We are soooooooooooo dead.....

Air Date: 3/9/2001

Thursday 1:22pm, UCB glade.

Mary and Casey run outside to try and track down Faith. Spotting Faith storming off into the center of the uni they run off. Eventually, they catch up to her around the Memorial Glade. Faith is sitting down on a bench, arms crossed and holding her forearms staring into space.

Slowing down and catching their breath, Mary and Casey exchange a wary glance as they approach.

Faith rocks forward and mutters something that's impossible to catch. Her lips are snarled back and her sharp (are they more sharp than they used to be?) teeth are grinding as she mutters.

Casey glances about to make sure there's no one within earshot (its lunch, ya?) and stops a distance away (maybe 10' or so). "Hey Faith. Can we help? "

She looks confused and then suddenly angry again. "With what? Holding the @#*&$er down? @#*&$@. @#&$ @#$ *#@&$ *@# $*@#&$*(@#&$*@#& $*@&#*!!!" She leans forward and gives a 1/2 sob, 1/2 growl. "That *@#(&$er he... Ah #@()$!"

Casey crosses the space and sits next to Faith, not touching. "Who is he? I mean, apart from a watcher?"

Faith tenses up when Casey sits down, she starts to move away, not looking up, "He... he took...". Standing up and backing away, she suddenly seems to remember Mary and snaps round to face her, then spins back to Casey. "Look, *@#&$ it, OK? Council wanna help? Well @*#$ing count me out then! They can all go to Hell." She smiles, and it's a cold and wicked look. "I mean I'm Five by Five with that."

"Umm, Faith. None of the others know anything about that guy." Mary sits down next to Faith. "What do watchers do to slayer when they turn 18?"

"They inject you with that.. that.. #*@&$ing poison, take away your powers... make you nothing again and.. and... then they set a #@*$&ing vampire on you. You gotta prove you're worthy. Ha! More like die before you get old enough to think for yourself. *(@#$ers!! I told them after they did that to B that if they ever came near me with that #@*($& that I'd...." Faith stands up, obviously uncomfortable. "That @#*$er in there wanted to do me early 'cause I wasn't his perfect little #@*$&ing Virginia. Well #*($ him. He didnt do anything and so neither will I. *@#$@* him. He can die with everyone else."

Casey looks left and right, trying to consider it from all sides. "Nope... no.... no, that's nuts. I can't think of a single reason that they'd even seriously consider it. Other than that whole free will thing."

"Free will?! What free will? They dont *@#ing tell you! You dont get a *@#ing choice! B had no idea that #@&*ing Giles had injected her with that stuff. She thought she was sick or somethin'. So no *#@$*ing choice there C!"

"O my god! thats horrible. But we still need your help, Faith. We can warn the others about him, and just use his information."

"Horrible? Its crazy. Fuck that." Casey stands up and shakes his head. "Mary's right, let Jayde and them suck him of info and in the meantime keep away from him."

"And we still have to worry about Glitch's meeting with Orme..." adds Mary.

"No. No! No way. Count me out. Everyone always 'we need your help Faith' well who the @#$* ever helped me, huh? You think Im just gunna let Ol' Henry limp off home after what he did...? Huh? No. Im gunna do to that @*#&$er what he did for me. Nothin'. Let him get #*&#*(ed over for a change."

"Hangon, he's already pulled the stupid drug trick?" balks Casey.

"I guess thanks to the war-council your practically immune to the drug." offers Mary helpfully.

She spins round to Mary and just for an instant there is a flash of red in her eyes... or maybe its just Mary's imagination. "Yeah, great so pump me up. Bet you'd like that, huh?" Growling, continues "No. No they havnt pulled the 'test' on me, they just #@*&$ing drugged me when they grabbed me from prision to #&@#$ing experiment on me."

"So, unless they have like an elephant trank gun, what's the problem?"

"I hate it! Thats what! You think that feeling just 1/2 of me taken away means that everything's fine? Well it isnt."

"We all know that he's a monster. But I still think we can use his data. Conrad is an immortal demon, and we use his magic. Of course with that prophacey we may need to keep a close eye on him too. Well closer anyway."

Casey quietly says "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"YOU! You use him. I try not to #@*(&$ing kill him everytime I see him. You dont think I dont think about it? Huh? Part of me just wants to do it." She starts to rant. "I see it. In my head I mean. Its so *(@#$ing hard not to. Every @#*$&ing time I look at him. At Henry. At Alex. At all of you sometimes." She slumps down onto the bench, obviously upset and angry. "What the #*$& did I ever do to him, huh? Why..?"

"Dude, none of us" Casey emphasises that "are going to make you even see the dude from a distance, 'k? I think we all agree that the watcher dudes have done their dash on the whole trustworthy and being allowed to be calling the shots thing."

Mary flinches, then touches her shoulder. "Umm, Faith it should be okay. You have a home and friends and stuff now. you don't have to have anything to do with the council now.."

"Yeah, right. For how long, huh? I had a family before too, ya know! Someone I cared about......" She sits up, tears in her eyes, but lips snarled back and teeth visible in anger. "Why the @#&$ shouldnt I go medievil on him." She looks at Mary. "Huh? Tell me. Explain it to me."

