Title: No Sense In Running
Disclaimer: Purely for entertainment. No infringement intended.
Pairings: Hard to say at this moment. Will become apparent as story evolves.
Time: During S7 (Buffy), S4 (Angel).
Rating: R
Final Note: Some themes in this story you may find offensive. Warnings will be displayed and if you are against, do not read. You have been warned.

Also, thanks so much for your feedback! Keep it coming! Thank you :)


CHAPTER 2

- Though I've tried, fallen I
have sunk so low…Fallen, Sarah Mchlachlan

'And that's your answer to all our problems; escape? Jess, I'm in here because I need to be.'

'Will you just listen to me for a second?'

I crossed my arms and leant against the cool brick of the prison cell.

'Right, I've been going over the perimeters, and it seems we got one of two....'

'What kind of perimeters exactly do we have?'

'Well…' she said, widening her eyes, showing me she was sick of me interrupting her. 'I talked to my Watcher. He's been trying to get some useful information on what's goin' down at the Hellmouth, activity and so forth.' She took a deep breath and licked over her lips, leaning forward as she sat on the uncomfortable camp bed. 'Apparently potentials from all over the world are gathering down in Sunnydale. Revello Drive, the place to be, and apparently that's where this other slayer…'

'Buffy…' I started, trailing off before I'd even got going.

Jess seemed surprised. 'You know her?'

I looked up from the floor, unaware that my gaze had even fallen to this place. 'Just a bit.'

She nodded and pulled her feet up onto the camp bed, beneath her body. 'Right, so we go there-'

'No, we can't go there.' I shook my head defiantly.

She looked up at me, her hands spread. I think she was wondering why. Simple reasons. But I didn't wanna tell. Digging up the past wasn't something I intended to do, not with anyone. Ever again. Angel was enough. S'all I need.

'Why not?'

'What's the other choice?'

'Faith, I really think we should-'

'Ok, look, I can't do this. I can't just escape outta here, and not expect to be followed. I'm a murder convict-'

'Yeah, so am I, Faith.'

'Really, who'd you kill?'

'Not the point.' She inhaled and wiped her mouth over with her hand. 'You're a warrior, Faith. A fighter. You're the one. Listen, this apocalypse ain't just coming for Sunnydale, nah. This time it's visitin' the entire world, so you're gonna have to fight at some point, whether we go to Cleveland or…San Francisco. And I know that whether it be next week, tomorrow, tonight, even…I ain't stayin' here, no way. I'm not gonna wait for one of those fuckers to come and get me, I'm outta here. As fast as I can, and you're coming with me.'

'No, I-'

'I am NOT dying in jail, Faith.' I looked into her eyes and they pierced mine. I could feel the heat burning in her eyes. She wasn't ready to die. She was ready to fight.

'Thought you told your friend that it was safe inside…'

'I used to believe that…my watcher is one of a handful that are left…they're offing them as fast as they are us. But they are coming after him, and sooner or later they're gonna find me…and when they come for me, they'll get you too.'

'What makes you so sure?'

She rose from the camp bed and stormed towards me. 'Take a look around, Faith! We are STUCK. Five by five metres, four walls, a camp bed, photo of your dog and a TOILET…no door. They catch us here…we're dead. No second chance. We have to escape now, while we can.' I could see her clenching her jaw as she waited for my response. 'C'mon, Faith…I can't do this alone, I won't.'

I couldn't. I always told myself I could escape jail easy if I wanted to, but…I'd gone too far. I was a psychotic Slayer on the loose. God, if that was to happen again…

'Better go slit my wrists now, then. Before the bringers get to me…' she said bluntly as she headed for the cell door.

'No, Jess, just…hold up.' I sighed out a breath and scratched my scalp. 'Maybe…maybe we should stop off at Angel's first, just to gather the crew.'

'Angel?'

I hesitated a little. 'He's a…we're gonna need him, if we're fighting this battle. Also, we'll probably need a place to stay.'

She looked at me, standing in the doorframe. 'You sure?'

I hesitated further. Not really. 'No…but I don't wanna die in my prison cell either.'

I could see a smile beginning to appear on her face as she approached me once again. 'Does this mean…?'

'I'm in.'

She approached me, raised her open hand and I hit it with my own. She smiled and nodded calmly.

