Primitive

First, there was the EARTH.
Then came the DEMONS.
After demons came MEN.
The men found a GIRL to slay DEMONS.
They chained her to the earth.
Filled her with DARK.


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xx. ONE .xx
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Faith hung back as the others dug greedily through the Slayer "emergency kit". Unless there was some kind of bad ass weapon in there that could destroy an incorporeal evil being, she wasn't interested. Fairy tales and shadow puppets--could you get more useless in a time like this? She slowly inched towards the door, hoping to sneak a cigarette on the porch before anyone realized she was missing. Her hand was on the doorknob when Xander called her name.

"Yeah?" They were all looking at her pointedly, and she flushed, a little embarassed that she had no idea what they wanted from her.

"Matches," Dawn piped up helpfully. "Or anything flamey, really. For the shadow casters."

Faith sighed, giving up the idea of escape and coming back into the livingroom. She tossed a pack of matches to Dawn, and Xander's face fell a bit, which almost made her feel bad. Almost.

Dawn passed the pack to Xander and hit the lights, and he carefully lit the wick in the center. The flames licked the air, sparking and popping as the fire burned through thirty years worth of dust coating the wick. It was strangely entrancing, and Faith sat on the arm of the couch, her interest piqued just a bit.

"First.. there was the earth," Dawn read. Was that seriously Sumerian? Baby girl grew up a *lot* in just a few years. Xander carefully fitted the first piece onto the caster. The whole thing was wrought iron and incredibly creepy. Like a lazy susan of doom.

Dawn continued reading, stuttering here and there, and Xander continued filling the caster as tribal drums beat loudly in the background. It didn't bother Faith until the wind kicked up, and she pulled her denim jacket--thoughtfully provided by Fred after she'd played Prison Break with Wes in LA--tighter around her. Wind and creepy drums, she could cope with. Buffy looked nervous, though. She took a little pride in the fact that she was handling the oddness better than Miss Slayer-of-the-year over there. At least, she was until the caster spun so fast that some sort of blue flickering light emerged from it and grew. And grew.

"Is that a--" but her voice was too low, and was drowned out by the others trying to convince Buffy not to jump into it.

..jump into it? You'd have to be completely batshit insane to jump into that thing. Who knew where it led? Or what it was? Maybe it was an illusion, maybe it was a black hole. Maybe it led to the Salem Witch Trials and they'd both be burned at the stake.. that'd be ironic as hell. Or--and Faith perked up at the thought--maybe it was a portal to the '60s and she could hop in there and score some amazing weed and chill out with Janis Joplin.

During the time she'd decided to poke her head in and see where she came out, Buffy had apparently decided that head-first was the best approach, and reared back to dive in. What an idiot.

"Aw, fuck." Faith had the presence of mind to grab her matches off the table as she ran by, stuffing them in her pocket and grabbing hold of Buffy's booted ankle as she dove in behind her.

The portal closed, and the others stood around in shock.

"Well. I guess we were wrong. Buffy diving in wasn't a horrible idea. Faith diving in after her, leaving us without any Slayers at all.. That was a horrible idea." Slowly, everyone's eyes turned towards Anya, who looked back innocently. "What?"