Brave New World
Chapter Four
It was good to be outside again. Faith shook her arms and sauntered down the street, throwing her arms out to surrender herself to the night, where she belonged.
But she felt a little lost. She was Slayer, that's where her power came from. Now though, she didn't have anything to slay. But the Mayor said she could have his demons, she could be the one to keep the town under control. She chuckled when she remembered that he said people tried to escape over the border. But her face hardened when she remembered that he had also said most of them got away, thanks to Buffy and her friends.
Her fists clenched. God, she couldn't wait to get her hands on that bitch. She felt like crying when the Mayor revealed she had been out of the game for two years.
Faith whirled suddenly, slamming her fist into the brick wall of a house. Two fucking years! She'd never get those years back. No, this time, Buffy Summers had screwed up majorly and Faith couldn't wait to take her down.
But first, she was going to pay back the rest. She was going to find out about Buffy's army.
Huh. Faith had to laugh at that. Army. Buffy always thought she was better than anyone, and if anyone could create an army out of a group of terrified amateurs, then L'il Miss Summers would, by gum!
Faith laced her fingers and stretched her arms out.
Yeah, she was gonna have some fun.
"Wes?"
Wesley pushed his sword hard against Doyle's, slightly harder than he intended, banging the half-demon into the wall. He offered Doyle an apologetic smile as Doyle rubbed his neck.
"Yes, Dawn?" Wesley asked, turning lowering his sword.
She twirled her sword easily, a nervous gesture, though a good display of swords-womanship nonetheless.
"Buffy's gone out," Dawn said, nibbling her lip.
"So I heard," Wes answered.
"Why does she keep doing this?" Dawn asked.
"I'll be back soon, Doyle," Wes said and Doyle nodded, going to help Spike with Willow and Tara.
Wes took Dawn's shoulder, steering her out of the main room and into the entrance hall. Dawn sank onto the stairs.
"You're the only one I can talk to," Dawn started. "It's like no one else notices how different she is."
"The others have their grief, sometimes they can't see beyond that. And others never knew her before all this. You can't blame them, Dawn, this isn't an ideal situation."
"I know that!" Dawn snapped. "But I can't get through to her. Sometimes I think the only person she hears is you. And even then, she doesn't listen. I get worried when she goes out on her own."
"She needs time alone sometimes," Wes answered, sitting down beside Dawn. "I worry about her too, y'know. But she has taken all this harder than anyone. Not only has she lost people, like all of us, but it was her job to protect them. She thinks she's failed."
"But she hasn't!" Dawn cried. "When is she going to see that?"
"When she has taken this town back, Dawnie."
"When is that going to happen?"
"That's up to Buffy. But first, before we can wage war, we have to get the civilians out. Which, considering that they don't trust us anymore than the Mayor, is difficult."
"They're stupid," Dawn muttered. "We could get them out. I don't get why they don't trust us."
"We blew up a school," Wes said, with a slight smile.
"That was a vampire," Dawn pointed out.
"They don't know that. And… a lot of people died as a result of that explosion," he winced. Cordelia had been one of them.
Dawn's hand sought his as it had two years ago on Graduation Day and countless days since. She put her arm around his shoulder and pulled him into a tight hug.
"Will you go find her?" she mumbled into his neck.
"Yes," Wes pulled away, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. "If you go and check on Andrew, I daresay Anya's frightening the life out of him."
"Ok," Dawn grinned and stood, walking back toward the room where they trained.
"Dawn?"
She turned to face him, a smile on her face.
"We'll take care of Buffy together, ok?"
Her smile widened.
"Deal."
Buffy had come to loathe patrolling. She remembered a time when she enjoyed it. Back in the days when patrol meant illicit meetings with Angel or a way to work out her frustration, or just something she did while hanging out with Willow or Xander.
Sometimes she missed those days so much it hurt. Now the only people she had left from those days were Willow and Dawn.
She never counted Wesley when she counted the people remaining from her past. She barely thought of the Wesley she knew now as the one that first arrived in Sunnydale, anymore than she thought of Anya as Anyanka.