Casey leans in a bit towards Faith "Remember the whole lets-not-be-evil thing? They drag a young girl off and torture her in the name of research - fucked, evil, straight down the line. Don't play the game. Don't get caught up in the revenge thing. Refuse, quit, their rules suck. You're right - it should be other people's problem to suck his brains out, not yours... at all"

Mary shrinks a little. "Because it will make you a monster. You could kill every one who ever hurt you, and no-one could stop you, but were better then Orme. You were chosen to fight evil."

Casey winces a little at the "chosen" bit but doesn't say anything.

"Well anyway, your a Slayer becuse your good. Even Jayde likes to help people now. I guess the council started to help the slayer do good stuff, but they lost it and tried to rule her. Thats fucked, but Casey and I just want to help, cause its the right thing to do."

Faith just stares out at the glade. "I had a sister. He didnt do anything. He knew and he just left us there."

"Who?"

"Henry." Faith is detached when she relies.

Casey pulls his legs up onto the bench and looks attentative. Mary asks "What happened to you sister?"

"Dunno. Gone. No trace. Poof."

Casey quietly says "From Boston?"

Faith shrugs. "Mayor had some friends look, but they couldn't find anything. Adopted out, then ran away according to offical records. Now she's probably on a milk carton or somethin'."

"Oh. How old was she?" enquires Mary.

She shrugs. "Couple of years younger than me. About 12 last time I saw her, I guess."

Casey takes a deep breath. "You were looking out for her? Wanna go and look in person?"

"Nope. Not exactly feelin' that I'd be a positive role model at the moment. Plus, I think got this feeling that she's dead. Had a dream about it back in prison. So probably not much point, huh?"

Casey looks sad. "I can... I can try and find stuff out on the 'net if you want. One way or another..."

"Yeah, thanks." she mutters in a very apathetic way.

Casey sighs. "'k... um. Anyway, keeping this Henry guy away seems the least we can do."

"Yeah, Hope's dead and I should just stay away from Henry. Right. Yeah, gotta keep poor old Henry safe from bad old Faith, huh?" The anger from her previous statements is still absent, she just seems to be zoning, staring out at the people on the glade.

"Errr. Actually I was thinking more: this is where Faith lives and its her place, lets try and get the evil guy to stay the hell away."

"Yeah, whatever. Guess goin' all 'Wes' on his butt isn't going to bring her back or undo what happened to us is it? It'd make me feel good though." She looks over to Mary. "See, maybe I am a monster, M. Had everything worked out back there in the office. Casey first, then Jayde, then work my way in from the door. Couple of minutes at most and *pop* everyone's dead. 'Cept me. Easy really."

Thursday 2:49pm, UCB area.

Mary, Casey and Faith go back to the geek house, but Faith gets a call from Jayde to practice, so she goes back into the Uni to punch her sister slayer.

Having got some Manga and Cult flicks, they return home and plan their evil evening.

"Mary, I've got an idea, but I'm not sure it will work. Wanna go through it with me?"

"Okay, what?"

"I'd like to find Faith's sister, but I don't have a surname or anything like that, and Faith is not going to do anything but get cross if I ask questions."

"Well her surname is Spencer and she said her name was Hope. But Faith said she had a dream... and Slayers seem to have a nack for dreaming the real thing."

Casey blinks "Oh, cool. That'll help.... um. Yeah, I know, but if there's a chance that she's wrong and it was just paranoia?"

"Well, she has been going through alot, and she was in jail at then time."

Casey nods. "Yeah, and worried and all. So if we could find Hope that would be great. Now, looking on the Net and all will be of some use, but I'm thinking that I know a group of people that seem to have this knack for finding young girls..."

"Huh? You don't mean the Watchers?"

Casey nods. "Why not? I mean, they found Faith in the first place, so they know where she came from. And if we can convince them to find her and bring her to here, it might make Faith a little less homical about them? I mean, I don't trust them from what people have said, but not being angry all the time would be good for Faith....."

"True. But if Hope ran away from her foster parents how are they going to track her down?"

Casey shrugs. "This is why i want to talk to you about it.. reckon they have eeeerie" he waves his fingers "means of finding her? And if they do, would you be able to use them?"

"Maybe we could ask Konrad if he knows any rituals for finding people?"

Casey looks a bit unsure. "Maybe... I was thinking more of either saying something liek 'Bring Hope here to us and in the meantime we'll try and keep Faith from killing you' or finding out if they know how to do it, how, and then doing it ourselves..."

"And if we get Jayde to demand it, they might actually give it to us. They really whant to get into her good books."

Casey ponders, "Maybe we should suggest it at a meeting? When Faith's not there. ... um, maybe Faith's paranoia is affecting me, but if Jayde is there they are less likely to find Hope, and hang onto her as blackmail, yeah?"

"That is possible, but we may have the upper hand, they need the Slayer but she may not need them. We could request it as a demontration of their suposed good will."

"Yeah, something for everyone. Reckon that Jayde and the others could keep it from Faith for a while?"

"Problem is that if it doesn't work, and Faith finds out that we did this behind her back, she'll be pretty pissed off. But then again if it works it might be a real load off her mind."

"OK, we should do it."

"I think we should clue the others in first and make sure they're willing to go for it - lets not surprise them."

Casey's story continues

roll credits

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