(6/22/2017) My job takes me outdoors. Someone tell the sun that California summers are supposed to be pleasant, not scorching.
Thank you princesskarlita411, jkmp28, thedarkpokemaster, RHatch89, IoSolUno, Sage of Wind Dragons, and philly cheese dude for the reviews! And all you favoriters and followers get some nice air conditioning, ahhhhhh…
Not a single word was spoken on the fifteen minute ride to Giles' home. Sam was isolated in the back (somewhat uncomfortably as his legs had no room to stretch) while his siblings pointedly avoided looking at anything other than what was outside their windows. He consoled himself with the thought that at least his secret was out. Most of it. As soon as the others were over their shock, they'd be more amenable.
Unfortunately, Sam had forgotten one important detail: where Giles had gotten the initial information regarding the incoming vampire. "Ah, good!" the Watcher exclaimed as they walked in his front door. "Thank you for letting me know about Kakistos. This will give us ample time to prepare."
Sam's cheeks colored when Dean and Buffy glared at him. "Uh, yeah. You're welcome."
Dean shook his head, exasperated. "Whatever. So what's up with this muchachos guy?"
"Kakistos," Giles corrected automatically. "He's very, very old, so ancient that his feet and hands are cloven. It's possible he originated in Ancient Greece; 'kakistos' means 'worst of the worst' in that language."
"Do all vampires get hit with an ugly stick after a couple of centuries or something?" Dean wondered.
"The current theory is that the vampire's demonic essence eventually overtakes the human aspects. It warps them into something… well, something else."
"Wonder what Ang—umph!" Buffy cut Dean's speculation by elbowing him hard in the side. He glowered at her while rubbing his now bruised ribs.
Luckily, Giles was too engrossed in their current issues to acknowledge the hunter's slip. "Kakistos isn't as old as the Master, thankfully, but old enough. I doubt traditional stakes will work."
"I can throw him off a building, too," Buffy suggested.
"And what," Sam said, "make sure there's a forest of giant sharp wooden things that happen to be right below you?"
"Hey! I'm trying! It's not as if there's a whole bunch of vamps like the Master and Kissing Toast—" ("Kakistos," Giles amended quietly) "—are just running around all over the place."
"In any case," the Watcher said, "just be careful. We don't know why he's here or where he's at."
"Good times," Buffy deadpanned. She sighed. "Well, I better get home. Not as if I can, you know, go get with the learning or the slaying right now."
"Want a lift?" Dean offered.
"Nah. I could use the cardio." She gave her eldest brother a kiss on the cheek, ignored the younger one, and called, "Bye, Giles!" as she left the man's home.
The Watcher lifted his eyebrows at Sam. "Should I ask?"
When the taller hunter hesitated, Dean folded his arms and ordered, "Tell him. Or I will."
Recalling that he'd once said something similar in the Watcher's presence, Sam sighed resignedly. "I've been hanging out with… with Ruby. She has a new vessel," he inserted at Giles' narrowed eyes, "and she's helping me to develop my powers."
"E-Excuse me?" the Watcher asked as he leaned against his desk. "Are you talking about those psychic abilities you had?"
"Yes. Except now I can do more. Much more." With the hope that he might have found someone sympathetic to his cause, Sam enthusiastically announced, "I can exorcise demons."
"How did this come about?"
Unwilling to let the final bit of his secret out, Sam merely shrugged. "Practice," he lied.
Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them as he thought. "If I remember correctly, the reason you and those others had these powers was due to something the yellow-eyed demon had done to you. Did you ever find out his name?"
"Yeah," said Dean. "Azazel."
The Watcher shot upright. "Azazel?" he parroted worriedly as he replaced his spectacles and hustled over to one of his innumerable piles of books.
"Yup. Why?"
Giles pulled out a significantly large tome and flipped around until he'd found the requisite page. "Ah, yes, here. Azazel, Prince of Hell."
"Hell has Princes?" Sam asked, astonished.
"Not actual royalty, per se, but a rank of demon, only superseded by those known as the first demons: Lilith and Alastair." Unseen by his rapt brother, Dean flinched. "As far as can be told, there are four so-called Princes: Azazel, Ramiel, Dagon, and Asmodeus. In terms of the power structure of Hell, it has been theorized that it begins with Lucifer, then the first demons, then these princes. Some have speculated that there is an additional rank between Lucifer and the first demons, but—"
Sam cut off the impending recitation with, "And what do they do?"
