Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set at beginning of season 6. Things might seem slightly AU to begin with, but everything will be explained as the story continues.
Author's Note: Okay, this was an idea that I'd had about 3 years ago, it was originally going to be part of the Ultimate Slayer story-arc, but as I've given up the original idea for that and made it a lot smaller arc (in the hope that I may someday finish it). I've decided to go ahead with this anyway... it's similar to What The Hellmouth Happened in that regard... I'm gonna use both of these stories when I take a break from the major plotline that goes across most of the other story arcs. Confused..? Try being me, when I came up with all this... (where it's all for one story remember??? Man I was stupidly ambitious there...)
Era Of A New Dawn - 3/?
Faith was genuinely shocked. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen this much hostility coming off her fellow Slayer. She was positive she'd never seen it directed at herself or any of her other friends.
'Well, there was that one time with Giles.' Faith thought as she backed away, pulling a struggling Dawn with her.
"What??" Her younger sibling shouted finally turning to face her.
"Dawn..." Faith started slowly, trying to persuade her sister. "You need to get out of the way now... I don't think Buffy's quite herself."
"She wouldn't hurt me... she's been like a sister to us." Dawn argued back.
"Dawn." Came Xander's voice, as he stepped between Buffy and the two other women. "We don't even know if this is Buffy."
"Of course it's me!"
"Of course it's her!" Replied Willow at the exact same time.
"You sure, Red..?" Faith replied, feeling more confident now she had placed Dawn behind herself. "Cos it don't exactly sound like her."
Faith noted that both Buffy and Willow seemed infuriated at the accusation, but Dawn looked unsure now.
"Faith. I'm warning you, if you don't let go of my sister right now..?" Faith felt Dawn move more behind her at the threat.
"Your sister..?" Xander asked instinctively. "Actually, considering everything you've previously done for them and your recent sacrifice I'm definitely not getting in the middle of that one." He corrected himself quickly while Buffy glared at him.
In other circumstances Faith felt she probably would have been amused with her boyfriend, although thankful for the attempt she wasn't certain any attempts at levity would help this current situation.
"Exactly how are you back..?" Oz asked, getting to the point as usual.
"Willow found me." Buffy answered sharply, Faith noted that while the other Slayer would occasionally glance away, her gaze always returned to watching Dawn's attempts at hiding behind herself. Something that was making both Lehane sisters extremely uncomfortable.
"Found you..?" She heard Xander ask in his confused tone, she glanced in his direction as he moved closer to Buffy. She noted his hands were open in a gesture of peace and he was moving very slowly.
'She's practically his best friend.' She reasoned to herself. 'And he's correct in the assumption that he's one of the people she's not angry at.'
"Yes, found me." Buffy stated with confidence. "Someone took me away and yo-"
"Took you from where..?" Oz interrupted.
Behind her Faith heard Dawn sob. "It's okay, Dawnie..." Faith offered as a means of consoling the younger girl. Her own feelings about Buffy's return were happiness mixed with worry, with just a little confusion thrown in on the top. 'Based on both her current behaviour, and the fact that she's here at all.'
"Graverobbers..?" Dawn cried out.
"Fucking hell." Faith let out.
"What..? No." Buffy replied, as Faith released a large sigh of relief. "But I was buried in a crate underground... Willow said you didn't know about that, that you didn't believe her."
"Willow said what..." Xander began before shrugging it off. "Buffy..." he continued carefully. Faith noted the large gulping sound as he swallowed deeply. "You died... we buried you."
Now Buffy turned to face him Faith noted. This time her eyes didn't stray back to track either hers or Dawn's movements. Faith used this time to disentangle herself from Dawn and move closer to the others.
"No!" Buffy defiantly answered, Faith noticed her squinting at Xander and assumed she was trying to determine if he was lying or not. "There was... it... the portal." Was the last words Faith heard before Buffy dropped to the ground and cried.
Faith looked confused and searched the others. "What portal..?"
Her boyfriend shrugged, and she couldn't see any signs of recognition in any of the others eyes either.
Dawn darted past her before she could react and had nearly made it to Buffy when Xander caught her. Faith nodded her thanks as Xander forcibly made Dawn stand next to him and calm down.
