Wish I owned BTVS or Tru Calling but they are the property of genii and I don't fall into that category…sigh.
Angel of Slytherin: Glad you liked it so much. I'll look out for your story!
Enjael: The comments were meant to be ambiguous. They will be explained.
Sabia: I know there's Faith issues but I do have an idea of how to get round that, I realised they wouldn't just believe her.
Everyone else: Thank you so much for the positive reviews they really mean a lot to me. Please carry on asking questions, I will try and answer them. Thank you especially to Sam-453 who is forever the biggest help when writing stories!
The end bit of this chapter is taken almost exactly from the gift, quite a lot of the next couple of chapters will be as well…if I ever get round to writing them.
Tru Faith (ok it's a crppy title I know)
"What?" asked several voices simultaneously as everyone turned to look at Spike, Xander's words swallowed up in the surprise.
"Bird was telling the truth." Spike said and Giles sighed with irritation common when dealing with Spike.
"If you are planning to elaborate any time soon would you get on with it."
"Bloody hell talk about impatience." Spike retorted knowing how much he could wind up his fellow Brit.
"Something about seeing Faith makes me a little anxious now get on with your bloody story." Giles snapped.
"Well I don't know for sure, not having met the girl myself but since the rest of her story could be true maybe she's not Faith."
"That was Faith." Xander said, very sure of that fact.
"I'm with Xander." Anya said raising her hand,
"Me too." Willow offered and even Giles breached his usually impeccable code of grammar to say,
"Me three." He then continued however in a much more Giles-like fashion. "That nevertheless does not explain her story. Firstly she should be in prison, secondly distortion of time is a very serious matter and not something I am comfortable with being in the power of…well Faith. Theoretically time distortion is only available through the Powers that Be."
"I dunno about that but I heard the tale before. Bird tried to warn me 'bout Dru the day she sired me. Said I was going to die, that she'd seen me dead, with blood draining from my neck and that she'd been given the chance to come back and save me, still not sure why. Anyway I thought the girl was being a right pompous twat and I told her she was talking crap. Shouldn't a done that really 'cos I obviously died as evidenced by the lack of a pulse and she did too. Dru got her when she was trying to save me." Spike actually condescended to look a little sad about the death of the strange girl but Buffy moved briskly on with the conversation.
"Ok so even if we believe the story, which I don't think I do, why would the Powers that Be give Faith that ability?" Buffy asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea. There are few people I would trust to relive a day and even fewer who still breathe out of necessity. I would suggest that maybe it is some sort of redemption, saving lives could help balance out her crimes although we all know that is impossible and how on earth she got out of prison I just don't know." Giles wearily began cleaning his glasses as Spike said irritably,
"Maybe she's not Faith!"
"Spike Xander's judgement is seriously good in that department, trust him when he says its Faith." Buffy remarked.
"According to you lot if she was Faith she'd have attacked you before opening her mouth, I didn't see any attacking." Spike retorted.
"Angel said she's changed, said she was willing to go to prison, to be punished for what she'd done, maybe he was right. Maybe she did come to help us." Buffy suggested but it was only a theory, she didn't really believe it.
"Which makes it even more strange that she's not all locked up." Willow pointed out.
"Yeah see red gets it. Maybe she's not Faith." Spike said yet again.
"No, no, I think we have to assume it is Faith even if she has some sort of amnesia." Giles said to contradict the blond vampire.
"Maybe she's done another body swap." Anya suggested. "You know, like she did with Buffy."
"That was Faith driving?" Spike exclaimed but everyone ignored him not knowing exactly how Faith had spoke to him whilst wearing Buffy's skin. (Spike however wasn't likely to forget.)
"I think that is highly unlikely, if Faith is seeking redemption I doubt she would use dark magicks." Giles said pensively.
"Unless someone else did it to her." Buffy suggested. "Slayer speed, strength, healing…imagine what someone evil could do with them."
"Uh Buffy we don't need to imagine. We saw what Faith did." Willow reminded the slayer. "If only we could tell for sure whether she has swapped bodies." Tara's head snapped up from Willow's shoulder where it had been lolling.
"Whole. All whole, not switched," the witch murmured and though it sounded like yet more nonsense Willow realised what Tara meant.
"There hasn't been a body swap. Remember how Tara knew it wasn't Buffy when she met her because her aura was all fragmented, like it didn't fit. She's saying Faith's fits. It must be Faith."
"It bloody well does not have to be." Spike snapped. "Why don't all you brainiacs go and ring the prison if you don't believe me, or ring soul boy 'cause he'd know if she's out." Everyone looked at Spike as if he had just discovered electricity. "Well it's not that hard is it?" he snorted turning away in disgust.
Meanwhile…
Tru had left the Magic box completely bewildered. Not only had she been knocked to the floor by a girl who didn't look strong enough to snap a chopstick but she had been mistaken for an escaped murderer. Everything was just getting weirder and weirder, first the crazy people around the tower, then being called Faith, and talk of a hell god…things just weren't adding up. Tru wandered around Sunnydale without any idea of what to do. It was one thing to chase around after a stranger in your home city but quite another to be on the other side of the continent doing that. Tru considered checking into a hotel but decided against it knowing that whether she saved Dawn or not she could be on the next flight out of Sunnydale in the morning. She stopped in a coffee shop to have a rest and a think, not forgetting a double helping of caffeine. Sitting in the cozy shop with the familiar smell of coffee beans Tru wondered, not for the first time, how the hell she was going to save Dawn when she didn't even know for sure how she had died. Tru was guessing that she had fallen from the top of the crazy tower but didn't know why she was up there in the first place, if she had jumped or was pushed. 'Perhaps the hell god's palace is at the top," Tru joked to herself laughing at the very thought. Depressed by the hopelessness of her task Tru decided spontaneously to ask the guy filling her coffee mug for help.
