Title: Faded Dreary
Author: Blaire Ryan
Rating: R, probably
Classification: Anya/Faith, Faith/Kate, Kate/Riley, Drusilla/Wesley, Drusilla/Darla,
Ripper/Willow, Angel/Elizabeth, Elizabeth/Kate, Elizabeth/Anya, Angel/Anya,
Wesley/Chase, Elizabeth/Luke, Elizabeth/Tara, Harmony/Ripper, Harmony/Chase
Faith/Angel/Elizabeth, Faith/Penn, Faith/Whistler, Harmony/Xander,
Faith/Harmony
Summary: Faith is
trying to sort out her actions and emotions, and heads to Sunnydale.
Spoilers: Up to Into
the Woods and Reunion
Distribution: You Got the
Stones?, Eternal Bitca,
anyone else can have, just give me a holler where it is put up.
Disclaimer: To all
the punks who own the stuff associated with B:tVS and A:tS, or as they are
here, K:tVS and F:tS
Feedback: Desired much so.
Challenge: #20 at You Got the Stone? Faith had to be the
vampire with a soul, Buffy her annoying grandchilde.
Author's Notes: Okay, this is like, VERY AU. A lot of the same stuff is happening to the
characters, it's just the characters are different people. That, in fact, is where it gets
complicated. The pairing list and
Author's Notes will probably be longer than the actual story!
Kate: The Vampire Slayer: The slayer is Kate Lockley, 20 year old going to sophomore year of
college. Her watcher is William, who in
his teenage years was called Spike. Her
best friend is Drusilla, who is a practicing Wicca. Drusilla went out with werewolf and guitarist Wesley, until he
left to try to control the wolf inside. Later, Dru met a timid woman named Darla and the fell in love. Kate's other best friend is Rupert "Ripper"
Giles, who is dating an ex-demon named Willow. Kate is still in the reboundy relationship with Riley, who is
going to whore houses to get "sucked."
For the Faith: The Series, and the vampires: Faith, she is a
vampire with a soul. She was sired by
Anya, a 400-year-old childe of the Master. Faith drove the pious Liam insane, and then sired him. He now calls himself Angel, because in the
villages people once call him the insane angel from hell. Angel sired a noblewoman named Elizabeth
Anne Summers, who had been reeling from heartbreak after rejection by a man
named Luke in 1860. After killing a
young gypsy boy in 1898, Faith was cursed with a soul. She attempted to join back with Anya,
Elizabeth, and Angel during the Boxer rebellion, but was cast out again after
her refusal to eat a pair of twins Anya brought her. She spent 9 decades a worthless not-human being, attempting to
help humanity very little, until she met a demon named Doyle. He showed her Kate, whom she fell in love
with immediately. After the Sunnydale
stuff happened, Faith left for Los Angeles, where she met a half demon named
Chase, and Ripper's former girlfriend, Harmony. They form a successful helpless-saving organization, and an
unrequited crush happens between Chase after Harmony. That is, until right before Chase gives her life to stop the
Scourge, and passes her visions onto Harmony. In comes Wesley, Dru's old werewolf boyfriend. He saves Harmony from black-market demon parts people, and becomes
part of the group. Faith's old childe
Gunn comes into town, committing the same types of murders that happened 200
years ago. He is dusted by Penn, a cop
who learns Faith's secret. The
short-lived relationship between Faith and Penn erodes. After much grief over Wolfram & Hart,
a princess from another dimension, an actor wanting to become eternal,
releasing evil Faith, and the knowledge of Shanshu, things calm down. All is going good, Harmony coming out of the
never ending vision a better, smarter person, and Wesley surviving the blast,
when they realize Anya has been brought back from hell. She's been shagging Faith in her dreams, but
she is human, and dying of a syphilitic heart condition. That is, until Angel comes along and turns
Anya back into a vampire. Faith, under
the constant strain, leaves Joyce and Snyder, along with the rest of the
lawyers at W&H, to die in Wilkins's wine cellar. Faith returns to the Hotel and fires Harmony, Wesley, and Xander
(oh, yeah, he's leading a group of homeless black kids ;-) kind of funny, I
think). Oh, and Elizabeth is stuck in
Sunnydale with a chip in her brain, nicknamed "Buffy" by Ripper to annoy
her. She is completely head over heals
for Kate, and in the process of sabotaging Riley's chances with the blonde
slayer (though, unnecessarily considering Riley's behavior).
