Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy Faith or Xander, It's a shame I know but I think they're better in Joss's hands than mine.
B'Knee was not the worst of demons, but he tried his best. He terrorized any humans he came across, partook in weekly human feasts every 4th Friday with his tribe, spent most of his spare time trying to work out how to bring about an Apocalypse which would aid his clan over all the other demon tribes working in Cleveland, and started every day with a nice bowl of kittens.
He'd woken up this evening all full of the joys of a fresh massacre. K'tari had gotten permission to go ahead with the ritual they'd been working on for the past few months. He'd has his breakfast, particularly enjoying the fur, shrugged on his ceremonial robes and headed down into the sewers. After trekking through the underground streets, whistling the latest tune the lovely pop starlet had recently released, he soon arrived at the location for tonights meeting.
His tribe mates were milling around waiting for K'tari to arrive when B'Knee entered into the vast underground chamber. They'd carefully selected this place, the perfect melding of the leylines of the hellmouth for the ceremony to bring their Primarch through to this world.
"Tonight! A New World will Begin! With the arrival of our Primarch, the true blood of our clan we will conquer this word! We will smite those who-" At this point B'Knee pretty much zoned out, he'd heard this speech a dozen or more times. Hell, he'd been there when K'tari had been practicing the speech, desperate to whip the rest of his tribe into the appropriate amount of religious frenzy. "Let us Begin!" As K'tari finished his speech B'Knee and the other Demons moved into position over the alter they'd prepared the previous evening. There were 12 in total of them, each at the specific position necessary to channel the energy of Cleveland's Hell Mouth to the Center, where K'tari was, even now, preparing himself to open the gateway to their progenitors home dimension.
"Sorme, Deniroth, Sorme Deniroth, Sorme Deniroth-"
"Yo! Pin Heads!" B'Knee and the other demon's looked up. The Manhole Cover of their chamber had been moved. "Can ya Keep the noise down? It's kinda Late" Above them was a girl, early twenties long brown hair, a worthy sacrifice if B'Knee was any judge, except for that grin, there was something positively...wicked about that grin. Behind the girl he could see several other figures silhouetted against the street lamps. B'Knee saw the girl jump, land, and then there was only pain, blood, more pain, the sensation of being thrown through the air and eventually death.
--A New World--
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Continuation.
The Curzon hotel opened up in the 1930s as one of the most luxurious hotels of the city. At 30 floors high it was an impressive sight when it first opened, and was capable of hosting upwards of 600 guests, as well as the spacious rooms it possessed a number of larger banquet halls and, if opening figures were any indication, it was well on it's way of becoming one of Cleveland's most popular hotels.
It continued to do excellent business right up until the mid 1950s. At which point it was discovered that the hotel was the front for the Parelli family of Cleveland. The Hotel was soon sold off to pay for the family's rapidly increasing legal costs to a Mr J S Sorbo. Mr Sorbo originally purchased the land planning on tearing down the hotel and making room for one of his pancake franchises, unfortunately the City Council designated the Curzon a historical landmark and Mr Sorbo was forced to leave it exactly as he bought it..
When a previously unknown group known as the Watcher Foundation offered to purchase the hotel and it's surrounding property, up front and, if necessary, in cash, Mr Sorbo's son jumped at the opportunity to be rid of the waste of space.
Faith could feel a Migraine coming on. It wasn't that she didn't love the girls behind her. It wasn't even that she was unhappy with her position in the foundation. The problem was that it wasn't that big a mini-buss, and the girls behind her well...were...giddy. As field trips go this was a necessary one but still a headache inducing one. As the bus pulled into the drive of the hotel she allowed a sigh of relief to escape her. They'd done pretty well all things considered. Morrie had gotten a little too over enthusiastic when pummeling on one of the demons and hadn't noticed another creeping up on her, and Phoebe could do with a bit more confidence when it came to wading into the thick of things but on the whole she couldn't' complain about their performance.
Shifting into reverse gear she parked the van next to two identical looking ones and turned back to her charges "Alright! Everyone Out!" She could feel her headache worsen. If she'd thought the girls were bad now they seemed to get a sugar rush from somewhere when they realized they would get to share their stories with their fellow Slayers. Shrugging into her Leather Jacket the brunette pressed the button to lock the van and went back to slide the gate shut locking the hotel away from the outside world.
As she sauntered up the drive to the foyer of the hotel she ran over the events which had caused her, of all people, to be the leading Slayer of this little fun house.
