A/N- a little shout out of thanks to my Beta, who backed away in horror when she saw the length of this chapter. Love to ya kitten! Also, it could possibly be a while before I update again, because I'm doing a ficathon thing, I'm not quite sure what a ficathon is, but I'm doing it. So though I'll try to take care of this story, it could be a while. Thanks, and please review, that will shorten the distance the time between updates!!!!!
Chapter 7
Connor ran down the streets of Sunnydale as fast as his supernatural powers allowed. After ten minutes his heart was pounding heavily against his chest. His feet were soar and he realized he was going around in circles. He didn't bother stopping though, he just kept running until he tripped over a stump and fell.
He hit the ground with a very loud and painful thump. He wanted to lay there in the mud forever. He wanted to let the world go on around him while he sunk in to darkness. No point staying in a world with no one that wanted you, right?
Angel didn't want him, he had sent Connor away. And Buffy had made it clear from the moment he arrived that he was nothing but another weapon on the rack. And his own mother had killed herself so that she would have no need to be near him. No, this world was not for him. So he would just lie here in the mud until he was one with the earth. The clouds crackled open above him, letting loose showers of rain to mingle with the ground. Connor allowed his tears to fall freely now. He let them blend in with the fresh water of the rain and pool into the puddles.
And he laid there, silently weeping, completely disconnected from anything going on around him, withdrawing into himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
"Faith, are you okay?" Buffy asked, helping Faith off of the ground.
"Man, that kid is strong" Faith said, excepting Buffy's helping hand and dusting herself off. "I'm fine though, what has gotten into him?" Faith wondered.
"I think I might know," Buffy said. Faith looked at her questioningly. "Well, he was talking to himself when we came in," Faith nodded. "Well, I'm thinking he really wasn't talking to himself at all, I'm thinking that the First Evil is doing some more damage," Buffy concluded.
Faith looked skeptical, "Maybe," she said, "But incase you haven't noticed, Angel's boy is a bit wacky in the head. I mean, I saw him freaking out a bit back in L.A. and there was no first Evil there,"
Buffy nodded, "Well, all the same, I think that someone should talk to him, see if it is the First, fill him in on it's little tricks. We haven't really told Connor any details. I don't think he's feeling at home here," Buffy said.
"Good idea, you wanna send Spike, or go yourself," Faith asked.
"Well, actually," Buffy started with a smile, "I was thinking that you could go," she suggested.
Faith shook her head. "No way am I going off to baby-sit. I mean, incase you haven't noticed, I'm not so great at this whole 'heart to heart' deal that you all love so much," she said while shifting uncomfortably. "You go B, you're great at all that inspiring stuff."
"Faith, he trusts you. And right now you're the only one that he does talk to," Buffy said, her eyes wide and pleading. "Besides," she said with a smile, "I think he kinda likes ya," she turned away from Faith and went over to start doing the piles of dishes by the sink.
Faith glared at Buffy's back. "He doesn't even know me," she said. "You're sounding just as crazy as him B." She walked to the back door, and turned. "But just in case, I better beat it out of him." Then she left the house in search of Connor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're so tired for your age," Darla's low hum of a voice traveled lightly into Connor's ear. He turned his face out of the mud and looked at her. "You need to rest," she purred. Connor closed his eye's, his mother was right.
Darla's soft earthy face transformed into the more modeled one of Cordillia. "O, my sweet Connor," she said shaking her head. "Why do you torture yourself here? They don't like you, they don't want you. Why do you stay?" she asked.
'Faith' he thought to himself. That's why he stayed. Because of Faith. "Oh my poor Connor," Cordillia said. "Faith doesn't love you, she never will. She can't. No one can love you, you're just some whiny kid that wont go away," she told him.
Connor shook his head. Cordillia's feminine curves turned masculine in a heart beat, her face now belonged to Angel. "It's true Connor, why do you think I sent you up here? One more day of you, and I happily would have staked myself," he said.
Connor was so caught up in his conversations, that he didn't even hear the 3 vampires approaching. It wasn't until he smelled their rank scent of blood and death. "Don't move," Angel said to him. Connor complied.
"Well, what do we have here?" one of the 3 said.
"Looks like a drowned puppy," a second chimed in, it was female.
"It's dead, I say we leave it too the rats," the last voice said. It was male, like the first.
