Chapter 5 will be the next thing to be changed… I'm going to change what Angelus was saying, they're not going to kill the humans (thanks Q.B. for pointing that out)… they're going to do something else, but I don't know what yet. It won't affect my plans for the storyline though) Here's Chapter 7, and in my opinion, this is getting better by the chapter. Review Please!!!! Tell us what you think!

Chapter 7

New Ghosts, Old Problems (Part 2)

They had pulled up in a small town called Milton, a short distance from Giles' home town of Bath. It was just past midday and Willow and Cassia had gone to book them all into a Motel Room as they were all exhausted, especially Willow. Giles wondered how Willow had managed to get a grasp of all of her power all of a sudden. It was remarkable what she had done at the coven, and he needed to know if it would hold up. Giles was sitting in a small cafe, across the road from the Motel Willow and Cassia were booking them into. He was lost in thought when someone came and sat opposite him the booth he was in. Giles dropped his cup as he recognised who it was.

"What? Did you think a little asphyxiation would kill me?" Ben said. "Come on. I was sharing my body with a God, I'm not going down that easily," Ben said. In instant, Giles' memories flashed through the events of that night, now only a year ago. He remembered that fight with Glory, and he remembered how he had killed Ben, the man who had to share his body with Glory in order for her to survive. Giles had calmly put his hand over Ben's mouth, suffocating him and effectively killing the God Glory.

"You're not here, you can't be," Giles said calmly after he had collected himself. He went to touch Ben on the hand, but his fingers went right through him.

"Yeah, so, there are advantages to being a ghost," Ben said to him.

"You know I did what I had to do. What was right," Giles said to him. Ben just nodded, seeming to understand. No one said anything for a couple of moments, but then Ben broke the silence,

"Yeah. You just killed a man for the greater good. What does it matter if one man dies so many can live?" Ben allowed a short silence to occur. "Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd say you are becoming like the Watchers Council old man," Ben said to him. "With the whole reckless attitude. Treating people like they're things, not people." Giles just sat there, knowing that that wasn't happening to him. There were special circumstances surrounding his actions that night, and he was sure that if anybody had been put in his place, they would have done the same as he did.

"No," Giles said as he shook his head. "No, that's not…" Giles started before Ben cut him off.

"Oh, okay. You just tell yourself that. Hope it makes you sleep easier at night," Ben said. He got up to leave, but not before saying; "I just popped in to tell you that you'll be hearing a lot more about me from now on, and that I'm not going to let any of you forget what you've done. The small talk's over, from now on, it's going to be all action… Don't forget about me Rupert," Ben said. Then, he morphed into an all to familiar figure for Giles, that of Jenny Calendar. "Because I sure won't forget about you," she said before walking past Giles. He sat there, stunned, but when he turned his head to look at her again, she was gone, not a trace left behind.

Willow and Cassia walked down the long block of rooms, looking for the one they were to stay in. It hadn't cost nearly as much as Willow had expected, and that was good, and she hoped that the rooms would be fairly decent for that price, but she doubted it. As she was walking, she was going over the events of the previous few weeks in her head, remembering it all, even the parts she didn't want to remember. She snapped out of her thoughts, remembering that she was meant to be looking for a room to stay in.

"What number is it?" she asked Cassia. Cassia looked at the key.

"Room 314," she replied.

"Heh," Willow let out after hearing the number of the room.

"What is it?" Cassia asked.

"Oh, no, nothing. Don't worry about it. It's a long story," Willow said. "I'll have to tell you about it later," Willow added. Willow could see that they were coming up to the door labelled 314. She put her hand on the knob and looked at Cassia. "Here goes nothing," she whispered to herself, secretly scared of what she might find once she opened the door, but at the same time, she knew that she'd most likely find an ordinary motel room with nothing wrong with it and she knew that it was just her being paranoid. She turned the knob and opened the door, and she got the surprise of her life once the door opened.

Willow was expecting to find a run down motel room, but instead she found a very picturesque room with cream coloured walls and light pink-cream coloured carpet on the floor. There was a new TV in the corner, and Willow could see a kitchenette over by the back door which lead onto a small patio. "Wow, this is nice," Willow said. Cassia peaked over her shoulder, trying to see inside.

"You know, it might actually help if we go inside," she said to Willow.

