True Faith

For the record, I am still working on Smitten, but it's being bitchy to me, and this is fun. Dammit. Ah well. Still trying.


*

Tru woke up, thrashed out from under the covers, and reached for the phone, all in one motion. She silently recithe the number she'd memorized right before Buffy had asked for her help, and forced herself to dial slowly so that she wouldn't make mistakes.

"Hello?" The voice at the other end sounded sleepy.

Tru took a deep breath. "Hi. Is this Willow?"

There was a pause, then: "Faith?"

Even her voice was the same as Faith's. This was just getting creepy. But it made everything a lot easier--people were less likely to try to have you committed if they knew you. At least, so she hoped. "I think Buffy's in trouble, Willow," she said.

Sheets rustled, and there was a murmur of someone else's voice in the background. "Is this a Slayer connection thing?" Willow asked.

Okay, the plan was now officially in trouble. Slayer connection thing? Tru crossed her fingers and took a chance that twas was some sort of rhetorical question. "Yeah, uh, that's it," she said. "I--I'm worried about her."

Willow sighed. "Well, she's not here," she said. "She's taking a trip, and she asked us not to contact her while she's gone. I think she's earned that much, with all the world-saveage, don't you think? Anyway, she's a big Slayer, she can take care of herself."

Tru buried her face in her hands. The plan, once so simple, was busy dying a horrible death. What the hell was Buffy's friend going on about? How was she supposed to convince Willow to get Buffy out of town if she couldn't even understand the conversation?

"Faith..."

Tru didn't say anything for a moment, then remembered that for the purposes of this phone call, she was Faith. "Uh, yeah?"

"You aren't doing this because of Robin, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I'm not saying that I approve, but after Car Ride Confessional '03, I get it, you know?" Willow sighed. "And, hey, gay for a while now. I do understand where you're coming from. Bou mou made your choice. You chose Cleveland. You can't just jump back. Jumpiness is of the bad, because what if next week you decide, hey, time to jump again, maybe I want to drive stick for a while, and then Buffy gets hurt? This is how accidents happen, when you don't know if your vehicle is automatic or standard, and you start changing horses in midstream."

Tru felt like banging her head against a wall. She had no idea what Willow was referring to. Was coherent English too much to ask for? "Listen, all I'm calling to say is, I think Buffy's in danger. I--I have a bad feeling. You need to get in touch with her, tell her to watch out, maybe even come back to L.A. She can have a vacation some other time. But right now, today, she needs to know, okay?"

There was a long pause. Then Willow said with a sort of surprise, "You really are worried."

"Of course I'm worried!" Tru burst out. "She--I..." How could she say it so that it didn't sound crazy? Although, maybe crazy would work. Willow certainly didn't seem to be playing with a full deck. "It was a dream," she said, inspired. "I dreamed that Buffy was killed, okay? She was..." Tru tried to decide how much of the truth to tell. "She was in a cemetery, and she was ripped apart. It--" She stopped and took a breath. "It was really realistic, Willow."

"You mean, a Slayer dream? Prophetic?" Willow was starting to sound anxious, now. "Why didn't you say so? I'll do a locator spell right away."

Buffy had said something about locator spells yesterday. And apparently, whatever a Slayer was, both Buffy and Faith were part of it. Maybe that's what Buffy had meant when she said they worked together. Somehow it was more plausible than that guidance counselor story. And did this explain why Buffy had thought vampires had killed those people?

Right, and if she believed that, then Willow wasn't the only crazy person involved in this phone call.

Well, but who would believe that she could relive days and talk to dead people?

Yeah, but vampires?

Buffy's strength. Her high metabolism.

The wooden stake Tru had found in her bag.

Would you believe they only hired me because of my supernatural powers? I save the world. A lot.

"Listen, Willow, I'm a Slayer, right?" Tru asked quickly.

"Um, yes, Faith," Willow said, like she was talking to a two-year-old. "You're a Slayer."

"And I'm--really strong, and I kill vampires, and I help save the world?"

"Should I be worried about the long-term effects of comas on your memory, Faith?"

Tru ignored the sarcasm. This was why Buffy had run out of the morgue last night. There had been vampire attacks. Buffy was a Slayer, who killed vampires. That was the work she was referring to. But obviously there had been too many for her--she'd been all alone. She'd needed back-up. "Do you think I could help Buffy?" Tru asked. If Faith could save her--

Willow's voice came back faintly. It sounded like she had put the speaker phone on, and was walking around the room, shifting furniture and thumping things around. "You mean, you want me to send you to her, when I find out where that is?"

"Yes! If you could get plane tickets, she could be here on time..." Tru closed her eyes and did a quick calculation. "Cleveland's only a few hours away..." she muttered.

"Plane tickets?" Willow asked. "Or, you know, I could send you through the ether. There's no more scary dark bad magic here, Faith."

"Magic, right." Tru shook her head. Vampires, she thought she could handle--human psychopaths with porphyria and xeroderma pigmentosa were what had started the legend in the first place, so scientifically it was possible. But on the other hand, what did she call the force that caused her days to rewind? Maybe Willow wasn't certifiable after all.

It was time for stage two of the plan. "Okay, well...I'll get ready. Um--can you call me back when you know where Buffy is?"

"All right, I have your number. But it really won't take that long..."

"Okay, great, talk to you in a bit. Thanks, Willow." Tru hung up. When Willow called Faith, there would probably be a lot of confusion about what was going on. Tru thought that if they were both worried enough about Buffy's welfare, they'd act first and leave accusations about which of them was insane until later.

But, in case that didn't work, she had to get to the diner before Buffy--and, most definitely, before Harrison.

And she had some shopping to do first.


*

To be continued.