Disclaimer: I don't own any one or anything of Angel. It's all Joss Whedon. Some may say why I am doing yet another story when I got others laying about. It's just the nature of the beast. For those of you that did like my last entry into Angel fan fiction, A Mother's Love, sad to say I'm in development hell with it after all this time. Someday I may go back to it, but right now it's stuck where it is.

Having said that, I'll just say this is a story that will not be updated regularly. It will be updated at my own leisure, as a story to be written to help out for my other fics, when those are in writers block. I do hope that you enjoy this story.

Into the Dark
By David Knight

Chapter One: Beginnings

The sewers, Angel thought as he walked through said sewers. Seems like something out of a bad movie. He had lived through them before during the time of his depression, before Whistler found him, so it wasn't a problem walking through them; what was a problem, however, was the whole cloak and dagger routine that he had been given. Even as Angelus, he'd always preferred the directly subtle approach, favouring disguises or lies rather than actual stealth.

However, right now, Angel had no choice; a demon information broker had some information that he claimed he wanted to give to the vampire with a soul. Something that, in the broker's own words, was damning to 'certain people'… such as, according to him, Wolfram & Hart.

Whether or not that was accurate or not was up for debate, but Angel knew the reputation for this broker, and it was generally a good one; he wouldn't jeopardize it.

He also had about five bodyguards of various demonic species to protect him at all times, but Angel was confident that he wouldn't have to get rough with them- or, if he did, that he'd be able to handle himself.

Should be coming up to the 'gate' where I'll meet the gatekeeper, Angel recalled. Said to say 'How' to the guard and the guard would have four horns out of its head…

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Angel would have smiled as he shook his head. This was certainly perhaps the most paranoid demon he would have...

His train of thought was stopped abruptly as he caught the smell of blood, demon blood, in the air and moved faster. He saw a demon fitting the description given to him lying in murky water, just in front of a metal door in the sewer tunnel that had been torn off its hinges, his head cut off and his eyes staring blankly up at the vampire, a shocked expression the only indication that his attacker had come at him from the front.

Not good, Angel mused to himself. Shifting his pace from walking to running, he hurried down the tunnel as fast as he could, hoping that he could reach the broker before whatever had taken out the bodyguard got there first.

Though as he continued to run, and saw more and more bodies on either side of the tunnel as he passed the by, he realized that the odds of that happening were looking very, very unlikely.

Finally he made it where he saw the demon he came to see now on his knees… and, then in a flash of sliver, his head fell to the ground, revealing a slim figure in dark clothing standing almost nonchalantly behind him; positioned in front of a light that the demon must have brought down here in such a manner that even Angel's vampire vision couldn't clearly make out what the figure looked like.

An assassin, Angel thought to himself; it was only a guess, but, given how the mysterious figure had taken out those demons, it seemed like a good one.

Professional, clearly fast, and- judging by the bulk of most of the demon corpses that were lying about at the moment- possessing significant physical strength.

In other words, this wasn't going to be pretty.

As the figure turned to look at Angel, his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he took in her appearance. Although the lighting in the sewers prevented him from getting a clear look at her face- the light behind her cast her head in silhouette, making it hard for even Angel's vampire-enhanced vision to make out specific details- he could clearly see that she had long, fiery red hair, tied behind her back in an almost business-like ponytail that came down to just below her shoulder-blades.

She was dressed in a form-fitting leather outfit that reminded Angel of something he'd seen in advertisements for those 'Matrix' movies; although given her evident knowledge of the supernatural said another story. Apart from the sword she held in her hand, she also carried a large gun, of a make that Angel thought was called a P-90, strapped to her side.

If she had normal bullets in that gun, Angel would be VERY surprised.

Then she turned to face him directly, sliding the sword back into its place on her belt as she assumed a combat stance, and Angel instantly had to re-evaluate his priorities.

Figuring out what she was doing here was only a secondary concern.

Right now, his main issue was to survive.

Angel had only just assumed a combat position himself when the woman charged towards him, beginning the battle with a powerful kick to his head that Angel only just managed to duck. Even with his enhanced vampire reflexes, the kick still grazed his forehead, leaving a faint trickle of blood above his right eye where her sharp-heeled boot had grazed his forehead. Barely taking time to try and identify his opponent's species- beings fast enough to get the drop on him at that speed weren't exactly common- Angel took advantage of his low position to try and knock her other leg out from under her, only for his foe to jump into the air and launch another kick at his face.

If Angel had been human, his head would probably had parted company from his shoulders.

If he'd been a younger vampire than his two hundred and fifty years, his nose would now be pointing inside his head.

As it was, Angel out just managed to bend backwards to avoid the kick, before standing back up once more and launching his own punch at the woman's face, She ducked to the side in time to avoid the worst of it, but Angel still felt a couple of his knuckles make contact with her cheek; she may have been strong and fast, but, apparently, either her reflexes weren't as rapid as the rest of her or she wasn't used to fighting people who could move as fast as Angel was.