"Oh, right, of course," Willow said as she stepped over the threshold. She walked inside, looking around the room. She could feel Cassia behind her, and she could feel something else. Something wasn't right. There was evil here, and Willow recognised the feeling. She'd had it for a long time, ever since they had been at the coven with Samantha and Montague. She dismissed it and heard the door close. She could see the entrance to the bedroom and started to walk towards it when she heard a voice that stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Willow?" the voice said with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Willow spun around to face the voice that was addressing her from behind, and got the shock of her life. Tara was standing at the door to the room looking from Willow to Cassia with a pained look on her face. Willow quickly filled in the blanks.

"It's not…" she began. "It's not…" she tried to say, but she couldn't. She couldn't say anything, at all. Her feet were just frozen to the ground, not able to move. Standing pretty much in front of her was the love of her life, the one person she would always love with all of her heart. The same girl whose death took Willow over the edge, causing her to almost end the world. But she was standing right in front of her.

"How could you do this Willow?" Tara said sweetly, her words cutting into Willow like a red hot knife through butter. Willow just stood there, on the verge of tears as Tara stood there, accusing her of being with Cassia, preying on Willow's weakest point; her fear of betraying Tara and her memory of Tara.

"I'm not…" Willow again tried to say. Tara just stood there, looking down at her, looking betrayed. "This isn't what you're thinking," Willow said, at last getting a complete sentence out. She rushed forward to grab Tara's hand, but instead she went through her and ran into the door. She spun around to see that Tara was still facing her. "You're a ghost?" Willow asked. Tara just nodded in response. Willow could feel that there was something wrong, and that there was something wrong with Tara too. "How come you're here? Now?" Willow asked.

"To see you, silly… and to give you a message," Tara replied.

"Why now? Why not earlier? When I needed you?" Willow asked, then realising her mistake she added "… more than I do now."

"Because they wouldn't let me," Tara replied.

"Who wouldn't let you?"

"They wouldn't. I couldn't come, no matter what I tried," Tara replied. "I wanted to come and see you with everything I have, but, I couldn't," Tara said. "I miss you Willow," she said, tears starting to form on the ghostly version of herself. By now Willow was crying, wanting more than anything to hug Tara. She could see that Cassia didn't know what was going on, but she didn't care.

"I've missed you too… so, so, so much," Willow said to her. "Life's not the same without you Tara." Willow looked into the eyes of Tara's ghost, and looked at her whole body, and she instantly knew that it wasn't her Tara. Her Tara didn't hold herself this confidently in situations like this, and she didn't speak without stuttering in situations like this either, no matter if Willow was there or not.

Suddenly, the ghost of Tara began to fade slowly, and Tara looked absolutely terrified. Willow hadn't seen anyone look that scared in her whole life, ever. The image of Tara began to hit against some kind of invisible barrier that must have surrounded Tara as no matter which way she went, she seemed to run into something. She looked straight up.

"No! Not like this! I'll kill her before they get together!" Tara screamed up into the air. "You can't do this!" The image of Tara began to fade more and more, and then it changed into the form of someone that Willow didn't recognise. Then it changed again, and again, and again, and again, changing into the forms of dozens of people right in front of Willow's eyes. Finally, it shifted itself back into a stable form, the form of Warren He looked straight into Willow's eyes, and his eyes turned red. "I'm going to kill you. You know what I am, and that you can't stop me, and that I'm coming after you," Warren said to Willow before disappearing in a flash. Willow was shaking, she didn't know what to make of any of it. She didn't know if Tara's ghost was real and it had just been possessed by something, she didn't know if she had been talking to the real Tara or not. The worst thing for Willow was that she didn't know what to do, about anything in her life, not one single thing. She didn't know where she was heading, and she was afraid of where she could end up.

Cassia was helping her up, and Willow, just agreeing to whatever Cassia said fathomed that she was going to take her to Giles, and that they were going to get some rest. When they got out of the room however, Cassia found Giles in much the same state as Willow, although Willow was worse. She didn't know what had happened in the room, but she knew that something had happened, and that it wasn't good.

She sat there, listening to the whine of the jet's engines. She had just listened to the same sound now for what seemed like ages, but was probably only half an hour. She wasn't even given a radio, a magazine or anything else on this flight, probably not even meals. She made a mental note that whenever she was going to surrender again, she's have to get herself closer to the headquarters first. Faith sat there, on the plane that the Council had especially chartered for her return to the Watchers Council's headquarters in England. It had only been an hour after she had dialled the Council's headquarters when a van had pulled up outside the location she had given them. Suprisingly to Faith, there had been only two armed guards, the rest were Watchers that accompanied her on her journey. This had troubled Faith at first, thinking that they were just going to get one of the guards to shoot her, but her problems had disappeared when she was put on the plane. After all, why would someone charter a plane for a corpse? They also hadn't used handcuffs until they were on the plane, and this again had caused Faith distress. Who did they think they were dealing with? She was Faith, the Rogue Slayer, dangerous and temperamental. It was obvious that her reputation had fallen while she had been in prison.

