The Eighth Mother

Angel walked into the room and sat down at one of the empty seats away from the windows. He was a little nervous considering it was the middle of the day and there was way too much sun around him but visiting hours were only in the day and this sounded urgent.

He was only waiting for about five minutes before a guard opened the door on the other side of the glass and a few girls walked out and sat down. She came out last. When she saw Angel she couldn't help but smile a little. She sat down at the seat across from him and picked up the phone.

Angel smiled back at her and picked up the phone on his end. "Hello Faith," he greeted.

"Angel," Faith greeted back. "It's nice to see a familiar face around here."

Angel smiled slightly and then got right back to business. "Alright Faith," he said getting right to the point, "We both know that I'm not very good with the small talk. Why did you call me?"

"You know I wouldn't have called if it wasn't important," Faith responded. "I need your help," she said as she looked down making sure she didn't have eye contact with him. Even though she had asked Angel for help before she still had trouble saying it.

"It's no problem. What do you need?" Angel asked without hesitation.

Faith looked around to make sure that no one was going to hear what she was about to say. When she realized that the coast was probably clear she tried to tell Angel what she needed. "I know this is going to sound a little…weird," she started to say, "I just…" She stopped. She didn't really know how to say what she had to say. Finally she decided to just come right out and say it. "I think I might be…" She stopped again.

"Faith whatever it is its ok," Angel said reassuringly. "I'm here for you…no matter what it is."

Faith forced a smile, "Thanks." She tried to start again. "I think…I think I might be pregnant," she finally got out. Angel looked at her with confusion, but not as much confusion as she expected. "This is an all girls jail, Angel," she added. "I haven't gotten laid since I've been here but I've got all the signs. I've got the morning sickness, hungry all the time…well…more then usual and I go to the bathroom more times a day then my grandmother."

Angel looked as though he was deep in thought. "Strength," he said seemingly to himself.

"Huh?" Faith asked with confusion.

"I'll explain later but we have to be sure," Angel responded. "I'll go buy you a pregnancy test. How can I get it to you?"

"Today is a night day," Faith said with a smile.

"Huh?" Angel said with a look of confusion on his face.

"Two nights a week we get to go to the outside terrace for an hour," Faith explained. "Stay in the shadows and get to the fence without being seen. A lot of the girls just stand by the fence and look out so they won't think twice about me doing it cuz most people wouldn't be able to get past the guards to get to the fence to give us anything. But I'm sure you'll have no problem. Then you can just hand it to me through the fence."

Angel nodded his head. "Right. What time?"

"We go out at seven," Faith responded. Angel nodded again and stood up to leave. "Angel," Faith said before he could hang up the phone. "Don't let them see you. If they see you…there's no way I'll ever be able to get it."

"Don't worry," Angel said. "Stealthiest kind of comes with the whole vampire package. We'll figure this out Faith. I'll be back tonight."

Faith nodded and forced a smile. She would never admit it but she was scared. She had seen and experienced a lot of weird and unexplainable things in her life but this was different. She started to get even more worried when she saw the look on Angel's face when she told him. He seemed to know what was going on and the fact that he wouldn't tell her just yet scared her even more. After he left she hung up the phone and started to walk back to the door. "Don't let me down Angel," she muttered to herself.

When Angel got back to the hotel Wesley and Gunn were in research mode but as soon as he walked in they both looked up at him anxiously. "What was that all about?" Gunn asked.

"I had to go see a friend," Angel responded. "Any more information about this prophecy?"

"We've found a few more references about the prophecy but they all say pretty much the same thing," Wesley responded.

"Eight girls, eight babies, warriors for good, Strength, Power, blah blah blah," Gunn added. "Same stuff we already know."

"Is there any other hints as to how we're supposed to find the other six girls?" Angel asked.

"None so far I'm afraid," Wesley replied sadly. "Who was the friend you had to see?"

Angel hesitated at first but then realized that he should probably just tell them. They were probably going to find out soon enough anyway. "Faith," he answered.

Wesley looked confused. "Why Faith?" he asked.

"Who's Faith?" Gunn asked who was also looking confused.

"I think she may be one of The Eight," Angel responded to Wesley's question.

"I thought they were supposed to be warriors for good?" Wesley said mockingly.

Angel gave him a disapproving look. "She's paying for what she's done, Wes. Maybe she still has some good to do."

"In prison?" Wesley said.

"Hold on…this Faith chick is in prison?" Gunn asked. "What did she do?"

"She thinks she might be pregnant," Angel said to Wesley ignoring Gunn's questions. "It's an all girl's prison. If she is pregnant she has to be one of The Eight."

Wesley rolled his eyes, "And which one would she be? I didn't see Evil as one of the characteristics."

Now Angel was starting to get slightly angry. "Strength," he said firmly. He got very close to Wesley's face and said, "You have no idea how much strength it takes to reform yourself. To turn yourself in to the police when you know you'd never get caught. To give up your life to pay for what you've done. To try and make up for it." He walked away and then turned around to face Wesley again. "She's changed Wes…I need you to except that."

Gunn looked nervously at Angel and then at Wesley. "Why do I have a feeling that this Faith girl has a long story attached to her?"

