Slayers

Chapter 1: Homecoming

"Never thought I would be back here," Faith said to herself as she stared up at the old abandon house that had once been her home. The windows had been boarded up and everything about the brick structure screamed abandoned. The once beautiful house was a metaphor for the slayer's existence.

Faith went around to the back of the house and let herself in by breaking into the back door. The house was completely empty, void of any furnishings. She sighed as she threw her bag on the ground. She wondered to herself how much money her dad had made from selling all of their possessions. She smiled to herself as she hoped that he had picked all the wrong horses the next day.

As Faith walked up the old staircase in the house that was typical of her Boston neighborhood she tried not to think of the house as more than a house. If it was nothing more than a building, she could block out the memories that were associated with it. All the feelings of abandonment and loneliness…and pain.

Reaching her old bedroom, Faith opened the door with a creak and threw her sleeping bag on the ground. As she prepared to go to sleep, she noticed a brown envelope on the floor beside her. Curious, she opened the envelope, and found an ATM card inside of it, with a single post it note with the four-digit PIN written on it. Needing rest before tonight she slipped the card into her pocket and went to sleep.

When Faith woke up the sun had long since set, which gave her the opportunity to give her life some meaning. After Faith was released from prison, she was given an invitation by Angel to stay with him and his team and fulfill her duty as a slayer. Faith however wanted to get away and start over, so accepting a little bit of money mostly for the plane ride to her hometown, she said goodbye to Angel and thanked him for everything he had done.

Passing by an ATM machine on the street, Faith remembered the small piece of plastic in her pocket. Taking out the card and debating on whether or not to use it Faith eventually decided that she had nothing to loose and put the card into the machine and entered the PIN. After checking the balance of the account, Faith was sure someone was paying a very sick joke on her. Although there wasn't enough money for her to live on for the rest of her life, there was enough for Faith to live a comfortable life till she was forty, and a very comfortable life till she was thirty.

Faith canceled the transaction and removed her card. She read the name on the card. Faith O'Brien. Very few people actually bothered to learn Faith's name. Even the people that Faith had once even called friend once didn't even know her name, so the list of people that could have done this for her was very short. She shook her head and stuffed the card back into her pocket.

Continuing on her patrol, Faith wondered if she could really do this. This sense of doubt was nothing new to her; it was an annoying reoccurring headache. It was her mind comparing herself to all the heroes she had met and wondering could she really do it? Could she really not only stay strong and forget about the dark seduction of power that was always in the back of her mind and be able to make the sacrifices necessary of a slayer?

Faith's feelings of self-doubt were interrupted by a scream coming from a nearby alleyway. She ran to the alley but then slowly approached the scene in front of her. She sized up what she was in for. One vampire. Faith scoffed.

"First night back on the job and this is all I get?" Faith asked the vampire who paused before biting the girl's neck. The vampire smiled at Faith as she gave him a sarcastic look. "I was hoping for a demon or maybe a pack of vampires," Faith said as she broke a stake off of a nearby wooden crate. "But when you are a vampire slayer you sort of have an obligation to pay."

The vampire's eyes widened. "Slayer?" he said with a sense of shock.

Faith smiled. "Yep," She said, "Now can we try and make this quick?" Faith quickly gave the vampire a kick to the face, followed up by a leg sweep that took out the vampire's legs. She got on top of him to finish him off but he kicked her off of him and sent her flying into the wall.

"I see you've chosen the hard way," Faith said as she picked herself back up and grabbed her stake. "Even better," she said as she lunged at the vampire again. This time she punched him in the face and then did a spin kick right to his stomach. He growled and tried to punch her in the face but she ducked, grabbed his arm, and flipped him over her back and onto his. Faith then reached over and drove the stake through his chest and turned him into dust.

As Faith brushed herself off, she saw the girl she had saved staring at her in awe. "Who are you?" the girl asked her.

"I'm Faith," Faith said adjusting herself and sticking her stake in her jacket pocket, "The Vampire Slayer. You need to be more careful if you're going to keep staying out on the streets this late." With that Faith walked away from the girl and out of the alley. When she was out of the girl's sight she smiled feeling very content with herself.

The rest of the night was fairly boring for Faith, finding no other vampires to slay or people to save. However the entire time she felt the strangest feeling that she was being hunted. Even with her enhanced senses that come with being a slayer, Faith was unable to locate her hunter.

Around three in the morning Faith was walking down a street as a familiar blonde girl walked past her. Making brief eye contacting, Faith tried to remember where she had seen that girl before. As the girl turned to go down an alley, Faith then remembered her name.

"Harmony," she said, remembering occasionally seeing that girl during the occasions she was inside Sunnydale High School. Faith began to walk away when she suddenly stopped and wonder what someone from the Hellmouth would be doing in Boston in an alley at three in the morning. Faith ran to the alley just in time to see Harmony try to feed on a homeless person.

Right as Faith was about to slay her second vampire of the evening a large devil looking demon came crashing down from the top of the building on the left of the alley and landed directly on Harmony. Harmony was pinned down on the ground under the demon as it opened its mouth over Harmony's and sucked the very demon out of her, leaving Harmony's body lifeless.

Faith was in shock. She found herself wondering what she should do. Here was a demon, so her initially reaction was kill, however it had just killed a vampire, which was what Faith was planning on doing. Being good was very complicated. Before Faith was able to reach a conclusion though, the demon got up, turned around, and snapped the homeless man's neck.

Faith made up her mind. She called out to the demon and began attacking it, but the demon was strong, stronger then her. Faith tried her best against the demon, but all her slayer strength and fighting skills were no match for the demon. Faith found herself being thrown against a brick wall with the demon fast approaching her when out of no where a werewolf came running into the alley and plowed straight into the demon. The werewolf was stronger than Faith, but still not as strong as the demon. Faith decided that the only way to beat this thing was to temporarily team up with the werewolf. Before long the demon was loosing, but before Faith could attempt to stake the beast it disappeared a puff of smoke leaving the stench of brimstone in its place.

Faith's attention immediately shifted to the werewolf, whom ran to the end of the alley, turned back to Faith, paused, then ran again. Faith chased after the wolf and saw it run into an alley across the street. She ran into that alley but could find the wolf anywhere. She walked towards the back of the alley but still couldn't find him. Faith sighed and prepared to call it a night and go home.

"I'm over here," a familiar voice called to Faith from behind a dumpster. Faith looked back as Oz stepped out from the shadows, still buttoning up his shirt that was hidden in a backpack with the rest of his clothes behind the dumpster.

"Oz?" Faith said surprised.

"Hey," Oz said. There was silence between the two. "So how are you?"

"I'm five-by-five," Faith said. "You?"

"Good," Oz said. Another pause.

"So I see you have control over your wolf side," Faith said.

"Yeah," Oz said, "I see you have control on that whole evil side. Faith didn't know what to say. There was another pause. "So I have to go to sleep. Maybe I'll see again. You know, fighting demons or something like that."

"Yeah," Faith said as she watched Oz leave the alley. "Oz," Faith said as she made a first attempt at making amends. Oz turned back towards her. "Thanks," she said earnestly.

"No problem," Oz said. And with that he was gone.

Faith sighed. "What's going on tonight," Faith wondered to herself. "Is there some kind of Hellmouth convention in town?"

Meanwhile, back in the alley, a young man around the same age as Faith and Oz walked into the alley where Harmony's body still lie on the ground. He looked down at her for a moment and then over at the homeless man next to her. He picked her up, carried her out of the alley, and set her in the back seat of his car, then drove away as the sun came up.