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Interlude one: movements
#13


So they got them a car and some money. Using their
powers much more ruthlessly and changing their lair
every day (now always looking for a backdoor) they
gathered the necessary resources.
Xander didn't say anything when Faith decided they
had to go after some money and they hit on a drug
dealer. Killing him, his two whores and his four
bodyguards in their house and taking a hundred grand
with them. The drugs they found they flushed down the
toilet, the house they set on fire before leaving.
Getting a vehicle - this time by buying one - they
hit the road and motored from small town to small town.
Always expecting another hit that never came.
Using a first aid kit they kept their feeding kills
to a relative minimum...and once they turned a girl
where Faith went too far. Whatever sort of new vampire
she was, she certainly had no soul. She was just one
of the mass of rather braindead fledgelings that vamps
made over the course of time.
Xander staked his bloodsister after he knew that much.
Which didn't hurt Faith in any way. She had had no real
affections for that childe - just an experiment.
Faith was happy that he began to loose more and more of
the sucking boyscout attitude B and her gang had drilled
into him. And she was quite certain she would gain his
full devotion over time, stopping him suffering that
attack of conscience every time he kileld during their
hunting.
Sometimes they just needed the blood.
She knew he let people slip away then and there and
she pretended not to notice. But when he went hungry he
was as helpless as she was and went for the end.
not that faith thought they had to kill so much, she
just wanted him to be ready and able to do it. when it
got necessary to wipe their traces clean.
Leaving a trail of certain attacks would allow their
pursuers to get at their back. Faith had not much idea
what but Xander had. Said there was so much data out
there they could use to track down someone.
Stolen cars, money, names, pictures, phone calls. Even
police reports and medical files. What sort of wound was
treated where and when and on whom...all that stuff.
Faith began to grasp that long-term survival wasn't just
a question of pure fighting skills but also involved the
skills of finding someone who didn't want to be found,
and using the same skills to keep others from her back.
Their backs.
Faith never would let him go, never.
She just got used to having regular sex - shagging like
mad bunnies would be pretty apt. She also got used to
him making her laugh or do illogical things and taking
her dancing whenever they had a chance.
He looked rather hot in his black clothes. And these
dusters they took from a store near Houston...really
styly dusters.
Whatever, Faith found herself starting to rely on him
being there for her. To sing her to sleep and hold her
when she had dreams and got weak, to cheer her up when
she was depressed and make her laugh when she was bored.
And to need her to do the same things for him.
And he and Faith spent a lot of time working out. She
showed him what to correct in his stance and style and
how to fight, and to their joy they found Faith was a
great teacher.
She liked to see how quickly he caught up.
And after he had left his Scooby attitude behind he went
for a kill with just the kind of effective ferocity
Faith found so appealing. He had this annoying habit to
hesitate before striking out and that she broke out of
him. Then he hit his targets as hard and fast as he was
able to do.
He was an apt student and an eager one...getting his
balls kicked when he lost and being beat up served to
motivate him really good, too. But she hadn't thought
he would be that inventive.
Even if the practice sessions tended to end with them
hitting on each other after beating the crap out of each
other up...it probably was the vampire idea of foreplay
to beat the other almost to death.
Faith found it great.
Their duels had just that kind of tension she had felt
when going one on one with Buffy. Except that this time
it was a more mutual thing and she got the tensions
released.
She liked to play a game - draw a circle and set up a
stopwatch. And check on how long it took them to beat
the other out of the circle or to get him or her to
give up.
Xander first managed to stand almost half a minute on
his feet before Faith could take him down. Then a minute
and then close to five, which was when he began to start
serious attacks on her. And then they were at it for
half an hour.
His defensive style was really good, but his lack of
offensive still bothered her. He didn't like to attack
her as serious as she knew he could. Which was why she
started to press fro his balls and make him sleep alone
if he didn't do his best.
And then he almost defeated her and they fought for a
full hour. Aside from damage weakening them they had not
to put up with exhaustion anymore. And Faith was still
astonished by how much damage he could take before he
went down.
At which point they arrived in New Orleans and got into
troubles with a dozen vampires coming for them as they
tried to get a bloodbank to hand out a few boxes with
bags.
The vamp gang had intended to take the booty.
Instead they got killed, one after the other.
And they loved the fight, the battle, the rush.
The next day he managed to beat her in their fight after
the hour limit was breached. He began to catch up on her
months of experience as they choose to hunt other vamps
and demons in New Orleans along with people.
And as they were fighting they learnt they had a few
skills as well - like moving faster and being stronger
than other vampires were. Or doing the whammy. And to
determine where someone else was, or what it was.
It was a lot like the sensing games her Watcher had
played to attune Faith to her Slayer senses.
Faith found she was really fast and had incredible
coordination, he went more for brute strength. She still
was surprised when he managed to duck her assaults and
kick her out of their ring with one solid blow. She had
him practice that and soon they found he could deliver
more than ten times his usual strength with certain
blows. Problem was he had to concentrate it this was
rather detrimental to his strength, making the hunger
worse again.
And then he managed a new trick - moving so fast that
her eyes could barely follow. The same as with his
bonus strength worked for speed, making him a blurr
for an eyeblink. That one served him well to get out
of a bad position and to suddenly appear at her back.
Faith couldn;'t afford to give him an easy reign there
anymore, and she liked it.
The fighting got really, really interesting now.
She still began to wonder where his power came from. It
wasn't like anything she had expected and it did not
come from her. And since she didn't perform spells it
must have come from him, from inside him.
Faith wondered if Xander had been fully human before.
She had never detected any trace of demon on him. And
what else could it be?
She got them admitted to a salle of a martial arts
dojo and then an old and wrinkled ninja had them given
lections on using weapons besides their bodies. Faith
had never liked staffs or sticks but knifes were quite
the other matter. Or even swords. But she gave that one
up as she began to understand it took years to master
that weapon - years they had not available right now.
Another time however...well, they had forever now!
Xander seemed to take an instinctive liking to swords,
taking an out from her learning advanced moves to get
the basics. With his strength he could use the weapon
to greater advantage anyway.
The old man knew a lot moves and combinations that they
both had not ever been thinking of. If he were able to
keep up physically he might have had a chance in a fight
with them, which was rather disheartening.
Unlife became the greatest time in her entire live as
the days bluured by between shagging, feeding and the
constant training.
It really paid in their Slaying.
New Orleans lost a lot of undead as they tore through
the area, killing werewolfes and vampires and demons of
six different sorts and lots of zombies. Which were
rather pathetic. Killing the vodoo priestess and that
magician on the bus station was fun, however much Xander
was into denying that.