6 months earlier
"Us?!" Alexander Lavelle Harris. Carpenter, Vampire Hunter, Driver, Zeppo, The One Who Seas..Only nowadays? Not so much, thank you Mr "I-Hate-All-Women-Especially-Slayers-Caleb". "You've gotta be jokin' G-man" He and Faith stood side by side in the watcher's office. They'd purchased the Curzon a fortnight before and were still in the middle of getting settled in when Giles had asked the Slayer and young man for a quiet word.
"I can assure you Xander that I am not 'jokin'' . As you well know Buffy is going undercover to Europe to track down this Immortal individual, Willow is currently investigating any long term affects of the awakening spell in England and I am going to be trying to locate more Slayers and offer them training here at the Foundation."
"But what about Robin?" Faith looked at the head of the Watcher Foundation with a similar expression of shock and disbelief to that etched onto Xander's face. "Why not him?" Xander nodded along with the Slayer.
"Because" the British man smiled tolerantly, "Mr Wood has neither the experience necessary for this role, nor the patience to deal with a school full of Slayers"
"And we can?" Xander tried his hardest but a note of disbelief stole into his voice.
"I truly believe that out of all of the most experienced people in our group that the pair of you would be the best to manage these girl's lives and ensure that they are taught what they need to know in order to survive."
"Bu-" Xander was interrupted by the older man fixing him with his most steely gaze.
"Faith, would you please excuse us for a few moments." An expression of relief flickered across her eyes at Gile's words. She flashed Xander a grin, exactly the same kind of grin that Harmony had flashed him in 2nd grade when Mr Curtis believed her word over Xander's. When the door clicked shut the elder Watcher's expression thawed some. "Xander, please sit down." he gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk. As the younger man sat in front of the Watcher Giles steepled his fingers in front of him."You seem to believe that this is some kind of punishment I am forcing onto you."
"It's not that..."
"What then?"
"It's just..leadership thing. That's not me. You want someone to fix a door, or a cupboard, you want someone to get the take out or to find the one way of truly messing up an easy spell then, yeah. Call on me, That I can do no problems but..Leading? Training Slayers? Me. I'm no watcher..I can't do that kind of thing, unless by watching you're talking about sitting back and actually, y'know. Watching people do work while I sit back and relax." Giles sat back and let the young man continue blabbering to himself.
"Have you quite finished?" Not waiting for an answer Giles continued on. "Xander, in the years I have known you it is quite possible that no-one else has put as much on the line to risk the protection of Slayers and people he cares about. You ventured into the lair of one of the most dangerous Vampires of all time, accompanied only by a man you don't trust, You've stood toe to toe against the man when your fears became real, You've led children against a demon and his minions and won..and all of that was before you graduated High School. Don't tell me you are just "Someone to fix a cupboard". I truly believe there is no better person to lead these young women into the world we have opened up to them." Xander opened his mouth as if wanting to say something and managed to complete a passable impression of a goldfish for several moments before croaking out
"Thank you" Giles nodded in response and for several seconds a companionable silence permeated the room.
"Between yourself and Faith I feel that you will give these girls the education necessary for them to survive in the outside world. Which brings up the other part of this offer. I understand that you may have...reservations regarding working with her but I do believe she needs this."Xander raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Faith? I didn't think she needed anything?" The Englishman shook his head.
"Faith is in a delicate place at the moment. When a person is fighting for their life it is very easy for self-destructive habits to be put on a hold in favor of survival, however when the risk is over..." The watcher trailed off.
"Then there's a chance that she'll backslide into the same habits" The Californian continued. Giles Nodded. "Well I can see the whole, keep her mind on something angle and I can see your point there but I'm not sure that she'll want to work with me on this job. We're not exactly on the best of terms."Giles nodded at the younger mans words.
"I understand your point of view but...I would suggest trying to resolve any difficulties you might have with Miss Lehane. The pair of you might have more in common than you realize. Alone she would not be suitable for the sole roll as head teacher at the foundation..but together... I believe the pair of you will aid many of our young charges. May I have your word that you will at least think about my offer?" Xander nodded at the Watcher, seemingly deep in thought. "Capital."
High above the foyer Faith looked down at the group of Slayers milling around in the entrance hall carrying the supplies Andrew had insisted he needed to make the Kitchen up to standard while the small geek desperately tried to make himself heard while directing the Slayers. Taking another drag from her cigerate Faith leaned onto the balcony her hair hanging over the edge.
