Author's Note: Some of the dialogue in the final scene in this chapter comes directly from the BtVS episode "End of Days".
The Doctor's Faith Healing
Chapter 6
The Summers House
The TARDIS did an emergency landing in the middle of Buffy's living room. Thanks to Spike having heard the noise earlier, he was able to get everyone out before the TARDIS made its sudden appearance. The Doctor poked his head out and looked around. He seemed quite surprised that he had managed to keep the TARDIS on the same planet in the same timestream after and stunt like that. Faith walked out of the TARDIS and plopped down on the couch. The front door opened and the potentials Faith had led into the tunnels walked into the house.
"See, I told you it was a trap," Faith said nonchalantly. Kennedy just stared at her, her jaw slack. The other potentials bumped into her trying to get inside.
The Doctor finished an outside inspection of the TARDIS and turned to speak with Spike. "Did Buffy get back yet?" he asked.
"Yeah, she's upstairs with Giles, Willow, and her new toy," Spike said. "I'm staying the hell away from that thing. It gives me the willies," Spike admitted.
Faith and the Doctor went upstairs and found Buffy and the others in Buffy's bedroom. "What did you find, B?" Faith asked.
"This," Buffy said showing Faith the Scythe. The Doctor gasped.
"We're trying to figure out what the markings on the blade mean," Willow said.
"Yes, so far we haven't even been able to come up with what base language they are from," Giles said, cleaning his glasses. "I had hoped the TARDIS would have allowed me to read them. I have been able to read everything else in my collection with ease," Giles said.
"It's a safety protocol in case one of the Companions turns on the Time Lord and they needed to send a message back home," the Doctor said. The others in the room looked at him for more of an explanation. He was staring at the Scythe like it was alive and it was going to bite him at any moment. "The language is High Gallifreyan, the language of the Time Lords," he told them.
Willow was the first person to catch on. She pointed at the Scythe. "Does that mean the Scythe is a Time Lord artifact?" she asked the Doctor.
"The weapon you are holding is called Storm's Fury. It belonged to one of the founders of our society, the Other," the Doctor told Buffy.
Giles looked at the Scythe and remembered that one of the names the Doctor's enemies called him was "the Oncoming Storm." He wondered if there was a connection. Giles then asked a question he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to. "Doctor, if this is a relic of the Time Lords, it would imply that your kind has been interfering with ours for a very long time. Do you know how long it has been going on?" he asked.
"Well I can't say for other Time Lords, but personally I have been making sure your species has had a fair shake at survival long before you even evolved," the Doctor said in an offhand manner. "But that is a discussion for another time," he said. The Doctor reached out slowly and laid a hand on the shaft of Storm's Fury. "We need to discuss Storm's Fury," he told them. Faith put her hand on top of his.
Both Slayers were touching the Scythe when Faith called it by name, "Storm's Fury," she said. The Scythe glowed and Buffy and Faith found themselves on a ledge overlooking a huge underground cavern. A man was standing at the edge of the ledge looking down. He was dressed in an odd looking black robe with a collar piece that stuck up a foot beyond his head. Faith and Buffy joined him at the edge of the cliff face and looked over. They both gasped when they saw the sea of Turok-Han swarming on the cavern floor below. The man turned to face them and the Slayers backed away when they saw his eyes had been replaced by glowing yellow and red fire.
"Where are the rest of the Vampire Slayers?" the being asked, his other worldly voice reverberating. His face was constantly shifting. At first it was the face of a kindly old man with white hair. The next face was a man with close cropped brown hair and big ears. The next two faces were of a man with bushy hair and big teeth and then a distinguished man with white hair again.
"What do mean 'Where are the rest?' You're lucky there are two of us," Faith said, putting her hands on her hips, refusing to be intimidated. "You know, the whole 'One in every generation' thing," she said.
The being looked at the Slayers. "You're not impressed with the robes or voice thing at all, are you?" he asked. His face shifted again and he had an almost comical, wrinkled face with black hair cut like someone had put a bowl on his head and cut around the edge. The Slayers shook their heads.
