Act III

Daniel sat staring at the half-empty coffee cup, swirling its contents around as he contemplated the newspaper Jim had given him. The bells on the door jangled, and he looked up to see the young waitress come in, looking haggard.

"Anne," he called as she walked past.

She turned, and he saw that her face was tear-stained. "What?" she said, absently, as her eyes scanned the table. "Oh, warm-up. Right. Be right back."

"No, wait. Sit," he said.

Buffy brushed a hand through her hair, regarding the man in front of her. Deciding he didn't mean anything by it, she slid into the booth opposite him, saying nothing.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked gently.

"Nothing. Everything."

"Oookay. Do you want to share?"

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

The question caught him by surprise, and, to buy time, he pulled off his glasses and polished them on his shirt. When he looked at her again, she was staring at him with a goofy grin on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"You look like Giles when you do that. Not in the British tweedy way, but in a younger, hot way. Oh my God, did I just say that?" she babbled.

"Yes, you did," Daniel replied. "Who's Giles?"

"He's my Wa-" she broke off, then recovered. "Giles is the librarian at my high school." Buffy hoped he hadn't caught her slip, but the look on her face told her he had.

She stood up. "I'll just go get you that warm-up." With that, she practically ran into the kitchen.

Instead of heading back to get Daniel more coffee, Buffy made the decision to go back to Boston. Heading into the warehouse district, she went looking for the new slayer, Faith.

She found the dark-haired slayer clearing out a vampire nest, and sat on a railing, watching. The girl was fierce in her style, anger coloring her every movement. There was something going on that made her go out to find a slaughter.

"Behind you!" Buffy shouted, seeing the vamp sneaking up on the slayer. Faith whirled, throwing her stake to dust the offending creature, then crouched, a fresh stake in her hand, looking around.

"I don't see any more, Faith," Buffy said, dropping down to the ground and cautiously approaching the other girl. "You ok?"

"Five by five," she replied, then turned. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Besides saving your hide?" Buffy snapped.

"I could have handled it."

Buffy shrugged. "Can we talk?"

"You can talk. Might even listen."

"I'm actually trying to help both of us."

"What do you care? You're dead."

"Slayers go fast. We live, we fight, sooner or later, we die. Usually sooner. A little over a year ago, there was this prophecy that said I was going to die. But you know what? I fought anyway. Guess what happened? My friends pulled me through it. I got a whole year more because of it. So when I say I want to help, I mean it."

The dark slayer didn't say anything as they both walked along the alleyways.

"I just have one more piece of advice before I get off my soapbox. Find something you care about, really care. And when you find it, hang on with everything you've got. We're fighters, but we need to know what we're fighting for."

Faith turned, looking at Buffy, from head to toe. "Guess we have one more thing in common than I thought." With that, she stepped up on a bus that had just pulled up, and disappeared back into the city.

Buffy walked back into the diner, and almost ran over Daniel. He was standing at the door, looking like he was about to go out. He turned to look at Oma, who he seemed to be arguing with.

"You're saying I'll be dead," he stated.

"Pretty much," Oma said, nodding.

"Ok. Ascend me."

"It doesn't mean you'll be able to help your friends. You know the rules."

"Yes, but once I'm ascended, I can choose to take human form again, just like last time."

"Technically, yes, but you can't take that paper with you. You won't have any of the knowledge that you've gained here. And good luck ever ascending again. I'M certainly not going to help you a third time!"

"So you're saying I can know Anubis is plotting to destroy all life in the galaxy and all I can do about it is stay here and contemplate my own enlightenment?"

"You can eat your waffles."

With a sigh, Daniel headed back to the table and sat down, looking over the plate. "No syrup!" he shouts to Oma.

Buffy walks over, grabbing a pitcher of syrup and putting it on the table. "The rules suck, I'll give you that," she commented.

Daniel looked up at her, smiling. "Anne."

"That'd be me."

"Look, I've got some things to think about."

"Who's the big bad?"

"What?"

"You were telling Oma that some idiot wants to destroy all life in the galaxy, remember?"

"You haven't heard?"

"I don't think the guys who ascended me thought it was important. Not that they've even bothered to drop by, send me a card, flowers, anything. I just saved the world a few times."

"Apparently, it's not our problem, either."

"You said you were here before, and you became human?"

"Uh, right. Oma helped me ascend when I was dying of radiation poisoning from a lab accident."

"So, I could go home?" Buffy asked, a hint of pain in her voice.

"Well, sort of. You won't remember anything."

"Like, here, I'm dead, now I'm glowy anything, or brain of swiss cheese anything?"

"Anything, anything. I woke up naked in the middle of a dirt field."

"Sounds fun."

"Not really."

End Act III