Faith and Tara were walking side by side along a country lane, slightly covered with snow. Faith was strolling distractedly with her hands in her jeans' pockets, her eyes roaming over her surroundings.
Beside her, Tara had some trouble to follow as she was walking carefully, paying close attention not to slip on the slippery ground. She was awkwardly holding a crossbow with both her hands and didn't appear to be at ease with the weapon.
"Faith, are you sure it was a good idea for me to take the crossbow?" The witch asked. "I think it's a little soon for me. I'm not ready yet."
Faith turned to her and considered the crossbow in the blonde's hands.
"Oh, you've made impressive progress all day long." Faith snorted. "I'm sure you will…"
She interrupted herself when she caught a glimpse of the way Tara was looking at her, not amused at all by the Slayer's mockery.
"Well, I sort of figure it won't be really useful. But it can at least make some impression." The brunette explained in a more serious tone. "You know, to the vampires." She clarified when Tara gave her a blank look.
"Oh yeah," Tara snorted and rolled her eyes, obviously unconvinced by Faith's argument.
"I'm sure I look frightening right now!" She commented.
"You don't give yourself enough credit Blondie!" Faith chuckled.
Tara rolled her eyes once more and pouted, to Faith's great amusement.
"You're gonna do just fine," the brunette added a moment later in a serious tone. "Remember: load the bolt, aim at your target, pull the trigger. It's simple. " She concluded.
"Simple," Tara repeated. "It's all coming back to this."
Faith didn't answer and the girls remained silent for minutes before the Slayer spoke up again.
"Stay on your guards Blondie," she said. "We already met a nest around here. And I feel something nearby…"
Tara raised instinctively her crossbow a little and she looked around her, concerned.
"Wh-what do you think it is?" she asked fearfully, looking around.
"Dunno," Faith answered, absent-mindedly.
She got her hands out of her pockets and reached for a stake and a long thin dagger, both hanging at her belt.
"Maybe vampires," she went on. "Maybe something else."
She looked around carefully, trying to pierce the darkness of the night.
"Probably something ugly and unfriendly…" she continued. "Possibly with horns. Or claws. Or both. Or worse."
"Are you trying to comfort me?" Tara asked in a mocking tone. "'Cause, just to let you know, it's not working."
Faith giggled and winked at the witch.
"Easy Blondie," she casually replied. "We're gonna make it, we're used to this crap."
"For God's sake, Faith, my name's not Blondie," Tara grumbled in an irritated tone. "Will you ever recall that?"
"I might try." Came the reply.
Faith paused a second before adding nonchalantly:
"One of these days," and the blonde rolled her eyes.
The girls fell silent and kept quiet as they resumed their walk in the snow. Several new minutes went by and they met no one neither nothing. Faith started to think she might have been mistaken when she thought she felt a demonic presence.
Maybe it was just her imagination.
She had just reached that conclusion and was putting her weapons back at her belt when a dark shadow burst from her left, stumbled when he tried to avoid the Slayer and finally fell over and dragged the brunette along his fall.
Thanks to the moonlight, the only thing Tara was able to see was that whatever the newcomer was, it wasn't human, a pair of horns and unusual hairiness being the clues leading her to that conclusion.
"Faith, are you okay?" the witch asked, a hint of panic in her voice.
Only grunting sounds replied to her and she raised her crossbow toward the shadowy shape in front of her, trying to make out Faith from her opponent.
"Faith, are you okay?" she repeated.
The Slayer suddenly got to her feet, succeeding in pushing the demon away.
"Dude!" she exclaimed as she brushed some snow off her jacket. "That thing stinks as hell!"
Tara couldn't help a smile at Faith's sense of priority.
"You okay?" the witch asked again.
"Five by five," the Slayer nodded.
She raised her arms toward the moon to make sure she was done taking the snow out. Satisfied with herself, she turned to the demon and approached to be able to see him better.
"Don't know what's this," she said. "But see?" she turned round to Tara. "Told you there will be horns of some sort."
