Redeemed

Chapter 4

This is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel fan fiction based on the character, Faith. I do not own any name or reference in this fan-fiction, and all rights concerning Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel belong to Joss Whedon.

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seraphim2db: Thanks for the question. Here's the answer. The First will not be able to shape-shift. He will be hosted in one body, and I already have the person planned out, as you'll see in this chapter, but thanks for offering the help.

Faith stood there a few minutes longer, thinking about the events that had just occurred and the events that had led up to them. She couldn't believe she was standing there holding the weapon that had nearly driven her past the brink of humanity and then had nearly taken her life in the process.

She had had numerous nightmares involving the knife while she had been in a coma in Sunnydale. They all involved Buffy stabbing her, or pulling the knife out of her dead and lifeless body.

She put the knife inside the pocket of her jacket, and started walking back towards Wolfram & Hart. She didn't want to be out patrolling while she was in this state of mind. She needed to think things through and clear her mind of the things she had done in the past.

That's not who I am anymore, she thought to herself. It's not me.

"Isn't it really, Faith?" an eerie voice asked behind her.

She quickly turned around, and found herself face to face with Mayor Wilkins.

"Bo…" She started. Then, she caught herself. "The First."

"See?" He said confidently. "You almost called me boss. If that isn't who you are, then why would you still think of me like that."

Faith thought for a moment. She had to concentrate. She couldn't let The First get to her like this. She had to get out of this alive, and if she wanted to do that she had to be alert.

"So," Faith said, "You've taken on a physical form, huh? I guess that means you aren't exactly the big spook you used to be."

"Actually, I'm a bigger spook than I used to be." He replied.

"Yeah, how so?"

He reached out and tried to grab Faith by the hair, however, she was expecting him to react like that and she quickly dodged him. She threw out a punch that landed firmly on his face. She then swung around and tried the other side, but he was too quick for her. He grabbed her wrist and slung her through the air. She hit a tree and fell to the ground.

He advanced on her, and she quickly met his challenge with a kick to his chest. He barely noticed it, however, and knocked her in the chest with a kick of his own. Faith heard a rib crack as she fell to the ground.

"I'm not going to kill you tonight, Faith." He said. "There's hope for you yet."

"I'll never go back!" Faith yelled at him.

"We'll see."

Just as calmly as he had approached her, The First walked away towards the darkness of the night. Faith just sat and watched him go. Relief flooded over her as she saw him fade from view.

She stumbled to her feet, and once again picked up the knife that held her dreadful past. She put it in her coat, and applying pressure to her chest, she walked back towards Wolfram & Hart.

Faith walked into Angel's office and placed the knife on his desk. He turned around in his chair and looked up at her.

"What happened?" he asked, worried.

"I met up with one of his slayers, we fought, she left, and then The First showed up." She said. "It wasn't a big deal. We had a nice little chat, and then he took off again."

Angel looked at her with concern. He knew that she was lying, and that she had been hurt badly. He got up from his chair and walked into his bathroom. He retrieved a first aid kit before returning to his office. He handed it to her.

"Here." He said. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go out there by yourself."

Faith just looked at him and shrugged it off. "I'm fine, Angel. Five-by-Five."

"That kind of attitude is going to get you killed, Faith. Look what they did to you! You stumble in here, barely walking, with a cracked rib and internal bleeding."

"How do you know I have internal bleeding?" She said.

Angel pointed to where she applied pressure to her chest. "You're trying to stop it right now."

"So, we threw a couple punches. I came out just fine."

"He let you live, didn't he?" Angel questioned. "He could have killed you, and he let you live. What does he look like?"

"I don't remember." She lied.

"Faith, you were a bad liar five years ago, and you haven't gotten any better at it."

Faith looked down and the knife, and then pointed at the knife sitting on Angel's desk. "It was the mayor."

Angel sat on his desk and thought for a moment before getting up and walking over to her. "Faith, you can't let your past take you away from the person that you can be now."

"Angel, I'll be fine. I don't need a pep talk."

"You say you're fine, but I know what it's like to let the past haunt you and cloud your judgments."

Faith knew that there was some truth behind what Angel told her, but if she let her guard down now she wouldn't be able to raise it back up when she needed it the most. She had to get herself out of a situation that would make her weak; a situation that would make her feel.

"Look, Angel," She said. "I'm going to go take a shower, and then I'm going to go try out your little training room. I'm fine, really."

She left his office and walked down the hall to the elevator. When she got down to the first floor, she asked the receptionist where the guest rooms were. The lady looked a little shocked when Faith asked her, because not many people knew that Wolfram & Hart even had guest rooms.

Faith explained to the receptionist that she had been here before and had been offered the guest rooms. This seemed to satisfy the girl's curiosity, so she told Faith where to go.

Faith took a shower, the water as hot as it would allow, and then redressed in her room. She wrapped herself with gauze around the chest where the rib had been broken. It felt like she was being stabbed all over again with each wrap that she made around the wound.

Faith considered actually going to see if they had a training room, but instead she just lay back on her bed and just sat there thinking about everything that had happened tonight. She had just gotten out of jail, and already she found herself in a situation where she would be back out in the world fighting for her life.

She knew that she was the Slayer and that it was her responsibility to fight "the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness", as the prophecy explained, but sometimes she just felt like she couldn't live past the next moment. As she lay there on her bed, thinking, she started to cry. It wasn't long before she had cried herself into a deep sleep.