FIC: Daddy Dearest (7/?)
"Your father is a mighty-."
"Listen dick-head!" Faith growled at the alien marching by her side as they made their way through the hushed graveyard. "I'm known for a hell of a lot of shit – sparkling wit, hot looks, fierceness in battle, bedroom skills, to name a few. But one thing I've never been accused of is patience. So how about you shut the hell up and in return, I won't introduce my boot to your ass? How's that for a deal-breaker?"
She was relieved when the alien raised an eyebrow but fell silent. She was getting sick of this crap. Everyone telling her how great a guy her 'pa' was. So fucking great that he left her to be brought up by a drunken junkie, abused by a succession of her ma's boyfriends. Oh yeah, she'd got the brass ring of dads, that was damn sure.
Well, she might after work with him for this prophecy bs, but afterwards… Well the bastard better stay away from her. "Shit," she muttered. When she was little, she'd wanted someone, a daddy, a big bro, an uncle, anything to take her away from the hell that was her home. And now that she had a parent, all she wanted to do was revert to her homicidal self and rip him apart. Hell, if it wasn't for Xman and Fang being disappointed she'd have probably done it already.
Her eyes narrowed as she sensed something. "Yo X!" she hollered. "Hostiles!"
Jack glanced out of the corner of his eye to the one-eyed youth walking beside him. He'd given up trying to talk to the kid after the first ten minutes. It was clear that although the younger man didn't share his newly-discovered daughter's murderous impulses he did share her dislike of him.
Not that he blamed the boy. He didn't like himself much at the moment. "Yo X!" he looked up at his daughter's husky shout. "Hostiles!"
"If any get past us," his companion ordered, "Willow will handle them, stay out of our way."
Even as he opened his mouth to protest, the kid hurried away. "Does no-one listen to me anymore?"
"Pa telling you what a great guy he is?" Faith queried as she and her companion hurried towards the five vampires.
"He's more interested in learning about you."
"You didn't?"
"You said not to," Xander replied. "This one's your call Faith, your decision."
Faith smirked at her boyfriend, touched as always by his loyalty. "Thanks hon." She turned her attention back to the vampires. "I'll take the three on the right, you the two to the left. Five by five?"
"Cool," Xander nodded.
The moment they reached the vampires, Faith allowed all thoughts of her newly discovered father, prophecies, and SGC to fall from her to concentrate on her two priorities – Slaying and protecting Xander. The lead demon's eyes widened as she approached. "Slayer!" he snarled.
Faith pouted at the six foot plus vampire. "Well sir," she purred and fluttered her eyelashes. "It's always nice to be recognised." The vampire threw a right, she blocked it on her forearm, grabbed it by the wrist and flung it into a near-by gravestone. Another demon lunged at her, she ducked beneath her rival's attack and staked it. "Makes a girl feel all," another vampire grabbed her from behind, its brawny arm encircling her neck. Reacting instantly, she drove her heel into its shin. The demon howled in pain and loosened its grip. "Special." Taking advantage of her attacker's distress, she grabbed the demon's forearm with both hands, and leaned forward at the waist, flinging the demon to the ground. Before it had a chance to recover, she'd knelt, and plunged her stake into its chest.
"Bitch."
She looked up at the voice and caught a foot to the mouth that sent her flying into the cold night air. Gathering her senses, she reached out behind her. The moment her hands touched the ground, she flipped up into a handspring. Seeing the demon was charging her, she bent her arms and sprang into the air. Tucking herself into a ball, she flew over the advancing vampire to land in a crouch behind him. The demon swung around, his wild haymaker flying over her head. Straightening, she saw a chance to plunge her stake home but passed it up to get rid of some much-needed tension.
"You know!" Growling ferally, she snapped a heel into her rival's knee. Smiling viciously at its resulting yelp and stumble, she followed the retreating vampire. The demon threw a right hook that she caught in her hand. After winking at the vampire, she twisted her opponent's fist, shattering its wrist before yanking the demon's arm out of its socket. "I'm really!" The vampire's mouth opened in a scream, but she filled it with her fist before the demon could utter a sound, knocking out teeth. "Pissed off!" After a knee to the groin, she slammed her stake home and peered anxiously through the dust to check on her Xander.
Xander glanced at the two female vampires stalking him in a flanking movement. "What is it with me and female demons?" Xander ruminated. "Ahn, Praying Mantis, Inca Mummy girl, the First's Disciple, and Dru. Maybe I should change my deodorant?"
