Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: PG probably. Possibly 15 as the language may become more adult.
A/N: As certain characters are not allowed, I've had to make some changes.... all sentences that are underlined are in a foreign language... it's the best I can think of on short notice.
Chapter 7a:
"So where the fuck is he?" Samson was being lifted into the air by the Slayer. 'No wonder Shote wants to make sure the African Slayers stay in Africa.'
Making sure his answer didn't sound sarcastic, unhelpful, or anything that could possibly piss Faith off, "He went inside the cave."
"How?" Amy asked, from somewhere below him.
"The same way you did last time?"
"He walked in... but it's closed off?" Roger came closer to inform him.
"Did it close off when we went in?" Amy asked.
Faith still hadn't let go of him. "Not that I know of, but I didn't go down the tunnel."
Beginning to panic, he spoke in an ancient forgotten tongue that the tribe had taught him. "A hand, cousin?"
The warrior responded. "You seem to be having so much fun."
Faith shook him a little. "Stop that! Talk fucking English!"
Amy turned to Roger, "You recognise it?"
"No... but Shote is our expert."
Samson was still being shook by the Slayer, 'It's like she's trying to shake me into speaking English,' however he had realised that she was trying to avoid hurting him. 'More embarassing, then painful really'
The tribesman interrupted the events, "Why do they think I can't speak their language?"
Attempting to reply, "I.. er... may have led them... to believe that... you were an ancient... and knowing race... tricked into... making a wish which may have doomed you..."
"We are."
"But you... know how... many people have... communicated with you over the years... and you've learnt the languages... gradually."
"Yes."
"I skipped that bit."
The tribesman burst out laughing.
Samson watched as Faith's attention got drawn away from him. 'Good, hopefully she'll put me do..'
"You think our missing friend is funny? Let's see just how 'undefeatable under the moon' you all are."
Samson pulled himself up from where Faith had thrown him to the sand; watching as she marched over to the tribesman, he decided to intervene.
"Faith..."
"What?" She called back, less than five feet from the tribesman now, who was backing away.
"He isn't your enemy Faith... he wasn't laughing at Xander's predicament. He was lacking at your lack of knowledge."
That stumped Faith in her tracks, "So... he's calling me stupid?" She regained her previous momentum.
"No... he doesn't understand why you'd be wanting to see the demon, when you obviously don't know everything."
"Keep the Slayer away from me, or I might have to disappear."
"You find a Slayer to be a threat?"
"Hardly. But disarming one, when you have no intention of hurting them is difficult."
"Faith... he says that all are free to enter the cave, until an audience with the demon is requested."
"What's that mean?"
"He made a wish, Faith. Xander made a wish."
"So he's what..? In there facing challenges that almost killed a vampire... let me in to help him."
"He won't face the same challenges."
Amy looked on curious. "He won't."
"No. The challenges ares designed for each individual. The demon assesses your capabilities and creates an appropriate challenge." At their sighs of relief, "It won't be easy though." he warned.
"Xander should be able to face most normal challenges easy enough... guy's hung around with Slayers for almost eight years."
"I said individual. Not race. Not species. Individual. The demon will assess Xander and make the challenges on a level with his capabilities. And it's right on the edge of what he should be able to survive or defeat. It makes the fight fair. He wins, he gets the wish..."
"And if he loses?" Roger asked.
"Then you've seen the last of your friend." He answered truthfully.
The arrival of dawn, put them all on edge. The entrance to even the small amount of tunnel available was gone. And it would be hours before they could even try get to him again.
Faith was trying to hide her worry, "So he's trapped for another day?"
"Xander? You have to tell me about what happens during the day."
"You know what happens."
"Just talk some more."
"What about? This is begining to annoy me. Can't I..."
"No." Samson told him.
"No..? No what..?" Roger asked. Glancing round he noticed the tribesman had gone.
"Where'd he go? Did he tell you what would happen?" Faith asked.
"Is it bad news?" Amy was reluctant to ask.
"No... as in Xander's not trapped. We can't get to him. But he can get out."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then we wait til nightfall to check the cave again."
"What for?"
"If it's still blocked then Xander's still facing his battles."
"And if it's not..?" Amy asked, looked very upset.
"Then he's either dead or..."
"Or..?" Faith asked challengingly.
"Or he succeeded, his wish was granted and that caused him not to be here..."
"You're just trying to give us hope." Faith spat out.
