Episode 47: The Emergence of a... /SuperSlayer/!?
by 3D Master (3d.masterchello.nl)
website: http:members.chello.nl/jg.temolder1/
Disclaimer see Episode 41.
Super Slayer theme:
Linkin Park - In The End
Previously on Buffy Z:
Through Xander's tirade a golden glow had started around his body, the more angry he got, the more powerful it became. His hair had started to stand up and with some failed attempts in between, it got the same golden color, and then finally the pupils and irises of his eyes became emerald green. The anger, rage and power that reflected in them were terrifying to behold.
-----
"Which two of your friends do you trust most?" the judge asked.
"That would be Angel, that is Liam O'Rourke and Xander . . . Littica, sir," Faith answered dutifully, having no clue of what was happening.
"Good," the judge stated. "For the next two years you will be in their joint custody, whether you've passed eighteen or not, that means they get to order you around. You will always live with either one of them, never separate. Finally, you will go to therapy sessions at least twice a week, and I want to see the bills as proof you're actually going to them. This court is . . ."
-----
"Now, multi-spectral energy waves," Xander said, eyes glittering. He placed his hands at his side and formed an energy ball between them. "Girls, place your hands alongside it, and feel its power, feel how it works." Buffy, Faith, and Dawn did what he said. "Notice how several different frequencies wrap around each other, build each other up. I'll perform three similar, but different beams, choose which one you think fits you best. First my own."
"Tanekakosa!" Xander blasted the energy wave up into the air. "Got that?" The girls nodded. "Ok, next, is Kakarotto's wave, taught to him by his sensei, Krillin knows it too, so does Kakarotto's son Gohan, who defeated Cell."
"Kamehameha!" That wave followed the first up into the air and out into space.
After checking the girls had properly payed attention to that one as well, Xander said, "Finally we have King Vegeta's wave. He's developed this one, like me, all on his own. A little rougher than the other two."
"Galeck Gun Fire!" The third beam blasted away as well. Xander stood back a bit, and told them, "There now you try."
Dawn stood looking at her hands uncertain. Buffy was a little bit bolder. "Kamehameha!" The beam sputtered away before it could even leave her hands. "Damn," she muttered.
Xander grinned, "You'll have to work on that one. Seven years before I perfected that one. I hear it took Krillin about four, the guy who created the Kamehameha took fifty years. This won't be as easily done as flight, or blasting a little ener- . . ."
"Galeck Gun FIRE!!!" Faith screamed off to the side. She had turned away a little, looking at her hands for a couple of minutes figuring it out. Deciding the tree to the right of the house was a good target, she had aimed and fired. Xander turned around, and his eyes went wide along with the others. The Galeck Gun shot forward perfectly on target. It hit the tree and exploded. The tree disintegrated and the whole Scooby Gang got showered with its remains. All of them covered in sawdust.
-----
Tara shook her head as she got in bed and under the covers. "No. What you tried to do, Willow, was so irresponsible . . . this power is not something to be toyed with. It's serious business. Now come to bed, please."
Willow turned around, mumbling something indignant and snotty that Tara couldn't hear, and walked over to the dresser. She saw a few plants, and dried flowers that could be used as magical ingredients, and suddenly got an idea. With a smile she picked up a dried piece of plant life and held it in her left hand. "Forget," she said with a low voice, still smiling. The flowery part of a plant glowed, and then disappeared as Willow closed her hand over it.
Unseen by Willow, Tara's eyes flew open and started to glow, then a look of absolute terror filtered over her face, and she went rigid, thrashed once and then calmed down, the glow in her eyes disappearing. Tara sat straight up in bed, looking at Willow disbelieving, as well as angry and fearful. When Willow turned around to face the bed, she was still smiling. The smile disappeared instantly and her eyes opened in shock as she looked at Tara sitting ramrod straight in bed. Tara regarded her with a look that Willow had never seen in Tara's eyes, let alone directed at her. It was filled with anger, hate even, and fear of her. Willow felt like somebody gave her a blow in the stomach. How could Tara fear her? And hate?
Tara spoke in a low voice, bordering on a hiss, "Did you really think, that I couldn't defend myself against a spell like that?"
"I . . ." Willow tried.
Tara got up out of the bed, and told Willow loudly, "Save it!" Tara walked to a chair and grabbed a pair of jeans from them, that she promptly started to pull on over her pajama's. "I cannot believe you tried to do that, Willow! You are out of control!"
Willow's face filled with desperation, starting to see where this was going. She walked toward Tara, needed the physical distance to be closed, too big of a symbol of how the mental distance between them had become. "Tara, baby, it was just a little spell." The look on Tara's face as she stepped into her shoes, showed Willow she had said completely the wrong thing.
"YOU TRIED TO RAPE ME!" Tara screamed, bordering on hysterics. She grabbed the sweater on the same chair and pulled it on, also over her pajama's. "Worse, MIND RAPE me!" Tara resolutely walked up to Willow and hissed, "You tried to tear a piece out of my mind, out of my memory!"
-----
To Willow's surprise Tara merely waved her hands, spoke a spell of her own, and when the energy beam hit, Tara jerked once, and then stood relaxed. Willow's beam was being absorbed by Tara, and when Willow wanted to stop the beam, nothing happened. Tara pointed, spoke some more magical words and suddenly more magical energy was siphoned from Willow through the energy beam with visible pulses. "No!" Willow called out in horror. Tara spoke another spell, and four beams of energy shot out from her torso and embedded themselves in Willow's body and started sucking more energy from the red-haired witch. Tara was gaining more and more energy, becoming more and more powered up, and Willow lost hers rapidly, her black eyes regained their real color bit by bit.
-----
Xander was lying on Willow and Tara's bed. He groaned on occasion. He twisted and turned regularly. Anya was sitting next to the bed, dipping Xander's sweating brow with a cold washcloth and making soothing sounds. Tears freely ran down her cheeks.
-----
Willow - her hands wrapped in protective plastic gloves - held up a vial with a clear liquid inside, and said, "This is the poisonous element in the demon's slime. It's part 'simple' chemistry, part mystical, and it's a very good thing none of us here - living or not - touched the stuff. If any one of us had gotten only a single drop of the demon's slime on our skins, we'd have been dead within a second, and the vampires dust." The others stayed silent, eyeing the vial with distrust and fear. Carefully she walked over to the table and placed it inside a rack; she was still going to need it to try and find a cure later.
