I know this has taken forever; forgive me. Many things have occurred in life, but I promise, I haven't forgotten about the stories. Please enjoy and review.
When the world passes the minutes, Faith passed hours.
Days, even.
Her mind raced, and Lailo could feel the darkness pulsing against her own power. And she'd been the one who planned on letting it in the beginning.
In any case, the memories were sliding into place, but the connections were still faulty. She could see clearer now, but through the eyes of strangers. Through the eyes of those who she didn't know she knew, of those who thought they knew what she knew, of those who thought in any other way besides the way she could ever think.
The way she did think.
The way she would think.
Will think.
Lailo's only purpose now was to make sure that Faith's everlasting vortex of darkness wouldn't be the victor of this battle.
To make sure vengeance - no - justice, was served.
By God, when had she started going soft?
But the girl hurt, like nobody else could hurt. She was abandoned, betrayed, abused, damaged, raped of the life she could've had.
Those people out there couldn't have known, Lailo could give them that.
But they should've tried.
Nobody ends up the way Faith ended up without some sorts of demons in her pretty little head, but no. They were just so happy to be indifferent. So pleased with being less fucked up than she was. So eager to be ignorant because they couldn't ask the right questions and easy to pass it off because she didn't have any answers to their wrong ones.
Buffy pushed him in front of me.
It resonated.
Lailo embraced it.
The murky black engulfed it. Used it to add to itself.
Faith herself wasn't sure.
A little short-ended, most likely.
It seemed she never got the better half of the deal. Except when she was bad.
Perhaps she was born to be bad? That's what she's been thinking all her life anyway, wasn't it?
It wasn't easy being her.
Worlds were building up and falling down as she thought; just thinking.
Everything was so close to clear.
It was all...almost there.
Tap tap. Creak.
Pause.
"Faith?"
Beat.
"May I come in?"
Faith's eyes could do nothing else but glance up through her eyelashes at her newest visitor.
The one that made her scar throb and her senses tingle.
The only one she truly feared.
As clear as it was that Buffy was uncomfortable to be alone with Faith, it was even more obvious just how much Faith did not want to be alone with her.
"I don't know why I'm in here, actually, since we're not even the best of friends, but Angel said this might help you remember stuff and so I guess I can just-"
"Sacrifice your holy self for little old Faith?" Faith asked with a quirk in her eyebrow.
"Were you always this self-righteous? Cause it'd explain why we didn't get along."
Buffy flushed. Even without her memory Faith was characteristically a button-pusher. Always trying to get under everyone's skin as if it was her unofficially appointed job.
"We didn't get along, Faith, because you-"
"Clashed horribly with you?"
"Well, yea, basically. Plus you went evil and started killing people."
"Oh, of course. How could I forget that? Oh wait. I think I did." The sarcasm dripped from her tongue as she seemed to sit up a little from the bed, fists unconsciously tensing.
"Geez, Blondie. You think you could just keep things in context for a few minutes? I don't remember shit, and I get that you don't like me, but hell, if this is how you treated me back then, I can pretty much get why I went beserk on you."
"Faith, you literally took everything in my life and twisted it around! How could I ever forgive you for that? I can't!"
"Can't? Or you won't?"
"I-"
"Listen." Faith cut in again.
"I get it. You hate me, you'd rather swallow fire than to talk to me, but here you are, talking. We're trying to revive my memory, right? So why don't you just tell me the story in your words? Like...what happened? What did she...I...whoever I am, do?"
That was a thought. It was a good idea, too, which was pretty surprising in itself.
Buffy paused. To tell the story would be starting from the very beginning. From past, to present, which covered a few years. Was it a good idea to tell her the whole thing? It could vengeance Faith to break out again. But then, it could also help trigger Faith's whole memory, which in turn would help cast the bad out sooner and more effectively. And generally less dangerously. If only Buffy was any good at weighing out the risks and figuring out what she wanted without being distracted by silly things as she was prone to do...
"It's probably a better idea to tell me than to wait for whatever the hell Giles and the rest of your crew is planning." Faith said calmly, eyes giving away nothing while she gazed calmly at Buffy.
"I-"
"Well, I already know, but I just want to know what exactly is going on. I'm tired of not knowing shit."
There was a twinge of guilt as Buffy recalled that they often made it obvious that Faith never really knew anything. Was never really a part of all the things they did while she was there.
Silence.
"Are you just gonna sit there, or are we gonna-"
"You showed up, one day, out of nowhere." Buffy interrupted quickly, before her nerve was lost on her.
Faith closed her open lips and sat back slowly, waiting for more.
Wanting to know more.
Needing to know everything through the eyes of this girl that sat beside her, this girl that she felt held the key to everything. Everything she was looking for.
"At a club, I saw you dancing."
God, could it even be called that? It was like her movements were calling for the world to see her in her full glory, alluring and deceptively vulnerable for the eager and hungry eyes of those who needed something new. Something exciting.
And she caught a vampire in her mystery, in her net of lies and misleading gestures that she learned from the streets she grew up on.
What Faith never knew was the others she caught along with him.
Buffy saw the danger, called it duty then, following them out, the rest of the Scoobies in her wake, following her lead.
Not that she knew what she was doing.
Just that she had to get rid of him.
Remember mostly the hand that brushed against her body as it snatched at the stake.
Just to borrow it for a little while.
Faith was the type to borrow.
Borrow for a little while before she got bored and went on to the next thing. From the stake to her friends, to her family, to her role, to her men, to her-
...enemies.
That's how she felt. How Buffy felt, throughout the whole ordeal. Just felt like Faith was some sort of parasite, taking everything she loved from her, taking everything she cared about and making it her own.
It's what Faith was always good at.
"So basically I'm a people-stealing whore."
Yes.
"No, that's not what I'm-"
"Jesus, B, if you could've looked into your own eyes when you said the shit you just did." Faith spoke exasperatedly, turning her head away.
"Crucify me, for God's sake, but the Boss must've meant something to me, cause I wouldn't do that kind of shit for no reason. There's gotta be a real reason as to-"
"You called me B." Buffy said, amazement in her voice.
It had been much too long since she'd heard the nickname, having despised it for so long, it felt almost good to hear it again. In the voice that originally brought it about.
"Yea, so?"
"That's what you used to call me. Before...the accident."
Faith paused, scrutinizing Buffy under her contemplative gaze. It seemed a little strange to Buffy that Faith was being so blatantly observant; maybe she just hadn't noticed Faith's sharp, absorbing eyes before, always so distracted by the words the girl spoke instead.
But now the girl had nothing to say; she didn't have enough information to.
"Everything else, B. I want you to tell me everything else." Faith said softly, though her eyes pierced through what Buffy felt was her own damned soul.
Everything else, Faith said.
It required a big breath.
Here goes.