"As I understood, smoking was made illegal within common areas in hotels" Faith glanced over to see the Englishman standing a short distance from her. She flashed her best like-I-care grin back at him.
"Nah, It's good. I know the owner of this place. He'll let me get away with anythin'"
"Ah. Good, I'd hate to think you were getting in trouble."
"Night's still young G" she said with a leer. Giles returned the grin with a stare which seemed to say 'Moving-On'.
"I wished to talk with you regarding our earlier discussion" Giles Joined her at the edge of the Balcony looking down to where Andrew had finally managed to direct some of the girls to the gigantic kitchen the hotel housed. "Have you thought about the offer I made?"Faith blew a smoke ring out into the air above the foyer.
"Shit G, I'm no teacher, B, Red, hell even Harris, they're teachers, they can tell 'em what good little Slayers needs to do to stay out of trouble and slay the vamp's all proper like. Me? I'll just get 'em in same shit I ran into." the Bostonian glared into space. "Trust me, I'm not your girl."Giles removed his glasses and set to cleaning them against his handkerchief.
"Well, that's an interesting perspective even if it's not one I particularly agree with."Faith spun around to the Englishman a snarl forming on her lips.
"The Hell you say! Look at the hash I made of this 'gift'. Let's see." She began to count off on her fingers "One, got my watcher killed, Two, was too chickenshit to finish the fight, Three, Killed a man, Four, Tried to kill Harris" Giles could swear he could hear a slight waiver in her voice at that one. "Five, Joined up with a Demon who wanted to kill a town." She held her hand up for a moment before letting it fall to her side. "I could go on but what's the damned point. You want someone like that teachin' the baby Slayers what to do?" She flicked her cigerate over the balcony watching it until it landed in one of the plant pots in the entrance hall below.
"What I want, is someone who has walked that path but has come back from it. Look at those girls down there. Do you truly think that none of them will experience the temptations you've gone through, that none of them will make the mistakes you've made. If and when that happens do you really think that Buffy, or Willow or Xander would be the best person to confront them regarding that? Or do you think that the best person would be one who has gone through that themselves." The Watcher stared across at the Slayer as the Slayer stared down at her feet.
"Harris might" she mumbled. Giles almost felt like smiling at that but managed to resist the urge.
"It's possible that Xander may be able to help in those situations, but I doubt it would be as genuine as coming from your mouth." Giles Paused for several seconds contemplating his next words. "And I doubt Xander would step forward to help unless you were working with him."Faith's head swung round to the watcher, confusion evident in her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" On the ground floor Xander had walked out onto the entrance hall and was trying to calm Andrew down and direct the Slayers to the kitchen to drop off their loads. Giles looked down on the foyer with a small smile.
"As you are no doubt aware I am extremely fond of young Mr Harris. And I also have the utmost faith in his abilities, unfortunately Mr Harris himself has little faith in said abilities. Far too often he will be prepared to take a back seat in affairs or attempt to play down his role or helpfulness in a situation. In this instance, if he, and yourself, do decide to become head-teachers here then this will not be an acceptable situation. Without someone there to force the decisions and choices onto Mr Harris, and to reassure him that he is doing the right thing I do not feel that, at this point, he would be suitable for a roll as a teacher." Faith stared down at the Foyer where the Slayers had all been ushered into the Kitchen with their deliveries, Andrew could be heard squeaking from the Kitchen, the only person left was Xander. He glanced this way and that before nodding in satisfaction and moving on to his next self-appointed task. "
"I'll think about it. 'Kay?" With a slight smile Giles nodded.
Faith had been looking for the one-eyed carpenter for half an hour when she eventually found him standing on the roof of the hotel, one foot raised to stand on the ledge as he stared across the city. Walking up to him she folded her arms against the cold and stared off into the distance. For several moments neither of the veterans spoke, content to simply be with their thoughts and the air. Eventually the relative silence was broken by Xander.
"Did Giles talk to you about...this..whole, y'know, teacher thing?" Faith nodded.
"Yeah, gave me a mini lecture about stoppin' girls followin' me down my fun filled path. What do you think?"
"Well...I can understand why he'd want you here. Kick ass moves, field experience, able to teach about what it means to be a Slayer."Xander looked down at the street. The Sun was slowly falling below the horizon and the people on the streets were rushing this way and that to get home before nightfall. "But me? The G-man probably just wants to keep me out of trouble or somethin'. Think Wood would be a better choice personally." Faith felt a small grin flash across her mouth. 'Damn G was perspective sometimes'
"Nah, trust me. To lead this lot? Make sure they don't just turn into 'point an' kill' weapons we need someone like you in charge. Robin'd be great at makin' sure everyones tip top and military like but, to actually raise 'em to be people..make 'em more than just Slayers. He wouldn't be able to do that. For this Job G's right. We need you." Xander turned to look at his companion.
