A/N: Faith's thoughts on Sci-Fu? I truly believe that she'd only like SG-1, everything else bar her thoughts on ST (which I hate) are mine, but while she'd disagree with my likes, she'd certainly agree with my hates.

FIC: Cleveland Calling (17?)

"Let me guess this straight, you have no idea what Andrew is up to with your girl-friend?" Xander shrugged, Amy shook her head as she looked around the dimly-lit street. "No idea at all?"

"Some really cryptic hints from Andy about sculpting Faith to perfection, but that's all. I try not to listen when he starts, it cuts down on the headaches," Xander admitted.

All at once Amy had a really scary image of a screaming Faith fastened to an operating table with Andrew stood over her in a white doctor's coat cackling hysterically as he started up a drill. "Um, aren't you worried?"

Xander looked towards her, a look of amazement in her fellow Sunnydale native's one eye. "What, you're joking right? If Andrew steps out of line, Faith'll eat him alive!"

"Well if you're sure," Amy said doubtfully.


"Man," Faith shook her head unable to believe what she was hearing, "you are tripping!"

"Oh no, fair Faith." Andrew smiled condescendingly. "If only you were as wise as you were beautif-," the geek's smile disappeared at her warning growl, she'd told him to cut out the pompous crap. "It's quite simple. Picard had presence and authority that Kirk could only dre-."

"Man!" Faith shook her head. "You don't get it. Kirk was cool, a player, slick. Picard, he's stiff, he's like a," Faith struggled for the worst insult she could think of. Finally she had it. "Like a Watcher."

"No, I'm sorry, fair Faith, while you are undoubtedly the Yoda of all things Slaying, you have much to learn in my domain." Andrew shook his head. "Picard was the finest captain in Star Fleet history."

Faith opened her mouth to continue then shut it again. She'd been arguing about this shit for the last thirty minutes? Next thing she'd know she'd been at one of those geek conventions, being slavered over by hundred of the spotty-faced weirdos. Forcing back a shudder, and she thought the Beast was scary, she changed the subject. "Run me through the difference between the Tuska and the Gold again?"

"That what?" Andrew's furrowed brow cleared and he did that sage nod that always made her want to go homicidal again. "Oh, you mean the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld."

Faith counted to ten. "Whatever." God, she hoped the others were back from patrol soon. She still didn't get why Shadow ships could beat the Death Star though.


"We have observed her," reported one of his men.

"Your face is troubled," Justus noted. "Is she even worse than we thought?"

"No, sir," the man shook his head, "on the contrary she works on the side of good."

Justus leaned forward, intrigued by what he heard. "But the mark is upon her?" After a second his man nodded. "Then in the past she has betrayed her powers and stepped from the path. She must be punished, she has condemned herself by her own actions. Tell me of her." He listened intently to his man's report. "Clearly she is powerful, but her entanglement with this Xander is her weakness. He is a capable enough fighter but no match for us. But if she is as attached as you say, she will not leave him behind when we attack-."

"Sir, we cannot kill innocents."

Justus smiled at his subordinate's interruption. "Kill no, hurt yes."


"That Teal'C, he's one bad ass mo isn't he?" Faith commented carefully, eyes fixed on her boyfriend as they walked in from their patrol, eager for his reaction. "I'd love to see a scrap between him and Fang, could be real interesting.."

"Yeah-," Xander turned towards her, eyes widening in shock. "How do -, whoa!"

"Easy there, big fella," Faith snatched hold of her boyfriend's shoulder as he stumbled on the back porch step, steadying him. "Didn't think you'd fall flat on ya face from the shock."

"How? What?" Suddenly X's face cleared. "All the time you've been spending with Andrew, but why?"

Faith shrugged, suddenly self-conscious. "It's important to my man, it's important to me."

"Thanks," after stroking her hair off her face, Xander leaned in and kissed her with the tenderness that always made her tingle inside. Pulling away, her boyfriend smiled down at her. "So what did you think of it?"

"Some of it's pretty good. Babylon 5's the bomb and SG-1 is wicked funny, Jack is the coolest dude like in forever" She grinned at X's mock-offended look. "Yeah, way cooler than my man, I'd so dump you in a click of the fingers for him."

"I'm not worried, Jack likes chicks with brains, so you're out," her man responded with a grin.