They were there for about two months and a half, after
as much time on the road, when the hunters appeared on
stage again. This time they came with rifles and a real
flamethrower in the package and tried to get them.
Again it was an attack during the day.
It also happened right in the dojo, they had crashed
down in the basement and continued working out during
the otherwise dull daylight hours. With vamps needing
next to no sleep beyond a couple of hours every few days
they had next to no troubles with doing double or triple
shifts each day. Which served to help their skills
developing exceptionally fast.
The dojo burned down, the nice old man was shot and the
hunters almost would have gotten them. The fight was not
really so big. After they had taken out eight of them
and drained the men the remaining hunters retreated and
set the house afire. With daylight out they could not
flee and the hunters waited for them to come and try.
They survived by being lucky again.
They fled through a hidden tunnel that led to the
basement of an adjoining house and then stayed there
until the night came.
Then they took their enemies trail up. From one of them
they got the name of their hotel and used that to pay
them a surprise visit. They found a couple of men from
twentyfive to fifty, with a woman in tweed in the back.
Might have been a coincidence but Faith was sure they
had been Watchers. Noone admitted it and they all died,
of course. Which was just the kind of thing Faith liked
to do, kill all her enemies.
Still, this time there had twenty.
What if there were fourty next? And if it had been men
in the employ of the Watchers, what made them do it?
They must have taken out enough baddies to be noticed.
Damn the stupid fucking Council anyway.
And damn it that they had been seen by to many people,
now the cops were asking questions because of a dead
man and a burnt down ruined dojo. And a lot of corpses.
So they had to get the car again and move their ass.
Faith wished she could have made that tweed bitch come
and explain about how they got tracked down. If it was
magic there wasn't much they could do about it. But if
it was a mundane means they might learn to avoid it.

