Friend or Foe?

Air date: 27/11/2000

7 Aug 2000, Monday afternoon

Buffy: "Where's Faith?"

Conrad looks calm, unfazed by Buffy's threat of violence. Buffy hesitates momentarily.

Buffy: "Tell me where she is!"

Conrad: "I'm afraid not, slayer."

Buffy punches him in the face. The skin around his left eye darkens as the bruise begins to form.

Buffy: "Tell me!"

Conrad: "No."

She punches him again, this time breaking his nose.

Buffy: "Tell me!"

Conrad: "…"

Conrad just looks at her this time. Buffy realises that hurting him won't get him to tell but punches him several more times in frustration before releasing him and backing off.

Buffy: "I know you know where she is."

Conrad looks at her for a moment, then something in him seems to break and he gives her the address of an unused warehouse on the docks. Buffy turns and storms out of the room. Alex, who has been looking both curious and uncomfortable by the scene before her, goes to help Conrad get himself cleaned up.

Jonathan has been in a video editing class for much of the afternoon. While being shown round the facilities of he breaks off and stays behind in the editing suite. Some other geek has also broken off and is tinkering with the video editor, so Jonathan moves over to the audio mixing set and starts tinkering. He is trying out the various cominations of sources when he notices a low level sound that he cant get rid of.

He ramps up the volume and hears: "…alone……Buffy not………am the action of……..slayer not kill slayer…". Jonathan turns white, grabs a tape and records it. Is this proof at last Scully thinks, err, wrong show. Panicing he flees the haunted mixing desk and runs to find the others. He finds the note and then high tails it to Conrad's house.

Gemma and Mary are walking up the drive to Conrad's house when the door slams open and Buffy comes out looking like you wouldn't want to be on her bad side. She sees the two of them approaching but recognition barely seems to register on her face. Her aura is red. Gemma pulls Mary out of Buffy's path, they watch her go and they enter the house. Jayde tells them what happened.

Thinking about the plan to meditate on something of Conrad's, Gemma looks around the room for something appropriate that Conrad would be unlikely to miss. There isn't much around. His cane sits over the back of the chair near where he was seated when Buffy arrived, a black medical bag on a small side table, a couple of books around the place, including an elegantly bound journal. Out of curiosity, Mary opens the medical bag and looks inside. It contains much as would be expected - a stethoscope, scalpel, syringes, various vials and tubes of mostly stimulants and powerful sedatives - and also an exquisitely crafted gem encrusted gold bracelet. She takes a photo of it with the digital camera she carries with her everywhere and turns it to find an engraving on the inside of it. It is in an unrecognisable language so Mary copies it down for later study.

Gemma picks up the journal and has a quick flick through it. It is about half filled and while the entries begin in a meticulous hand in easy to read English, they suddenly changed around four weeks ago to Latin in a different hand. She tears a blank page from near the end and stuffs it into her pocket.

Mary has picked up the bracelet and is studying it in the light. Thinking how pretty and unusual it looks she tries it on. It feels warm against her skin. A noise from the bathroom startles her, she pulls it off, tosses it back into the open medical bag and shuts it quickly, glancing and fidgeting nervously at the bathroom door.

Jonathan arrives at his destination and cautiously approaches the door, keeping a keen ear out for any sign of danger, and keeping his helmet on in case anyone decides to hit him. A very tentative knock at the door and it is Mary who opens it, much to Jonathan's surprise and relief.

"Is Dr Grey here?" He asks, as she and Conrad exit the bathroom looking slightly confused by his, Gemma and Mary's sudden presence.

Jonathan: "Is there another slayer?"

Alex: "Yes. There are two others."

Jonathan: "Then I think you need to hear this"

He explains about the message and Alex listens to the tape. She can't make out anything but static so they pass it to Jayde in case her super hearing can make it out. All she can make out is a staticky whispering that sounds a bit like the word "slayer" but she is dubious.

Conrad meanwhile has gone to the cupboard, pulled down a suitcase and started packing clothes and books into it. Mary asks if Buffy is going to kill Faith and Conrad responds that no, Buffy is going to the docks where she'll destroy a nest of demons and then she's going to come back here where she'll likely hospitalise him if not worse. Gemma notices his aura is light blue (calm) as he says this. She asks him if he does know where Faith is and his aura goes green as he says yes.

Gemma: "She's not dead is she."

Conrad: "No."

Jayde: "Then why are you protecting her?"

Gemma: "Then where did Jayde's power come from?"

Conrad: "Perhaps we should go somewhere she's less likely to come back to for the meantime. We can talk there."

All agree to go to Jonathan's house as Buffy is so far unaware of his existence and he can play with the tape and try to clean up its sound quality there.

Jonathan arrives before the others and heads upstairs to set up the editing equipment. The others arrive and are greeted by Jonathan's socialite mother who offers them all paté and engages them in uncomfortable chit-chat until Jonathan comes downstairs and asks her to leave them alone. Almost as soon as she is out of the room Jayde commands Conrad to speak. He responds by saying that neither of them has been completely open with each other about things, with a meaningful glance over to where Gemma is sitting. Mary asks why there are three slayers and Conrad begins his explanation.

