i'm bait?

Giles and Willow sat nervously in the small, white room. Nothing hung on the walls and the only furniture present were three chairs and a table, at which they sat. Neither of them were comfortable here, especially Willow, who sat fidgeting. Prisons always seemed to make her uneasy. It probably had something to do with being in a 100 feet radius of hundreds of convicts who had probaby killed, or done far worse things, to their victims. The fear that one of them might escape from their cell, evade the guards and rush into the room at any moment donning a butcher knife they had secretly stolen from the kitchen hung heavily at the back of her over- active mind. Give her a vamp any day, but this was just unnerving.

"Giles, um, how sure are you of what Angel said?" He looked at her questioningly. "I mean, Faith is very manipulative." She paused to let that sink in but Giles simply stared at her as if to say 'Duh, genius.' Trying to get her point across she began stammering. "The chances that she simply persuaded him to think that she no longer had intentions of murdering us in our sleep...Or worse! Waking us up from our sleep and torturing us to death! It's just, what if this turns out to be a waste of time? Buffy's out there...doing things she's going to hate herself for if she ever is changed...when she is changed back...and here we sit...in prison." She sighed in frustration.

"Yes, well, I understand your concern Willow, but right now, this is the only option we have. Xander and Tara are still looking for other ways to undo her new...condition, but I'd say it's our best chance." He looked at her to see if she was softening to the idea, and noticed that she was...slightly. "You're right, Faith's rehabilitation may just be a...hoax, but then why did she willingly come down to the police station and admit to her crimes?" he asked.

Willow shrugged. "Temporary sanity?"

"Yes, that is...a realistic possibility."

The room's door swung open to reveal a curious Faith, with wrists bound behind her back with manacles, being escorted to her seat by a behemoth of a prison guard.

"Sit." he commanded. She obeyed without protest; an action that delivered surprised looks from her guests. The guard took the handcuffs off her wrists, brought her left hand forward and cuffed it to the leg of the table. Which would have been sufficient to bind any human, except that Faith was a slayer. The two guests fidgeted, uneasily. Giles began to regret arranging for a visit in a private room, rather than the common rooms with the glass "protection" divider. Yet it needed to be done.

"Thanks Leonard." Faith said as she flashed a charming smile in his direction. "It so turns me on when you play rough like that. Especially when you add handcuffs to the kinky fun." She said in a half-flirtatious, half-sarcastic way.

"I know hon, that's why I do it." He retorted as he went to stand watch next to the door. "You've got 10 minutes." Leonard reported.

Giles waited for the guard to leave the room, only to find that the guard apparently had no intention of doing so. A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before he asked, "Uh, may we have some privacy, please?"

"Sorry. No can do. It's regulation to have a guard present during visits."

Giles looks at the girl chained to the other end of the table, a questioning look on her face. "Perhaps you could make an exception in this case. It's rather important." He explained, with full knowledge that the guard would not back down.

"I'm sure it is. Not to worry, secrecy is one of my finer qualities." The guard assured unreassuringly.

"One of his many." There was at least one thing about Faith that hadn't changed. She was still a pretentious flirt to anything that moved. She winked at Leonard, causing him to blush slightly, then averted her attention to her two visitors. "Something awfully important must have happened for you to come here, G. Either that or you just missed me, which I highly doubt. So what's the deal?" she asked.

Giles sat in a daze, contemplating the girl before him. To the average person it would seem as though the rogue slayer hadn't changed at all. Still, he saw something different. It wasn't in how she acted, albeit the whole homicidal urges, but it was in her eyes. When he looked inside them he saw something he had never imagined he'd see there. A mixture of vulnerability, innocence, and what he could have sworn was fear.

And then it occured to him. Of course she was afraid. Here she sat, chained and...semi- helpless, in front of two people that before (and to her knowledge still did,) hated her. The redhead sitting next to him, whom had been so quiet he had almost forgotten she was there, interrupted his thoughts.

"Giles, come on, this is a waste of time." She said disappointedly as she rose from her seat.

"What's the hurry, Red? I just got here, and you don't need to worry 'bout me getting up and walking out on ya. Leonard's taken care of that." She said as she lifted her left hand to reveal as much as she could of the metal confinement. "We still have...Leonard?"

"Seven."

"Seven minutes left."

