A glitch in the plan....

Air date: 9/12/2000?

12 Aug 2000, Saturday (continued)

Jonathan leaves Gemma to get help. Conrad seems to be tending to the technician that Jonathan tazed. There is a wet thud and he starts dragging the lifeless body across the floor.

Faith is struggling against her restraints like there's a pain in her side. Her eyes are open but unfocussed. She is murmuring to herself "She's coming for me, I can feel it!"

Gemma is still stuck in Faith's grasp. "Faith. Calm down. We're getting you out of here."

"Is the boss here?"

"Er, yes. Yes the boss is here. We're getting you out."

Faith tries to focus on Gemma. "Leda?"

"No."

Faith releases Gemma's hand and tenses her own like a fist. "Buffy?"

"No, Gemma."

Her arm stays tense and there's a sound like twisting metal.

Jonathan finds Jayde tying up unconscious team members and tells her Faith's awake and Gemma needs help. They go running into the room to find Gemma backing away from Faith who has now got one foot free and is trying to release her hand. Conrad has piled the two bodies into a corner and is heading for the door. Jayde yells at him to help and he heads for a table with various syringes and vial on it and starts looking for a suitable vial. Faith is agitated and muttering. She manages to free her hand and rolls off the other side of the bed. Gemma runs to the door.

"I'll get Buffy!"

Faith's head rips around to Jonathan, the twins and Conrad at the sound. Jonathan follows Gemma out of the room as Faith's eyes narrow on Conrad and she starts heading toward him, not realising that her other hand is still attached to the bed. Conrad drops the needle, backs against the wall, reaches behind his back and pulls out a gun. Faith gets her other hand free just as Jayde spots the gun, yells "No!" at Conrad and tackles Faith to the ground from behind. Faith struggles and Conrad puts the gun away and heads toward the door.

Gemma and Jonathan have found Buffy and are running back up the hallway when Alex pokes her head out of a room at the commotion. They tell her Faith's awake, she grabs around for her medical bag and joins them.

Buffy enters the room prepared for a fight, spots the two slayers struggling on the floor and joins the fray, pulling a length of rope out of her pocket.

"This won't be enough! Get something heavier!"

Gemma nods and runs off. Conrad, on spotting Buffy, seems to have decided he's not in such immediate danger and heads back to the table with the drugs. The pile of slayer writhes around for a bit but eventually they manage to get Faith partially tied with the rope and Conrad injects Faith with a sedative.

"This should quieten her. I'm reluctant to give her more as I don't know what dosage she's been receiving."

She quietens. She's still struggling slightly but is unfocussed and easy to chain properly when Gemma returns. Jayde carries Faith over one shoulder, Gemma and Jonathan grab the bed, Conrad and Alex discuss drugs and grab various medical items, notes and computer discs and all pile into the van except Conrad who wants to "finish some things here".

Back at Alex's place Faith gets tied to the bed again and they take turns watching over her while the rest sort out pizza, videos and coffee. Gemma and Mary start going through the notes and information gathered at the restaurant. Mostly its just medical information - what drugs Faith was receiving and in what dosages and also information regarding the "experiments" on her. It would appear that they tried to recreate the circumstances of Buffy's death by suffocating Faith on both occasions. Conrad arrives with a large bag, which he drops to the floor with a metallic clink. He doesn't seem to mind that the girls are reading the notes. He joins them at the table, pulls out his journal and starts making notes of his own. Mary glances over his shoulder at what he is writing - it is the odd cursive script that Gemma described and he is writing in Latin. Mary knows enough Latin to ascertain that he is trying to work out exactly what Faith has been given recently. Jonathan watches the news to make sure there is no report of their little adventure (no because the Buffy universe doesn't work that way) and Jayde makes him put on the video - "Interview with the Vampire" of course. Alex reports that Faith is starting to stir. Around midnight Faith is awake enough to talk.

"What's going on? Where am I? What's the date? Who are you people?"