The vampire to his right lunged at him. Instead of jumping out of its way and into the path of its companion, Xander decided to take a chance and leapt to meet it, the stake he'd pulled out of his jacket thrusting at its chest. He saw the vampire's mouth open in surprise as its stake slammed through its heart. A half-second later it exploded into dust.
Turning, he saw the second demon charging at him through the falling dust. Before he had time to leap out of its way, the monster hit him. Grunting with the jarring impact, he twisted away from the creature, using its momentum to send the monster crashing to the ground. Still slightly off-balance from throwing the demon, Xander stumbled towards his opponent, his stake plunging downwards. "Not so fast blood-bag!"
He cursed when the demon caught his stake hand in its left hand. He tried to pull loose but it was like trying to pull loose from concrete. Thinking quickly, he slammed a left into the vampire's sneering face, snapping its head to the side. Instantly, the creature's grip on his hand loosened. Taking advantage of the distraction offered, he pulled loose. "Nothing personal," he muttered before slamming his stake home.
"You five by five X?"
He smiled at his girl-friend's voice, her concern filling him with a familiar warm glow. Turning, he nodded and smiled. "Fine, you?"
Faith flashed him her dimples and winked. "Cool." His girl-friend's face turned back to stone. "Back to pa and his gang?"
"You got it all on tape Teal'c?" Jack asked the alien.
The former First Prime nodded. "Your daughter is most impressive."
Impressive wasn't even close to it. Some of the manoeuvres reminded him of those Matrix films, especially her leap over the vampire's head. And her savagery was blood-curdling. Made him wonder how in the hell he was still alive. "Her boyfriend was pretty good too."
He glanced towards Daniel. "Was he?" Throughout the fight his eyes hadn't budged from his daughter's lithe form, mesmerised by her breath-taking skill and lethal grace. "I'll have to check him out on the tape."
"Yes Faith's very good," he turned to the diminutive red-head stood beside him. "She's the third most dangerous person on the planet. But I'm the first." His blood chilled when the girl's eyes flashed black. "You might want to bear that in mind if you try to hurt my brother or his girl-friend. Because that would be a very bad idea."
Jack swallowed. For once he'd like a weak, incompetent enemy.
Well there was Kinsey.
"Have you made any progress with your daughter?" General Hammond asked his XO.
He was disappointed when Jack shook his head. "Not unless you count me being able to be in the same room as her without being beaten up. As long as I don't speak to her. Or look at her."
"Colonel," his heart went out to O'Neill at the pain in his second-in-command's eyes. On the one hand he could certainly sympathise with Miss Doolan's anger and hurt, especially given what she'd been through. But on the other, he knew O'Neill and knew his officer would never knowingly desert a child, he'd shown his loyalty enough times for him to have the measure of his Colonel. "Just give her time."
O'Neill smiled crookedly, but there was no real amusement in the facial expression. "Want to give me an idea how long? A ball-park figure maybe?"
He decided to change the subject. "Any news on who the mystery people might be in the prophecy?"
"No, they've no ideas and Daniel hasn't been able to find anything in his research, even with Miss. Rosenberg's help."
"Yes," General Hammond grimaced. If, Miss. Doolan's powers were unnerving, the Witch, magic was real – his mind still reeled with that thought, was just plain terrifying. "I trust the others are waiting in the briefing room?" O'Neill nodded. "Let's go," he stood.
"Yes sir," his second-in-command stood. "Sir." He glanced towards his second-in-command. "Thanks for caring."
Shiny and the prick had barely walked into the briefing room when the intercom by the General's seat buzzed into life. "Sir, we have a Mr. Giles and sixteen girls demanding to see Mr. Harris and his companions. They're being rather insistent," the soldier gulped. "Sir they've sort of taken over our position."
"Oh no," Hammond groaned and put his head in his hands. "Very well, SG-1 will be with you in a minute."
"And that would be our 'One with wisdom to lead. Fifteen with the power to follow. And one wounded inside but stronger than all.'" Willow commented.
"Good call," Faith pushed her chair back. "Let's go."
"I'm afraid -."
"Hey Shiny," for once Faith wasn't going to back down from the SGC commander in the interests of diplomacy. "That's our crew," she tilted her head towards her father. "Unlike some people I don't desert mine. And I'm sure as hell not gonna trust the military with my sisters," she glanced at a determined looking Xand and resolute Red, "let's go."