"Can you knock it off with the face thing, it's kinda creepy," Buffy said. "Not in an impressive way; just a creepy 'I can't figure out who I want to be' way," she said to the shifting faces.
The man's robes shifted from a dark version of a Gallifreyan ceremonial robe to a pair of blue jeans and a tee shirt that read "Trust me, I'm a Doctor". His face shifted one last time and this did cause the Slayers to feel a little disturbed. He wore the Doctor's current face. "Bet you didn't even know he owned a pair of jeans," the man said using the Doctor's normal voice. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am the Other and you Buffy are holding my Scythe," the Other said.
"O…K…that sounds dirty," Buffy said slowly.
The Other smiled at them. "Oh it could be much worse. Of the three original weapons of power, at least you're not holding Rassilon's Rod or Omega's Hand," he joked.
Faith snickered. "Wow, you guys didn't get out much," she said.
"They didn't get out of the lab very often," the Other said, winking at Faith. He slid his finger along the blade of Storm's Furry which Buffy was still carrying. "Me, I got out plenty," he said. "Did you know they actually gave me a hard time about naming the scythe 'Storm's Furry'?" he asked rhetorically. "I mean come on. Rassilon builds a big pole with a sphere at one end and calls it Rassilon's Rod and he gives me shit about naming my scythe Storm's Fury," the Other said.
Faith snickered. "You have got to be kidding me," Buffy said.
"Nope, about a meter long shaft with a ball at the end. At least Omega wasn't in a phallic mood when he built his weapon. Omega's Hand was simply a silver gauntlet. That man didn't have a creative bone in his whole body. He was great at 4th and 5th dimensional physics, not mention matter transference theory, but if you asked him to name a painting he would probably call it oil paint on a canvas," he said.
"I'm sorry. I have to ask; otherwise I will have this awful porn shop image stuck in my mind. I mean come on, hand and rod? What the hell do they do?" Faith asked the Other.
"Omega built Omega's Hand to tap into the powers of his stellar manipulation device, the Hand of Omega. See what I mean about the guy not having any creativity?" the Other asked. "The Hand of Omega was used to ignite stars into supernovas and create black holes. The gauntlet version simply changed the phase structure of nearby matter. It also had a wicked electrical discharge if I remember correctly," he said. "As for Rassilon's Rod… well, it was used to tie into a complex web of energy fields and create any number of unpleasant effects. The web was so complex and back tracked so many times, we suspected Rassilon was well on his way to becoming extremely paranoid," the Other said. "Turns out the Rod was also really good at bashing in a vampire slave's skull," he said.
"Ok, not sexual aids," Faith said. She leaned over and ogled the image of the Other wearing the Doctor's body in tight jeans. "Doesn't mean I'm not going to keep having dirty thoughts," she warned him.
The Other smiled at Faith again. "So much like my Patience," he muttered. "No wonder he is so taken by you," the Other told Faith. "Anyway, in case you're wondering; other than being great at chopping things into little dead pieces, Storm's Fury ties the owner directly into the power of the Vortex. That energy gives them enhanced strength and healing abilities," he said.
"Eventually our arguing about the names of the weapons gave way to an argument about which one was the most powerful. We decided the only fair way to end the discussion was to have a contest," he said. "The contest the three of us had devised was simple. We were at the end of the Vampire War and found a planet that had been taken over by the last Great Vampire. It had converted the entire population to a slave race, what you refer to as vampires," the Other told them. "Instead of sending in a bowship fleet to finish the monster off, we arranged for the three of us to be dropped near the Vampire citadel and see which of us of did the most damage before we had to send for a recall ship," the Other explained.
"Rassilon was the first to be evacuated. He always was too much of a nancy to handle field work," the Other said. "Omega and I attacked the vampire citadel from opposite sides. We lost track of how many days we fought," he said. "Eventually the fighting became too intense for Omega and it drove him mad. The medical ship came in and was able to save him. I kept on fighting and broke through the defenses, making it inside," the Other said. "I sliced through the last slave, strode into the throne room, and declared myself the Time Lord Victorious," he said.