"You idiot, can't you hear him breathing? He stinks of life," the girl vamp said. "He's mine, you two find somewhere else to snack tonight," she said.
"Hey I spotted him first," the first vampire said.
"Let her have him, he's too small to feed us all anyhow," said the third.
Connor's instincts told him to get up. To fight. But Angel stood before him, telling him otherwise. "Let her take you. It's the end you deserve," he said.
He heard the vampire women approaching him. She lowered herself to her knees beside him, reaching out a pale hand to stroke his neck. "What a pretty little puppy you are, I wonder how you got lost out here," she said, a look of mock concern on her face.
Angel turned back to Darla, who smiled at him. "Let her take you, it's the only way you can rest. The only way to find peace," she said.
"Ah, what a pretty gleam in those blue eyes," the Vamp woman said. "Such a shame to waste you," she pulled Connor up by the shoulders, and nuzzled his neck. Connor remained limp. "Not even gonna fight it are you," she whispered in his ears. Connor just closed his eyes, and readied himself.
Her teeth dug into his neck, but just as the first drops of blood began to spill, he heard a quiet poof, and coughed as dust filled his lungs. He looked up to see the familiar figure of Faith.
"What the hell are you doing?" she screamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well?" Faith looked at the slip of a boy in front of her. He sat on Buffy's bed, all clean now wrapped up in a blanket. She had been so angered by his idiocy when she found him, which she didn't even let him talk. She grabbed him roughly at the arm, and dragged him the 42 blocks back to Buffy's. When they got there, she pulled him upstairs, ignoring the glances of everyone, and shoved him in the bathroom, instructing him not to come out until he was clean and she could see his face.
What really surprised Faith though, was the fact that he just let her. He didn't protest once, and he did everything she said. After a 10-minute shower he emerged out of the bathroom in a set of clean clothes she had given him, and never once did he say a single word. She had pulled him into the room she and Buffy shared, and sat him on the bed, tossing a blanket his way. He stared blankly at it, so she put it around is shoulders, not liking the extra paleness that had come up over him. And now he just blankly stared at her.
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Faith asked him. Connor blinked. "Why did you run?" He blinked again. "Why didn't you fight those vamps?" Connor looked down at the ground.
Faith grew angry. She didn't have time for these child games, she stepped forward and smacked Connor upside the head, "Answer me now!" she said sternly.
Connor looked up and rubbed his head. "They told me to run. They told me not to fight." Connor said.
Faith sighed, and shook her head, "Who told you, and since when do you take orders?" she asked.
"You wouldn't understand!" Connor yelled and stood up, letting the blanket fall to the floor as he walked towards the door.
Faith grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "What wouldn't I understand?" she asked. She wanted to let him go, it was against her nature to go after him, but a little voice in her head sounding a lot like Buffy told her she needed to stop him.
"I'm tired," Connor said. He wasn't looking at Faith, he was looking at the floor, and his chestnut hair fell into his face. "I'm tired of fighting, tired of being unwanted," he shook off Faith and turned away from her again. "I'm tired of being alone." He put his arm up against the wall, and leaned against it, as if he needed its support. "They told me to run, to die, and I wanted too. I WANTED TOO!" he grew quiet for a moment, and Faith realized that he was crying.
"Faith," he almost whispered, "You don't know what it's like, and I've got no where, no one, nothing. Nothing but my fighting, and I don't want to fight anymore," he banged his head hard against the wall and let it rest there.
Faith took in a deep breath, and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You think I don't know what that's like?" Faith asked. "You're looking at the queen of being alone and having nothing. If it weren't for Angel, I'd probably still be out on the streets, killing, stealing, doing god knows what. If it weren't for Angel, I'd probably be dead by now," she told him.
Connor laughed. It was a dirty, spiteful sound, and Faith found she didn't much like it at all, yet she recognized it as being one of her own. "Well all hail Angel, God knows we'd all be lost with out him." he said sarcasticly.
Faith ignored his comment. "Connor, do you really think these people want me here anymore then you? I slept with Buffy's boyfriend, and Xander, and I've tried to kill them all at least once. Believe me, there wasn't a big welcome basket waiting in my room when I arrived. But you can't let it get to you" Faith knew that these words weren't going to be enough for him. So she took another deep breath, and said something very un Faith like. "Connor, you're not alone, neither of us are, we have each other," she said. She hated the words, they sounded way to Buffy like, but she knew it was what he needed, and at the same time, a small part of her needed it also.
