Redeemed

Chapter 7

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.

Faith continued to walk around Angel's destroyed office, trying hard to think of some way to get rid of The First. Angel and the others were working on the problem as well, and Angel had all of his employees on the task too. Wesley and Gunn had been told to head out of town, because Angel feared that they would be in danger if they stayed. However, both of them shrugged this idea off, saying that they had faced an apocalypse together just the previous year and all had survived.

"I can't come up with anything!" Faith shouted out in frustration.

"Why don't we see what our little rat knows?" Willow replied, smiling at the rat she held in her hands.

Tanya squirmed in Willow's hands, trying desperately to get free. Willow hadn't used such a simple spell in a long time, and it was Amy, a young witch turned evil that they knew from high school, whom Willow had reversed the spell on before. Now, with Tanya in her hands, helpless, they had the perfect person in which to interrogate for information about The First.

Willow placed the rat on the floor and said, "Dispel and release from my power!"

The rat instantly made the transformation back to Tanya, the slayer. She went to flee for the door, but Willow knew this would happen.

"Thicken!" Willow said.

The air around the young slayer closed up tight as Willow's magic made it take on the consistency of tar. Tanya would not be able to fight the power of the spell like The First had done earlier, and Glory the god had done before.

"Talk, Tanya." Faith demanded. "What do you know about The First?"

"I know he's going to kill you all." Tanya said.

Faith made an advance on her, but Willow held up her hand to stop her.

"If you make an advance into that spell, you'll be caught in it too."

Faith nodded and instead circled around her. She would get the information out of her one way or another. If that involved beating it out of her, Faith had no problem with doing that. Her friends' lives and hers were at stake, and she wouldn't hesitate to do whatever was necessary to make sure that they were kept safe.

"What do you think he's going to do to you when he's finished off all of us!" Faith yelled at her. "Huh? Do you think he's going to let you live when he's done with us? He'll kill you too!"

"You're wrong. The First has promised me great strength; even more strength then that of a slayer."

"You'll never be strong." Faith said. "You're weak, and you'll always be weak. The first big bad that crossed your path and you cowered in fear. You're not a slayer. You're just a coward with strength you don't know how to use."

Tanya sneered. "What would you know? You resorted to becoming a psychotic bitch when your life got rough. All those killings, Faith, and you think you're suddenly so righteous?"

Faith knew that Tanya was trying to get inside her mind again, but the memories still haunted her. All the way from the time she had accidentally killed that man in the alley with her own stake, to the time she had tortured Wesley in the apartment building. All those memories flooded through her mind as Tanya taunted her from within Willow's spell.

"Faith, don't let her get to you." Angel said. "She's been working under The First. She knows all your deep dark secrets, but that's not you anymore."

Faith turned and looked Angel right in the eyes. Wasn't that who she still was in some ways? She still thrived for the kills. She liked being the slayer. She liked to hunt the things of darkness. Did it really matter what she was killing? She still enjoyed it.

"Angel, I'm not so sure anymore." She replied. "I'm still the killer I was three years ago, aren't I?"

"No, you're not."

Buffy, who had gone to rest, walked into Angel's office. She walked over and placed her hand on Faith's shoulder. She grimaced in the act of sympathy, her arm still hurt from her battle with The First.

"I went through a time where I thought all I was here for was to kill." Buffy explained. "I wondered whether or not the fact that I enjoyed it made me just as bad as the demons I hunted. There's a difference between us and them, though."

"Yeah," Faith said, "what is it?"

"The difference is that we have a purpose for the killing that we do. We do it to protect people who can't protect themselves. We don't kill just for the sake of the kill."

Buffy rounded on Tanya. "Now you, you're a different story. You are just like the demons that we hunt. You barely have a soul."

"Buffy…" Angel started, but Buffy held up her hand to silence him.

"You were born into a heritage of protectors from the very evil that you're working under to protect. Now, you tell me what you know about The First or I'll kill you myself!"

Buffy's words had obviously penetrated Tanya's mind. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she began crying. She collapsed to the floor, and as she did so, Willow dropped her hold on the spell.

Faith had caught on to Buffy's method of interrogation. She walked confidently over to Tanya and grabbed her around the neck. She picked the girl up with one arm as if she were no more than a doll.

"You heard her," Faith threatened, "now you tell us what you know."

Faith dropped her to the floor, and she wasn't gentle in the way she did so. Tanya scooted away from her in fear; the same fear that had made her bend to the will of The First.

"I don't know anything about him," She said finally, "and as far as I can tell, there's no way to beat him. He's invincible."

"There are no invincible beings in this world." Faith said. "Buffy took out a god four years ago, and they're about as high up as any demon gets."

"The First is different. The First is more than a god. He's pure evil."