They moved over to Atlanta, stayed for another month
and then had to leave again. This time because the
vampires in the town weren't willing to let them
continue their reckless hunting anymore - and their
total disregard of all the vampire traditions. Which
counted for crap with them as they just slayed them
all anyway. Or in more interesting ways, when there
was the time. Faith had still a lot of catching up to
do with her lections on how to do proper torture.
Ironically the vampires would have lost if the FBI had
not appeard on stage and the master vampire of Atlanta
had them slipped evidence on who had mureded a couple of
college girls. Faith would have sworn they had not been
noticed when they invited the girls in.
She wanted some major fun and she knew her Xander was
dreaming of it...too bad they had used the girls for
dinner afterwards. Sometimes they also turned them and
used them to lure their prey in, destroying them along
with the rest.
Life was an endless string of fun and happyness.

They ran rampant through the country before they finally
managed to shake the bloodhounds in the northern regions
of the US, using a car that fell from a bridge into a
river during winter and two burned corpses which were
similiar enough to fool the investigators.
Which still made them wonder where to go next.
Eight months after leaving LA they came back, thinking
they could hide and settle down in the city of angels.

Faith was not at all thrilled with her lover's idea that
if they kept a low profile they would not be hunted
anymore. If it were the Watchers they wouldn't stop.
These freaks had a memory reaching back to the stone
ages and they never forgave or forgot.
But she had enough to be on the move forever.
And with all the destruction she had wreaked recently
she guessed she could bunker down and do without, even
without any killing.
She figured she still needed a decade or so to hone her
edge into the right fashion to tear any other Slayer
apart. And she so wanted to see B get old and die...to
take over the one territory in the world known to her
that wasn't about to get boring, ever.
In Sunnydale the bad guys came to challenge her, not the
other way around. Up to then LA didn't sound so bad. As
did getting legit money and connections.


#14
The Magic Shop, Sunnydale:


"Allright," Buffy said in a hostile manner, snapping out
of her good mood the instant she came in. Originally she
had thought she could say something about their use of
Spike. Evil vamp or not, he had that chip and was fixed.
Neutered. So, for the time being, he was dependant upon
others to survive - to give him the blood he needed.
She also had thought if she should ask Giles to back her
plea for testing Riley, her new boyfriend. The old one,
Parker, had been a real bastard and waste of time.
He had just wanted to bed Buffy (though he had been good
between the sheets, which saved him from getting his head
ripped off for his behavior afterwards) and the instant
she asked him to risk his neck he left. He never even had
waited to learn what she was fighting, he just saw a vamp
and ran screaming. What a coward.
She was pretty much certain that Riley Finn was very
different from that. Some student of law from far and
distant Iowa, he was rather able-bodied and seemed to
know how to take care of himself...and he also was a
gentleman.
She thought that, with some go-between like Riley and
Spike for additional muscles, they could get things
moving their way out there. So far they just had half
a dozen new research contacts, two more spellcasters
which might come to help and then five pairs of eyes
who reported from here and there in Sunnydale. That at
least allowed them to make a good guess of what was
going on in town. Buffy wanted to know more about that
mysterious commandos - human soldiers, as far as she was
able to tell - were up to.
The very last thing she had expected to see in Sunnydale
were a group of Council representatives...tweed guys.
Led by Quentin Travers in his very slimy self.
"What are you doing here, asshole?" And who had allowed
their stinking Council asses inside THEIR headquarters?

Travers looked her up and down, turning away from Giles,
and then he shrugged. The heavily built younger man at
his side firmly screamed military to her - he was some
kind of fighter, sure. As was the other one and that man
in the black suit. Which wouldn't make much difference.
They were just human, after all. Travers had a male and
female Watcher along with him. "Would you believe that
we just came by for an amicable visit?"

"Funny, Travers," Buffy snapped back, closing the
distance to him. "Have you let them in here, Giles?"

"Er...it isn't what you think it is," Giles stammered
and reached for his glasses. "Mr. Travers and his, um,
friends just came by to pay us...me a visit and...drop
a bit of news."

"Yeah?" Buffy doubted, staring acidly at the bunch of
bumbling fools who almost got her and her mom killed
with their outdated and stupid insistance on their
traditional methods. "The world's gonna end again or
something like that?"

"Our renegade Slayer and her new sidekick have shown up
in a hotel in Los Angeles," Travers drily said. "We had
two of our best hunter squads set on them there when
they showed up for the first time."

Hunter squad? "Is that what I think it is?" Buffy asked
and grasped for air. It was. A team of human soldiers
sent to destroy vampires. Now, she wouldn't have denied
peoples' abilities to get this working. She just had her
professional doubts that the Council would put a force
in the field that could take any stronger vamps. Much
less Faith. "So they're dead."