Connor turned around and looked at her. His blue eyes sparkled with tears, and Faith realized how close she had been standing to him. Their faces were inches apart; she could feel his breath warm against her. He was looking up at her with an expression she knew all to well, hunger. She wasn't blind, she knew that Connor had a crush on her, but he was Angels kid.
"Connor, whoever has been telling you these things, they're not who they appeared to be," she said taking a step back from his wanting look. "We've told you about the first evil-"
"I know it's not really them," Connor said. "Or, well, a part of me knows, but when they're here, talking to me, it's as though all of the things that don't make sense fall away. They know too much, and everything the say seem to be the truth," he said. The hunger left his eyes, and was replaced by confusion and frustration.
"That's what the first does," Faith told him. "It takes shape of anyone you've known, anyone who's dead, or died, and it will tell you things. It digs into your mind and you don't even know it. It finds your secrets, and uses them against you," Faith stopped when she realized that Connor was thinking of something else.
"Anyone dead?" he asked. "It can't take shape of anyone alive?" he looked at Faith with fear.
"Only someone dead. I could take the shape of angel or spike, because they're both dead. And it can take the shape of Buffy, because she's died. But it can't be anyone alive," Faith told him.
"But that's impossible," Connor said.
"What's impossible?" Faith asked.
"One of the people the first appeared to me as, was Cordillia. And she's alive, Angel told me on the phone yesterday that she was alive and well, and that she had just woken up," he said.
"But…" Faith suddenly realized what was going on. Why Cordillia had done all those things, why she had slept with Connor, why she had try to kill them all, why she raised the beast, why she did everything. She wasn't Cordillia. "Connor," she looked up and met his gaze as he came to the exact same conclusion.
"I have to call the hotel," Connor said running downstairs to the phone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right as Connor had run out the door, Willow had noticed a book under the couch that she had yet to search through. And by the time Connor and Faith returned she was deep into it, right on a path to finding quite possibly the solution to all their problems with the first. And about the time Faith and Connor had made their disturbing discovery about Cordillia, Xander entered the dining room to find Willow deeply engrossed in the book. And right as Connor picked up the phone to call the Hyperion hotel, Willow looked up from her book to look at Xander, a huge smile on her face. "I've found it Xander, I know how to defeat the first."
Chapter 7
Connor ran down the streets of Sunnydale as fast as his supernatural powers allowed. After ten minutes his heart was pounding heavily against his chest. His feet were soar and he realized he was going around in circles. He didn't bother stopping though, he just kept running until he tripped over a stump and fell.
He hit the ground with a very loud and painful thump. He wanted to lay there in the mud forever. He wanted to let the world go on around him while he sunk in to darkness. No point staying in a world with no one that wanted you, right?
Angel didn't want him, he had sent Connor away. And Buffy had made it clear from the moment he arrived that he was nothing but another weapon on the rack. And his own mother had killed herself so that she would have no need to be near him. No, this world was not for him. So he would just lie here in the mud until he was one with the earth. The clouds crackled open above him, letting loose showers of rain to mingle with the ground. Connor allowed his tears to fall freely now. He let them blend in with the fresh water of the rain and pool into the puddles.
And he laid there, silently weeping, completely disconnected from anything going on around him, withdrawing into himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
"Faith, are you okay?" Buffy asked, helping Faith off of the ground.
"Man, that kid is strong" Faith said, excepting Buffy's helping hand and dusting herself off. "I'm fine though, what has gotten into him?" Faith wondered.
"I think I might know," Buffy said. Faith looked at her questioningly. "Well, he was talking to himself when we came in," Faith nodded. "Well, I'm thinking he really wasn't talking to himself at all, I'm thinking that the First Evil is doing some more damage," Buffy concluded.
Faith looked skeptical, "Maybe," she said, "But incase you haven't noticed, Angel's boy is a bit wacky in the head. I mean, I saw him freaking out a bit back in L.A. and there was no first Evil there,"
Buffy nodded, "Well, all the same, I think that someone should talk to him, see if it is the First, fill him in on it's little tricks. We haven't really told Connor any details. I don't think he's feeling at home here," Buffy said.
"Good idea, you wanna send Spike, or go yourself," Faith asked.