"True." Samson replied. 'But I've seen his future. The cave doesn't get a mention, so whatever he makes of his life isn't due to a wish.'
"If Xander dies. I'm going in there and I'm gonna kill the demon." Faith stated.
"No one knows if it can die." Samson admitted
"Then I'll wish it dead. And believe me when I say I'll definitely kill anything it sends after me."
'That might be a little paradoxical for a wish.' Samson thought, but decided not to say anything.
"Make that guy come back." Faith ordered, "There must be some other way into the cave... I can't stand around here doing nothing."
Samson sighed, "Faith... look around."
Faith performed a quick three-sixty. "He's not there."
"No, I meant... it's daylight Faith. Both the cave and the people are gone... we can't talk to either til nightfall."
"It'll be too late by then."
"I don't know if I can help you any further. I'm going to get some sleep, I would suggest you all do the same. You could return here once rested and see if he's been returned." With that Samson left. The others trailed behind, making their slow walk back to the hotel.
Later that afternoon
Faith was the first to awaken. Deciding to let Amy sleep she got dressed and headed out.
Arriving at Samson's Ragbar, she noticed it was open for business, 'Does this guy even need sleep?' she thought as she quickly hurried inside.
Samson was facing away from her, "Would you like your fortune told?" He asked before he turned around.
"It's me." 'Notice you didn't realise that, you phoney.'
"Still... would you like your fortune told..? It may ease your mind." Samson offered again.
"Look..." she began.
Samson smiled and gestured Faith to sit at the table. "No charge. Consider it a freebie for a worried friend."
Faith remained where she was. "Look you don't know me. And you definitely do not know my future. If you did, you'd realise that I don't take handouts."
"If you want to pay for it, I'm hardly going to stop you."
"Shut up about the damn reading."
"You're worried about Xander. That's very understandable considering..." Samson drifted off mysteriously.
'Considering?' "What are you talking about?"
Samson stood back up and moved to pour himself a drink. "Want one? I thought you weren't interested in getting a reading?"
"No. And I'm not." Pausing, she realised she wasn't exactly sure what to do next. 'Beating the guy up doesn't help.' So she did the last thing she'd thought she would ever hear herself do again. She found herself pleading. "Just tell me about Xander... will he be okay?"
Samson shrugged, "He's gonna have some ups and downs in his life, like everyone does... but I can't tell you another person's future. Especially not the details."
"Why not..? Some fucking fortune tellers code?"
"Nothing like that... it simply wouldn't be right."
"Right? Right? My friend could be dead and you're playing fucking mind games with me?"
Samson leaned forward to make his physical prescence known, it wouldn't scare Faith however, but the question did. "But is he?"
"Dead..?" She asked, clamping down on the wobble she could feel in her throat.
"No. Your friend."
"What?"
"Are you sure your friends? I mean, you hardly treat each other as such. Colleagues, more than anything else, I'd say."
Now she was pissed, "So what are you saying..? That just cos we're not close, I should just leave him to die..? I fucking won't do that."
"At one point, you were willing to do worse."
Faith looked like she'd been hit. "Xan... Xan told you that?" She couldn't believe it, she wouldn't believe it. 'He didn't even fucking tell the others we'd been together. How could he tell this stranger something like that?'
"No." Silencing her protests with a hand gesture, he continued. "Whether you believe I am pyschic or whether you prefer to believe I'm just good at reading people and their reactions. Either way I can tell you two have had some pretty intense history together, especially considering the relatively short time you knew each other."
Faith was still stunned.
"But..." Samson continued. "Maybe you'll get a chance to change that." He smiled and poured himself another drink. "Want one?"
Faith nodded. Knocking it back in one, she let the pleasant burning sensation numb her throat. "What is that stuff..?"
Samson shook his head and grinned at her.
Faith paused unsure of what to do next. Deciding to give it one last try, she asked. "Please... please tell me whether Xander survives or not."
"I already have." Samson grinned at her.
She was trying to replay the conversation in her mind, when he started talking again.
"You know Faith. You and Xander have been the most fun I've had in ages."
She gave him a look to show her disbelief.
"Believers... believers, you see... well to be honest they're boring. You give them your reading, and they go away waiting for it to happen. What's the point in that? But sceptics such as yourself. Or people like Xander, who were not only extremely sceptical but rather cynical in their attitude towards it. They're the best kind. They're more fun. You tell them their future and not only don't they believe it, but they seem extremely prepared to do anything to stop it happening; simply to prove you wrong. And ones where you meet them again, such as I did Xander, and with a single look between you, you both know at that instant that somethings are starting to head that way."