"If you refer to your...former friends...," the black
Watcher rasped uncomfortable. "They are..."

"I was talking of your goons," Buffy smiled in a sweet
and humorous voice. She saw how the female Watcher got
red with anger and the man in the black suit glared at
her as she stated her reason why: they were incompetent.
Faith was a Slayer, even before she got turned. She
would not be defeated by a few simple soldiers. "So what
happened?"

"A massacre," the man in black answered. "We had been
able to track your friends down by following a stolen
car remade for transporting vampires during the day.
We found a set of matches from a hotel they were still
staying at in there."

"A hotel?" Buffy asked. Hadn't there been some news
about some wild animal at large inside of a hotel a
while ago? It must have been big if it made national
news...meaning a lot of dead bodies...very dead bodies.

"We had ten men on them. One survived, by being out to
stand guard," the nameless man said very pissed. "We
choose to attack at daytime hours since they are to
our advantage. Our first team went in and then..."

"And then it all went to hell," Buffy concluded. "How
many did Faith kill?"

"THEY killed everyone who was inside and saw them,"
the man said. "I expected the renegade Slayer to make
a run and to leave for the corridor of the first floor.
Due to the daylight there was no other place left for
them to run to."

"Spare me the details," Buffy chocked out. She had a
very bad feeling in her guts. "Spill it."

"They killed the team going in in under half a minute.
Then the second. Before two minutes were past...a dozen
other people died," the man croaked while tugging at his
shirt's collar nervously. "We managed to get our backup
team in and cover the incident with local authorities."

"Sure," Buffy sighed. "Can you give us anything else?
Hoiw did Faith do it?"

"They," Travers corrected her matter-of-factly, "got
into a blood frenzy. There were several throats ripped
out and one of our teamleaders...we figure your former
friend ripped his heart right out of his chest."

"Repeat that again," Buffy gulped. "She did what?
Instead Travers took out a set of photographs. She could
see the gruesome details caught on the pictures. The
blood sprayed around, the corpses. Their faces told they
all had died horribly. And some had died worse. There
were efficient kills - which she ascribed to Faith - and
then there was the work of a beast at large. One poor
man's guts ripped out here, a man beaten down with the
same unecessary brutality there. A heart ripped out of a
live man. How was that possible outside of a bad movie?
Even Buffy knew she didn't have the strength for that
and she was as strong as any vamp. And there were some
whose throats had been ripped apart, literally torn open
with teeth and claws.
The next picture showed two persons in blankets who came
out of a building. Buffy spotted blood on their clothes
where they were not hiding under blankets and she just
could assume it was Faith and Xander.
They ran away during daylight.
And even while they were burning up - she saw the smoke
rising from their undead bodies - they got away. Slipped
past public notice to a sewer level entrance.
Her eyes narrowed as she saw the picture of how the male
vampire - Xander - opened the way for them...his hand
was almost aflame as it reached for the shutter. And it
had to be scorched for good after that stunt. How long
would it take to heal? A week, a month? Or less?
"That...looks impressive."

"We thought the same," Travers rasped out. "I think your
filed information on the young...late Mister Harris has
not been complete."

"What?" Buffy asked, incredulous. "You want to blame
this mess of yours on us?" Or Giles, nor spying for them
so bad...? He had to be nuts!

"No. Our information was incorrect," the man in black
said with only half restrained fury. "Aside from your
failure to take out this rogue Slayer turned vampire
before...we have to know about Mr. Harris."

"What's there to know?" Buffy snorted. "He's a human.
Just another soulless vampire - and a vicious one. If
that is still him and Faith hasn't made up a new toy."
Judging from the way she made her companion flame she
probably was through with them faster than usual.

"I assure you, it is him," the male Watcher - a black
man - said. "A witness questioned saw them both enter
their hotel room and she has positively IDed the..."

"You say he's just an ordinary human? Sorry, has been!"
Traver's pet soldier hissed, cutting his male Watcher
colleague short. He shook his head. "I'm afarid that
isn't possible."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Buffy asked, smiling. "He's been
human but he...well, at times he seemed able to take
care of himself." Of course, most of the time she had
to save his ass from a vampire or whatever monster he
had attracted. "But, um, if you ask for anything out
of the order - he's been possessed by a hyena spirit for
a few days. And for a night by the spirit of a dead
soldier. Is that what you're looking for?"

