NEW ORDER

By DarKade

Warnings: Major Character Death, angst, violence, gore, lesbian


Prologue

She is dead. She is dead. She is dead and the world is out of order. Shattered, slashed, smashed. The bits cascade and land where they will. She is dead and everything is broken.

'Giles!' you hear yourself screaming. 'Giles! Help her!' you wonder why he stands there, cold and still. His eyes downcast, his hands fisted at his sides. 'God damn you!… do something!'

Cold is seeping into your legs. It's blood. It has to be. There is just so, so much. Her pale throat slit wide open; irreversible, unholy. She was gone long before you got here and you know it. But you beg to Giles. Put it right. Put it back. Help her.

Help me.

You keep screaming until your sobs rob you of your voice.

A fatherly hand is upon your shoulder. She is dead, Faith. Kennedy is dead.

And you know you are alone again.


Her name was Kennedy. Just Kennedy. A Smug, condescending brat. Daddy's little rich girl turned rebel. Everything you never had just handed to her.

Of course that's just the story you told yourself. She was more than that. Driven from her family, cast out for her differences only to die in some hell hole town, throat slashed through. Alone and penniless. Just one more face in the chain.

Sometimes when you close your eyes you can feel them. All your ancestors flowing back and back into the past. The Slayers fallen. Countless faces. Countless battles. Countless deaths. It took you awhile to realize that you will one day be just that. A single face in another girl's dream. Another link in that chain of loss and horror. Faith Lehane, The Vampire Slayer.

You never thought you would meet the girl that would replace you. But the world is out of order because of you.

You asked her once. Both drunk and bloodied from battle. Can you see me when ya dream that dream, Ken? You know the one. Can you see me?

Yes. I see you drown in that pool of blood. Kakistos standing over you. Is that what you want to hear Faith? I see your limbs spasm and it feel it too, like all the others. I feel it all. I can't breathe. I feel his teeth at my throat. The piss running down my leg. As you die. You are the first face I see in that dream.

You nod. Kendra is the first you see. The Werewolf's jaws crushing your throat.

So here you are. Faith Lehane of the Slayer line. India to Kendra, Kendra to you, You to Kennedy and Kennedy to some poor bitch out there somewhere.

A Slayer out of the chain. And you wonder if it is now broken because of you. Because that is what you are. isn't it?

Broken.