Title: Inner Beauty (5/8)
Authors: EagleWolf and Elixie
Disclaimer: Joss, Mutant Enemy, WB, UPN, FOX, and whoever else got themselves a sweet deal Sunnydale and its inhabitants own them. We just decided to use them for our own evil and completely profit free purposes.

Buffy and Giles were weary after finding all the missing pieces to the puzzle in the little black book. Suddenly, so much more made sense. Their bond with each other, their bond with Faith… it all made sense.

"But if she's 'our' kid, why did she turn all evil and kill people?"

Giles stifled a yawn as he answered. "Perhaps she went power-mad. After all, she didn't have anything in her life to teach her how to handle it."

Buffy thought about that for a while. "It would explain why there's a second slayer. Maybe Kendra was supposed to remind us of who we were, but she died too soon."

"That could be." Giles stifled another yawn. "Sorry."

"No problem. I heard women in your condition sometimes need a lot of sleep."

"I just hope we find the answer to our problem before I get to experience the miracle of childbirth." Giles moaned. "So the question is, where do we go from here?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have ditched Ethan." Buffy sighed. "He at least was giving us clues, and I miss hitting him on the head."

"I still want to know why you took me out of prison. I don't remember the council being big on actually helping slayers."

Travers chuckled. "Now why would you think this has anything to do with you? You are only a means to an end."

Faith felt a shiver of fear go up her spine. "What are you talking about? I thought you broke me out so that you'd have two slayers again."

"Oh my dear, how naive you really are, for all your worldliness. I care not for you as a slayer. Getting a new slayer would just be an added benefit to what I really want. You see, Miss Summers and Mr. Giles have started to realize the truth about their relationship. If you were to be available to them, it would make it impossible for me to keep them apart. So I must eliminate the one thing that will help them succeed. You."

Faith started to edge towards the door of the hotel room he had taken her to. "Why do you think I would help them? After all, B tried to kill me. Not something that would make me want to help her."

"I can't take that risk. You know too much now you've had the dreams. You're starting to remember. It's no use trying to escape. Right outside that door are two members of my special team. They have orders to kill you if you go out that door."

"Why are you doing this? If it's not the slayers you care about, why go through all this trouble to keep them apart?"

Travers smiled at her for a moment. "It's rather simple. She should have been mine. When they came down to this well of misery called humanity, I couldn't let them keep the happiness that they denied me. So I formed the council to ensure that even if they found each other, they would be conditioned to remain emotionally distant. But then when it came to be Miss Summers turn, she was able to keep us from finding her at a young enough age to control her. Her independence awoke his mind enough that even though they still didn't know each other, they were getting closer to the truth. I couldn't have that. The time is coming when they will know their true selves. I must keep that from happening. Then and only then will I be able to claim what should have been mine."

Faith was stunned at the venom and bitterness in his voice. She had never heard him say so much at one time and the force with which he said it held her speechless. Her brain recalled the dreams she had been having lately. If they were the ones who she was supposed to find, then that meant… "So that's why you want me gone. You're afraid that I can remind them of who they are. And all because you couldn't get your groove on with my moth… Buffy." She turned her options over in her mind. He was going to kill her anyway, so it didn't matter if she tried to escape. If she was lucky, maybe she could do something good for B and the librarian by taking him out with her. "How do you know she'd go for you anyway? You keep trying to kill her. That doesn't exactly score points on the love meter with most women." As she said this, she changed direction and started edging towards him, circling so that his back was to the window.

"I can make her love me. But to do that, I need to remove the two things that would remind her. And you my dear are one of them. After I've gotten you out of the way, I can concentrate on finding them."

Faith stopped. "You don't know where they are? I thought you guys always knew where the slayer was."

"Somehow they've managed to hide from me. But I will find them, and when I do, she will be mine."

"Dude, if you couldn't figure out a way to get her in the last million years, I doubt you'll come up with something good now." She started moving towards him again. "And you know what? I don't think you're gonna get the chance anyway." She said as she lunged towards him, sending both of them through the window and plummeting toward the street below.

As Giles slept on the seat beside her, Buffy thought about all the things they had discovered. She and Giles were actually a demigod and demigoddess. She had screwed up and created vampires so she had to leave her home to come here and kill them. He had left their child so that he could keep her safe until her task was done. Faith was their child and she had left 'heaven', for lack of a better term, to find them and bring them home. As she tried to get all this to sink in, she saw a small portal open up in the wall of the gas station wall in front of her. With everything she had seen during her life and with all that had happened in the last 24 hours, she found it hard to be surprised when smurfs came walking out of it.

"Where are we going Papa Smurf?" One of them asked.

"As I told you earlier, we have to find Mr. Giles and see if he can help us get rid of Gargamel. Now please, if you keep distracting me, I'll never find the right portal to take us to his house."

"Papa Smurf?"

"Yes Brainy?"

"Are we there yet?"

Papa Smurf stopped in his tracks, turned on the bespecaled blue creature, and yelled "No we're not there yet you four-eyed bastard, and if you keep asking me, I'll feed you to Azreal when we get home. God, why did they have to make you all so smurfing stupid." He then looked up at the person reading this twisted little tale. "What? There aren't any kids reading this." He then turned back to the story and opened another portal. "Come on you little PITA's lets get this over with." And with that, he led the smurfs through and out of the story.

Buffy just sat there, staring. With a shake of her head, she returned to the problem at hand. Somehow they had to find a way back to their bodies. Obviously, just finding out who they were wasn't enough. This wasn't the something special that Ethan was supposed to do. She supposed they have to go back and find him, but all she wanted to do right now was get something to eat.

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