Chapter 3 - In which our heroines welcome Faith into the fold.

Willow and Tara walked to the Magic Box at a brisk pace, Holding each others hand. "I wonder what Giles wants?" Willow asked. It had been four days since they had spoken to him last. Last night Giles had phoned them and asked them to come to the Magic Box early this morning.

"It's probably to give us an update on Faith."

"I hope that they can help us. I mean I don't trust them but having them help should make it a lot easier." Willow had done some research of her own but hadn't found anything. At least not anything legal and she didn't think that Faith would be able to help much if she was constantly looking over her shoulder for the police. Having reached the Magic Box Willow opened the door and held it for Tara. Everyone else was already there. Xander and Anya were by the table while Giles was standing behind the counter.

"So what's up?" Willow asked, "Is this about Faith?"

"Actually yes. I spoke to the Travers yesterday and he told me that they have already been making preparations to get Faith out of jail. They should be on their way here this morning."

"What do you mean they?" Anya asked, worrying that the shop was going to be over run by watchers again.

"Faith and her watcher." Giles seemed to be a little put out by something, probably the fact that he wasn't being allowed to act as Faiths watcher. "As I was saying they should arrive around about..." he stopped as the door opened and Faith and Claudia came in, "Now." Giles moved round the counter to greet them both. "Hello, you must be Claudia."

"Indeed. I assume that you are Giles."

Claudia held her hand out and Giles shook it. Then pointing at the others he said, "These are Willow, Tara , Xander and Anya."

Claudia turned to them with a pleasant smile and said, "It's a pleasure, I'm sure . I've heard a lot about you all."

Xander found that he was growing more and more uncomfortable at being near Faith. Frowning he muttered, "I have to get to work." He snuck out the back. Anya went to the counter, her expression a mixture of worry over Xander's sudden exit and boredom over the whole proceedings. She began rearranging the till while Giles went off to talk to Claudia. Tara walked over to Faith, who had been hanging back out of the way. Willow stayed back so that she could observe Faith a moment.

"Hello again."

"Hi. Tara, right?"

Tara nodded, then added, "How are you feeling?"

"Awkward mainly. Did you even know that I was coming."

"Yes. The council had told us."

"But only after we asked them to get you out of prison." Willow said as she finally moved to join them.

"That sounds like them." Then as Wilow's words sank in, "Wait up, you wanted to get me out of prison?"

Willow nodded. Glancing about she noted that everyone else was busy. Taking Tara's hand she suggested, "Maybe we should show you around."

They went to the training room first. Looking round Faith gave out a low whistle. "Very nice, I bet B liked this." She hesitated a moment then said, "Why do I get the feeling this is about more than just showing me around.?"

"Because you're right. We want to know what your intentions are."

"My intentions?" Faith said uncertainly. She had imagined a lot of things on the way here but not being grilled like a young man who was about to go on his first date with his girlfriend.

"Are you here to help us or to cause trouble?"

"I'm here to help of course." Faith smiled then added, "But I would say that wouldn't I?"

Tara, who had been quiet till then said, "I think we can give you a chance to prove yourself."

Faith gave her a grateful glance then turned back to Willow to see if she agreed.

Willow nodded then said, "I guess that we can. However if this does turn out to be a trick..." Willow paused dramatically, "Well I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

Deciding to change the subject Faith asked, "I wonder what B would think about me being here?"

"Actually this was B's, I mean Buffy's idea."

Faith opened her mouth to respond then closed it again, not sure what to say. She frowned as she considered this, then said, "Red... Buffy's dead."

Willow turned to Tara and said in a slightly exasperated tone, "Why do people keep saying that?"

"Perhaps because it's true." Tara said with a slight smile. Turning to Faith she went on, "We held a seance to talk to her."

"Yeah okay, I guess that explains that. So you had this seance and Buffy was like, You want to get Faith out of prison." Faith seemed to be genuinely intrigued by what they were saying.

"Something like that." Willow answered.

"Oh, well I have to say that I'm surprised." Even as she said this Faith was starting grow hopeful. If Buffy could forgive her then maybe the others could as well.

"You might want to talk to Xander at some point soon."

"Xander?"

"He wasn't happy about the plan." Tara explained.

"Well then I guess I ought to clear the air with him."

Giles and Claudia watched each other a little warily, as if sizing each other up. Finally deciding to break the silence, Giles said, "I see that council decided that I wasn't up to the job of acting as Faith's watcher."

"You know that it's tradition for a watcher to only be in charge of one slayer." Claudia had a very crisp way of speaking that made it hard for Giles to work out exactly what she was feeling.

"Tradition of course, how could I have forgotten?" The sarcasm in Giles voice suggested that that answer didn't satisfy him.

