A/N: In the first two chapters, I forgot to mention that I've gotten really fed up with the roster spit. So it never happened and Eric Bischoff is nothing but a really nightmarish memory. Stephanie is the only GM and well, if I change anything else, you can read about it. Oh, Faith did end up going the education route and she's the same age as the other Scoobies.
In case anyone is wondering, this fic was thought up while my muse and I were watching Vengeance. This is why two female slash writers should never watch something that doesn't include commercials!
Oh, and apparently, our parents are never letting us watch another pay-per-view. Just because we screamed ourselves hoarse…
Catlimere: she decided just after I posted the chapter that she wanted a cape. I keep wondering if a towel would be enough to please her.
Also, I think I got three reviews for this story, but FF.net's reviews were messing up royally. Please review again and build up my reviews.
For all readers on Twisting the Hellmouth, please leave reviews. I'm begging you.
Chapter 2
Walking towards the cafeteria, Zach contemplated the changes in his sister. He'd always known that the years would change both him and Lizzie but now she was hurting inside and he didn't understand why. His heart ached sometimes, too, but he'd gone through hell after he'd gone to live with their Aunt Mara and Uncle Adam.
Cancer had been bad enough. He'd looked death in the face and survived more than once. And when he'd first lost his leg and figured that his dream of becoming a wrestler was over… He'd been depressed for days. Then he'd had enough. In addition to physical therapy, he'd trained and trained and trained. Becoming a wrestler had been the culmination of so much, but it had also felt slightly vindictive, too.
So many people hadn't thought that he could do it. His physical therapist had told him time and again that he shouldn't get his hopes up. And his uncle…his uncle had hated him after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.
His uncle had thought that he was good for nothing after he lost his leg. But when his aunt and uncle had first broken up, Mara had needed alone time. So, even though Adam had abused her a couple times over the years, she left her nephew alone with her soon-to-be-ex.
At first it was just the emotional, verbal, and mental abuse he was already used to. Somewhere around the time he turned eleven, though, it escalated into physical. At first he figured he deserved the abuse, but during seventh grade a guest speaker had lectured on abuse. She'd talked about how no one deserved to be abused and if they were being abused they should tell a teacher or even tell her.
How he'd wanted to tell her. To tell anyone, truth be told. But instead he'd just taken the beatings. It wasn't until Adam started raping him in addition to everything else that he'd finally told someone. By the time that he told someone, he was fifteen and it had been five years since his Aunt Mara had moved out.
He'd spent high school living with a foster family, the Michelsons. Social Services had told him that even if they'd been able to find Mara, they wouldn't have trusted her not to leave him again. He didn't really care; the Michelsons were a nice family. On his sixteenth birthday Mara sent two letters. The one she wrote didn't say much, just that she was sorry she'd felt the need to leave and that she'd promised to send the other letter when he turned 16.
That letter had rocked his world but it had cleared up so many questions that it wasn't even funny. Shaking his head to clear it of his thoughts, he realized that he'd passed the cafeteria. Grinning slightly, he headed back the way he'd come.
Peering into the room, he found the two divas he was looking for immediately. Ambling over to where the girls were sitting, he offered them a small smile. "May I sit here?"
Willow returned the smile with a larger, brighter version. "Course you can!"
Faith just inclined her head and nodded.
"Actually Buffy told me that I should talk to you two. She said something about needing caffeine before she killed something."
Faith had to chuckle. "That's B in a nutshell. How come she needed caffeine to calm down?"
"She was listing the ways life hadn't been kind to her. She didn't go in depth on any of the topics. One of them really confused me."
Willow leaned forward. "Well, what confused you so much?"
Zach looked over at two of the three newest divas. "Why did Liz…Buffy say that she'd already died? I was under the impression that death was permanent."
Faith smirked. "B has issues with staying dead. The first two times she died, according to a diary of her mother's, she was nine years old; she was hit by a car. The only injury that she suffered was a severe head injury. While the doctors tried to reduce the pressure that was causing her brain to swell, she died on the operating table twice."
Willow continued, "When she was sixteen, someone drowned her. A friend of ours preformed CPR, but she'd already been clinically dead for just over three minutes."
Zach gaped at her. "What the hell does she do during those moments of being dead? Take a vacation?"