Faith watched as even with his lack of eyes, the Other's face took on an identical look of shame and sadness she had seen on the Doctor before when he spoke about the "real" vampires. The look made her forget for just a moment that she was talking with the Other and not the man she was falling for. "What happened?" she asked softly.
The Other gave her a look of thanks for the kindness in her voice. "Because of our arrogance and vanity, the last Vampire managed to escape the planet. It was only later did we find out it had been the Vampire King we had missed out on killing," he said. "We tried to track him and came up with several likely spots that he may have gone to ground. Earth was one of them. Omega and Rassilon wanted to ignite your sun and vaporize your entire system. I convinced them to try and let me flush the King out," the Other said. "To my surprise, he had already left by the time I got here, but he had created two separate slave races." The Other gestured to the sea of Turok-Han swarming down below. "I knew that eventually these half-breeds would ravage your world, so I set in motion a plan to leave a race of 'half-breed' warriors of my own, the Vampire Slayers. I sent a drone out around your planet, seeding the population with a random mutation that would allow the person to tap into the strength and healing properties of Storm's Furry. Unfortunately my knowledge of human genetics wasn't as good as it could be and I was only able to tie the mutation to a sex linked gene, thus the reason for the Slayers always being female," the Other told the Slayers.
"So that explains the Potentials, but why only one Slayer at a time? You have no idea how awful it is having to shoulder these responsibilities alone," Buffy told him.
The Other looked at her, his head tilted like he didn't understand. "You said that before about being the only one. I don't understand. Storm's Fury was programmed to activate all Slayers as soon as they came of age," the Other said. "May I take a look?" he asked, holding out his hand for the weapon which had once belonged to him. Buffy shrugged her shoulders and handed the Scythe over to the Other.
The Other closed his eyes for a moment and then muttered something vehemently in a language the Slayers didn't understand. Even though she didn't understand it, Faith was pretty certain it had something to do with somebody's mother and an inappropriate relationship.
"Somebody's laid some kind of barrier over Storm's Fury limiting the energy output to just one person!" the Other said angrily. "I've never seen anything like this before, it has nothing to do with the technology I used to create it," he said.
"Magic," Buffy and Faith said together.
"There were some old guys who were too comfortable with keeping women as second class citizens. They claimed to be the ones who gave the Slayer her powers, but it looks like all they really did was limit them," Buffy said. A seed of an idea began growing in her mind. She would have to talk with Willow about it.
While Buffy was talking about the old men, Faith had walked back over to the edge of the cliff and looked over. "Hey, this is a neat show and tell and everything, but I have a question," she told the Other. "Is there a point to all this? Because we really do have shit to do. You know like win a war against the First evil," she said.
The Other gestured with Storm's Fury around the cavern. "This…is what is below Sunnydale right now," the Other told her.
Faith looked down again at the Turok-Han. "Fuck-an-A," she said. "All right, B. You take the million on the left and I'll take the million on the right," Faith said, cracking her neck, loosening up for a fight.
The Other stepped closer to her. "You really are going to fight them, even though the two of you don't stand a chance of winning, aren't you?" the Other asked her.
Faith gave him a sassy smile. "You bet your cute ass we are," she said.
"No wonder the Doctor loves your race so much," the Other muttered under his breath. "Faith, the Doctor has feelings for you; romantic feelings," the Other told her. Faith smiled at the confirmation of her hopes. "He has saved the Universe several times and your planet more times than you can imagine. He deserves more than a human when it comes to a romantic relationship," he told her.
"Excuse me," Faith said putting her hands on her hips, offended.
"It's not your fault you're only human, but like I said, the Doctor deserves more than that," the Other said. He turned his face towards Buffy. "Buffy, there are two things that you need to tell the Doctor. The first is that if he wants to succeed, he must take up the mantle of Time Lord Victorious. And the other is…well… tell him this is my last gift to him," he said to Buffy. The Other began spinning his old weapon in a tight pattern around his body. The blade and pointed shaft of the deadly Scythe began to glow. Gold and red energy discharges lanced from the tip and blade to the ground and roof of the cavern. The Other took a quick step forward and thrust the pointed shaft of Storm's Fury into Faith's heart, causing her to gasp in pain and shock. She looked up at the Other, betrayal in her eyes. Vortex energy crackled back and forth from the wound in her chest to the shaft of the weapon. Faith slid off the end of the Scythe and the world returned to Buffy's bedroom.