"We-We aren't quite sure, but legend has it that they were the generals of Hell's armies."
"All right," Dean interjected, "enough with the lesson. The big point here is that Sam's usin' powers that came from a damn demon. Don't tell me that ain't wrong."
Giles looked sternly at Sam as he snapped his book shut. "What you're doing is very dangerous, Sam. I cannot believe you thought it was in any way appropriate."
Frustrated, the taller hunter threw his hands out. "Why does everyone keep telling me that? Why do none of you believe that I can control this?"
Giles and Dean exchanged glances. "Can you?" the Watcher asked quietly.
"Yes."
The Watcher shook his head then shrugged. "All right."
"What —" started an outraged Dean.
"For now," Giles amended. "Perhaps you will prove us wrong, Sam." The Watcher walked up to the hunter. "And if you prove us right," he said darkly, "there are plenty of us that will be waiting."
Sobered by the two threats he'd gotten within the same number of hours, Sam made no further attempts at convincing his siblings of his ability to use and control his disclosed powers. Instead, the two brothers spent the rest of the day checking a number of the usual vampire haunts (empty warehouses, abandoned factories, large crypts) hoping to unearth Kakistos. They came up with nothing.
There was, at least, one good thing that transpired that afternoon. Following a visit to the district office (armed with some printouts provided by Sam), Joyce and Buffy had a meeting with Principal Snyder. It was made clear the man had no legal standing to prevent the teenager from resuming her education at Sunnydale High. He had a few caveats (take tests in math and literature, get two letters of recommendation from staff members not named Mr. Winchester or Mr. Giles), but overall it looked as if Buffy would be traversing the halls within the next few days.
They decided to celebrate the Slayer's reentry into the scholastic world with a get-together at The Bronze. Around six, Sam and Dean joined their sister, Willow, and Oz in a comfortable couch-filled alcove and partook of beer, soda, and a heaping amount of unhealthy food. While the siblings managed to shelve their disagreements temporarily in order to have a good time, their behavior was aberrant; Sam was quieter than usual, Dean got drunker than usual, and Buffy danced by herself for far longer than she was wont.
An hour and a half in, while Buffy took a break and gulped down a Diet Coke, a boy approached. "Hi, Scott!" Willow exclaimed, her affected surprise painfully obvious. "What are you doing here?"
Slightly bewildered, Scott answered, "You told me if I came tonight I could run into Buffy."
Dean, from a high table behind the boy, snorted loudly. "Uh, I'm sorry," said a flustered Scott after jumping at the noise. "I'm a bad liar. It's not good for the soul. O-O-Or the skin, actually. It makes me blotch."
"Dweeb," the hunter muttered into his beer.
Both Sam and Buffy shot their brother a dirty look. The latter smiled at the boy. "Hi, Scott."
"Hi," he replied.
The group fell into an awkward silence, much to Dean's hilarity. As he tried and failed to resist the urge to snicker into his beer, Buffy's friends watched in anticipation of what they hoped would be the beginnings of a beautiful romance. Eventually, Scott stuttered out an invitation to dance which the blonde awkwardly declined.
"Okay, you know what?" the boy said amiably. "I'm just gonna go stand by the dance floor. If you change your mind you can mosey on over, and then if not then you don't mosey. No harm, no foul, right?"
"Right," Buffy said halfheartedly.
They all watched the somewhat dejected Scott head off. "Actually," Dean slurred, "gotta give the dweeb credit for that last bit."
"You okay?" Sam asked his sister.
"Meh," she responded.
"Come on, Buffy," Willow pleaded. "I mean, the guy is charm, a-and normal, which is what you wanted to get back to."
"Plus bonus points for use of the word 'mosey'," added Oz.
Sam edged in closer to Dean and said, as quietly as possible, "Did she not tell them about Angel?"
Dean peered drunkenly at his brother. "Is there something she should've told them?"
"That he's alive?"
"Oh. I'o'know. Prob'ly for the best."
"Why?"
"'Cause, you know, Hell and stuff."
Sam started to ask for clarification when Cordelia and Xander walked up, hand in hand. "Check out Slut-O-Rama and her Disco Dave," scoffed the cheerleader.
