Chapter Five

Two days passed by and the tension between the three was reaching an all-time high. Angel kept to himself, sleeping on a cot in Faith's bedroom during the day and patrolled at night, alone. Willow tried to keep herself busy, trying to translate the book they'd gotten from Kraal, but she had gotten no further than where she'd left off two days before. And Faith, she spent a few hours both days down in the work-out room, pushing herself to the point where she nearly collapsed, her whole body protesting any further movement.

That morning was no different than the last two days, but it felt different for Faith. She knew that any day now, Buffy and company would be arriving in Cleveland and things were going to change, the tension likely to flare even more so than it already was. Faith had tried over the course of the last two days to ignore her thoughts when they involved Buffy. She had tried to put up that wall that blocked herself from feeling just about anything.

The thing about walls, once they've been broken, she found it hard to build them back up, stronger than ever. She felt like she was crumbling, falling further away with every moment that passed. Everything she had been, everything she had accomplished and overcame in the last two years-if not longer-seemed to be withering away and there seemed to be nothing that she could do to hold on to the strength that had kept her together when the whole world changed.

Faith hadn't seen Angel since he'd left the night before to patrol. His last words were a promise he'd only be a few hours and that he'd be back long before sunrise. He didn't keep his word and she was worried. The sun had been up for almost twenty minutes and there was still no sign of him. If anything happened to him, now of all times, she wasn't sure what she'd do. She'd break apart, fall into that never-ending black hole of despair and darkness without a strong hand reaching to pull her back up again.

This wasn't who she was. She wasn't the one to worry, to feel the fear and let it consume her. She had long since learned how to get a handle on her wayward emotions, but take the slayer from her and she dove head first into being the person she was before and something else entirely.

And she hated it.

"Morning," Willow mumbled as she came out of the bedroom wearing her pajamas and fluffy light green bathrobe. "Is there coffee? Tea?"

"Working on it," Faith replied as she fiddled with the coffeemaker. "Think the damn thing is broken again."

"Did you put water in it?"

Faith laughed dryly and shook her head no. "Damn, now why didn't I think about that?"

"Did you sleep last night?" Willow asked her while she busied herself with filling the carafe with water.

"Little bit, yeah."

"Nightmares?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing, Wil. Dreamless sleep. You'd think that'd make it easier to sleep right? Can't seem to find that off button on my brain."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Can we at least get caffeinated first?" Faith asked, both of them laughing softly.

"Where's Angel?"

"Beats me."

Faith watched the coffeemaker, watching as the carafe slowly filled with freshly brewed coffee. She rubbed her neck, her muscles feeling tight and sore. She knew the tension she felt was from pushing herself the last couple of days, but it was also worry that made it feel worse.

"He didn't come back last night?"

"No, Wil."

"Do you think-"

"I don't know if he's okay or if he's a pile of dust, so drop it."

"I was just-it's okay to worry about him, Faith," Willow said gently. "I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he just got a little too far and lost track of time and is holed up somewhere for the day."

"Hope so."

Faith turned to Willow, frowning when she saw the look on her face. Willow was worried about Angel too, she didn't need to say it, Faith just knew. She drummed her fingers on the counter, turning her attention back to watching the coffee brew. Nobody had a clue when Buffy and company were going to show up. Willow had called yesterday late in the afternoon and nobody had answered the phone. Both had assumed that they were already on their way there, on a plane to Cleveland. But maybe they weren't, maybe Azri'el had killed them all.

That'd be too easy. He's playing a game, killing them all would take the fun out of it.

Faith turned to look at Willow again, watching as she headed into the living room with a fresh banana muffin. She picked up the book and turned to the page she'd left off on the night before. The translating was slow going and Willow would find a spot where she'd translated it wrong and started all over again. It seemed like at this rate they'd never get anywhere with this book and that maybe Kraal had given them a book that was a fluke as a way to distract them from the bigger picture.