"We'll fill you in later," Angel said finally answering one of Gunn's questions. "I'm going back to the prison at seven to give Faith a home pregnancy test but for now we have to find out who the other girls are."

"I think I know who they are," Cordelia said as she started walking down the stairs. The others hadn't realized that she was even there.

"Cordelia," Angel said with slight surprise as he turned around. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough," she said with a glare. She wasn't the biggest fan of Faith and the thought of her being a part of the same prophecy as she was made her skin crawl.

"How do you know who the others are?" Gunn asked.

"The Powers That Be finally decided to give me a hand," she answered.

"You had a vision?" Angel asked. He walked closer to Cordy and put his hand on her shoulder.

Cordelia nodded her head. "It wasn't like my normal visions though. It didn't show me what was to come. It just showed me pictures," she responded.

Wesley gave her a questioning look. "Pictures of what?"

"The Eight," Cordelia responded. "Or at least…I think it was The Eight from the prophecy. I saw pictures of eight girls, two of which were me and Fred, so I just put two and two together."

"Did you see this Faith person?" Gunn asked.

"Yeah," Cordelia responded with annoyance in her voice. "And she wasn't the only familiar face I saw."

Angel looked at her expectantly. He knew that she probably meant Buffy. "Who else did you see?"

"It was weird though…some of the people I saw I would never expect to be part of a prophecy about warriors for good…Faith being one of them," Cordelia side tracked.

Angel was getting annoyed. He was anxious to find out if he was right. "Cordelia who were the other five?" he asked.

"Alright already gezz," Cordelia said. "One of them I didn't recognize but the other four we both know…or at least I know you know three of the four. Did you ever meet Anya?" Angel gave her another annoyed look. "Ok ok…not good with the suspense now are we? Well Anya is one. She was a new girl at Sunnydale High our senior year who turned out be a vengeance demon. She got her powers taken away and the last I heard she was dating Xander." Cordelia laughed a little at the thought.

"Who were the other three?" Wesley asked.

"The other three were Willow, Dawn…and Buffy," she finally answered. She looked at Angel and waiting for an expression. Even the mention of Buffy would usually get some kind of expression out of the usually unresponsive vampire.

"You're sure?" Wesley asked.

"Pretty darn sure," Cordy responded.

"But Dawn…she's so young," Wesley said looking very confused.

"Wait a second," Gunn halted. "Is this Buffy as in Angel's X, Buffy?"

"That's the one," Cordelia responded still looking at Angel keenly. "Dawn is her younger sister and Willow and Xander are her best friends. Odds are they already know about the prophecy and are looking for the rest of us."

"I would imagine so," Wesley agreed. "Giles has mostly the same books that we posses."

Angel still hadn't said a word or even changed his facial expression. "I guess we should probably call Buffy then," Cordelia said.

Angel finally snapped out of it. "We will…after we get Faith."

"What do you mean 'get' Faith?" Cordelia asked. "He doesn't mean what I think he means does he?" Cordelia asked nervously directed towards Wesley. No one said a word. "Right?" Cordelia pleaded again, but no one said a word.

The next morning after getting some rest, Buffy and the others went to Giles' to do some more research on this prophecy to try and figure out what was going to happen and more importantly who the other three girls were.

"Maybe there's some way we can try a locater spell," Willow suggested.

"How?" Xander asked.

"Maybe if the five of us concentrate together," Willow elaborated.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. "It's worth a shot."

They started setting up. They placed a map of the world on the ground and the five girls sat in a circle around it. "Ok now close your eyes and concentrate. Think about the girls that are in the same position as you. If we concentrate hard enough little lights where the girls are should appear on the map in their location," Willow explained.

They closed their eyes and concentrated. Giles and Xander were there standing around them. After a few moments little lights started to appear on the west coast of the United States on the map.

"I think it's working," Xander said.

The girls opened their eyes and smiled at the site of a group of little dots on the map. "Cool," Dawn said with a smile at their accomplishment.

Willow smiled at Dawn. "Now we just have to narrow down the search a little more. Giles do you have a map of California?"

"Oh…yes," he responded. "I'll go get it."

When Giles came back with the map they placed it where the other one was and did the same thing as they had before. When they opened their eyes they saw the little dots again. "See that cluster right there?" Willow asked as she pointed to a cluster of little dots that almost looked as if it was just one big dot. The others nodded. "That's us. It looks like the others are in…"

"LA," Buffy cut in.

"Yeah," Willow responded knowing exactly what Buffy was thinking. "It looks like two of them are really close together, maybe even in the same building like us and the other one doesn't look too far away from those two."

"Angel," Buffy said softly with an expressionless face.

"As much as I'd love to see dead boy pregnant…I don't think he's one of them, Buff," Xander joked.

"Cordelia," Willow yelled suddenly as she realized that she might be one of them. "The last time I talked to her she said she had this ability given to her by the Powers That Be or something. She said she gets visions of people that Angel is meant to save or something like that."

"Isn't vision one of the characteristics in the prophecy?" Anya asked as she looked at Giles.

"Yes," he nodded.

"I guess we should call them then," Dawn suggested looking at Buffy.

She was still staring out into space. Expressionlessly she responded, "I guess so."