The demon was still on the ground, sitting a few feet away from Faith and Tara. His body was thin and covered with long brown hairs hiding his skin. His head was large, surmounted by two small curved horns. His big yellow eyes shone in the night with something looking like terror. Faith observed him for a moment and Tara stepped closer too.
"He doesn't look dan-dangerous," the blonde whispered. "He looks even more frightened than we are."
"I'm not frightened," Faith stated in a slightly offended tone.
"At least, more frightened than me then," Tara corrected.
"So, what are we gonna do with him?" the Slayer questioned, more for herself than for the witch.
"I'd like him to fight a little," Faith went on, thinking out loud.
Tara frowned. She looked at the demon, then at Faith, then at the demon again.
"You're talking a-about ki-killing him anyway?" she asked.
"And what?" Faith confirmed, nodding her head. "He's a demon, I'm a Slayer."
"B-but he doesn't a-appear to be dan-dangerous," Tara insisted. "I'm not sure Bu-Buffy used to kill all sort of de-demons, even those who…"
"I'm not Buffy," interrupted Faith dryly. "She's got her methods and I've got mine."
The tone was sharp and wasn't expecting a reply, so Tara remained silent. Faith kneeled near the demon, examined him a little more and stretched her hand toward his knee.
"Hey, big guy," she smirked. "You're so tall, and strong and frightening. And you're afraid of two little girls? That's a shame, "
Saying this, she was inching closer and closer of the monster, obviously amused to see such a big demon terrified just to see her.
"Faith," Tara whispered, suddenly worried. "Maybe you shouldn't…"
She never got the chance to finish her sentence. As Faith was patting his knee with fake kindness, the demon suddenly jumped forward and knocked the Slayer down in one violent gesture.
Tara shrieked in horror, surprised by the monster's fast action and to see Faith rolling to the ground.
"Faith!"
The Slayer sat up at Tara's scream but she couldn't avoid a new blow and fell back to the ground as the demon hit her once again. The witch tried to think about a spell, any spell possibly useful in the present situation. But as usual, nothing would come to her mind as fast as she wanted. She considered the crossbow in her hand for a brief second and decided it was her best chance to help Faith despite her poor skill with that particular weapon. She aimed the crossbow at the monster's shape and tried to keep him in her line of fire before pulling the trigger.
Before she could decide she was ready to fire or not, a new figure suddenly appeared from the roadside and jumped literally forward onto the monster back.
"Watch his claws and horns!" yelled a feminine voice.
Tara hesitated, not sure of which side the newcomer was. She nevertheless lowered her arm, when she saw Faith getting to her feet thanks to the demon being distracted by the new girl. The brunette reached for her dagger hanging at her belt while the girl – appearing to be her ally – squeezed the demon's neck between her arms.
Faith hit the demon in his chest several times and her actions combined to the other girl's efforts soon got the better of the monster.
When he completely stopped moving, Faith took a step back and the other girl released her prey who fell silently in the snow. In the renewed silence, the Slayer and her recent fight partner were standing face to face, staring intently at each other.
"Who the hell are you?" Faith asked finally.
"And you?" the girl shot back.
She was slightly taller than Faith. Her hair was light brown, long and curly. She looked thinner than the brunette but probably wasn't really. She wore a pair of blue jeans, a thick winter coat, a white scarf, a pair of gloves and a pair of old boots. Her features were fine and delicate, her cheekbones high, her lips generous. Tara couldn't say if she was older or younger than the Slayer. But the same pride was shining in her eyes.
"Who are you to go for a walk at night in such a cold with a dagger in hand?" the girl went on. "It's not exactly a normal thing,"
"Like running after monsters and strangling them is!" Faith retorted.
"You were the one to stab him," the girl pointed out.
Faith slid the dagger back at her belt and crossed her arms over her chest, keeping the girl under her intense scrutiny in the process.
"That's part of my job," the brunette answered back.
"To stab?" the girl asked ironically.
"To stab monsters," Faith clarified, icily.
"Part of my job too," the other one replied.
"I'm a Slayer," Faith said. "Are you?"
A thin smile crept to the girl's lips and she nodded.
"I am," she simply answered. She paused and stretched her hand to Faith. "I'm Kira."
