Wesley Wyndam-Pryce will not be treated nicely in this chapter; I really don't like him! ;-) But we will see The Return of the Dark Slayer … would be a good movie-title, don't you think? Please don't forget to review!

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Chapter 2: True Colors

Six sharp intakes of breath.

"Hey, B. Miss me?"

Faith.

There she was. Standing in the doorway with her leather pants and jacket, cool as you please, hands on her hips and a trademark smirk in her face. Willow felt panic rise inside her, felt her mouth getting dry and her knees starting to tremble ... for a fraction of a second the cool blade was pressed against her skin again: You're hurting me, I'm hurting you ...

Then a lot of things happened really fast: Angel let out a threatening growl, vamped out and leaped over the table, ready to attack. Oz moved in front of Willow, shielding her from the Dark Slayer, while Xander and Cordy backed away, trying to put as much space as possible between themselves and Faith – and Willow couldn't blame them; she would have done the same if she hadn't been completely petrified with fear. And Buffy ... Buffy had reacted faster than anyone.

She'd been out of her chair and halfway across the room in a confusing blur of motion before Faith had finished her cocky question, and way before Angel had even started to move. She threw herself on her dark counterpart with everything she had, hugging her...

Wait. Stop. Rewind. Play again in slow-motion. Hugging her???

The expressions of the Scoobies, Wes, and Angel would have required a redefinition of the word ‚stunned, intensifying its meaning by ten, at the least. Open-mouthed, literally spoken, they stared at their friend, who seemed to have lost her mind, for she still was hugging Faith like there was no tomorrow... Faith the enemy, Faith the traitor, Faith...

Only three faces showed something different than utter shock and confusion: The elderly man still seemed too terrified to feel anything else, Giles was smiling in a content and strangely satisfied way, and Faith ... Faith's smile simply brightened the room as she started to return the hug, it was wide and brilliant – you could have seen it from space. Buffy's expression, on the other hand, could not be made out, for she had buried her face somewhere in the other girl's dark curls.

"So I'll take that as a yes?" The question was asked in a light and playful manner, yet there was something else in Faith's voice, something...

Suddenly, Buffy broke the embrace rather forcefully. When she stepped back, one could see that tears were streaming freely down her face. "I hate you!" she sobbed and gave the surprised girl a push so hard that she staggered, stumbled, collided with Giles and fell, almost bringing him crashing down with her. "And YOU!" The blond Slayer turned to her Watcher, she was yelling now. "How could you DO this to me? How could you..." And then she was just crying, crying so hard that her whole slim body was shaking, and blindly she ran for the door, down the corridor...

Faith, who was on her feet again, made a step to follow her, but Giles held up a hand. "Wait! She needs time to calm down. Better leave her alone until she's ready." The dark-haired girl hesitated, then nodded… and turned, looking at the six persons who hadn't moved a muscle. "Hey, guys", she said quietly. "Rumor has it ya might need a hand?"

***

Angel was the first one to catch on. He shook off his daze, morphed his face back to handsome and actually smiled. "Faith. It seems I stand corrected. You are the world's best actor after all."

Faith couldn't help but return his smile. "Oh, I don't know 'bout that, Fang, you've been damn convincing yerself! If I hadn't known it all was just fake, ya almost would've terrified me … almost."

Angel's smile faded. "I had almost two centuries to practice that role…"

"What… what…" Eloquent phrasing, always a trademark of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. To his credit, he was the first human who actually managed any kind of sound; just leave it to him to act like an idiot. "What… what…"

When Faith looked at him, her expression changed, her eyes became cold and threatening. But before she could say anything, Xander spoke up. "What the hell is going on? Why … what's she doing here?" He avoided looking at the Dark Slayer, and for some reason his left eye had started to twitch. "Giles! What…"

Faith couldn't help but roll her eyes – she had been resolved to be patient, but… "Really, have you guys never watched any James-Bond-movies?" She looked at Xander, whose gaze had jumped to her and away again, then to Red, to Oz, to Queen C. She spoke slowly, like she was explaining to little children that two and two equated four. "Good guy… playing the bad guy… to help the good guys?"

That got her even more stunned expressions. Then Willow asked, in a trembling voice, "You… you were like a double-agent? Working undercover? Spying on the Mayor to…" She paused, swallowed, spoke again. "You never changed sides? Never betrayed us?" The last words were only whispered.

Faith looked at her, in her eyes, big with fear, and couldn't answer. She opened her mouth, but her throat was constricted, the words just wouldn't come out.

"No, she didn't." Giles answered for her. "Faith never betrayed us, never changed sides. It was just a charade, a cover, part of a plan to get her close to the Mayor, so she could pass information to us." He stepped next to the dark-haired girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Faith never betrayed us," he repeated. "She just did what I asked her to do, and she did it incredibly well! She tipped me off more than once, and what she discovered today may very well give us the crucial advantage we have been looking for so long. If we manage to stop the Mayor's Ascension, this will be to no small part Faith's achievement!"