And if that was the case, she would hunt down his no good, sorry and pathetic half-breed demon ass and kill him. No matter what it took. She'd kill him for leading them on. The whole thing could have been planned out, not by him of course, Kraal was too stupid for that, but by Azri'el. With the way things have gone in the past week, Faith knew that anything was possible.

Faith grabbed the kettle and filled it with water before placing it on the stove and turning the burner on. She knew Willow well enough now that she knew she'd have a few sips of her coffee, complain about it and want a cup of tea instead. It was just what she preferred now. Willow even said it was a thing and it had been since she left Scotland to go to San Francisco. She just preferred her tea, much like Giles always did.

After Faith got herself a cup of coffee and made Willow a tea, she brought Willow's cup of tea to her and sat down on the couch. She'd barely sat down herself when Angel burst in the door, breaking the lock, smoke rising from him as he slammed the door shut behind him.

"Now that was a smoking entrance," Faith chuckled, her face quickly going serious. "I hope you plan on replacing that door and the locks, Angel."

"Couldn't find the key you gave me," he muttered and tore his jacket off. Upon the looks that Willow and Faith were giving him, he raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Bit sunny for you to be taking a stroll, don't ya think?"

"I lost track of time," he replied, frowning. "Was down in the sewers for a little while, thought maybe it'd be a good place to hide out, maybe even find a way back here, but did you know those sewered are filled with-"

"Actual crap and almost full to the brim," Faith stated and she and Willow couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, most of the lines here are. Very few are actually empty unless it had just rained. Surprised you didn't come in smelling like shit."

"Narrowly avoided that fate."

"While narrowly missing another," Willow replied, pointing out his still lightly smoking skin. "What kept you out so late, Angel?"

"I was following a vampire. Found him in one of the bars we were in the other night and overheard him talking to another about their master, who I assumed was Azri'el. Turns out, his master is the vampire who sired him and neither of them have even heard of Azri'el. They're new in town, well, at least they were new in town."

"Dusted 'em?" Faith asked and Angel nodded. "Great. We're right where we left off, in the fucking dark and all we have is a stupid book that we can't even translate!"

Faith was on edge, much as she had been for the past week. Angel and Willow had been patient with her and she was grateful for that even if she didn't acknowledge it. She wasn't the only one on edge, Angel and Willow were too, they just hid it a lot better than she did.

"Any word?" Angel asked Willow and she shook her head no. "Have you called?"

"Not since yesterday. They could be on their way here now."

"When you talked to Dawn the other day, did they say where they'd be staying?"

"At a hotel. If they need to be here for uh, longer than a week, she said they'd look into finding a house to rent."

"A house?" Faith scrunched her forehead. "If it's just the four of them, what do they need a house for?"

"Six of them," Willow said quietly. "There's six of them coming. I meant to tell you."

"Who else?"

"Um," Willow frowned and she sipped her tea and the look in her eyes told Faith that one of those two extra's was Kennedy. "She's coming," Willow said after a moment. "And Buffy's boyfriend as well."

"That's rich," Faith laughed. "Of course Buffy is gonna bring along her latest beef-stick."

Angel tensed at the mention of Buffy bringing her boyfriend and he left the living room, heading straight for Faith's bedroom and very quietly shut the door behind him. Faith knew that it didn't matter how much time had passed by between the two of them, Angel would always love her and he would always have those feelings for her deep down. He said to her once before, when he had tried talking to her about Buffy, that once you fell for her, you just couldn't let her go. Faith understood it too, she'd never admit it, but she did understand a little bit about how Angel felt and why he just couldn't push her out of his very soul. Buffy was like that, she was the type of person that one just couldn't forget, whether they loved her at one point or hated her.

Or both.

"I-I didn't even know she'd gone back to San Francisco. I haven't seen or talked to her since I broke up with her. And those times I talked to Dawn? She never mentioned that Kennedy was there with them. Not even once."

"Whatever, Wil. Don't let it bug you. You said so before it was best you two didn't stay together. Why should it matter if she's off being one of Buffy's lapdogs? Why should it matter if she's coming here? Figure, the more brains we got on this whole situation, the better, right?"

"I guess so."