The group turned towards the dance floor. They were able to spot the dark haired girl with blood red lipstick and skintight clothing immediately, mostly due to her improbable partner. In a style entirely inconsistent with his surroundings, the somewhat handsome man in a low dipped, v-neck shirt was energetically performing an homage to Saturday Night Fever. He wouldn't have been out of place had there been a disco ball and a lighted floor, but in a twenty-first century club he stood out glaringly.
"What was the last thing that guy danced to?" derided Cordelia. "K.C. and the Sunshine Band?"
"How do you even know who that is?" Dean asked curiously.
"Some of us listen to more than just hair bands and stuff my grandpa likes."
Dean muttered something profane and sulky as Buffy and her friends continued to gape. Eventually the girl gestured invitingly and she and her anachronistic paramour headed for the back exit with their arms around one another.
"I don't think that guy thrives on sunshine," Buffy announced as she followed.
"You coming?" Sam asked his brother as the rest of them stood.
"For one frigging vamp?" Dean scoffed, incredulous.
Sam rolled his eyes and headed off after his sister. Hungry and not inebriated enough for his liking, Dean took the opportunity to order another beer and some fries. He ogled some of the co-eds, but remained aloof to their attempts to approach. Dean grumpily figured it probably wasn't a good idea to fondle a girl on his lap in front of his little sister.
The hunter expected them to come back with a weepy maiden in tow. Instead, they returned with a swaggering brunette who took advantage of Dean's focus on her cleavage to swipe his fries.
"Hey!"
"God, I could eat a horse," the girl said as she sat on the back of a couch and bit through a tastily seasoned potato. "Isn't it crazy how slayin' just always makes you hungry and horny?"
At the inquiring looks from her friends (and nauseated ones from her brothers) Buffy sat and sank into the cushions as far as she could go. "Sometimes I crave a nonfat yogurt afterwards."
"Oh, thank fucking God," Dean muttered.
Sam made belated introductions. "Faith, Dean. Dean, Faith. The, um… Vampire Slayer."
"Who is a what now?"
"Slayer," Faith clarified as she polished off Dean's food. She smacked her hands clean and leered at the pair of older men. "So. Sam. You guys single?"
"Okay, ew," Buffy said. "Those are my brothers, Faith."
"Well, that means you're not dating them. Right, B?"
Dean sprayed a mouthful of beer onto Sam and ended that discussion. Thankfully, Willow queried Faith on how she liked being a Slayer and the newcomer backed off on flirting with the Winchester brothers (much to all three siblings' relief). The newcomer then gleefully launched into various tales including wrestling an alligator and rescuing a church group from a nest of vampires. Naked. Cautious, Oz determined the new Slayer's stance on werewolves ("Hey, as long as you don't go scratchin' at me or humpin' my leg, we're five-by-five, you know?") while Sam took a moment outside to call Giles.
When Buffy's younger brother returned, he announced that Giles wanted to see them as soon as possible. The group eagerly piled into Cordelia's BMW and the Impala and headed to the library hoping for the chance to see the Watcher's astonishment firsthand.
To their disappointment, Giles was not as surprised at meeting the new Slayer as he was disappointed at not being invited to the Retreat that Faith's Watcher was attending. He pouted a bit at being denied the honor which prompted Faith to try and make him feel better by calling him "young and cute."
"Raise your hand if, ew?" Buffy asked, displaying said gesture. Dean and Xander both complied.
Giles gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Well, um, uh," he stuttered, "leaving aside for a moment my, uh, youth and beauty, I'd-I'd say it was, um, fortuitous that Faith arrived when she did. Two people have disappeared from the Sunset Ridge District."
"You think it might be Kakistos?" Sam inferred.
"I hope it's just normal vampire mayhem, but it's worth checking."
"Yeah, sounds good," Faith said, her voice a shade less brash than it had been all night. "You good to go, B?"
"No," Buffy answered. "I'm good to go to bed. Dead people won't get any deader, right?"
"I suppose not," Giles conceded. "But be out tomorrow night as soon as possible."
"So where you staying?" Willow asked Faith.
"Got me a room in a place. Motel right outside of town. I'm good."
The red headed teenager elbowed Buffy. "You can stay at my place," she offered sullenly.
