"How did you do that?" Torrance asks after a few moments of silence lapse between them on the way to Faith's apartment.
"Do what?" Faith asks with confusion as they approach her building.
"With the fighting and stuff. It was incredible. Where did you learn to fight like that?" She asks again.
"I never had to learn it. It is just something I was born to do. Like I job I guess," she replies while shrugging her shoulders.
"Your job is to kill vampires?" Torrance asks with confusion as Faith unlocks her door.
"Yeah," Faith lets out a nervous laugh as they walk in. "Vampires and demons and other sources of supernatural evil," she says nervously as she notices all the weapons strewn across the floor.
"You're really serious about this killer stuff aren't you?" She asks as her eyes grow wide at the arsenal laid before her.
"Not killing stuff....slaying stuff," Faith explains as she picks up a sword and crossbow. "You kill people, you slay forces of evil," she says, staring at her reflection in the sword.
"What's wrong?" Torrance asks as Faith becomes silent.
"People still get hurt," Faith says wit a sigh as she puts the sword away. "They'll find a way to get caught in the crossfire. You know? Just get in the way."
"You killed someone?" Torrance asks, though it is more of a statement.
Faith is silent for a moment and Torrance doesn't think that she'll answer. "Yeah, four years ago I killed someone," she says and she sits heavily on the couch. "It was one of those times where your brain is telling you to do one thing, but your body does another," she explains.
"I understand that. Doing something against your better judgment," Torrance replies as she sits next to Faith.
"Me and the other slayer were fighting a pack of vampires. We dusted them all, but I was still high of the adrenaline. Some guy jumped out of nowhere, I lunged before I realized he was human. When I did, it was too late," she says quietly.
"So what happened after that? Did you go to prison?" Torrance asks. Faith doesn't make a move to reply as she stares into the far corner of the room. Torrance places her hand comfortingly on Faith's thigh.
Faith looks up and over at Torrance. "No. They had no evidence to hold either of us, so we walked. I just pretended not to care, to blow it off as just something shitty that happened. I didn't let the other slayer or her friends try to help," she chuckles self-deprecatingly. "I even tried choking one of them to death. I really fucked them all over by switching sides and teaming with the bad guys," she feels the tears burning in her eyes.
"You were confused Faith, that's a lot to take in at one time," Torrance says.
Faith stands up abruptly. "I shouldn't have told you all of this," she says as she starts to pace.
Torrance stands up to, a little angry. "Sounds like you needed to tell somebody. I think that you took it harder than you think because you're crying now," she says firmly.
"It's something that keeps eating away at me and that's how it should be," Faith replies. "No one else should have to deal with it because it's my problem!"
"How can you say that?" Torrance asks agitatedly.
"Because after I turned, I tried to kill each of Buffy's friends at one point or another. I held one at knife point and tried to choke the other. I shot her boyfriend with a poisoned arrow that almost killed him. She and I had a showdown, but we were pretty evenly matched. She managed to stick me with my knife. I just gave up and dove off the top-story balcony," she rambles.
"You jumped off a balcony?" Torrance asks, for lack of a better response.
"I was in a coma for 8 months. First thing I did was hunt them down again. I switched bodies with Buffy and shook her life up. When it backfired, I ran. She caught up with me in L.A. I ended up going to the cops after my second chance there was shot down. I confessed everything," she finishes.
"Wow, Faith. You've come a long way," Torrance says softly.
"No I haven't. They couldn't even hold me on the murder charges due to lack of evidence. I was only in prison for theft and a few assault and battery charges. I got out early because of Slayer-related issues, but it was only 8 months early."
"You didn't have to go to the police. You could have ran again, but you didn't. That shows that you were willing to take responsibility," Torrance says as she walks over to Faith.
Faith just scoffs. "Right," she says sarcastically. Torrance comes up to her and puts her hands on either side of Faith's face. She starts to kiss her and, after a moment, Faith starts kissing back. Suddenly, Faith pulls away. "I can't do this. I think that you should leave," she says, unable to look at Torrance.
Torrance stands still a moment longer, slightly dazed, before nodding. "Okay," she says slowly as she walks out the door. Seconds later, Faith is out the door too to make sure Torrance gets home all right.
She starts creeping through the park when she feels a shiver run through her back, like pins-and-needles. She stands up straight and listens around her for whatever is near. All of a sudden, she finds herself surrounded by seven vampires.
They jump her all at once, but Faith instinctually jumps out of the way. The vampires all collide, but they're up in no time. Faith reaches in her jacket for a stake, but finds herself unarmed. Instead, she takes a branch off a nearby tree and jumps into the fray.
"So, what's up?" Cliff asks apprehensively as he takes a seat.
"There's something that your mother and I need to tell you," Robert says. "It's kind of complicated, so bear with us," she continues as Missy takes a seat next to Cliff.
