True Faith

So last night, just as I was falling asleep, I got this total brainwave about what happens next! It was awesome! I totally know how this story ends, now! Two more parts after this one. Dude, it be awesome-cool.

*

Buffy ran, blinded by tears, not caring for a second where she was headed. The city was full of hills and curving streets to fit it between the mountains and the ocean. But geography was the last thing on Buffy's mind. Even if she had been paying attention, she would have soon been lost.

She was thinking about the day Faith came back.

She'd known that Willow had gone to get her, of course, and on an intellectual level she knew what that would mean--forgiving if not forgetting--but she wasn't prepared for the way Faith casually walked back into her life. Within a minute of her showing up in that graveyard, Faith had Buffy questioning everything about her relationship with Spike--because really, at that point, she had no hold on what was evil and what was good.

And there was still something there, something that the years and the interim boyfriends couldn't erase. When Faith had shown up in Vancouver, or so Buffy tht, st, she was sure it was because they were finally ready. No more defensiveness. No more mixed signals.

Now all that was ruined.

She heard the scream and felt the tingle of her vamp-alarm at the same time. She looked up and saw that she was walking beside a stone wall, and dollars to donuts there was a cemetery on the other side. This was the last thing she needed right now, but no matter how much she'd promised everyone--including herself--that she was retired now, she couldn't ignore her calling. With a quick glance to see if anyone was watching, she made a standing jump to the top of the wall and dropped down inside the graveyard.

She knew from the sound of laughter around her that she'd made a big mistake. She turned around slowly, already mentally kicking herself for not looking before she leapt. She was surrounded by the biggest nest of vampires she'd ever seen, thirty at least. One of them held a woman's arm as she struggled, but she hadn't been drained yet. Buffy reached for the stake she always kept in her jacket pocket.

And remembered that she'd run off without her jacket.

Oh shit.

"Hey, guys," she said, glancing around for a convenient tree branch and seeing only hedges. "You know eating this late gives you a tummy ache, don't you?"

"Y'know, B, your quips have been going downhillr sir since that marzipan thing."

Buffy looked up sharply. Faith was standing on the wall above her, stakes in hand. She was annoyed, but more than anything, relieved. At least Faith hadn't run straight back to Robin and Cleveland, as she'd half-expected. "Where did you hear about that?"

"Dawnie couldn't wait to tell me all the good stories. Here." Faith dropped a stake, and Buffy caught it, turning back to the vampires.

"You take the right half, I'll take the left half," she said. "On three. One...two..."

Faith jumped into the midst of the vampires and dusted two in quick succession, before they even knew what she was doing.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Three." She stepped forward to meet the charge of bloodthirsty demons.

"I'd just like to remind you that you're not the big-ass general anymore," Faith said, sending a vamp flying with a roundhouse kick.

"Oh, so sorry for trying to keep us alive wa lia little planning," Buffy shot back, backhanding the fanged face in front of her and spinning a kick at the one she could sense coming at her from the side. "And my ass was never big."

Faith staked her vampire and turned around. "Running alone into a graveyard after some supernatural chick tells you your number is up, is that part of the plan, th

"Faith, watch out!" Buffy threw a s str straight at Faith's heart. She ducked, and it impaled the vampire that had been about to grab her from behind. "Where the hell is she, anyway? Did you outrun her getting here?"

"Nah." Faith stuck an elbow in the gut of a second vamp charging her from behind, then rammed a palm into his nose. "She's fast. But she had to make a call."

Buffy flipped away from two vampires, then shoved one into the other so that they both went tumbling. She staked them both before they could scramble to their feet. "Make a call?" she yelled, blocking a punch and catching a kick aimed at her ribs. "My life is in danger and the person who claims she's trying to save me stops to make a call?"

"You believe that stuff?" Faith asked, sticking a foot out to trip a vampire, slamming her stake through its back, and then tossing Buffy another stake. "The day-rewind shit?"

Buffy didn't answer, just beat harder on the vampire in front of her until she found an opening to dust him.

"For serious, B, you didn't know she wasn't me?"

Buffy grabbed a vampire in a choke hold, holding him back as he struggled. "Well, I admit my first thought wasn't 'Gee, I wonder if she's a time-travelling duplicate of the person I know?'"

Faith strode forward and staked the vamp she was restraining. The dust settled between them. "So what are you saying? That was for real?"

Buffy shrugged. She had suspected that the imposter wasn't Faith, but she hadn't wanted to believe it. This was her chance--her last chance, maybe, even though it seemed like the world didn't mind throwing do-overs to her and Faith with a certain regularity. "I--"

A vampire crept up behind Faith and she yanked his arm and threw him away without looking. "Do you fucking mind?" she asked. "I'm having a conversation here."

"Uh, Faith?"

"What?"

"Listen, I do want to have this talk. Eventually. But, for right now..."

"Yeah?"

"Well, we are still surrounded."

Faith glanced around at the upwards of twenty vampires that encircled them. "No wonder there were nine people who bought it yesterday. Or today. Whatever. Fuck, enough of them, aren't there?"

"Nine people died?" Buffy asked, lunging at the nearest vamp and using him as a shield against the attack of another. She and Faith were fighting defensively now, witne one of the wild moves from earlier. Slayer or no, this was getting a bit ridiculous. She was breathing hard, and there was a st gro growing in her side. "And I thought it was just me."

"That's your problem, B, you always think it was just you." Faith killed a vamp with a thrown stake and pulled another out of the back of her waistband. "This's my last one," she muttered. "Try not to let yours get dusted."

"Makes me wonder what happened the last time I did this," Buffy said. "How many did I get?" And what happened with that girl Tru? What made her decide to get up close and personal this time around? Did Buffy--the yesterday Buffy--come on to her? And if so, was it because she looked like Faith? Buffy tried to figure out what her own motivations were, had been, might have been (stupid time travel grammar), and realized she didn't know. There was just no way to tell, when she couldn't remember anything about meeting Tru the first time.

The vampires were coming quicker now, and their blows were getting through her guard more easily. They just refused to stay down. Maybe today was going to end pretty much like yesterday had, after all. Except worse, since Faith would be dying with her this time. So much for Tru saving her.

"Buffy!"

Buffy jerked around. Tru was running around the headstones, heading for them, looking more like Faith than ever--still wearing leathers and a wifebeater. Faith was right--she was fast. And she was carrying something--

It was the Scythe.


*

To be continued, my friends. Yes indeedy.