- - -

We worked at it for days and nights on end. We survived on just three hours of sleep a night. We trained, talked and plotted for sixteen straight days. Time was something we didn't have. So we used it as wisely as we could.

I held the phone to my ear, and exhaled.

Listening to his words was like listening to the talking clock. Not really listening. I hear, though. He talked and talked, until I finally piped up. 'Step away from the glass, Wes.' He squinted, asked me what I'd said, and I repeated.

And crash. I was suddenly on the other side of the plexi, and jumping out of a window, and I don't know how, but she was waiting there with the car, just outside of the gates.

Her foot floored the accelerator literal milliseconds after I'd closed the car door. I glanced behind at the guards leaning out of the window, and Wes…also leaning out.

I looked ahead of us and breathed a sigh of relief. We, did it.

- - -

The rumble of the ballsy engine rolled beneath us as she pulled up outside an apartment block. The neighbourhood seemed pretty rough, though, they all seemed the same, of what we'd seen since escaping.

She pulled the keys out of the ignition and sat back for a moment, and ran her fingers back through her hair, disturbing the way her fringe lay against her forehead. Her skin glistened because of the summer heat, and her eyelids fell shut as she leant her head back against the headrest of the seat.

I watched her a while, just taking in her. This sight before me. She reminded me strangely enough of…well…me. Tired. Tired of running. But we both do it. And we do it well.

But we do it too much.

'Can I ask you a question?' I asked quietly, followed by me turning to face her little, and pulling my leg up underneath my ass.

She opened her eyes and looked at me. 'If it's "do me," screw you. I'm tired.'

I chuckled at her sense of humour and looked down into the palm of my hands. 'Nah, don't be silly, I just…wanted to know…' I paused and drew in a breath. 'When you murdered…was it…deliber-'

'Faith, I…' She suddenly sat up and reached for her box of cigarettes, only to find it empty. She huffed and screwed it up, looked ahead out of the windscreen, then got out of the car.

I followed, slamming shut the door after me, just as she had done. I saw her lean her arms upon the car, and rest her head in it. She was tired. It was apparent in every motion, even in her facial expression.

I followed the car round to where she was, and she looked up, glanced at me, then headed in the opposite direction. She was headed for a house, I'm sure of it, but why she was hurrying to get away from me, I don't know.

I caught her up and pinched her. She moved her arm away from mine and shoved the car keys into her pocket. Fine, play it that way, I thought, inwardly annoyed that she wouldn't share. 'Okay, at least tell me why we're here and where we're goin'…'

We walked in silence for a few moments, the scuff of my boots loud on the concrete pavement. Hers too, until she opened her mouth to speak. 'Faith…there's just one thing I need you to do for me, no questions asked, otherwise…we gotta go our separate ways.' She continued to walk and I gazed at her, beginning to worry she wasn't the chick I thought she was. Sure, we were both murderers. But what do we got if we're not honest?

'Jesse, I don't…'

'I need you to believe in me.' She gazed out ahead, concentrating on where she was headed.

I walked beside her, one; worried at where we where goin, two; frightful that where we were goin' would result in someone's death…or…somethin'.

'What- believe in…'

She slowed her pace to an eventual halt and looked out ahead, the sheen on her skin a multi-faceted diamond like glisten all over her body. 'Faith…' she sighed out, tiredness even apparent in her voice.

'Jess, this is just too…'

'Just listen 'a me,' she said solemnly, her calmness a slight element to rendering me anxious.

'Jess I dunno what to make of this…'

'Faith, please, for god's sake, shut up.' I closed my mouth and she gazed into my eyes. A couple of seconds passed and I didn't understand why she hadn't said anything.

When she moved in close to me, I dunno why, but my heart freaked out. Beat triple time on me or somethin'.

But when she reached both hands up to my face and stepped in close to me, butterflies in my stomach told me to remain calm. Yeah…better said than done.

I could feel her body heat as she pressed both palms to my cheeks, and stared intently into my eyes, her chocolate brown pools a mirror of mine. And when she pressed her forehead to mine, I let my eyelids down. I wasn't anxious, or nervous…I was scared.

'Look at me.'

But I couldn't. I clamped my eyes shut, as tight as I could…worried this might not be what I expected.

'Faith…' And for the first time I actually listened to her words…her voice, echoing in my weary ears…the beauty of it…its similarities to mine…

I let my eyes open to the sight of her, and all that anxiety I had subsided. The speed at which it dissipated moved me; how was I scared of this and then not all in the space of a couple of seconds?