-----
Gunn attacked, shooting forward from his position as fast as he could, directly behind the demon, intending to kick the thing's neck with all he had, to see how well that part of the creature's anatomy could handle punishment. Instantly the demon turned around and its right hand shot out. Gunn's eyes widened and he exclaimed in shock, but he was too slow. Instantly he was in the demon's hands, and it squeezed. Gunn screamed out in pain as he felt bones crack and flesh tear. "You're going to be a tasty little treat," the demon said with a wide grin. Before Gunn knew what was happening he was tossed forward, and the demon's snout opened wide. He screamed out one last death defying howl, before the jaws snapped closed. The bunny's teeth worked exactly as designed: they sliced through Gunn's body so easily it was almost as if he wasn't even there. Gunn's lower legs stuck out of the mouth, and were now tumbling down to the ground, as was his head.
As the bunny chewed tastefully, making approving sounds, the Slayers and their friends watched in shock as Gunn's head - still gurgling and for six agonizing seconds still very much aware - fell. The head landed on the asphalt with a dull crack, and bounced up. With the second landing there was another crack and Gunn's head split open, spilling out his brains, then it lay still.
-----
Faith sped to Lohesh's energy ball with everything she had, feeling its power. She pushed against it, but it did not veer of course. She fired an energy blast into it, but it just absorbed her power. All of this happened in under one second. She blasted forward then, passing the ball. "Faith, don't!!" Wesley yelled, but his girlfriend didn't listen. She turned around and landed just in front of him, the energy ball crashing against her outstretched hands in the same instant. She roared her defiance, only one option: lead the energy away. If it exploded right here right now, then Wesley was dead anyway. She sank to her knees, the ball then engulfed her, changing course along with her almost directly down. Wesley screamed out in pain, as he watched Faith, her back against the ground, be consumed by the energy, dissolving in the glare. Then the energy exploded, but Faith's sacrifice and alterations were just enough. There was a brief but powerful pillar of energy, going straight up, and then it was gone, leaving only a round hole the size of the energy ball in the ground.
-----
"I did it! I DID IT!" Buffy screamed out with elation. The Kamehameha had worked, there was nothing but dust and dying fire in the air now.
Then her smile faltered. "No way," she whispered, her mind unwilling to believe what her sixth sense told her. With open mouth - slowly shaking her head in denial - she watched the sphere of dust clear, and something waving about inside it. A little later it was to be revealed a soot-covered, furred claw.
The bunny became visible again, the dust quickly freeing open as the bunny coughed and waved it away. He took stock of himself. There was an irritating tingling were the beam, whatever it had been had hit. He checked, finding singed fur and now naked singed flesh, but that was it. Apart from torn, dirty and half-burned clothes he was unscathed.
"No! No!" Buffy whimpered in fear, tears flowing from her cheeks now, realizing just how undefeatable the bunny really was. Dawn, and the others looked with the same fear at the power of the demon.
"YOU BITCH!!" the bunny roared, and gently floated a little toward her, putting her better in its sights. "HAVE YOU GOT ANY IDEA JUST HOW MUCH CLEANING AND REPAIRING CLOTHES THIS SIZE COSTS!?" The anger was blazing from him, eyes glowing red. Then he pointed a hand at her, and charged an energy ball. "Guess you are going to die first afer all," the bunny told her with an evil grin, ready to fire the energy ball down at the now completely defenseless Buffy Summers, and end her life once and for all.
-----
And now the continuation:
The bunny grinned devilishly. His hand outstretched, and the energy ball ready to kill Buffy once and for all pointing down at her. Then there was a sound, a low, gentle rumble. The bunny hesitated for a moment, and then grinned more evilly, telling Buffy, "Hear that, the Earth is shaking because it knows its true owners are coming back."
"That's . . . no earthquake," Buffy croaked out, spitting out a little blood, looking defeated up at the bunny, crying.
"No earthquake?" the bunny asked confused, as a new gentle rumble was heard.
With a quivering lip, Buffy told it, "Borne in California, grew up with Earthquakes . . . this is . . . not one."
The bunny looked at Buffy for a few moments, then the sound - no longer a rumbling, now high pitched one - rapidly grew in strength. The bunny let his energy ball dissipate and looked around confused. Then a small round patch of ground started vibrating more, the sand whirling up, until with a small bang a blue, purple and red energy ball shot from the ground, leaving a hole and flew up with great speed, right past the bunny. "What in hell?" the demon muttered in surprise, following the ball of energy with his eyes. "Where did . . . wait, that's /mine/?" Dumbfounded the demon looked back down at the hole from whence it came, and waited in shock.
A figure burst from the hole, she barely fit through the hole, which was much smaller than the one through which she disappeared. She coughed, her chi flame burning brightly, a few blue sparks shooting through it, and then it flickered and died. She let herself drop to her knees on the ground. She was battered and bruised. Blood pored from multiple wounds. Burned flesh in many places, some not just red and blistered, but even scorched black. Her clothes were all but destroyed. Her pants hung in tatters and barely reached her knees in only a few places. Her top was all but destroyed, displaying her naked and bruised breasts. Only two tiny slivers of fabric was left: one curling around her shoulder and over her right breast, the other a small band around her waist. The mere strap hardly covered anything.
"Faith," Buffy said in shock, as some more lava came flowing from the new hole, eventually sealing it again.
On the other side of the clearing, Tara asked her mouth ajar, "How? We couldn't sense her anymore?"
"The rock, the crust, in between it must have dampened her life force," Willow considered after a moment.
Faith coughed, and coughed, drinking in deep mouthfuls of air. She had almost suffocated to death, going first down and up, often just barely finding a new pocket of air. "Well, damn, now that's one tough little girl," the bunny commented with an evil grin.
Faith snapped her head up, looking at the giant bunny floating there. "No," she whispered weakly. Buffy and the others hadn't managed to defeat it as she had thought they would have. Wobbling she stood up, looking at the demon, incredibly readying herself to fight on, although she had no idea how to fight this thing now - she didn't have the energy left. The bunny roared out in laughter, the powerful sound once again went through everyone's bone and marrow.
"Oh, this has got to be the biggest joke the universe has ever played on a mortal," the demon laughed with evil glee. "Sacrificing your life in order to save your loved one, managing to survive, and then watch him die in the same way after all." The demon turned lightly, and then pointed its hand at Wesley, who was standing in front of one of two buildings around the clearing that hadn't been completely destroyed.
Faith turned her head to her right, following the demon's point and her eyes widened in fear. The demon laughed evilly as it formed another ball of energy - the same one he used earlier - and fired it down.
"NO!!" Faith screamed, anger and fear propelling her forward. She shot across the difference.
"Faith, don't!" Wesley protested again, but it was too late. Faith reached Wesley right on time, and managed to put her hands against the giant ball of energy. Her feet dug into the soil, and with gritted teeth she pushed back against the ball of energy. This time she had no intention of taking a trip through Earth's crust, and with a defiant scream she kept the ball in place.
