Chapter Two

Why Charleston

In retrospect, Buffy had thought that Cleveland would be the place of reckoning. Closing a second hellmouth, when they were still so vulnerable from the collapse of Sunnydale, seemed a bit foolish. She did her best to lead their group of 32 slayers in Ohio, but all of them were inexperienced, selfish, and immature. Willow, Kennedy, Xander, Giles, and Andrew had formed a "committee" of non-slaying humans and called themselves Shield, after something that Andrew had explained to her several times, but it was still a vague comic reference that she couldn't remember. They came up with initiatives and ideas and tried to troubleshoot boring problems that kept the slayers functional, like how to pay bills.

Buffy appreciated their willingness to take care of all that, because goddess knew she had no interest or flavor for it. Shield was what allowed them to move quickly and hack Cleveland's demons off at the knees before the Ohio hellmouth had a chance to ever see them coming. It had been easy, but they had lost a few more girls. Zarana, Chloe, Helen, and Nikki had all been casualties to the cause. That was when Buffy, Shield, and a few of the more mature slayers had decided to change the way they were operating and become more organized. After Sunnydale, it had been about simply finding where the most evil was located and trying to get the upper hand through reckless attacks. They were fighting like they were a guerilla cell, without taking the time and effort to train and bring new slayers into their midst. The Academy changed all of that, for the better.

Robin had heard that Georgia was brewing with a new threat; a big bad named Lee Brown who had been southern scum as a human, and was rising to the top as a vampire. Lee was a slave-owning entrepreneur before the civil war, and had laid low in various parts of the Bible belt where he could blend in as a demon. He used his skills as a businessman and in exploitation to create a small empire of a disgusting caliber. He bought, sold, and traded humans for some of the most powerful and established vampires in the country. Lee also had a team of lackeys who propagated rumors about him, which is what eventually got him onto the radar of Robin's contacts. Word on the street was that he had bought a charm that made him tolerant to sunlight, and he could freely live among humans, mascarading as one.

Fortunately, all of these wild rumors turned out to be false, and Lee was simply another regular vamp, who happened to have a lot of friends but not a lot of power. Dusting him and everyone in his circle was light work for Buffy and the slayers. However, their trip to Georgia was eye-opening, to say the least. Perhaps it was because she had spent almost all of her life on the east coast, but Buffy had no idea how much corruption and evil existed in the heart of the American south. Sometimes she found herself asking if they were still living in the 21st century, or if they had perhaps gone through a time portal to the 1930's and were living in some cut scene from Fried Green Tomatoes. Some of it was human, which was beyond their reach; but most of it was of the demonic variety, which Buffy could practically smell. It was obvious that as much as they despised the area, they would have to stay in the south for a long time.

Robin had suggested Charleston, since it was a safe and tolerable city, centrally located, but not as embedded in corruption. Ironically, he didn't stay more than one week after they found a place to stay. Buffy couldn't say why, but he seemed perpetually unsettled, and he was always coming and going at long intervals. She couldn't say she had ever known him well enough to miss him, but it was unfortunate to lose a good warrior and ally.

Once they signed the lease on an office building and set up a storefront, Shield created their "Book of Directives". This wasn't so much a book, as it was a list on paper about the purpose of the group and what they planned to accomplish. The first directive was that all slayers would maintain their education in the day, and conduct slayer training at night. The second directive was that only nominated slayers would be selected to go out and slay, to keep fatalities at a minimum. The third directive was that what Andrew called "The Prime Directive": everyone's goal was to find more slayers. They knew that the world was full of potentials who had been called, but identifying them had not been 100% successful, even with Willow's great spellcasting abilities. They estimated that there could be as many as 40 or 50 thousand slayers in America alone. It seemed outrageous for such a high number to exist, but of course it meant that evil increased to weigh in the balance. That resulted in many girls being killed before they ever had a chance to even understand that they had been called, or what they were. If Buffy's team couldn't make contact and bring them into the fold, they might never stand a chance.

This was how they began to find a new life in Charleston, and things started to even feel like a home, sort of. Andrew managed the storefront, which was a consulting and investigations agency. Some of the girls who were out of school worked there, and it lended them opportunities to seek out other slayers. They registered the rest of the building as apartments, legitimately, so that the girls could maintain legal addresses and attend school without raising suspicion.