"Besides there were members of the council who felt that you should be kept away from Faith so she won't be infected with the same rebellious nature as Buffy." While Claudia's tone was very formal, there was an edge to her voice that suggested that she didn't have much time for this opinion.

"When should I leave?" Giles' voice was still heavy with sarcasm as he said this. He found the idea that council was worried about Faith getting more rebellious ludicrous. He also didn't like the implied criticism of Buffy.

"I must say that I argued against the idea quite forcibly." Claudia said hastily. "I know that you could be a great help to both myself and Faith."

"I'm flattered." Even though his voice was dry Giles was starting to think that maybe Claudia was more flexible than she first appeared to be.

"At first the council wasn't sure about Buffy being helped by civilians."

"I know, they told me several times." There was a certain amount of drollness to his voice. Of course the Council didn't approve of anything that was different from their traditional methods.

"However after the fight with Glory they began to realise just how much help Buffy received from her 'Teen Angels'."

"Actually they call themselves the 'Scooby Gang'." Giles corrected her with a smirk.

"Quite, I got my cartoon references mixed up. Anyway I'm hoping that they'll help Faith in the same way, the problem is..."

"They don't trust her."

Claudia nodded. "So I was hoping you'd be able to, shall we say, smooth things over."

"I'll do what I can. Though I have to say that I don't know how much I can trust her either." Giles sighed then said, "Well since you're here you may as well help us with this problem we're having."

Tara went into the dining room to find Willow working on her laptop. Willow was normally happy when on a computer but now she just seemed to be annoyed.

"Hi, what's up?"

"Oh I'm just looking for a job." Willow answered giving the screen a dismissive wave.

"I take it that it's not going very well."

"You could say that. It's finding something that I can work in around my classes. Especially as they all want experience, How can I get experience if I can't get a job?"

Tara moved behind Willow and rubbed her shoulders. "I'm sure that you'll find something."

Willow shrugged, "Well I hear that the Double Meat Palace is hiring." When Tara didn't respond she went on, "That was a joke. I'm sure I can do better than that."

"You taught the computing class at high school didn't you?"

"Yeah and I still have doubts about how legal that was."

"And you tutored one of the students in your final year."

"Only because Snyder made me. I shouldn't say this but part of me is glad that he got eaten by a snake." Then as Willow realised what Tara was saying a large smile appeared on her face. "I could tutor people."

Tare waved at the computer and said, "You were able to teach me to use one of these things to I think that you can teach anyone."

"Okay then, that's a good idea that I had."

"Who had?" Tara asked, raising an eyebrow.

Suddenly standing Willow turned and kissed Tara before admitting,"Okay, so maybe it was you."

Dawn turned the television off then started up to her room. She had gotten up a couple of steps when someone knocked at the door. "I'll get it." Dawn called to no one in particular. She opened the door to find Faith there. "Faith." Dawn couldn't help recalling the last time she had been in this position.

"Hi." Faith said, as Dawn took a nervous step back. "Are the witches about? We're supposed to be going patrolling."

"They're just getting ready. Do you want to come in?"

Noticing how nervous Dawn was Faith said, "Nah, I'll wait out here."

Closing the door Dawn ran upstairs and knocked on Willow and Tara's door before going in.

"Who was at the door, sweetie?" Tara asked.

"It was Faith." Dawn swallowed and tried to calm herself before saying, "She wants to know if you're ready to go."

Willow checked she had everything then said, "I'm ready. Tare?"

Tara nodded absently, still watching Dawn. As Willow started downstairs Tara went to Dawn and said in a reassuring tone, "Remember how we said we wouldn't let Faith hurt you. We really meant it."

"I know." Dawn said, starting to feel a little better. She knew from past experience how far Tara would go to protect her and while she never wanted Tara to be hurt for her sake again, it did reassure her a little.

Faith led the way, striding purposefully through the cemetery, a stake in her hand , ready for any trouble. Willow and Tara followed closely behind, their arms linked.

"So how have things been lately? Pretty quiet?"

"Not really." Willow answered, "We've been getting a few vampires each night."

"Which is good." Tara added.

"No offense but how do you figure that?"

"Normally when it's quiet it means that something apocalypsey is coming."

"Right, Quiet bad. Gotcha."

"Don't you know it's dangerous to be out this late." A short figure said as it stepped out of the bushes. It was wearing a long black leather jacket over a ripped white T shirt and black leather trousers.

Faith twirled her stake once then asked, "Didn't you know it's not safe for your kind to be out any time?"

"Yeah well, way I hear it the slayer's dead. Her friends have just got some robot filling in."

"Funny, you'd think I'd have stopped moving about if that was the case."

