Title:The Power in Me
Characters: Buffy, mostly; references to Kendra and Faith and the Potentials
Rating/Warnings: T for reference to canon non-con. Nothing else, really.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and profit from it, not me.
Word Count: Around 300, give or take. Unbeta'd.

Here we go with another Buffyverse drabble. This one's inspired by the episodes about the origin of the Slayer, especially Season Five's "Intervention" and Season Seven's "Get It Done", "End of Days", and "Chosen".

The Power in Me

Being the Slayer has always been a lonely gig. One girl out of all the world to fight the force of evil, blah, blah, blah. I've heard it too many times.

It doesn't matter if you have friends, like I do, or if they help you out, like mine do. You're still the Slayer and they're still not. They can help but they don't have the power and it's not their job to save the world from destruction. It's mine.

That's why it was so weird and yet oddly comforting for there to be two Slayers. I knew I could never get close to Kendra; for one thing, we were too different, but it was good to know that she had my back.

Until she didn't.

When Faith first arrived, I thought maybe we could be friends but it didn't work out that way. She took the power in her and used it for evil.

Now that I know the source of the power in me I can better understand why Faith turned evil and why I'm attracted to that which I'm supposed to fight and kill. Those men, they captured a girl and let a demon rape her, for God's sakes, so they could produce the first Slayer. As if the only way to fight evil was to be evil and be imbued with evil, because evil is stronger than good.

Then they made sure there would only ever be one Slayer at a time, to contain the evil that was in her.

Well, I've got it figured out now. How I'm going to save the world again. I'm going to make the power in me the power in every Potential and together we're going to kick demon ass.

Those men long ago got it wrong. We are stronger together.