"Asshole." Xander grunted when she dug him in the ribs. "That Tru Calling had potential, but from what Andy tells me from those message boards it sounded like the writers had seen a movie of B's life and thought it was cool. I mean, TruJack? No way," Faith shook her head. Sick fuckers, it was like the writers thought women had no brains at all.

"Um, I only watched it 'cause the lead actress is a real babe," her man admitted shamefully.

"You're a pig." Faith chuckled. "The first two Star Treks are okay, but the rest not so much." Faith's nose wrinkled. "Farscape kinda reminds me of Sesame Street with the dumbass puppets and the less said about that Firefly crap the better, but like I said, some of it's cool."

"And what about the comics?" Xander pressed. "What did you think of them?"

Faith's heart dropped. "There's reading too? Oh man!" Xander's eye gleamed and a smile tugged on his lips. Even as her man's mouth opened in another smart ass comment, she leaned into him, cutting off the remark with a deep, long kiss.

Her eyes widened when she saw the glint of a knife in the dark behind him. Grabbing X's shirt lapels, she shoved her stunned man towards the house and let out a shout. "Yo," Faith hollered as she kicked the attacker's knife out of his hand and grunted slightly when she caught a straight right to the forehead, "trouble on the porch!"

Her attacker came in fast, too quick for a normal human but she wasn't getting a demony reading off him. Shoving that aside, she grabbed the man's wrist and twisted at the waist, using her weight to fling the man across the porch. Feeling another hand on her shoulder, she readied her elbow only to grin at the sound of a flower pot smashing into her would-be assailant's head. "Thanks X!" she yelled as she kicked out at another coming at her from the right. The man grabbed her foot and twisted, sending her airborne. Teeth parted in a grimace, she went with the momentum, swinging her free foot up to smash into the man's face, blood flying out of his mouth to splatter the porch supports. Spinning around to face the man, she ducked under an overhand right, grabbed his tunic and pulled back, meaning to throw her rival over her. Instead her legs were kicked from underneath her, sending her crashing to the ground, the man's shirt ripping away in her hand.

And then the house door crashed open, and Angel and the others charged out. Her attackers faded instantly into the mist. "Nice save," Faith smirked at her hero before turning serious. "They were good, real good. We have a problem."

"Oh yeah," Faith realised her mentor was looking down at the crumpled material in her hand. "I'd say."


"I know who attacked us." Angel dropped the part of the tunic that Faith had torn from one of her attackers onto the coffee table. It was an emblem of a blazing sun beneath a pair of crossed swords. "This is the mark of a cult called Forseti's Followers."

"Forseti?" Andrew squeaked. "Isn't he the norse god of justice?"

Angel nodded. "Yeah."

"Who are these dudes, Fang?"

Angel winced inwardly at Faith's question. Somehow he guessed this wasn't going to be pretty. "As Andrew said," he nodded towards the geek and chef, "Forseti is the norse god of justice. Since some time in the 8th century AD. a small order has existed conforming to the god's beliefs of justice and honour. Every generation eight baby boys are chosen from within his believers' families, blessed with a fraction of their god's power, and trained in the martial arts from birth. Once adult, they seek out and destroy evil."

"Why are they after us then?" Faith asked, brow furrowed in puzzlement. "We're the good guys too, right?"

"Yes, but," Angel licked his lips. This could go one of several ways, all of them bad. "Their speciality is hunting those who've turned their back on their duties. White arts mages who've turned to the black arts. Defrocked priests who consort with demons. Soldiers who betray their country. Hero cops on the take-."

"Renegade Slayers?" Faith's whisper cut through the room. Angel nodded. "B…but I'm good now," Faith looked utterly lost.

Angel winced. He hadn't seen his friend look so bewildered and in pain since the night she'd collapsed in his arms and begged to die. "That doesn't matter to them," his voice trailed off as the sultry brunette turned on her heel and charged out of the room.

Xander was first to move after Faith's exit. Rising from his seat, the young Watcher started for the door. Shaking his head, Angel snatched a hold of the one-eyed man's elbow and spun him round to face him. "Perhaps I best go after her."

"Yeah," the Californian sneered. "Because you made such a great job of telling her."

"There was no good way of telling her," he patiently replied. "Still, I'm more qualified to talk to her."

"She's my girl-friend!" Xander snapped.

"And I understand what she's going through better!" Angel replied, keeping his temper even for his protégé's sake. She probably wouldn't appreciate him putting her boy-friend through the lounge wall. And the other Slayers would probably take turns staking him.