"R-really?" he flashed a grin at her. "That 'We need you' sounds an awful lot like you've already made up your mind on the matter." Faith smirked back at him.
"It's a two or nothin' deal X. They want both of us or neither. And Hell, I'm game if you are. She extended her hand out to him. "Ready to utterly corrupt and mess up the next generation?" with a grin Xander took her hand.
Present Day
Faith pushed the door open and walked into the hotel. It hadn't taken them long to get into their new roles of head-teachers. Within a week of telling Giles that they'd accepted his offer Buffy and the Watcher had made their farewells and departed for Europe leaving the Bostonian and the Carpenter in charge.
The priority, as Xander saw it at least. Had been to set some sort of infrastructure in place. Utilizing the vast amount of man-power he had at his disposal he'd set to transforming the run down hotel into a proper school. Bedrooms on the first 10 floors were renovated and transformed into dorm rooms, the banquet halls had been changed into a series of classrooms, training areas and one large communal dining hall.
Once they'd got the building into a place where people could safely live in, the Head-teachers set to designing lesson plans. Faith would cover combat, Andrew, much to his reluctance, would lecture the rookie Slayers on demonology and ancient language and Xander would teach them on tactics, as well as helping Faith as a punching bag. Things had been going pretty well at "Professor Harris' school for Gifted Youngsters", as Andrew referred to it, up until 3 months ago. Both Xander and Faith led field trips out to Cleveland for the most experienced Slayers, patrolling cemeteries and the club districts on the look out for any Vamp Action. They'd taken turns alternating patrols between them until that night 3 months ago...
Three Months Earlier
Faith pushed the double doors of the emergency room with a face like thunder, Dawn hurrying behind her seemingly on the verge of tears. As she rounded a corner she came across the 6 young Slayers sitting in the corridor outside of a door.
"What. The Hell. Happened" She growled out at the girls. There was no response and Faith could feel her temper rising. "I said-"
"U-um. M-mr Harris was leading the patrol when we came across a d-demon attacking this g-g-girl. We moved up to engage and we thought we were doin' well" Faith's eyes narrowed at this and the girl, seeing this hurried on"We'd gotten the victim away and were fighting this thing when it...I dunno..unleashed this shockwave thing, knocked us all flying. It was about to stamp on Carol" Faith's eyes darted to the girl sitting next to the talker who had her head buried in her hands" W-When Mr Harris was there. Stabbing the thing in the neck with that sword thing of his."
"Long Sword" Faith felt the teacher in her automatically correct.
"Right, the thing started bleeding, blood flying from it's mouth and everything. We thought it was done for but it swung one of it's arms back and did that shockwave thing again sending M-Mr Harris into the wall. W-We couldn't wake him up and he'd started bleeding from his mouth. It was then that we called the Ambulance.."
Faith felt her expression soften. This wasn't their fault, they'd done everything by the book. Everything exactly as they'd been told to do. She looked round to see Dawn trying to console Carol and for a moment their eyes met. Pulling a cell phone from her pocket she rang back to the Curzon. After a few moments Andrew answered. "Andrew, I need you to get the spare bus and come over to St Courtney's on 5th street. We need you to pick up the girls." Before the demonologist had a chance to argue she hung up and looked for a doctor. Not seeing one nearby she began stalking up the corridor. Eventually she came across the reception.
"Can I help you miss?" The receptionist greeted her with a smile which made Faith feel unusually violent.
"Yeah, My Friend. Xander Harris. He came in an hour ago. Where is he?"
"I'm afraid I cannot release that information."
"What?"
"I'm afraid I cannot release that information to anyone except a member of Mr Harris's family." Faith could once again feel her temper increasing. It was days like this she thought the universe really did want her to just start punching and not stop.
"Now you listen here-"
"I think you will find if you open Mr Harris's personal records registered with this hospital that both Miss Lehane and myself are registered as Mr Harris' next of kin." Faith spun around to see a rather annoyed looking Dawn Summers staring at the receptionist with a firm glare on her face. She could swear that the receptionist's smile dropped for a moment before she reluctantly tapped on her keyboard. After a few moments she looked up at the pair.