Faith had even found a way to fit in, though she mainly kept to herself. She wouldn't contribute to Shield, because she said she found it "too political". She wouldn't do the difficult work in the consulting agency, like filing papers or completing reports. Of course, she was more than willing to conduct field investigations, even if they weren't related to slaying. Sometimes she followed the rules and directives, but often she "forgot" about nominating slayers, or about not making full contact during combat training. However, overall she was much easier to communicate with and she did genuinely seem to try and be part of their team. Buffy never let her guard down with Faith, but she saw her as a friend more and more over time.

Everyone pitched in to teach the girls slayer skills, but also life skills. Some of them had been rather naive, and now they were expected to not only survive, but hopefully be self-sufficient, someday.

Slaying had been a challenge with the new girls. The newest students were only nominated and allowed to go on slaying missions once a month, until they proved they were ready to move up to the next level. It was almost like a karate dojo, in some regards. Faith usually took one team, and Buffy took another. If evil was heating up, Kennedy joined one of the teams, but if things seemed benign enough then Kennedy took her own team out. For that reason especially, Faith and Buffy seldom did anything together where they really talked or interacted. It was strange how much time had passed and Faith seemed to just be part of the background.

Maybe that was why she was growing unhappy with the situation. Maybe she felt overlooked and unimportant. But that didn't seem logical or probable to Buffy, because every time she saw Faith it looked as though she was quite happy, actually. She had even made friends with a few of the slayers, and they had a comic book night once a week. Of course, she was probably closest with Andrew out of everyone in the group.

Buffy had thought that when Robin left, maybe Faith would follow. They seemed to be involved at random, occasionally appearing romantic together, other times platonic. She had no idea if there was anything there, but she was surprised when Faith stuck around in Charleston. That was why Buffy felt so strongly that her darker counterpart would always be there with them. Without Robin, the only thing that Faith had was her attachment to the new slayers and her dedication to teaching them and helping them grow. That hadn't changed, so what had?

It had been two days since Andrew and Giles had come to Buffy and broke the news. Clearly they did not expect it to have any affect on her, because they delivered it as though it were a recap of a missed episode of Desperate Housewives.

"Faith has informed us that she has made a connection through Robin with a group of humans in Utah who are hunting vampires there," Giles started dryly, "they could use a slayer on their side. Naturally, they are losing numbers. She plans to buy a cheap car and go help them. We think it's a solid plan, then she can search for new slayers, and send them to us."

"Oh, great." Buffy had responded through a mouthful of cereal. She had been right in the middle of a late breakfast when the two of them interrupted her. "So how long will she be gone?"

Andrew looked at the floor. "Forever." He made a motion like wiping away a fake tear from his eye. "I'm gonna have to find myself a new comic buddy. It sucks, but I can deal. Her plan is probably more important than reading through Jinx the Elf together."

"No, really. When will she come back?" The blonde slayer had suddenly no patience.

Giles and the smaller man shared a glance.

"She isn't coming back, or at least has no plans to, Buffy." Rupert started in his serious, fatherly voice. "She thinks it is time that she went out on her own, like Robin Wood has done."

"But, no. But, we need her here. She has responsibilities. There are things that she does here that no one else does. Obviously she trains the slayers, so we need her to train the slayers. Training the slayers is the thing that we need her to do, and that she has to keep doing." Buffy paused and looked at them rather desperately. "She can go and do that for a while, but she needs to come back here and continue to help with training. Tell her she can go for a couple weeks."

Rupert Giles scratched at his chin and took a deep breath. "We can't very well tell her she must return. Why must she? She is free to come and go, just as any one of us are. Perhaps you should ask her to return, if it is important to you. She might not know that you wish her to stay."

"I want her to stay, too!" Andrew threw up his arms animatedly. "I already begged her to stay and even promised to give her my 1/6th figure of Uhura, but she said nothing would sway her. Good luck, but don't waste your breath. Nothing is more persuasive than the finest officer the-"

"I'll talk to her." The slayer blurted out quickly. She dropped her spoon into the bowl with a loud clang and abruptly took it over to the sink, tossing it in.

"Buffy, I'm sorry." Giles apologized to her as she walked past them. "We didn't think you would..." his words trailed off as he struggled to find them.

"Yeah, it's okay. Not your fault." She replied half-heartedly. "As usual, this is her fault."

