An Alternate BtVS Season 3:"Mortal Friends; Mortal Foes"
Author: Sherman Barnes aka "Ironbear"
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, and all characters from those series belong to Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox Television, Kuzui Enterprises, UPN, Warner Brothers, and David Greenwalt Productions. I'm only borrowing them for the purposes of fanfiction, and only the plot and storyline, and those characters of my own creation belong to me. No profit is being made from this endeavor. Faith's back story draws loosely from that shown in "Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary" by Robert Joseph Levy; Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Episode events and episode dialogue quotes, where used, are drawn from the transcripts and summaries at , Wikipedia, and the shooting scripts at (/buffyverse.asp)
Author's Note: What if Faith had arrived earlier in Sunnydale and Buffy had returned a month later? What if the Mayor had had a slightly different goal? What if Spike never made it out of town following the love spell disaster, but met a different fate? Just how far apart is the line between "good slayer' and "evil slayer"? Diverges drastically from canon in many places, especially following "Lover's Walk" and "Bad Girls".
Synopsis: Aftermaths from the previous week's events put strain on Faith and the Scooby's relationship as she and Xander finish healing from their beatings,and Willow tries to come to terms with Xander's changed relationships with, her, Faith and Cordelia. In LA, Buffy continues to see Pike, even while trying to avoid letting LA's vampires draw her back into regular Slaying. And in Sunnydale, something new is haunting the various cemeteries...
Word Count: 29,432 total. 28,421 sans Disclaimer, Previouslies, and Credits.
"Night Watchmen"
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Alternate Season 3 Prequel
Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Los Angeles: Walking to what Buffy would be tempted to laughingly call 'home', if it were really laughable, she decides to splurge on a newspaper and large cappuccino at one of the little coffee bars in the area. While paying at the register, she has a sudden startled moment as a vaguely familiar voice behind her calls out her name - her real one - and freezes, half way to spinning and bolting. "Buffy? Buffy Summers?" Rather than running, Buffy turns slowly, a sickly smile on her face. Her jaw almost drops when she connects the voice with the face looking back at her. "Pike?" Buffy's jaw falls open...
Sunnydale: Faith rolls her eyes, following him "Har. Comedian." She narrows her eyes, "Ok, so here's the thing." Faith sprawls into the only other chair with her leg dangling over the arm. "Figure there's gotta be something in this area a Slayer can do to turn a buck. Nothing criminal, no working for demons or vamps, no leg breaking, but something that your normal, like, contractor can't do, y'know?" Willy stares at her, "You want me to recommend a job to you? Like, a job job?" Faith gives the ceiling a pained look, "Oh, for... " she shakes her head, glaring, "What, you think leather grows on trees? Or I have a trust fund or some shit?"
Sunnydale: "What do you mean?" Faith pulls away from Xander and Cordy, Willow and Oz, and gestures to them. "This." She points back up Revello to the Summers house. "That." Faith sticks her hands in her back pockets and falls back beside Xander and Cordelia. "I never had anything like that. I've never knownanything like that." She shrugs. "But... your mom and dad... ?" Willow started, then her eyes widen, and she catches Xander's warning head shake far too late to stop. "My mom?" Faith lengthens her stride and spins to walk backwards facing them. "Dad split when I was a kid. You wanna know what my mom did for dinner when I was little, Red? Huh?" She is suddenly blazingly angry for no reason she could understand, and far too frustrated to hold it in. Willow nods numbly, and Cordelia bites her lip, her eyes wide...
Sunnydale: "Good." The boss demon gives Faith a satisfied smirk. "Now do her friend while she watches, to punctuate the message. She fights, put a load of buckshot through her legs." He pauses, then adds almost as an afterthought, "Oh, yeah - you don't want to go to the hospital with this. We check? Your socialite friend gets to have a party. You'll both heal on your own and the lesson will stick better." When the first blow hits Xander, she turns her head to glare at the boss demon until one of the thugs yanks her head around. After that, she locks her eyes on Xander's while they beat him and doesn't look away again. But her eyes burn like coals behind the flat, brown stare, way down deep at the core of her being...
Sunnydale: "Yup. And you think Faith's going to get up in a day or so and make like a good little tame Slayer and play nice?" Cordelia snorts. "Oh, please." She catches his eyes. "Listen to me, Harris. No one is going to beat my only two friends half to death and then strut around like some two bit gangster Angelus." Her eyes go hard and his breath catches in his throat, "This is the way it goes. They use a knife, we use a gun. They put two of us in the hospital, we put all of them in the morgue." Xander stares at her for a long minute. "Friends, huh?" The corner of his mouth curls up in a lopsided grin.
...
Prologue: Quit Orkin Up and Get Back to Slaying -
Monday August 17, 1998; early night, near the Sunnydale dumps.
"Eeugh!! Yuck!" Cordelia raked fingers through her hair, attempting to scrape out as much gunk as humanly possible. It was definitely a lost cause - most likely it was going to require industrial grade shampoo and conditioner, and maybe a fire hose, to do the job. She looked down at her clothes and gave up, throwing her hands up in disgust. "This stuff is never coming out."
"Well, if you hadn't wallowed in the stuff," Faith remarked. She gave her axe a disgusted look, as well.