"What?" the bunny wondered in shock. There was no way the little girl should have been able to hold the ball in place, without engulfing and destroying her, and yet she was doing it. The demon grinned then. No matter, he was nowhere near using his full power. With a grin he pored more energy into the ball, expanding it to twice Faith's size.
"Aah!" Faith screamed, as the pulsing energy ball now twice as large as before pushed back against her. The energy that blasted outward where the two titanic forces met was sending sand and rock flying outward. Faith was pushed back, slowly but securely. Her back first started going backward, the ground beneath her feet gave partially away, sinking her deeper. "No! I won't let it happen!" Faith said, tears of pain, emotional and physical streaming from her eyes. With all her might she pushed back, slowly raising the ball back to its former position.
"My, she's a stubborn bitch, isn't she!?" the bunny grinned evilly, and casually pored even more energy into the ball, that was connected to him by a beam of energy. The ball grew even more in size.
"NO!" Faith screamed defiantly as she was pushed back again, sinking further into the ground. Her white chi flame that glowed brightly around her, breaking and sending aside more sand and rock from around and beneath her feet.
"Faith," Wesley pleaded from beside her. "Let it go, I'm not in its path anymore."
With tears flowing from her eyes, Faith shook her head, saying, "Too . . . big . . . explosion . . . Aaah!" Faith went back even further, and searched her being desperately, finding some untapped reserves, her chi flame burned brighter. Blue electric sparks shot through her chi flame for a moment, and she pushed the ball back up. " . . . would kill everyone here . . ." The ball grew in size once again, and Faith screamed out at the pain lancing through her body, and much more so her hands that were constantly forcing against the deadly energy. She leaned back, almost in defeat.
-Trust in yourself.-
-----
Back at the Summers house, the three conscious people were looking out the window. Far in the distance the form of the demon was visible, firing a continuous stream of energy down. Anya whimpered in fear at the flickering light show. "What do you think is happening?" Fred asked fearfully of Giles.
Anya answered for him, "They're losing, that's what's happening."
There was an odd groan from Xander, and the three of them looked around, seeing a smirk on Xander's face. "He's smirking," Fred pointed out in shock. "Why's he smirking?"
Anya took a few steps forward and sat down on the bed, looking at Xander smirk. "Xander?" she asked hopefully.
--O--
Two years earlier
Xander floated in the basement of his parents' house, making rapid punches and kicks for his training. Two balls of energy were floating around him, he had generated them himself, and he was avoiding them for additional training. He didn't need to check the stairs and the door leading up into the house, if one of his parents came toward it, they made so much noise they'd be unmistakable, or were so drunk they wouldn't believe their yes, or both. Anya was a different story. She came in through the door leading outdoors without much sound. And the stairs down didn't make much sound either. "Xander, are you in here? I want more s- . . . ."
Xander failed to sense Anya's arrival, due to his preoccupation with his training. He just finished reabsorbing his chi balls, and then quickly landed on the floor, looking expectantly at Anya. "You were floating!" she accused suddenly.
"Me!? Float?" Xander tried nervously. He gave a laugh, and added, "this is /me/ we're talking about, right?"
"Don't try to bullshit me, Xander Harris!" Anya told him in no uncertain terms. "I was the patron saint of scorned women, I can smell a lie on a man a mile away!"
Xander sighed, the jig - as they say - was truly finally up. "You can keep this a secret, right, Ahn?" he asked slightly nervously.
"Of course," she said.
"Promise?"
Impatiently, she said, "I promise, now spill!"
Xander waited a heartbeat, and then stated, "I'm not human."
Anya looked confused, looked around a little, then up, and asked, "Don't know any demons quite like you. What kind are you?"
"Ahn!" he exclaimed slightly in frustration, and the rest in amusement. "I'm not a demon, I'm an alien . . . from another dimension, I'm an interdimensional alien." Anya blinked confused, and so - after getting Anya to sit down - Xander started explaining. About Saiyans, the basics of their race. Frieza. His interdimensional trip just as the warlord blew up his planet, and finally about the legendary Super Saiyan: Xander's goal.
Once he was done explaining he looked at Anya expectantly. "Wow," the ex vengeance demon muttered, taking it all in. "Wow!" she said again, bright eyes now, then she cocked her hand. "Super Saiyan? That actually kind of reminds me."
"Oh?" Xander prompted.
"Well, there are only two things the pure demons, the demon gods, and the gods, the Powers That Be fear," Anya replied thoughtfully. "One is the legendary Super Slayer."
"Super Slayer?" Xander asked astonished. "Never heard of that."
Anya shook her head in confirmation, saying, "You wouldn't. A few of the older demons still mention it sometime, but basically it's reduced to a very scarcely known myth. The last time one emerged was seven thousand years ago. Most demons think Slayers have lost the ability to become one. Super Slayers are like . . . well, Super Slayers are awesomely powerful beyond most people's dreams."
"Really? Super Slayer, huh?" Xander said, thinking it over. Having thought enough about it, he asked. "So what's number two?"
Anya's eyes bugged out. How could Xander not know? It was only the most well-known myth and prophecy in millennia. "The Sedra Soli?" Anya asked him expectantly. Xander shrugged. "Come on, I've gotten a bit of demon /and/ human mythology in me, I know he's in both!" Anya urged, but he didn't know the answer. "The Chinese call him Sun Wu-k'ung? The legendary Monkey King? Giant magical abilities? Practically impossible to beat or to kill? Can transform into almost anything? Can make himself a giant for one thing? Freed mankind from the biggest yoke of the gods? Giant hero in almost all nations? The first king of man? The biblical Adam?"
"Oh, him," Xander said not recognizing anything until 'Adam', being preoccupied with thinking over Anya's words.
"Yes, him!" Anya said exasperated making an annoyed gesture with her arms.
"Anya did you just say Monkey King?" Xander asked a little shocked. Anya nodded, not understanding. "And transforming into a giant?" Anya nodded again. "Anya, Saiyans are born with tails, I had to cut mine off to blend in, but . . ." Xander took a step closer, and lowered his head a little, looking intently into Anya eyes. "When a Saiyan with a tail looks up at a full moon, he transforms into a giant, thirty meter tall and more, unstoppable ape. Incredible power, basically a living breathing engine of destruction, especially breathing."
"Really?" Anya asked, blinking her eyes rapidly, then they widened as she got it. "Super Saiyan, Sedra Soli. Add ten thousand years of language change . . . the first letters still remained intact."
Xander nodded, he didn't have to explain it, Anya understood as well. "My god, I never knew a Saiyan breached the dimensional barriers, and then coming here . . . and a Super Saiyan at that."