Faith just watched in fascination.
"And it's at that point instead of turning into a believer, they instead turn into someone who denies it. Xander himself has run into a few prophecies in his time, as had many in your gang. He seems to think they don't come true, or they can be stopped. He hasn't realised that, they did come true. It's just the explanation, or the translation was a little vague on details. 'The devil's in the details' people say. But no one knows what the devil's plan is. And they say God moves in mysterious ways."
Faith watched Samson chuckling to himself. "Am I being mystical or am I simply doing my impression of the Oracle from the Matrix..?" Faith couldn't help her smile. "I know... but the question isn't what do I know... it's more what do you think?"
Faith noticed he started to glance at his watch. "I think it's time for you to leave." he said ushering her out.
As she left some other customers entered, he gave her a parting comment. "Try not to think too hard about whether it was time to leave; or whether I'd just noticed some business. It'll hurt your brain... and it'll hurt more in about ten minutes." The last comment said so quietly she wasn't sure if he'd intended her to hear it with her Slayer hearing or not.
Faith found herself wondering aimlessly, through the market, past the hotel, along the beach. She was trying to avoid thinking about all that Samson had said. She wanted the answer to one question and one question only. Samson had told her that he'd informed her whether Xander survived or not. She kept replaying it in her head, but couldn't find one definite answer.
She stopped at a cliff face. Turning around she noticed the car they'd purposely left there, and that she had walked directly to the cave entrance. 'Odd, it normally takes us a while to find it. Guess that's the subconscious playing up... I was thinking about Xander so I brought myself here. Makes sense, it was the last place we know he went.' she thought to herself. Wondering how long she'd been daydreaming she checked her watch. It was ten minutes since she'd left Samson's. 'He's playing fucking games with me.' she thought.
Placing her hand on the rock directly where the cave entrance would be, she whispered, "Be safe Xan. Stay alive."
Stepping back away from the rock, she turned and started to walk away.
Her progress was stopped by the fact something heavy had suddenly collided with her back. Landing face down in that sand, the object still pressing on her back.
Digging her hands into the sand she pushed herself up as fast as he could. The object being flung off her. Moving her legs under her to take her weight, she twisted her body instinctively catching the object as it fell next to her. She recognised what she'd grabbed hold of.
'An arm... a fucking arm... some bastard's attacked me. I don't care if you're the scariest demon around you are going down.' She used her muscle to forcibly move the individual by the arm and throw it over her shoulder. As it landed on its back, she quickly straddled it and raised her fist to ensure defeat.
"Arghh..." the creature in front of her said, it's free arm had risen to protect it's head. Unclenching her fist she grabbed that arm and moved it away from it's face. Using the hand holding the other arm, she quickly released her grip and drew that fist back, relying on her speed to get the first real punch in. She looked up to face the target.
The eye staring back at her was one she recognised. "Xander..?" she asked incredulously.
"Faith...?" the man below her responded.
That's when the look in his eye became apparent. It wasn't quite fear, she realised grateful for the fact, but it was the look directly before fear hits home. 'Uncertainty,' she thought to herself, 'He doesn't know if I'm going to continue the attack or not.'
She looked at the position she was in; the fact that she was still holding his arm in a tight grip, that she still hadn't relaxed the other fist. That she was straddling him.
Thoughts involuntarily went back to the only two times she'd been in this position, the latter time one of her darkest moments. The look in his eyes showed he was starting to come to the same realisation. She needed to stop him from completing that thought, she couldn't bare to see that look in his eye ever again. So she did the first thing that came to her mind, the first thing that changed the memory from the latter one to the first one. Releasing her grip and unclenching her fist were the first parts of the action. Maintaining eye contact the whole time, she noticed those simple two acts had calmed him down, but still he seemed wary of her. So she finished the movement.
Reaching down she grabbed the bottom of her t-shirt in both hands.
And flashed him.
End chapter 7a:
A/N: Originally I was going to go with each chapter being a divided up into parts as each chapter achieved something; a certain goal, a new theory, finding a demon, etc. Now the story has advanced so much beyond it's original idea that they're just numbers (and letters). Talking of which still glad I'm keeping letters in them otherwise this would have been chapter 19 - not including the mini-trilogy that set the verse up. Chapter 19 sounds too large a number - that's the sort of chapter number that epic's get to. Not this.