Faith slumped lifeless to the floor, a burn mark in her shirt, right above her heart. "Faith!" the Doctor yelled and raced to her side. He felt for her pulse and found a very faint one. The Doctor scooped her up and held her in his arms. After a few moments, Faith began to stir when her Slayer healing kicked in.
"Ouch," Faith said weakly. She blinked her eyes open and was glad to see it was him who was holding her. "Hey Doc, is the Other dead?" she asked in almost a whisper.
"Err…more or less," the Doctor hedged.
"That's too bad, because I really want to kick his ass right now," Faith said. The Doctor laughed, knowing his Faith was going to be all right. He kissed the top of her head twice. Faith sighed. After an ordeal like that, she really wanted those kisses somewhere else. Faith decided to do something about it. She got up to her feet and stood with the help of the Doctor.
"Faith, you just had a major psychic trauma that translated into physical damage, you probably shouldn't be standing right now," the Doctor suggested.
Faith smiled when he she thought that her plans had pretty much had nothing to do with standing. "Just give me a few moments," Faith said, rubbing the tender spot between her breasts. "Hell, B's given me a lot worse," she said. Faith reached over and squeezed his arm. "I'll be all right," she told the Doctor. She looked into his warm eyes. "Would you mind giving us a moment alone, Doc? I would like to discuss something with B," Faith asked.
"As long as you're all right," the Doctor said. "I'll be in the TARDIS if anyone needs me," he said. Faith watched him leave. The image of his butt in tight jeans still fresh in her mind.
Buffy, being Faith's sister Slayer, was even more used to their healing abilities than she was and was not the least bit surprised Faith was up and walking around so quickly. Whatever didn't kill a Slayer so on and so forth. Still, getting stabbed with an alien super weapon that was tied directly to your own super powers wasn't something that happened on a daily basis, even for a Sunnydale Slayer.
"Really Faith, are you feeling ok?" Buffy asked.
Faith rubbed the burnt tee shirt. "Kinda sore. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I took the rest of the evening off," Faith asked Buffy.
"Yeah, go ahead. After what we saw below the Hellmouth and what the Other told us about the original purpose of Storm's Fury, I want to go over an idea I have with Willow," Buffy said.
"Thanks, B. I'm going head down to the TARDIS for some down time," Faith told them.
Spike gave Faith an impish grin. "And I suppose you'll be wanting to be under a Doctor's care for the night as well?" he teased.
"Nah, I just want be under the Doctor," Faith told him. Spike choked on a laugh and Willow blushed a deep red.
"Oh good lord, I did not just hear that," Giles said. "Please get some rest, we will be fine, Faith," he said.
Faith looked down at her burnt tee shirt. She opened Buffy's closet and grabbed a blue shirt without asking. "Hey B, since the Other ruined my shirt with your new toy, I'm going to borrow one of yours for the evening," she told Buffy. Buffy grabbed the shirt out of her hands and replaced it with a pink one.
"I was planning on wearing that one later," Buffy told Faith. In truth she hadn't even remembered she had owned that shirt, but a girl's closet is her domain.
"Thanks, B. If I get anything on it, I'll have the Doctor spring for the cleaning bill," Faith said.
Willow put her fingers in her ears, "La…la…la…not hearing this. I'm not hearing about alien seductions," she said loudly.
Giles put his head in his hand and muttered, not for the first time, "…and the fate of the World rest in the hands of these two. I should have joined UNIT." Buffy and Faith both heard him with their enhanced senses of hearing. Buffy stuck out her tongue. Faith gave him the finger and went to the bathroom to change shirts.
As Faith was walking back to the large blue call box in the living room, Spike popped his head out of Buffy's bedroom and yelled out to her, "Hey, Faith! Don't do anything that I wouldn't do."
Faith shot back, "What exactly won't you do? B's told me some stories," she said.
