." Wesley finished Willow's thought.
"I know but they must have thought that if they didn't remember…" Tara tried to reason but Wesley didn't let her finish and spoke, "No, see if they are the ones without the memory then Faith would come after them."
"And Buffy too; if she was still alive." Willow added.
"And that is exactly what is happening. They couldn't have possibly wanted this." Wesley tried to think harder.
"Well, their memory is gone. So, may be something went wrong, maybe they didn't simply think this. After all they were the one who forced Leo to give them the ximmer extract; they made the spell and the potion. It is their making, how do you explain that." Tara said as she still wanted to believe the sisters were protecting themselves.
"It's simple actually. It was meant for someone else." Wesley said as a matter of fact.
"Buffy and Faith." Tara sat down as the realization hit her as soon as she worded the two names.
"It makes sense. It was their baby." Willow finished Tara's theory, and pointed to the screen one more time, "And this proves it."
"This is crazy, we are not going to get anywhere by racking our brains like this." Paige complained to her sisters as she pretended to think. "I agree, emotion is the key and as long as we are not faced with something or someone with emotional trigger we won't remember." Piper said.
"Well, at least we have some pieces of the puzzle. It was Buffy's baby, the next slayer. Obviously the baby was evil, still Faith carried the baby to the full term, I am guessing that's why you guys broke up." Paige assessed.
"No, we didn't break up. It was my idea to make Faith's apartment a nursery for the baby. But why not the house?" Piper asked herself.
"Because the baby had evil in her and because our house is on a nexus. As she got closer to delivery she started to suffocate." Phoebe answered surprised that she knew the answer.
"That was good Phoebes. Did you guess it or the answer came to you?" Paige asked.
"I don't know, its like I have been asked these questions before and I am just listening to my lips move?" Phoebe replied.
"Exactly, so if we ask the right questions we should be able to get our answers." Piper figured and continued, "Why did I kill the baby?"
She waited for either of her sister to spring an automated answer but instead she was just staring at them as blank as they were staring at her.
"Nope, let's slow down, and take it step by step." Paige said, "Baby was born, that we know for sure…. Faith gave birth to the baby."
"Yes, despite the elders, Piper was there with Faith." Phoebe added.
"Right, then something happened, but what?" Paige tried to boost the conversation.
"Baby was born with horns?" Phoebe smiled at her own question.
"Not funny Phoebe." Paige said while Piper was glaring at her.
"No, she was beautiful. She was the most beautiful baby in the whole world. She had these blue eyes, and when she stared at you, you just wanted drown into them forever." Piper's eyes were once again filled with tears as her mind unveiled the face of the baby that she supposedly killed. She sobbed as the memory of the little face smiling and playing with her returned to her.
"Oh! God. Please…" Piper begged on her knees as even the thought that she was capable of putting an end to a baby's life dawned on her conscious.
"Sweetie, it will be ok." Phoebe hugged her sister and rocked to and fro.
"No." Piper said and sobbed louder. "The dragger…" She managed to say in between her sobs, "The dragger was in my hands….she was looking at me…"
"This is the spell that Amy used on you when we broke up." Tara said after she read the spell on the Willow's laptop screen.
"Yes, the spell that lets the guilty choose her own punishment." Willow agreed.
"You mean someone might have put that spell on the sisters." Wesley asked.
"It's the only spell I can think of that might have made their spell work on themselves." Willow told her friends.
"Yes. It makes sense. They had told me that by the end of it we didn't have to worry about Faith or Buffy, so Tara is right, they must have made the spell for Buffy and Faith. Piper didn't want to loose Faith so she must have figured if she erased the slayers' memory she could buy herself time for Faith to understand that there was no alternative." Wesley theorized.
"Exactly, that's why they had all the fail safe spells, so that no one could tell them the truth before they were ready. So, basically Faith and Buffy would remember only what they could accept. A perfect plan to keep everyone together." Willow finished.
"But because the sisters were put on the guilty spell, when they said the spell it must have backfired on them." Wesley concluded their the new found theory.
"But who would put the spell on them." Tara asked.
That's when Willow pointed out the laptop screen for the second time, "Look who accessed the file last."
"She knew something was up!" Tara exclaimed after she saw the name.
"How could she? Only the sisters and I knew what was going to be done. Even I didn't know when they would do it?" Wesley was confused and so were the two women who were looking at him for answer.
"No, she didn't know anything." It was Giles who answered. He had entered the room just few seconds ago and was able to catch their theory and their confusion about the perpetrator. "She had no idea what the sisters were planning."
"Are you trying to say that this spell was not used on them?" Wesley asked his colleague.