"Well, actually," Buffy started with a smile, "I was thinking that you could go," she suggested.
Faith shook her head. "No way am I going off to baby-sit. I mean, incase you haven't noticed, I'm not so great at this whole 'heart to heart' deal that you all love so much," she said while shifting uncomfortably. "You go B, you're great at all that inspiring stuff."
"Faith, he trusts you. And right now you're the only one that he does talk to," Buffy said, her eyes wide and pleading. "Besides," she said with a smile, "I think he kinda likes ya," she turned away from Faith and went over to start doing the piles of dishes by the sink.
Faith glared at Buffy's back. "He doesn't even know me," she said. "You're sounding just as crazy as him B." She walked to the back door, and turned. "But just in case, I better beat it out of him." Then she left the house in search of Connor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're so tired for your age," Darla's low hum of a voice traveled lightly into Connor's ear. He turned his face out of the mud and looked at her. "You need to rest," she purred. Connor closed his eye's, his mother was right.
Darla's soft earthy face transformed into the more modeled one of Cordillia. "O, my sweet Connor," she said shaking her head. "Why do you torture yourself here? They don't like you, they don't want you. Why do you stay?" she asked.
'Faith' he thought to himself. That's why he stayed. Because of Faith. "Oh my poor Connor," Cordillia said. "Faith doesn't love you, she never will. She can't. No one can love you, you're just some whiny kid that wont go away," she told him.
Connor shook his head. Cordillia's feminine curves turned masculine in a heart beat, her face now belonged to Angel. "It's true Connor, why do you think I sent you up here? One more day of you, and I happily would have staked myself," he said.
Connor was so caught up in his conversations, that he didn't even hear the 3 vampires approaching. It wasn't until he smelled their rank scent of blood and death. "Don't move," Angel said to him. Connor complied.
"Well, what do we have here?" one of the 3 said.
"Looks like a drowned puppy," a second chimed in, it was female.
"It's dead, I say we leave it too the rats," the last voice said. It was male, like the first.
"You idiot, can't you hear him breathing? He stinks of life," the girl vamp said. "He's mine, you two find somewhere else to snack tonight," she said.
"Hey I spotted him first," the first vampire said.
"Let her have him, he's too small to feed us all anyhow," said the third.
Connor's instincts told him to get up. To fight. But Angel stood before him, telling him otherwise. "Let her take you. It's the end you deserve," he said.
He heard the vampire women approaching him. She lowered herself to her knees beside him, reaching out a pale hand to stroke his neck. "What a pretty little puppy you are, I wonder how you got lost out here," she said, a look of mock concern on her face.
Angel turned back to Darla, who smiled at him. "Let her take you, it's the only way you can rest. The only way to find peace," she said.
"Ah, what a pretty gleam in those blue eyes," the Vamp woman said. "Such a shame to waste you," she pulled Connor up by the shoulders, and nuzzled his neck. Connor remained limp. "Not even gonna fight it are you," she whispered in his ears. Connor just closed his eyes, and readied himself.
Her teeth dug into his neck, but just as the first drops of blood began to spill, he heard a quiet poof, and coughed as dust filled his lungs. He looked up to see the familiar figure of Faith.
"What the hell are you doing?" she screamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well?" Faith looked at the slip of a boy in front of her. He sat on Buffy's bed, all clean now wrapped up in a blanket. She had been so angered by his idiocy when she found him, which she didn't even let him talk. She grabbed him roughly at the arm, and dragged him the 42 blocks back to Buffy's. When they got there, she pulled him upstairs, ignoring the glances of everyone, and shoved him in the bathroom, instructing him not to come out until he was clean and she could see his face.
What really surprised Faith though, was the fact that he just let her. He didn't protest once, and he did everything she said. After a 10-minute shower he emerged out of the bathroom in a set of clean clothes she had given him, and never once did he say a single word. She had pulled him into the room she and Buffy shared, and sat him on the bed, tossing a blanket his way. He stared blankly at it, so she put it around is shoulders, not liking the extra paleness that had come up over him. And now he just blankly stared at her.
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Faith asked him. Connor blinked. "Why did you run?" He blinked again. "Why didn't you fight those vamps?" Connor looked down at the ground.
Faith grew angry. She didn't have time for these child games, she stepped forward and smacked Connor upside the head, "Answer me now!" she said sternly.