"ID?" Both Faith and Dawn passed over some ID and the receptionist nodded irritably. "He's in room 23A."
"Thank you so much" Faith sneered to the receptionist as they walked away from the desk."Nice move Pip, how'd you know we were on there?" Dawn flashed a quick smile at the Slayer.
"You and Xander might keep the student's under control, but I'm the one who makes sure everyones registered with hospitals, makes sure we pay the bills,keeps the building running and makes sure Andy stays in budget for food."
"Huh, Since when?"
"Xander asked me to when you guys were put in charge, I was a bit down that I was being left with nothing to do when Giles and Buff left."
"So that whole thing back there...?"
"Who do you think organized the medical you went through a couple of months ago? You're the same as him. You've got me, Andy and Xander down as next of Kin same as he has." They had reached the door marked as 23A just as a Doctor was leaving.
"Hey Doc, what's the story?" The Doctor checked his clipboard scanning over the paperwork.
"And you are...?"
"Faith Lehane,"
"Ah, good. Mr Harris is now stable, although he did receive sever bruising to his kidneys and has broken 3 of his ribs. He has also received a concussion but we do believe he will recover."
"He awake?" The slight flicker across the doctors face told Faith that, Yes, he was awake and had already began to annoy the Doctor.
"He Is. We will require someone to fill in his insurance details." Dawn rested her hand on the Slayers shoulder.
"I'll do that. You go and see him. I'll let Andy and the others know he'll be okay." Faith nodded as the Doctor and Key walked back down towards reception. Taking a deep breath she pushed open the door.
"You Stupid Jackass!" Faith stormed into the room causing the carpenter's head to shoot up from his pillow.
"And a big hospital hello to you too Faith."
"What the hell do you think you were doing getting up close with an Fr'chli demon?"
"There was a slight problem with him about to turn Carol into a small pile of Slayer mush at the time."
"And so you thought the best course of action would be to get into melee range with that thing!?"
"They needed a distraction. A lethal throat wound seemed to distract it quite a bit." Faith spent the next few minutes telling Xander what she thought of him in explicit detail before finally sitting on the end of the bed staring at the wall.
"This is not going to happen again." The grin that formed while he was being sworn at faded from Xander's face.
"What do you mean?"Faith sighed and looked at the one-eyed man.
"This. As of now I'm barring you from patrolling."
"What!? What gives you the right to do that?!"
"You did. When we first started doing this you said that I would be in charge of patrolling, duty rosters and any Apocalypsy Action. This is my call, I'm barring you."
"But this is nothing. I'll be up and running in a couple of weeks."
"And the next time? You could have died today. We're not having a head-teacher dieing in this school." Xander held up a finger to interrupt Faith.
"Aha, does that mean you're not going to patrol any more?" Faith shook her head. "Then how come you're allowed to Patrol and I'm not."
"Because I'm better than you."Faith stood up and folded her arms while looking at her friend. "I'm faster, I'm stronger, I'm better trained, I can take more punishment."
"Well that's hardly fair" Xander grumbled to himself. Faith couldn't help the smile spreading across her face.
"I'll make you a deal X. You beat me, in a one on one fight, any hand-to-hand weapons you want and you can patrol again."
"That it? Pfft. I'll be back on the streets before the months out."
Present Day
Andrew was screeching at the Slayers who'd just come in about leaving muddy foot prints in the foyer and was directing them back to the entrance where Faith had just stopped brushing the dirt from her shoes. She clapped him on his shoulder as she walked past towards the back of the building.
When Giles had been in charge, his office had been originally the office of the hotel manager. With Faith and Xander in charge they'd decided to go for something a little more practical. Well, Faith called it practical, Xander said Faith just liked the idea of claiming the area which had been the bar for herself.
She pushed open the door grinning momentarily at the sign someone had taped to the window saying "BEWARE OF THE SLAYER" It was a game of theirs. Grabbing a large felt tipped pen she drew a line through the word 'SLAYER' and replaced it with 'WATCHER'. On either side of the door were two desks, each facing the other. Neither desk was what you could call organized. The one on the left had a variety of papers titled "The most effective weapon and why" and a number of empty beer bottles scattered over it. The one on the right had a few comic books and lots of diagrams of warehouses heavily annotated to show potential avenues of attack, each with a Slayer's name on the top.
