Faith and Mort returned to the farmhouse, still mulling over their encounter with the hat-vamp. Erwin Schwannstein. Stein. Whatever name they decided to use for him, though he didn't seem to like the name Erwin any more than she did. He'd called the scary evil vamp woman Patience, and apparently she was crazy and he hated her… if they could trust hat-vamp, who said to call him Stein.

They had no problem believing Patience, formerly referred to as June with the cleaver to be insane. Insanity seemed to be pretty common in vampires over a century.

For that matter, they weren't too sure that Stein wasn't a little off-kilter himself.

"How did things go?" Wesley called.

"Hat-vamp is Erwin Schwannstein, he seems to think the name is awful, and he said to call him Stein," Faith shook her head, and reached for the cookie jar. "He also said Junie with the cleaver's name is Patience, which really doesn't seem to fit her at all."

"And he claimed that he'd been watching the family, and that he'd been talking with Tanya's uncle Eli," Mort added.

"Do we believe him?" Wesley arched an eyebrow.

"We don't argue with him about that along the street. Instead we check Eli's Watcher journals for mentions of him," Faith countered.

"Much safer than arguing with the guy who could rip our heads off," Mort nodded.

"A good point," Wesley shuddered. "I admit, after leaving Sunnydale, I had hoped that I would no longer be expected to work with vampires…"

"Any of your Watcher friends get back in touch with you yet?" Faith asked.

Wesley shook his head, "Not yet, though I suppose some of the information is sensitive and might take a bit of time."

"I guess we're all five by five then," Faith shrugged and headed for the computer. If nothing else, dumping all the spam offers of cheap drugs from Canada, girl on girl porn, penis enlargement pills, and dating sites could be good for a laugh.

She hadn't expected the one claiming to be from a wealthy Nigerian widow, whose husband had left a few million dollars in cash, and because of 'your trusted business reputation', she had been chosen to help get those millions out of the country. That was good for a laugh.

The email from Willow stopped the laughter. There was a big attachment, though it checked as safe with the virus scan.

To: BackFromtheDark5x5…

From: RedRose99…

Subject: Re: Ugly Questions

1 Attachment WilkinsF

Faith,

Everything's been pretty crazy over here, and I guess things have been a bit crazy for you as well. With a bit of luck, things will calm down and we can swap longer versions later.

Haven't had any time to look for magic doors – sorry. Too busy looking up a few dozen demon species in the big books, and extra small scale nuclear devices. I think they modified a suitcase bomb into a sort of demon-cyborg fueling power reactor… it was very weird, even if it was kind of cool.

Attached is your medical file – short version, you were all humpty-dumptied, and flat-lined. They kept you in a medically induced coma for a while to increase your odds of survival. Details are in there, there's even some pictures and test results. Some of them are pretty cool, if you like the technical aspects. I do, you might not.

I found a back door to some records, and they had a Slayer in China activate about nine months ago. Hangchow, if you or Wes are curious. She died four months ago. WCI haven't found their next contestant as far as I've been able to access.

Good luck with everything.

Willow

Faith read the email, and clicked to save the medical file to the computer. She frowned at the end, and called out, "Hey Wes? What's WCI stand for?"

"Should I ask?" Wesley called from the doorway.

Faith shrugged, glancing at his reflection in the monitor. "Email from Red in Sunnydale."

"Ah, in that case, it most likely stands for Watchers Council International, if it pertains to anything Slayer related. If she means something to do with computers or technology, then I confess to no ideas," he sipped at his mug of tea.

"Makes sense, I guess," Faith admitted, shuddering as she looked at the screen.

"Faith?" Wesley moved closer.

"There was another Slayer in China. She's already dead," Faith had no idea what else to say, how she felt. She'd played Sleeping Beauty through a whole other Slayer. She'd been dead enough for there to be another Slayer. Not just maybes and could haves, but proof. It made pushing the whole mess to the back of her mind impossible.

For a moment, she wondered if it would be worth asking B how she'd coped with the knowledge – the proof that she'd died. Except that she knew – Be had resented Kendra's presence and been glad when the other Slayer left. When Faith had arrived… B had… Faith had… well, it had been a mess. A mess that they'd both helped create, but still a mess. They'd managed to bring out the worst in each other, things had been broken, people hurt, and even killed. On second thought, maybe it'd be worth asking just to avoid the same mistakes?

There were only a few things Faith was certain of about this information. It disturbed her to have undeniable proof that she'd died. It scared her to know that she'd died, that she'd really been dead, even if only for a little bit. She couldn't pretend it would change or go away if she ignored the facts. It bothered her that she'd been comatose through someone's whole time as a Slayer, though she wasn't quite certain why. It wasn't as if she'd have been able to help the girl, she had no passport, limited funds, and didn't speak Chinese. Last, she was certain that she had to do better this time around.

End part 64.

Faith didn't feel much better in the morning. Yeah, she'd slept and didn't feel as tired physically. Mort had, at her request, tried his best to distract her from everything that had been bothering her. But she didn't have any better idea what to think or do about having been dead, about other Slayers being Called than she had last night.