"A hyena spirit...?" Travers asked, arching his thin
eyebrows. And then shaking his head. "No. There has to
be something else."

"Could you tell me what you're talking about?"

"Certainly. You see, our team managed to capture a
half-demon who had seen them repeatedly," the soldier
in the black suit snorted. "He has insisted on there
being TWO master vampires. With him being the more
powerful one. By a pronounced edge."

A master vampire? Well, Faith probably was. Being a
Slayer before turning must count for something. Like
making one a master vampiress with powers that rivaled
Drucilla's. Buffy shivered, remembering Drucilla. It was
hard enough to go up against her when she was loony and
unable to put together a half-decent plan. A fighter like
Faith with that sort of edge would be a serious problem.
Maybe rival the master back at full strength. Major bad.
She could buy Faith being a master vampire. But Xander?
"Impossible. He's just a fledgeling!" Buffy rasped out.
"I mean...he's probably a guy, when he was possessed he
led a pack of people, hyena-people...but a master vamp?
Comeon! We're talking XANDER here."

"What's important in that?" the soldier frowned.

"Hyenas are matriarchal," the black Watcher coughed and
sucked in the air to make his point. "Are you sure HE
led the pack? And not a female?"

"They came when he called. They came to him after their
feeding," Buffy said unhappily. Shit. She never had
bothered to think of that...Xander was more of a guy
than she had thought. "I'd say he led them..."

Giles nodded, backing her opinion on the issue. Thanks,
Giles, Buffy thought sarcastically. She really needed his
approval and guidance in all her thoughts. Especially
when the female Watcher seemed ready to say black was
white as long as she could oppose him.

"Then there has to be something about him," Travers
concluded, and Giles nodded again. They talked and a few
moments later said Xander must have access to some kind
of powersource. And this powersource must have gotten a
lot bigger since the hyena incident if it was able to
make him a master vampire.

"Wow. Now I'm at a loss," Buffy laughed. Xander had
never been powerful - he was the antithesis of power.
"He never had anything when we were together...uh, I do
mean fighting together."

"He must have had something," Travers insisted. "It was
him and he was a master vampire. Our demon was very sure
of this."

"Exactly how powerful are they anyway?" Giles asked,
without stuttering. "Is your source able to tell?"

"Since he also is an informant of Angelus and has seen
him recently...he said Faith is a bit more powerful than
Angelus," the female Watcher explained happily to be able
to talk at all. "We can only assume that these two have
no full control of their powers yet. The incident at the
hotel was only the beginning...Miss Watkins, if you were
so friendly to show our files..."

Buffy opened her eyes wide in shock. She never had even
considered Faith being that powerful...and with Xander
at her side, being even stronger...impossible.
But was it?
Maybe Faith knew something she didn't.
She must have had a reason for deciding to turn Xander.
And it certainly wasn't affection or tender feelings.
Faith would not go for that sort of feelings ever. She
was a powermad darkside Slayer turned into a demon.
And yet...Xander had felt odd when she saw him. Rather
odd. She had pounded him, sure, but he wasn't her equal
as a fighter. And he had not fought back so hard.
Suddenly she held her rbeath. If he was that powerful,
something else again, was it possible...he said he had
a soul. What if Faith had one, too? Her being evil, that
wouldn't have mattered. But if Xander had one she might
be able to control him somehow, make him obey her.
How?
Then she remembered him visiting her, defending her. It
was out of character for Xander. So why...? Damn. Faith
had done it, she had slept with him and he still had
feelings for her. And now that she saw a way to gain
control of him she wouldn't hesitate...
Buffy felt awfully sick. And stupid.
Faith needed time to get control of her powers.
And she also needed to make him hers.
She had had several weeks now.
"What did you mean they did?"

The female Watcher handed Giles a manile folder, a thick
folder. Which was labeled with the term Hunters. Opening
it they got a long list of places and dates where they
were supposed to have been doing something.
Buffy had not exactly sat on her ass as well, but as she
saw the long list of dates and figures she felt her guts
tighten themselves. Giles could read that and give her
the complete details, she just wanted the general of it.
"In short, Miss Summers?" the woman croaked, biting her
lips. "They killed men, women and childer as well as any
creature of the night they came to fight...and they were
fighting a lot."

