— Thor's Slayers —
Chapter Four
Story Time
Author's Notes: I am still deliberating on whether to make this a short prequel to a series or whether to make this a single standalone. Trying to write Faith into joining SGC in any sort of realistic manner would be tedious and the idea of just making a montage is appealing. And I still haven't decided if that's actually how I want to move this story forward. So, folks, should I make this into a prequel for a series/standalone where Faith joins SGC? or should I make this just a simple meet and greet?
I have a much more length A/N coming up in Chapter 5 where I'm going to try to lay out a few things and explain my plans/reasoning.
PanchoPistolas: I do apologize for the short chapters but I am going to do my best to keep the story flowing. If I release short chapters, I'll try to release the next chapter sooner. My next few chapters are already shaping up to be longer.
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"So...where we goin'?" Faith drawled, following Sam down one of the many similar looking grey corridors.
"If Colonel O'Neill's only injury is his broken nose, then he should already be out of the infirmary and at the cafeteria right now, which is where we're headed. I thought you might like something to eat," Sam replied dryly.
Faith winced. "Yeah...sorry about that, got a little jumpy at the whole being hijacked bit."
It was Sam's turn to grimace. "Jack will probably be a little miffed for a while, but we understand." Sam sighed and shrugged, "Thor means well."
"Right," the brunette drawled dubiously while Teal'c remained ever impassive as he followed the two women.
Eventually they found themselves in the cafeteria, where Faith saw the Geek, who she now knew to be Dr. Daniel Jackson, and one Colonel Jack O'Neill sporting bandaging around his nose and an icepack against his swollen cheek.
Girding her metaphorical loins, she joined the four at a small table and looked up to see the Colonel staring at her, or not so much a stare as a glare. Faith averted her eyes and looked around and saw jello on the table. Lots of jello.
Faith inwardly shrugged and thought, still beats prison food, before she grabbed one of the dishes.
"Additional proof that she isn't all bad, sir," the blonde woman beside her observed.
Faith frowned and Daniel nodded towards Faith's blue jello and elaborated on Sam's innocuous statement. "Sam believes the blue jello is the best."
"I see," the young woman said, obviously not seeing it at all.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Faith finally gave up. "Okay, Doctor J, ask."
"What's a Slayer?" came the immediate question.
"You promised me a Stargate," Faith countered with a raised eyebrow.
"After you finish your jello, we'll take you straight there," Daniel promised.
"We will?" Jack asked in a somewhat nasal tone and shot a pointed look towards the younger man.
"We will," Daniel insisted.
Faith shrugged. One of the things she'd managed in her time in prison was learn how not to be such a stubborn bitch all the goddamn time. Might as well put all that practice to use, she thought, someone's gonna have to spill their guts first anyway and seeing how it's their party I crashed... "A Slayer...is a young girl mystically chosen to fight evil," Faith said. "That's the cliff notes answer, you'll need to ask someone in tweed for a better one."
"Tweed?" Sam asked.
"You know, the Brits. Stuffy and posh with sticks jammed up their collective asses?"
Faith's comment made Daniel choke on the water he was sipping and decided to elaborate. "See, there used to be this group of stuffy British men called the Watchers' Council, who helped guide the Slayers through their duties and train those who had the potential to become Slayers. They tell us how to kill somethin', and we go kill it."
Her eating companions stared at her.
"If there was supposed to be only one Slayer, why did they spend so much effort on training potential replacements?" Sam asked.
That question made Faith grimace. "Look, Slayers...Slayers are Called from young girls, younger than 18, I think. Slayers get sent out to kill baddies, to face Evil. Evil with a capital 'E', ya know? Evil doesn't play nice. Slayers have a short lifespan, Sam, rarely more than a year or two. The Watchers, complete bastards that they were, tried their best."
"You said mystically chosen, what do you mean?" Daniel asked.
"From what I've heard, way back thousands of years ago, I guess, some old guys forced a demon into a girl. She was the first Slayer, a hunter of the things that would hunt man. When the girl died, another would be Called, gaining that same power and continuing the fight against baddies. It wasn't random, how a girl came to be Called, but it wasn't totally predictable or somethin' that could be manipulated either."
"What "evil" would require such methods," Teal'c asked.
"Vampires mostly, Demons and all the other things that go bump in the night, too."
Sam just stared at her at the mention of vampires but otherwise said nothing.
