Buffy was pissed when Faith and Cordelia arrived at her place later that day. With the school being repaired and Giles in the hospital, Joyce was letting them use her house for meetings.

"Where the Hell were you last night, Faith? I ran into a mess of vamps and had to deal with them myself. Some idiot wandered into the fight and got himself killed."

"Why you ragging on me, B? We don't patrol together, so I wouldn't have been with you anyway. So don't go laying it on me. And C and I were hanging out. We are friends, we're allowed to do that. You and Red hang out together."

"This conversation is pointless." The new Watcher, Wesley said. "Slayer Summers, these vampires that attacked you, was there anything distinguishing about them?"

"They all wore unforms and each one carried both a long and a short sword. I brought one of the swords back. And can you stop being so pompous? Just call me Buffy."

"It is appropriate to maintain a level of discipline."

"I don't answer to you, so shut the attitude down. You're here to do research and tell me who the demon of the week is. Here's the sword, figure it out."

"And while you're at it, find Faith a decent place to live. The fake Watcher lady knew she was living in a hellhole and having to rob vamps to pay for it, but Giles never bothered to find out. And believe me, I'm going to have a word with him about that when he gets out of the hospital." Cordelia said.

"The Motor Lodge isn't that bad." Buffy said.

"It's a roach pit and you knew and said nothing? How long have you known?" Cordelia demanded to know.

"Since Kakistos." Buffy answered.

"Almost since she got here. Why didn't you say something?"

"Well, if she wanted something better, why didn't she just say so, herself?! It's not my responsibility."

Joyce couldn't believe her ears. "Buffy, how you can say that? She needs help. You should have seen that and said something. Faith, we have a spare room. I just use it for storage. You can move in today."

"What?! Mom! Wesley can find her a place, it's his job, not yours."

"I want to do this, Buffy. Faith needs a stable place and I can offer it. There's little else I can do to help and support you all with this fight. So what do you say, Faith?"

"You sure it won't be a problem?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright. I'll get my stuff, actually it's in C's trunk. We spent the night in her pool house, having a slumber party."

Wesley returned then with news. "The crest on the sword is for the cult of Balthazar, a demon worshipped by vampires. He was killed a century ago, the cult is nearly extinct. You shouldn't have any additional problems with them."

"Buffy, there's a news report on." Willow said. "The Deputy Mayor was found murdered last night."

Buffy glanced at the tv, then did a double take. "That's the idiot that wandered into my dust up with the vamps last night! One of the vamps shoved him, trying to get to me and he fell and hit his head. By the time, I was done with the vamps, he was dead. There was nothing I could do."

"Where did this fight occur?" Wesley asked.

"Down by the docks."

"Why would the Deputy Mayor be down by the docks at night?" Cordelia asked.

"Anywhere else and I'd say, looking for a hooker, but they wouldn't last long in this town." Faith said.

"Quite true, unfortunately." Wesley said. "We should investigate the Deputy Mayor. I doubt there is a legitimate reason for him being there."

"I can pick locks, we can check out City Hall, go thru his files." Faith offered.

"Probably a good place to start. Miss Rosenberg, if you would endeavor to discover something via the computer?"

"You can call me Willow and if there's something to find, I'll find it."

Wesley frowned at the the informality. "Very well, Willow."

Buffy and Faith waited until after dark and then headed for City Hall. They found very little as all of Deputy Mayor Finch's files had been emptied out. Someone was covering their tracks. Willow found out who.

"I found these pictures in the Sunnydale archives. Take a look at this." She laid three pictures on the table.

"This is Mayor Wilkins the First. This is Mayor Wilkins the Second. And this is Mayor Wilkins the third. Notice anything?"

Wesley was the first to realize what they were looking at. "They're the same man. He hasn't aged in the last century. He's been pretending to be his own father and grandfather. He must have been the one who emptied out the Deputy Mayor's files. He may have had information in there concerning the Mayor."

"How can he be that old and not age?" Buffy asked.

"He likely sold his soul for longevity. Which means he may want more then to just not age. We need to discover what that may be."

Not long after, they discovered that the nearly extinct cult and it's dead demon, weren't so extinct nor was the demon dead, just grossly overweight. They discovered this when the vampires grabbed Wesley looking for information on an amulet that had been stolen from their master a century ago by Wilkins. Fortunately for Wesley, Buffy and Faith were able to deal with the vampires and ensure that Balthazar was finally dead.