Maybe she shouldn't worry too much about that right now. Maybe she should focus on Patience and her plans and minions, the magic door to anywhere, Stein the vamp in the hat, and trying not to get killed. Killed again, or anyone else killed.

And if they all survived this, then everything just might have settled while she wasn't focused on it. If they survived.

She made her way downstairs and had breakfast, though she doubted she'd be able to tell anyone what she'd eaten. Lorrie and Pyro were up, talking about some sort of stereo system and where would be the best place to set it up. They also kept making googly eyes at each other. It was sort of sweet, though it made her feel jealous. Not about Pyro, he was a temperamental, impulsive, hot-headed… okay, he was too much like a male version of who she'd been last year, and Lorrie seemed to be good for him. And she hoped she wasn't still like that today. She was jealous that despite everything, they could sit there being googly eyed teenagers like they didn't have any other cares in the world. Especially since she knew they did have problems.

"Faith, I hadn't expected you to be up yet," Wesley sounded surprised.

"Trouble sleeping," Faith admitted. "Learn anything new? Or do we at least have a plan for today?"

"I did contact some of my associates last night. I now have official confirmation that there was a Slayer in China, who fought well but has fallen. There is speculation but nobody has been able or willing to identify where the replacement Slayer is. Something is going on in France, and there has been a significant increase in communications as well as several large packages sent to the same region. There are portents about the mouth of a river in Brazil, but that sounds more like ominous forces gathering rather than an active Slayer. There is also something very big going on in Russia, but nobody is quite sure what," Wesley sighed and sipped his tea.

"France, Brazil, and Russia. All pretty far from here," Faith mused.

"One of my colleagues promised to see if there were archived copies of previous Watcher's Journals from this region. I mentioned… ahh, I called it an amusing and quaint local story. I fear that I drew rather heavily on the way I used to be," Wesley was fidgeting now, avoiding eye contact. "I claimed there were rumors of someone afraid of ghosts trying to make an escape route for spirits, and claimed that there had been a tragic fire destroying the location."

"What, the 'oh what an amusing story those silly Americans have, was it anything juicy to gossip about over tea?' sort of claim?" Faith snickered. "Do Watchers really gossip about stuff like that over your tea and crumpets?"

"Tea and scones, and we share amusing bits of research and trivia, we do not simply gossip," Wesley insisted.

"Swapping stories, gossip… close enough," Faith shrugged. "Is there a plan for today?"

"Today's plan involves skimming Eli's journals for mentions of the vampire woman, whom we shall call either Junie or Patience, mentions of Stein - because there is no reason not to call him by the name he requested - or the Door. I shall send messages to several other Watchers of my acquaintance, though there is less of a bond with these, they might still be willing to pass on interesting rumors," Wesley paused a moment before adding "Yes Faith, several of you will be looking through old books while I see if the other Watchers will share the gossip. I'd also like all of you to do a little physical training later."

"Wes?" Faith looked at her Watcher, dozens of questions rushing through her mind. She wanted to ask them, and feared what some of the answers might be.

"Go ahead and ask, I don't bite," Wesley tried to smile. The expression looked a bit weak.

"If Stein was being honest with me, do we... do we work with him?" Faith didn't want to voice the other questions that tied in to the idea of working with Stein. Working with a vampire. Vampires were the bad guys, right? Faith was afraid of where going down the path of working with bad guys again could take her. Afraid that Mort was already too much of a bad guy or former bad guy to stay on the whole straight and narrow path thing. She was afraid of what if might say about her, and the future. And she was already knew that Mort was too important to her to just walk away, even if a messenger from whatever Powers meddled told her he'd lead her straight back into disaster.

"So long as he doesn't ask anything that we aren't willing to do and we don't catch him in anything objectionable, there is a long and seldom discussed tradition of working with unconventional support. Which is a fancy way of saying maybe," Wesley admitted.

"Maybe, if he's on the level, and if it's nothing too bad?" Faith asked, wanting the clarification more than she was afraid of sounding like a scared, needy little girl asking someone to tell here there wasn't really a monster in the closet.

"And if he doesn't seem to be doing anything too bad. Working with him on this doesn't mean we like him or that we approve of him, or any of his other plans," Wesley added.

"Like Lorrie said, isn't being a Slayer supposed to be simple?" Faith rubbed at her head, frustrated at so many things they didn't know, mostly tying back to either Junie-Patience the neatly-pressed vampire woman or to the Millers and Stein.

"A myth frequently told to Potentials by their Watchers, comparable to the myth parents tell their children. The one that goes 'one day you'll understand all of this.' There have been many days that I wonder when that day is, and if it ever comes. I'm starting to think that day is a lie," Wesley gave a weak smile.

Faith didn't want to think about the fact that if she'd been the scared, lonely run away that she'd been after Mellie's death, she might have thought Junie-Patience was an opportunity. A way for everything to be better. She didn't want to think about the fact that many of the woman's minions may have thought just that, only learning the truth when it was too late. Neither did she want to think that they might still think she was an opportunity to better their situation.

End part 65.