Title: Memories are never forgotten
By: fallenrouge
Summary: A particulair dark slayer is suffering from the past in her own nightmares.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns these characters I do not.
Faith chose a room in the hotel far from the others, and she had gotten used to the loneliness she was plagued with. But lying down on the bed putting her arms behind her head she stared up at the ceiling. The fight was over. Her slayer life had been finished, but they just moved to Cleveland, which happened to be another hellmouth. Rest was just something she wasn't going to get here, besides, maybe she would be able to learn to cope with the others. Although being around them had caused the painful memories of what she had done the past years in Sunnydale, they all had offered to help her but she didn't accept it. Only then when she had run to L.A did Angel help her on her own path of redemption, her time in the big house was over and now she could control her anger.
Lying there on the bed she put a hand through her dark curls, and thinking of the ways she could find some silence rather than the constant bickering and fighting she heard. And sometimes she was just quiet rather than speaking back to anything she heard. Her eyes were focused upon the ceiling above her and she just day dreamed. But hearing the conversation below in another room of the hotel had caught her attention, they were talking about something, she couldn't hear because they had just lowered their voices to not be heard. Closing her eyes she needed rest but remembered that she had slept for eight months in coma, and she just had worn herself out with training by herself as usual.
Soon enough her eyes became heavy enough that she fell into a deep sleep. Rest. The whole time she had been traveling she didn't waste time on rest, only used her time on staying alert if something were to happen as they drove the whole way to Cleveland. Oh the pain she went through, that fight had drained her, and what she got in return was that the whole town was destroyed into a crater. Just thinking about that had got herself to remember the time Mayor Wilkins was working on his little apocalypse, and he wanted her a part of it, and he had called her his little firecracker. The Mayor of Sunnydale had been the only man who cared and compassionately cared for her, and now he was dead.
On her sleeping form she shifted to lying on her side and for some reason her hands were covering her ears. Something had started to scream out into her ears, only no one else could hear it. In her dreams, they often were about her painful past or even something that was soon to come. And this one had been about her past, screams were starting to erupt in her ears, and she wanted to scream back out in pain of it but she couldn't. It was if her voice was taken from her as she tried to cry out, her own mind seemed to be purged with pain and suffering. It was her past and she no longer wanted to face it, these were all the wounds that wouldn't heal, these memories had started to haunt her life as it is now.
Dream...
Faith was about seventeen and was in the graveyard with her Watcher; Mrs. Mathews. She had been out patrolling with her Watcher for some time now, and being cooped up in the house with her mother was something she wanted to pass. And even her Watcher had not wanted her to be there with her mother, her abusive mother. No longer would she want to find Faith with bruises on her arms and face, and hear the excuse of her running into walls at home. But just as she sat down on a tombstone her blood went cold, something big was coming and it was a vampire, a powerful one.
Mrs. Mathews had only been with Faith for about two years as her Watcher and played as a second mother to her. But seeing as though the young Slayers eyes go wide she suddenly kept watch, she knew the Slayer felt something and something was heading in their direction. Her Slayer moved from her spot and instantly changed into a fighting stance, hard footsteps heading their way, directly where Faith was looking. Growls started to erupt from the shadows and glowing eyes were coming closer, faster, until it was gone and the last thing that happened was that the dark haired Slayer was thrown into a tree. This vampire was strong; it was Kakistos, why did it have to be this vampire?
Faith's Watcher pulled out a cross and held it in front of her and backed up to her Slayers side, she extended a hand helping her up and the young Slayer brushed herself off as she saw the vampire once more. Charging at this vampire she pulled her stake out and stabbed him in the chest, right at heart point. She stood there and usually a vampire would have disappeared in thin air as dust, but when she opened her eyes again he was still there and was laughing hysterically. She couldn't understand what happened. Her move should have pieced his dead flesh and made him burst into dust. No. He was still standing, and right in front of her before he pulled her stake out of his chest.
The young Slayer backed away from this vampire, he had a evil smirk upon his voice, and she knew instantly that she had no chance to defeat this guy. Looking over to her Watcher who was stunned as she was, she backed up and he grabbed her arm. Since a stake wouldn't work, she pulled out a dagger she had for demons and sliced his face directly over his left eye like a lightning bolt. He dropped her and howled in pain as she ran over to her Watcher who followed Faith to get away from Kakistos. How is he impenetrable? This vampire should have gone poof in thin air, but he just laughed.
