Who I am...

Many thanks to those who reviewed, at least the first time around. Sorry that they got lost because of that damned glitch and the bastards that deleted everything from dec. 1st and on to get rid of it.
~Disclaimer in first chapter.
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Faith shot up, her vision still darkened, gasping for air. She could see a hazy light, and smelled... oddly enough, the musky, dust smell of sheets that had been washed and lain on a bed far too long ago, and never touched again. Coughing and gasping for air still, she struggled, flailing around, and threw the sheets off. Her eyes were wide and feral, and she glared about the room. Hadn't she just been dead, and seen a bright light and sweet scents ahead of her? Now she was in a dingy motel room... that smelled further of alcohol, sweat, and death, not just the smell of the sheets. Her eyes focused on a slightly busted TV set on an old wooden dresser... next to a short, ten-year-old girl wearing a jade necklace.

"What the fuck!" She knew this place... knew it all too well, and never wanted to return.

"I'm sorry... I thought you should be brought back somewhere comfortable, after what just happened to you."

Faith's eyes narrowed and she glared at the girl, then, in shock, looked down at herself. She was whole, uninjured, and presumably safe. What had just happened? Again she glared at the girl, this time jumping out of the bed and taking a defensive stance. A demon... "What the fuck are you?"

"Temper... language... not appropriate for children." The voice was teasing, but the cheery smile and teasing nature was hallow, and the girl's eyes empty. When Faith raised a brow at her, and didn't otherwise move, the 'girl' looked away, not daring to even glance at the mirror near her. "I... I was a vengeance demon. I," there was a shuddering sigh there. "I was cursed with a soul. The... the things I've done." The creature shivered, and didn't stop.

"Fuck that." Faith said standing, glaring still but not as if she were about to fight. The girl jumped slightly and turned to stare. "Couldn't'a been worse than Anya ever did, and the Scoobies all took her in. Hell, demons don't have souls, and I've done a shitload with one. Getting yourself dead," Faith shook her head and searched around in the jacket on the bed for her cigarrets. "that's just taking the easy way out. You pay for your deeds, and you learn the right road. That's what I did, and look at me now." Faith gestured herself, still searching. Then, she thought twice about that. "Nevermind. I look worse than I really am."

"You died saving a stupid little girl from getting hit by a truck." The creature told her softly, then smiled sadly at Faith. "I... I was a vengeance demon. We grant wishes. And you, Faith, made a wish just before you died."

Faith, realizing that the cigarrets weren't in her jacket pocket like they should be, merely frowned at her. "Then I take it back. Demons and wishes don't mix." The girl winced, and Faith wished she'd put that more nicely. After all, the thing did have a soul now, like Angel. "Sorry kid. Listen, last thing that I, or B, needs is for my hotheaded teenage selve to suddenly aquire all of the knowledge that I have over time, memories, hurts, and all. It'd drive me mad, or at least make me lash out if it didn't, and B was goin through a rough time back then... I mean now... I mean back now... whatever. Going back to causing all sorts of chaos by wish grainting isn't gonna make you feel any better, yeah?"

The girl hopped down from where she sat on the dresser, sidled over, and gave her a big, but sad smile. "I know. That's why I want you to take this. It's up to you, to get things to change, and what exactly you knew then what you know now." The kid removed the teardrop shaped jade pendant from around her neck, and handed it over. "If you can get your younger self to put that on, everything that you want her to know immediately with flash through her head, and you can guide her through her new memories. The rest, well, that will be triggered by something in time for her to make a choice as to if she can change it or not. But... once you have given her the necklace, and guided her through the first memories.... you will return to where you were going when I pulled you into this new dimension."

"If... if you're tellin the truth..." Faith's eyes widened, and then narrowed as she looked at the girl. "How do I know you're tellin the truth?"

"Because if I wasn't, you wouldn't have had to save me. If I wasn't, your memories would have flooded into your younger self at the worst possible moment, and you'd have gone insane. And if I am, it means a second chance... a real second chance."

"Good luck with that soul." Faith said quietly as the girl disappeared, and she merely stared at the thing in her hands.

TBC