"What happened to the Willow that's been living here with me for the past six months, huh?" Faith asked, smirking as Willow just shrugged. "Come on, Wil. You're not this type of woman. You're strong, you're confident, you speak your mind more freely than you ever have in your life and hell, you've learned how to make good use of some choice swear words when you need to and you pull it off like you've been swearing like a sailor your whole life."

"Faith," Willow laughed and she shook her head. "You're the reason for all of the above."

"Not the whole reason, that lies on your shoulders. You changed, evolved into this amazing woman and it had nothing to do with me."

"Little bit."

Faith rolled her eyes and Willow stuck her tongue out at her. "Don't lose that part of you, Wil, not for any reason. I love that part of you, you know that."

"I'm just...nervous."

"Not the only one."

Willow hadn't seen the others since she left nearly two years ago, but she regularly talked to Dawn, at least once a month. Either Dawn or Xander, but she never talked to Buffy, she didn't even want to talk to Buffy. Faith wasn't sure why, they'd been the best of friends for years, but she knew things had changed in Scotland between them and she wasn't sure what happened. All she knew is that Willow didn't even consider her a friend anymore, Dawn and Xander barely making the cut as well.

"Why are we even nervous?" Willow asked.

"Beats me."

"I mean it's just Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Andrew, Kennedy and Buffy's newest boyfriend. It's like the old days, kind of," Willow said and she laughed dryly. "Why are we even nervous?"

"All of the above."

"Right," Willow frowned. "The whole world is different now. We're all different. Even when I talk to Dawn or Xander, it feels different. They don't tell me too much about what's happening in San Francisco, at least not slayer related stuff anyway. I barely know what they're doing with their lives and the only reason I ever call is because-"

"You're checking up on them, right?"

"Yeah. I just want to make sure they're all...okay."

"I get it."

They sat in silence for a while, Willow sipping her tea and Faith staring blankly into her cup of coffee she had barely touched. They were both thinking, Faith about how things were gonna be once Buffy and company showed up and from the looks of things, Faith knew Willow was likely thinking the same thing, at least from what Faith could see by judging the look on her face. Faith was already certain that Buffy would take the role as the leader, making demands and doing whatever else it is she does when she's in control. But Cleveland was not Buffy's town, it was Faith's and there was no way she was going to let her take that from her, not matter how heavy of a situation they were in.

Faith was itching to get out of the apartment, maybe head out for a nice long run just to clear her head. She knew it wouldn't work. Running was just a temporary fix, the adrenaline rush like a temporary high from a synthetic drug that if she wasn't careful, she'd become addicted to and the thrill would be gone and she would have nothing to turn to when she needed a temporary escape from her mind.

An escape from thinking about Buffy, which is all she'd been trying to do for days since Angel and Willow told her that Buffy and company were coming to Cleveland, status of arrival unknown.

Faith look at the book they'd retrieved from Kraal and the notes tucked inside several of the pages. Careful not to screw any of Willow's hard work she'd done over the last couple of days, she turned to a page near the end of the book and became mesmerized by the delicate swirls that donned each corner of the page, the rest of it blank. All she could think about was how they needed to know exactly what was written in this book, every last word and they needed to know now. Thinking that, she mindlessly traced her fingers over each of the swirls in the corner, feeling the ink slightly raised from the delicate and old parchment paper. As she lifted her finger from the last swirl, the book began to vibrate a little and she dropped it to the floor, jumping up as the pages began to flip towards the front.

"I didn't do it!" Faith yelled, bringing Willow's attention to what was happening.

"Didn't do what?" Willow asked, her mouth full of a bite of her banana muffin. Willow looked down at the book, her mouth open as she watched the last page flip to the very beginning of the book. "Oh. My. Goddess."

Willow picked up the book carefully and they both settled on to the couch, watching as each of the words and the vast array of symbols slowly began to change, each of them turning into English, slowly and one by one. The page flipped on it's own and it continued and the book was still vibrating softly.

"What the hell is happening?"

"Magic," Willow whispered. "What did you do, Faith?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"You were looking through it. You had to have done something."