"Okay," Rebecca says as she takes a deep breath. "I was married once before your father," Cliff just nods. "His name was Richard and I was in a miserable marriage and had a major drinking problem. While I was with him, I met your father and began to have an affair with him," she says.
"Okay, then what happened?" Cliff asks.
"Well, I got pregnant by your father. My husband at the time didn't have any idea that I was having an affair with your dad," she says.
"Could your ex-husband tell that Miss and I weren't his?" Cliff asks.
"The thing is, I hadn't given birth to you or Missy at the end of my pregnancy. I gave birth to a baby girl, Faith," she says with her voice shaking. "I stayed married to my husband and as Faith started growing up, she started to act like him. He was her hero. I didn't like Richard and I didn't like Faith acting like him. So, sometimes when I got really drunk, I would just start hitting her, taking everything out on her," she says with tears in her eyes.
"We had a sister?" He asks.
"We have a sister," Missy clears up for him.
"What happened to her?" He asks interestedly.
"I stayed married to Richard for three years after her birth. I got a divorce just after finding out I was pregnant by Robert again. The court found me an unfit mother and gave full custody to Richard," she says.
"What happened to Faith?" Cliff asks.
"She was just screwed up," Rebecca says, shaking her head, knowing she was to blame. "I got into an argument with Richard a few years after our divorce. That's when I told him that he wasn't Faith's father. The news killed him, then he killed himself. Faith found his body when she got home from school one day," she says, taking a shuddering breath.
"You didn't tell me that," Missy accuses.
"Oh my god. Poor Faith," Cliff says quietly to himself. "Where is she now?" He asks.
"Well, after that, she bounced from foster home to foster home for about six years. Then, she showed up on your father and my doorstep, covered in blood, you guys were just 11 years old then. I refused to help her and I heard nothing from her for a year. I found out that she was in a fight and ended up in a coma in California after jumping off a roof. Almost a year after that, I found out that she went to prison for murder. I haven't heard from her since then," she sighs.
"Until now," Robert adds, drawing Cliff's attention to him. "She's here, in San Diego. Your sister met her your first day here. Faith and your mother butted heads earlier," he says.
"We have an older sister?" Cliff asks rhetorically and quietly to himself. "God, why didn't you tell us sooner? Why did you have to hide this from us for so long? You wouldn't have told us unless we ran into her ourselves, which Missy already did!" He shouts at them
"Cliff, I-" Rebecca begins.
"You should have told us about Faith. We had a right to know," he says as he gets up and goes up to his room.
Moments later, there's a knock at his door. "Cliff, it's me," Missy says.
"Come in," he mumbles.
She comes in and takes a seat. "You don't understand why they never told us," she tells him.
"Whatever it is, it isn't a good enough reason," he declares.
"They were trying to protect us Clifford," Missy says sternly. "They thought that she was a danger to us, especially after the murder. We were twelve years old. Would you want to tell your kids that they have a long, lost homicidal sister?" She asks.
"No, I guess not. But what about before that? With the coma and when she showed up all bloody. Why didn't they tell us then?" He asks.
"First of all, those are crappy circumstances to introduce siblings. Second, she was in a fight that put her in a coma and she was in a fight that got her all bloody. She had a violent past and they didn't want us to know about her," she concludes.
"I still wish that I'd known," he sighs as he lays back on his bed. "What's she like?" He asks her.
Missy smiles. "Just like me actually," she says. "She's really guarded, she's never really had anyone that she could trust, you know. Faith has been through a lot and she's reluctant to share the details with anyone, especially the family that abandoned her," Missy says.
"You need to stop reading 'Dear Abby'," Cliff jokes.
Faith limps into her apartment and throws her keys and jacket onto the floor next to the door. She gets to the kitchen and pulls out an icepack and holds it to her jaw. Then, she goes back into the living room and lays on the couch, disregarding the blood getting on it. After she gets comfortable enough to breath again, there's a pounding. At first, she thinks it's just her head, but she soon realizes that it's the door.
Reluctantly, she gets up and goes to answer it. Faith gets to the door and opens it. After opening the door, she turns away towards the couch again, not seeing who it is.
"Nice place you have here," the visitor sneers. Faith immediately stiffens as she hears it. Faith slowly turns around and the person flips the light switch in the darkened room. Faith squints at the light and takes on a defensive position, which looks pathetic with her nursing her left arm, covered in blood and bruises. "You look like shit," they say with surprise.
"Could this night get any worse?" Faith asks herself angrily. "How's it going Buff? If you came here to kill me, do it fast with a blunt object. I have a baseball bat in the closet if you want."
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I am impossibly sorry that this took so long. I have been sick for the longest time and I was in the hospital for about a week because of it. I swear to you that I would have gotten this out sooner if I could have.
