Chapter Fifteen: Revelations

The dream continued:

Buffy and Faith were fighting together against sword bearing vampires in an alley. Buffy knocked one down and then jumped on him and they began to struggle. Faith was fiddling with her bow but was unable to use it before another vampire arrived.

"Screw it!" muttered Faith throwing the bow at the newly arrived vampire. Faith closed with the vampire and after a few blows succeeded in dusting it with the arrow which was still in her hand. At about the same time Buffy succeeded in dusting her opponent.

"I think we've got more comin'!" said Faith as they started to move quickly in the direction of a warehouse.

"We're never gonna make it to the warehouse," replied Buffy.

"If they keep coming one at a time, we got a shot," said Faith.

Suddenly another sword carrying vampire landed in front of them and thrust his sword at Faith. She reacted instantly, catching his arm and shoving him into a crate, then pulling him off and swinging him backward onto a pile of wood. Buffy stepped right in and staked him causing him to crumble to dust. Buffy and Faith continued on their way.

At the end of the building an arm reached out and grabbed Buffy by the shoulder. Instantly she grabbed the man and threw him against a dumpster. Faith jumped right in to stake him. He slumped down to the ground, hurt by the impact against the heavy steel container.

Buffy suddenly had a horrible realisation. "FAITH, NO!" she called but it was too late. Faith was already swinging her stake and plunged it into the man's heart and then pulled it out. The stake was now covered in blood.

The man grabbed his chest in pain, blood pouring from it. Faith backed away as Buffy quickly got down beside him to try to help him. The man pulled his hands away and looked down at them covered in his own blood, shaking hard as he went into shock. "Don't move!" Buffy ordered him.

Faith was obviously totally shocked. "I didn't... I didn't know. I didn't know."

"We need to call 911, NOW!" said Buffy urgently concentrating on the injured man in front of her but Faith was paralyzed with shock. The man began to shake and the blood continued to flow.

"Don't move, i-it's okay..." said Buffy to the man, trying to reassure him. Buffy tried to apply pressure to the wound but the blood continued to escape. "I-I need, I need something to stop the..."

The man began to convulse and blood began to trickle from his mouth. He tried to say something but was unable to do so. With a final gesture he raised his arm before his body relaxed completely in death. He lay there with his eyes open staring into space.

Both girls stood in silence, stunned by what had happened. Suddenly Faith began to react. "We gotta go!" she cried grabbing onto Buffy's arm and pulling her to her feet. Together they ran from the scene.

As the two slayers ran down the alley Buffy stopped to look back. Faith grabbed her arm to get her to continue on. "Come on!" she called but Buffy did not respond. Faith jumped over a wall but Buffy did not follow. She continued on to the end of the alley and went over a fence.

Faith ran along the street but stopped when she realised that Buffy was not following. "B?" she called but got no reply. She turned back and made her way back towards the wall. She jumped over it again and looked around for Buffy. "B?" she called again but again got no reply. She looked down the alley at the body and walked towards it.

Faith slowly stepped up to the body. Police sirens sounded nearby but then continued on their way. Faith knelt down beside the body and reached out for the wound. She touched it and immediately yanked her hand back. She looked at the dead man, her expression full of guilt and horror.

I never knew how really shocked she was thought the sleeping Buffy. I was too shocked myself to take much notice I suppose. I never should have left her.

Willow, Cordelia, Xander and Giles were surprised. They only remembered the tough girl image that Faith had always put on. It had never occurred to them how truly shaken by the whole experience Faith had been.

I thought this was meant to be different to what I remembered thought the sleeping Faith.

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Gwen, Dawn, Vi and Chao-An approached the old Summers home. Vi was limping from her fall over a tombstone during the fight they had just had with three vampires. Thankfully this was their only injury and it didn't seem to be serious. The three vampires were now dust.

Dawn was wondering about what was going on back at the new house. Willow and Tara had briefed her on what they were going to try to do. Dawn had suggested to the witches that they might be doing exactly what The First wanted by reopening old wounds. So far Faith's return had gone much more smoothly than anybody would have thought possible but a rerun of what had happened four years before would suit nobody but The First.

Dawn's thoughts were disturbed by a warning from Vi. "There's somebody waiting outside the house," she said. "It looks like a woman."

"Another potential?" asked Gwen. "They keep coming don't they?"