Faith is confused about where she is and what is real and what isn't. She remembers Sunnydale and going to LA and Buffy was there and these watchers and going to prison or did she dream that. There was a monster and it killed her. Alex tells her a group of watchers took her and farmed her but they rescued her. Jayde is the new slayer. Faith doesn't remember any of that. She remembers a fight with Buffy on a rooftop and the Mayor and being in a coma and having these weird recollections of Buffy and the Mayor in her dreams, and swapping bodies with Buffy then going to LA. Then there was Angel and turning herself in and Angel visiting her in prison sometimes. Jayde asks if she knows where Angel is but prison is the last she remembers of him. Then there was some weirdness with the mayor and this monster - the slayerbeast - and the twins or someone like the twins but older - Leda. - with the primal. And Buffy coming to get her. Buffy approaches the bed. Faith apologises profusely and Buffy asks again where Angel is and if the name Wolfram and Hart rings any bells. Faith remembers that they hired her to kill him but that was before and she doesn't know where he is now. Faith asks what they plan to do with her and they tell her it depends on her. She notes that she's not in a position to argue but also comments that she's totally over the whole Sunnydale thing. The whole time she's been talking her aura has shown confusion, fear and depression, especially fear when she looks at Buffy.

"Let me get this straight. I've been kidnapped from jail by watchers, brought to San Francisco, killed, revived and you're the new slayer and you rescued me? I am so confused. I think I need to think about this stuff."

They leave her to rest with Buffy, Alex and Conrad taking turns watching over her and Mary staying around to make coffee. Jonathan and the twins head home.

Gemma hangs the dreamcatcher up in her bedroom window before falling asleep. The smears of aura around the room have faded away and its been a big day so she falls asleep relatively easily.

Jayde does not sleep well. She's been going over the dream with the mage guy and the round room in her mind and something is nagging at her brain that doesn't seem to fit but she can't place what. Something isn't quite right.

13 Aug 2000, Sunday

Gemma wakes early with the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. The sun is well up, nothing seems to have been moved, nothing is moving in the room but the fear is there. Once she's reassured herself that she's alone and breathed through it she glances at her dreamcatcher. It seems to have been bumped. She is flooded with relief. It worked! She gets up, goes to breakfast and gets on with her day.

After breakfast as she is getting dressed she hears an odd dripping sound in her room. There is a pool of murky water under the dreamcatcher, which itself seems damp and covered in small droplets. There doesn't seem to be a leak in the ceiling. The water has no aura and no odour but is gritty to the touch. Gemma re-reads the legend that came with her dreamcatcher - it is said that the dreamcatcher acts like a net, allowing good dreams to pass through but catching the bad dreams that stay there until morning when the first rays of the sun turn them into dew and they evaporate off. There's no mention of the dew being gritty.

Mary gets a phonecall from Glitch who sounds very agitated and wants to meet somewhere neutral, a coffee shop near the college. Neo is with him, looking paler than usual and very quiet.

"You didn't tell me they were gonna be that, well, aggressive. We ended up using an 8 year-old. Got her to ask questions outside the building and used their answers to hack the system. We didn't get a lot out either. They were either expecting us or they're the most paranoid fucks I've ever seen. We couldn't find anything on your Conrad guy but this Faith chick? She's pretty damaged."

"She's getting better"

"Not according to this. Apparently she died about a week ago in a fire. And then there's this. What the hell is a vampire slayer and why is a law firm interested in this rubbish? People becoming demons and so-on. As far as I can tell its someone who slays vampires like this Angel dude you asked about."

"Huh?"

"Apparently he's about 300 years old. You might be interested to know that it was this file that triggered all their alarms. Here's a file on slayers as well. What the hell is going on? What have you gotten us into? If they find out who we are we are so screwed! They shouldn't have known we were there. I've seen military systems with less security! They tracked us through 12 systems in 6 countries, got our physical location and dispatched a team in under half an hour. Why didn't you warm me? Vampires!"

"Um, they're real?"

"Vampires? Yeah right!"