"That's seven minutes that could be better spent." Willow commented, as she braced herself for Faith's reaction. To her, and Gile's surprise, she simply sat there, showing no emotion on her face. Giles, however, could have sworn he saw hurt flash across her eyes, then vanish quickly.

"Willow, sit." He urged soothingly. "Faith, you're not entirely wrong. Something has happened. We, um, need your help." He had to struggled to get the words out.

Faith wasn't sure how to react. "Oh." A long pause passed. "What do you need?" she asked, sounding interested.

"Uh, first, Willow, would you mind...?" he trailed off.

"Certainly." With a wave of her hand and a few words whispered that Faith couldn't quite make out, Leonard dropped to the floor, unconcious.

The stunned look on Faith's face was enough to make Willow smile slightly. "Whoa, Will, that was...impressive."

"Thank you." she said proudly, forgetting momentarily who the compliment was coming from.

"Yes, well done." The watcher said, somewhat distractedly. "Now on to why we're here. Faith, we're here because we need...the problem is...you're probably going to be very shocked at what we're going to ask of you but..."

"G, just get on with it. I'm wasting away here as you babble. What do you want?" the prisoner asked impatiently.

"Some of your blood." Willow answered as casually as she would have asked for the salt shaker while sitting at dinner.

"That was subtle." Giles commented dryly.

"My blood? Gee, Red, didn't know you acquired a taste for that." she joked, nervously. "Does B know about this? Because, even though she hates me, I'm almost sure she wouldn't approve." She looked Willow and Giles up and down, regarding them. "Then again, maybe I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Buffy hasn't exactly been herself lately, which is, in fact, why we need your help." Giles explained the entire situation to Faith. About how Buffy had encountered the infamous Dracula, how he had seduced her and converted her into the very thing she was supposed to slay.

"You don't want my help. You want my blood, something I happen to be very attached to." Faith said defensively.

"It'll cure her. Ya know, I would have thought you'd jump at..." Willow began furiously.

"The last person to tell me my blood was a cure for something was, ironically, Buffy. Right before she plunged a knife into my gut and put me in a coma for eight months." Faith paused to regain her composure, remembering that that whole situation had been her fault anyway. If she hadn't shot Angel with that arrow...She abruptly halted the silent reprimand. "Alright. Let's say I do 'help.' How much would she take?"

"We're...actually not sure. That would be up to Buffy." Giles stated. "And, as you said, Buffy doesn't care for you much, which would be perfect incentive for her to, um, come after you."

"I'm bait?" Her visitors nodded simultaneously. "I can think of...three problems with this plan. First of all, I'm in jail. How do you intend to get Buffy close enough to see me, let alone take a bite out of me? Secondly, if you manage to pull off the first problem, what if she drains all of my blood? I'm not too keen on that idea." Willow began to interrupt her. "I said three problems, Red. That was only two. The last thing, what happens when she does convert back? Then I'm left, weak and practically lifeless, at her mercy to do whatever she wants. And like you said G, she hates me, which gives her perfect incentive."

"Those are all very understandable concerns, Faith." Giles agreed. "One's we have given considerable thought to. Willow and Tara are both key players here. With the help of a few spells, Willow will make your records disappear and the police not remember you, making them terribly confused as to why you're even here." Faith grunted, amused by the idea. And of course, after they've used me they'll throw me back in here, probably adding make-believe crimes to my record...She stopped the thought. The bitterness had to go. She deserved whatever they decided to do to her. She focused her attention back on Giles. "They'll be left with no choice but to release you. Now, as for your other two concerns..."

The Wiccan cut him off. "You know what I did to Leonard?" Faith nodded. "Well, that's what Tara and I will do to Buffy...If we have to."

"And why should I believe you?" she inquired warily.

"Because we want Buffy back. If the only way to do that is to collaborate with and assure you that no harm than what is to be expected will come to you, then we'll do that. We promise, you'll come out of this alive." Willow reassured.

They sat in silence for awhile, leaving Faith with her thoughts. After all that she had done to Buffy, the least she could do was help her. She still didn't trust the scooby gang, and yet she had to admit that she didn't really care if Buffy drained her or killed her, anyway. A part of her actually hoped she would.

"I'm in. Do your thing, Red."