"Were they?" Giles asked astonised.

"Yes. We, well, we found them...kill half of the vampire
population and more in...New Orleans and Atlanta," she
rasped out. "They have killed close to a couple of
hundred humans by now and an almost as large number of
supernatural beings."

"Did you say a couple of hundred? In less than a year?"

"We have no complete access of their activities, but
yes, they did that," Travers said, looking pale. "We had
our best team after them and then we had six teams on
them in New Orleans and another one in the North. That
are about fifty people alone. Plus they took out a SWAT
team, several police officers and federal agents, which
amount to another thirty. Then there are a dozen people
in LA, two in New Orleans, two in Atlanta...and we do
have no idea how many they picked while beind on the
road...!" He swallowed, very loud and deep. Shook his
head. "As much as I hate to admit that, these two seem
to contest for the title of most vicious vampires in the
world. Ever since Angelus reign of terror the Watchers
have not had to face such a threat."

"It's even worse!" the soldier said annoyed. "Director
Travers hasn't said that most of our experts say they
are just in the process of mastering their abilities.
And now that they have gained solid combat skills we can
assume they will start to get even stronger."

"You say they're stronger than Angel, mad enough to kill
anything and anyone they set eyes on and are in LA?"
Buffy hissed, clutching a fist. "Are you sure they are
not on their way here?"
Buffy wasn't ready for a confrontation. She was still
preparing herself and she might need another couple of
months.
But she also wasn't around to let them take out Angel.
She had to give him a warning about it. she had to.

"We are sure," Travers said. "Our spies have found them
in Los Angeles. The problem we have is that they have
altered their behavior once again."

"In what regards?" Giles asked.

"At first they just hunted. Then they moved and hid,
they also improved their fighting. In New Orleans we
found them hiding in a martial arts dojo," the soldier
explained. "Their hunting was strictly solo and they
never made any childes. In Atlanta they preyed on
college students and...killed them after they...had
sexual intercourse. Sometime, though, they turned them
and used them as bait to lure other vampires in to take
them out. When the authorities came after them they
moved constantly, switching hiding places and vehicles
and refined their tactics - they now disposed of the
bodies and incriminating evidence as well. And they
managed to stage a convincing scenario of how they, ah,
died while being on the run to stop the manhunt."
The soldier cast his eyes down. "When they showed up
in LA they had stopped anything that attracted undue
attention. Criminal activity, hunting other vampires,
moving their lair...anything. If there is one thing
that we know than that they both have an incredible
appetite...but they also have used other sources to
satisfy their bloodlust."

"What do you say?"

"They have gone to grounds in LA. And they have found
a way to have them supplied with blood that doesn't
attract us. No vanishing homeless people, no stolen
bags from the bloodbanks, no vanishing youths from
the clubs or sick from a hospital. As far as we can
tell they are invisibel aside from their appearances
at the clubs," the soldier croaked out. "Since they
also did not appear at any of the martial arts dojos
we could check it's unlikely they stay there..."

"It means they are preparing something big and bad!"
Buffy insisted, thinking. Maybe they now thought they
could raise a clan of their own and come to take over
Sunnydale. "Maybe they will come here and attack the
hellmouth?"

"This would be a major change in attitude," the female
Watcher sniffed. "If ther eis one thing we can say so
far is that they stay away from magic...and the only use
they had of other demons was to kill them."

Buffy wondered what Xander was doing there. Thinking
back to the days he had been her shadow at Slaying he
had gone after demons...maybe he kept up the habit.
She also was very certain that Faith was the one whom
she had to fight - if she could Xander to stay neutral
things could work out. "Have you any real idea of how
Faith is fighting nowadays?"

"I'm afraid we don't," Travers said. "And our...other
Slayer is too junior to go up against these two."

"And since your hunter teams come back in the urn you
thought we could do the hard work for you," Giles
rasped, not even hiding his disgust. "This is so much
like what I've quit the Council for, Quentin."

"You've been fired," Traveres reminded him sharply and
then put away his attitude. He needed them after all.
"I propose we set our differences aside for the time
being and combine our resources...I know you've been
trying to set up your own organization here. We could
help you..."