Connor looked up and rubbed his head. "They told me to run. They told me not to fight." Connor said.
Faith sighed, and shook her head, "Who told you, and since when do you take orders?" she asked.
"You wouldn't understand!" Connor yelled and stood up, letting the blanket fall to the floor as he walked towards the door.
Faith grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "What wouldn't I understand?" she asked. She wanted to let him go, it was against her nature to go after him, but a little voice in her head sounding a lot like Buffy told her she needed to stop him.
"I'm tired," Connor said. He wasn't looking at Faith, he was looking at the floor, and his chestnut hair fell into his face. "I'm tired of fighting, tired of being unwanted," he shook off Faith and turned away from her again. "I'm tired of being alone." He put his arm up against the wall, and leaned against it, as if he needed its support. "They told me to run, to die, and I wanted too. I WANTED TOO!" he grew quiet for a moment, and Faith realized that he was crying.
"Faith," he almost whispered, "You don't know what it's like, and I've got no where, no one, nothing. Nothing but my fighting, and I don't want to fight anymore," he banged his head hard against the wall and let it rest there.
Faith took in a deep breath, and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You think I don't know what that's like?" Faith asked. "You're looking at the queen of being alone and having nothing. If it weren't for Angel, I'd probably still be out on the streets, killing, stealing, doing god knows what. If it weren't for Angel, I'd probably be dead by now," she told him.
Connor laughed. It was a dirty, spiteful sound, and Faith found she didn't much like it at all, yet she recognized it as being one of her own. "Well all hail Angel, God knows we'd all be lost with out him." he said sarcasticly.
Faith ignored his comment. "Connor, do you really think these people want me here anymore then you? I slept with Buffy's boyfriend, and Xander, and I've tried to kill them all at least once. Believe me, there wasn't a big welcome basket waiting in my room when I arrived. But you can't let it get to you" Faith knew that these words weren't going to be enough for him. So she took another deep breath, and said something very un Faith like. "Connor, you're not alone, neither of us are, we have each other," she said. She hated the words, they sounded way to Buffy like, but she knew it was what he needed, and at the same time, a small part of her needed it also.
Connor turned around and looked at her. His blue eyes sparkled with tears, and Faith realized how close she had been standing to him. Their faces were inches apart; she could feel his breath warm against her. He was looking up at her with an expression she knew all to well, hunger. She wasn't blind, she knew that Connor had a crush on her, but he was Angels kid.
"Connor, whoever has been telling you these things, they're not who they appeared to be," she said taking a step back from his wanting look. "We've told you about the first evil-"
"I know it's not really them," Connor said. "Or, well, a part of me knows, but when they're here, talking to me, it's as though all of the things that don't make sense fall away. They know too much, and everything the say seem to be the truth," he said. The hunger left his eyes, and was replaced by confusion and frustration.
"That's what the first does," Faith told him. "It takes shape of anyone you've known, anyone who's dead, or died, and it will tell you things. It digs into your mind and you don't even know it. It finds your secrets, and uses them against you," Faith stopped when she realized that Connor was thinking of something else.
"Anyone dead?" he asked. "It can't take shape of anyone alive?" he looked at Faith with fear.
"Only someone dead. I could take the shape of angel or spike, because they're both dead. And it can take the shape of Buffy, because she's died. But it can't be anyone alive," Faith told him.
"But that's impossible," Connor said.
"What's impossible?" Faith asked.
"One of the people the first appeared to me as, was Cordillia. And she's alive, Angel told me on the phone yesterday that she was alive and well, and that she had just woken up," he said.
"But…" Faith suddenly realized what was going on. Why Cordillia had done all those things, why she had slept with Connor, why she had try to kill them all, why she raised the beast, why she did everything. She wasn't Cordillia. "Connor," she looked up and met his gaze as he came to the exact same conclusion.
"I have to call the hotel," Connor said running downstairs to the phone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right as Connor had run out the door, Willow had noticed a book under the couch that she had yet to search through. And by the time Connor and Faith returned she was deep into it, right on a path to finding quite possibly the solution to all their problems with the first. And about the time Faith and Connor had made their disturbing discovery about Cordillia, Xander entered the dining room to find Willow deeply engrossed in the book. And right as Connor picked up the phone to call the Hyperion hotel, Willow looked up from her book to look at Xander, a huge smile on her face. "I've found it Xander, I know how to defeat the first."