"Hey, do you know where I could find Dawn Summers?" Tru reasoned that even if the guy thought her completely mad she wouldn't be any worse off. The guy merely looked a little surprised and Tru noticed that his eyes, which widened expressively, were a gorgeous shade of blue.
"No idea. What d'you want with her? Are you sure you don't mean Buffy Summers?" Tru looked at him carefully, not expecting the last question.
"Why Buffy Summers?"
"Just figured she was more your age, Dawn's just a kid."
"Yeah I know." Tru said looking him straight in the eyes. "So d'you know where she is?"
"I guess she could be at home, school's out but otherwise I've no idea."
"You wouldn't happen to know where home is would you?" Tru asked tipping her head flirtatiously.
"Now how do I know you're not some creepy kind of…I don't know…kidnapper?" Tru laughed outright at that.
"Do I look like some kind of kidnapper to you?" She held out her hand. "I'm Tru by the way."
"Dan."
A little while later Tru was headed towards the Magic Box once again having established that no one was at the Summers' house. She was growing very curious about the sisters, wondering how they knew the other members of that little group from-especially the two Englishmen. Mostly though she was wondering what kind of trouble Dawn was in and how she would be able to get her out of it. All Dan had been able to tell her was that the sisters seemed nice enough although there were many stories about them around town, mostly from Buffy's high school classmates, and that there was probably some foundation for them because nice as they were there was something strange about the Summers girls. Tru had asked Dan if he knew anyone called Faith but that had been a dead end, he recognised the name but nothing more. So Tru had followed his directions to the empty house (minus her bag which she had left behind the counter in the coffee shop) and from there decided her only hope of finding out more was to go back to the strange group, the people who had rejected her story. It had taken guts to tell them the truth, she had truly thought that they would believe her, the red head, Willow she had been called had looked kind, the older man looked sterner but the dark haired man…Tru didn't know what it was about him but she had thought he would believe her. Instead he had accused her of wanting to kill them, she desperately wanted to set that straight and was prepared to go back and face them in order to do so…for Dawn's sake.
As Tru rounded a corner a figure jumped out in front of her. It seemed human on a first glance but its face was grossly distorted and fangs prominently extended in place of canines. Instinctively Tru turned and ran as fast as she could away from the vampire. She ran through small back streets and alleyways until she turned into one that was a dead end with a pile of wooden crates stacked up against a solid brick wall. She twisted around slowly and fearfully to see the large vampire loom over her. She backed into a corner, mouth open but no sound coming out.
"Gave me a pretty good run there. Bet the blood's just pumpin'." The vampre said with a smile. "Bet it's hot."
"Don't hurt me." Tru choked genuinely terrified.
"Don't hurt you?" The vampire laughed and a door behind him crashed open.
"Hey what's going on?" Buffy asked innocently from the doorway.
"Help me! Call the police!" Tru called but Buffy stood still knowing she was better than the police.
"Get outta here girl." The vamp called to Buffy, concentrated on Tru's cowering form.
"You guys having a fight? 'Cause you know, fighting's not cool." Buffy quipped in her ditziest manner.
"Get out of here." Tru shouted as the vampire growled at Buffy.
"No." He said turning to face Buffy fully. "No, she wants to stay. I don't mind a little appitizer."
Buffy walked towards the vampire with a small frown. "Have you ever heard the expression, 'biting off more than you can chew'?" She asked still innocently. At the vampire's shaking head she continued, "Okay. Um…how about the expression, 'vampire slayer'?"
"What the hell you talkin' about?"
Buffy was surprised, usually with vampires the word slayer was like a starter gun and they'd either run straight for her or as far away as possible which, when she had a crossbow, wasn't generally very far. "Wow. Never heard that one. Okay. How about, 'Oh g-d, my leg, my leg'?" The vampire growled again and lunged at Buffy. She ducked and punched him in the face then kicked his leg so that his knee buckled and he fell to the ground.
"Oh g-d! My leg! Uhh…"
"See? Now we're communicating." Buffy said smiling as he reiterated her earlier words. Suddenly the vampire got up off the ground and threw Buffy against the wall. He grabbed at her but she pushed his arms away, punched him in the face again, kneed him where it hurts and then kicked him into the wall from behind. From against a dumpster the vampire backhanded Buffy so that she stumbled towards Tru who dodged out the way. The fight continued as the vampire gained the upper hand, slamming Buffy onto a second dumpster. Tru watched, still frightened but amazed as well as Buffy cart wheeled off the dumpster and kicked the vampire into the pile of wooden crates. As they shattered Buffy caught a splinter flying towards her and staked the vampire. Tru's face was a picture as the vampire dusted. She continued to stare, still with fear as Buffy looked at the pile of dust and muttered,
"Wow. Been a long while since I met one who didn't know me." Buffy began walking towards the door she came out of but Tru called to her,
"H-how'd you do that?" Buffy stopped and turned around.
"Guess you're really not Faith then are you?"
Hope you liked. Please review! Specially 'cos I have exams starting in 1 week and I really need to know if ppl want the next chapter soon 'cos I won't have a lot of free time to write it.