"Yeah, good point," Spike said cheerily. "Have fun."
The doors opened slower than normal when Faith got to the TARDIS. It was if they were trying to be extra quiet. Faith took the hint and snuck into the old Police Box with stealth learned from living on the streets and spending your evenings hunting creatures of the night. She looked around the control room and found the Doctor deep in conversation with the center console.
"Some help you're being," the Doctor said sarcastically. "You're supposed to keep me out of situations like this, remember. I can't lose her like I lost Rose," he said. The center column housing the Time Rotor glowed a soothing red. "Yes, yes...you said that before, but telling her how I feel about her from the beginning will mean that I will have to tell her what I've done. She deserves to know what she is getting into," the Doctor told his symbiotic partner. "Faith is a hero, like Buffy. Heroes don't deserve to be with people who have done the awful things I have," he said sadly. The Doctor closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on the column.
"What the fuck is he talking about?" Faith wondered. She couldn't even begin to think what her kind and gentle Doctor could do that would be so bad that he thought she would reject him out of hand. A small smile played over her lips. "It's kinda cute. Even alien guys are afraid of rejection," Faith thought. "I'm not a hero, you know. Not like Buffy is, anyway," she said loudly.
"Aaaahh!" the Doctor screamed at being startled and nearly fell over the railing surrounding the center console. He got both his hearts out of his throat and peered around the console to look at her. "Err…how long have you been standing there?" he asked timidly.
"Long enough," Faith told him. She finished walking up the catwalk to the console. The Doctor worked his way around the console, tinkering with repairs that didn't need to be done. Faith leaned back on one of the sections, blocking his path. "What was it that was so bad you think I'll turn tail and run?" she asked him. The Doctor turned his eyes to the ground in shame and didn't answer her. Faith put her hand on his and said softly, "How about I tell you why I'm not a hero and then if you decide you still want to be with me, I get to hear what you're so ashamed of. Then I'll get to make up my own mind. Deal?"
The Doctor looked into her hazel eyes, so full of compassion. "It's a deal," the Doctor said.
"Let's see…the first man I killed was an accident, but I tried to blame it on Buffy," Faith said. "I could blame it on my shitty childhood or the emotional cluster fuck of watching my original watcher getting ripped in two by a vampire, but the truth of the matter is I was simply fucked up," she told the Doctor. "After that, it was all downhill. I went to work for the Mayor who wanted to become a demon and live forever. The really sad part about that was he was the best father I ever had. He loved me as a daughter and I would have done anything to get his approval. He gave it to me even when I didn't succeed on a mission. I still mourn for the guy," Faith said.
Faith was watching for any kind of reaction from the Doctor. His boyish aspect was gone and she was looking into the face of a man with nearly a thousand years of life experience. He wasn't judging her, he was listening and understanding. The mention of being a father made him wince slightly. "Oh god, he's lost a child," Faith realized by the sharp look of pain that crossed his face. She decided to move on.
"I killed things for the Mayor. Eventually I even tried to kill B, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't fight as hard as I could and I let her take my knife away from me," Faith said. "B gutted me and I fell off the rooftop. I was in a coma for quite a while. Things got weird from there," she said. "When I woke up, I went looking for revenge. One thing led to another and eventually I made it to LA were I found Angel."
"Who's Angel?" the Doctor asked, hoping it wasn't one of the stone variety.
"He's another vampire with a soul," Faith told him. She held up her hand to keep him from asking any questions. "We'll talk about that later. Anyway, I had sunk lower than I thought possible. I was screwing anything that would put out and provoking fights just so I could beat the dog piss out of someone. I must have had at least five different agencies and over a hundred freelancers looking to kill me," she said. "Angel had been the only person who had never given up on me and had always believed that there was still some good left deep inside. I went to him because I wanted a friend to be the one to kill me, rather than some nameless mope in a back alley," Faith explained.
The Doctor took Faith's hand and squeezed. He didn't give her any platitudes about suicide being wrong or that things always got better. He knew better. The Doctor was living proof.
