Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow
The song is by Alison Krauss "Slumber My Darling"
Disclaimer: Forgot I should probably add one of these, the only characters that are mine are Callum and Kara. The rest belong to Joss Whedon and company.
Previously:
Faith quickly changed and rejoined the two people standing awkwardly across the room waiting for her. "One more question," Faith said and the trio crept out of the hospital room. "What are your names?"
When the nurses made their rounds later that night, they discovered Faith's bed empty. As they searched the hospital with the police, one snuck off to the phone banks. Inserting a quarter, the nurse dialed quickly and waited. When the party on the other end picked up, she said two simple words and hung up. "She's awake."
Chapter Three:
Kara stood at the cracked and dirty window of a broken down gas station. She could hear people moving about behind her, deep in the recesses of the shelter they had constructed to weather the onslaught of demons. Spike stood next to her, his bleached hair grown out and wavy. He had a grim look of determination on his face, as if he could sense something was about to happen. Kara shifted unevenly on her feet.
The air around them seemed charged with electricity. Kara could almost feel the pounding of feet on the ground the war cries of an army echoed in her head. The sun was just dipping below the horizon, the last of its golden rays splayed out on the ground. Then it vanished and night quickly slaughtered all that was left of the light. Then Kara saw them. A horde of demons broke over the hill, charging down at their feeble camp. The breath caught in her throat and she looked over at Spike. He returned her gaze and smiled warmly, "Well, this is it, kid."
Kara awoke with a start, sweat dripping off her face and her breath coming out in heavy, ragged sighs. Closing her eyes, she rubbed her hands on her face and tried to block out the images residue on her mind. The night was quiet, and looking out her bedroom window, Kara could see the moon peaking in at her, checking on her, making sure she was safe. Slipping out of bed, she opened the door that led to the hallway. Faintly, she could hear Faith dreaming down the hall.
It had been several months since they broke Faith out of the hospital. Little by little, she began to trust Kara and Callum. She never told them so directly, but Kara could see in it her eyes, in the way she spoke to them, and how her muscles relaxed when they walked in the door. At first, Faith had been plagued with guilt over what she had done, the full weight of her actions bearing down on her. After a while, she had slowly begun to open up to them. With their help, she was well on the road to recovery, eagerly awaiting her chance to make things right with the Scooby Gang and fight evil again.
It wasn't time for that yet, though. The battle with Adam was culminating, soon the Initiative would be destroyed, and Willow, Giles, and Xander would invoke the powers of the First Slayer. The Powers that Be sent Kara and Callum to Sunnydale nearly a year before they were needed there, simply to give them a chance to acclimate themselves to living again in a normal world. Kara and Faith had been slaying vampires late at night, when no one would be out to recognize Faith. With the money they stole from the vamps, and the money Callum got from his rather shady acquaintances, they had been able to buy a small house. It was just large enough for them to live comfortably, with a training room for Kara and Faith.
Moving down the darkened hall, Kara pushed open the door to Faith's bedroom and stepped inside. The carpet was plush and soft against her feet. She crept over to the side of her mother's bed and brushed a few stray locks behind her ear. Faith was dreaming again. Kara guessed it was about Finch or Lester, though Faith had been dreaming about her final encounter with Buffy more frequently. Faith knew they would be revealing themselves shortly, and it plagued her consciousness. Taking a deep breath, Kara began to sing a lullaby Buffy had sung to her when she was little.
"Slumber my darling, thy mother is near, guarding thy dreams from all terror and fear. Sunlight has passed and the twilight is gone, slumber my darling, the night's coming on. Sweet visions attend thy sleep, fondest, dearest to me. While others their revels keep, I will watch over thee. Slumber my darling, the birds are at rest. The wandering dews by the flowers are caressed. Slumber my darling, I'll wrap thee up warm, and pray that the angels will shield thee from harm."
Faith settled down into a peaceful sleep as Kara's words washed over her. Satisfied, Kara slowly stood and backed out of the room, closing the door gently behind her. Then she made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Pushing open the door, she was surprised to see the light on and Callum sitting at the island counter. "Can't sleep?" She asked, brushing passed him and filling a glass with water. Then she sat across from him.
"Not so much. You?"
Kara shook her head. "Should we be worried that the Council hasn't come after Faith yet? I mean, I thought they would be all over her as soon as they found out she was awake. But we haven't seen them," Kara said, taking a sip of her water. Kara knew that one false move by the Council could negate all of their work with Faith.
"Maybe they just can't find her. If I was the Council, I would assume Faith had tucked tail and ran as soon as she got the opportunity. But that's just me," Callum answered, his accented voice thick from lack of sleep. Kara smiled.
"So I've got a question," she said, setting her glass down on the counter. "Since I'm here, if Buffy and Faith wind up together in this timeline, like they did in mine, will I still be born?"
Callum thought for a minute, carefully formulating his answer. "While I'm no bloody expert on all this, God knows that," he muttered, "I would imagine since you're here, you can't be here twice. So I don't imagine you would be born again. Of course, since you were never actually born here though, that brings into focus all sorts of existential questions, such as do you really exist? If you don't exist, though, I bloody well don't exist either," Callum said thoughtfully. "And I'm not sure I like that thought."
Kara smirked. "We should start a club," she said sarcastically. Callum laughed and nodded.
"Only if I get to be President," he added. "You know, I wasn't keen on why all this end of the world stuff happened. Care to enlighten me?" Callum knew Kara didn't like to talk about what happened. He had been killed long before Kara, in the initial stages of the war between demons and humans, before he even knew what a demon was. For some reason, the Powers that Be found something in him worthy enough to send him back. He had never thought he would be in a position to do anything as important as saving the world, yet that was precisely what he was expected to do.
"Well, there are a lot of little things that the Powers wanted me to change. Things that would just make the Scooby Gang's lives better, happier. Give them something more to live for than themselves. But the end of the world, that all started after the Watcher's Council was destroyed. When Buffy and the Potentials fought the First Evil, in the Final Battle of Sunnydale, Willow did a spell that awoke the slayer within all of the Potentials."
"So they all became slayers?" Callum asked.
"Yeah, basically. However, it woke up all of the slayers all over the world. From that point on, whenever a baby girl was born with the potential to be a slayer, she was automatically born a slayer. Buffy and company tried to restart the Watcher's Council and unite all of the slayers, but there were too many of them. When the demons discovered how scattered the slayers were, they took the opportunity to band together. Without any of the Council's resources at their fingertips, Buffy and the others weren't able to fight. The demons won," Kara finished, gripping her glass like a life raft.
"So basically, we need to stop the Council from being destroyed," Callum said. Kara nodded.
"When are we gonna approach Buffy?" She asked, for the millionth time that week. She was nervous as hell and Callum knew it. Though he sympathized with her, the question was starting to aggravate him.
"Soon," he said, reaching over and grasping her hand. "Very soon. We just have to wait for Dawn."