"Leads are good," Faith said, moving around Buffy and dropping into a chair. "Right?" She peered around the room. "Right?" She sounded defensive.
"Yep. Leads are definitely of the good," Buffy agreed, stalking across the room. "Somehow, though, I think lead means slightly more than nothing, with an emphasis in no solutions." She felt her earlier bad mood returning. A headache pounded at her temples. Buffy sat on the table next to Faith, pressing her thigh into Faith's shoulder, needing the contact, drawing some calm from Faith's touch. "Wanna fill us in, or should I start trying to guess what you found?" she sniped.
As they'd talked, Wesley had been fruitlessly thrusting and lunging against Giles' defenses. In a furious rattle of blades, he attacked. Buffy smirked as he overreached, extending past Giles. Coolly, Giles waited until the younger man was stretched all the way out before lightly stepping to the side. With a clatter and a muffled curse, Wesley fell to the floor.
Lips twisted in a devilish smile, Giles joined the girls. "I spoke with Professor Worth yesterday, Buffy. Quite a fascinating man, really. Did you know he led an archaeological dig in Hawaii?"
Looking at Faith, Buffy rolled her eyes. "Oddly enough, no. I missed that news bulletin." Her leg began to bounce impatiently. "How does that help?" she demanded. "Or are you still trying to broaden my educational experiences?"
The sound of a throat clearing brought her up short. Joyce leaned against one of the shelves, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.
"Sorry, Giles," Buffy muttered. She glared at Faith, who unconvincingly covered a laugh with a cough. "What did you find?" she tried again, flashing a phony smile.
Before he could explain, Wesley clambered up. Straightening his tie and tugging on the cuffs of his shirt, he interrupted, "The information may help us defeat the Mayor." His eyes widened behind his glasses when he spotted Faith. Taking a quick step back, he intoned pompously, "For that reason, I don't believe we should be discussing it in front of her." He gestured disdainfully toward Faith
Buffy felt Faith tense against her leg. Shifting until she pressed more firmly against the other girl's side, she turned to her new Watcher. "Actually, I was thinking you were the one who shouldn't be here. Don't you have some rulebook to read or your underwear to starch?" Her choice was clear. As far as Buffy was concerned, Faith trumped the arrogant Brit any day.
"B-" Faith started, voice strained and quiet.
"No, Faith. I'm not letting you do your guilty routine. You're one of us. What happened before is over, done. Wes needs to get with the program or get out. I'm through with his holier than thou attitude." Buffy hopped off the table and stepped behind Faith's chair. Hands resting lightly on Faith's tight shoulders, she glared at her Watcher. "Your choice, Wes. Are you in or out?"
She watched, waiting, as he played with his glasses, avoiding her gaze. "Well, in, of course." Wes slipped into his suit coat, making sure it sat just right, before continuing, "As your Watcher, it is my sacred duty to work with you. I am merely pointing out-"
"Enough." Joyce's quiet voice silenced Wesley's nasal pronouncement. Rubbing her hands up and down, Faith's arms, Buffy watched her mother pin her Watcher with angry eyes. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Faith is here to help. It's not up for discussion." She pulled out a chair and sat across from Faith. "Let's get started. My daughter is about to graduate from high school. I'd like to be alive long enough to watch her get her diploma."
Silently shouting a "Yay, Mom!" Buffy felt Faith relax a little when Wesley merely hummed tunelessly at the maternal scolding before picking up the discarded epees and wandering off.
Rustling pages signaled the return to business, "Yes, well, the professor's work in Hawaii is important, Buffy. Although I am not certain what the information means, the Mayor obviously felt it warranted killing Mr. Worth."
"He couldn't give you any clues?" Faith wiggled out from under Buffy's hands and sat forward. Feeling abandoned at Faith's actions, Buffy resumed her seat, making sure to touch the other girl with her leg.
Giles shook his head. "I was afraid to push too far. We certainly don't want to panic the general population of Sunnydale with tales of the Ascension."
Wanting to bang her head on the table in frustration, Buffy remarked sarcastically, "Oh, no. We wouldn't want to give them a chance to leave before the Mayor's goons served them up on a platter." She flung her arms out dramatically. "Maybe that's what we should be doing instead of wasting time here. I mean, we're two days from graduation. We have no idea how to stop the Mayor. If we make an announcement, a few people might be alive next week."
Buffy's words barely registered in Faith's mind. They didn't know how to defeat the Mayor. Without meaning to, she added to the tension in the room with her quiet question, "What about the stuff I gave Will? It didn't help?"
"Well, ah…" Giles hesitated. Cold dread cramped her stomach. "It gave us a place to start, my dear. Unfortunately," he met her eyes, grimacing slightly, "when the Mayor began ingesting the contents of the Box of Gavrok, the window of opportunity was lost. I'm afraid we have no way to stop the Ascension."
The library doors swung open suddenly. Still reeling from Giles' news, Faith saw Xander and Anya striding in. "That's more true than you know," Xander called out. He sounded out of breath, like he'd run all the way there.