"Angel was able to breakthrough and get me to realize that I had a responsibility to try to make up for what I had done," Faith said. "B even forgave me up to a point. I turned myself into the police to serve my time for killing the guy that started it all," she finished. "Now it's your turn," Faith told the Doctor.
The Doctor let go of Faith's hand and he let his drop to his side. "How many people do you think Spike has killed? Hundreds…maybe a thousand?" he asked. Faith shrugged her shoulders. "If you take every vampire that has ever been on this planet and total up all of the people they have killed, I still have them beat," the Doctor said. Faith's eye grew wide as she tried to process the sheer numbers he was talking about. "Those who come from the Darkness call me the Destroyer of Worlds. The last word is a plural, Faith. I've destroyed entire planets," he said.
"Anya tried to tell me about that," Faith said. "She said you destroyed a planet full of demons called Da'licks who wanted to take over the Universe. Doesn't sound so terrible to me," she said.
"They were called Daleks," the Doctor corrected her. "They were the mortal enemy of every race in the Universe, especially my own. They wanted to wipe out any other life other than their own and they possessed the ability to Time travel, just like we did," he said. "It fell to us, as the inventors of Time travel to try and stop them. That war I fought in, the one I told you about, it was the final war against them," the Doctor said. "It was called the Time War and entire species were wiped from existence. Not just killed, but never having existed in the first place. The war raged on for years. In the end, we lost," he said sadly.
Faith looked around and pinched her arm. "I'm still here, so unless Daleks came in a variety of flavors, I guess something happened," she said.
The Doctor gave Faith a weak smile. "The entire Dalek fleet converged on my home world to force us to surrender. I was off planet at the time," he said. He paused and tears flowed down his cheeks. "I saw on the monitors the Daleks moving through the cities, killing everyone they could. I watched from above as the Cruciform fell," the Doctor said, his words faltering. "I knew that if they made it all the way to the Citadel's dome and took control of the Eye of Harmony, the Daleks would finally have complete control over the Universe." The doctor took a deep breath and continued. "I used my mental link with the Hand of Omega, which by then had returned to Gallifrey, and activated it. Before anyone could react, Time Lord or Dalek, I sent the Hand of Omega into Kasterborous prime," the Doctor said. His body was wracked with silent sobs. "I watched the twin suns flash over into supernovas and the fire sweep over Gallifrey and burn away both the Daleks and the Time Lords from the Universe. There were over a billion of my people still on the planet," he said. The Doctor had to sit on the airline chair he had installed on the railing.
Faith stood still as she processed what he said. "How many of your kind are left?" she asked him.
The Doctor gestured towards the Time Rotor. "You're looking at us," he said, the loneliness echoing in his voice.
"Oh Fuck no," Faith swore. "The Powers That Be are bunch of Fucking assholes! This guy sacrifices his very soul so that the rest of us can have a shot at living and he ends up being alone?" Faith thought. "No Fucking way!" she said aloud. The Doctor stood to leave, taking her statements as a rejection. Faith rushed him and grabbed his jacket, spinning him to face her. "Don't think for one second I am letting you go this alone, Mister!" she yelled. Faith pulled the Doctor down to her so she could kiss the man others had labeled the Lonely God. The Doctor kissed her back with equal passion.
The Doctor was the one who broke the kiss. "So…ah…do you still want to see where my bedroom is?" he asked with an impish grin.
"Finally!" Faith said with an exaggerated sigh. She linked her hand with the Doctor's as he led her down the other catwalk. The doors opened for them. Faith looked back at the center console and winked. The center column flashed blue for an instant back.
The Doctor led Faith to the hallway that now had a branch that led to the right as well. "That wasn't there before," Faith said.
"Yes it was," the Doctor said. "It was hidden by a high powered perception filter. Now that you know it's there, you will always be able to see it, but others will walk right by it," he said with a grin.
Faith grinned back at him. "So all this time you were just down the hall?" she asked. She punched him the arm, causing him to rub the sore spot. "I drug your ass all the way down that hallway when I could have just stopped here?" she pointed out.
"Oops?" the Doctor offered.