"What the hell could I have done, Wil?"

"Faith-"

"I touched those swirly symbols, you know the ones on the last page?" Faith said and Willow nodded her head slowly. "Was thinking and wishing how we could just know what was written in the book and then bam, the damn thing started vibrating and pages started flipping and in case you haven't been able to tell, I'm a bit freaked out about this!"

"What's going on?" Angel asked from the doorway of Faith's bedroom.

"The book!" Willow said excitedly. "It's changing! Faith made it change!"

"Not on purpose," Faith muttered under her breath, watching as Angel came over and peered down at the book, watching along with them as the words changed and the page flipped again.

Angel scratched the back of his neck and he smiled at her. "Whatever you did, Faith, this is exactly the turn in events we needed. No offense, Willow, but we were really not getting anywhere trying to translate that on our own."

"None taken," she replied happily. "I can't believe this is happening!"

Willow's excitement was almost catching for Faith. She was happy they were finally getting somewhere and it was because she had been touching the book. Whatever she had done, it had set whatever spell that translated the book on its own. As far as mistakes went, this was one of the good ones. She wanted to feel as excited as Willow did, but she just couldn't feel it no matter how hard she tried.

This was the break they'd been needing since the whole situation had started a week ago. Faith knew she should feel at least a little bit happy about that, but her thoughts were clouding her emotions. Whatever was in that book, it wasn't all going to be good and she had a feeling it wouldn't give them the answers they were looking for. It might not even have the spell that Azri'el had used on all the slayers either. But there was no doubt in her mind now that there truly was a sliver of magic left. All the evidence was right there in front of their faces as they watched the book magically change, translating itself word by word, page by page.

After the book stopped, Willow snatched it up and started reading it, comparing it to the notes she'd taken while trying to translate it. She'd been close on a lot of it, but not close enough. Faith left her to go over the book and went out on the balcony just to get a few minutes alone. Angel wouldn't bother her, not with the full sun shining down on the balcony, and Willow was too into the book to even notice she'd left.

"What a lucky break," Faith whispered to herself as she leaned against the railing.

Luck had nothing and everything to do with it. If it wasn't for her own curiosity, they'd be right where they were earlier with next to no answers and no way to even figure out how to get through this situation alive. They needed to find a way to defeat Azri'el, to restore the slayer essence to all that it had been taken from. They had a long road ahead of them and they'd barely just started.

Willow spent the entire day going over the book. She even went as far as scanning it just in case it changed back. The book had a lot of answers, but it also left them with a lot more questions. There were spells that Willow had only ever read about, spells that had long since been classified as myth or limited, only to be used in another dimension. She was excited about everything even though the situation was less than ideal.

In the time since the Seed was destroyed, she finally felt that lingering hope that maybe she could bring magic back to their world. In order to do that, she'd need to find a way to recreate the Seed and she knew that was next to impossible.

But not completely impossible.

The book itself was powerful. Willow could feel the bristling edges of magic every time she touched it. It made her miss feeling that power inside of her and she frowned sadly as she closed the book, knowing that it was time for her to take a break. Sighing, she turned on a few more lights on the way to the kitchen. It was just after seven and had been dark for a while. She'd been so submerged in the book, she barely even noticed when Angel left with Faith just after the sun had set.

Faith was back already, but Angel wasn't. She was out on the balcony, chain-smoking. Willow knew she was out there because she needed to be alone and she wasn't going to bother her. Willow frowned when she opened the fridge, it nearly empty aside from a few bottles of condiments, beer, and the container of pigs blood. Scrunching up her nose, she walked over to the phone and picked it up, dialing the number of the Chinese take-out place that they ordered from regularly.

After she ordered their usual, she hung up the phone, jumping when it rang immediately. She picked it up and placed the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

Silence on the other end and then a click. Willow frowned and hung the phone back up. Shrugging it off, she grabbed the jar off the top of the fridge and took out a couple of bills to pay for their take-out when it arrived. Willow tried to straighten up the small kitchen, trying to keep her mind off the book. She needed a break and a break didn't mean to keep going back to it, reading it and absorbing every last word written in it.