"You trying to be funny, X-man?" Faith asked. He had to be joking. There had to be a way to beat the Mayor. Her stomach clenched, bile rising. What had she done? She had to fix this.
"No, Faith. No funny. Not even close to funny." He waved at Anya, standing stiffly at his side. "Meet the only living person to experience an Ascension."
The words rang in the large room. "Dear Lord, why didn't we think to ask?" Giles questioned.
Anya suddenly came to life. Arms waving agitatedly, she addressed the gather Scoobies, "That's what I've been trying to tell Xander. I have experience, you know. I was a vengeance demon for over a thousand years."
"An," Xander snapped. Faith's eyes widened. It wasn't anything like his normal behavior. Energy surged through her, and her muscles tensed, ready to take her out of the library, take her far away from her failure as a Slayer.
"Sorry," Anya mumbled. She slunk over to a chair and sat down, heavy book bag dropping to the floor. Avoiding everyone's gaze, she started her tale. "About eight hundred years ago, in the Kastka Vallies above the Urals…"
Faith zoned out, letting the words flow around her. Body thrumming with tension, she gripped the edge of the table and peered at the Scoobies. They clustered around Anya, hanging on every word. This was all her fault.
Her descent into self recrimination halted abruptly when Buffy jostled her with her leg. Looking up, Faith caught the questioning hazel eyes and shrugged. She tried to smile. Buffy's eyes narrowed. The smile faded, and Faith looked away.
The leg pressed into her moved subtly, sliding up and down slowly. With each caress, Faith felt a wave of warmth inside. It was like she could feel Buffy reaching out to her, whispering in her ear, It's OK, Faith. It's not your fault. The words washed over her. Some of the frenetic energy inside drained away.
Buffy's voice snapped her out of her trance-like state. "Uh, excuse me?" Faith saw Buffy's hand waving in the air while she looked in disbelief at Anya. "Kind of professionally, four years running."
Wondering what she'd missed, Faith forced her attention back to the gang.
Looking even more upset than before, Anya hunched forward, grimacing. "All the demons that walk the earth are tainted, are human hybrids like vampires. The Ascension means that a human becomes a pure demon." She paused, eyes rising slowly. "They're different."
When no one said anything, Faith asked, voice a hoarse whisper, "Different? How different?"
"Well," the blonde replied, "for one thing, they're bigger. Lo Hash was bigger than the cathedral in town. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like you'll be facing Lo Hash. The rituals are all different."
Whipping off his glasses, Giles rubbed them with a small cloth. "I wish that was a relief."
Willow and Oz wandered in while they stared at each other, digesting Anya's information.
"Doughnut?" Oz held up the flattened boxes Buffy had dropped.
Buffy responded, voice flat, "I'm too busy working on panic to be hungry."
"Ah," Oz nodded sagely. "Fear, not food." He sat down next to Joyce, Willow perching on his knee.
"I take it Ascension research isn't going well?" Willow tried. "'Cause usually when we find the answer, you're all with the smiles and high fives. I don't see any smiles."
Her voice grated against Faith's already stretched nerves. Closing her hand into a fist, she glared at the bouncy redhead. "Since we just found out we're fucked as far as the Ascension is concerned, I think smiles are out." She took a perverse pleasure in Willow's flinch.
"We aren't done yet, Faith." Faith flicked a look at Buffy. Determination in every line of her body, Buffy nodded her head. "We always find the answer. It's what we do. So, everyone grab a book." Groans interrupted. Buffy ignored them. "We need to figure out why the Mayor thought Lester and his dig in Hawaii were so important."
They started with the pile of books and papers on the table behind them. Everyone pitched in, the sound of turning pages and shifting bodies loud in the room. Faith yawned, the dry text in her hands nearly putting her to sleep. Nothing useful there. She tossed the book aside, reaching reluctantly for another.
"Oh bloody hell," Giles' voice exploded.
Sitting up straight, Faith started to mumble an apology. "Gee, didn't mean to scare you."
He glanced at her in confusion. "What?"
"The book." Faith flicked her hand at the one she'd tossed, the one making all the noise. "Sorry about that."
Giles shook his head. "Not the book. I believe I've found it."
Heads popped up and books closed.
"Listen." He skimmed the paper in his hand then continued. "The professor headed an expedition digging up an old lava bed in Hawaii. He found something – a carcass, buried by an eruption."
"A demon?" Joyce asked. Faith watched her lean forward, gripping the table until her knuckles went white.
Giles put the paper down. "Perhaps" Faith held her breath, body tensed. This had to be it. The reason the Mayor had wanted the guy dead. "If the creature the professor discovered was the same type of demon he's turning into, it would certainly be something he would want to remain a secret." He stood up, pacing
"Great. So all we need is a million tons of burning lava. We're saved." Faith grinned at Buffy's sarcastic comment.
Giles looked over the top of his glasses. "Well, I-"
"It's a start, Buffy." Faith saw everyone spin to look at Joyce. They all tended to forget she was there. "What do we do now, Rupert?"
Faith's eyes narrowed. Was Giles blushing?