The Doctor opened the door and motioned her in. Faith walked in, not knowing what to expect the bedroom of such a complex personality would look like. The walls were colored the same as the center control room. A large four poster bed was in the center of the room. Pictures ranging from grainy black and whites to moving 3-D were hung around the room. One picture frame in particular caught her eye. It had space for 13 photos and 10 were taken up. The Doctor's photo was the last one in line and there were three empty places left. Faith recognized some of the other men in the photos from the faces the Other had worn. She was soon distracted by the Doctor coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He kissed her ear.
"That's my self portrait frame," the Doctor said. "All those blokes, those were all me," he said.
"Huh?" Faith asked. She leaned back into the Doctor's embrace.
"It's a way a Time Lord cheats death," the Doctor told her. "When we die, the power of the Vortex gets channeled through a special process that converts it into regeneration energy. We end up with a new body and a slightly different personality, most of the time. Catch is we only get to do it 12 times," he explained. The Doctor let go of Faith with his left arm. He pointed to the old man with white hair at the far left of the frame. "That is where I started, and this is where I am now," he said moving his hand to his current photo.
Faith leaned forward to look closer at the photos. She started giggling. "Wow, you really needed someone to tell you were dressing like a total dork during most of those lives," she said. "And don't get me started on the hair," she laughed.
"Oi, I wasn't that bad. Well, Ok 2 had no fashion sense what so ever and I've never been a ginger, but come on, give me a break," he pleaded.
Faith looked back at the photos. "You call them by numbers?"
"Yeah, it makes it easier to keep track of us," he said.
Faith nodded her head in understanding. She reached up and tapped the fifth Doctor's photo. "You know, 5 is kinda cute," she said. Faith turned around and unbuttoned the front of the Doctor's suit coat. "But not as cute as 10," she told him. Faith helped him take the jacket off and tossed it onto a chair near the bed. The two of them took turns taking items of clothing off one another. Faith was completely nude long before the Doctor, for once making him wonder about wearing so many layers.
When Faith finally removed the last article of the Doctor's clothing she was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The Doctor definitely had all the parts a human had, just in slightly larger proportions. The Doctor took her hand and gently led her to his bad. He pulled back the covers and slid into bed, beckoning Faith to join him. She joined him, draping her body over his. They kissed again and began a slow exploration of each other's bodies.
The lights were off and Faith had her head on the Doctor's chest. She was listening to the steady four beat rhythm of his hearts. They had made love several times that night, each time better than the one before, which was saying something. Faith caught her line of thought and smiled. Yes, she had finally made love to man and not just fucked. She may only have one heart to give compared to his two, but she had had given it to this wonderful alien.
One of Sunnydale's Cemeteries
Buffy and Spike roamed the empty cemetery on the nightly patrol. It was Faith's turn in the lineup, but Buffy knew Faith and the Doctor deserved a night together. If her and Willow's plan worked out, they would attack the Hellmouth the next day and odds were she and Faith wouldn't be making it out alive. Buffy looked over at Spike and her heart fell. She had finally come to recognize how much she actually loved the 150 year old juvenile delinquent. Buffy planned on making the patrol a quick one and get Spike back into her own bed to show him how much she loved him.
"Um…Buffy?" Spike called out.
"Yeah," Buffy said.
"Do you remember a big whopping pyramid crypt being here before?" Spike asked, a little confused. He was standing next to a large crypt built to look like an Egyptian pyramid. Ivy had grown over the sides and other signs of decay showed that it had been there for a very long time.
"Huh?" Buffy said, surprised. She had been through that cemetery thousands of times before and had never seen that crypt before that night.
"Yeah, that's what I said," Spike agreed with her inarticulate grunt. "You know, in the movies, something bad always happens when the heroes find the strange pyramid and go poking about. Reckon we should just leave this one alone and drop by town for a pint?" he asked Buffy. There was a tense silence until both of them broke out laughing. Buffy punched Spike in the arm with her free hand that wasn't holding Storm's Fury. Spike was wiping away tears of laughter.
"Right," Spike said, trying to get himself under control. "Here we go then," he said as he kicked in the door to the pyramid crypt. Spike bowed and made a sweeping motion in front of the door with his hand.