There endeth the lesson.
Sub-Author's
Note: I kind of made up most of this
story as I was writing the author's notes and pairing list, so I apologize for
the weirdness of it. I kept thinking of
parts in the show, but ran out of good characters to fill them with. But, I wasn't getting desperate on
Harmony. I actually think she's a very
good character to fill the shoes of the beloved Queen C! And no, not just because she's hot.
Dedication: To the writers at You
Got the Stones? To Tommy, er… RedFire, and Shadow for listening to my
babbling.
Part One
What
was she doing? How insane was she?
Those
questions repeated themselves around in Faith's head as she continued to
drive. Her leather jacket lay to her
side, but the cigarettes she'd stashed long ago for emergencies were all
gone. Along with the thirty-seven packs
she'd bought in the last week since firing her staff. Firing her friends. It didn't matter though. She was
protecting them. They would be better
off without working for Faith, the vampire with a soul, who was most definitely
losing it.
Of
course, the two demons she couldn't bring herself to slay, they were heading
towards the other people she cared about. The woman she loved with all the passion her being. They couldn't be happy with several dozen
groupies in LA, they had to come to Sunnydale to raise their "army." At least, that's what the annoying demon at
Caritas had told him. Faith would be
happy if she never say another Cher song again in the rest of her
existence. How was she supposed to
sing? She'd been a illiterate barmaid,
not taught the finer things like how to sing and not look like a fool while
doing it. Damn demon.
Coming
back to reality in time to see that cursed Welcome To Sunnydale sign, brought
one of her pale hands to the base of her neck, trying to masage away the kinks
that had been causing her annoyance for fifty miles. Vampires didn't tend to get many natural aches and pains, but
stress would bring them out as well as any human. And really, what could be more stressful than seeing the woman
that you had loved, and still did, with all your heart, in the arm of
another? And a man, at that. Not even a prime example of the species,
just a human that thought he was some great soldier. Faith's only moment of peace when thinking of the situation, was
realizing how happy he seemed to make Kate. At least, Riley was making Kate have something that Faith could never
give her. A happy relationship. One where you didn't have to worry about
your girlfriend becoming a soulless demon if you had a night of beautiful night
with her.
Sighing,
Faith continued to drive, trying to come up with a plan.
* * *
"What is she doing there?" Harmony listened to the response
on the other end of the line, "Please don't tell me she's gone all Evil Faith
on us again," she whispered to herself, before quickly yelling, "What do you
mean you don't know? Lindsey, I swear,
if you don't tell me everything you know, I'm so going to have Wesley kick your
ass, and Xander won't mind helping. He
doesn't like bartenders, you know," when she heard what the sleazy man on the
other end of the line had to say, Harmony was ready to toss the cell phone out
the window in anger. She did not want
to deal with this right now. "Well,
fuck you too, Lindsey."
Xander glanced back at her from his position next to the
driving Wesley, concern still etched in his face, "No luck?"
Harmony shook her head, her features those of a tired,
stressed out friend who worried for the well-being of another almost
constantly. "No, Lindsey the so-called
Snitch is being an ungrateful bastard. You would think that after how Faith saved his ass, he'd pay us a favor
back."
Wesley had been his usual laconic self for most of the
drive, but spoke up as he heard the last bit, "That is, unless she threatened
him first," he said in his matter-of-fact, assuring way.