Faith appeared to waver and for the briefest moment, it seemed she wouldn't take the given hand. But she finally did and shook it lightly.
"I'm Faith," she responded. "And this is…" she gestured vaguely toward Tara and paused. "…My friend Tara,"
"Hey Tara," Kira greeted the witch.
The blonde waved back shyly but didn't move from her place. The three girls remained silent for a few seconds until the loud sound of a growling stomach broke the quiet moment. Faith couldn't help but laugh and Kira did as well.
"Looks like the HH syndrome is striking!" Kira exclaimed, looking down at her stomach, then gazing at Faith with a smile.
"Well, " Faith said, grinning back. "Let's take care of the hungry part and have some dinner for a start!"
***
The three girls were sitting at a table on the ground floor of Faith and Tara's hostel. Faith and Tara were sitting side by side on one side of the table and Kira was facing Faith. The Slayers were obviously getting along with each other very well and they were chatting animatedly and happily together.
Tara for her part, looked terribly bored. The blonde was silently eating her meal – just a steaming soup and a piece of bread – and wasn't taking part in the conversation at all. Her face closed and her brows furrowed, she let long-suffering sighs escape from time to time as Kira was telling a story with much details about her first time slaying a vampire. Neither Faith nor Kira seemed to notice, as engrossed as they were in their talk.
"So, what it's like to be a Slayer?" Faith asked. "Ever got a watcher or gone to the council training center?"
"No, I'm alone. I learned the Slayer stuff alone." Kira replied. "And you? Do you usually study at the council?"
Faith couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Not really," she answered. "Well, y'know, the council wasn't exactly as it is now when I was called to be a Slayer,"
The other girl blinked and looked at Faith blankly for a few seconds, not understanding what the brunette meant. As realization slowly sank in, her jaw opened wider and wider in surprise.
"God," she whispered. "Are you THE Faith? Faith Lehane? The original Slayer?"
A proud smirk made its way to Faith's lips as Kira now looked at her with pure curiosity shining in her eyes. For a moment, the girl forgot to eat, now staring at Faith like she was seeing her for the first time.
"I can't believe it," she resumed after a pause. "You're the last Slayer ever activated, the one whose death should have activated another one, the one ruling the Slayer heritage!" she went on, suddenly enthusiastic.
Her enthusiasm vanished as quickly as it appeared when she concluded sarcastically:
"Well, until Buffy Summers decided to take back the control of the Slayer line…"
Faith's face crumpled a little at this but the expression disappeared so fast that she wasn't sure Kira noticed.
"So, you're Faith Lehane, THE Slayer…" she stated, looking now at the brunette straight in the eye.
"Yeah," Faith confirmed, leaning casually in her chair. "I'm Faith."
"So, tell me," Kira said. "Tell me how it was to be a Slayer before. Tell me stories about yourself. We've only been talking about me for hours."
"That's for sure…" Tara mumbled in a low voice, not raising her eyes from her soup.
Faith turned to her in surprise and frowned.
"What? What did you say?" she asked, not having clearly heard the blonde.
Tara waved the question away with a shrug and mumbled a "S'nothing," in a louder voice.
Faith kept looking at her for a few seconds, as she was expecting the blonde to change her mind and to say something. When she was sure it would not be the case, she turned back to Kira.
"So, where were we?" she asked.
"You were about to tell me some stories about yourself," Kira answered.
"I'm not sure that was it!" Faith chuckled.
"Oh come on Faith!" the other Slayer encouraged. "You must have exciting stories to tell me! I'm all ears!"
Faith hesitated but she eventually complied with her new friend's demand. She talked about Sunnydale and the First and about some of her younger stories, carefully leaving out any personal detail. The other girl looked to be really interested in the brunette's tales.
Which wasn't Tara's case. The blonde remained still and silent and the Slayers apparently forgot about her being there. They appeared to only remember the blonde's presence when Tara got up from her chair and they looked up to her.
"What'cha doing Blondie?" Faith asked.
"It's late and I'm tired," the witch answered, more dryly than she intended. "I'm going to bed." She added in a softer tone.
"'Kay" Faith answered distractedly. "'Night then, see you in the morning."