"I'm five-by-five, B. Hey," Faith said, pointing to the Watcher as she walked to the door, "tomorrow, we will talk weapons." As she exited, Buffy's friends followed her and clamored for more tales (hopefully, in Xander's case, with additional nudity).
"Where are the two of you staying?" Giles asked curiously after the rest of them had gone.
"A different motel," Sam lied.
"Well, with Kakistos about perhaps the four of you should consolidate housing for safety."
Still riding out the beers he'd consumed at The Bronze, Dean found the concept of the two Slayers and the two hunters holed up in Angel's mansion hilarious. Before he could blurt out the reason for his snickering, Buffy stomped on his foot and Sam said, "We'll be fine."
As Buffy had been wearing heels for their foray at the club, the impact of her heel on Dean's was far more painful than either of them expected. "Fucking shit shit shit!" he yelled as he hopped up and down. "What the fucking—"
The teenaged girl managed to grab one of her eldest brother's flailing arms and yank him towards the back door. Sam gave Giles a farewell on behalf of all three of them and they left the bewildered Watcher alone in the library.
Once Dean had limped off his wound, he asked, "Is there a reason why we ain't telling Giles about Angel?"
The other two siblings glanced at each other. "When he was Angelus," Sam said carefully, "he kidnapped Giles. And tortured him."
Dean blinked away the illusion of his hands covered in blood. "Oh."
"I'll tell him eventually," Buffy explained. "Just… I mean, let's let him stop being totally mad at me for this summer before I let him get totally mad at me for hiding Angel."
"Fine," Dean sighed. "But this shit where we're keeping secrets all the time? It's starting to blow up in our faces. Right, Sam?"
The named individual grimaced and pulled open the passenger-side back door of the Impala. "Shut up."
Buffy spent the next school day taking her required mathematics exam and convincing her previous English teacher to write a recommendation. In the meantime, Faith was given the grand tour of Sunnydale High School by Willow and Xander ("And over here, we have the cafeteria where we were mauled by snakes and Sam got bit by a ghost bug." "Oh, and over there in the lounge is where Spike and his gang nearly massacred us all on Parent-Teacher night." "And over here is where Dean saved Xander from a locker monster!"). With some convincing from Willow, the new Slayer was invited to dinner at the Summers' home, Sam and Dean included.
More preoccupied with Joyce's delicious kneaded from scratch hamburgers than he was with anything else, Dean failed to notice the irritation wafting from his sister. Sam, however, discerned it nearly immediately and attempted to make small talk between Joyce the two Slayers. Unfortunately, Buffy was still wroth with him, too, and the effort only served to aggravate her further. Even more disconcerting was the way Joyce fawned over the new Slayer and her devil-may-care attitude.
Faith merrily ate through fries, broccoli, and nearly got into fisticuffs with Dean over the last burger. Joyce settled it by cutting it in half, much to both combatants disappointment. She then stood to get refills on sodas and beers, Buffy following quickly afterwards ostensibly to help. Seeing that Faith and Dean had become engrossed in comparing notes on the best way to gank vampires, Sam joined the pair having a hushed conversation in the kitchen.
"Couldn't she take over for you?" Joyce was asking.
"Mom," Buffy sighed, "no one can take over for me."
"But you're going to college next year. I think it would be—"
"Mom, the only way you get a new Slayer is when the old Slayer dies."
Joyce gasped in horror. "That means you… When did you die? You never told me you died!"
"Buffy," admonished Sam.
"I-It was just for a few minutes," Buffy placated.
"Oh, I hate this," her mother cried softly. "I hate your life!"
"It's not so bad as that," Sam said. "I mean, all three of us have died at some point."
"Sam," snapped Buffy, "not helping."
Joyce sighed. "Look, I know you didn't choose this. I know it chose you. I'm trying to understand and accept all of this, with your father and you two," she said apprehensively, gesturing at Sam, "and demons and angels and everything." Buffy's mother looked at her daughter, stricken. "But I don't want you to die."
The pair enveloped each other in a warm embrace. "I won't," Buffy promised. "I know how to do my job."
"We're here, too, Joyce," Sam supplied.
"Yeah," his sister muttered derisively as she and her mother parted. "Now you are."
Joyce glanced from Sam to Buffy. She folded her arms. "Don't think I haven't noticed this… whatever this is between the two of you. What in the world went on after you left?"