"Is this how it's going to be now I'm dating her?" Xander stuck his face into his. "Every time there's a problem you'll be there, coming between us?"

"QUIET!" They both turned to an angry-looking Kate. "Men! While you two argue about whose got the biggest johnson, someone you profess to care about is falling apart. I'll go, and you two can sort your issues out later." Head shaking, the cop strode out of the room while Xander and Angel resumed their staring contest.

It was inevitably Dana that broke the tortured silence that followed Kate's impatient exit. "Well?"

Xander was first to break their staring contest. "Well what?" growled the one-eyed man.

"Let's see them," Dana smirked.

"See what?" Xander snapped.

Dana's smirk widened. "Who's bigger!"

Angel chuckled deep in his throat even as the young man reddened. "Yeah," Angel finished the youth's thought for him, "Faith's a bad influence."


Kate paused at the basement gym door. The sound of the punching bags being pummelled confirming her first instinct that the Slayer had headed there. "What am I doing?" she muttered. She didn't even like the sultry Bostonian, and the Slayer only tolerated her for Angel. But then maybe that was what was needed, some distance. Angel and Xander's hearts were in the right place, but they were so busy trying to reassure themselves about their closeness to Faith, they'd forgotten about the person they were supposed to be helping.

Taking a breath, she entered the gym. The Slayer was moving at a frenetic pace, dancing a deathly dance as she pummelled the wildly swinging gym equipment, gliding between three bags without missing a beat. "Does it matter?"

"What!" snapped the Slayer as she continued to blur between the bags, face contorted with rage and pain.

"Xander thinks enough of you to date you. Angel adores you. These are two people you've hurt terribly in the past. And me," Kate shrugged. "I thought Xander was nuts allowing you to stay. I remembered the super-powered psycho you once were. But you're not her anymore, you've proved that to your friends and to the people you work with. Do the thoughts of a bunch of strangers really matter?"

Finally the Slayer stopped and turned to look at her. "It kinda does when they're trying to kill ya," she pointed out.

"No," Kate shook her head. "That's not the point and you know it. Angel and Xander both love you. Dana and the other Slayers look up to you like a big sister, Andrew idolises you. Do the opinions of this cult matter more than all that?"

An unwilling smile tugged on the Bostonian's full lips. "Guess not."

"Good," Kate smiled. "In that case let's get back upstairs and plan how to kick their asses."


Xander half-rose at his girl-friend's entry only to be pushed back in his seat as she jumped on him, grinned, and pressed her lips to his, tongues wrestling gleefully. "Oh please," Angel groaned. "It's bad enough I know you're going out with him. But this is stomach-churning."

Faith pulled away with a throaty laugh and a wink. "Sorry, Fang," the sultry Bostonian glanced over her shoulder, "but those jackasses interrupted me and X during a kiss, I can't let my baby go without. He gets withdrawal symptoms." Xander cringed at the other Slayers' sniggers, he was going to get some ribbing for this. "So," Faith's voice dropped below freezing, "how are we gonna track these mothers down? I have a serious urge to kick ass."

Angel shuffled from foot to foot, a rare look of nervousness on the demon's usually unreadable face. "I don't think we should." The room descended into an angry commotion, but Angel continued over them. "They're not evil, just -."

"Not evil!" Faith leapt up. "Not evil!" the Slayer stalked over to stand before the vampire, finger jabbing him in the chest. "They're trying to kill me! How does that not qualify them as evil?"

Xander licked his lips. He couldn't believe he was going to do this. "He's right." Faith's head whipped around to him, a look of searing betrayal in her soft brown eyes, "they're the good guys too. They just happen to have the wrong end of the stick. We just have to explain what the situation is and make them realise they're not needed or wanted here."

"And what happens until then, I'm a fucking sitting duck!"

"We won't let anything happen to you," Xander promised.

"Oh," Faith's eyes hardened. "I'm some helpless female who needs to be looked after? Is that you like it, X? A fem helpless and needing a big strong man to save them. Well screw that, X. Don't play that game." With a flip of her hair, his volatile girl-friend strode out.

"This time I'll go." Angel shot him a look as he opened his mouth in protest. "I'm not in the mood, just let me handle this."


"I'm in the middle of an episode of Beverly Hills 90210," Angel muttered as he rushed after the Slayer. "If I start breaking out in acne," he shuddered, comforting himself with the thought that at least he wouldn't have to see it. "Faith, wait!"

