Immortality's Gift (The Alternate Version)
Part 21: Surprise Reunion

Lounging in the back seat of Angel's convertible, Faith gazed idly at the homes passing by that were lit brightly by a combination of natural and artificial light. The night was warm, and the Slayer had draped her jacket over her lap, revealing that she was wearing a low-cut, form-fitting tank top that exposed part of her stomach, which showed a simple gold belly ring with a stake charm attached. Her expression was one of indifference, but that was far from what she was truly feeling. She was uneasy about being back in Sunnydale, despite the guarantees of those who had made her new identity. The fact that those in the Magic Box had recognized her didn't assure her that she wouldn't be recognized by others. But how many outside of Buffy's little group had truly known her enough to recognize her on sight in this town that were a threat to her new life? None that were alive, or undead.

Was she truly ready to come back to this city? Not really, but what choice did she have? Someone needed to be here to watch the Hellmouth. That was all there was to it. A sharp pang tugged at her heart as she spotted the Bronze, and the memory of her first sight of her sister-Slayer. Her brow furrowed as her eyes darkened with remembrance. So much had happened during that time: Kakistos, accidentally killing the Deputy Mayor, becoming the Mayor's sidekick, being put into that coma, and her eventual awakening, followed by her attempt of suicide by vampire. She nearly laughed at that final remembrance while casting a glance at Angel as he drove the car they were in. She had chosen the wrong vamp to kill her, as he had seen through her act before she even did. God, how that realization had hurt!

She had hated herself then, and only Angel's arms around her had kept her from going mad in that moment...just barely. Matters had not been helped when Buffy had come storming into LA not long after. She had almost run away then, but seeing Angel being led away in handcuffs had snapped something inside her. She couldn't let the one who had held out a hand to her, not once, but twice, take the blame for her actions. She just couldn't, so turned herself in. That had been the defining moment for her, when she knew that she would not, could not be evil...no matter what. She was a Slayer, and she would do all in her power to uphold what that meant, even if she had to sacrifice herself for the sake of others.

Feeling Buffy die a week ago had solidified all that she had been striving for while in prison. When Quentin and his people came with their offer to free her not long after, she had instantly accepted, knowing that this was her one chance to redeem herself, and to live a better life. She hadn't expected some of the stuff the Watchers had done for her, but understood why. A Slayer that couldn't move about freely was of no use to anyone, and only wiping her past away could allow her to do what was needed. Perhaps they, too, had seen something good in her after all, and that was why they had given her this second chance. She had been given a Get Out of Jail Free card, a new life, and the chance to kick evil where it hurt. What more could a Slayer ask for?

These thoughts lifted her spirits, and she felt truly free in that moment of the darkness of her past. The memories and experiences were still there, but they no longer incapacitated her and kept her from her duty. It was an incredibly euphoric feeling. All that remained now was helping the others to see that she was not whom she had been, telling them she was sorry for the way she had acted, and asking them for forgiveness. Simple, really, and as easy as making them believe that the sun would rise in the West tomorrow morning.

She almost snorted at that last thought, and a corner of her mouth did twitch up for a moment in wry humor, when she felt eyes on her. Turning her head, Faith saw Dawn twisted around in her seat with her arm wrapped around the headrest, gazing at her, the teenager's expression curious as she studied the Slayer.

Gesturing to her own hair to explain the subject, Dawn asked, "So, dyed or natural? 'Cause I gotta say: if that's dyed, I wanna know what brand you used!"

Smiling faintly, the Slayer answered as she sat up straighter, "Natural. They performed some sortta mojo that changed my physical appearance at the DNA level...at least that's what I got out of their explanation. Even my fingerprints aren't the same."

Eyes widening, the teenager grinned, said, "Cool!" then asked inquisitively, "But what about the length, it kinda looks like ya took a knife to it."

Almost squirming in her seat in embarrassment, Faith admitted quietly while looking down, "I did. I was so mad about B dying, that I needed to do something, but Travers wouldn't let me go hunting. So in a fit of rage I grabbed a knife and hacked at it in fistfuls while cursing at them. It wasn't one of my better moments with them the past few days."