Buffy awoke, unsure of her surroundings. For a moment, panic began to consume her, then she looked over at the other occupant of the four poster bed she was lying in and panic swallowed her whole. She groped around the bedside table, searching until she came across an adequate object. In one quick, smooth motion she lifted her hand and started to plunge the wooden stick into his chest.

A searing pain erupted within her head and arm before her arm's descent could be made complete. Shocked, she dropped the stake, which actually turned out to be a pencil, and grabbed her head with her throbbing arm, and her throbbing arm with her other, in an attempt to console the dull ache.

Realization and horror sunk in at relatively the same time. In her disoriented state she had forgotten her newly acquired lifestyle. Automatically, the slayer instincts had kicked in, but before the dusting could be consemated, her vampire-self, who held a great fondness for the legendary sire, forbade the action.

The blonde leaned back, her head landing gracefully on a pillow, and closed her eyes. The internal voices of her slayer and vampire selves were in a heated debate and any moment they were about to have a violent mental throw-down.

Her sire stirred next to her, and propped himself up on his side so he could observe the kaliedescope of emotions passing across her face. He didn't know what to think. Never before had he converted a human who managed to hold on to so many human qualities. Then again, Buffy wasn't exactly the average homo sapien. She was The Slayer. By far the most powerful he could remember. And he remembered many of them. Yet he had no worries about the inevitable outcome. Eventually she would succumb to the darkness within her, and when that happened, all her slayer instincts and qualms with vampires would dissolve. All that would remain would be her supernatural slayer strength, only multiplied ten-fold by her vampire strength. She will make a godly vampire. He chuckled internally at the thought. The vampire slayer now a vampire. The hunter now the hunted. Such irony. Together, we will be unstoppable...

While the legendary being sat contemplating both his and her promising empires and conquests, Buffy was aware of his cold, azure eyes boring into her. A part of her, she assumed the inner-vampire, was comforted by the intense gaze, while another part found it unnerving. She was beginning to think she had developed multiple personalities because the idea of smashing the vampire's face in was appealing one moment, and appalling the next. Her thoughts were cut off by the potential victims' voice.

"The time has come to rise, my love. You are famished, wasting away. We will eat now." The blonde shuttered at the notion of sinking her teeth into someone else's flesh, then realized it was more a shutter of delight, rather than disgust. I've got to talk to the gang about this...oh my god, I attacked Xander and Willow. I'll never hear the end of that for as long as I live...or not live. She added the last bit after remembering her current condition.

Snapping out of her reverie, it was apparent that she had been in it for awhile, for the grand sire had gotten out of bed and now stood by the doorway, motioning for her to come to him. Without so much as thinking about what was happening, she rose seductively from the red satin sheets of the four-poster bed. He wrapped his arms around her and gazed into her eyes, luring her vampire alter ego to the surface with his hypnotic stare. This experience is going to have serious repercussions. That was the last purely-Buffy thought before her inner-vampire took control and kissed her sire passionately on the lips.


Faith arched her back against the back seat of Giles car, in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain that had collected there over the duration of the ride. They were finally nearing their destination and nervousness was beginning to swell up in the pit of her stomach. It didn't make any sense, either, because Faith never got nervous. Maybe the fact that she had just been sprung from jail and was going to help a group of people who, if it weren't for the fact that she could help them, would probably have stoned her to death by now had just occurred to her. She regarded her two companions sitting in the front seats. Giles, much to her amusement, was mumbling along to some nifty-fifties song blaring on the radio, completely oblivious to the scrutiny and smirk that was growing wider on Faith's face at the sight.

She turned to see Willow staring at her intently in the side-mirror. At the sudden and unexpected eye contact, Red's face became the color of Faith's pet name and she diverted her attention to the book of spells that lay on her lap.

That's to be expected, Faith commented mentally about Willow's obvious distrust. Let's see, I only tormented her, had delusions of slicin' and dicin' her, slept with one of her best friends boyfriend...slept with her other best friend, and relentlessly harassed her Wiccan friend who was so obviously crushin' her. I'm a wicked pain in the ass, come to think of it. She snapped out of her musings and immediately noticed that she was the only one still sitting in the car. Giles and Willow both stood on the sidewalk, regarding her curiously.

They had arrived at Giles' magic shop.

She could feel the bile begin to rise in her throat.


