Sorry about the wait for this chapter. I know where I'm gong now, kinda, and well, yea, here we go
Chapter 4 - Setting it Up
They all stood there, not knowing what was going on, and not knowing what to do. There was a crossbow just inches away from each of their faces. James, Clifford and Michael were behind each of the crossbows. Willow felt completely drained. It had taken a lot of her power, and the power of the two others to bring down the barrier keeping them inside the cabin, and she suspected that the others felt the same way that she did. Without a struggle, she let Michael take her, and she looked to Cassia and Giles to make sure that both of them were doing the same thing.
"Why are you doing this?" Willow asked Michael.
"You abducted and held Samantha and Montague, the leaders of our coven. We have to hold you and put you on trial for this. It is obvious that it is just not the magick that corrupts you," Michael replied to Willow softly.
"But…" Willow started, but Giles just looked to her, almost saying to leave it until they were feeling better. They were being taken to the main cabin, where Willow guessed that they'd be held until Samantha and Montague were freed; after that, she didn't want to know what would happen.
Willow whipped her head around to see that Giles had fallen over a tree root. Using the opportunity, Willow barged into Clifford, who was helping Giles up. He fell over onto the ground, and Giles immediately sprung up and knocked James over. By this time, Michael had grabbed a hold of Cassia. Willow could see that she looked terrified by what was going on around her.
"Don't come anywhere near us," Michael said, shocked while gripping both of Cassia's arms. Willow could feel a slight breeze building around her and the others. "And no magick," Michael added, looking straight into Willow's eyes as he did so. The breeze picked up and started to swirl around them. "I said no magick!" Michael said again, this time louder and more forceful.
"I'm not doing anything," Willow replied, distressed. Michael just looked more frightened. Willow knew that he was a favourite with Samantha and Montague, and she knew that he was frightened now, more than anything, because he knew that Willow was more powerful than them both combined. She knew that he was the type of person that just clung to those that were more powerful because he was afraid to stick up for himself.
"Just let her go, and we'll let you go. We won't hassle you again. You can forget we've ever been here. We just want to leave," Willow said to him. Giles took a couple of steps closer, and Michael backed away with Cassia. A large spider landed on Michael's shoulder and bit him, making him let go of Cassia. She leapt away from him, and stood with Willow and Giles. By now, James and Clifford had gotten up and were now just looking at all of them.
"What do you want?" James asked them all. "Why did you come here? To get to Samantha and Montague?"
"They are not all that they appear to be," Giles replied to them. "They wanted Willow's power."
"Do you think we'd believe that? Why would they want Willow's power when they're powerful enough by themselves?" Michael questioned.
"Because it's all about power," Cassia replied for the first time. Everyone turned and looked to her. They could all tell that she didn't like being in the spotlight by the way that she looked down. To Willow, it reminded her of Tara when they had first met. "Can't you just let us go," she said to Clifford, Michael and James.
"Willow must have brainwashed you," Michael said. "Why do you want to go with them?" Michael was clearly confused. "I thought that you were happy here? At the coven." There was a long silence.
"Why would I stay here?" Cassia simply asked them all. "Why wouldn't I go with these two people here?"
"Because we're your family," Clifford said to her.
"But these are my friends," Cassia replied simply. It was obvious to Willow what Cassia was saying. She had guessed right from the minute she had met her. She could see clearly that the others didn't understand, and she knew that Cassia knew this as well. There was a long pause as Cassia let it sink in what she had just said. She stepped forward, closer to Clifford and James.
"Why would I stay here? So you can all ignore me? So I can feel like I'm not even a person? So I can wonder what's so wrong about me that no one will take any notice of me? Why wouldn't I go with these people? I barely know them, and they barely know me, but they still treat me like I mean something. I'm sick of this life, I can't stay here any longer, it's killing me," Cassia explained to them, pouring her heart out.
"But…" James started.
"No buts. I've given you all, the whole coven, chance after chance of changing your attitude towards me… I, I've, tried, but this is it. Goodbye," Cassia said to them. Willow could see now that they were all going to let them go, except maybe Michael, but she trusted that he knew that if he tried anything, he'd have no chance. Cassia started walking away, in the direction of the path leading out of the forest, Giles started to follow her. Willow stayed behind, standing in front of Michael, James and Clifford.
"Listen to me," she said, sincerely.
"We don't want to listen to you," Michael replied, full of bitterness.
"Just listen," Willow almost snapped. "Samantha and Montague… They're hiding something from you all. I don't think they're exactly good if you know what I mean. Things are coming, bad things, and they know about them… Just, keep your eyes open," Willow said to them all. All of them but Clifford seemed not to listen. Willow turned and started walking down the path. It seemed like ages since they had first come here; months. When in fact, it had only been a week or two. Willow didn't honestly know, she had lost count of time a long time ago here, as the whole place seemed to be beyond time. She was almost at the path when she spun around to face Clifford, James and Michael.
"Oh, and if any of you try to follow us, or do anything to us… or if I even see any of you again…" she trailed off, not seeing a need to finish the sentence. She quickly caught up to Giles and Cassia who were further down along the path, heading towards the car, if it was still there.