She looked at me, just inhaling, exhaling and so forth. 'You know me.'

You know me…? What was she even trying to say? I opened my mouth to speak, but the words seemed to stay stuck in the back of my throat.

She moved away from me and continued to walk. I hung back, just absorbing what had happened there. You know me…

We finally reached a door, leading into an apartment block. She pressed a button and stood back, glanced upwards. We'd been standing there for a minute or so, and she decided to try again.

'Not home…?'

She looked at me, then back to the window, way up.

'Faith, I need you to stay down here, alright?' she told me determined, I don't really know at what, but the smashing of the door and her disappearing out of sight seemed to happen all too quickly. I had no choice but to do as she said.

I had a look down each direction of the road. Empty. Darkness. Yeah, and what's with that? Haven't seen sun for like…days…

- - -

She turned the engine off and removed the keys from the ignition, got out of the car and locked it, all in one swift motion. In few seconds she was at the hotel foyer, strolling in, seeing a group of people convening, talking…briefing themselves. She automatically guessed it was about Faith, but soon her curiosity was informed.

'If we don't do something about this soon, we're not gonna get him back. Faith was our only hope,' a tall, dark and stunning guy said as he loaded what looked like a shotgun or a tranq-gun from a distance.

She took a step down a stair and piped up. 'I hope you're not planning on using that on Faith.'

All at once the heads were turning to see where the voice had come from, and an uneasy silence fell over them all.

'Buffy, I hoped you'd come,' Wes said, beginning to approach her.

She nodded and walked the rest of the space between them. 'I headed out as fast as I could. Any updates?'

Gunn and Fred headed her way, they themselves equipped with weaponry. 'Just that a girlfriend's skippin' faster than we can track,' Gunn told her, closing in the gap between them, just as Buffy had done.

'And we don't know how we're supposed to find her now that she's gone,' Wes added.

'What exactly happened?' Buffy asked, folding her arms across her chest and looking at the rest of the group.

'I headed over there earlier this afternoon, hoping to get her help on getting rid of Angelus…' Wes continued, though was quickly interrupted by Buffy's anxious tone.

'Angelus?!' She raised her hand to her head and clenched her jaw. 'I don't understand…'

'It's a long story,' Fred told her worriedly.

'Well you'd better put it short; Buffy Summers dealing with the long is like a mouse trying to call truce with a cat,' came a bellowing, yet very female voice from the top of the stairs.' Cordelia stood at the top of the stairs, looking down on them all, seemingly pissed off. 'She's too impatient.'

Buffy looked up at Cordelia, and pouted. 'Wow, and there was me about to comment on how much you'd changed. Tough; it seems once a brat, always a brat.'

'What do you know about me, Summers?' she sneered, grasping the banister with a hand, the other upon her stomach.

'I know that you should have seriously considered turning blonde…people would take you less seriously…not that they ever did-'

'Still haven't got a life, I see…'

'Oh please, help me fight my war,' she said sarcastically.

'Okay, seems we're creating another one here, ourselves,' Gunn chimed in, looking at the other two wide-eyed.

'I don't have time for these petty disagreements,' Buffy muttered beneath her breath. 'Explain to me in the car.'

'Where are we headed?' Wes asked her, as she began to head out.

'I can sense her. C'mon.'

Gunn raised his eyebrows and followed the two heading out. He moved towards Fred and lowered his voice. 'Next she's gonna be tellin' us she sprouts fangs and has a fetish for full bodied warm blood, and her skin doesn't work too well with the sun.'

Buffy glanced over her shoulder at him, and shook her head. 'Just remember that I'm on your side; I'm the good one here.'

They both looked at her as she smiled a little back at them.

- - -

I could barely make out the street patterns anymore as the darkness spread far out across the city. The street lamps were dim and neglected, and the poor light shining from just above me on the front door of the apartment block was flickering. Almost out.

I'd been waiting for a long time. Didn't know how long. I didn't have a watch and I didn't like to keep track of time anyway. Slowed me down.

Couldn't hear any noise. Didn't have a clue why I had to wait so long. What was she doin' up there, anyways? How come I had to stay downstairs waitin' out?

Sod that.

I took the stairs three at a time, havin' no idea where I was headed, though I didn't really need to worry about that when I saw the open front door and Jess on the floor, her back to me. I walked in slowly, my eyes darting from place to place, checking it was alright to go in. but then I realised there was someone in her arms.