Xander nodded, "She would do that first. Make sure none of the local demons knew she
was back in town. The undead would seem
to cause trouble if they found out the former Scourge of Europe come-vampire
exterminator was in town," Xander said, clarifying Harmony and Wesley's
thoughts. Even if Faith was still on
the side of the light, she was dangerous while this unbalanced. She was acting like Angel, without the
talking to the stars part.
Harmony shook her head, worried. Faith wasn't just a boss, she was like a sister. A cold and often preoccupied sister, but one
none the less. There'd been a time when
Harmony had thought she was in love with the beautiful souled vampiress, but it
had changed. They weren't meant to be
lovers, they were already fine being family. This realization did not hit her until, coming out of the
never-ending-vision, she had seen the look on Faith's face.
She had been saved, an now, it's was time to save her best
friend, sister, and one-time fantasy. If Faith was evil now, they would have to find a curse, and make the
damn thing less breakable. If she was
herself… Harmony had no idea what she would do. The teetering, bloodlust reering, very unstable way Faith had
been acting lately, it was just from one aspect of his past. A very important aspect, the woman who had
created Faith's eternal life, but still just one piece of a two-and-a-half
century puzzle. There was so much pain
in Faith's existence, and not much could be done to take it away. The only time it had, Faith had led a
seven-month rampage through Sunnydale and ended it in Hell. What could she possibly do to save a damned
soul?
* * *
Elizabeth was ready to snap.
She'd sat there in Tara's crypt for hours, since waking up
from a restless sleep, and listened to Tara babble on continuously. The stupid bint had gone on and on for as
long as Elizabeth could remember, and she was getting ready to drive the
nearest piece of sharpened wood into the annoying bitch. She carefully considered which was more
important to her at this point in her unlife. Sex, or sanity. The blonde
definitely was good for that. She was
either a very quick study, or she'd learned more than how to spell with her
arms as a cheerleader. Deciding sex won
out over sanity, no contest, she just tuned the babbling out. That was, until she heard that damn name
again.
"You'll protect me from Kate if she starts finding out that
I told the vampire prostitutes to go to Riley, won't you Buffy?" Tara asked as
she filed her nails to near razor-sharpness.
Standing up and kicking one of the boxes of junkyard
collectibles, she broke into a not-uncommon tirade, "My name is not Buffy! I'd kill that boy if I could. Just because I had to stay in his damn
basement for months, doesn't mean he has the right to torture me with that
bloody fucking name!" Elizabeth referred to Ripper, who had managed to start a
trend of calling her that. It was one
thing when Kate said it, her sexy mouth curling into a mean sneer as she'd spit
out the name at Elizabeth after landing a delicious punch on her, but no one
else had the right.
Tara, who'd seen the whole thing a dozen times, just kept
filing her nails, "Oh, sorry Lizzy. I
forgot how much you hate that name," she didn't even bother looking at him as
she said it, obviously not caring.
Elizabeth cringed at "Lizzy" but just shook her head and
walked out of the bedroom. At least she
couldn't call her blondy-bear anymore, with the fact that she hadn't been
blonde since getting the chip installed. It was too bad that Tara's was the only place that had a bed. She couldn't bloody well get one into hers
without a helluva more trouble than it was worth. She didn't even have a TV, so Passions was out. And, unless she was interested in Extra
Dead, Extra Crispy vampire, leaving was also out for the next hour or so.
She sat down on a chair that had been kicked aside last
night when she and Tara were getting to it, Elizabeth visualizing Tara as Kate,
of course. As she was getting ready to
try and nap the next hour before sunset, there was a crack as the door was
thrown open and a figure covered in a dark blanket ran into the room. Elizabeth looked up shocked to see her
grandsire throw off the blanket and come storming towards her. Lifting her up by the throat, Faith thrust
her against the wall and held on, "I want information. Now."
"Oh…kay," was all she could get out. This did not look like a good situation.
End Part One