Cordelia gave her a glare that would have burnt through steel, getting an enormous Faith grin for her troubles. Cordelia shook her head, hiding a grin of her own, and let her sword slump tiredly.
"You were the one who decided to drop a big, flat rock on the egg sack thingy," Xander observed. He got the New and Improved version of the glare she'd favored Faith with, and gulped hastily, "Not that it wasn't an excellent plan, and, man do I have to admire you for coming up with it and having the nerve to pull it off and - "
"Can it, Dweeb," Cordelia snarled and went back to picking monster bits out of her hair. "I have a Faith, and I can talk her into hurting you badly."
"Shutting up now. Yes dear." He mimed locking his lips and threw a 'help me?' look at Faith. Faith smirked back.
"You are so whipped, Harris," Faith said. She turned to give the mouth of the tunnel they'd emerged from a disgusted look, "Man. Insect demons the size of pit bulls?" Faith shook her head, "And I thought Boston cockroaches were big."
"Don't forget the Queen," Xander said, shuddering.
"Oh yeah. Ten legs, pincers, and all. Upgrade that to bugs the size of ponies." Faith shook her head, "I'm glad they weren't roach demons."
"Jeeze," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Let's save the post-Slay remembrance until we have to do it for Giles."
"Suits," Faith shrugged.
"Next time, let's remember to do like Will and Oz and have a gig or something out of town when the subject of 'a small disturbance near the dump' comes up, huh?" Xander said.
"Yeah, I guess." Faith stuck her hands in her pockets and looked down, scuffing the dirt with her toe. "Whatever."
Xander exchanged looks with Cordelia and then sent an apologetic one at Faith. The... while they'd had a surface make up with Willow, since the beating and mob demon thing, Will had been treating the three of them with just a bit of frosty distance. Especially Cordelia and Faith. It rolled straight off of Cordy, naturally, but it definitely seemed to bug Faith.
Xander figured that the fact that the three of them were still living in Cordelia's pool house wasn't helping spring thaw arrive any time soon.
"Call it a night and head back?" Faith looked up, her trademark smirk back in place. She caught the apologetic look, and gave Xander a small grin and shrug, acknowledging that she wasn't mad at him.
"By way of the school - to use the showers there to sluice off and change first. No way are we tracking this stuff in at home on our way to the shower," Cordelia stated. "And we're putting a tarp on the convertible seats."
"Works," Faith agreed.
"Huh. Think we got 'em all?" Xander threw a glance back at the tunnel exit.
"If we didn't, Giles can go in after the rest," Cordelia said. "With a letter opener. Euugh!"
"Break from slaying tomorrow at Shoreline Amusement Park?" Xander suggested, hopefully. "After we get done with the obligatory Giles briefing?"
"Roller coasters, hit the beach after?" Faith looked up, a small grin beginning to tug at her lips. "I can swing through the cemeteries tonight so Giles can't say I'm slacking."
"Hmm. Sure. After I do the masseuse thing tomorrow," Cordelia nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
...
Monday August 17, 1998; Sunnydale, Shady Hill Cemetery, not long past dark.
"Through a graveyard?! Eeew."
"Oh, come on." Pushing open the gates to Shady Hill Cemetery, Rick Lake pulled on his protesting girlfriend's hand, drawing her after him. "You don't really believe some of the weirder stories about this town, do you? C'mon - it's a fast way back to where we left the car."
"I guess not," Carolynn Dumas, said, her tone doubtful. Every town had a few bizarre legends to use to frighten new residents with, and even if Sunnydale seemed to have more than its normal share, no one they'd met so far seemed to give them much credit.
"Yeah. Just bogeyman stories to scare the tourists away," Rick led the way down the path across the cemetery.
Roughly two thirds across Shady Hill, on the branching path leading to the street they'd parked on before going for a evening walk, it got darker as the path lighting fell into disrepair.
"Just a bit farther, and we're out, see?"
"Yeah. Let's hurry," Carolynn suggested. Tall tales or no, she still didn't want to spend more time here than they needed to to get across. Graveyards were... icky. Especially at night.
"No problem," Rick stated. A guttural sound came out of the darkness somewhere far too nearby.
"Uh... what was that?" Carolynn's voice took on more than a slight edge of fear.
"Stray dogs?" Rick paused, trying to peer into the gloom. His voice sounded a bit doubtful to Carolynn. They had noticed a lack of stray animals on Sunnydale's streets in the few weeks since their respective parents had moved here. Locals shrugged it off, when asked. Efficient animal control.
Never mind that the paper seemed to always have a lot of 'unexplained animal attack' stories, she suddenly remembered...
Rick's voice suddenly took on a hoarse note of panic as shadowy figures and glowing eyes boiled out of a nearby mausoleum. Carolynn screamed, then screamed louder as Rick was suddenly jerked off of his feet and began being drawn rapidly across the gravel off of the pathway. His shout cut off abruptly with a gurgling noise.
She screamed again as she felt something snatch at the leg of her jeans, spun back, and took off running blindly in the direction from which they'd come. Back towards the working path lights and possible safety.
She was still screaming when taloned, bony hands yanked her feet out from under her, and she was hauled backwards to disappear into the darkened interior of the old crypt.
...