A silence descended, and grew. Unable to stand it, the Slayer looked up to see Dawn gazing at her seriously. After a moment, the teenager commented insightfully, "You really do like Buffy."

Running a hand through her hair, Faith sighed, and acknowledged, "Yeah, I did. I mean, she was a Slayer. She understood what that meant. We could swap stories about our experiences and know that when we said it was hard, we meant it, and weren't trying to downplay what we did like others thought. I know we didn't get along, but the few times we could put our differences aside, it was frickin' fantastic."

"Then why did you two have such problems?"

Slouching down in her seat, the Slayer thought for a moment, and then answered honestly, "We had too much shit happening in our lives, and then dumped our own crap on each other when we couldn't handle what we were already doing. On top of that, when we looked at each other, we saw a life we wanted, and we didn't see the downsides. It made us hate each other, and fucked both of us up royally." She sighed deeply, before saying wistfully, her voice trailing off at the end, "I wish I could tell her..."

Dawn laid her head down on the arm looped around the headrest, and inquired, "Tell her what?"

A breathless laugh escaped Faith before she said, "Everything. There's so much! I want to tell her I'm sorry, just: sorry, that I understand now, and would do things differently if I could do it over."

"Heavy," Dawn observed sagely.

Faith smile wanly, then, her expression becoming serious as she sat up and leaned forward, she said, "I want you to know, D, that if you need anything, I'll do what I can. Despite everything that happened between us, your sister meant a lot to me, and I hate that she's dead."

Dawn frowned, then shook her head, and said as she turned back around to face forward, "You don't need to do anything."

A frown now on her own face, Faith was about to add something, when Angel said as he turned the car, "We're here."

As the Slayer followed Angel and Dawn towards the house, she thought with some concern, D should be bawling her eyes out about B's death, and Soul Man should be broodier than ever. Yet they aren't. And all that stuff they were hinting at earlier just begs for answers... I'm not bein' told something, and whatever it is is big. What the Hell's goin' on here?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dawn pushed open the door of the residence as she stepped inside and called out, "We're home!" into an apparently empty house. Faith frowned as she followed behind the teenager, noticing the many closed, open, or half-full boxes littered about the place. On closer inspection, the Slayer noticed a great deal of the more permanent decorations no longer in their places. She also noticed that all the curtains were carefully drawn closed, as though to keep curious eyes from seeing anything inside the house.

Angel closing the door caused her to look towards him to see the souled vampire listening to something for a moment, before he said to Dawn, who was riffling through one of the nearly full boxes on the dinning table, "Dawn, could you get everybody something to drink while I see what she's up to?"

Without looking up, the teenager replied absently, "Sure," and kept doing what she was doing.

After a moment of her not deviating from her scrutiny of the box, Angel folded his arms across his chest, and stated firmly, "Now, Dawn."

This caused said person to look up in irritation, before turning on her heel and stomping into the kitchen. Faith watched the muttering teen until she was out of sight, and then looked at Angel as he sighed heavily. Catching her gazing at him, the vampire said slightly apologetically, "She's still adjusting to everything that's happened. I have to go upstairs for a moment, so why don't you have a seat, and I'll be back shortly."

Faith nodded, and Angel quickly went up the stairs. The Slayer wandered into the living room, and settled onto the couch, finding it as comfortable as she remembered it being. As she gazed about the room, Faith noticed a manila folder stuck half-hazardly between two boxes on the coffee table. Curious, she leaned forward and grabbed the folder. Sitting back into her seat, she opened it. What she was gazing at took her a second to assimilate, but once she did, she quickly glanced through the rest of it, stunned and disbelieving.

She grew more confused the further she read, and thought to herself, What the fuck? Soul Man's adopted D, and he's apparently married to B. These're also signed and dated today. B's dead, how's she supposedly signing these?