"She's..." Dawn began, but Xander silenced her with a finger on her lips.
"What portal?" Faith repeated.
"Is that like a light at the end of the tunnel?" Xander asked. "Not joking." He clarified at some of their looks.
"Where did you find her..?" Xander asked Willow in a serious tone. "How did you know she was back..?"
"I brought her back." Willow confessed quietly. Faith whipped her head round to face the red-haired witch.
"You did fucking what..?" Faith snapped. "Why..?"
"She was in trouble," Willow answered. "I thought she might be in some sort of hell dimension."
"Why would you think that?" Xander asked, his own voice cold and hard now.
"There were... I..." Willow drifted off.
"Willow." Oz added in a disapproving tone.
"But you said... when Joyce-" Dawn cried.
Faith stood up to move closer and was glad when Xander automatically put his arm around her sister's shoulders. Moving her own arm around her sibling's waist, she glanced in Buffy's direction to see how she'd reacted to talk of her mother.
'Of the woman that willingly took two street kids in.' Faith commented to herself, thinking back to the many times they'd all shared in this, the first thing that had felt like a real home for both of them.
"It's not the same. It wasn't the same." Willow argued futily.
"How wasn't it the same?" Oz enquired.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it if it was a natural death." Willow replied. "She died fighting with a Hell Goddess."
"She fell to her death." Faith countered. "Nothing supernatural about that."
"She said she saw a portal on the way down." Willow tried in vain.
"Something you could only know about after you brought her back!" Xander shouted.
"You always take her side." Willow desperately argued.
Xander sighed. "She's my girlfriend."
"Get over yourself, Red." Faith replied indifferently. "High school was a long time ago."
"Even longer for you, you drop-out." Willow screamed.
"Got a GED, didn't I?" Faith smirked back.
"Eventually." Willow said.
"Sorry for not leading a happy middle-class college-for-the-hell-of-it lifestyle... hope I didn't offend you any." Faith added in her most sarcastic tone.
"You don't know anything about our lives." Dawn screamed. "Stop judging us..."
"I'm not judging you Dawnie." Willow apologised.
"Erm... guys." Oz said aloud.
"Everytime you judge my sister, you're secretly judging me." Dawn countered. "It's not her fault that we didn't go to school until Joyce took us in... if you'd lived our life for even one minute."
"Guys." Oz repeated louder.
"Yeah." Xander asked him, releasing Dawn as she wrapped herself up in Faith's arms.
"Buffy's trying to say something." The musician nodded in the kneeling Slayer's direction.
"I dived into a portal to save Dawn. So she wouldn't have to..." Buffy commented.
Faith opened her mouth in shock. "No-one told me that... why did no-one ever fucking tell me that?" She accused the room. "I was a little busy with that long-tongued mother fucker, I didn't see a portal. Surely someone must have seen it."
"I was up with Dawn. I didn't see anything." Oz answered.
"Me either." Dawn replied before moving over to Buffy and offering a large hug. "I never knew that. You didn't have to do that for me..." She informed her between tears.
"Of course I did." Buffy replied, clinging tightly into the embrace. "You're my sister."
"Babe," Xander offered to Faith distracting her from the two women crouching on the floor. "I tracked them the whole way down." He swallowed again, obviously reliving the memory. "I didn't see a portal."
"The Doc opened the portal... made lots of little cuts in Dawnie." Buffy explained, Faith turned to see the blonde still clinging desperately to the girl she thought was her sister.
Faith quickly flicked her eyes in the direction of her sister, quickly receiving the reply she was silently demanding. "That Doc creature didn't do anything to me... I swear." The younger woman responded. "You got there as soon as he'd brought the knife out."
"Then me and him played patty-cake til I finished him off." Faith summed up. "The tongue, for the record, not sharper than the sword."
"Glory arrived after that..." Dawn began, and Faith saw her pause and look at Buffy before continuing. "She didn't have any weapons with her, and was debating if ripping my arm out of the socket and letting me bleed to death was a possible solution."
Faith heard Buffy let out a gasp. "That's when you football-tackled her off the edge... we'd all been tag-teaming against the bitch before then, and at best we were only slowing her down."
"Wearing her down." Xander corrected with a wink in her direction. "I'm not taking full credit for taking down a Goddess... regardless of how cool my rep would be if it was true."