Xander tried his darndest to lift his jaw that had managed to drop at the sight of the once homicidal, possibly still psychotic slayer. She might have been a little on the crazy side, but she was still a knockout, figuratively and literally. Unfortunately for him, his current girlfriend, who tended to be slightly over-bearing and possessive, observed his display of admiration and her elbow quickly reprimanded him as it jabbed into his ribs.

"Ow!" He howled, which warranted the three newcomers to stare at him questioningly. "Sorry, uh, did I say 'ow?'" His face flushed with embarrassment. "I meant HOW-DY." He said in the most authentic southern drawl he could pull off.

Anya glared at him. "Don't you dare be charming. You know it makes me want to have sex with you." She said nonchalantly, causing him to hastily look at the floor as he coughed, once again embarrassed.

"You must be the psychotic and evil slayer Faith whom everyone refers to as 'bitch.'" Anya said cheerfully.

"Uh," Faith gave her a questioningly look. "Yeah."

"I'm Anya, Xander's girlfriend. Pleasure to meet you." She flashed a smile at her. "And I want you to know that if you ever sleep with my boyfriend again, I know some very lovely spells that will make you see spots and lose your hair." The ex-demon said enthusiastically.

"An!" Xander gasped, as he backed away from the spot where there was undoubtedly about to be a throw down.

"Hate to break it to you, sunshine, but uh, I have methods of making you see spots and lose your hair as well and trust me, they're none too pleasant. But I'll set your annoyingly chipper self to rest by telling you that there's no need to worry. Xander there is all yours." Faith assured her.

"Yes, but I hear that you're quite the slut." Anya said innocently. "But I suppose you're right. He is all mine. Xander doesn't go for whorish women anymore. Now he just goes for me." She walked over and hugged him affectionately, as he stood, dazed and afraid of the wrath of Faith. He wasn't the only one, either. Giles and Willow stood, holding their breath, afraid of the following events that were about to occur.

Yet, Faith surprised them once again by simply smiling forcefully and agreeing, "You're quite right. But just so there's no confusion, if I ever wake up to find clumps of hair on my pillow, or my eyes are seeing colorful spots, I automatically blame you." Faith threatened as she mimicked Anya's all too cheerful tone.


Things were going better than she expected. Xander and Willow were only casting suspicious and condemning glances every other minute and Anya, who had made it perfectly clear she was Xander's current girlfriend, only threatened through insinuations to stay away from her man three times in the past thirty minutes. All in all, she had to say the environment was only semi-hostile.

"So. What's the plan?" All eyes shifted towards her. "I mean, yeah. Me. Bait. But, uh, have we any means of locating her? I'd rather get this over with quickly. The suspense is driving me insane." She regretted her word choice the minute it came out. Willow's eyes widened and got a magical glint in her eye, like she was preparing to do a spell.

Whoa, Red. Don't get all mystical on me. I'm not actually being driven insane. It's an expression. Calm down, and you might wanna try breathing." The red-head visibly relaxed slightly, and took a much needed breath.

"Tara and I are going to try a location spell." She answered shortly. The mention of the blonde wiccan caused a small smirk to spread across Faith's face. So I was right about them. Willow cocked her head, misinterpreting the facial expression as an intentional threat. With a flick of her hand, Willow forced Faith up off the chair, into a standing position, and slammed her up against the shop's wall. "If you even think of hurting her again, I'll rip your heart out. That is, if you even have one."

Faith's defense mechanism automatically kicked in and before she realized what she was doing, she was responding to the threat by hurling herself at the petite wiccan. Within seconds she had Willow pinned against the floor, straddling her between her legs, and her fist raised, ready to collide with her victims face, before any of the on-lookers could even budge.

For a moment, Willow saw pure rage upon the rogue slayer's face. Her eyes were burning into her own, and her attacker's entire body was shaking uncontrollably. But as soon as she had time to fully take in Faith's frightening appearance, a look of utter confusion crossed the brunette's face, like her brain had just caught up with what her body was doing. She jumped up quickly, as though she were lying on top of a pool of flesh-eating acid.

"I..." Faith's voice cracked as she looked around disoriented, uncertain of what to say or do. Apparently, everyone else was having the same dilemna, and another deafening patch of silence filled the air. As if on cue, the blonde wiccan entered the shop, causing the bell above the door to fill the void. Everyone's gaze turned to her, making her feel unbelievably self-conscious.

"Hey...d-d-did I interrupt s-something?"


To be continued...