However it very much wasn't a potential, as Dawn soon recognised. She'd never met Drusilla, not even in her false 'magical' memories but she had studied up on her after Harmony had told them she was back in town. "Watch out!" she called. "It's Drusilla." Realising the others, especially Chao-An would not realise how serious this was she added: "Vampire, very strong, very dangerous."

Gwen immediately took the lead and shot an electrical blast at Drusilla. It missed, mainly because Drusilla moved very fast indeed to get out of the way. The blast blistered the front door of the Summers house however. "Oh great," said Dawn seeing the damage. "I bet I know who Buffy's gonna blame for that."

Drusilla was no longer in sight but her voice came out of the darkness. "Naughty, naughty. If you're bad you won't get your present." With that she walked forward pushing a terrified young girl in front of her, being careful to keep herself shielded by the girl.

Dawn made to go forward with her stake but Drusilla held her long nailed hand to the girl's throat and Dawn stopped. "Vampire!" called Chao-An pointing behind them. Understandably it was one of the first words she had learned on coming to Sunnydale. Slowly walking up behind them, but not attacking, at least for the moment, was another woman, a beautiful blond woman.

At first Gwen wondered whether Chao-An was using the word vampire just to raise the alarm about somebody else nearby. A glance at the second woman however lead her to the conclusion that Chao-An was probably right. The blond was calm and confident. Ordinary she was not.

Gwen and her group moved to the left and backed away so as to keep both Drusilla and the new woman in their sight without the need to look in opposite directions. "You're Darla aren't you?" Dawn asked of the new arrival remembering what Cordy had said about Drusilla and Darla's activities in LA.

"Connor's mother?" asked Gwen.

"And how is my little boy?" asked Darla, confirming her identity. "Has he killed his father yet?"

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The sleepers continued their slumber, watching and learning:

A TV was playing. "We now go live to our field reporter, who is standing by at the waterfront with this breaking news about the murder that has shocked the Mayor and residents of Sunnydale." The TV showed a boat recovering the body of the dead man.

The TV reporter took up the commentary: "Fishermen discovered the body today, the victim of a brutal stabbing. Authorities and citizens alike were shocked when the slain man was identified as Deputy Mayor Allan Finch."

The TV news cut to the Mayor at a press conference. "Mr. Finch was not only my long-time aide and associate, he was a close personal friend. I promise you I will not rest until whoever did this is found and brought to justice. Thank you very much."

The dream now moved to the mayor's office in City Hall where the mayor was talking to Mr Trick.

"I just don't understand why Allan would leave such a paper trail about our dealings," said the mayor. "Do you think he was gonna betray me? Oh, now, that's a horrible thought. And now he's dead, I'll never have the chance to scold him."

"Maybe this will change your mood," said Trick dropping a report onto the mayor's desk.

"What is it?" asked the mayor.

"Bombshell," answered Trick. "The Deputy Mayor had wooden splinters in his wound. Struck right through the heart with a sharp, pointed object. Now, word is, someone was fighting vampires not a block away from the scene. Any smart money says it was a Slayer who did this job."

"Why? Do you think he talked? To them?" asked the mayor.

"If he did, I'm thinking he said the wrong thing," said Trick.

"Well, this is exciting," said the mayor happily. "A Slayer up for Murder One. That's sunshine and roses to me. It really is." He laughed as he tapped the end of the report on his desk and set it down.

Later in the mayor's office: Mr Trick was no longer there. Instead the mayor was talking again with the elderly witch dressed in black who was sat on the other side of his desk.

"I thought so," said the mayor. "So can you do it tonight?"

The woman nodded. "The sooner the better, whilst the guilt is at its height. It's only the guilt that creates the opening for this sort of spell. Do you want me to involve Mr Trick in this?"

"This isn't something Mr Trick needs to know about," replied the mayor. "He's having a lot of fun doing what he's doing. I don't want to spoil it for him. I'll tell him what he needs to know. You give me a call when it's been done."

The mayor stood up and walked around his desk. "So how exactly is this gonna go? Is one of them gonna run amok?" he asked. "I'm kinda hoping the slayers will spend all their time trying to kill each other."

"The spell will only affect the one with the most guilt, almost certainly the one who actually killed your man. She's got a soul so there's bound to be guilt, especially if she's never killed a human being before."

"Gosh yes," said the mayor cheerfully. "I remember the first time I killed somebody, I was right off my food for, well days afterwards. Of course I don't have that problem any more."