Watcher and Slayer reached a vantage point just outside of the graveyard and on the other side of Boston. They stood in a park panting, and taking in panicky gasps as they rested, and hoping that the vampire had not followed her. But no, he was just as quick as they were, he had recovered from his little wound and headed after their trail with other vampires with him the whole way. The group reached the little vantage point that the Slayer and Watcher thought was safe, and now they had been cornered in a fighting like circle inside the park. Growls, glowing yellow eyes, and anger was coming from them.
Slayer stepped forward and the vampires each attacked her. Dark hair flowing from the back of her fragile head, and fists were flying and connecting with faces. And after a moment screams were heard and Faith had forgotten about her Watcher, she needed to get to her Watcher as fast she could. But just as she got close the other vampires grabbed her, and she couldn't release herself from their grasp. Faith was trying to get free but it was no use, there were too many of them and they all had a hard grip on her arms.
Kakistos had her Watcher by the throat, and she was choking. Her arms were up and grabbing on his wrists trying to pull them away from her throat, but he was far stronger than she was. Faith called out her Watchers name with worried and panicky gasps. But the older vampire had just smirked at the Slayer, so this was a Slayers weakness? Ah. So they had cared a lot about their Watchers. He put Mrs. Mathews down to her feet to stand but turned her to look at her Slayer, and just then in a quick movement the vampire Kakistos had snapped the Watchers neck. Her eyes were then fogged with blackness as her body went limp in the vampires' arms.
Faith's mouth opened in horror, tears running down the young Slayers cheeks staining them with redness. Not only did she lose a Watcher and a friend, but she lost the only woman who had cared for her as a daughter. Her head fell to look at the ground, her eyes were wide with pain and sadness, and no speech seemed to want to come from her mouth. And the vampire laughed once again, he thought he could now just finish this girl off. But before he knew it she had fled from the vampires and ran off to find a safe place. And screams just filled the air as she kept running with tears on her stained face.
Dream falls...
Awaking with a startled face on her, she had screamed in her sleep and now her tears had become real as they ran down her cheeks with warm water. Holding her hands over her face she tried the best to hide them, she had not cried since the incident. And now she had not wanted to feel this pain and sadness, but Angel was right, she would be haunted by her past her whole life. But she didn't even cause this death, a vampire she couldn't defeat had destroyed the only one who had cared and loved her like a daughter, and death had taken her whole. Just seeing the death again had made her sick to her stomach.
Giles came and knocked on her door but instantly walked inside not waiting for an answer, seeing her there on the bed crying and holding her face in her hands had worked him up with worry. He was there and was giving her a father figure to depend on if she wanted to, but she just wouldn't accept it right way. And he was giving her time to accept the fact that he was going to leave her just like her father and mother did to her.
"Faith," he said sitting on the bed beside her. "Are you alright dear?" he asked.
Faith just couldn't look up, she didn't want him to see her like this. But maybe he knew her Watcher, and hopefully he could help her cope with the dark dream. Although it was just some nightmare, it had taken her over with her worst memories. It was starting to feel like this had come true once again, but she didn't want to believe it, she couldn't.
"I think so, but you didn't have to come in here. You could have just left me alone like everyone else does, and don't say its because you care about me, 'cause I know that. Just please leave me alone so I can deal with this alone..." she said rather quickly.
Giles looked at her for a moment, he could feel her pain and sadness flowing from her. And he really thought she would like to have him help her, just like a good father would have done. But he didn't quite understand why she wouldn't stay in one place for a long time, she was always leaving the hotel. Maybe he just needed time to understand why she had acted like this, he didn't want her to deal with this kind of thing alone.
"Alright, but you may call for me if you want my help..." Giles told her before getting up and leaving her alone, again, in her room.
Sighing she wiped the tears from her face and plopped back down on the bed closing her eyes tightly trying to deal with her pain herself. She would bottle everything up so no one would have to deal with what she was feeling, and lately she had been trying to keep herself from the others. But no matter how hard she tried, she would often at times leave the hotel to do things, because she did not like being in small places. And she took a deep breath in as she turned to one side and drifted off into a deep sleep, and maybe she would talk to Giles late, and apologize for being something she had been called her whole life.