She quickly snapped the folder shut as she heard Dawn say from the entrance of the room, "You know, it's rude to go through people's stuff without asking."

Faith snorted as she put the folder back where she had found it, and said in retaliation before looking over at the teenager, "Right. This is coming from Miss Sticky Fingers!"

Shaking her head with a long-suffering look on her face as she handed Faith a glass of soda, Dawn said semi-defensively, "Hey! You're the one who taught me, so don't be pointing fingers."

The Slayer saluted the teenager with her drink as she chuckled, a conspiratorial grin on her face. Her expression then became serious as she remembered the reason for this conversation, and asked as she put her drink down on the coffee table, "So, since you saw what I was doing, what's with those papers? They're signed and dated today, and that shouldn't be possible with B dead."

"Umm," Dawn said uncertainly, while placing her drink down on the end table beside her and sitting down across from the other woman. Fiddling with one of her bracelets, she continued hesitantly, "Well, there's a lot you probably don't know about what's happened around here recently." After a thoughtful pause, she inquired curiously, "What do you know about what happened?"

Faith snorted derisively and scowled at the floor, before answering, "Not much. Only that B was protecting something from a hell goddess, and died to make sure our world wasn't shredded to pieces by the spell the bitch was doing with the thing B was trying to protect. Other than that: nothing. They wouldn't tell me what she was protectin', and said it was none of my business."

The silence following her words caused the Slayer to look up. She grew concerned as she saw that Dawn was hugging herself, face ashen. Leaning forward again, Faith asked, her voice echoing her concern, "Dawn?"

Without looking at the Slayer, the teenager whispered, "Then there's a lot we're going to have to tell you."

In the silence that descended, Angel stepped into the room. He took one look at the two women, and asked worriedly, "Everything alright?"

Faith nodded, then said, "Everything's peachy-keen, Soul Man. D's just been telling me there's a whole lotta shit ya guys have to tell me 'bout what's been goin' on."

A familiar voice then spoke from behind Angel that was completely unexpected by Faith, saying contemptuously, "Who says we're telling you anything?"

Drawing in breath sharply, Faith swiftly rose to her feet, wild-eyed. As she stared at the doorway that Angel stood in, she could see his indecision between what he should and wanted to do. A throat clearing pointedly behind him caused him to sigh heavily, before moving to the side. Faith now had a clear view to see the one she wanted to see, and felt her heart clench in hope and unease.

With a mouth that suddenly felt as dry as a desert, the dark-haired Slayer breathed out, "Buffy?"

"Faith," responded the other Slayer tautly, her arms folded across her chest from where she leaned in the doorway.

Her confusion evident, Faith stammered out, "B-but, I felt you die. You should be dead!"

"I was," came the curt retort.

Suspicion suddenly bloomed within her as Faith cautiously questioned, "How do I really know you are her?"

Buffy unfolded her arms and walked over to stand in front of Faith, looked directly into her eyes, and said with quiet intensity, "The night you turned yourself in to the cops in LA, we talked about being a victim. I was angry, furious. I didn't want to listen...but I remembered what you said. It took me until just recently to understand what you meant, but I know now." She paused for a moment, her lips pressed tightly together and her eyes darkened with memory, before continuing, "You were right. I hate losing control. I can't stand it. When Glory took what I had been guarding from me, I lost it. Only my friends needing me, and my need to get the bitch back for taking what was mine made me go on."

Faith blinked, intentionally breaking the staring contest, and drew in a steadying breath, before commenting as lightly as she could around her jangling nerves, "Same old Buffy, I see."

"And what's that supposed to mean, huh?" Buffy snapped out, one hand resting on her hip.

Stepping back warily, Faith replied, "Nothing. I'm just sayin' that I believe you're who you say you are."

The blonde Slayer snorted, crossed her arms before her, and countered shrewdly, "Yeah, well, I got a question for you: How do we know you're really Faith? I got witnesses to my revival. From Giles' phone call, the Council just brought you. That's suspicious in my book. How do we know you're not some spy sent to look kinda like Faith, and not the real deal?"