Giles and Andrew weren't entirely convinced as to why this was Faith's fault, but they thought it best to leave the conversation as it was.

In two days, Buffy had been unable to directly approach Faith about staying. She was a master of the passive aggressive, and this was no exception. Faith knew better than to ask what was wrong, so she did her best to avoid the smaller blonde. They had been through enough rough patches that this seemed familiar, albeit uncommon in the days after Sunnydale. Faith thought they had cleared the air between them, but even a blind idiot could see that Buffy shot daggers with her eyes every time the darker slayer came into a room.

None of it had been so bad as the weird confrontation in Xander's classroom, which seemed to be the climax of Buffy's angry behavior. Immediately afterward, Faith had called Charles, the leader of the humans in Utah. He asked her how soon she could leave; they were losing good warriors left and right to the vamps around Salt Lake City. She couldn't find any reason in her mind to not leave that very moment, especially considering what a bitch her supposed sister slayer was being. But something in her wanted just one more night to say goodbye, so she told him she would be on the road first thing in the morning.

She packed up her belongings, which was only enough to fit into a single suitcase and a backpack. Faith had lived by the philosophy that a slayer should always be ready to bail if the worst happened, and at least move somewhere safe. She tried to teach the younger girls the same idea, but most of them clung to their possessions like their lives depended on it. Perhaps that made sense; many of them had to leave behind families already, so it was a lot to ask them to give up even more familiarity.

The southie had picked up a Honda Civic from a Craigslist ad for $650. It was a desperately sad car, but would probably last long enough to get her to SLC. She rolled her suitcase out of their building and loaded it into her "new" car, out front. Faith was manually locking the doors when she heard that old familiar voice behind her.

"So you're leaving right now? Well goodbye, I guess."

Faith pulled her head out of the vehicle and slammed the front door shut, then turned around slowly with a resigned sigh. "No, I was planning to come back in and stay tonight. Just getting my car loaded up."

Buffy looked dissatisfied with that answer. "Why bother? You obviously don't care about what we have going on, here, anymore. If you just want to leave us here, then you better get going."

"Is that why you've been acting like this? Seriously, because I've had enough with your deal. I would ask what the problem is but I'm not even sure that I care."

The slayer rolled her green eyes with exaggeration. "Obviously. These girls need you, and you are bailing on them."

"That doesn't make any sense! They have everything they need, here! We haven't found any new slayers in the Carolinas or anywhere else in driving distance for the past 3 months, B. You know that we have to start branching out farther if we are going to locate all of them. This is a perfect opportunity, and honestly we all should start going to other places to find slayers. They need me more than the girls here do. There might be girls out there, alone, dying."

It was a good point, but Buffy was relentless. "Then let's do this smarter, let's start sending teams to go on short missions to find girls, around the country. We can put together groups and rotate. Once a month, we go somewhere new, pick up a few slayers. What you are doing is just degrading the integrity of our mission!"

"We don't have a mission. We have a training facility. I've hung around for this long enough, but you know me, sis. I'm a boots on the ground kind of gal. I always have been. It's amazing that I've stuck with this as long as I have, but now it's time."

In true Buffy-fashion, she scrunched up her nose with frustration and disgust. It was futile to argue with Faith in most instances, but especially when she was right about something. The older slayer decided to try a new approach. "You can go for one week. Then you will come back."

Faith leaned back against her Civic and folded her arms indignantly. "What makes you think you can give me orders? You don't run this show, blondie."

"You have to bring the slayers back. So find the slayers, and bring them back here."

"They are slayers, not breastfeeding infants. They can board a plane in daylight by themselves and be here safely. Alone."

Miss Summers shook her head emphatically. "No, absolutely not. I am not going to allow you to risk their lives. One slayer alone is bait for trouble. A group of them, together, is going to attract every kind of evil in the country. If they die on their way here, it will be your fault." She took a step forward and pointed her finger accusingly at Faith's chest.

"So I'm a prisoner here, now? This is bullshit! I have given the last two years of my life to helping you and your friends. I put up with your little rules committee, I teach the classes you want me to teach, I went along with all your goals and shit. Where do you get off, Buffy?!"

"You can discuss this with me when you return. Here. See you then." Buffy spun on her heel and didn't leave room for her fellow slayer to respond. Before another word could be spoken, the blonde was through the door to the office building, leaving an extremely confused Faith behind.