"But if a demon's essence is part of you...why aren't you-?" Daniel blushed as he asked the question.
Faith grinned, "Evil? Well...demons ain't all evil, not really. Some just want to live peacefully, or find ways to live with humans. Some come from other dimensions like refugees. Pretty weird shit." Faith's grin faded then, "Besides, I wasn't always a beacon of virtue or whatever. I had a pretty nasty evil streak until I turned myself in. People are people, and I've seen people do shit just as evil as any demon."
For the first time, Colonel O'Neill spoke. "What happened?"
Faith shrugged and avoided the eyes of her companions. None of these people knew her, hadn't understood what she had done and what she had become. Even given the disaster of their first meeting, she still hadn't become diminished in their eyes, she could tell. But she figured General Hammond would dig some of it out soon anyways; better from her than from a rap sheet.
"A lot of bad luck, some shitty circumstances, and stupid fuckin' decisions on my part. It wasn't only my fault, there was some pretty messed up shit happenin', but there was a point where if I had owned up to my own failings, a lot of the stuff that happened later might never have happened at all." Faith took a deep breath. "I killed a man. It was an accident, it was understandable, but I panicked. And things just spiraled down from there. I did some pretty terrible things. Tortured somebody, practically raped someone else, killed another man, and joined up with someone that really was Evil with a capital 'E'. I was so stupid and I just didn't get it. I ended up in a coma for almost a year after being ganked and when I woke up I did some more stupid shit before I tried to make someone else kill me because I was too cowardly to do it myself...and I decided to turn myself in."
Faith drank a sip of water still avoiding the others' eyes. "I turned myself in because I didn't want to be evil with a capital 'E.' I wanted to fix myself, and being in lockup helped me do that. I was supposed to be doing 25 to life."
The Colonel spoke again, his voice quiet, "How did you get out?"
Faith snorted. "I broke out. Could have done it at any time. A friend needed me, the same friend who helped me make the decision to turn myself in. Everyone gave up on me but him, so when I heard he was in trouble, I didn't think twice. When he was safe, I learned some even worse shit was going down, I couldn't let the others deal with it alone. Those people I wanted to help, they were the ones I'd hurt so badly before. After Sunnydale went down the drain, I found out that same friend of mine had managed to get me pardoned."
"A pardon? After you escaped?" Sam asked incredulously.
"You ever heard of Wolfram & Hart?"
"Thor spoke of 'the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart'," recalled.
"Yeah...it's a transdimensional law firm owned by demons. They can pretty much fix anything for you for a price."
"Seriously?" The Colonel asked.
"Seriously," Faith nodded.
"Well," the Colonel said nonchalantly, "That was more dour than I expected. Aren't there any happy things you found like Santa or something?"
"Ah, I was actually told that Santa Claus was a demon who disemboweled children in ye olden days," Faith said, wincing at the mortified looks she received.
"So...you did some bad things, you turned yourself in and served time. You escaped to fight against evil and now you're free. What do you want to do next?" Daniel asked curiously.
Faith sighed. "I dunno. I wanna be there for the others but...I kinda wanna know why Thor thinks I can help you."
"Your besty," Jack said blandly.
Faith smirked.
"From what both you and Thor have stated, you are a formidable warrior," Teal'c said. "I would like to spar with you."
Sam watched as a wide grin appeared on the young brunette's face and found herself uncertain whether she was willing to bet on Teal'c.
"You got it, T, let's see what you got," Faith said, cracking her knuckles and loosening her shoulders.
"Ah, why don't we do that in the morning," Daniel said. "It's pretty late."
"Party pooper," Faith teased before she turned more serious. "But you promised me a Stargate, so we see that first."
The others exchanged looks and Colonel O'Neill finally shrugged and said, "Sam, why don't you take Faith to take a look. Like Daniel, I am in need of my beauty sleep."
"Gonna take a whole lot sleep to make that mug beautiful," Faith murmured.
Jack shot her a dirty look while Sam coughed to cover a laugh.
Teal'c bowed his head to Faith, "I look forward to the morning, then. Good night, Faith Lehane."
"Gotcha, Later T." Faith watched the other three get up and make their way out of the room before turning to Sam. "Alright Blondie, show me this gate of yours."
As they walked out of the cafeteria, Sam couldn't help but to finally blurt out, "Vampires?!"
Faith's answering laugh echoed in the corridor.