--O--
[Play Faith Super Slayer Theme]
More of the ground beneath Faith's feet were blasted away. The power of the ball she was only precariously holding back immense, and forcing her steadily back. A few tears flowed from her eyes. The tears were a heady mixture: of pain, of defeat, of despair, and elation. That had been Xander! He had somehow managed to send a telepathic message, perhaps he could recover on time, she thought, even as she asked herself how she could trust herself as he had told her. Then again, how many more had to die before Xander was at full strength? And what if he didn't recover on time after all?
Faith screamed out at the effort it took to merely stay standing, going over all her failures. Her failure to keep Kakistos from killing her watcher. Her failure to make the Scoobies notice her. Her fall to the dark side, after putting too much trust in a fellow Slayer. Her failure to get the Angel Team to trust her, failing to see killing 'innocent-looking' demons might not endear to her to them. Allowing herself to stop killing them, be extra nice and sweet in that department to appear more trustworthy, more sane, less psychotic. Now, Gunn. All the time that past by since being called, letting so many people down. And now . . . She was forced back some more, when she latched onto Gunn, watching him being eaten like he was a bunny at a Christmas diner. Bunny!! Gunn!!
Faith got angry rapidly, grimacing. "NO!" she called out and forced the ball back up, only for the bunny to increase his power, and once again forcing Faith back down. The blue sparks in Faith's chi flame grew in power. She screamed out her defiance, feeling something bubble inside of her, a power lying in the pit of her stomach, wanting to get out. "I WON'T! I WILL /NOT/ LET IT HAPPEN!!"
Slowly she forced the ball back again, now looking up, straight through the ball of energy at where the bunny was. Her face grimaced with anger, as the blue sparks intensified, seemingly waiting for something. The tug of war continued, and the bunny put even more energy into it, grinning evilly, not worried one little bit - that was its failure. "I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!" Faith screamed again, the bunny squarely in her sights, the rage growing by the minute, although all she could see was the ball of energy. -I can forgive myself, I /do/ forgive myself for what I've done, but I can't ever forgive myself if I let even one more of them die!-
"I'm sorry, Wesley," she said softly giving him a quick look. Then she screamed, and plunged into the seemingly bottomless pit of raw power that had been awaiting her inside. Her energy burned brighter instantly, as she screamed in pain, feeling changes happening in her body. Every cell in her body undergoing a tiny mutation. Electrical sparks flew around her hair, and then two lifted up in the air, with a electrical arc rising up in between. Once the arc had reached the hairs' apex, it sizzled off, and the hairs fell down. Quickly it started occurring with many more hairs, and soon her hair was flowing up and down continuously, with electricity crackling between them in a show of immense power. The black of her pupils rapidly swirled like something inky to cover her irises, turning her eyes - except the white of her eyeballs - pitch black. Not completely unlike Willow tapping into her power, yet very different. Where Willow's eyes were just raw dark power, potentially used for creation as well as destruction, the Slayer's eyes were different. No light came from the irises, even any reflection off her lens above them were blanketed out: they were empty, bottomless pits of nothingness that promised only a few things: chaos, destruction, pain, suffering . . . and death. Then with a small shockwave the transformation completed, as Faith's white chi flame turned sky blue, ethereal and tranquil in appearance.
The shockwave knocked Wesley off his feet, and sitting on his butt he looked astonished at the transformed Faith. After seven thousand years it had finally happened again; the legendary Super Slayer, the embodied of death, had emerged.
-----
Down in the sewers, Angel looked back in astonishment at the raw amount of power that was being exuded, dwarfing that of the bunny's completely. "Faith," he whispered in shocked elation. Spike next to him had his jaw dropped.
"What happened? Are we gonna die?" Harmony whined.
"Sod it!!" Spike cursed with irritation. "Not the bloody bitch too!"
-----
"What's going on? What's the blue glow?" Fred asked, looking out the window. In the distance an intense blue glow had shot up, exactly where the bunny was firing it seemed. The glow seemed to match the color of a clear blue sky, but early in the morning the sky wasn't perfectly clear yet, and so it had become very visible.
"I've got no idea," Giles muttered blandly.
Xander groaned again, his smirk deeper. The three occupants of the room turned around to look at him. "Sup . . . Sl . . ." he managed to groan out, his smirk never wavering.
Anya's eyes widened, and then turned around looking back. "OH, MY GOD!" she screamed out in elation and hope. "Oh, you sneaky bastard, I love you! A SUPER SLAYER!!!"
"But, that's just a myth, it's not true, it can't be true, they're already . . ." Giles trailed off.
"Everybody thought it couldn't happen anymore! Buffy or Faith, they must have done it! For the first time in seven thousand years! YES! Oh, let it be enough!" Anya crowed out in happiness, a giant smile on her face.
Giles looked out the window at the blue glow, and then grinned with satisfaction. "'I'm so powerful, they can't make a difference.' 'So why did you bother bringing them?' Bloody no respect for experience these days, that's what it is," he told no one in particular.
-----
The bunny pored even more energy into his ball, too preoccupied with his determined extermination of Faith to bother to notice the change. Faith - her intense light blue flame pulsing with a high pitched sound - casually removed one hand from the ball and straightened up. She stood there, holding the ball of energy back with one hand in relaxation, rage growing inside of her.
To her side was Buffy, looking astonished at the blue glow. The ball hid most of Faith from view, but she knew something had happened. The massive amount of intense power assaulting her senses was proof of that. "Faith," she whispered astonished.
Cordelia had joined Dawn to check up on her, and the two women looked astonished for a moment. Dawn suddenly jumped up, screaming, "YES! YES!" Then Dawn hugged Cordelia.
Faith looked up, still holding the ball in place with ease. Then her face grimaced, and she shot her energy from her hand, forcing the ball up toward the bunny with frightening simplicity. Then she launched herself after it.
The bunny's eyes widened in surprise. In an instant all of his energy was overwhelmed, crumbling his strain like a bug under its feet. "Impossible," he muttered as he saw his giant ball of energy shoot upward toward him. "Impossible!" he screamed in fear, giving up on firing energy down. He put his hands forward to stop the ball, but it was too powerful. It engulfed him, and exploded, tearing into his being, but even this wasn't enough to kill him.
He coughed away the dust and debris, and waved it aside, when he saw it. It was there for only a moment, two pits of blackness that scared him shitless, two pits of death, two pits of pain, and suffering, a girl attached them. She moved so fast, he could hardly see anything else of her. He screamed out in extreme pain an instant later.
Faith had simply flown straight through the bunny. She had gone in through the front, and come out the back, pulling along blood and intestines, and pieces of other organs. Faith's pulsing chi flame of raw power kept any of the blood and gore off of her being - not that it would have mattered much, after all Faith was already covered in dirt, rock, and her own blood, not to mention half-naked.
