"As lax as law enforcement has grown in Sunnydale, I do believe you are still beneath the legal age for driving." Ignoring Faith's scowl, Giles led the way back to the car. The interior reeked, and the painted windows made seeing out nearly impossible. Giles managed to avoid more than the occasional bump against a curb as he drove slowly (apparently, crazy alternate Giles still drove like an old lady) toward his townhouse.

Faith slouched in the passenger seat, eyes scanning every inch of the road ahead. Her senses screamed. "The Master's got all the troops out."

It wasn't enough to get Giles to step on the gas. "There are always patrols on the streets. However…" Two other painted cars rolled past, going in the opposite direction. "I have never seen this number of vampires even when the Mayor first returned to power."

"Yeah. Fuckin' lot of vamps." Faith itched to be out of the car and safe inside Giles' living room. What about Buffy, though? If the Master sensed she and Faith were moving against him, would he tear Sunnydale apart to locate both Slayers? Her anxiety ratcheted up a few notches. "Drive faster," she barked, breaking under the strain. "You're drivin' a Vamp Car, Giles, not a Big Wheel."

She felt his eyes on her as the car picked up a very little bit of speed. "I did not wish to draw attention to the fact we are heading toward a specific location. My previous experience with the Master's patrols indicate they most often perform a slow reconnaissance."

Why couldn't Giles – any Giles – speak in English?

A corner of his mouth twitched upward as if he'd observed her frustration at his comment. "We are only a few blocks from home. Perhaps the time for stealth has passed." The car leapt forward with a squeal of tires. "Be ready to make a run for it when we have stopped," Giles warned.

Faith settled the book bag over her back and shoulder. It made sitting in the car a pain but would keep her hands clear if they ran into trouble on the way from car to front door. "Hope you can keep up, old man," she taunted. When he slammed on the brakes and the car slid up to the curb in front of the townhouse, Faith didn't make a mad dash for safety despite what she'd implied. She wasn't leaving Giles behind.

Getting out, Faith kept her back pressed to the car and eased around the hood to the driver-side door. "I feel 'em. They're close." Not surprising. They'd obviously known Giles was helping her. The bigger surprise was not having a horde waiting on the doorstep. The second Giles cleared the car, Faith grabbed his arm and dragged him up the walkway and front steps.

It took forever for him to get his key into the lock. They tumbled in together and Faith slammed the door closed.

The sound galvanized Janna, who Faith hadn't seen during their wild entrance. The witch popped up from behind Giles' couch with empty hands raised threateningly. Energy suddenly rippled through the room until Janna recognized them, and the electric tingle in the air disappeared.

Faith slumped against the door. Son of a bitch. She wasn't cut out for this shit. Maybe Buffy and her posse had been right. Faith played better off the bench.

"Give a girl some warning next time," Janna stood and stretched. "I've gotten used to zapping first and asking questions later."

"As long as whatever you're 'zappin' ain't bigger than a mosquito," Faith fired back, trying to hide her momentary loss of face. "You told me you couldn't blow shit up so don't go pretendin' now." Locking the door was useless against vampires, but Faith turned the deadbolt anyway. Then she strode to the living room and tossed the bag of books onto the couch.

Giles grimaced at her action. "Do be careful. We both nearly perished retrieving these. I would prefer you not destroy them before we have a chance to actually read them."

Scowling, Faith made a show of carefully resettling them on the couch.

"I don't know if even your books are going to be enough." Janna sat back down at her laptop, and Faith reeled from a sudden image of Willow curled up on the rug typing furiously on her keyboard. "A lot of my contacts are…gone now. The few I did manage to find were very sure there was nothing we could do, magically speaking, to stop the Master."

Maybe it was the image of Phantom Willow. Faith wouldn't accept Janna's answers. The Internet had always yielded last-minute miracles before. "You ain't lookin' hard enough."

Anger flashed in Janna's eyes. "I've tried everything! Every Wiccan wanna-be on any website in existence. Some of the groups I knew and trusted. Those were the ones that laughed and told me I'd lost my mind. Then I got desperate and dug up the real crazies. While a few of them sent me links to online spellbooks or 'amazingly powerful cantrips', none of it was worth the time I wasted finding it."

"What did you expect?" Giles was all British disdain as he pulled a book from the bag and brandished it at Janna. "This is where we shall find our solution."

