A/N: Welcome to the next installment, sorry for the delay. Enjoy!

PART ONE: My Darkest Night

Chapter 1:

It was like the typical light at the end of the tunnel. Except if you reached it, you would not find the Afterlife, but stark reality.

The girl looked so small, lying lifeless under a thin sheet, her chest barely rising with her breaths. This was not the same girl who fought vampires with such fire? Who grabbed life (and boys, and whatever else caught her attention) with such enthusiasm? Surely not!

For that girl had never looked so helpless, so innoccent and vulnerable as this.

So, we must be seeing only a shell, and shall we hope for that shell to crack? Shall we bow our heads and pray for the life to return to her? And if our prayers are answered, shall we turn away again, and pretend not to notice the emptiness in her eyes?

Chapter 2:

She dreams.

She struggles to remember. And forget.

A soft sigh escapes her; a sign of acceptance perhaps. Introspection is not her thing; never was. Faith hated her life before being Called. But, being the spare Slayer was definitely not the Destiny she'd signed up for. This was supposed to be her town, her time, right? Only Buffy wasn't dead. And the successor had no throne, unless she took it.

To top it off, Buffy Summers was Ms Perfect: even with a Souled vampire as her ex-boyfriend, she could do no wrong. And how utterly cracked up is that? A Slayer in love with a Vampire? Like a huge cosmic joke. Like one more way for Fate to screw her over. Because having a drunken whore for a mother wasn't enough. Because losing the one person who ever gave a damn wasn't enough. Because finally being strong, not weak and not a victim, and thinking Kakistos is just a vamp and I was born to kick his ass, and having her beliefs ripped out like Diane's throat in front of her eyes was never enough.

Which is why she was currently lying in a cold, bare hospital room.

Alone and forgotten in an endless night, like so many times before, and will this ever change?

Maybe, maybe not. She twitches.

Dawn was coming. She could feel it.

Chapter 3:

Her awakening feels almost unreal. One minute it was dark, and then it wasn't. Just like that she's back, same as always.

The world has changed, however. Faith feels it immediately. The highschool is destroyed, and the Mayor is gone, like so many Big Bads before him. None of that matters when the demon grabs her from behind, and drags into the alley close to her former apartment. The sound of his neck breaking is as satisfying as ever.

The envelope in his bulky jacket has her name on it in block letters. She imagines the Mayor saying her name, with respect and affection, and something twists in her stomache. She decides its because she's hungry, and enters the building through the back.

Her apartment is still in shambles, as though someone wanted to remember it as it was that night, as though to remind Faith how far she's come. How far she's fallen.

Inside the envelope is a video-tape and a metallic-looking gizmo. She studies it while waiting for the tape to start. The device looks devious, in an innocently-gleaming-way, and she feels a shiver of anticipation.

The Mayor adjusts something on his desk, waiting for his cue. Faith smiles at the gesture, so typical of the man she knew. Again that strange twinge in her stomache, and she tells herself she'll get something to eat as soon as this video-message is over. On screen, the Mayor is finally ready.

"Faith, if you're watching this, my planned Ascension was foiled. Pity," the image shakes his head, chuckling softly.

"I don't want anyone to blame themselves for that. I have always believed in my destiny, and if it wasn't to rule Sunnydale and the world as a pure demon, well, I just gotta live with it, hm? Or not, as the case may be," he continued, looking as chipper as ever.

Faith shakes her head at this. Even dead, the guy was still so weird.

"I do have one regret though. Faith, I wish I could have been there for you. I know you're rolling your eyes as this sentimental fool, but I do care about you, and well, I worry. Life is not kind to people like us, who just don't seem to fit in."

Now he looked into the camera a little sadly, Faith thought, as if he can see her. She looks down at herself, at the clothes she stole off the lost visitor when she woke up in the hospital, ill-fitting on her pale frame. She's lost weight, and she becomes aware of feeling grimy, as though weeks or months of dust has collected in her pores, and she starts to itch. He's talking again, and she's studying the odd gadget as he holds it on screen.

"So, I got you a little present. Nothing fancy, but something I think you'll like. Something I know will change your life, like you changed mine."

She listens attentively as he describes its uses, and slowly her smile begins to grow. The Mayor was right after all. He did know her. The plan was perfect. And whatever else happened, Buffy would never forget her. This time, she wouldn't have a choice.

We all want one thing in the end. A place to belong, a home.

A family.