Forgotten Conscience (girlxgirl) (Book 1)

Lies That Make The World Go Round

"All right..."

"Before we go though, any word on Adam?"

Who's this Adam guy?

"Not a word, there haven't been any sightings since... well since..."

"Since Faith came back..."

Whoa wait a second. This might not be a good thing.

"I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you Xander?"

"Well you have to admit, it can't just be coincidence that a big powerful killing machine goes into hiding right after your little slayer sister makes her reappearance in our lives."

Buffy's my sister? No... no, we don't look anything alike. I wouldn't be feeling the way I do if we were sisters. He said we were slayer sisters, not actual sisters.

"Xander she is NOT part of Adam's plan. She's been in a coma since before Adam existed."

Apparently this Adam guy isn't a very good guy. I don't like where this is going though.

"But this might be part of that vampire cult's plan."

"I said it before Xander and I'll say it as many times as I have to, to get it in your head. Faith is NOT part of any evil plans and even if she was she wouldn't remember anyway... SHE HAS, AMNESIA!"

She keeps defending me. I really shouldn't let her keep doing that. I can't let her lose friends over me. They're fighting again, I should say something. This isn't going to end well if  I don't.

"So you keep saying."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I can't let them keep fighting like this, I should say something, or do something.

"It's just... there's no real way for us to know that she really has amnesia but you've just gone ahead and accepted it like it's no big deal. It's like you're trying to forget what she did to us, like you tried to do with..."

"Don't you dare bring him into this."

Yes... I should definitely say something.

"Hey, um..."

"I'm sorry to have to be the one to say it but..."

"Then don't..."

"HEY..."

They turn and look at me.

"Look, I know you all don't trust me and... from what Buffy's told me about the things I did I wouldn't blame you, and I'm sure there are all sorts of things that I did that I don't know about that would make you hate me. But I promise you, if you guys find out I'm a willing part in some evil plan to hurt Buffy, or anyone else... I won't fight you. I'll give up. I'll surrender. And I'll do whatever you think is right, okay?"

Everyone sorta half stares at me, thinking about what I just said.

Oh good, a horribly uncomfortable silence is exactly the response I wanted. But at least I said something. They don't have to hate Buffy so much.

Buffy, mercifully, breaks the silence finally.

"See Xander? It's gonna be okay. Now we have more important things to worry about. Willow, have you figured out what those herbs do?"

"Yes, well sorta, I mean, yes and no."

Yes and no?

"Yes and no?"

She took the words right out of my mouth.

"Well, according to my research, it's some kind of obsession spell..."

They put some sort of obsession spell on me?

"What kind of obsession spell is it?"

"We're not sure... we've never seen this kind of obsession spell, anywhere."

"Okay, so what do we do?"

"Well I'm working on a way to break the spell but in order to stop a spell like this I'd usually need to know what the trigger is."

A trigger?

"Okay, any idea what the trigger could be?"

What does she mean what the trigger could be? Isn't that why we  went to Riley.

"Well it could be any number of things..."

Or it could be just one thing.

I shift in my stool and look over at Buffy.

"It could be set to go off during an important battle or just before it. For all we know she could be programmed to go off at a specific smell, taste, or even a sound. We just can't know for sure."

I glance over at Buffy.

Yes there is.

"Is there any way for us to stop the spell?"

"Like I said I'm working on a way to break the spell but without the specifics on what the trigger is. Did Riley find anything?"

Yes, he did.

"Not really, he says they're still analyzing the results."

What is she saying? We already got the results.

"Gotcha..."

"I'll let you know as soon as we figure it out."

What does she mean as soon as we figure it out? She should just tell them.

"All right I believe we've covered everything."

"Right... so Faith and I will go see what we can find out and then I'll do a quick patrol before bed..."

She lied to them.

"... and I'll start Faith's retraining tomorrow."

She gets up and I decide to get up too.

"You guys will let me know if you find anything else."

"You know we will Buff."

"Thanks, I'll see you all later."

She puts her hand on my back, gently leading me toward the door. We leave Mr. Giles' place and all I can think is...

She lied to her best friends.