As the woman launched her own punch at Angel, the vampire desperately ducked to one side, his eyes widening in shock as he heard a loud crunch from behind him, as though two remarkably hard objects had just met and one of them had shattered. After rolling a few feet out of range of the woman, Angel leapt back up to his feet, turned around to look at his foe…

And his eyes widened in shock as he saw her standing in front of the wall, her right hand lodged firmly in the wall in question. Evidently, when she'd attempted to punch him, she'd been unable to stop her fist from making contact with the wall behind her, and, as a result, had created a shocking largehole in the solid stone wall.

In Angel's recollection, only vampires the age of the Master or Kakistos could do something like that and still assume any kind of human form- demons with that kind of power tended to be incapable of assuming a human guise-, and this woman's face, lacking even the faintest trace of vampire ridges and fangs, made it clear that she wasn't a vampire.

Even as Angel watched, shocked at the sheer power this woman seemed to be capable of unleashing, she pulled her wrist out of the wall and hurled something at him, striking him in the side of the head and sending him crashing to the ground even as he tried to duck to the ground.

"ARGH!" he yelled, raising one hand to clutch at his head, the earlier wound now significantly worse from the concrete that must have struck it. He vaguely registered the woman coming towards him, other pieces of concrete scattered around the floor from where she'd pulled her fist out of the wall, but the pain in his head was making it difficult for him to doanything about it.

If he only had a few more seconds to clear his head…

Then the woman crouched down, grabbed him by the throat, and hauled him up, a slight smirk on her face as she stared at him.

"Time to die," she stated simply, as she raised him up into the air…

Then her eyes fell on his face, and seemed to widen in shock.

"No…" she whispered, lowering Angel slightly as she stared at him. "You… I… we…"

"What?" Angel croaked, staring back at her in confusion as the pain on his throat lessened; how could he be having such an effect on someone he'd never even met?

"NO!" the woman screamed, hurling Angel over her shoulder as she clutched at her head, screaming in rage as the vampire hurtled towards the wall that she'd so recently punched through.

Once again, Angle was grateful for his enhanced vampire reflexes; if he'd been any younger, he would have struck the wall head-first and possibly broken his neck.

As it was, his left arm and shoulder were left in a significant amount of pain where he struck the wall, the not so much that he couldn't still use them, and his earlier light concussion seemed to have cleared itself up now that he'd had a few seconds to heal from it.

As he staggered to his feet, the vampire with a soul took a quick assessment of his opponent's current status, and noted that, whatever had just happened to her, she seemed to be recovering from it.

One more question to go on that list, Angel mused to himself. He wasn't sure what was going on with this redhead- nothing her size should possess that much raw power, and her apparent recognition of him only added to the mystery- but as he stared at her as she slowly got back to her feet, he wasn't going to waste time to find out.

He had to take her out now, before she got back to her feet.

Seeing a piece of broken concrete lying to the side, presumably created by the woman in black punching the wall earlier, Angel smiled grimly.

Perfect.

After she'd struck him with one earlier, it only seemed 'fair' that he should win the fight using the same trick.

Moving with the speed that had helped him survive almost as many fights as he'd escaped with the use of his strength, Angel picked it up and, clutching it in both hands, hurled it directly at his foe's head, praying that he'd estimated her strength right and the force of the impact wouldn't just kill her before he could find out what was going on here…

Fortunately, it all paid off; the shot to her head did in fact knock the woman down to the ground, and, after waiting a few moments in case he'd underestimated the rock's strength, Angel confirmed that she was unconscious, but still breathing.

Sighing in relief, Angel walked over to stand above the woman, looking down at her as he turned over what had just happened in his head, unable to even believe that a human could manage to be that strong.

Only slayers are ever good enough to take on vampires with sheer strength with that kind of bulk, he mused to himself. If this woman is even stronger than a Slayer...

Wait.

Something about her didn't smell right.

Or rather, it did smell right.

Too right… and way too familiar for a woman he was only meeting for the first time today.

Moving closer to her, he bent down and as he looked at her face, cupping it with his left hand, he frowned when his fingers touched her 'skin'.

"It's a mask…" he muttered to himself, tilting his head to one side as he studied his opponent in more detail. While the face she wore was definitely life-like enough, it didn't feel quite like real flesh, even if it gave off the illusion of it well enough to the untrained eye.

Looking down around her neck, Angel's heightened eyes noted the nearly invisible line between the end of her mask and where her real skin was. His fingers going in, Angel lifted the mask up and off of her head...

Only to be stunned beyond belief by who was behind the mask.

"... what the hell?" Angel muttered, dropping to his knees as he stared incredulously at the sight before him.

She was different from the last time he'd seen her, true. Her body was more mature than it should have been, her face was significantly older, her hair was now cut short, almost military-like, to say nothing of the new red color…

But it was still her.

It was Faith.

To Be Continued...