Faith stayed floating there for a moment, as the giant bunny - coughing up blood - groaned in pain, and slowly moved up with the impact, and started turning over. Suddenly Faith turned around, and roared as she kicked downward turned around her axis. The bunny twisted around in the air, as it rocketed down to the ground. Faith sent two energy balls down that exploded against the bunny making him scream out in pain even more.
Then the massive bunny landed on his back on the ground, right in front Buffy, sending up dust and debris, groaning in extreme pain. Buffy looked astonished at how quickly the seemingly invincible bunny was reduced to a groaning mass of defeated demon. An almost insane enraged scream made Buffy look up, seeing a blue blur shooting down.
The bunny's eyes widened in shock and fear as he saw the impossible powerful girl shooting downward. She was nothing but a blur, even to him, except those eyes - those impossibly black promises of death, like holes in the fabric of space and time coming straight at him. With her battle cry still ringing from her throat, Faith landed with enormous power. The foot she held up, she stomped onto the bunny's face going straight through, as planned. The head shattered and splattered open. Bone and fur flying everywhere, blood and brain matter equally distributed, ears flopping through the air. A powerful fountain of blood spurt from the now open neck. It shot horizontally over the ground before splashing down. The powerful chi flame once again kept Faith less dirty, and she growled in satisfaction at the kill, euphoria spread through her being, and she enjoyed it.
Buffy watched Faith, the enraged and enjoying grimace on her face. When Faith looked at her, she got to look into those black, black eyes of death, and she jerked back in shock. Faith looked horrible, in that moment she seemed more evil than the demon they'd been fighting, more deadly than an army of giant bunnies. "I can't be like you, and I never will," Faith told Buffy, almost sadly.
Faith then picked up the bunny's torso by its collar, and pulled it up, lifting in the air herself. With an enraged scream she tossed the carcass up into the air. "GALECK GUN FIRE!" she screamed, firing the energy beam up with release. It enveloped the corpse, and quickly vaporized it. Faith then lowered herself to the ground, and looked down in defeat. Her blue flame disappeared, and so did the electric arcs in and around her hair, letting them fall gently down. Only if one saw the black eyes would one know she was still in her transformed state.
[Stop Faith Super Slayer theme]
Cordelia and Dawn slowly came out, and Wesley got back up, looking astonished at Faith standing there dejected. Dawn ran to Faith, saying quickly, "You're awesome!" Then she ran onward to Buffy checking up on her sister. Buffy was hurt, bad, Dawn could see, but like Faith, Dawn knew that it wasn't enough to keep a Slayer down for long. Gently she helped her sister up. "We did it," Dawn said happily.
As Wesley reached Faith, and gently put his arm around her, Buffy said, "No, we didn't."
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked stricken, looking around to see if there was another bunny. Willow and Tara emerged holding each other closely, joining the others.
"Gunn," Cordelia said, looking around. His remains were no longer where they lay before. Finally she spotted them. The head was even more damaged, and one leg was reduced to only the lower leg. The other leg was destroyed completely, only the smoking tatters of a shoe reminded everyone that it had been here once. Dawn's breath got caught in her throat, seeing the black man's head. "The bunny ate him," Cordelia whispered as tears flowed from her eyes again. Dawn broke down as well, and Buffy hugged her as she started crying again. Willow and Tara sobbed in each others' embraces.
Wesley tightened his arm around Faith, but she felt the grief and guilt start to overwhelm her. She didn't know why, but powering down was something she didn't seem to be able to do at the moment. She was just too high strung. She pulled herself free from Wesley's embrace, when she realized the outburst that was rapidly coming closer would be of such power in her transformed state she could seriously hurt, or even kill him and the girls. "Faith?" Wesley asked, concerned.
"Stay back, stay away," Faith said, tears started to flow from her eyes. Wesley and the others complied. She stumbled around in the sand a bit, until she stepped on some asphalt, almost tripping in the process. She walked forward a bit more, and then stopped. A cry of anguish rose from her throat, her chi flame burst forth, electric discharges once again whipping her hair about, sending pebbles and even a few larger chunks of pavement and asphalt away from her. She sank to her knees even as she raised her fists above her head, then let them crash down in front of her. Instantly the asphalt cracked, and sank down, a large cracked circle surrounded her, her chi flame and electric sparks flying high in the air. Then the power ebbed away, her chi flame disappeared, so did the electricity in her hair. Her eyes turned back to her normal hazel color and she broke down, crying on the ground.
Wesley gently picked her up of the floor, cradling her gently - right arm under her back, left under her knees. He gave her a kiss on her head, and marveled at how such an incredibly powerful being could look so fragile. Faith wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulders. The others circling the two lovers, not knowing what to say. Faith looked up timidly, and asked, "You still want me?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I like this; fighting, killing demons, I've tried to suppress it . . ." Faith told him fearfully.
Wesley gave her a silly-girl smile, "I love you. You're perfect just the way you are, flaws and all, and I don't think this is a flaw."
"You're not afraid I'll go psycho again?" Faith whimpered.
"I've gotten to know you too well for that in past few months," Wesley replied giving her another kiss on the head.
"But I got Gunn killed," she whispered, just loud enough for the others to hear. "I held back, I could have released so much more fighting that thing earlier, I . . ."
Everybody looked stunned at that revelation, and then Wesley realized something. "But would you have transformed into this . . . this Super Slayer?" Faith looked at him without an answer. "If you didn't transform, then that thing could have killed you proper, and the rest with us, and then the world. Considering the possibilities, it ended relatively well. What's done is done, don't dwell on every decision you made, and start thinking of better 'what if' scenarios, they'll just drive yourself mad."
"Yeah," Tara added gently. "Wesley's right Faith. No matter how much I hate to say it, considering a friend is dead, but, all things considered, it ended well."
"God, how are we going to tell Fred?" Cordelia asked in horror.
-----
The vampires had reached the Summers home first, and were now in the living room. Harmony was trying to fret over Spike's slash marks, but he pushed her away.
Giles, and Fred had come downstairs, Anya staying with her fiance. "What happened?" Giles asked curiously.
"Not certain, apart from Faith returning and getting some kind of massive power boost, and killing the bunny," Angel said, brooding already. "We had to leave early on account of the sun . . . Fred." The tone Angel used, had her immediately on alert. He knew this was his responsibility, he got Fred out of Pylea, and kept her with them.
"What? What is it?" Fred almost whispered, dreading the worst.
"Gunn . . ." Angel paused looking into the tearing up eyes of Fred. "He . . . didn't make it . . . h-he's dead."
"No!" Fred screamed, tears running down her eyes. "No! We'll get him to a hospital! They'll perform CPR, stitch him up!" Angel tried to grab Fred, steadying her, but she was twisting her head so much in denial that her entire body twisted around.