She laughed at him, and Faith sensed that her "team" was about to come apart at the seams. Faith stood frozen as Janna and Giles once again faced off in the living room. "You can't stand technology, can you? I never expected a man with what I'm sure is a first-rate education to be such a Luddite."

Giles puffed up, face turning beet red. "I am not averse to all technology. Merely to that soulless box you appear to worship."

Mentally turning her back on the argument, Faith wondered where everything had gone wrong. She'd been flying high when Janna had agreed to follow her to Giles'. Her confidence (and the chance of success) had soared when Giles had cleaned up and joined the New Scoobies. They'd even managed to survive against the Master's Death Squad in the library.

Back in Giles' living room, though, Fred and the New Velma were about to come to blows.

What was she supposed to do now? They had to beat the Master. As big of a pit as Sunnydale had always been, this Sunnydale was worse. So much worse. Faith hated it. Hated the way people hid in their homes or got picked off the sidewalk by the vamp patrols. Rage and frustration built as she searched for – and failed to find – another solution. "Shut up!" Her shout echoed through the living room and pulled Giles and Janna from their nose to nose positions.

"Shut the fuck up. We gotta find a way." A way to what? Kill the Master? "Giles, you're the expert on vamps and demons. How do we kill the Master?"

"I…He is a vampire." Giles smoothed the front of his shirt and straightened his collar fussily. "We do not need any special weapons or skills. However, the true challenge is getting past the vampire foot soldiers who are drawn to the Master's power."

That was the part Faith didn't understand. "What power? Magic like Janna's?" She silently cursed every single time she'd skipped research parties or tuned out Real Giles' lectures on vampires.

"Vampires aren't witches," Janna denied. "They are supernatural, like Slayers, but they don't…"

Giles interrupted her, this time without the mocking edge to his voice. This was Lecture Giles in all his glory. Faith made damned sure to listen. "The Master is special." Sorting through the books they'd stolen from the library, he opened one and held it out to Janna. He talked to Faith. "He's the oldest known vampire on record. The first documented sighting was in the twelfth century. That age has granted him unique abilities far beyond that of the more common vampires with which the Council is familiar."

"Unique." Big words from Giles almost always spelled badness for Slayers.

"He's stronger than any of his followers," Giles continued. "And…and I have witnessed him display a gift for hypnosis, holding those around him under his thrall. Also, perhaps because of his advanced age and experience, I do believe he is well-versed in dark sorcery and magic."

Janna must have found the same information in the book Giles had given her. She started to read. "And legends speak of a vampire of prodigious age and power. A veritable King of Vampires, to whom the common and recent-born vampires flock. Born Heinrich Joseph Nest, the Master (as he his followers call him) has passed beyond the curse of his humanity and now most-closely resembles the Turok-han, the original and much more powerful foundation stock of today's vampires."

Just because she was listening didn't mean it made sense. Faith hated sounding stupid. "So I what? Need a bigger stake to kill the fucker?" she asked, voice brimming with false confidence.

Giles and Janna glanced at her, and Faith prayed the blush burning her cheeks didn't really show. "I'm afraid you would more than likely perish if you went after the Master with a stake – regardless of the size. He commands an army devoted to protecting him. Beyond that, his power…" Giles cleared his throat and dropped his eyes. "His will is difficult to ignore," he finished softly.

Faith knew Giles was right. She remembered the way the Master had had her shaking in her boots at the warehouse. It had taken every bit of bravado buried inside to keep from screaming for help like any townie about to get munched.

His next words sucked the last of Faith's hope down the drain. "I allowed your youthful enthusiasm and my joy at Buffy's return to her duties to blind me to the truth. Nothing in any of these works holds the key to defeating the Master. And, even were Janna's powers at Adept level, one witch against the Master's forces… We would surely all perish, leaving no one to protect the remaining citizens of Sunnydale."

Giles was wrong. Of course they'd find a way to kill the Master. In one of the books from the library or on the computer. That was the way it always worked. Scoobies found answers at the last minute and kicked Evil's ass.

Except, as Faith looked at Giles' slumped shoulders, she had to give up believing in the lie.

They had no shot of defeating the Master. Her mind grappled with the concept. Faith understood losing and hopeless situations. Since coming to Sunnydale, she'd grown used to winning despite the long odds and the demons at the door. Which was why this Sunnydale sucked so fucking much! Faith grabbed a book from the bag and flung it across the room with enough force that the spine left a dent in the drywall and the front cover tore off.

