Beating up various snitches had to be the worse job in the world. Worse than cleaning toilets, worse that collecting trash, hell, Faith'd go as far as to say it was even worse that exterminating rats for a living. Positively disgusting.
For a start, why couldn't they ever find somewhere decent to live? It was always seedy bars, low-life tenements and, Faith's personal favourite, the sewers. Couldn't they, just once, set themselves up in a nice-looking mansion, with an indoor and outdoor pool, at least thirteen bedrooms and some nice leather seats? Maybe a wide-screen TV? Sure would make chasing them down a lot more pleasant.
As it was, Faith was tramping through sewers on her way to a demon's lair. The stink was clinging to her nose, but she was trying her best to ignore it. Behind her, the occasional gagging sounds suggested the Peter and Dorian weren't managing to ignore the smell that surrounded the three of them. Faith wished, not for the first time, that she was with the others.
They'd split up into two groups, to cover everywhere a bit quicker. Logan's group – Clark, Indy, Jack and Logan himself – had somehow managed to worm their way out of going to the most unpleasant areas. Faith wondered if they'd have been better off letting Andrew journey into the sewers by himself; he'd have probably seen it as a great adventure. But, Andrew had been forced to remain at the mansion to 'research' anything he could about either telepathic demons or vampires. After all, wasn't he training to be a watcher?
Faith smiled as a small hole in the wall appeared. "Just through here, then that's us all done." With a resigned sigh, she got down on her knees – the opening was really only large enough for a dwarf to fit comfortably through – and began to crawl into the demon's lair. Really the things she had to do for this job; as if walking through the sewers wasn't bad enough.
She could almost sense the expression of disgust on Dorian's face, and smirked to herself. Clamouring through sewers would hopefully take him down a notch or two. Maybe then he'd stop acting so up himself. After all, none of them had forced him to be there, though you'd think they had from the way he acted.
She straightened up when she reached the square platform they'd been heading for. She stank to high heaven's, and would probably never be able to wear these clothes again – which was a shame, 'cause those were some kick-ass jeans – but at least they were there.
But the demon wasn't. The place as thoroughly abandoned. Completely devoid of life. "Shit." Faith punctuated her outburst by lashing out at an innocent table. Her kick sent it flying into a wall, along with the lamp and pack of cards that had been sitting on it. They'd missed him. Unbe-fucking-lievable. "He's not here," She stated uselessly as Peter and Dorian stood beside her, looking equally disappointed.
This was meant to be their last stop, and they'd been in some serious need of info. So far, they'd come up blank in the information department. This had been their last hope as far as any useable knowledge went. And Faith sure as hell didn't want to return to the mansion empty handed. Now where was that little freak of a demon?
"What now?" Peter asked, and Faith was surprised to see both him and Dorian looking at her for the answer; how the hell was she supposed to know? She fell into a strictly foot-solider category; her attempts at leading, back at B's during the apocalypse, hadn't exactly gone extremely well. So, unless these guys were planning on her getting them blown up, they'd better find someone else to follow.
"Now that is an excellent question." A voice resounded from the corner of the area that the demon claimed to be its home. Faith turned towards the corner where, in true Bond-movie style, a leather chair's back faced her. Any second now, a bald villain was going to turn around in it, stroking a white cat.
She took a step forwards, hating the way that Dorian and Peter fell into rank behind her. Why did she have to be the leader of this mini-mission? Dorian and Peter were both way more powerful than she was, much as she hated to admit it. Her fists rose, and her body tensed as she waited for the hidden figure to elaborate.
"Fortunately for you, I think I have the answer you're looking for." Faith didn't move a muscle, she stayed completely frozen. The only sign that a spell hadn't been cast over her was the steady rise and fall of her chest. She wanted to know what that chair was hiding, who was being concealed behind it, but didn't know how to find out quickly without getting herself dead.
Eventually she decided to just go ahead and take the chance. Hey, she had a frickin' superhero and an immortal on her side; she'd be alright. If you've got good back-up, you're alright. As long as your back-up doesn't go weird and hay-wire, which is why it's usually best to have a back-up plan in case your back-up backs out. She sucked in a breath, and then kicked at the chair.
"Don't kill me!" Alright, a high-pitched squeal wasn't quite the threatening attack she'd been expecting, but that was hardly surprising, seeing as she hadn't been expecting to see a watcher-in-training sitting in the chair either. "Don'tkillmedon'tkillmedon'tkillme… I'm too young to die!" Andrew exclaimed dramatically, and she was so goddamn annoyed that she had to slap him around the back of the head.
"Andrew, are you trying to get yourself killed?" Faith took a step back after battering him a while longer, deciding that everyone would be pretty angry if she pulverised him. Sure, she'd probably be doing everyone a favour, if he was going to pull stunts like this, but she doubted that they would see it like that. In Logan's, and Clark's and everyone else's eyes, attacking Andrew would be seen as attempted murder. And Faith was really trying to give that up.
She kept backing up until she was behind Peter and Dorian, where they could safely grab onto her and hold her back if they needed to. Hopefully, for Andrew's sake, they wouldn't need to, but right now anger was bubbling so close to the surface that she felt it was only a matter of time before it completely spilled over.
"I was only trying to help, and, before you get on with the bodily harm, I'm just gonna point out that it's totally your fault for not letting me come with you guys." Andrew began to try and explain himself, but Faith wasn't going to give him the chance. She glared at him, and he had the good sense to give up trying to make them see that this was entirely their fault. He'd have ended up severely decapitated if he'd tried it.
"Andrew, go back home. You're not helping, you're just getting in the way." Faith said, irritably. At the hurt look he gave her, she added another reason to the stockpile of why she didn't want to have to be the leader. It meant she had to be the one to get rid of Andrew. Which meant that she was the one seen as the villain, and she'd had more than enough of being the bad one in her lifetime. She shook her head, and turned to leave.
Andrew's voice paused her mid-step. "But I can help! I was here, when the demon left." She whipped back around, wondering why he'd waited until now to tell them. Think of how much time they'd lost! While Andrew had been acting like a little drama-queen, the demon could have gone anywhere. They'd almost definitely lost it now. Unless the others had gotten something, this whole trip had been entirely useless. "If we go now, we could get him."
Faith grabbed his arm and pulled him out the chair, roughly. She hated that the wince of pain on his face caused her satisfaction, that she wished she could hurt him just a little bit more. Did that make her a monster? Yeah, but that was beside the point. "Point us in the right direction, fast, and I might be able to constrain myself from kicking your ass so hard you won't be sitting right for weeks." Her voice was low, scary, and very effective. Andrew actually let out a squeak, and she could sense Peter shift uncomfortably behind her. She was freaking them out. So what? Sometimes a slayer had to use force. Heh, most of the time a slayer had to use force.
"Sure, sure, I can lead you all to him," Faith released her grip on his arm, and motioned for him to get going. If she'd held on for much longer, she'd have probably snapped his arm. Right, breathe, Faith. Long breath in, two short ones out.
"Oh yeah, I'm the leader." Faith didn't need Logan's enhanced hearing to be able to hear Andrew's final comment as he led them out through a back passage.
A/N : Yes, yes, yes. Shortness. Sorreh.
Just thought that we ought to respond to X-Over's review, by saying that we're not sure about adding in extra characters at the moment. It's scary enough trying to juggle the ones we have right now! But, we'll bare your suggestion in mind, and if a bit comes up where we can include those characters, we'll try to.
Thanks to anyone and everyone else who reviewed : We love you!