She sniffled and looked up at me standing beside her. She looked back down and my eyes trailed over to this still body she was holding.

'Who is…I mean…' I exhaled slow. '…Was…he?'

She sniffled a little and wiped a falling tear from her face. 'Gregory…my watcher.' Her voice was low…tear-filled…it sounded dry.

She held his lifeless form in her lap, her arms around his head. I looked down at his body. His shirt was drenched in blood (his own I'm guessin'), his hands the same, but dried…

'Who did this?'

She sniffled back yet more tears and through clenched teeth let me know it was 'them.'

The Bringers?

'Bringers?'

She reached down to the bloodstained shirt and touched it, so gently. I'd never seen her this way before. Seeming vulnerable, as if she'd lost…

'The only person who ever cared about me…and he's gone…' Her voice trailed out and I didn't have a chance to take this in before something large, heavy and metal hit me in the back and sent me flying across the ransacked apartment.

I groaned, the frickin' pain a sudden rush to me; what the…?

'You knew I'd come.'

She moved from underneath Gregory and stood slowly.

'You waited here, knowing I was coming, knowing I would find him, knowing that you'd get a chance to kill me.' She inhaled. 'Well, not like this. His death isn't gonna be in vain. And mine isn't gonna be at all.'

'No,' I started as I got to my feet. 'Not unless I go with you.' She glanced my way and the Bringer took his chance to attack her, but I ran to him and knocked him to the ground, and stole the big metal (AXE I discovered it was; Jesusin' eh, he could've axed me!) from him, and landed it straight into his head, and listened to the splatter of juices as I breathed.

I looked at it for a moment, wondering why it looked the way it did. It could see us, even though it had no eyes. It never spoke. Its long black cloak was kinda creepy.

I felt an arm touch mine lightly, and I turned to see her solemn, standing lifeless form, drained of the vitality that was the girl I knew as Jesse. She just looked at me a moment, that strength in her eyes no longer piercing through mine. What had happened to her?

She fell to the ground in a sudden hysteric, sobs dominating her chance to remain a calm and focussed woman. I felt my eyes widen and I sunk to my knees also, immediately taking her into my arms. 'Shh, it's okay, Jess…Jess it's alright, girl, c'mon…'

'It's not alright,' she said through loud sobs into my chest.

I held her tight as I could, trying to shush her, to comfort her, to calm her, but it wasn't working. I rocked back and forth with her as the panic and frustration and fear and whatever else screamed through sobs into the bloodstained apartment.

I repeated that same mantra, trying to calm her down, my words a drowned out song put next to her hysterical sobs. She squirmed like a little child fed up because they couldn't have it their way.

- - -

All I could hear was the purr of the engine as I eased my foot further and further down onto the accelerator, and in the back of my mind, the screams of the girl I'd stuck by since we discovered the hell we were to face.

Even though she had so much of a smooth calmness to her, it just wasn't the same anymore. Instead, all I could feel next to me was a solid block of ice. Cold. Lifeless. Melting. In this heat that is hell.

She'd lost the only person that had never given up on her.

Me? I was just a selfish twit only willing to consider myself in any equation I'd ever put to paper.

'You know what's going on in L.A.?'

'Seen the news, sure. Never-ending night, rain of fire…Team Angel must really have their hands full.'

'You don't know the half of it.'

'But you're here to fill in the blanks for me. Why?'

'We need you.'

'Well, I hate to wet the paper for you, Wes, but I'm kinda unavailable right now. Maybe you want to check back in a few decades when my parole comes up.'

'You need to know-'

'It's Armageddon again. I dig. Last thing you need is me in the mix. Besides, Angel will come shining through in the end like he always does.'

'Angel's gone, Faith. Angelus is back.'

I stared at long him enough to decide it was time to go, then I finally came to a solid decision. It's go time…

'Step away from the glass.'

I glanced over at Jess, who was leaning her head into the palm of her hand, which was resting on the door.

'The only person who ever cared about me…and he's gone…'

'It's not alright…'

Angel…I totally forgot. You know how sometimes words go in, register, then leave out the other ear? Well…my lack of memory once again allowed me to think only of myself and not those who needed me.

'Angel,' I muttered to myself, remembering what Wes had said to me earlier that day.