Tara nodded and waved briefly at Kira and turned around before leaving her time to respond. She then headed to the back of the restaurant and disappeared though the door leading to the stairs. Kira stared at her retreating figure, dumbfounded.
"Hum, I'm not sure I heard her voice before," she remarked. "Not really chatty. Is she always like that?"
Faith shrugged casually.
"I've gotten used to that," she replied. "Talking's not her thing."
"She doesn't seem to like me," Kira remarked.
"It has nothing to do with you," Faith explained. "She's kind of shy,"
"Yeah," Kira nodded absent-mindedly, looking back at the direction Tara had just gone. "Yeah."
She remained silently staring at the backdoor for a few seconds, then turned again to Faith.
"Other things to tell me?" she asked with a light smile.
"I'm sure we've both got million of stories about slaying and stuff," Faith said, starting to swallow her dessert. "But now's your turn, tell me about yourself."
"Why that?" Kira asked, playfully.
"I'm the eldest," Faith answered back. "Gives me the right to decide."
"That's a position," Kira smiled. "Then, let's go with the start."
She drank a mouthful in her glass of water before going on:
"I was born and I grew up in Connecticut until I was eight. I moved to New York for a couple of years, then I lived in Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Missoula, Boise and finally Portland."
"You've gone more and more west," Faith commented.
Kira had a small laugh and nodded.
"Yeah," she approved. "When I was a kid, I kind of thought my mother was a murderer or that she stole money from the mafia or something and that she was running away from someone!"
Faith smiled slightly at this but she didn't comment at first.
"Your mother's still in Portland?" she asked after a silence.
Kira shook her head and shrugged.
"She died a few years ago."
"I'm sorry," Faith answered mechanically, now slightly embarrassed.
"Oh y'know, that's probably better this way," Kira thoughtfully said. "She would have had a very hard time with what I've become. Wasn't what she dreamt of for me,"
"What you've become?" Faith repeated.
"Uh, yeah," Kira responded, as her eyes focused on the Slayer again. "The Slayer gig and stuff."
"Yeah," confirmed the brunette. "Not quite what ANY mother would dream of for her girl,"
"Yeah, I guess,"
The Slayers fell silent for a moment before resuming their casual chitchat of before. They stayed a long time talking in the hostel together, and it was very early in the morning when they finally parted.
Kira had insisted to pay for the dinner when Faith had finally finished to eat but the brunette didn't let her do so. Faith walked the other girl back to the hostel door and Kira left her after they agreed to meet in the evening in the closest cemetery to patrol together. Both Slayers looked delighted with this prospect, especially Kira. The brown-haired Slayer left her counterpart with a thin smile on her lips.
Faith looked at her disappearing in the cold winter night, then she went to bed. She found Tara deeply asleep when she entered their room. She took great care not to make any noise when she closed the door and when she undressed; and the blonde didn't wake up when the brunette slipped carefully beneath the sheets beside her.
***
Faith blinked once, then twice and rubbed her eyes at the sunlight bathing the room. She rose on her elbows and looked around her. Tara wasn't in bed anymore. The blonde was sitting on a chair by the window, reading her Oregon travel book again, apparently already showered and dressed. She looked up from her reading when she heard Faith moving.
"Hey," she greeted. "You awake,"
"Yeah," grumbled Faith, still a little sleepy. "How come you're already up?"
"Hum, it's the middle of the afternoon Faith," she answered quietly. "I've been awake for hours."
"Middle of the afternoon?" the Slayer repeated. "You gotta kidding me"
Tara did not answer and gestured to the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was indeed showing that it was quarter to four pm in big green numbers. Faith glanced at it, dumbfounded, then turned back to Tara:
"Was a while I didn't sleep that late" she commented.
"Yeah," confirmed Tara. "You must have come back very late," she added hesitantly. "Or very early."
"Yep," confirmed Faith, not noticing Tara's strange expression. "Dawn's wasn't too far I think"
"I guess you've spent a great evening," Tara said, her voice sounding strangely warm and asking at the same time.