Willow was surprised to see the Slayer glowing at the Watcher's words… it seemed so unlike Faith to care about the opinion of anybody, least [of all] a Watcher… but then the small redhead realized that she couldn't even remember Faith being complimented for something she'd done ever before… Is it really possible? Not a 'well done' or a 'thank you'?

***

"I for one must protest vehemently!" Three guesses on who that was. "Yet again you have…"

He was cut off again. With few quick strides Faith had crossed the room and slammed her hand on the wooden table. "Shut up." She hissed. The Watcher wanted to say something, but remained silent at her death glare. "Shut up! Ya got nothin' to say here anymore!" Her voice was shaking with emotion. "I may not have betrayed anyone, but you have - Ya betrayed me!"

He just couldn't keep his mouth shut. "You murdered…"

For one second it seemed Faith was going to hit him, both Giles and Angel started moving towards her, but she didn't. She punched the table with such a force that the massive wood cracked, but she didn't hit Wesley – but it effectively shut him up nonetheless.

"When…" Faith was breathing heavily now, the pain in her voice evident. "When… this happened with Finch, when… when I killed him, everybody here tried to help me. B, she an' the X-Man, he…" She looked at the young man who averted her gaze. "He offered me his friendship, puttin' himself to risk to help me… I couldn't see it back then, I was too scared, too confused…" Slowly, Xander turned his head towards her, finally meeting her eyes, "but I see it now…" She looked at him, the eyes full of tears and sorrow, and after what felt like eternity, he gave her a small nod and the shadow of a smile.

Faith drew a deep breath. "And Angel…" She looked at the vampire. "You… what you tried to do, tried to show me… It would've worked, you would've gotten through to me – hell, you already were!" Angel nodded. He knew he had reached her.

"But you…" the Dark Slayer spat, glaring at Wesley again, "you had to waltz in there with your fucking council-cronies and treat me like I was your enemy! You…"

"I did what had to be done!" The younger Watcher's anger and indignation seemed to have overcome his fear. "You murdered a man!"

"I KILLED A MAN!" Faith roared, making everybody jump. For a moment, she looked quite deranged, her beautiful features twisted in fury and pain. "I didn't murder him, I KILLED him – there's a fuckin' difference! It was a damn accident, I didn't mean to do it, everythin' just happened so fast, I didn't realize he was human 'til…" She drew a deep breath, calming herself a little. "I… I made a terrible mistake", she said quietly, not looking at Wesley nor anybody else, "I was scared, I needed help… Angel, Xander, B, Rupert… they wanted to help me – but you," here her voice grew louder again, angrier, "you treated me like I was some kind of demon, soulless and evil!"

"I did what had to be done!" Wesley repeated stubbornly, but his voice carried no conviction, and he had dropped his gaze.

***

"No, you didn't." All eyes snapped to Giles who had been cleaning his glasses and now put them back on. "According to the guidelines of the Council there would have been plenty other possibilities in a case like this. Arresting the Slayer is just one of them. It's the ultima ratio only, and it's highly recommended to explore all other options before turning to this plan of action. That you failed to do. You chose the option easiest for you and worst for Faith, because you feared for your career and reputation within the Watchers Council."

Wesley stared at him, dumbfounded, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish on dry land, but Giles merely continued. His voice was calm, but there was a steely note in it. "Maybe, if you had thought about someone other than yourself for one second, none of this would have happened … and you would actually still have a career or a reputation." Wesley's eyes grew wide at this and he paled visibly as Giles took an official looking document out of his pocket and started to read: "Using the authority given to me by the Watchers Council…"

He made a small pause and a tiny flicker of a smile indicated his satisfaction of using Wesley's own words against him. "… you are hereby removed from all your duties and responsibilities as a Watcher of the Slayers Buffy Anne Summers and Faith Rebecca Lehane. You are to return to the Council Headquarters immediately to take responsibility for your actions… signed by Reginald Wyndam-Price, Chairman of the Council of Watchers, Great Britain."

When he uttered the name, nearly everybody gasped, Wesley included, and his eyes bulged as he snatched the paper out of the older man's hand read the signature. "He… he really…"

"Indeed." Giles tone still was carefully indifferent. "No more strings to pull to get the top job." He ignored the spluttered response. "If you want my advice, I'd say you had better start packing immediately … your flight is leaving soon, and I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss it."

The younger now Ex-Watcher stared at him for some seconds, trying in vain to utter a single word. Then he turned on his heels and stormed out – closely followed by Cordelia. The girl, however, stopped at the door and glared at Giles: "You… you… you're really enjoying this, aren't you?" But even if he would have answered her rhetorical question, she would not have been able to understand him – one of the side-effects of the explosion of whooping and cheering that had broken out on the library. And, funny thing: As strict as he usually was about noise in his library… this time Rupert Giles seemed oddly unconcerned.

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So, this is Chapter 2 ... what do you think? Tell me! – Oh, and thanks again to Faith Summers, who corrected my grammar and spelling mistakes!