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Faith was pacing around the room. She hated waiting, it annoyed
her. "How is this guy getting here anyway?", she asked, "should we be listening for a car or something?" "No, Whitelighters have the ability to 'orb' into a room." "What does that mean? Is he going to roll in here in a little ball?" "No, he'll sort of...phase...into the room", Giles said, Faith still looked blank, "like Star Trek", he added. |
| "In fact, if he's as punctual as I presume he will be.
He should be here now-", Giles said, just as a blue light filled the
room. Faith positioned herself behind Giles, ready to strike at the right
moment. Within seconds Leo was in the room. Giles and Faith were struck by how young he looked. With all the talk of the 'Elders', they expect an old man with a long white beard. "You must be Rupert Giles", Leo said. |
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"I am.", Giles answered, "You're the Whitelighter" "Leo, yeah, hi.", he said. Then nodded hello to Faith, though he had no idea who she was. "Look, I don't have much time. There is a very small window of when the Elders aren't seeing me. We have only a few moments. I'm not supposed to be interfering like this", he said. Giles remained reserved and on guard, "Then why are you helping like this?", he asked. |
| "I can't get into it right now. Let's just say this isn't
the first time I've broken the rules of the Elders.... I'm having - I had
- a relationship with one of my charges. I'm in love with Piper Haliwell.",
Leo said. Giles watched him quite closely. He felt certain that Leo was telling the truth. "Ok, so why did you want to meet with me?", Giles asked. "Your charge, Buffy, wants to take Piper's power |
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away, using herself to complete the trio needed to harness
the power of three" "That would make Mesmotto almost unstoppable", Giles added. "Right, and it would leave Piper stripped of her essence, ensuring we can never have things back the way they were. Look, Buffy and some other witch I don't know came up with a potion for a life essence transference. Phoebe, one of the sisters, was lucid |
| enough to realize what the potion would do to Piper. She called
me and had me bring the potion to you.", Leo explained. "What is stopping them from making another batch of the potion?", Faith asked. "Nothing really", Leo admitted, "From what I know of the ingredients though, they are pretty hard to come by." "What do you suggest that we do with this?", asked Giles |
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"I guess I'm only asking you to keep it safe", Leo
said, "I don't think there is anything you can do with it anyway. The
absorption of another person's life essence is too much for a regular mortal
to handle. Buffy would be the only person strong enough to withstand it...
because of her Slayer strength" "She's not the only one...", Faith said. Leo didn't know what she meant, as he didn't know she was also a Slayer. |
| "No Faith, perhaps Leo is right. We should just keep
this safe for now. We don't know what the consequences of the transference
might be.", Giles said wisely. Faith didn't say too much back. "Ok, I'm out of time. Thank you for helping. I know you want this ordeal to be over as much as I do.", Leo said cordially, as he orb'd out of the room. "Is he gone?", Faith asked. "Yes.", Giles answered, still analyzing what Leo said. |
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"So, when do I leave?", Faith asked, excitedly. "What? Leave for what?", Giles asked, confused. "To go absorb Piper's power! You heard that guy, only a Slayer could do it" "I'm not sure that's such a good idea Faith" "What, we should let Buffy make another batch and go get it herself?" "No, but we don't know what this potion will do to either the recipient or the donor. We'd be best to wait |
|
until we've fully investigated all possibilities.", Giles said authoritatively. |
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Faith had appealed to Giles to let her take the potion three times after Leo left. He rejected her pleas each time. She even petitioned Spike, thinking if she could get him to go along they could double team an appeal to Giles. Unfortunately, Spike agreed with Giles. Faith pouted for a little while, then she wondered what Buffy would do. Giles didn't seem to boss Buffy around like this anymore. Maybe when the Slayers were in high school, but they were both 22 now, not 16. |
| Faith decided to take matters into her own hands. Instead
of futilely arguing her point again, Faith decided to wait until everyone
was asleep, then steal the potion. This plan would have worked great, if
there wasn't a vampire in the group. Spike slept during the day, Giles slept
during the night. That made any kind of sneaking around quite difficult.
Finally though, Spike was preoccupied, and Faith got her chance. She had watched Giles store it away, in fact, she was |
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she was surprised that Giles hadn't locked it away more safely.
As Faith held the vial in her hands, she knew she was breaking Giles and Spike's trust. That was actually hard for her to do, she didn't want to let them down... but she felt in her heart that stealing Piper's powers would be the key to defeating Mesmotto. She was taking a chance to prove she could be a hero. |