"If it goes the way it should it'll build up into a major loss of emotional control," continued the witch. "She could strike out at anybody," said the woman. "For an ordinary human being that might include suicide, for a slayer..." she shrugged.

"And how long will it last?" asked the mayor. "After all this is a slayer we're talking about."

"That's where this comes in," replied the woman holding out a small box and putting it on the mayor's desk. He went to open it but stopped short when the witch put her hand over the box. "Don't open it yet. Wait until after I've done the spell. When you open it, it'll call her. When she reaches bottom emotionally she'll come to you."

"And?" asked the mayor.

"That's up to you," replied the woman. "You can be her best friend or you can set up an ambush to kill her."

"Her best friend..." mused the mayor.

The sleeping Faith was as startled by these revelations as the others. For the first time she felt hatred, intense hatred of the dead mayor. All that pretence! Sure, she'd known he was evil but she'd always felt that his concern for her had been genuine. It was a shock to see how cold blooded the mayor had been in setting everything up. All of Faith's conflicting thoughts about the mayor were swept away as her emotions now aligned with what she already knew about the soulless monster that he had really been.

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"What sort of deal?" asked Kennedy suspiciously.

"They didn't say," replied Gwen. "They just said they wanted to see the slayer."

"They meant they wanted to see Buffy," explained Dawn. "I don't think they know there's three slayers," she added hastily when she saw how this annoyed Kennedy. "And we didn't tell them," she added.

"We could have taken them," said Vi. "Just two vampires. We've handled more than that before now." Chao-An could only follow what was being said in general terms but she nodded. With Gwen helping them they could have taken the two vampires.

Gwen shrugged. "Maybe," she conceded. "But we'd probably have lost Isabella." After talking Darla and Drusilla had quickly disappeared into the darkness leaving the Argentinean potential unharmed behind them. "As a peace offering," said Darla as her final parting words.

"Are they still at it?" asked Dawn inclining her head to indicate upstairs.

"Uh huh," said Kennedy. "Not a peep out of them yet."

"They could be there for hours yet," explained Amy. "Willow and Tara were getting ready for some serious magic."

Dawn couldn't help but worry whenever Willow did magic these days but she was happy that Tara was involved and she hoped that meant it was safe and would turn out OK.

Kennedy explained about the police visit and now it was Gwen's turn to be annoyed. She expressed her intention to pay her friend the police lieutenant a return visit sometime soon.

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The sleepers thought they had the answers they were looking for and were surprised when the dream continued:

Again they were in the mayor's office. Faith was sat at the desk with her eyes closed. A present was lying on the desk in front of her. The mayor was standing by her side. "Alright, you can open them up now," he said.

Faith opened her eyes and saw the present. She smiled at the mayor. "Fab, what's the occasion?" she asked.

"Faith, as if I need a reason to show you my affection, or appreciation for running a small errand at the airport," he replied.

The sleeping Faith mentally grimaced at this. How could I be so stupid she thought. I should have given him that 'present' straight back, point first.

"Airport? What's next. Gonna want me to help a buddy of yours move a sofa?" the dream Faith asked.

"This isn't a free ride young lady," said the mayor. "You know, I'm beginning to think somebody's getting a little spoiled. Maybe I should take this back."

Faith immediately clutched the present. "Sorry...sir," she said.

"That's my girl," said the mayor, chuckling. "Another cookie?" he asked holding them out to Faith who took one. "Now, a package is arriving tomorrow night from Central America. Something, and I can't stress this enough, something crucially important to my Ascension. Without it...Well! What would Toll House cookies be without the chocolate chips? A pretty darn big disappointment, I can tell you."

The mayor giggled and looked at Faith. "Open your present." Faith unwrapped the present to reveal a knife with an intricate design. "There, that look on your face is my reward."

"This is a thing of beauty, boss." said Faith looking at it carefully and lovingly.

"Well," said the mayor. "It cost a pretty penny, so you just take good care of it. And you be careful not to put somebody's eye out with that thing, until I tell you to."

"Any particular eyes in mind?" asked Faith.

Both Buffy and Faith remembered the knife. They remembered it very well as they had both used it. Willow remembered it as well from when Faith had held it to her throat when she had been held hostage by Faith and the mayor. Now however she could see what she had been unable to see four years before.