The Slayer pulled up and spun around to face him, her face hunted. Somehow he guessed it wasn't the cult that was worrying her. "Just leave me 'lone, Fang, I gotta sort these bastards out."

Stepping around the buxom beauty, he firmly closed the weapons chest by the front door that she'd been rummaging through. "This lone ranger act isn't cutting any ice."

"Lone who?" Faith looked confused.

Fine, once again hit by the generation gap. "I get you're upset about these hunters," he shook his head as the Slayer's mouth opened in an angry denial. "Don't even bother. But you're not alone, we're all here for you. You can rely on us."

"Only person I can trust is me."

"Faith," he shook his head, more hurt than he'd expected from the declaration. "You can trust me. And you can trust Xander. He loves you."

"Last guy who said he loved me, I found in bed with another woman."

And there was the crux of the problem. Once bitten, twice shy. "Faith," Angel placed his hands on the Slayer's slight but awesomely powerful shoulders. "Xander isn't Wood."

"He cheated on Cor, right?" Faith whispered. "And she was wicked classy. Mouthy, sure, but she wasn't a white trash ex-jailbird. X could do way -."

"Hush," he placed a finger on the Slayer's full lips. "Yes, Xander cheated on Cordelia. But he never looked at Cordelia the way he looks at you, he loves you. The other only person he ever looked at like that was Willow. You and her are the most important people in the world to him."

Faith's mouth pulled up in a half-smile. "I guess a hot lesbo ain't that much competition in the bedroom."

"I don't know," Angel grinned, "there was this time in Paris-."

Faith shuddered. "Shut up, don't wanna know."

Angel chuckled. "I'll shut up if you come back."

"Deal." The Slayer allowed him to put his arm around her and guide her back into the lounge. The moment they entered, Faith strode over to her boyfriend and dropped into his lap. Angel half-smiled as his ears picked up the Slayer's whispered apology.

Turning serious, he looked around. "Andrew, you're the," he paused and counted to ten before using the nerd's insisted upon title, "Gandalf," how did he end up with these people, "of the group. What can you tell me about Forseti's Followers?"

"Ah yes, Dark Knight," Andrew bowed his head briefly before looking at his computer. Dark Knight? Angel rolled his eyes, where did he get them from? "I have searched through the Watcher's Council vast reporsity of knowledge for refrences-."

"Chase. Cut. To." Faith annuciated slowly.

Andrew paled and nodded. "Sure, Faith," he meekly agreed. Angel wished he had the power to do that. God only knew what hold his protégé had over the nerd. On balance he decided that it involved black arts and didn't want to know. "I've come up with several dozen cross-references refering to them. What you said," Andrew glanced towards him, "is broadly correct. They're trained from birth, empowered by their god. Male Slayers almost only not quite as powerful, but certainly stronger than a normal human and more skilled. There's been four meetings with Watchers, but I haven't actually read their accounts yet. But," Andrew's eyes glowed with pride. "I know where their base will be."

"Oh yeah," Faith leaned forward, eyes glinting dangerously. "Do tell?"

"As our guardian of Cleveland's night-."

Everyone looked puzzled. Angel coughed. "Um, I think he meant me."

"Said," Andrew looked around the packed room before shrugging. "They are a martial cult, devoted to battle. They always make their base near a place either of military history or devoted to the martial arts."

"The All-Arts Gym on 17th," Faith declared. Every one turned to the coal-eyed beauty. "Come on. Biggest martial arts gym in the state. Five national champs in three different discplines, over thirty-five black belts, and eight martial arts taught there."

"And it has tunnel access," Angel agreed. "Makes a kind of crazy sense."

"Okay," Kate stood. "I'd love to stay and help, but I have a shift in a hour. So gotta go."

"Kate," the cop turned to Faith. "Thanks for the head's-up earlier."

The blonde policewoman smiled. "No problem."

"I'll see you to the door," Angel offered. When he returned, almost everyone was up and pulling jackets on. "What's going on?"

"We're going down to show these guys who run this town!" Faith explained as she pulled on her leather jacket.

Angel shook his head. "I thought myself and Connor could go down and explain the situation, ask them to leave town."

"Screw that, show of force," Faith shook her head. "Show them we ain't scared."

Angel shot Xander a look over the Slayer's shoulder, the young Watcher shrugged helplessly. Angel sighed, this wasn't how he envisaged spending the evening. "Amy, you and Andrew stay here, see what else you can find out about the order."