Kragdon

PART 5: Memory Lane

Author's Notes: This will go straight from Faith in the AU world to Sunnydale. Though just to let you know in case you get confused in later chapters, in Buffy's world one hour equals up to one day in the world that Faith is in, though twelve months still equals a year in both worlds this way I can still stick to the time line in the Buffy verse.

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When Sar'ah had fainted Selena rushed to her side, though the shock of seeing her mate was still coursing through her it was quickly replaced with worry for her lover's wellbeing. Casting a quick glance Faith and Dawn's way she gave them a questioning look. Faith went down by her side and checked for a pulse, when she found one she made a motion to Selena, telling her without words that they needed to pick her up off the floor and put her in one of the beds.

After making sure that according to Selena Sar'ah was comfortable Faith went about starting a new fire and heating the tea that had gone cold. It was as she was doing this that she spied Dawn in the corner looking for the life of her utterly pathetic with nothing to do.

Calling Dawn over to her she put her to work, telling her to add three more tea leaves when the pot started boiling. And when it steamed to add one more cup of water and to stir constantly so that the leaves that reached the bottom wouldn't burn. As soon as she saw that Dawn was alright with her task she went about looking for gauzes, rags and a bowl to put the tea into. As she started to go through the sacks and bag she found what she was looking for, and set about getting a tray ready to carry the stuff on.

When Faith approached the boiling tea, Dawn was so into her task that she barley even noticed when Faith had come right up to her that she jumped nearly five feet in the air when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking at Faith with one hand over her heart and her other hand gripping the spoon as if it were a weapon, Dawn could see that Faith was trying to hold in a laugh. Glaring at her Dawn asked "What?"

Faith didn't say anything just held out the bowl and let out a small giggle with a shrug of her shoulders as if offering Dawn an apology. Dawn just continued to glare at Faith as she dipped the ladle back into the pot then bringing it out to fill the bowl, sticking her tongue out as Faith turned her back to her and smiling as she herself turned back to the tea to take the pot off the fire to cool. Faith who was smiling as she turned towards the couple let her smile drop when she noticed that Sar'ah was still passed out. She approached them slowly and kneeled by Selena, lifting her torn dress slightly to get a better look at her wound that the demon had caused her. It wasn't too deep, in fact it was shallow at best some might call it a flesh wound, but it was still bleeding a bit, so Faith took a strip if gauze and dipped it in the tea. It was tricks that Clair had taught her the fumes from the tea help with getting rid of infection should infection occur and it also helped reduce visibility of scars. Plus u didn't really need any tape to keep it over the wound the tea water made it genuinely sticky.

It seemed placing the bandage on Selena's wound seemed to bring her out of the daze that she was in. As she looked with questioning eyes at Faith.

"Your wound." Faith said in a matter of fact way. Selena just nodded her head and looked back at Sar'ah holding her hand like it was the only thing keeping her grounded. Standing up with a nod of her head, Faith made her way over to Dawn. Seeing her trying to stifle a yawn, Faith knew that it was way past her bedtime. Walking over to the half asleep little girl Faith picked her up like a parent would to there child and placed her in the second bed. Fading in and out of sleep Faith heard Dawn say a small goodnight before she passed out from shear exhaustion.

Smiling to herself, Faith went back to Selena who was trying to stay awake like dawn was trying earlier and she too was fighting a losing battle. Faith walked up to her and suggested that she get some rest too. When she started to protest Faith firmly put her foot down saying that she would sleep on the floor so that she could share the bed with her lover.

Agreeing reluctantly Selena slid her body close to her mate and like dawn fell fast asleep. Faith standing back looked at all three of them thought silently of the family that she once had had. Faith didn't like to talk about her past but looking at the three individuals before her she was reminded of her two sisters and of Clair her Watcher who had saved them on that hot summer day in Boston.

Faith had been sent by Michael to the store to pick up some more supplies from the "hardware store" again. She had been walking down Raspers Hill and the Quarry where she and her 'friend' would dare each other to jump of the 40ft ledge and into the pool of water at the bottom. She had been the only one brave enough to do it. She paused at the entrance to the gate and stared at that ledge reminiscing about happier time when they would let her go out to play with the other children so that no one would get suspicious as to why she got so many bruises on her arms and legs. She remembered that it was the first time that she had gotten to taste freedom for the first time too. She was only twelve but she still remembered that feeling of freedom. That was before they had found her using one of there experiments to catch her.

"Faithy, we wanna go" said little Abby, the oldest by two minutes of her seven year old sisters. Abby was the out spoken of them both while little Angie was shy and quiet. They were truly two side of the same coin.

"Yeah, okay." Faith said to them while holding out her hands for them to take. Usually she wouldn't get to take them with her because Michael or papa Walsh as he told Abby and Angie to call him feared that she would run away if they were with her. She would have too but now she knew that that was an impossibility since they had marked her with that tatoo. Alls they had to do was a certain locator spell and they would be able to find her. But today was special, today was her 15th birthday and for some reason when she woke up today she felt invincible.

After she had got what she was supposed to they all started heading back but instead of taking the short cut back across Raspers hill Faith decided to take the long way through Beacon Hill Park, much to her little sisters delight. Looking at her watch she noticed that they had about an hour or so before they had to get back. Faith made the decision to sit down and let Angie and Abby to play on the playground before they had to leave if they didn't want to get into trouble.