But she couldn't stop thinking about the things she'd read in the book, the spells, especially the one with the extraction spell. It was an elaborate spell that was done in steps over the course of days, weeks maybe. The sheer amount of devotion one would have to have to make this spell work was on a scale she'd never, not even at the height of her power, would've been able to master to the perfection that Azri'el had done. Then again, he was a demon, a powerful one and the spell could've been done in his home dimension for all she knew.

Willow sighed and rubbed her throbbing temples. They knew what the spell was, the steps, the ingredients, the words that had to be chanted. She had studied it, all fourteen pages of that spell alone, trying to figure out a way to reverse it. All they had to do was find the orb and figure out how to reverse it while keeping Azri'el in the dark about what they were doing. Easier said than done, with or without magic. Even Willow knew that they'd be taking great risks even just trying to locate the orb. There was no telling if it was anywhere on earth or in another dimension, like the one that Azri'el had come from.

Yet, they knew that there wasn't enough magic left in the world for even a demon as powerful as Azri'el to cross back over, return to his home dimension. He was trapped there, indefinitely from the looks of things. What Willow wanted to know was that answer to the ultimate question; what does he gain for stripping the slayers of their essence aside from doing exactly what the First wants him to do?

She had seen the toll it had taken on Faith and it'd only been a week. She'd seen Faith struggle with emotions, powerful emotions she always had a good handle on before. It was hard to watch Faith struggle, to see her how she is now, looking so beaten and broken inside. It made her wonder if it was the slayer essence that had made Faith stronger all around, but she also knew that wasn't true. She knew Faith well enough to know that she was one hell of a strong woman and this situation just made her fall off the beaten path she's been on her whole life.

The phone rang again, pulling her from her thoughts. She shook her head and walked back into the kitchen, hesitating for a moment before she picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

Faith paced along the balcony and took a long drag of her cigarette, inhaling sharply and she watched Willow as she spoke on the phone, her back to the sliding door. She'd been out there since she got back in from the quickest patrol she'd ever taken, sent back home by Angel like she was a child being grounded. She almost had the vamp, but all it'd taken was one wrong move and she almost ended up being dinner. If Angel hadn't been there, well, she knew how it would've played out in the end and was trying hard not to think of the worst case scenario.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It'd been one hell of a long day and it was far from over yet. She had to hand it to Willow. She'd spent all day going over the book after it had changed and she found some answers, loose answers, but they were more than what they'd had before today.

All she wanted was to be out there on patrol with Angel. They had gone out in search of Kraal, hoping to find him and see if he had anymore answers. And if he wasn't willing to talk, they were going to make him talk. But that came to a screeching halt when they came across that vampire in the park, stalking two women as they walked their dogs, oblivious to the danger that lurked behind the shadows in the trees.

Faith cracked her knuckles and took one last drag of her cigarette before stubbing it out in the overflowing ashtray. She looked back inside and Willow was still on the phone, but she was facing the door and the look on her face told Faith all she needed to know. Whoever was on the other line, it wasn't good news.

Unable to bring herself to go inside to find out for herself, or to even just crack the door open and eavesdrop a little, she turned around and leaned her arms on the railing. She could hear sirens off in the distance, car horns honking a few blocks over. Below, down on the sidewalks, she could almost faintly hear the chatter coming from the handful of people as they walked down the street. They were all leading normal lives, oblivious to the danger the world was in yet again. Faith had thought a lot that day about being normal, about living a normal life now that she wasn't a slayer anymore. But she knew it'd be impossible. She'd spend her life knowing what was there in the dark and knowing that Azri'el was after her. She'd spend her life knowing that if things were different, she could have made a difference, saved an innocent person from becoming a vampire's dinner or worse, being sired by one and turning into one of those zompires.

She closed her eyes when she heard the door open. Willow stood beside her, pulling her jacket tight around her. It was a cold night, the first cold one of the month, reminding them that winter was coming. Faith looked over at her and Willow's face was expressionless. Scoffing, she shook her head and looked out over the city.