Buffy looked at her, than at the rest of the group, then back to her.
"You're lying!!!" Was the conclusion she apparently came to. "That wasn't what happened... Faith was where she deserved to be, rotting in prison..."
"Why would she be in prison..?" Oz asked in a curious tone.
"She murdered people." Buffy stated confidently.
"Now I'm pretty sure I'd remember if I was dating a serial killer." Xander joked, Faith recognised from the desperate tone that he was hoping to disperse some of the tension.
"But it probably wouldn't bother you." Buffy turned on him. "It didn't last time."
"What..?" Xander stuttered, before returning a response with a slight edge to it. "Now I don't mean to throw stones, but I'm pretty sure that you're the only one in the room who's had an ex in the murderer category."
"Angel had nothing on Anya." Buffy threw back in his face.
"I still don't know who Anya is." Oz replied, "Was she someone that turned up while I was in Tibet?"
"He took her to the school prom, and they've been fuck buddies since she returned after running away when she heard about the Ascension."
Faith looked confused. "No idea who Anya is either, Wolfie... And other than the running away from the Ascension bit, I'm pretty sure she could be describing me and Xan. Except we started a little earlier than that."
Buffy's attention was now back on the brunette Slayer. "What did you do to them Faith... another mindswap trick, something else of the Mayor's..?"
Faith pulled Dawn away from the other Slayer, afraid in her current state she might end up doing something rash.
"What are you blaming me for..?" Faith asked, shielding Dawn with her own body. "Your friend Red there's the one with all the memory whammy mojo."
"I didn't do anything wrong." Willow defended herself.
"Except raise the dead." Xander replied. "And didn't we learn from the Joyce experience that sometimes they come back wrong."
"This is completely different." Willow stated confidently. "Look at her, this is nothing like what happened to Mrs Summers."
"Willow didn't do this, Faith did." Buffy stated confidently.
"How is this different?" Xander accused loudly. "She's come back wrong... true it's not mindless-zombie wrong, but... listen to her." He pointed towards the blonde Slayer. "At the very best you can say that she's incredibly delusional, I'm dreading to see what the worst can be when it's a Slayer doing it."
"We've already seen the results of that." Buffy pointed at Faith, trying to ram the point home. "She's always been trying to take what I've had."
"Hey, I've never asked for anything off you." Faith countered. "I've taken what I've been offered, but that was more for Dawnie's benefit than my own."
Buffy began listing points, that for some reason she thought were in her favour. "You've tried to take Spike's place... he's the one that went and faced the Doc."
"Spike..? 'Chipped-Spike that works with Angel' Spike?" Xander asked through a cough.
"You've tried to take my place as the top Slayer." Buffy continued.
"Didn't want the role, only stood up and did it as you were gone." Faith countered. "More than welcome to let you play senior Slayer again if you'd calm down."
"Yeah, you took advantage of my passing didn't you..?" Buffy confronted her directly. "What happened, they need more muscle than Spike and the Buffybot could provide so the Council got you out for them..?"
"We haven't been involved with the Council in over a year, B." Faith informed her.
"What's a Buffybot..?" Xander asked, "Cos my mind just went to a very scary place."
"Ditto." Oz agreed.
Buffy ignored the responses. "Once out, you get some other trinket of the Mayor's..?"
"Again with the Mayor comment... are we right in assuming you're talking about Richard 'Snake Barbecue' Wilkins the Third?" Xander asked, then at several looks added. "Everything else she says tends to be similar to reality but with just a hint of lunatic mixed in."
Faith glanced away from her fellow Slayer, to look at her boyfriend with raised eyebrows.
"You take my house. You take my sister. And you convince them I'm dead so that you can take my life???"
At the raised tone, Faith turned back just in time to see the fist heading her way. She felt the snap across her jaw and flew backwards over the sofa and against the wall. Feeling the plasterboard crack behind her as she slid down to the floor.
"Fuck. Xander's gonna have to fix that now." She replied as she lifted herself up on one elbow and felt her chin with the other hand. "You done now..?" She asked as she looked back towards the others.
Just in time to see Buffy jump over the sofa and come towards looking like she was willing to kill. "Not even close."
End chapter 3
