Faith was antsy as only a slayer could get. She’d never been much for the planning thing, she was more about the action so sitting around nursing the wounds from hers and Buffy’s earlier fight had only made things worse.
She badly needed to pummel something, but until they could come up with a way of putting all the pieces together, there wasn’t really anyone to pummel. Unless she counted Andrew and she was pretty sure that killing him was not on the menu.
She glanced over at Willow hoping that she at least might have some idea about what they should do next.
Seeing the sudden tightening of the redheads features Faith quirked a brow. She’d spent enough time around Willow to recognize that look. Willow was wearing her resolve face and that meant she’d come up with some sort of a plan and was trying to work out the best way to put it to them.
The tension in her body cycled down a notch as Willow opened her mouth to speak, only to shoot straight through the roof, as moments later she was dazzled by sudden light flooding the room.
Even half blinded and hurting badly from her wounds Faith didn’t think twice before throwing herself between Dawn and the source of the light.
Seconds later when the lights afterimage faded, she found herself gaping at the familiar form of Cordelia.
“Holy fuck!” yelped Dawn.
“You took the words right out of my mouth kid,” muttered Faith, shooting her a quick grin before turning her attention back to the figure in the middle of the lobby.
Eying the former cheerleader warily, she glanced over at Willow to see what she thought of the sudden appearance of someone who was supposed to be very much of the dead.
Faith sniggered.
Willow’s rep as one of the most powerful witch’s in the world would be toast if anyone saw her right about now.
For the first time Faith suddenly understood the term gob smacked, the red head’s mouth kept opening and closing and her eyes were so wide that Faith couldn’t help thinking she looked just like a goldfish.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. God she so didn’t have time for this.
“Ok people, really don’t have time for long explanations” she muttered. “So I’ll just skip to the important parts,” she added, clearing her throat.
“Yes I was dead, still am… sort of. Higher powers yada yada yada . Brought back to help blah blah blah and oh yeah”… she paused taking a deep breath.
“Angel kinda lost his soul and he’s probably on the way to kill you all right at this minute. So” she added “less of the starey and more of the action people”.
When her dramatic announcement got her nothing but blank looks, Cordelia stamped her foot in frustration before throwing her hands up and heading for the weapons stash in the office.
She was halfway to the door before anyone had reacted.
When Cordelia first appeared in the lobby Willow’s first reaction, strangely enough, was amusement.
It figures Cordelia would come back. Wherever she was, she’d probably bitched at them so much that they were glad to be rid of her.
Of course, it was about then that she got a good look at the former cheerleader’s aura.
Whoa… Cordelia always thought she was a higher form of life… who knew?
So caught up in her own thoughts, it took the witch a good thirty seconds for her brain to catch up with her ears.
Hold up… did she just say Angelus is back?
By the time her brain had actually gotten the memo, the former cheerleader was half way across the lobby.
Willow eeped, and immediately flushed with embarrassment at her reaction.
Talk about channeling my inner high school geek she thought disgustedly as she hurried after the brunet.
God, what is it about Cordelia Chase that makes me feel like I never left Sunnydale she wondered distractedly, even as she reached Cordelia’s side.
“Hey Cordy, wait up.” Willow reached out and grabbed the other by the arm, her face scrunched into a worried frown.
“Look… sorry about the out to lunch thing, but it’s been a long night and you were dead and then you weren’t… An-and what’s up with the whole higher being thing anyway?” blurted Willow.
“I mean, sure we heard about the visions and the demon thing, but the last we heard from Angel, you never woke up from the coma and now all of a sudden you appear out of nowhere and tell us Angel’s lost his soul.” Willow shook her head.
“Sorry” she said apologetically “But color me confused, I mean hello… He hasn’t even been gone what,” she glanced at her watch “thirty minutes and you’re telling me he managed to misplace his soul? Then there’s the whole other thing with Buffy and Spike and the fact that I haven’t had any sleep in what seems like days, and….”
She trailed off at Cordelia’s impatient look, flushing again as she realized she had yet again slipped into the old Willow’s pattern of babbling whenever she was nervous.
Cordelia’s expression softened as she noted the look of exhaustion on the witch’s face.
Trying to get her own thoughts in order and at the same time push down the worry that was threatening to choke her, she carefully reached for Willow’s hand.
Slipping her hand into the redheads, she met the others flustered gaze with a serious expression.
“Look Willow If I thought we had time I’d sit down and explain everything.”
She sighed.
“Unfortunately with Angel being sans soul, time is something none of us have the luxury of wasting, so I’m just gonna preface my next action with a heartfelt ‘sorry about that’ and just get on with it.”
Willow frowned. Opening her mouth to ask what the other meant, she was distracted by the sudden brilliant glowing light that engulfed hers and Cordelia’s joined hands.