"They're here," Willow said quietly. "That was Dawn on the phone."

"When did they get in?"

"About an hour ago."

"So, what's the plan then?"

"They're heading to the lake house," she replied. "Dawn said they decided it'd be safer for them to stay there rather than here in the city."

"Is Wood aware of this?"

"Yeah," Willow replied, nodding her head slowly. "He's aware. Dawn told me that when she'd talked to him, he thought it was a good idea for them to not stay in the city."

"And? I'm getting a feeling that there's a lot more to this than what you're telling me, Wil. Just spit it out already."

"We're going there too."

Faith burst out laughing, but stopped when she saw that Willow was serious. "You've got to be kidding me."

"We're going to leave as soon as Angel gets back. Oh, and I ordered take-out," Willow said and Faith rolled her eyes. "Faith, I know this isn't the most ideal situation right now, but Dawn is right. It's safer there than here in the city."

"You don't know that."

"No, I don't. What I do know, Faith, is that we can't handle this alone and they need our help just as much as we need theirs. We have to band together and get through this. Together."

Faith sighed in defeat. One way or another they were going to have to band together. It was the reason why Buffy and company came all the way from San Francisco in the first place. It was inevitable that this day would come, she had just hoped maybe they'd get another day, maybe even another week. They had made some progress on their own with the book, got some answers on their own. They weren't completely in the dark anymore, not like they had been a day ago.

But she knew that they had information on Azri'el that they didn't have. Buffy had been without her slayer powers for nearly a month and she'd been just going on a week being weak and helpless, being normal again. Willow was right, they needed to band together in order to get through this, to put an end to this situation and then when all was said and done, they could go back to their own lives and move on.

That was the part she couldn't wait for, to go back to where her life had been just a week ago where she was kicking ass and taking names, not a single care in the world. She just wanted to be herself again, to be the slayer she used to be, to feel that power she felt before, coursing through her veins.

But the road was long and there were still a lot of battles to be fought along the way. Faith knew she'd been feeling that weakness, not just in her body, but in her very soul and it crippled her. It made her feel her emotions more and it was getting harder and harder to just shut them all out like she'd done so effortlessly before. At least she wasn't alone and she had to keep reminding herself that. She had Willow and she had Angel. They would be there for her every step of the way and hopefully catch her if she started to fall.

Angel came back just after midnight, his jacket ripped in several spots, a clean cut along his cheek that had already begun to heal and there was blood on his hands, demon blood. Faith already had the truck packed up with their things and all they'd been doing was waiting for Angel to return.

"What happened?" Faith asked him, following him into the kitchen. He grabbed the container of pigs blood out of the fridge and drank straight from it. "Angel? What the hell happened to you tonight?"

"Ambushed by about twenty vampires and a dozen demons," he replied between sips. "All working under orders from Azri'el. It's not safe here anymore. Not for any of us."

"We know. We're going to the lake house."

"When?"

"Pretty much now," Faith said and Angel took another sip, looking over at Willow who just nodded at him.

Angel nodded and finished off the rest of the container. He looked beaten and worn down, but Faith had seen him look worse, far worse. He'd be five by five by tomorrow night, given he slept most of the day tomorrow. Faith was worried though. The fact that Angel had been ambushed by so many vampires and demons, and looked like he narrowly missed being staked from the gash in his back, it was troubling. He'd become a target, that much was clear and if he was a target, Azri'el knew that Angel was on their side and would likely stop at nothing in taking him out.

Faith couldn't let that happen. She needed Angel around in more ways than one. If he'd been ambushed by that many vampires and demons, there was no telling how long it'd be before more of them showed up and tried to take them all out. They weren't safe there in the city and there was no telling how safe they'd be at the lake house or for how long either.

The world, her whole life had changed in the course of a week-the longest week of her life. It was far from over yet and that feeling of determination, of figuring out how to get her life back to where it'd been, was the driving force inside of her now. One way or another, things would go back to the way they'd been before. It'd be a long and hard road before they got there.