Towards the back of the room was a set of weights and a punching bag and a few book cases scattered around. Against the back wall was another pair of desks. The one on the Right had a mountain of comic books, novels, and other geekish paraphernalia scattered everywhere, but, in contrast to the rest of the novels several large leather bound books written in a spidery script. The final desk was the most organized of the bunch. The only one of the four to have a computer, an in and out tray and pencil holder. it wouldn't have looked out of place in any office in the world. Sitting at that desk was Dawn Summers, staring at the computer screen.
"Yo Pip, what's shakin'" Dawn looked up at the Slayer and flashed her a nervous grin.
"Erm..Nothing, Nothing Much. Just going over the latest reports and..um things." Dawn franticly typed on her Keyboard as Faith wandered around the desk to take a look at what she was doing. Sure enough on her screen was a list of reports and observations, some of which she'd even wrote herself.
"What's that thing?" Faith pointed to the Icon at the bottom of the screen, a large 'W' in a black circle with a Grin.
"Oh that?" Dawn laughed nervously. "Erm...Websters Online Demonic Archive System. Yes. New program we're trying."
"Oh really?" Faith shot a smirk at the administrator. "Cool. Xander out back?" Dawn nodded in silence going slightly red. Faith turned towards the back exit of the teachers lounge and, when she reached the door, shouted back, "Remind me to look up a 'Felguard' on that thing later" When she heard the embarrassed squeak from her friend she closed the door with a bark of laughter. She stepped out into the cold night air and looked around. Xander had claimed this area for his own. Wood had been stacked against a working bench and tools lay scattered around Xander's latest project but of the Carpenter himself there was no sign. Snatching up a screwdriver she span around to block the downward swing of the sword flying towards her.
"Nice try" She said flashing a grin at her attacker. "But this 'surprise-attack' streak of yours is gettin' more than a little borin' X."The Carpenter bounced back from the parry and began to circle the Slayer as she in turn began to circle him.
"Can't blame a guy for tryin'" Xander's eye twinkled with mirth as he dropped back into the ready position, his sword pointing up at about 45 degrees to the Slayer. Throwing the screwdriver like a dart into a nearby piece of wood. Faith dropped into her own fighting stance. The two warriors continued circling each other for several moments before, almost simultaneously, both fighters moved forward. Xander shuffled forwards with a series of feints designed to misdirect. The Slayer skipped forward a couple of meters before jumping up to execute a roundhouse kick. Abandoning his swordplay Xander dropped down, aiming a kick at Faith's other leg. He felt it connect before being knocked to the side as her other leg continued on it's path and caught him on his blind left side.
The man let himself roll across the yard, using the momentum of the blow to move him to a safer location, before coming up with his sword in a defensive pose. 'He's getting better' Faith thought as she lunged after him. She unleashed a flurry of blows at him but her friend managed to get that blasted sword in the way each time. Every time her skin touched the metal it was as if all the force of her blow was leeched away from her.'When we first started fighting like this the fight would have already been over.' Backing away from him for a few minutes she let the man catch his breath.
"You were right about Dawn by the way."
"Oh..right...about..what?"Xander panted.
"She's playin' that game Andrew's fixated on."
"You..caught..her?"Faith began circling her opponent like a panther, a predatory grin on her face.
"Nah, she switched the screen before I could get a good look." Xander span slowly to make sure his eye was on Faith.
"Wonder if Andrew knows"
"Maybe..." As the words left her mouth Faith made a dart forward and Xander in turn span to follow her just as the Slayer lept back so he over shot where she was. He desperately turned to try and find the woman but soon felt the hand on his shoulder. "You Lose."
"Damnit" Xander sighed in disappointment. He turned to see Faith smirking at him.
"You're getting' better X-man. Soon you'll be able to take Andrew in a fight." Xander rolled his eyes as he went back to his work bench opening a bottle of water. He was half expecting this part of the fight. The taunting. He took another swig from the bottle as Faith paraded behind him, listing various people he would one day be able to beat if he tried harder. She'd just gotten onto the subject of one day being able to deliver a damned good thrashing to a kitten when she began to cough. Xander payed her no mind, looking over the plans on her desk.
"Xander?" He turned around to look at the Slayer. She was staring at her hand. "What's wrong with me?" She held her hand out to him and the palm, where she'd covered her cough, was splattered with dark red blood. "I'-I don't feel so good." With that she fell to the floor.
To be continued.
Authors Notes
This is the start of a continuation series I have planned, while Faith and Xander will be important characters the rest of the gang will be showing up soon enough. Please, let me know what you think.