"She did put that spell; she just didn't know what was happening." Giles defended.
"You knew?" Willow asked surprised.
"Yes, and I did advise her against it. I thought she wouldn't do it." Giles defended himself one more time.
"You mean you actually knew what she was planning to do to the sisters and you told no one." Tara asked getting angry at the watcher.
"No, she did not put the spell to the sisters, it was just for Piper. But I guess because they had made the memory spell linking to Buffy and Faith's powers, when the spell hit Piper it must have hit the other two sisters too." Giles answered.
"But why Piper?" Wesley asked.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Where is she now?" Tara asked.
Fred opened the door and was staring at an empty room. Before she could think of any alternative, one thought hit her, Faith was gone. She rushed to the other end where the parts of the crib was lying and screamed Faith's name. She waited about two seconds when panic hit her and she dashed to the door. Just then the bathroom door opened and a now dressed in total black slayer emerged. Fred turned around and sighed in relief, "Oh! God! I thought you were gone."
"Not yet, but I'll be leaving soon." Faith told the smaller woman.
"You changed, you look good." Fred said trying to stall time.
"Thanks. Dark was always my color, I should have never changed." Faith answered more about herself than about her clothing.
"Faith please, you can get past this." Regardless of her feelings for Faith, Fred did not want Faith to find her dark self again.
"Do you see that? Do you see the bare wall? Do you hear the silence in this room? How do you expect me to get past it?" Faith asked frustrated at the suggestion.
"Because, even though you don't want to accept it, the baby was born of pure evil. And you know that sisters were not trying to kill her." Fred said.
"You didn't see the blood in her hands." Faith looked away remembering the sight and walking towards the door, refusing to discuss it any further.
Fred made another dash past the slayer and tried one more time, "Faith do you even know what you are about to do? You know what the consequences are?"
Faith chuckled when she answered, "I know the consequence, I have been there remember. I have killed before, or did you forget." Faith stared into now scared woman's eyes, "You know what they say, once a killer always a killer."
"You are not a killer. And if you kill any one of the sisters, you'll never be able to make amends for it." Fred warned.
"The only thing I care about is revenge." Faith blurted before she pushed Fred knocking her and walked out.
Couple of hours had passed and the sisters had abandoned the quest for their memory for a while. Paige somehow felt that they needed to cool off and there was nothing else they could remember by sitting and racking their brains, that's when she suggested that they should go to P3.
"What?" It was Phoebe who asked as Piper waited for the answer.
"Well it's almost mid night and P3 must be packed." Paige darted her eyes to both her sister to see some lightened reaction but failed. "Come on guys, by sitting here holding our head we are certainly not going to remember. Let's just go about our business, as in go and loosen up a little and may be something will trigger."
"I hate to admit this but she may be right." Piper said as she closed the book.
"Piper???" Phoebe was quick to question her eldest sibling's judgment.
"What? Emotion is the key and may be even a different venue will trigger something." Piper explained.
"Well you two go ahead then, I am just beat with too much trying to think. I'll crash." Phoebe said even though she didn't want to disappoint her sisters. She truly needed the rest.
"Are you sure sweetie?" Paige asked as she checked her temperature on the forehead, "You don't feel feverish or something?"
"No, no I am fine. I just don't feel like going." Phoebe said almost apologetically. "So, go."
"Ok now that we are here, let's knock." Tara suggested to her ex girlfriend.
"Me knock. Oh! No. I thought you were going to knock." Willow chickened out instead.
"Willow, it was your idea." Tara tried to pass the torch again.
"Yeah but you are the all mighty white lighter." Willow certainly wasn't the kind to stand on the front line.
"White lighters are not all mighty. We stand on the back ground." Tara said sternly and got behind Willow.
Just then they both heard the knob turn and the door about to open. Both the women were so scared that they closed their eyes in fear of who stood in front of them.
"Willow, Tara! What are you doing here?" Said the person who emerged from the opened door.
When the voice reached their ears they opened their eyes. "Oh! Fred!" Willow exclaimed composing herself. "Wesley had told us you would be here but... we didn't think you would still be here."
"So where is Faith?" Tara asked the bespectacled woman.
"Please don't tell me you both were able to break that barrier spell." Fred hoped she was wrong.
"Why Faith is not here?" Willow asked as the panic once again started to evade her.
"No, she is still out for blood. I tried to stop her but she knocked me cold and headed for the manor. I was hoping that the spell was still into affect." Fred told the women.
"Well let's not panic. The sisters are still powerful enough to protect themselves." Tara closed her eyes and prayed for her words to be true and said, "But, just in case lets go there."