"He got eaten, pet," Spike drawled out disinterested, "Apart from his head, and legs there's nothing left."
Fred looked at the blonde vampire, and then shook her head more furiously, yelling, "He's /not/ dead! He /can't/ be dead!"
The front door opened, letting the other seven, weary warriors. They had wrapped Gunn's remains as best as they could in several plastic bags they had found. Fred rushed over to Wesley who was holding a now walking Faith close. "Gunn isn't dead, tell me Gunn isn't dead!" Fred demanded of him.
Wesley didn't answer, he just looked to Cordelia, who was holding two plastic bags. "No," Fred whispered and then went over to Cordelia.
"Fred, I don't think you should look," Cordelia said gently, but Fred shook her head.
"I have to . . . I have to see," Fred muttered. With tears flowing down her cheeks she reached over to the heavier bag. Her arm trembled as she opened it, seeing the heavily damaged head of Gunn. Fred looked at it, jaw trembling for two seconds, before she crashed to the floor and wailed out in hysterics. "No! No! Can't be!!" she screamed out, twisted and turned in seeming physical pain. She wailed out more, everyone looked at her helplessly.
"Sod this," Spike muttered in irritation. "I didn't sign up for hysterics girl." With everyone glaring at him, he got up, pushing Harmony aside, and left the house, being careful not to stay in direct sunlight for too long.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Fred suddenly screamed out, sitting out and pointing her finger at Faith. "YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PROTECTING HIM!! YOU'RE THE SLAYER!!" Faith's head slumped, looking guilty, and pained. She switched her finger to Buffy, "AND YOU TOO, YOUR FAULT!!" Buffy started tearing up again. "I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU ALL!!"
Angel took a gentle step forward and placed a hand on Fred's shoulder. "Fred," he said gently. Fred immediately whirled around and latched onto him, onto the hero that saved her from the cave, and cried out against his chest. Angel just held her.
Dawn leant forward, and with pain in her voice, seeing the spectacle, she whispered in Tara's ear, "I'm going to Li's, before I go like that." Tara, holding desperately onto Willow, and vice versa, slowly crying, turned her head, and gave Dawn an approving nod. Quickly Dawn left the house, and burst into the air.
-----
Li was lying awake in his room, masturbating. What he had seen, and most other people had seen he guessed, after the explosions woke him up, just couldn't be real. Even in a world where demons were real, there just couldn't be such a thing as a giant bunny, could it? Mostly he had lain afraid in bed since then, fleeing the town was far too late. He was afraid for his girlfriend as well - if this wasn't a dream, there was a good chance Dawn was out fighting the monster. When the explosions stopped, and the bunny was gone, he needed some serious stress relief, so he had started jerking off.
A knock on his window, and startled he looked over, seeing a floating figure - he could only think of one person that could float and would come to his room: Dawn. Embarrassed at his state, but concern for his girlfriend overriding, he quickly tucked his erection away into his underwear and got up. He opened the window, and saw a battered, bruised, dirty, and dust- and soot-covered Dawn floating there. "Dawn?" he asked shocked, barely recognizing her.
Dawn nodded with difficulty, and asked weakly, "Can I come in?"
He almost answered her, but caught himself. He simply opened the window further, and made room. Dawn floated in and landed. She turned around, and watched Li close the window. When he was done, he turned to her. Instantly she latched onto him, hugging him, not caring that she felt his erection press into her belly. She just broke down and cried. He hugged back fiercely, not caring about the dirt covering him now. "You were fighting that thing, weren't you?"
Dawn nodded, and said, "One of us . . . didn't make it. I came real close myself." Li tightened the hug even more, feeling himself tear up. A few minutes later when most of the tears were gone, Dawn leaned back a bit, and then passionately kissed her boyfriend. He happily returned the kiss.
When they stopped kissing, Li asked soothingly, "How about a nice, hot, relaxing shower?" Dawn smiled at him, and looked down, for the first time really noticing just how dirty she was. She nodded.
A few minutes later, after the painful, and slightly embarrassing removal of Dawn's clothes, she found herself in the cubicle of the Kijimutas' shower. The stream of water that splashed down upon her was hot, just short of scolding, and very soothing. She looked out the still open door, and saw a smiling, and dirty Li. "Come in with me," she said, letting herself admire his chest.
"You sure?" he asked uncertain. Dawn nodded. He removed his boxers, and went in, closing the cubicle behind him.
"Wash me," Dawn pleaded, and Li grabbed a big fluffy sponge, and put shampoo on it. Carefully he started to clean her back, being extra carefully when he washed the myriad of cuts and bruises marring her body. Dawn winced at most of them, but she relaxed more and more, sighing at the sensation of the gentle but strong hands washing and caressing her. Li had been very aware that he would reach Dawn's ass soon, and his erection returned with a vengeance.
He hesitated just above her ass, and Dawn turned her head, noticing his hardened penis. She looked back up at him, and said softly, "Go on." He smiled and continued to gently clean and massage her ass, marveling at it. He squatted down when he was done with it, and continued cleaning her legs, admiring the strong muscles there, and the gentle layer of fat that gave her her feminine curves. He had really tried /not/ to look at her /there/, but it had been irresistible. Too his own pride, he /had/ managed to tear his gaze away after giving her tight vaginal lips and trimmed triangle of hair a good look, but he still felt guilty about it.
When he was done with her back and legs, he started cleaning himself from the dirt she had left on him earlier. While he was doing that, he looked astonished at the reddened water washing down the drain. She must still be bleeding from several small wounds. Dawn was finished with washing her hair, finally, and she still couldn't be certain she had managed to get everything out there. She turned to Li, giving him full view of her perky, but battered breasts, and the rest of her. "Would you massage my front too? It felt really good," she asked with a smile.
"Uh, sure," he said, and cleaned out the sponge for round too. He decided to look her into her eyes while he was busy massaging and cleaning her breasts - they felt incredible in his hands. Their eyes locked, and they got closer, kissing deep. Dawn winced and moaned often when he went across another bruise or cut. Without really thinking about it, he went lower, eventually reaching her vagina, and he stopped. He broke the kiss and looked at her. She nodded. He swallowed heavily and gently ran the sponge in between her legs until he was certain she was clean.
"You clean too?" she whispered breathlessly. He nodded. They turned off the shower and went outside. After drying each other off, he got the first aid kit from a cabinet, and put a plaster on any still bleeding cut, and bandaged her twisted ankle. "Thank you," she told him from the bottom of her heart. He nodded, still with a raging hardon, and the two went back to his room. She smiled at him, getting into his bed. Still naked, she beckoned him over. "Will you hold me? Lie next to me?" she asked uncertain.
"Yes, sure, but . . ." he looked down self-consciously, and continued, "if we want to avoid last time's fiasco, I think I should . . . uh . . . make a trip to the bathroom first."