"You're not..." The vampire stopped as something made it look down. It saw a stake buried in it's chest.

"You were saying?" Faith asked as the vampire exploded into dust. "Damn." Faith muttered.

"What?" Willow asked.

"I wanted that jacket."

"Um.." Tara started hesitantly, "I think the bigger problem is how did he vampire know about Buffy and the Buffy-bot."

"I don't know. Maybe someone, or should I say something, noticed something when we were patrolling. We never were able to get it fighting as well as Buffy."

Tara nodded, "I guess it was a matter of time before they noticed. What with it's tendency to get bits knocked off."

Faith smiled at this, "Well then I guess it's a good thing that I'm here to take over." Neither Willow or Tara could argue with this.

Spike was just leaving Willy's Place when he was stopped by a large muscle bound demon. It loomed over Spike and had large horns growing from it's head, and was walking on cloven hooves. Spike tried to get around it but the demon stopped him again. "Right you've asked for this." Spike put his game face on.

"I'm not here to fight you." The demon said in a low monotone voice which was completely different from it's normal harsh growl. The thing that struck Spike as being oddest was that this type of Demons vocabulary normally didn't extend beyond, 'I crush you! Crush you to goo!' "I want to help you."

"Who says that I want your help?"

The demon laughed, it's voice still oddly flat, "They were right. You are the slayers bitch."

"Hey, I've killed for less than that."

"killing, yes you used to be good at that. I can help you be good at it again."

"What, you're going to take this chip out? I've heard that one before."

"You don't need the chip out, You've killed with it in."

Spike nodded remembering how he had killed that girl when he had gone out with Drusilla. "How did you know about that?"

"It's all about mind over matter." The demon said, ignoring Spikes question. "If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. Now if you were to kill her you would show everyone you are still someone to be feared even with the chip."

Spike laughed, "So that's it. You want me to kill the slayer for you."

"Not the slayer. The key. kill her and everyone will know that you're still the monster you always were."

"That's an idea. " Spike returned to his normal appearance and seemed to be thinking about it. Spike suddenly grabbed the demon by the horns and, spinning it's head around, he broke it's neck. Dropping the body he said, "No."

"That was rude. "A second, smaller demon that seemed to be covered with maggots, approached, it's voice the same monotone as the first demon.

"Okay, you want some as well do you?" Spike said, feeling pumped up after the kill.

Moving faster than seemed possible the demon punched Spike and knocked him out. Then as if acting on some silent signal, a dozen demons of various races came out of the shadows. They picked up Spike and carried him off. They ignored the dead demon, a strange black liquid running out of its mouth, nose and eyes.

Faith walked down a dark narrow alley, her sense keyed for any signs of danger. There was a blur of motion and something hit her in the stomach. Faith double over in pain. As she recovered Faith looked up to see who had attacked her, Kakitos.

"No." Faith moaned. "You're dead."

"Then you think that I would have stopped moving about." Kakitos said, copying Faith's earlier comment. He swung at Faith but she managed to block the blow before burying her stake into his heart. Then it wasn't Kakitos any more.

"Oh god, Willow!" She quickly moved to catch Willow and lowered her to the ground saying, "Don't die. Please don't die." But Willow was already dead. "Oh god." Faith sobbed. "This can't be happening."

Hearing movement up ahead Faith looked up. Tara was approaching. Her normally calm face twisted with rage. Her eyes were pitch black and there was lightning flowing between her hands. "I... owe... you..."

Tara was standing in a long, grimy passage she didn't know how she'd gotten there and for some reason it didn't matter to her. The only light was a patch of sunlight, far behind her, yet she could see perfectly. The passage sloped downwards and the walls were made from compressed dirt. Not sure what else to do Tara followed the passage down. After she'd been walking a while she came across a group of large brutish creatures. They stood about seven feet tall, with broad stooped backs. They were all of large build and cover with muscles. Their arms ended in flat, shovel like hands which they were using to dig the tunnel. They were grunting to each other as they dug out the passage, in low throaty voices. As Tara got closer she realised that they were singing. Suddenly one of the trolls broke through into a chamber beyond The tunnel was suddenly flooded with green light. It was so bright that Tara had to look away. Then everything went quiet. For a moment Tara couldn't hear anything, then a voice recited,

"Late last night, and the night before,

Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers,

knocking at the door.

I want to go out,

don't now if I can,

because I'm so afraid of the Tommyknocker man."

Spike woke up to find himself hanging from a tree, his feet several meters off the ground. A quick check showed him that his hands were chained together, around a particularly thick branch of the tree. Spike tried to break the chains. When that failed he tried to either break the branch or pull himself off of it. His actions grew more and more frantic as time went on. He kept on struggling right up until the sun came up.