Faith was in her room, or more specifically, a room that she was staying in at a home for kids off the street, which was run by Anne. She was heavily thinking about what Whistler had said to her. She desperately wanted a new Watchers Council, something she hadn't even thought possible until Whistler had suggested it to her. It would be great to have a humane Council. She could do her job then. She wouldn't hate the watchers then. Well, she didn't hate the watchers now, she liked Giles, and she had liked her watcher previously. It was just the ones higher up that she didn't like, the ones who wanted to kill her. She also thought about what would go down in history. "Faith, the Slayer who restored the Watchers Council." She rather liked that idea. It would be better than, "Faith, the rouge Slayer," for sure.
There was one problem though; where to start. She doubted that Buffy and the Scooby Gang would help her, and even if they wanted to, they probably had some crisis that they were dealing with in Sunnydale, as usual in that town. She had no contacts with the outside world what so ever.
Even if she could find some people to help her, she had no idea where to start on the Watchers Council itself; how she would attack it. She didn't know where any Watchers were. She didn't know where any of their main bases were, and she didn't know how to take down the whole thing. She knew that her best chance was probably at taking out the top office, the one in England, but they'd have tight security.
A thought suddenly appeared inside her head. She could turn herself in. She could say that she wanted to become a Slayer again, and listen to the Council. Certainly, they'd value a Slayer that already had experience than a new Slayer that didn't. She would be a more powerful weapon to them. She could say that she was sick of the fighting, the hiding, the fleeing, and the destructive lifestyle she had gotten herself into. She decided that she could pull it off, and grabbed the nearest phone and dialled a number that had been drilled into her.
It was a hive of activity in the colossal room. It was just a conference room, but there were little groups of people spread out throughout the room, they were all concentrating on their current crisis. The room was very large, with a high ceiling, and grey-white-cream walls. Up above them, the ceiling was made of panels of glass to let the natural light inside. A large window stretched across two walls of the room, and the other two both had large paintings, one of a desert, and one of a forest, and there was a large bench against each wall; where all the little groups of people were milling about. There was a very large circular conference table in the middle of the room, chairs surrounding it. Two men and three women sat at the head of the conference table. The man at the head of the table was obviously the one in charge. He was in his mid sixties and had greying hair. His name was Quentin Travers.
"It's not a matter of if but when they get here," one of the women told him.
"They wouldn't dare attack us," Travers replied to her.
"And why is that?" one of the men asked him. "If they attack us, what's going to happen to them? Who's going to obliterate them in wrath of our destruction? No one, because we are the last line of defence." Quentin Travers just nodded in reply.
"We must find out all that we can about our attackers," another one of the women said. Everyone just nodded in agreement.
A woman came in through the doors and marched over to the table. All the people at the table recognised her as Quentin's personal assistant. She whispered something into his ear and was there quite a while, until she turned and left again. Everyone looked to Travers, hoping to know what it was that she said to him. He just looked at them all closely before he began.
"It seems, we have yet another problem on our hands," he started. "Faith has escaped prison and is believed to be hiding out in Los Angeles," Travers said.
"What?" a couple of the people sitting around the conference table exclaimed.
"Why?" they all asked straight afterwards.
"We don't know. But we have heard of unconfirmed rumours that she is working for the same thing that is attacking our agencies," Travers said. "but, that is an unconfirmed rumour, and probably false," Travers said. No one said anything in response.
"The thing we have to decide is, what are we going to do about her, and we also have to ask ourselves if we have the resources to deal with her," one of the women said. Quentin's assistant came back into the room and whispered into his ear again. He grunted a bit while she was doing so, which caught everyone's attention. After Travers' Assistant had left, Quentin looked at the small group again.
"It seems ironic now but… Faith's turned herself in," he said. Everyone's eyebrows raised as Travers said this. "Apparently, she said that she's sick of running, and wants to be a Slayer again."
"Fair enough," the other man said.
"Well then, what do we do?" one of the women asked.
"We bring her in," Travers said.
Buffy, Dawn and Xander were sitting around the lounge room of the Summers' house, having just listened to Buffy's recollection of the events that had occurred in the previous couple of days and the vampire battles and the large figures in hoods. They had all agreed that while Willow was very important to them, they couldn't just go and leave Sunnydale unguarded. They had to do something about the figures in black hoods first, and from what Buffy had told them, it wouldn't be easy. They were fast, strong, accurate and struck fear into the hearts of anyone who saw them, or at least that's what Buffy had told them anyway. Xander knew that she was probably just saving herself the embarrassment of admitting she was terrified of the things. They were going out tonight on patrol in hopes of encountering and destroying the things, but from what Buffy had said, that might be a lot easier said than done. After all, they had destroyed a large number of vampires easily. Xander looked out the window and he could see that it was almost sunset, which meant it was almost time to go. He got up and followed Buffy to the weapons chest, where he grabbed a bow and a sword. He strung the bow over his shoulder and kept the sword in his hand. For once, Buffy was letting Dawn come along with them, using the excuse of safety in numbers than anything else.
Together they all walked out the door into the streets of Sunnydale, not afraid of what they were going out to fight. Well, not yet anyway.
On the other side of town, someone else was preparing to go out on the town as well, and her intentions were very similar to those who belonged to the Scooby Gang. She needed to capture one of the large hooded figures. She had encountered them before, and they weren't too easy to fight, let alone capture, but Amy had a plan, and she needed one of these things in order to carry it out. She grabbed her red robe and as she walked out the door to the unit she had rented, she wrapped it around herself, seeming to disappear from the world as she did so.