Chapter 6:

Slayer and Princess:

                "Hunh," Buffy grunted as she looked in the store's dark windows.  "Guess Anya closed up early tonite.  Oh well.  Let's go around back.  Less suspicious that way."

                "Less suspicious than what?" Darien sarcastically commented in English.

                Buffy just shrugged and wordlessly led them all around the corner of the shop until they were at the back entrance.  There, Buffy produced a key, which slid easily into the lock and opened the door.  Marise couldn't help being suspicious on her own and stopped Buffy with a hand on the blonde's shoulder.  "You have a key?!" the silver-eyed Sailor Soldier accused.

                Buffy looked back at her with dead eyes, eyes so emotionless and empty that they surprised even the street-hardened woman.  Marise took a step back, but glared back at Buffy with her own cold eyes.  Buffy finally nodded, breaking the building tension.  "Yeah, but I'm not the shop owner and it would have looked suspicious enough to investigate to the cop that was across the street.  What we have to discuss shouldn't be interrupted."

                "I saw him.  He wasn't looking at us," Marise snapped.

                "You're right," Buffy said as she entered the back room of the Magic Box, where she normally trained.  Where she used to train with Giles…

                "The cop wasn't watching us.  He was watching me.  His name is Detective Stein.  He's been out to get me for a couple years now.  Don't know why, and I really don't care."  Buffy flopped down on the couch as the Japanese tourists filed in, Darien closing the door behind Rini.

                "Buffy, what's wrong?" Serena begged as she sat next to her counterpart on the couch.

                Buffy shrugged Serena's hand off her shoulder and sat straighter on the cushioned seat.  "So what do you guys want to know?  Well let's start at the beginning I guess.  My name is Buffy Summers.  I'm a Slayer.  A Slayer is a mystically empowered warrior that fights, hunts, and kills demons.  This town, Sunnydale, sits atop the Hellmouth.  A mystical convergence that is in actuality a portal that leads straight to hell.  Thus the name 'Hellmouth.'  Any questions?"

                "Why you?" Marise accused once more.

                Buffy just shrugged and muttered, "Who else?"

                Serena was confused for several seconds.  "What about that second Slayer you and my mother mentioned?  What was her name?  Faith?"

                Buffy's replying snort cut off all further questioning.  "Faith…why not Faith?  Good question.  Here's the answer.  Faith is a murderer.  I don't know what happened, but…it was an accident.  We were out on patrol one night, what we call hunting for demons," Buffy answered Darien and Marise's questioning looks, "and we were looking for this boss-type vamp that was supposed to have been killed a hundred or more years ago.  We…we didn't even see him until he jumped out.  I…even I didn't know he was human until…until it was too late."

"Faith…both of us were going on automatic, just reacting to the environment, the danger.  She…she staked him.  He was just a normal person.  He…he was looking for us.  To give us information that would help us.  And she killed him.  It was an accident…but Faith didn't care.  She even had the nerve to say it to my face.  She didn't care.  After that, none of us ever trusted her again.  Least of all me."

Buffy absently wiped away a couple tears that she had cried without realizing it.  "I don't know how or when, but Faith went Rogue on us.  She started working with the demons and the vampires.  In the end, it all boiled down to me taking her down before the final showdown with her boss.  I put her in a coma.  She stayed in the hospital for 4 months.  And, and when she woke up…well believe me when there was hell to pay."

"She switched our bodies.  She took and almost ruined my life, while I was stuck getting out of the messes she got herself into.  Obviously, my friends and I figured a way to make things right…but Faith ran away.  It was all for the best.  She ran to LA, where another old friend is staying…and he actually managed to help her.  She turned herself in and as far as I know, she's currently in County lockup and has been for the better part of two years."

"And why is this important?" Marise asked, a little friendlier, or rather just less colder, seeing how the topic affected Buffy.

Buffy looked up at the former Princess of Earth.  Then she looked up at her Princess, as difficult as it might have been to accept, Buffy still found herself thinking the thought.  Serena nodded.  Buffy turned back to Marise.

"Because, Princess of Earth," Buffy began formally, "Faith is to be your partner.  I am the Slayer of the Moon Kingdom, and Serena is my Princess.  Faith…we are told, is the Slayer of Earth.  And you, Marise Tsukino, are her Princess."

Earth:

                Faith wasn't for certain, but she had learned to trust her instincts enough to know when something was up.  Or was about to happen.  It had been a long time, nearly two years since she last had this particular feeling.  She and B used to call it their "Spider sense tingling."  Now, with a whole lot more free time on her hands to watch the boob tube, Faith had a new name for it.  She got it from this kick-ass European TV show after the movies by the same name, "Highlander."

                See, in both the movies and the TV show, there were these guys that were Immortal and chopped each other's heads off with swords.  Anyway, whenever one of these guys got close to another of these guys, they had a 'buzz' go off in their heads, kinda like an early-warning system.  Faith was feeling the "Buzz" right now.  She only ever got it when she either felt or knew that B was close, or was gonna be real soon.

                Faith had found herself spending allot of her free time thinking about B.  Nothing too gushy or nuthin', just thinkin'.  Thinking about all the patrols they'd gone on together…the feeling of being a perfectly in sync, unstoppable team.  Of all the things that Faith regretted the most about her mistakes and her past…it was giving up that team with Buffy.

                Heck, she even missed the Scooby meetings that they used to have.  Now that was a team.  Only five high school kids and the High School Librarian, against all the forces of darkness that the Hellmouth could throw at'em.  Now that is impressive.  Faith couldn't help but miss being apart of it again.  The first thing, she vowed, when she got outta here (she was only in for destruction of public property and disturbing the peace and Assault and Robbery, at most three years, tops!) she was gonna do everything she could to make it up to B and the Scooby Gang.  She might start with Angel and his crew, but her goal was making it up to B.  Just to be a part of a team once again.

                Faith suddenly stirred in her nighttime musings.  She sat up and looked around her pitch-black cell.  Nothing, she thought to herself, wondering what could have woken her.  Suddenly, like an epiphany, she knew.  'B needs me.  She's coming to get me.  I've got to be ready to help her,' were her thoughts as she got down off her bed and started stretching on the cold cement floor in her undies.  As soon as she was stretched, she began to do pushups.  Later in the night, she switched from pushups to sit-ups and stomach crunches.  Several hours after that, with the muscles throughout her body screaming for mercy, she jumped up from her seat on the floor, and then jumped up until her hands were touching the cement ceiling.  But before she could fall back to the ground, her hands actually dug into the cement ceiling and she started doing pull-ups until dawn.

                'I'll be ready B,' Faith vowed.

TBC…