"We did very good on our own, so far," Buffy said. She
did not want any influence of the Council on her team.
That sort of things would just leave them to become
part of the Watchers after she and Giles had it, and
it was the purpose of her circle to keep the hellmouth
under guard and not to serve the Watchers. "And what
could you offer besides information that isn't of so
much use anyway?"

"Our sources and networks are rather refined, young
lady!" the black man barked. "There is noone in the
world who is better than us."

"And I remember very well where we got our answers from,
back when you suplied us with that data," Buffy said
icily. She shook her head. "I also know how much your
hunters are worth against them...and you admitted it by
coming here to beg."

"We don't have to listen to that, sir," the female
Watcher hissed full of anger at her superior. "We do
not need these...imbeciles."

"The trouble is, my dear Selina, we actually do,"
Travers answered. Not the least bit happy about saying
it out loud. "If we would ally our remaining hunter
teams with you and add in Angelus and Spike...if you can
get him to work for you...do you think we could beat
them, Miss Summers?"

Damn, Buffy thought. They knew a lot more about what she
was doing than the other way around. But they also had
no way to get the job done they said they were there for
and wasn't that sort of sick? Pretty much.
"Maybe," she answered. It hurt herself to say it but she
got the issue - as long as they came at her united she
was dead mead. Faith was a bad thing on her own but with
that new Xander in the equation...Buffy needed more and
then more details.
This was like Spike, when he came and prepared himself
to fight her. Studying her before risking an all-out
fight, and he got very close to making it. She had to do
exactly the same. Maybe it paid to ask him about how he
did it.
And maybe it paid to visit Angel as well.
"We speak about a temporary alliance," Buffy said.
"Nothing going beyond mutal coexistence. And if we win
you'll allow your people to talk with Giles again. And
you stop to claim the library. It's ours anyway, we have
earned it."

"I'm surprised you don't ask for more," Travers chuckled
as he threw Giles a look. And the bookstore they sat in.
"Like money or certain artifacts...or people. You need
all that to help you, Miss Summers. Especially when you
cannot spare the time for your...private life anymore.
Much less working for a living."

"Let that be my problem," Buffy groaned. She knew those
things would come with strings attached. And as far as
she knew the Council didn't have anyone she wanted to
have around. "And Travers...we don't have a deal yet.
If there is a way to get my friend back I'll take it."

"You would trust a psychotic vampire around you?" the
black Watcher asked incredulous and then remembered.
She was allying with Spike anyway, and he didn't even
have a soul. "Of course you would...you're mad."

"And what about Faith?" the female Watcher asked. "What
if she regains a soul...or her sanity?"

"The former would be surprising enough, but the latter
I doubt being possible. We'll probably have to take her
out!" Buffy answered numbly. Not that she would not like
it to get Faith dusted. But if she could get Xander...he
had been hers before, and Faith had stolen him. He would
not mean anything else but a prize to taunt her with to
the brunette psycho. Faith being Faith she simply wasn't
able to keep him for long, anyway. There was a way to
get him back, there must be such a way.
"And think of this - with him here we would not have
half as many troubles as with him AND Faith combined."

"You got a point there," the black clad soldier gloated,
shaing his head. "But can you make that happen, Slayer?"

"I have no idea, yet," Buffy answered. "We have to find
out what's going on before we can do anything. All your
previous strikes failed because you didn't know what you
were dealing with. Maybe we can do better after we have
a plan...uh, you don't happen to know how Faith is able
to protect them from being cursed with a soul?"

"We are not sure. Our experts on curses say the most
likely explanation is that they still have their souls,"
Travers answered. "You disagree with this?"

"I know Xander," Buffy laughed bitterly. "If he was with
his soul he would not kill anyone. He can't do that."

"Are you certain?"

"If he were able to kill a human, he would have killed
his parents and a lot of others already," Buffy said
and grimaced. It made her freind sound like a psycho.
A human timebomb. But then, he was...rather close. "He
has never done it, he never even was able to fight
against another human being. So go figure."

"Let's hope you're right," the soldier sighed.

"Leave your material here. We can talk about details
the day after tomorrow...Giles?"

"Uh, yes, that would be most...approrpiate," her Watcher
nodded. Saking off his own thoughts. "Where will you be
until then?"

They said they and other would stay at a local hotel.
Great, Buffy thought grumpily, so very great. She had a
whole bunch of bumbling idiots and incompetents at her
side. Well, maybe she could use them as cannon fodder.
Or something.
Just what was Faith up to?