"Was fun," Faith agreed while sitting up in the bed. "Kira looks pretty nice,"
"She's a good Slayer?" Tara asked
"I have no idea, we just stayed at the hostel talking," Faith replied and she finally got up. "But I guess we'll find out tonight."
"Tonight?" Tara repeated and frowned. "How tonight?"
"We've agreed to meet at the cemetery to slay a few demons together," Faith explained. "I guess she's dying to impress me or something,"
"Yeah, I guess" Tara grumbled with a slight grimace.
Faith gave her a half-smile when she saw her annoyed look, and she shrugged.
"Well, y'know, you're not forced to come if you don't want to. I won't be alone. You can have your peaceful evening all by yourself if you want,"
"Yeah, I guess," The witch said again.
Faith waited for a few seconds, probably waiting for her friend to go on. Seeing nothing more coming, she collected her clothes on the floor by the bed and headed for the door.
"As you want Blondie, I'm gonna grab a shower. See you in a few,"
***
This night was not any warmer than the previous ones but Faith wasn't cold right now. Not cold at all. Even when a vampire managed to push her violently enough to make her fall back first in the snow, it wasn't enough to make her feel the cold. She barely felt the snow touching her skin as she leaped to her feet so quickly that her enemy did not even get time to be delighted with this tiny kind of victory. Indeed, Faith's right foot connected with his face before he even smiled at seeing her on the ground. Faith herself did not take time to enjoy the vampire's surprise and pain, and flipped over to face another opponent. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Kira about to being attacked by behind, a few feet away from her.
"Kira! Watch out!" she yelled, but before she got the whole warning out, Kira had already grabbed her attacker by his right sleeve as he was raising his right hand above her neck, and thrown him over her shoulder where he was impaled on Kira's current opponent's sword. Both vampires gasped in surprise and Kira took advantage of their bewilderment to quickly run her stake through their hearts, one after the other. Then, she raised a thumb up toward Faith and grinned, obviously very happy with the situation. Faith nodded to her and they both turned away from each other simultaneously to face new opponents coming in their backs.
While both Slayers were greatly enjoying themselves fighting demons together, Tara was sitting on what was left of a tombstone after Faith had sent a couple of vampires through it a while ago, and was watching the Slayers' show from a distance. Unlike her companions, the blonde witch did not appear to enjoy the evening very much. Legs crossed, her right elbow resting on her left knee and her chin resting on her right hand, she took a look at her watch more than often. Despite the vampires gang the girls just came across by the lake, Tara did not look neither worried nor scared. The fact was, the Faith-Kira team had been more than efficient until then, and indeed, no vampire had even managed to step beside her closer than a few feet.
Between two glances at her watch, the blonde witch was forming tiny fireballs in her left hand and for a few seconds, all her attention was focused on them. Any external watcher would find hard to determine if the goal of that focus was to hold the growth of the flames or, on the opposite, to increase them in her palm. But the blonde's effort was to short to come to a conclusion and Tara finally closed her hand and the small fireball vanished in smoke. Sometimes, the blonde turned the flames between her fingers and discreetly looked up toward the slayers. As any of them was noticing her actions, Tara soon was returning to her game.
It was only after ten or fifteen fireballs had appeared then disappeared in her hand that one of the slayer noticed finally the witch. Kira's gaze fell upon Tara's hands where tiny ghostly flames were dancing between her fingers. The Slayer stopped short any activity to watch the blonde with a glimmer of fascination in her eyes.
"Are you a witch?" she eventually asked.
Tara looked at her at the sound of her voice, and Faith dusted one last vampire before turning to her friend in her turn.
"What?" said the brunette, not having noticed anything until then.
Tara made the fireball turn between her fingers one last time under Faith's disbelieving gaze, then closed her fist around the flames to make them disappear.
"Yes," she simply answered.
Kira took a few steps toward her, her eyes not leaving the now empty hands of the witch.
"Why… Why don't you use your powers then?" She asked again. "Fireballs against vampires? Could be useful."
Tara shrugged and let escape an irritated sigh of denial.
"Have you seen the size of those fireballs?" she asked in an unusual biting tone. "They wouldn't afraid a single vampire."
