1Faith stood at the corner, looking both ways up and down the street.
Her Slayer sense was pinging big time. There was danger here, just where she didn't know, but something was off.
She had walked the street three times and what ever it was still hadn't taken the bait. Hell, she had even faked a slip in the ice while standing in front of and alley – but nothing.
Looking around again, she noticed the comic shop. It was where Xander used to hang out all the time. It was his escape for everything. Thinking of him, and how messed up they were right then, got her thinking of all the times they had together. The times when she needed him and he had always been there.
And how he had needed her and she hadn't been there for him.
How safe it had felt in his bed with him beside her.
Looking around, she frowned. Then something in an upstairs window caught her attention. A flicker of shadows.
She sighed. Nothing. Time to wrap it up. One more trip and she would head in. It was cold out here and she needed something warm in her.
Across the street Xander stood in a room overlooking the street, a sniper rifle held tight in his arms.
It had taken a little while to find the weapon, but once he made contact with an IRA cell, it was easy. The Twins had always gone on and on about them, and how they were fighting for Ireland. Xander didn't know or really care about the their beliefs. Only that they had anything you could want.
The rifle was old, the stock had scratches in it. Kill marks, if he didn't miss his guess. This weapon had taken the lives of at least thirteen people. Other markings on it had meant that it had been issued to a solider in the Royal Marines.
When he picked up the weapon, he felt the man that used it and knew it like it had been in his hands for years. He knew about cover, and movement. Everything that the sniper had been trained to do.
Pulling the weapon up, he moved the cross-hair over Faith's head.
An easy shot. Only across the street.
She wouldn't know what hit her.
Then she frowned. That look. He had seen it just about his whole life. She was his friend. He… loved her. She was his sister? He sometimes felt so much more for her and, at the same time, less. But one fact came through clearly.
He couldn't hurt her.
And all the while, a voice in his head was telling him to shoot. To kill her. To take the battle to the enemy.
It was too much. He had to do what the voice wanted.
Xander started to pull the trigger again. He felt the sear pulling; just a little more pressure and she would be dead. Just as he was about to pull those last few grams of pressure, Faith looked up.
He gasped. She couldn't see him, he knew it. But she was looking right at him.
That face.
That sad face was almost the same one that crawled through his windows those many years ago. He couldn't do it. He flung the rifle away from him on the bed.
"KILL HER!!" the voice in his head raged. He could almost feel its presents in the room. It towered over him.
But he couldn't. Not his Faith. Looking at where the rifle lay, a thought stuck him.
The Sugar Daddy.
Faith was a normal girl. Whoever she had hooked up with had changed her. And if he just killed Faith, what would stop this person from getting someone else to come after him? Someone he wouldn't know.
That was it.
Cut the head off the snake off, and the body dies. Faith would become useless. She wouldn't have anyone to lead her against him.
And maybe she could be turned.
Brought over to his side.
Faith slid in the back door of the house she shared with Linda. There was a truck parked out front and she heard voices from the front room as she walked up. Male voices.
"We'll be sitting up across town and start the hunt. You are to keep your Slayer away from us and let us take out the problem," a man was saying to Linda.
"I don't agree with this," Linda replied. "If Faith found out."
"I don't care," the man snapped. "She's your problem and not mine. And if you had more control over her this wouldn't have happened."
"Are you sure about him?" Linda asked. From the tone of her voice, Faith was sure that it was not the first time it had been asked.
"Yes," the man said angrily. "His father works directly for the New York Branch of Wolfram & Hart. The boy works in a local storage facility. From what we can find out, he was placed in their long term storage area. And who knows what they keep there? We don't want have another Buffy running around."
"But she was a great Slayer," Linda protested wanting to protect her mentors charge.
"She was. . . good at Slaying. But she dragged in civilians. She allowed them to cloud her mind. She even has a Vampire working for her," The man said derogatorily.
"Wait," Linda said quickly. "Buffy is alive?"
Faith jumped. The other Slayer was alive? How? She had been told that when one died, the next one would be called.
"Yes," the man said, "she was revived by a civilian. After she let the Master out of his prison."
But Faith was no longer listening to them. She had eased up the back stairs to her room.
She wasn't the only Slayer anymore. She wasn't alone.
Alone.
That word stuck with her. She had left Xander. Alone. And he had left her alone.
How did the other Slayer deal with it – this Buffy?
She had been a Slayer longer than Faith. She wished she could talk to her, find out how she had became a Slayer. Maybe even be friends. Someone that would understand her. That had the cravings that she had.
Then it hit her – who was too close to her? Who had the Council sent these men to hunt? The only person she saw regularly was Linda, and from what she had heard, her Watcher was going to stay.