Dawn looked down at where he was looking. She gave a giggle, and nodded, "Hurry back."
Li quickly hurried back to the bathroom, and quickly masturbated, ejaculating into the toilet. Breathing heavily, but his erection and a very naked Dawn no longer impeding his thought processes, he quickly grabbed some clean boxers - in comparison to the ones Dawn had soiled in her dirt covered state - out of the washing bin, and went downstairs. His mother and father were at the breakfast table, both having a haunted look. Obviously, they too had been awoken by the explosions and seen the demon. "Can you call school, and tell them I'm sick?" Li asked quickly.
"What for, you're not sick," his mother asked.
"Trust me, Dawn just flew in, she's . . . not well. Call her sister too, and ask her to call Dawn in sick, and ask if they could bring over clean and intact clothes later. Please?" Li asked them. His father nodded.
Li smiled and sped back up the stairs. Back in his room he changed into real clean underwear, and joined Dawn in bed. He quickly enveloped her waist and stomach with his arms, and thus hugging her, he gave her a quick kiss in the neck. Dawn moaned and snuggled back into him. "I love you," she said, and he returned the sentiment. Then they drifted off to sleep.
-----
"Wake up sleepy head," he said very gently, and gave her a kiss. The blonde that was lying next to him and that he was hugging, stirred slowly to wakefulness. Finally the blonde woke up, and looked at him.
"Xander!" Anya exclaimed in happiness, and gave him a passionate kiss. Then she broke it, and rammed her fist in his upper arm. "Don't do that again!"
Xander grinned, and said, "Yeah, remind me to wear poison slime proof gloves from now on." Anya kissed him again, and then looked out the window, through which sunlight streamed in. Another apocalypse averted.
"What time is it?" Anya asked.
Xander checked, and replied, "Just past one in the afternoon. I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry," Anya scolded. "But I suppose after battling a deadly poison all night and morning, you'd be extra hungry." Xander nodded, and gave her a kiss, then got up.
He entered the hallway, and the door to Dawn's room opened, revealing a nude Faith. Shocked she looked at the once again awake Xander. After showering last night, they hadn't thought to place the spare clothes they had brought with them just in case in their temporary room, so now she and Wesley were coming out to go get them. Talk about timing. Faith didn't know whether she should allow other men to see her naked now that she had a boyfriend, so coupled with her shock at seeing Xander amongst the standing again, made her just stand there. Wesley came out right aver her, and placed hand around her waist, and then blinked when he saw Xander. Xander grinned, and supportively placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Well done. Well done, Faith. And I'm sorry about Gunn."
Before she had an answer Xander walked on, and went down the stairs. In the living room he found Fred curled up in Angel's lap, sleeping now. The vampire was awake, and Xander whispered a respectful, "Angel." The vampire nodded, and Xander went into the kitchen to fix himself a much needed breakfast and lunch.
-----
An hour later, after a good breakfast and lunch, and leaving some money to Buffy to pay for the whole thing they were all outside. The remainder of the Angel Team were about to go home, and prepare the funeral of their fallen comrade. Giles would go with them, he needed to catch a flight back to the UK soon.
Xander and Faith had separated themselves from the others, so they were standing in the middle of a fanned out circle. "So, the legendary Super Slayer," Xander asked with a slight grin. "Show it to me."
With a quick roar Faith transformed. Xander appreciated the new Faith, marveling at her power. He walked around her, slowly inspecting the blue-flamed super warrior that Faith had become. Once he was standing back in front of her, he shook his head, saying, "Awesome, absolutely awesome, about the equivalent of an Ultra Super Saiyan, I'd say."
"Ultra Super Saiyan?" Tara asked confused. Faith nodded with the same sentiment.
Xander transformed, then yelled out and he powered up. His muscles grew, and grew, until they were almost ridiculously extended. He stood there, saying, "Ultra Super Saiyan." They looked astonished at the bulging muscles. "You could say, Super Saiyan 1.7 or 1.8." He deflated, but stayed Super Saiyan, and added, "The muscles severely slows one down though, kind of useless."
"You /knew/ about this!" Buffy accused suddenly, taking a step forward. "This is what you've been training us for. You've been pushing us to reach this state! Why didn't you say?"
Xander nodded, and grinned at Buffy. "I could become a Super Saiyan a lot earlier," Xander started his explanation. "Transforming takes a balanced mind, I was too focused on becoming one, to get that balance, until the final end. I thought it'd be a safe bet, that a Super Slayer would require balance as well. If you didn't know there was a Super Slayer, you could never get so focused on it that it would become impossible to transform."
"But, what makes you think, we, or I wanted to become that-that . . . thing," Buffy said, disgust on her face as she looked at Faith's black eyes.
"You told me you were with us all the way, didn't you?" Xander asked a little bit perturbed.
Buffy remembered her decision to kill the souled beings that were killing humans in the rainforest. She lowered her head, she had told Xander she was with them all the way. She wasn't so sure now.
"Giles, you're coming to the wedding, right?" Xander asked of the man, after he detransformed. Faith followed suit. "You seem to be busy and on the move a lot so I don't know if you'll get the invitation we'll be sending out soon."
"Of course," Giles told him, smiling. "I wouldn't miss it."
"Good, it's March fifteen," Xander said, and shook the older man's hand. The others went to say their sad goodbyes as well.
Xander went to Angel as well. The vampire was still standing inside the house, and Fred clung to the vampire in grief. The Saiyan shook the vampire's hand, and said, "We'll see you guys at the funeral."
"Thanks," Angel said, and got a respectful nod from Xander.
Wesley opened a car door to the car with the blacked out windows, and Fred went over first. Then Angel quickly ran, and dove into the car closing the door behind him before the sun could burst him into flames.
The Scooby Gang watched the rest of the Angel Team file into their cars, waving. "Oh, Faith!" Xander suddenly called out, his hands in his pockets. "How do you feel?"
Faith looked startled at the Saiyan, and thought over the question. Guilt, and grief for Gunn was flooding her being, but strangely she felt at peace. She felt whole, complete for the first time in a very long time. With a slight smile, and without really thinking about it, she answered, "Five by five, Xan." She seemed shocked for a moment, realizing what she had said, and then added, with a little more conviction, "Five by five."
"That's very good to hear, Faith," Xander said, and with a sad smile watched Faith get into the car, who smiled back equally sad. "That's very good to hear," Xander muttered as he and the others waved at the departing cars.
"So," Willow said casually, once they were gone. "We just beat back the Apocalypse . . . again. School day is bust. Magic is out for a week. Wanna play Monopoly?"