Grimacing as she ran a hand through her shortened hair, the dark haired Slayer answered, "Going back to our last, uh, talk, I asked you something, and you never had the time to answer, 'cause of those Council assassins. So I'm asking it now, so you can finally answer me: How can I make it better between us?"

Her eyes narrowed to slits, Buffy answered darkly, "You want an answer to that, Faith? Well, here it is: This world doesn't need you. Go the fuck away and die!"

"Buffy," Angel said angrily, just as Dawn surged to her feet in fury, said "Hey, back off!" while stepping between the two Slayers and pushing Buffy away from Faith roughly.

The elder Slayer flew back through the hallway into the dinning room until she crashed into the dinning table. The table broke as Buffy fell to the floor, causing several of the open boxes on its surface to fall on her, spilling their contents. Slightly dazed, Buffy didn't raise her arms in enough time to protect herself from some very sharp metal sculptures in one box falling on her head and before her face. Crying out in pain as she hunched forward and covered her face, she was not aware of Angel rushing to her side.

Faith stared dumbfounded as Angel knelt down and carefully pulled Buffy's hands away from her face. Once he saw the level of damage, he said curtly to Dawn, "Go get a towel."

The younger Summers girl crossed her arms before her, and said defensively, "Why should I? It serves her right for what she said!" At Angel's pointed glare, she snarled, "Fine!" and stomped into the kitchen.

As Dawn purposefully banged drawers open and closed to waste time, Faith said numbly the first thing to enter her mind, "The kid's a Slayer?" Angel silently nodded. "How?"

"Because I really did die," came the muffled response from Buffy, her voice resigned and pain filled.

"But," Faith said, her confusion evident as she stood in the hallway gazing into the room, "the Slayer line goes through me now. How can she be a Slayer if I haven't died?"

"'Cause I'm not actually real, at least until about a year ago," answered Dawn as she stepped into the room with the requested towel. When Angel had taken the cloth and began to carefully wipe Buffy's face clear of blood, the teenager explained, saying, "You see, the thing that hell goddess was looking for? It was me."

"Huh?" was all the reformed Slayer could say as she stepped back to allow the teenager into the hall with her.

The youngest Slayer present leaned against the doorframe to the living room as Faith mirrored her against the wall across from her. As they did this, Dawn continued talking.

"You see, almost a year ago, I was this green ball of energy called the Key, until I was sent to Buffy in human form. Also, somehow, the monks who made me human implanted memories of me and my life before I was real into everyone that needed them. I even have legal papers that're appropriately aged and everything."

Faith gaped, her mind flashing back to the past few days and what the Watcher's Council had done for her, and understood as comments made by them now made sense. Pulling herself together, she said, "That sounds like what Quentin and his group did with me, except that those who knew me as a Slayer beforehand would still know the old me. Figures that they would use someone else's work to get what they want. This still doesn't explain how you're a Slayer though, Brat."

Dawn shifted uncomfortably under Faith's penetrating gaze, before answering, "Well, uh, this is when it starts getting tricky. I mean, I'm still trying to grasp it! Anyway, you see, everyone's memories say I'm Buffy's sister, but, truthfully, I'm actually her and Angel's daughter through the Powers That Be's meddling. I'm supposed to be some sort of reward to those two for their hard work."

At that moment, Faith was very glad to be leaning against a wall, as her mind could barely wrap around the concept just presented to her. It seemed impossible, and yet, things were starting to make a strange sort of sense. The legal papers she had seen moments before, memories of those three interacting so easily in the past, how Dawn could look so different yet alike to the Summers women, all this and more made the puzzle that was Dawn complete.

Her chaotic thoughts finally settling, the reformed Slayer realized that there was still one question that hadn't been answered. Frowning, she said then asked, "That explains you, but how's Buffy still alive and kickin'?"

"I'm alive," the afore mentioned Slayer answered clearly behind where Dawn stood, causing the younger woman to move, "because I'm now what's called Immortal."