Buffy thought Anya grew up and changed over time while she was away. But she thought Wesley's change was quicker. She thought part of him died on Graduation Day. She knew what that felt like.
Buffy remembered a time when she laughed all the time.
She remembered cool lips that fanned a burning need inside her.
She remembered dark brown hair blowing in a breeze as its owner threw his head back in laughter.
She remembered glittering glasses, faintly disapproving eyes that crinkled around the corners in a smile.
She remembered deadpan answers, the melancholy strum of a guitar from the rooms upstairs.
She remembered softly curling greying hair and warm arms.
She remembered pain.
She kicked her feet along the floor, wrapping her arms around her waist. She hated this place. She used to call Sunnydale her town, but that was laughable right now. It didn't belong to her; she didn't have any power.
People gave up escaping months ago. The whole group would wait at the border, hold off the enemy whenever they heard an escape was happening and came to stop them. But people gave up on trying to get away; too many people had died trying.
And after a little while, Buffy gave up on them.
It was hard trying to care about people who were barely able to care about themselves.
But she still patrolled, in case there was anyone out there that needed saving. But she didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to leave their homes after dark.
The Mayor called a meeting in the middle of the town a day later, in his human form and told the people of Sunnydale the way things were. Buffy and Wesley had gone to the meeting, leaving Willow and Oz to look after Dawn. They had hung back; hoping the Mayor would not notice them. The sun was too bright, Buffy had noted, for a day like that. There should have been rain, she had thought, because this was not a happy day, no matter what the Mayor said.
"This is a brave new world," he had proclaimed and it made Buffy want to throw up.
The Mayor told the people this was a glorious day for humans, vampires and demons. He told them that humans could have the town in the daylight hours, but they were to keep off the streets as soon as dusk fell. That, he had said with a friendly, if grim smile, was the only way he could protect them. Because if they left their homes after dark, well, his boys had to eat, didn't they?
No one believed him, people said he had gone mad.
Three families were slaughtered that first night, one family perished on the second evening. That made everyone believe and most made a run for it, most died, except for the few Buffy and her army managed to get away.
After that, everyone stuck to the rules.
Buffy didn't know how, but the Mayor managed to keep the supermarket fully stocked up. That was the only place anyone ever went. Kids grew up without an education, something the Mayor wasn't particularly happy about, but something, so he said, he could live with.
According to rumours, the Mayor had removed all traces of the rubble left of the school and built some kind of small temple over the Hellmouth. Buffy wasn't sure about that; she never went near the old school. She forbade the others to go near it too.
At night, the town was like a ghost town. A forced mockery of what it had been. People lives revolved around avoiding the dark hours and being careful during the days.
Staring around the dark streets, Buffy made the snap decision that this couldn't go on. For the first time in a long while, she felt a surge of protection for the few people that remained in the town.
There were five families left in Sunnydale and Buffy was going to get them the hell out. Then she was going to take the fight to the Mayor. She was done with waiting, wondering what had happened to Faith who was no longer in the hospital, which squatted looted and dusty three blocks from the Town Hall.
She was done with waiting for the Mayor to get sick of them and wage war. She was getting these people out of Sunnydale and she was reclaiming this town and her life.
"Buffy!"
She started to turn in the direction of Wesley's voice when she saw a flash of a familiar figure.
Leather pants, white top and flying brunette hair raced from an alley and around a corner, joyous laughter echoing, thanking the night sky for her freedom. She knew that figure, that familiar tension ready to spring out in a fight, on the dance floor or in the bedroom. There was a lust for life in that laughter.
But after two years in a coma, that was to be expected.
"Buffy," Wesley gasped, taking her shoulder and turning her around. "You shouldn't be out on your own. Dawn's worried sick."
"Yeah…" she said distantly, allowing him to pull her in the direction of the mansion.
It couldn't have been. Faith was dead, that's what they had decided. No one could be in a coma for two years and be fine, could they?
But deep down, in her gut, Buffy knew.
Faith was back.
The war was about to start.