-----
London, England
Watchers' Headquarters
Two days later
"The Super Slayer is nothing but a myth," one watcher in the assembly stated in outrage. "The flying and energy ball shooting Slayers are nuts enough - but I must admit, seeing recent developments they must have existed - they probably /are/ the Super Slayers of myth."
"That's what I thought, until I saw one with my very own eyes," Giles stated to the assembly with conviction. "Faith Williams did it, she transformed in a black-eyed, blue-chi-flamed Super Slayer, and she destroyed a giant, almost indestructible, pure demon in that state. She saved us all from another Apocalypse. She's got even more power than a standard Super Saiyan. Once again that group of young men and women has proven to be the best anti-Apocalypse team ever. It's about time we acknowledge that, and give them access to all of the knowledge contained within our organization. I volunteer to be their liaison, since they probably wouldn't trust an unfamiliar face, but if in your wisdom you decide it to be another, I will abide by the ruling."
Several voices of agreement rang out from the people making up the council, but an equal number of disagreement, and others not yet knowing. This was going to take days, Giles thought in irritation, if not weeks. "Order, order!" Quentin Travers spoke up, ramming a hammer onto the table. "I propose we take a recess, it seems all of us could use some time to calm down."
So decided the watchers slowly filed away, and as Giles did the same, he muttered, "Bloody pillock."
Travers stayed in the room, and waited until everyone had filed from the conference room. Then, sighing heavily, he turned around and walked to a candle holder. He pushed it up, and a secret door opened up. He quickly went inside, and the door that was a bookcase on the public side closed behind him. He walked down a set of winding stairs, finally reaching the end. He stepped into the dimly lit room. A round table was in its middle, six people were sitting around it, and a head chair still unoccupied. Each part of the world had a representative. Travers looked up, and he shivered in fear as he gazed at the painting hanging on the far wall, right above the unoccupied head chair. The painting showed the frightening image of a girl, blue coloring, empty black eyes, her face twisted in an evil grin. She had horns, and several other traits that showed the painter had taken artistic license to make the vision much more scarier . . . but it was obviously a Super Slayer.
"So it's happened then," one of the men and one woman, who was playing with a knife said. "After seven thousand years of making sure it doesn't happen - a Super Slayer has once again emerged."
Travers nodded, and walked around the table, taking his seat in the head chair. "It's that damn alien . . ." another man, a black one, stated vehemently.
"She'll destroy the world," another man stated, his voice quivering. "A Super Slayer can't be controlled, it can't be contained, least of all by the Slayer herself. She'll grow continually stronger, as will her thirst for destruction and blood, until she'll destroy everything in her path."
"I told you, we should have killed her a long time ago," another one stated.
"We've tried, remember?" the black man told him. "The ones we sent to the prison came back the same way the assassins of Wolfram & Hart did, and as for the helicopter we sent after they defeated Glory . . . well . . . you know what happened to them."
"We're doomed," the man explaining the Super Slayer earlier said.
"Not yet," Travers told everyone. "There's still a small chance, a tiny window of opportunity."
"How?" the black man asked.
"We'll have to be very carful, very smart," Travers answered. "But the only way we can get to Faith, is if the most powerful of her friends are gone."
"How do we do that," one man asked.
"Simple," the woman finally spoke, sitting up gently. "There are only three that are a true threat, the others we can handle. Of those three, we start with the weakest link." She threw the knife clear across the room into a nose of one of several large heads hot photos nailed to pillars. "Buffy Summers."
To Be Continued . . .
Next time on Buffy Z, a startling revelation, read it in Episode 48: Nightmares - Sometimes better than dreams.
Author's notes:
Yes! The Super Slayer has emerged. I hope you all liked it, give me feedback.
Faith's Super Slayer Theme:
Linkin Park - In The End
The song of course, fits Faith to a tee:
It starts with one thing
I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when
This describes Faith's journey from abused self to her psychopathic self, to her present day self, where she's keeping all her enjoyment of fighting inside of her.
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme, to remind myself how
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me (in the end)
You kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I
One hundred percent the Buffy/Faith relationship describing it from S3 onward to this day. It's almost frightening how well it describes it.
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
And for all this
There's only one thing you should know (2x)
A double meaning this time. It describes both Faith putting her trust in Buffy back in S3, as Faith putting her trust in Xander today. But in both cases she placed too much trust in them. First in Buffy, rightly, expecting a fellow slayer to be more helpful to her plight, who finally pushed her as far as she could go, and she went over the edge, going psychopathic. And now in Xander, but wrongly, expecting him to always be there, but even he can't be in more than one place at the same time, so now him not being there, pushes her once again as far as she could go, and then over the edge, becoming the Super Slayer.
And finally the chorus:
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
Faith tried incredibly hard, and got so very far in suppressing her dark side, making the Angel Team believe she's now almost a Buffy clone. She also tried so very hard to get Buffy and the gang to notice her in S3, in both cases it didn't matter, she fell, and lost it all, her goodness, her sanity, eventually her freedom. Nicely it now actually gives this very depressing song a positive spin; in the end it doesn't matter anymore, because here is the Super Slayer.
The Evolution of Buffy Z
The Super Slayer:
For those who read all the 'The Evolution of Buffy Z' bits, they'll remember I wrote there were two major things that pushed Buffy Z towards actually being written. The Super Slayer was the second.
The idea of a Super Slayer had been around in my mind for a long time. As far back as 1997 and the first season of Buffy, I never quite got the 'one girl in all the world given the power to fight the armies of darkness' bit. First, whoever thought that one girl was enough? So basically I had a pet theory that there really was one girl per section of the world, but even can't be enough. Because after all, the Slayers aren't particularly shown to be powerful when it comes to the forces of darkness; it's more like
'One girl in all the world given just enough power to kill a vampire,
and if anything more powerful, or with more numbers comes along
she's dead meat.'
I always had the idea that there just had to be /more/ to the Slayer. Something we hadn't seen yet. So then came the Super Saiyan, and my ideas for Xander being a Saiyan and a Super Saiyan, and eventually it combined with the notion that there had to be /more/ to the Slayer, and so the Super Slayer was born.
I tried to make the Super Slayer similar, but still different than the Super Saiyan, most notably what it takes to become one, but now I'm going into spoiler theory.
The bunny battle:
For a long time, I just knew they were going to be fighting a giant demon. It didn't become a Bunny until fairly recently, like eight months ago or so, because we've never /really/ seen why Anya's so afraid of bunnies. The vague implication in the show was just nuts, so vague and implausible in fact, that I didn't even notice there was an allusion to Anya's bunny problem in S7's 'Selfless' until I read about it much, much later.
Originally this battle, where Faith goes Super Slayer, was set at the end of vacation a year earlier, but over time I knew it was just too early. It didn't give time for more story and character development, so it was pushed back.