"We didn't know. I'm sorry."

"What do you want to know this stuff for anyway? Why is a law firm protecting this information?"

"We wanted to know if they were on our side…"

"He's 300 fucking years old! He's on his side!"

"I guess vampires need lawyers too?"

Mary has a vague attempt at explaining the existence of vampires and concludes that they really should probably talk to Alex. Alex gets a phonecall "Um, Angel's a vampire and the guys, they read all the files and they know and they're scared and they think the lawyers are after them and did I mention Angel's a vampire and um I think you need to tell them stuff so can you talk to them?" Alex tells her to bring them over in half an hour and calls the rest of the group. Mary gives Glitch and Neo the address as they have some things they want to attend to before they arrive.

While waiting for them to arrive Buffy takes over watching Faith and the rest of the group reads the files they've picked up and discuss how much of the truth to tell them. Mary notes that if he is dissatisfied with what they tell him Glitch is likely to go investigating it on his own. If he can get into Wolfram and Hart he can get into anywhere to find out what he wants.

The guys arrive and he recaps events for the rest of the group and that there may have been camera surveillance in the lab they were working in. They have called Casey and sent him out of the house in case they get tracked back, although at this stage there has been no unusual activity observed there. They should be OK if they didn't leave anything at the site that could identify them. He notes that none of the group look particularly surprised by the contents of the files and demands an explanation of why Wolfram and Hart would be dabbling in this stuff. Conrad, who has remained in the background until now, leans forward and places a piece of paper on the table.

"There is magic and there is the supernatural"

"Oh come on people!"

Conrad reaches over to the piece of paper and writes several unfamiliar words on it. As he places the full stop the paper bursts into flames.

"Neat trick. You must be a ball at parties."

Conrad repeats it with a second piece of paper. Glitch is still looking unimpressed.

"You would be wise to take this seriously. Wolfram and Hart have access to methods of tracking you magically. And it is also true that there are vampires."

"Then why not expose them?"

"Panic and chaos. They exist but it is in our best interest to keep their identity unknown as it restrains them. Without that restraint they would hunt and feed more regularly than they do already and we would be left with a bloodbath on a nightly basis."

"Yeah well I'm gonna cover my arse. I know there were cameras there but I don't know where the tapes would be or even if there are any tapes, it was a very old building."

"Do you have somewhere to go?"

"Yes but I'm gonna find somewhere else."

"I have a secure abode. Until we can work out if you are in danger it might be best if you stayed locally. I can also offer you my protection."

"Thanks but I'd prefer to be by myself. I have no reason to trust you." He hands a piece of paper to Mary with a couple of generic email addresses scrawled on it. "Contact me if anything comes up."

"It is in my best interest to protect you. They'll track you to us. I can protect you magically."

Eventually he and Neo agree to stay at Conrads. Before they go, Conrad prepares a protective ritual around and performs it around Alex's house in case they were tracked there. Jonathan heads for the sharehouse and sets up a surveillance system to see if anyone goes near the house or if anything odd happens. Glitch calls the 8 year-old to make sure she's safe and shaves his head to change his perception of himself in case anything like hair was left at the scene that might identify him. Jonathan returns and accidentally lets slip about a third slayer. Buffy comes downstairs and tells Jayde "She's asleep". Jonathan gets sent up in her place. Glitch is checking out Buffy who has grabbed a sandwich and plonked down on the couch in front of the TV, and he makes questioning eyes at Mary who whispers the name "Buffy". Glitch goes pale and stops with the lecherous face and drags Mary off into the kitchen for a private chat. Mary is about to spill the beans on the whole slayer thing when Jayde wanders in for a drink and stops her. Glitch, Neo and Conrad go off and Mary acts all awkward around Buffy, knowing that she was dating an Eevil vampire then goes off to take care of Casey and keep him somewhere safe away from the sharehouse.

Jonathan comes downstairs after a while looking for Alex. "She was asking questions I don't have the answers to. She wants to know what we're gonna do with her."

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