"Knowing B, it is entirely possible." Faith shook her head. "Of course, with the things she's gone through, I don't really blame her…Tells you something about our lives, doesn't it?"
Someone new spoke. "I certainly don't blame her. She's had a rough life and she doesn't like discussing it. In some ways it's been even rougher than your childhood, Zach, and your life before the Scoobies, Faith."
Both of them turned to look around the room but it seemed like it was Willow that had spoken. Suddenly Faith's eyes narrowed. "I'm not certain who you are, but could you kindly stop possessing my best friend?"
"My English name is Jenny Calendar," the spirit replied, "and I somehow doubt that Willow will have many complaints."
Faith knew she'd heard that name before, in connection to something that had happened before she'd arrived in Sunnydale the summer after junior year. Jenny Calendar had been a witch of some form and she'd been the one who'd taught Willow about magic. When she'd died somehow, Buffy had blamed herself. Now what was it again? "You were the gypsy that Angelus killed."
"Very good, Faith. I honestly didn't think that you would figure out who I was." Jenny sighed. "Life is going to get complicated for all of you before it gets better. Giles told me to tell you that your left uppercut needs improving. He also wondered if you would tell Buffy that she should do something less frivolous for a job. I don't agree with him but I think he's just being English. To quote your sister, those from the land of tweed are permanently stuffy tight asses."
"Xander have anything to say?" Faith asked lightly.
"He said that he envied the fact that the three of you found jobs that you love. He also said to tell you girls that he loves you all so much that it ain't funny."
Faith smirked. "Tell him we return the sentiment. Also B said that it felt like she died during the final battle. Did she?"
Jenny nodded. "Yes, she did. Not including when she stopped breathing due to a severely bad case of pneumonia when she was three, she's died four times. Including that other time, she's died five times."
"Damn," Zach said, shaking his head. "Is she part cat?"
Jenny laughed. "No, Zach. First she couldn't die until the End of Days was complete and now she can't die until she's finished her mission on earth." Catching the petrified looks both of her listeners were giving her, she hastily added, "Don't worry. That won't be for a good many years. Xander won't have Scooby company aside from those who have already died for such a long time that the number of years would blow you away. The same goes for you dying, Zach."
"Thank you," he said quietly. After being diagnosed with cancer, he never really thought that he'd survive to see his teen years and when he had, he'd still thought that that it was too good to be true. To know that he'd survive a good long time…the knowledge produced a warm fuzzy feeling.
"Look," Faith started, "not that I don't like you or anything, but if you've finished your task, can you leave? I kinda want my best friend back."
"I understand," Jenny replied, laughingly. "It seems that your generation of Slayers are all the same, dead or alive. You're all hard as nails unless someone even seems to threaten a member of your family. I'm not a threat, but you don't see it that way."
"I'm sorry," the brunette apologized, "but we all spent our teenage years on a Hellmouth. It's hard to accept the idea of a friendly spirit."
Again, Jenny laughed. "Don't I know it. I enjoyed meeting you two. Take care of Willow and Buffy. Actually, take extra care of Buffy, because her soul is so close to shattering. She's quite a bit more fragile than she lets on."
"We'll take care of her," Zach said confidently.
"Yes, we will," Faith agreed.
"My work here is done." Jenny smiled and suddenly it was Willow who looked at them with an odd look on her face.
"What just happened?" the redhead wanted to know.
Faith smirked. "Oh, you know. You were possessed by the spirit of Jenny Calendar, who came to warn us that things were going to get majorly confusing and complicated before they got better. Xander sent his love and Giles said that I was need to improve my left uppercut and being a diva's a frivolous occupation."
"Oh," Willow deadpanned, "then you mean it was the same old, same old."
Zach couldn't understand that. "What do you mean, 'same old, same old'?"
The Slayer and the witch exchanged glances. In the end, it was Faith that spoke up. "Why don't you come back to the locker room with us? Then the three of us will explain every thing, all right?"
"All right," he agreed reluctantly.
Willow added, "But everything we tell you stays between the four of us, understand?"
"Yes."
What did you think? Like or hate it? Please review and tell me! I'm going to try to get the next chapter out before the end of the weekend but I don't want to guarantee it. See Catlimere? My sister is helping me to turn out chapters!