Willow's witch-sight now told her the knife's true nature. Of all the things that Faith had done it was the way Faith had treated her when she was a hostage that Willow had found impossible to forgive. Now she could see that it was not simply Faith who had controlled the knife but to an extent the knife that had controlled Faith.

Tara was thinking about the knife as well. She knew why they had been shown the knife. It was an evil weapon, enchanted with dark magic, with hidden black runes engraved upon it. Nobody could have possession of such a knife for very long without using it.

Everybody awoke all at once and slowly sat up, stretched and looked around. There was a lot of looking at each other wondering who would be the first to speak. It was Tara. Everybody realised how Faith had been the victim of the spell carried out by the mayor's dark witch. Tara now explained about the true nature of the knife that the mayor had given to Faith.

"I, I didn't know," said Faith. "I didn't know he did that to me. If he wasn't dead already I'd kill him."

Buffy looked at Faith. "It always seemed strange to me how you went from being my friend to betraying us all," she said. "It wasn't your fault."

"I should have realised," said Willow. "I'm sorry Faith..."

"You couldn't have known" said Tara. There's no way you could have detected a spell like that with what you knew of witchcraft then."

"She's right," said Giles. "But it's a possibility I should have thought of, especially after the mayor tried to use magic against Angel. It's quite extraordinary for a slayer to go bad, particularly as it happened so suddenly."

"But why didn't he keep on using magic?" asked Cordelia. "It worked so well against Faith. Why leave us to continue to fight against him?"

"He couldn't use another spell like that," said Tara. "Like that witch said it was Faith's guilt about killing the deputy mayor that gave him his opportunity."

"I think the mayor was running out of favours he could call in after he failed against Angel," said Faith.

"Does this mean you were under that spell when you tried to kill me?" asked Xander.

"She must have been," said Buffy quickly. "That was a couple of nights later. The spell was done the same day as the body was discovered. If you remember, Faith and I didn't tell you and Giles anything about how the deputy mayor died until later."

"Yes," said Giles. "The spell would have been near its peak by then."

"So does that tell you what you were trying to find out?" Cordelia asked Tara.

"I think so," said Tara. "There's nothing wrong with Faith's energy, her aura, now. She's back to her natural state. She's not guilty for what she did."

"What about the deputy mayor?" asked Willow.

"Having seen exactly what happened I can fairly say that no crime was committed there," said Giles. "That was accidental death. Faith never intended any harm to a human being."

"But I killed that professor later, and I did a few other nasty things that you probably don't know about," said Faith.

"Under the influence of the mayor and the knife," said Buffy. "Oh god." she added as a realisation hit her.

"Don't you still have that knife Buff?" asked Xander.

"I had it when I tried to kill Faith," said Buffy.

"And now we know why," said Willow to reassure Buffy. Buffy said nothing but was not reassured. She remembered her determination to take Faith's body to Angel even before she retrieved the knife.

"So where is the knife now?" asked Tara.

"I buried it in my garden after we blew up the mayor," said Buffy. "I didn't feel I could just throw it away."

"I'll orb you there when we're done here," said Tara. "If you could give it to me I'll take it to where it never does any harm again."

"So when did the spell wear off," asked Cordelia who had a few bitter memories of her own. "I'm wondering about what Faith did in LA after she woke up." Everybody looked at Tara, including an anxious Faith. Buffy of course was thinking about what had happened in Sunnydale after Faith woke up.

"The Mayor's influence over Faith would have ended when the mayor died," said Tara. "But as I understand it Faith was stabbed with that evil knife. It would have taken a long time to recover from that. The affects would have continued for some time after she woke up."

"Of course," said Giles. "That explains it." Everybody turned to him. "It's just that Faith's coma was so unusual. A slayer should be able to recover in a few days from anything that doesn't kill her. Faith was out for months. Her body was fighting the affects of the evil in that blade."

"I'm sorry Faith," said Buffy to Faith feeling guilty.

"Hey," said Faith, "not your fault. We're all victims here. We survived, we're all OK." Except that poor professor she thought remembering exactly how she'd killed him.

"Except the police still want you," said Cordelia. "And you've got a criminal record."

"I think I might be able to do something about that," said Willow.

"You mean computer hacking Will?" asked Xander.

"I was thinking magic," said Willow.

"That could be very dangerous," said Giles with disapproval, looking to Tara for support. "And it would take a lot of power."

"It's OK," said Willow. "I know some sisters with a lot of power. Way more power than a bunch of old monks anyway."