The Twins? No, they were off doing their own thing. She would meet up with them every now and then. She used to do it to keep taps on Xander, but they usually kept quite about him now. Said if she wanted to know, she should ask him. And then they'd leave big hints about were he was. That was, until he started to dodge her. Now, they were a brick wall. The guys sticking together against the women. It sucks, but it was the way of the world.
She heard the door of the van slam shut, before it pulled out into the icy roads. She couldn't wait 'til summer came. It seems like this winter had lasted forever.
But this summer, she wouldn't have Xander to hang with. To sneak off with and plan out their futures, sneak into movies try to talk him into sneaking into someone pool to skinny dip.
He had once told her he was going to go college. Use the skills he picked up on the team to at least get in, then find out what he wanted to do with his life.
She knew Joe had talked to him about the Navy. But he didn't want to leave people behind…
Her. It had always been an unspoken rule that he wouldn't leave her. And she had shot it to hell. She really couldn't even blame Linda. She had told her what to do, yes, but it was Faith that did it.
Faith, who had taken care of herself for years. She had lived on the streets for a short while. And some snooty Brit comes in and suddenly, it's whatever she wants.
She had ran her friend off. Her best friend.
"Son of bitch," Faith whispered as she jumped up from her bed. The Council would be going after Xan. Her Xander.
Faith took off down the stairs, her voice echoing in the house as she hit the first floor.
"Linda!" Faith couldn't describe the rage in her. These bustards were hunting her Xander.
"Faith?" Linda jumped as the Slayer startled her. She had not known she was home.
"Why?" Faith asked, tears were almost running out of her eyes. This place, this woman, was the closest she had ever had to family and home. The only time she had felt safe before was sleeping in Xander's bed with him watching over her. He had never tried anything. And to honest, at the time, neither one had really knew what to do. But she never would have stopped him if he had tried.
But he hadn't. He had just held her and kept the darkness away when she needed it.
And now these people were going to hurt him.
"Uh," Linda nodded. "You heard."
"Yes," Faith replied, almost biting the word.
"Your friend is not your friend anymore," Linda said.
"Try again," Faith replied, wiping angrily at her eyes.
"Your dream," Linda explained, "was a Slayer's dream.
"It gives warning of the future," she explained. "All Slayers have them to greater and lesser strength. It's a warning about what's going to happening. I reported it to the Council, and they found there were a few texts that told of the creature that WAS your friend.
"Once, long ago, there were four demons. So powerful they ruled the world. Each one had power over destruction. One's very touch was death. One would cause anything it touched to rot. And another could command the vermin and use them to his will.
"And the last – he was conflict in motion. He was the commander of their unholy army. He had hosts of Dragons at his command and demons by the score under his domination. His very presence on the battlefield caused whole armies to break and run. The others followed in his wake and still others took their name and used it over the millennia. But none matched them. The four are heralded as the bringers of the end of days.
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
"What has that got to with Xander?" Faith asked, a chill running up her spine.
"From what the Council has found out," Linda paused, "From what they know, he was infected by one of the Riders. Mostly likely, War. If your dream is to believed, he will grow stronger everyday, 'til what is left of your friend is gone. There is no stopping it once it starts. I am sorry, Faith."
Faith stood there, the shock of what she was told running through her mind. But one crystal clear thought above all else.
'Not my Xander.'
Outside.
It had started to snow again, the slush on the ground being covered by a new layer of white.
The creatures watched the house. They had let the humans leave, since they smelt of gun oil. And while the guns wouldn't hurt them, it would let their pray know that they were there.
It was close to sun-up and a van was at the ready. If the two followed their normal routine, they would come out to watch the sun come up.
Just as the creature finished this thought, out came the two women. He watched as they sat down, each holding a mug of cocoa.
He could hear them talking about Xander, or something like that. The Slayer wanting – no, demanding – to go help him, while the Watcher told her it was too late. From their tones, he knew the Slayer would go out on her own soon to help this Xander.
"Closer… closer," the creature whispered. And as soon as the two got within a few feet of the plant on the deck, he pressed a button.
A FLASH followed by a loud bang brought both women to their knees. Then, they poured out of the night. Vampires. Oh sure, they lost a few of the newbie on the girl but in the end, they won.
Trick stood back and smiled.
"I just love it when a plan comes together," the dark Vampire smiled as the Watcher and Slayer were thrown into the back of the van.
But unseen eyes were looking at him.
Across the street from the van and beside the Watcher's home, a figure lay on a roof top, his back to the warm fireplace chimney, a white blanket covering him.
Xander had set the post up to watch Faith. And time it so he could take out the woman she was living with.
He watched as these creatures took his Faith. He just knew that they would try to hurt his Faith, but there was nothing he could do at this time.
So he just sat and watched as the van pulled away.
The thought of these things hurting Faith caused his mind to come to a conclusion.
"Not my Faith."
His mind already planning.
Planning for war.
End Part 10.