"Buffy was the first of the three. There have been two or more at one time in the past but it is generally accepted that only one slayer is called at a time. Early in her calling, Buffy fought a powerful vampire called The Master. She was killed in the conflict but was revived. Her death, no matter how temporary, called a new slayer, Kendra. Kendra herself was killed and Faith was called. Her watcher died and she came to Buffy for help. Something went wrong however and she ended up working for a demon. It is my personal belief that the power itself has been corrupted somewhere along the way. I have examined Buffy and Faith and I need to now examine you Jayde, and also Gemma who I suspect has been affected in some way also, to ascertain the extent of the taint before it can be passed on to the next slayer."

"The watchers council also have a very large hand in this. There is a war going on, between us and the evil but also within the council itself. The advent of multiple slayers has caused a number of factions to form. The faction currently in favour, of which Dr Grey here is a supporter, believes that the council exists to help and support the slayer in any way possible. There also exists another faction which includes a group called The War Council"

Alex looks horrified. "They were disbanded!"

Conrad: "They have reconvened. They believe that slayers are merely tools to be used in the war against evil no matter the cost. They also believe that any dilution of the power of the slayer must be prevented. They have in their possession powerful magics to remove the power if they deem it necessary. I believe that you are a product of their experimentation. They have Faith in their possession and several nights ago I have reason to believe they killed and then revived her. If the power is diluted or tainted in any way they will remove that power from all but one. If the power is passed on undiminished I believe they intend to create an army of slayers. To do this they will continue to use Faith until she is no longer of use to them, or it is possible that now that she has passed on the power once that ability may reside with you, meaning that you will be next."

"I am personally unwilling to have Faith endangered by either Buffy or the War Council until we can ascertain fully what the consequences will be. The War Council has no qualms about kidnapping and killing Faith. They'd do the same to you. To them the slayers are expendable barring the possible pollution of the power. I have the approval of the War Council to use whatever resources I need. Will you help me in my research?"

Gemma: "Will you keep the War Council away from us?"

"That was my intention."

The twins agree, although somewhat reluctantly. Most of the time he's been talking his aura has been light green.

Jonathan comes downstairs with the cleaned up recording and plays it for the assembled group. It is scratchy but a few words are discernible, spoken in a strained female voice.

"…alone……Buffy not………am the action of……..slayer not kill slayer…"

Gemma recognises the voice. "That sounds like Leda!"

Mary is startled. "Your mother? Isn't she dead?"

Jonathan pales. "Why is your dead mother talking to me?!?"

Alex tries to calm him with vaguely scientific sounding facts about possession of objects. Mary asks how Gemma knows her voice.

"She spoke to me recently"

Mary and Jonathan are taken aback but Conrad is intrigued.

Mary: "What happened between Faith and Buffy that Buffy wants to kill her?"

Conrad: "Faith tried to destroy Buffy's life."

Gemma: "Why not tell Buffy what you just told us, about Faith being with the council?"

Conrad: "It wouldn't help. Faith has become something of an obsession for Buffy and she'd be unlikely to let it go. We could give Faith to her… it would test the theory…"

Gemma: "We can't do that! Leda said Faith is connected to Jayde and we have to help her!"

Jayde: "But that would be helping somone who is not on our side."

Conrad: "She is currently under heavy sedation but it won't last long. Her ability to heal rapidly has allowed her to develop a resistance to the drugs."

Jonathan: "Great. Psychopathic and about to wake up soon. Yay."

Conrad: "Her usefulness to the council is limited. They'll either use her to create an army or dispose of her. But Buffy is fiercely independent and as such she is a risk."

Jayde: "Why are we protecting the council? Isn't the primary issue to kill evil?"

Conrad: "The council is not my concern. My concern is the effect multiple slayers will have on our ability to fight evil in the long run. My research is of utmost importance to me."

Mary: "How long have you been around?"

At this his aura goes dark blue.

Conrad: "The council has been around almost as long as there have been slayers, almost since the creation of humankind. We have cave paintings dating back to the dawn of civilisation."

Gemma: "Why don't we tell all of this to Buffy and let her make up her own mind. You go away and contact us in a few days and we'll let you know the outcome and whether it's safe for you to return."

Conrad: "Very well. I will return in two days. If Buffy is still a problem she will be dealt with. I have some instructions for Dr Grey before I leave."

Alex has been looking disturbed ever since the first mention of the war council, and even more so at the suggestion of disposing of slayers for convenience sake. Conrad gives her instructions to keep extensive records while he is gone and he leaves.

Alex: "This is exactly why I wanted the council working for the slayers again! The bloody politics! The War Council was disbanded"

Jonathan: "There's a war?"

Alex: "Against the demons. There's always been a war. I'll try to fix this but at least I now believe he's being truthful with us. This used to just be about good and evil."

Mary: "Good seems to be fighting each other an awful lot lately…"

This sounds vaguely familiar to Gemma, possibly from her talk with Leda. Something like "evil here is strong. Evil is powerful but good works by offering choices and straying evil from its path". She's not sure if she feels comforted by this or not.

Alex decides to call the council and try to find out more about the situation with the War Council, why they were reformed for instance. As for diffusing the Buffy/Faith situation so they don't kill each other she'll find out what she can about both of them - talking to Giles about Buffy and examining council record of Faith, especially now that they've had a chance to examine her.

Jayde decides to head Buffy off at the mall - don't all slayers buy shoes whenever possible?

Mary and Gemma decide to head over the office to wait for Buffy and inform her of the situation.

Lawyers take note: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel and all characters related belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and fox.