"Why thank you, Spike. It's always nice to have a man open a door for a lady," Buffy said. She walked into the pyramid and found the inside was lit by several candles and torches placed at regular intervals around the room. The ceiling was held up by four, stone square pillars.
An old woman in a flowing dress stepped out from behind one of the pillars. "I'd forgotten…I'd forgotten how young you would be," the old woman said. She looked down at the Scythe Buffy was holding. "Comes from the waiting. Mind plays tricks. I see you've found our weapon," she said.
"You mean Storm's Fury? Yeah, I found it. What do mean our weapon?" Buffy asked the old woman.
The old woman looked surprised at the use of the Scythe proper name. "You have spoken with the Other?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes…he is a crazy old prick that stabbed my sister Slayer with Storm's Fury," Buffy said. She was starting to run out of patience.
Spike put his hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Pet, she doesn't smell right. Sorta like the Doctor. Not human," he told Buffy.
"Who are you?" Buffy asked.
"One of many. Well…time was. Now I'm alone in the world," the old woman said sadly.
Buffy gave the woman a hard look. "So what are you? Some kind of ghost?" she asked.
The old woman chuckled and straightened her back. "Nope. I'm as real as you are. Just…well…let me put it this way— I look good for my age. Well maybe not as good as the help from beyond that has arrived recently," the old woman said winking. "But still pretty damn good all things considered," she said. The old woman held out her hands and Buffy handed her Storm's Fury. "You pulled it out of the rock, yes? I was one of those who put it in there, ages ago," the old woman said.
Spike raised his hand. "Is it all right if a bloke asks a question?" Spike asked. The old woman nodded. "What was with the sword in the stone routine?"
"After what the Shadow men did to corrupt the original purpose of Storm's Fury, we hid it to keep it out of their hands. The Shadow men were…" the old woman said.
Buffy interrupted the old woman. "Yeah…met those guys. Didn't really care too much for them," she said.
"Ahh, yes. Then you know. The Shadow Men became the watchers. And the watchers watched the Slayers. But we were sent by the Other to keep watch on you as well," the old woman said. "I am the last of the Guardians. The Great Vampires destroyed our world and those of us left volunteered to come to Earth to keep an eye on the Other's Slayers," she explained.
"How come we never knew about you before this?" Buffy asked. "A little bit of help sure could have come in handy a death or two ago," she said tersely.
"There are rules that are place that limit our involvement. Rules that even the Doctor can not break without impunity," she said. The old woman handed back Storm's Fury. "This is a powerful weapon. Use it wisely and perhaps you can beat back the rising dark. One way or another, it can only mean an end is truly near," the old woman said.
The old woman's face took on a surprised expression and blood started to pour out of her mouth. A foot of dark colored metal was sticking out of chest. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch that last part. Did she say the end is near... or here?" Caleb joked as he pushed the dead woman off the end of his dark colored sword. The blade reflected light in a way that screamed wrongness.
"Oh look, it's the guy who likes altar boys," Spike taunted.
Caleb gave Spike a warm smile. Buffy swung Storm's Fury at him and he dodged the blow, rolling under it. Caleb trapped the blade against the wall with his sword and punched Buffy in the face, knocking her into the far wall. Instead of following up with another attack, Caleb just stood there. "Now here is where it gets a might confusing, darling," Caleb said. "You see, I done got a vision last night from one of the Powers That Be (seems that someone isn't too fond of you up there) and it showed me how this fight ends up," he said. Caleb unconsciously made a defensive covering of his groin with his free hand. "So if you don't mind, I'm just gonna mix things up a bit and exit out the back. See y'all later," Caleb said as he turned and ran out the back of the pyramid.
Spike looked in the direction of where the false priest had run off. "Ok then, I think that guy qualifies as the most annoying bloke I'm going to meet all evening," Spike said.
"Hello, Buffy," Angel said from the doorway to crypt. The tall vampire was standing silhouetted by the moon in his usual black trench coat and black jeans. He looked every bit as attractive as when he walked out of Sunnydale after her High School graduation.
"Nope, I was wrong," Spike said sourly.