So here she was now, sitting in the jet. Originally it had been flying from Los Angeles to Atlanta, but now it was flying across the country, where Faith was told they'd be refuelled, then it was off to England. No one had spoken to Faith except the man who had been sitting across from her in the van when it had originally pulled up in front of Anne's home. He had told her the conditions of which she had turned herself in and agreed to, and supposedly what was going to happen to her. After that, everyone was silent around her, no one spoke to her, or even looked in her direction, except the security guards.

Faith was just sitting there, looking out the window, making at least some plan of how to attack the Council once she got inside. Maybe she could earn their trust, then she'd be able to get places they wouldn't let her normally go. Maybe she should wait for the right time and then just go wild, attacking everyone and somehow burn the Headquarters to the ground, taking her with it if needs be. She didn't really know what she was going to do.

Out of the corner of her eye, a figure came and sat beside her. She turned her head and saw the last person she'd ever expect to see; Richard Wilkins III, former Mayor of Sunnydale, former giant snake who was blown to bits.

"Hey kiddo, how's it going?" he said, smile spread across his face.

"Wha…" she said as she got up and backed into the wall, causing the guards to look at her.

"Hey, come on, sit down," he calmly said. Faith just looked at him.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead," she whispered quickly to him.

"Yeah, and technically, I am," he said to her while pointing. "Come on, wave your arm through me. It's not so bad. It tickles." Faith followed his instructions and waved her cuffed hands through him. "See, not so bad now is it?" Faith smiled at this, bringing back old memories. "Come on, relax, it's only me," The Mayor said to her. Faith just looked at him, and then sat back down normally in her seat. "I can't hurt you, you know, being a ghost and everything."

"Why are you here?" Faith asked.

"Right down to business hey? That's just like my Faith, likes to get her hands dirty." Faith just sat there, looking over him again.

"Well?" she asked. Richard Wilkins just sighed.

"Do you really think you're doing the right thing Faith?" The Mayor asked her. "Really? Honestly? I know that you do, but are you doing it for the right reasons?"

"What do you mean?" Faith asked him, intrigued and interested now.

"Destroying the Watchers' Council? Why are you doing that?"

"Because it's about time we got treated right and proper, and to protect myself," Faith replied. "I know that it's selfish, wanting to get out of everything that I've done. But Slaying's my thing, you know that. I need to do it without some macho organisation looking down my back," Faith said, pouring her thoughts out to the nearest person, or ghost, that would listen.

"That's what you're telling yourself. You're lying to yourself Faith," Wilkins said to her. She was majourly offended by what he was saying.

"That's why I'm doing it!" Faith exclaimed. She knew that the guards were looking at her, but she didn't care. She was pissed off, at the ghost of her former boss. Mayor Wilkins just slowly nodded his head and there was a short silence over the whole plane, except for the whine of the engines.

"Do you really think that Buffy will accept you after you do this? Really, that's what it's all about isn't it Faith?" Faith just furrowed up her brow

"No, it isn't. I couldn't care less about B," Faith replied to him, getting more on edge by the minute.

"Then why'd you ring her up, asking for help?" The Mayor asked.

"Because at the time she was the only one who could help me," Faith replied while getting up and walking right through him into the aisle, which for the first time Faith noticed was wider than usual.

"Taking the Council down isn't going to make you a better person," Wilkins said to her. Faith spun around. "There is after all, still…me," Wilkins said while morphing into the image of the Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale; the man Faith had killed which ultimately sent her on a downwards spiral that had wrecked her whole life. She knew that the guard was coming up behind her, and she ducked down low and spun around and extended her leg, hitting the guard on the side of the knee, knocking him over.

"Get away from me!" Faith said. Suddenly, she was tackled to the ground from behind by another guard, who was shouting to the Watchers' on the plane to come and help him. Faith was pinned down on the ground, and soon her legs were bound and she was placed back into a seat, her arms cuffed to the chair in front of her. The Watchers and the Security Guards were talking amongst themselves, and Faith had overheard the words 'talking to herself' and 'crazy', and she knew that they were about her. But she wasn't paying attention to any of those things, she was paying attention to the man who looked remarkably like the former Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale who was walking around the plane.