Title: Eternal Soul
Disclaimer: They're not mine, they belong to Joss and blah blah, you know the drill
Rating: R for violence and language and maybe other stuff
Author's Note: This takes place directly after my first story "What Dreams Are Made Of" so you might wanna read that first or you'll be incredibly lost.
Feedback: This is my second shot of fanfic so please be nice and honest.
Prologue:
Faith awakened in darkness.
Now there's a surprise, she thought sarcastically.
She thought the end had finally come and was doomed to relive this endless darkness, which is until she tried to stand up. There was a jangle of chains as she realized she was already upright, chained vertically to a wall and blindfolded. Her arms and legs spread wide apart and she could feel a thick collar of cold metal around her neck. It was then that the memory of how she got there came crashing back.
She remembered waking up on a cold marble slab, nude and in a dungeon. A guard had come to take her to her own execution, but not before she wigged out, snapped her chains, knocked out the guard, and wigged some more. She then remembered heading towards the door and the last thing she remembered was a terrible blast of energy slamming her across the room and into the wall as soon as she stepped past the threshold. And now she woke up here, wherever here was. She could feel the terror and dread creep up on her as she was bound there helplessly. Then she could hear the crackle of fire and the low murmurs of voices nearby. She was alive, yet captured by the unknown. The voices came closer.
"Faith," a voice regarded her. She frowned inwardly, wondering how they knew her name. "I can't believe you found her like this and managed to even chain her and not lose a single man." The voice was scratchy and had a slight foreign accent.
"She was already unconscious when my men found her, tried to get through the barrier, silly girl." There was a low chuckle. "What we should be worrying about is what to do with her now that he's dead. I'm surprised that barrier held up and that it worked like that. Nothing had been able to faze her before." There was an amused grunt. "Maybe she just had a bad day."
There was a slight pause, causing Faith to worry about what was happening. "That's not her," came the first voice.
"What are you talking about," exclaimed the other voice, sounding offended and shocked. "What do you mean this isn't her?! How can you forget the face of that murderous harlot? Look at her! It's the little demon herself!"
Faith flinched inwardly. She was murderous, she couldn't blame whoever it was out there that wanted her dead, but still, it hurt to be reminded.
"No!" The first voice disagreed. "There is a light around her. She has a soul, the other one was nothing but…" He paused as if searching for a word. "…but an endless darkness."
"How can that be? There's but only one unless…" The voice started incredulously. "…but…how can she?"
"She is," the first voice stated calmly. "And I don't think it was her choice. How else can you explain it?"
Something was then pulled off Faith's face and her eyes stung as the dim light hit her eyes. She focused on two small beings. They both had long ears, like those elves in cheap department stores during Christmas, only longer and wider with slimy green skin covering their bodies that was also mottled with brown patches. If Faith didn't know any better, she would have taken them for demons, but something told her they weren't. They were trolls, and she was chained to a wall in a dank dungeon.
"Ah, you see." The troll with the red cape gestured to her face. Faith instantly recognized him as the first voice. "Look at those eyes. She's not the one. She's from the other realm."
"Sorry Bogs," the other troll apologized.
"It's not me you should be apologizing to…" the first troll, Bogs, said harshly. He looked up at the girl. "We are deeply sorry for this…intrusion. My companion here is an idiot." He waved his hands and the chains disappeared.
Faith fell heavily to the ground with a soft thud. She rubbed her raw wrists and glared at the two beings. They both flinched in fear at her look.
"Where the hell am I?" Her voice came out raspy as if she hadn't spoken in years and her throat felt terribly dry.
"Limzell dungeon of course," Bogs replied and gestured around the room. "Had you transferred after what happened."
"What happened?" She clutched at her aching throat, but the metal collar was still around her neck.
"Don't you remember knocking one of the guards out and trying to escape," the other troll snapped. Then a cruel smile plastered across his green, squat face. "Didn't plan on that barrier knocking you clean across the room did ya?"
Bogs hushed him with a gesture. "I don't think that's what she meant."
He hobbled across the room, red cape flowing behind him and grabbed a pitcher of water resting on the floor near the door. Faith watched them warily; unsure of what was going on. Bogs made his way over to her and handed her the pitcher.
"I see you're a bit thirsty," he said softly. He turned towards the other troll. "Mormeth, how long has this girl been here without food or water?"
The troll, Mormeth, wrung his hands nervously, clearly afraid to answer. "I…ah…She hasn't…not since we took her."
"What? That was nearly a week ago! What were you thinking," Bogs reproached as Faith watched the exchange with a smirk.
"Well, I…uh…" Mormeth took a deep breath glancing at Faith. "Well, look at her, Bogs. I didn't know it was someone else. Anyone would have done the same or worse."
Bogs softly nodded his head in silent agreement. "I understand."
"Well, I don't," Faith replied, her throat feeling much better now that she had a drink. "I still don't know what the hell is going on. Or what the fuck I'm doing here." She gestured to the filthy sackcloth over her body. "And why the hell am I wearing a potato sack?!"
She obviously saw the look of terror spread across their faces as she let her anger be known. Damn, I musta been something, she thought sadly Trying not to be that person anymore. Bogs recovered first while Mormeth continued to stare at her as if she could rip his head off with a glance. It only served to make Faith more curious and a little happy to be intimidating.
He reached out a hand to her to help her off her feet. She hesitated at his gesture, but finally grabbed the troll's hand. Surprisingly it was warm and soft, like a human hand and not slimy and clammy like it appeared to be, and he easily hoisted her up to her feet.
"C'mon, lass," Bogs said warmly as he started for the door. "I think Limzell will be better suited to answer all this mess."
Faith followed Bogs out the door, her muscles tense in case of a fight. Behind her, she can hear Mormeth mumbling in some troll language under her breath. She found herself being thrown back into him by an invisible force as she crossed over the threshold of the door, the thick collar around her neck tightened and burned for a moment then returned to normal.
She cursed under her breath, grabbing her throat, as she disentangled herself from Mormeth and rose from the dirt floor. She glared at Bogs who was laughing lightly at them. She was suddenly reminded of when Buffy was thrown into a wall by a similar fashion and couldn't help the grin making her way to her face.
"You definitely aren't her, now are you?" He shook his head, clearly amused. "That wouldn't have even fazed her." He shrugged. "Sorry about that. I forgot all about the protection spells and such Limzell cast down here. At least it wasn't as powerful as the other one. That one knocked you out for over a week."
Faith approached Bogs and glared down at him, fingering the collar around her. "What are you, kinky or something? What the hell does this thing do?"
Bogs laughed nervously. "Not really sure, lass. Lim snapped it on ya and as far as I know, I've never seen one before. Must be something new."
Faith growled low in her throat, but didn't reply. Bogs smiled and gestured for her to follow him and said that the spell won't knock her again because it only works once. Faith followed hesitantly, not really sure if she should be trusting a troll, but she really didn't have any other choice. Besides, she didn't know if trolls were evil like demons. It didn't seem so. Her Slayer senses weren't tingling and Bogs seemed like a really good-natured troll; like a grandfather should be, even though Faith never experienced the joy of having a grandfather.
Besides, Faith thought grimly. Not all demons are evil and not all humans are good.