As she was sitting there watching her sisters play with the other kids she felt some one sit down besides her. She looked over and saw a woman in her late thirties dressed in tweed clutching a duffle as if it were the most precious cargo in the world. At first Faith thought Druggie then she decided that the lady was dressed to nice to be one so she ignored her and continued to watch her sisters play.
The woman who she would find out later name was Clair Hutchinson turned to Faith and started to tell her about her destiny and how she was the Chosen one, the one girl in all the world to fight against the darkness and the forces of evil, yadda, yadda, yadda. Though she didn't believe her at first Faith had found out that she was telling her the truth, it was later that night when she was cleaning up the guts and blood one the floor of what she called in her head the butcher room that the woman came again, only she wasn't alone, with her she had a group of men who wiped out pretty much every one but her and her sisters.

Clair took her to her flat she proceeded to train faith in the way of the chosen and told her who those men where. They apparently were demons or shape shifters according to Clair. Apparently the only on aside from her family who was human was Michael. And Clair made sure that he had gotten his just desserts. Clair had saved them given them a home and they were happy for once, that was until Kakistos had found her it turned out that he had had his eye on her for awhile her had wanted her for his First Childe. He took Clair from her but not before her had his minions’ rape and turned her sisters.

When she had come home that night it was to find the house a mess and there little bodies on the floor looking as if they were sleeping peacefully. It reminded her of the time when they were babies and she had found their mom dead on the couch in the little apartment that they were allowed to live in. She died when she saw them dead on the floor. She had loved them dearly, as if they where her own and when they rose they starred at her in game face not understanding what was going on, so she simply pulled both of her loves in to a hug and using the stake in her back pocket she slayed them. First Abby and then Angie, tears streaming down her face as she told them that she was sorry before they turned to ash.

Snapping out of the memories that she had been momentarily stuck in, she wiped the tears from her face and looked one last time at the people she looked at now as family, and then went straight to setting up a bed for her using the furs that she pulled from their roof hangings. Laying down faith thought one more time to that time and place where she was happy and loved and then tried to imagine what B was up to right know. If B still hated her or even thought about her.

*****

Stalker/Hunter

Riley Finn had been following Buffy for the past two weeks now, in his mind keeping her safe. To him it was his right. He watched as she had taken the gang with her and then two hours later dropped them off to there homes before going back to the cemetery to do one last sweep. She had been doing it for all the two weeks that he had been in Sunnydale spying on her. In the beginning she would pause and look around as if she had sensed him but then she just went on back to patrolling for vamps and other nasties.

Lately in the past few nights as he would follow her she appeared distracted to the point that she didn't even notice that two vamps had almost gotten the drop on her. Thanks to him and his crossbow they didn't even get the chance but she was still so distracted that she didn't even notice. She just kept on going through the headstones in the cemetery with her thinking face on.

He had wanted to approach her and let her know that he was back in town after the debriefing that he had gone to in Washington but he was still stinging from the way she had broken up with him. He just couldn't accept that that 'Slut' had done this to him. He refused to believe that he and Buffy weren't meant to be together that was why he had told the government about her. They didn't say anything to him about what they were going to do. They just thanked him and made him sign some documents saying that the Initiative and the sub-t's had never existed.
Deep down Riley hoped that if they found her that they tortured her before they killed her. Moving from tree to tree as he watched his soul mate walk out of the cemetery and towards home he waited until she had turned a corner a block away before moving out of the shadows and started back home. There he would listen to the phone recordings that he made from tapping her phone. Though only a little bit of him felt the tiniest bit guilty he justified to himself that he was not obsessed or crazy he was simply protecting the woman he loved.

Entering his apartment Riley turned off the recorder that was connected to the receiver of the tap that he had put in Buffy’s moms phone and put a new tape in for tomorrow. He listened to the silly conversations that went on between Buffy and her friends, some business calls that Joyce made for the Gallery; pretty much everyday stuff that was until that last call that was on the tape that Buffy had made to Giles.

'...h..hello.'

'Giles.'

Pause. 'B-Buffy?...' fumbling in the background, then 'Buffy it's three in the morning is something the matter are you alright did something happen to you on patrol.'

'NO, no, Giles nothing's wrong, nothing happened on patrol, it was pretty much dead or deader I guess it's all how you looked at it but...'

'Buffy.'

'..then a cemetery would be dead I mean it is the place where the dead go right I mean..'

'Buffy?'

'..where else would the dead go if not to the cemetery, unless they were undead then I guess they would go...'

'BUFFY!'

'Huh, whatsat.'

'Aside from that inane prattle that you were just speaking, if there is nothing the matter then what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call.'

'Oh... um I was wondering if you had heard anything more about where Faith was?'

Longer pause '... No buffy I haven't as of late, I promise that you know as much as I do. I'm sorry.'

'No that's okay, thanks anyways Giles.'

'You're quite welcome, now good night buffy, I'll see you in the morning.'

'Kay, goodnight Giles.'

Click.

Click.

When the tape stopped Riley was practically seething, his hate for Faith went up another notch and in his rage he stood and put his fist in a wall. Not even feeling the pain that was shooting up his arm he made a vow to himself that if it was the last thing he did he would see that bitch die.

Removing his hand from the hole that he had made he went to the kitchen and put his hand in ice that he had put in a bowl. Sitting at his kitchen table with his hand in a bowl of ice he saw sitting on the counter near the sink a folder that he had pulled out earlier that day. In it contained his birth certificate, his adoption papers and most important his identity. He was Riley Walsh aka Riley Finn. It turned out that he had been Proffessor Walsh's nephew his biological father Michael had been killed by, according to the police reports a wild animal. In the photos the only thing that he could clearly see that was unmarked by gash marks was a tatoo on his left arm. It was the same one that Riley had gotten when he was in the Army though it on his lower back instead of his arm. It was that of an eye that had a slit in its pupil and around it was what looked like teeth marks. He was told it meant Hunter, just thinking about it made a cold ugly smile creep across his face to the point that it looked maniacal.