Seconds later, her eyes widened, and her face paled.
Faith and Dawn had both been watching warily from their earlier positions.
The dark slayer was tense due to Cordelia’s revelation about Angel, but more so because of the fact that she’d never really gotten along with the other girl. Then there was the fact that her slayer sense was tingling in a way that she’d never experienced before.
It was telling her that Cordelia Chase was a whole lot more than the girl she’d been the last time they’d had contact, but at the same time she wasn’t getting the sense of danger she usually got with anything demony. Ergo the tenseness.
Dawn on the other hand wasn’t worried in the slightest. Apart from the fact that by now she was way used to people coming back from the dead, she also had every confidence in Willow’s ability to take care of herself.
So, when Willow and Cordelia’s hands started to glow, her first thought was… ooh pretty followed closely; as Faith swore and bolted from the couch, by… Oh boy… I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
Dawn winced, as moments later Faith seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier.
Of course, that didn’t stop the small snigger from escaping at the comical expression of surprise stamped on the face of the now sprawled Faith.
Glaring at Dawn, Faith rubbed her aching shoulder, and then with as much dignity as she could muster considering her rapidly accumulating injuries, she rose unsteadily to her feet.
By the time she’d managed to get up the glow surrounding the other two was fading, leaving Willow looking far more shaken than Faith would have liked.
Cordelia barely even glanced at the other two, before dropping Willow’s hand and turning back towards her original objective, the office, and the emergency weapons stash.
As Faith made a move to go after her, Willow put a restraining hand on the dark slayers arm. Shaking her head, she drew in a deep breath and headed toward the couch.
Faith wavered; her pride demanded she go after the former A.I member but her common sense and Willow’s actions told her that now was probably a bad time to be picking a fight over a bruised ego… never mind the shoulder.
Shrugging, she followed the redhead.
Slowly easing her wounded body onto the couch, Faith turned her attention to Willow, waiting for the other to speak.
Studying her expression Faith had a very bad feeling that nobody was going to be getting sleep anytime soon.
By the time Willow had finished telling them about Cordelia’s new powers and the vision she’d passed on detailing the loss of Angel’s soul, Faith’s head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton wool and then set on fire.
How the hell they were they supposed to deal with Angelus on top of everything else, especially with both Buffy and Spike still missing.
She was wounded, Willow was practically running on fumes and most of the remaining junior slayers were either still in the hospital, or had already been reassigned to new posts. The few that were left didn’t have the experience or the skill to face a master vampire of Angelus’ capabilities, even if she had been fit enough to lead them.
“So what now Red? What’s the plan?”
Willow blinked and for a moment Faith was sure she wasn’t going to get an answer, then just as she was about to ask again, Willow stood and beckoned for them to follow.
“Look I had a whole plan,” she threw back over her shoulder “but since the plan mostly hinged on Angel and the stuff he was supposed to pick up, I guess it’s time for a new plan.”
Entering the office, she turned and closed the door as soon as the other two were inside.
Cordelia stood with her back to the door, head down, her attention focussed on something in her hands, she didn’t even acknowledge the others entrance.
The fingertips of her right hand slowly traced the faces of the people in the picture she held.
She remembered when it was taken. It was not long after Fred had first started to join them for their ritual of nightly takeout, and it was the first time she remembered ever seeing her laugh.
Tracing the contours of her friends face, she thought back to that night, remembering how both Gunn and Wes had vied for the damaged girl’s attention, while Angel had complained that the cost of eating so much takeout was going to put them out of business.
She remembered slapping him half-heartedly and telling him that if it got Fred to come out of her room, it was worth the strain on both his wallet and her clothing.
He’d smiled as he watched Fred blush prettily at something Gunn had said before agreeing that… yes it was worth it.
Now they were all gone except for Angel. And he too was gone, but in an entirely different way.
Sighing, she replaced the picture back on the desk and turned to face the others.
Willow looked determined, Faith was scowling, and Dawn just looked tired and worried. But in each of their faces Cordelia could see the one thing that they all had in common.
Resolve.
No matter how tired or worried, or even scared, they would not back down, or shy from what was asked of them.
Each of their lives might have travelled separate paths over the last year. Their friendship, strained by time and distance might have seemed to bend, if not break, but none of that was important in this moment.
The ties forged in Sunnydale were unbreakable. They were all survivors, and even now with the odds stacked against them, not one of them showed the signs of despair that most people would feel in the same situation.
They had survived the Hellmouth and they would survive this.
Cordelia’s smile as she addressed the others was grim, but it was a smile.
Fifteen minutes later the resolve she had seen in each of their faces was cemented. They were tired and worried, but they had a plan. Now all that was left was too see if it worked.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
As usual ta to the wonderful Jill, and thanks to everyone that is reading and reviewing.