Stunned shock seared through Faith as she stared at Buffy. The eldest Slayer's face had been cleared of blood, and not a scar or mark was upon her. Suddenly finding herself sitting on the floor with no recollection of doing so, she stammered out, "H-h-how?"

Buffy shrugged nonchalantly as she held out a hand for Faith to take, and answered as she pulled said Slayer up, "Part of the Immortal package. I can't die permanently unless my head's cut off, and I get near instantaneous healing."

Faith shook her head in amazement as she muttered, "Well, shit," before asking in a normal tone of voice, "Where can I sign up for somethin' like that?"

Locking eyes with Faith so she would see the truth of what was said, Buffy replied bluntly, "Not possible, Faith. You can't just do some spell and be Immortal. Adam, the one who's teaching me about being this, says that there've been those that tried, but died while attempting it. You're either born with the possibility of being Immortal or not. Also, to activate one's immortality, you have to die a violent death that you can't be revived from. It's not pretty, and dying and reviving hurts."

The intensity of Buffy's gaze became too much for Faith, and she looked down. Seeing the blood stains on the other Slayer's shirt inexplicitly caused jealousy to clench her heart. Bitterly, she thought, If I'd been Immortal when B stabbed me, I wouldn't've landed in that coma, and immediately felt the wrongness of that thought. Angrily, she shoved the notion away. What the fuck's wrong with me? Jeeze, get your head on straight, girl! There's more important stuff to be worried about.

Firmly reining in her emotions, she looked up and asked determinedly, "So what now? The Council obviously doesn't know you're alive nor about D here, or they'd be on you guys faster than it'd take a fried egg to cook in a hot skillet."

"That depends on what you plan to do, Faith," Angel responded quietly as he joined the conversation for the first time.

"What d'ya mean," Faith asked in some confusion.

The souled vampire didn't answer immediately as he ushered everyone back into the living room. Once everyone was seated, he explained and asked, "You obviously owe the Watcher's Council for what they've done to free you. The question then becomes how willing are you to break our confidences to pay off your debt to them?"

Faith's lips thinned as she carefully thought about the best way to answer. After a minute, she said candidly, "I don't owe them shit. What they've done for me I consider back payment for all the crap they put me through before I went to jail. I know exactly why Quentin got me outta there, and I'm not gonna play by his rules. So I'm askin' again, what're we doin'? With the display D gave earlier, she needs training, and with Quentin hanging around B's gotta stay low to avoid him. How do we work this?"

"That seems to be the big question," Buffy said with a sigh. "If he'd left after dropping you off, there wouldn't've been a problem. Dawn would've finished the school year, then we would have moved in with Angel. Now we need to avoid Quentin. Which brings up a good question: did he bring anyone else with him? Last time he was here he had a whole posse doing what he wanted."

Faith shrugged before saying dismissively, "Nah, just him. All the others are still in LA, not too far from where you live, Angel."

Angel frowned, but didn't respond otherwise as Dawn murmured with some relief, "Well, that's one less worry on us."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't solve our problem," Buffy responded.

Faith leaned forward in her seat as she asked, "Soul Man, ya still own that mansion on Crawford street?"

Angel shook his head, and said, "I sold it just after leaving here the first time."

"Damn."

"That doesn't leave too many places, then," Buffy murmured. "The only thing I can think of is one of the warehouses or the training room in the Magic Box."

Dawn huffed a breath out, then said as she slouched down in her seat in a sulk, "So a free-for-all for the vamps, or have Quentin find out about us. Great, just...great."

"We don't need to figure out what to do this very moment," Angel commented. "It might be a good idea to talk with everyone in our group about this. Also, it's late, and Dawn has school in the morning."

Ignoring Dawn's groan, Buffy said, "Yeah, I'm kinda wiped out myself from all the stuff that's happened today. Faith, you can have my old room. Angel and I are using the master bedroom, so if you have any problems, let us know."

Up Next: Cassandra comes face-to-face with a certain Old One, and the encounter is not at all pleasant for either of them!