Xander landed lightly on the balcony outside the apartment the crow had found Faith in, enjoying the sensation of flying and hey, changing into a crow form didn't even hurt. Poor Oz, everytime he became Wolfie it looked painful. He studied the scene on the other side of the balcony doors getting an idea of the layout of the apartment, which looked like a nice sized studio. Faith was lying on her stomach on the bed, reading a magazine and listening to music.

She looked like a normal, typical teenage girl. Only she wasn't, she was a Slayer, strong enough to bend steel bars and according to the crow, he was now stronger than her. He braced himself because he was pretty sure she'd attack him at some point, after all, he was on her fourth floor balcony and it had no fire escape. That fact alone would her make her wary of him. He cawed to get her attention and she looked up at the sound and her eyes went wide with shock at seeing him, he'd turned back into himself in the fraction of time it took her to look up. She slowly stood and walked over to the balcony doors, opening one she continued staring at him.

"You just going to stare or are you actually going to talk to me? Or where you expecting me to be dead after Angel knocked me out last night? Why didn't you say something, Faith? Why let him do that?"

"Oh, like you don't already know." She scoffed. "I'm sure B raced to tell you to stay away from the big, bad evil Slayer after she and Fang played their little game with me, you were in on it, weren't you?"

"All I knew was Buffy wanted me to find Angel and give him a message, she never said anything else. What's going on, Faith? Did Wesley find you this place? It's a definite improvement over where Giles left you and I would sure like to know why he left you there or how Angel knew you were there and never said a word."

"B and Mrs. Post knew too." She answered flatly. "Not one of them gave a shit, you didn't either, so don't pretend you did."

"I wasn't pretending when I came to your room, Faith. All I wanted to do was tell you what happened with Finch was an accident and that I wanted to help you. I had no idea how I could help you, but I wanted to try and not in exchange for another round of sex and humiliation."

"What do you mean an accident, I killed him, it was murder!"

"The military would call it a friendly fire incident and send you to counseling, the law would call it an unfortunate accident. You didn't know he was human until the stake went in his chest, you thought Buffy was throwing another vampire at you."

"If it was an accident why did B and Fang tell me I'm just like Angelus now?" Faith glared at him, moving cautiously out onto the balcony and around him to look over the edge, a frown wrinkled her forehead.

"When did they say that?"

"When they had me chained up, before Wes and his goons showed up to arrest me. They certainly thought it was murder."

"Wesley knows it's not murder, it's why he sent the team away. He overheard Buffy and Giles discussing it, but only heard the part where you killed someone, not the part where Giles told her it was an accident."

"Jeeves told Buffy it was an accident? Before or after Fang chained me to a wall?"

"Before, then they told me and Willow and I offered to talk to you and Buffy said it wouldn't do any good because you thought I was a joke. Given the humiliation that followed the sex, in hindsight it seems she was right. Doesn't change the fact that I really was trying to help you."

"The Watcher told everyone it was an accident...except me?" Faith looked like she had her own pain and need for vengeance happening right now. "And instead of Buffy and Angel telling me that, they chained me up and compared me to Angelus?! The fuck you say!"

"No, I'm telling the truth, Faith. Something's going on and I'm going to find out what it is. Did Wesley move you into this apartment, Faith? Is he actually doing the job? He doesn't seem to have any clue what's going on most of the time."

"My new boss gave me this apartment, I've finally got someone who actually cares about me so you can stop pretending you do." She insisted. "And while you're at it, explain to me just how you got up here?"

"Who's your new boss, Faith?" An icy ball formed in Xanders gut as he began to suspect that whole thing last night was Buffy trying to play Faith and she'd used him as part of it, without telling him.

"The Mayor, I figure if I'm as bad as Angelus I should be working for the Big Bad."

"You're not evil, Faith." Xander murmured softly. "I see you, you're a lost, lonely, hurting kid and so am I, but neither of us are evil. But the Mayor definitely is and I'm going to do something about him."

"How, exactly?!" She scoffed again. "From what B and Red say, you're pretty damn hopeless."

"Really, they said that." Xander cocked his head and scrutinized her. Something about the way he did it, looked...odd, but Faith didn't understand why. "How quickly they managed to forget I'm the reason there's two Slayers or that I'm the reason the Judge is in thousands of pieces. You can go back to being a Slayer, the Mayor isn't going to be around much longer. I have just enough time to deal with him before my first class starts today." Faith's shock turned to fear as Xander leaped over the balcony and she watched him fall to the ground, land on his feet and race off down the street.

"What the fuck?!"