"You could train yourself to make bigger ones," Kira went on, ignoring the blonde's obvious annoyance.
"I'm not good at this," Tara replied, shrugging once more and getting up from the tombstone she was sitting on. "I'm not good at fighting"
"Who's talking of fighting?" replied Kira, who obviously wanted to make herself heard on the matter "With your fireballs, you don't even need to fight directly. You could cover Faith during her patrols," she added while turning to the aforementioned Slayer who had just caught up with them. The girl concerned shrugged in her turn at this comment.
"Give it a rest," she said. "It's not her thing."
Faith brushed some dust off her sleeves, glanced around them then turned to Kira, before going on all naturally like the conversation about Tara and her fireballs had never taken place:
"I think we're done for tonight. We're gonna get back, aren't we?"
"Yes," immediately answered Tara, who was obviously very happy with this idea. "Or I'm going to die of cold for good this time."
"You shouldn't have come," Faith grumbled, while getting closer to stare at her from head to toes. "I told you you'd be freezing to death."
"I'll be good," whispered Tara, rubbing forcefully her sides. "I'll be good."
The blonde then strode off toward the cemetery entrance, and after a last glance to their surroundings, both Slayers followed close on her heels and caught up with her within a few steps.
"Can you do other stuff?'" asked suddenly Kira when she came up to Tara. "With magic I mean, " she added when the blonde gave her a blank look.
"Yes," she simply answered with a nod of her head.
"Where have you learnt?" went on Kira, which made Faith rolling her eyes.
"With my mother,"
Tara delivered her answer without even looking at the person she was talking to; and she did not add anything else to the great displeasure of Kira who was seemingly waiting for her to develop. Seeing nothing more coming, the young woman insisted a little more:
"So, witchcraft's a family thing?"
"Yes, that's it"
This time, Tara glanced at Kira, but she looked away almost immediately and kept quiet again. Kira opened her mouth to ask a new question, then turned to Faith who was watching the scene, half-dumbfounded, half-amused. Kira gave her a questioning look and Faith simply shrugged unknowingly. Kira gave up then to question Tara again and moved to come to Faith's side instead.
"So, Faith, what have you thought?" she asked, a perceptible ounce of hope in her voice.
Faith grinned and pretended to think about the question.
"You can help yourself and always ask questions!" she mocked as an answer.
Kira tilted her head to the side and feigned a hurt look before offering a large smile to the brunette Slayer.
"You don't have the honor to meet Faith THE slayer everyday!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "let alone to go slaying with her!"
Faith giggled quietly and avoided carefully Kira's gaze, now embarrassed by her counterpart's so obvious admiration. After an awkward silence, she finally tried to trivialize what seemed to be such a great event to Kira:
"Y'know, I'm nothing more than you are. I'm a slayer, and you're a slayer too. Not really worth that enthusiasm"
"But you've been chosen by the first spell," Kira insisted. "And you rock!" she added in an almost ecstatic tone this time.
Faith shrugged to show her indifference, and she suppressed a half smile of pride at the last comment of her admirer.
"The spell's nothing," she replied. "And you're not too bad too" she added, turning to Kira this time.
Kira's smile got wider again at this, and her eyes shone with satisfaction, which amused Faith.
"All this for a little compliment!"
The three girls reached the hostel at that precise moment, and Tara – who had not said a word for minutes – put the key in the door lock without giving time to the trio to stop at the doorstep.
"Goodnight Kira" wished the blonde in a neutral voice while stepping inside. "Bye"
Faith for her part, waved at the other slayer and wavered a second on the doorstep before following Tara. Seeing her ready to leave, Kira went ahead:
"Are we doing that again tomorrow?" she asked, her tone half-hopeful and half-worried. "Was fun, wasn't it?"
"Why not," answered Faith, nodding her head. "We're staying for a few days, I can take the opportunity to show you some tricks of a Slayer chosen by the former spell!"
"It's fine with me" Kira answered with a joyful smile. "I'll come by here tomorrow then"
"Okay," approved Faith. "See you tomorrow"
Both slayers shared a last wave and Faith closed the hostel's door behind her while Kira was getting away in the cold winter night.