Ignoring Giles sputter at the damage, Faith snapped, "We're gonna win!" Losing wasn't an option. She wasn't staying in this Sunnydale a second longer than she needed to. "We just gotta find our own army."

"There are very few humans left." Giles began unpacking the rest of the books, stacking them on an empty corner of his coffee table. "Once it became clear that there was no…no active Slayer, the Master culled most of the citizens right off the streets. The few survivors went into hiding." Like the ones in Buffy's tent city, Faith realized. "A handful of those remain in town. I suspect they have their own reasons for not leaving."

Their own reasons. Willow's mother, trapped in her home and mourning a daughter who was "gone." And Giles. Faith stared at him. Why hadn't he left? He'd said there was no active Slayer; that meant he didn't need to be here to help Buffy. Buffy, who fought a weird sometimes fight and who lived on the run. Alone.

The whole thing was like a puzzle. Unfortunately, none of the pieces fit together. Except maybe a couple corner pieces: Buffy's band of homeless and their need for an army. "I'm workin' on a plan." An overstatement. "Let's hit the books in case there's somethin' to help us out." Willow had made finding a spell so easy. When that had failed, Giles had been a step behind with some super-secret way to kill whatever demon had come to town. Faith put her trust in this Giles and Willow stand-in getting the job done.

"It would help if we knew what you were planning," Giles said. He didn't do what he was supposed to and start reading. He stood and gave her his best grumpy-Giles expression.

Good. Grumpy Giles gave Faith the perfect opportunity to release some of her bottled aggression. She stalked right into his personal space. "When I want ya' to know, I'll fill ya' in. Now shut the fuck up and start reading." She dared him to push back. To refuse.

He didn't. Amazingly, Giles backed down. He picked up one of the books and sat down on the couch to read. Janna followed suit. Pages turned in the stilted silence of the living room.

Faith hated research. Worse than that, she sucked at it. Hot wire a car? Not a problem. Break into an abandoned building? That, too. Sit in one place and read a book? Fuck no. When your Scooby Gang consisted of three people, and the "leader" was Scrappy Doo… Faith dropped onto the couch and grabbed a book.

Her brief time in the real Sunnydale had been filled with demons and vampires. A few late nights in the Sunnydale High School library. It wasn't enough experience to make Faith an expert in tables of contents or indices. She flipped through the yellowed pages. Pictures of demons. A new one on each page.

Halfway through, Faith stopped paying attention to the detailed sketches and the big-worded explanations. What would it take to turn Buffy's group of homeless townies into an army?

Weapons. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. Stakes. Knives. Crossbows would be better, though. No regular human would last a second against the Master or any of his goons. Faith shivered, remembering how helpless she'd been when they'd grabbed her. The weight of his stare. The way it had sucked the strength from her muscles.

Crossbows, definitely.

A leader, too. An easier decision than the weapons. Buffy was the only one qualified for that role. She'd already gathered her troops in the safest place in Sunnydale. Faith's problem was this Buffy's complete lack of anything like leadership or cooperation. New Buffy was fucked up and flew solo.

Tossing the book to the floor, Faith grabbed another. Research wasn't so bad. All the stupid books gave her plenty of opportunity for quality thinking. Faith kept right on thinking, one book or scroll at a time.

Hours crawled by. No one spoke. No one moved except to exchange one book for the next.

"This is fruitless," Giles eventually said. He shocked Faith with the tired and demoralized comment and the way he chucked the scroll in his hands across the living room. Giles worshipped his books and papers. He also never gave up.

Faith carefully set her own worthless book down. "Ain't found nothin'," she said. "Not in any of 'em, but…"

"But?" Janna's eyes were bloodshot as she closed her laptop. "You want to go to the public library this time? Check out books on the occult and Satan worshipping? Maybe the Bible and the Koran?"

Damn. Janna was a real bitch. Faith grinned reluctantly in appreciation. "Nah. Read enough." She gave up, too. At least on research. They'd failed to find a single useful spell or any silver bullet. She sat back on the couch and tried to appear confident and like she wore Buffy's General helmet every day of the week. "Think we need a new plan," she announced to her audience. "I got one. Guess Giles and Red were right about books makin' you smarter." Mentioning Willow gave Faith sudden purpose. They'd do this, and they'd win. For Willow and Joyce and all the other people in the real Sunnydale who'd died in this hellhole. "We're gonna build an army and kick the Master's ass."