The two siblings looked at one another. Hoping he could put things to right finally, Sam quietly said, "It's my fault."
He was grateful that his sister looked more confused than vexed at his admission. The longer their estrangement, the worse he felt. Now, however, wasn't the appropriate moment to expound on his mistakes. At hearing what sounded like the beginnings of an altercation in the dining room, Sam escaped by saying, "I better go make sure Dean doesn't get his nose punched in by a super-powered teenager."
They weren't fighting, but as Dean and Faith had started lobbing food at each other from across the table (apparently in an effort to try to catch various items with their mouths) Sam was glad he'd gone to intervene. As the new Slayer and the Winchester brothers bickered over the mess, Joyce asked her daughter, "Will you tell me?"
Buffy sighed, both for the request and for the annoyingly easy camaraderie that Faith had struck up with Dean. "Soon."
The illusion of the carefree Slayer with a healthy appetite for food, sex, and violence shattered a few hours later on patrol.
Buffy called Sam just prior to midnight to rant and rave about Faith maniacally beating down a single vampire while she'd been cornered by the thing's friends. Luckily neither of them had been hurt, but it made his sister nervous nonetheless. After the call, Sam shot a quick text to Giles about the encounter and told Dean that it was better to check on both girls just in case. The elder brother volunteered to go to Revello Drive to see Buffy and, after finding the only motel brave enough to exist on the corner of the Hellmouth, dropped Sam off to find Faith.
Forty dollars did wonders to loosen the tongue fat, unwashed manager of the Sunnydale Motor Inn. Sam hustled up to the second floor and knocked on room 24. "Faith?"
No answer. Sam knocked again. "Faith? It's Sam."
The door jerked open and the hunter found himself yanked inside. He eked out, "What—" before Faith's lips were on his. One hand snaked into his hair and the other began fumbling at his belt.
Fleetingly Sam figured it was good that Dean wasn't in his place (his brother's self control regarding willing women had the tensile strength of a cooked noodle at best) as he did his best to push the Slayer's hands away. He unplugged his lips and tried to ask, "Faith, what are—"
She gave up on his pants and settled for shoving him onto the bed. Before Sam could object, Faith was straddling his hips and sliding her hands under his shirt. The fact that the Slayer was finally not gripping him in one way or another gave the hunter the chance to toss her off directly onto the floor. She landed hard with an indignant, "Hey!"
Sam stood up and adjusted his clothes. "What the hell, Faith?"
"Don't tell me you weren't liking it," she retorted as she picked herself up.
As the automatic physical response to an intimate exploration of his body was patently obvious, Sam forewent denying the supposition. Instead, he stated, "I was justcoming by to see if you were all right."
"I'm good, Sammy."
"Not according to Buffy."
Faith sighed and shrugged. "I don't know what B told you, but I took care of a vamp and she got the rest. No big deal."
"She said that you pulverized a vamp's face."
"Yeah? So?"
"Why?"
The Slayer shrugged again. "Just relieving some tension, Sammy. Could be relieving more right now if you weren't such a prude."
Sam grimaced. "Well, if you're okay then I'll head out."
"Toldja. I'm good." Faith smiled coyly. "You sure you don't want to stay?"
Skeptical, but unwilling to press the issue (and definitely unwilling to take her up on the offer), Sam reached for the doorknob. Before he could turn it, however, someone knocked. Faith let out an exasperated sound as she approached. She looked into the peephole. "Motel manager. Been buggin' me about rent." She yanked open the door. "Hey, look—"
The body of the lowlife Sam had bribed earlier fell face first into the room to reveal a vampire that topped the hunter by a head, a deep groove cut into the right side of its face. His hands were grotesquely misshapen hooves and his cultish uniform spoke of a willing disassociation from humanity. He smiled in malicious anticipation and revealed fangs that were normally hidden in younger vampires.
"Faith," growled Kakistos.
Acknowledgement : Some lines of dialogue are taken directly from the episode, "Faith, Hope, and Trick" (BtVS 3.03).
Author's note : The Prince of Hell thing is a season 12 reveal, but I figured, you know, Watchers being know it alls and stuff.
In canon, Faith takes off the second she hears about Kissing Toast, but I gave her a bit more time because plot. And stuff.
