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: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
Chapter 9b:
The following morning
As usual Amy found herself to be the first to get up, this time however it might have been more to do with the fact she'd had some trouble sleeping. Partly due to the excitement of what today might discover, and the rest due to her nerves still being on edge from the previous night's adventures.
The memory of the hand clamped around her throat was a hard one to shake.
But it was her imagination that was getting to her most. 'What if that hand had belonged to someone I knew..?' She figured, unable to stop images of various friends flashing past her as she subconsciously tried to vamp-up their faces. Thinking back to Xander's comments. 'Would I have been so willing to stake it then..?'
Attempting to shake off the image, she forced her mind to concentrate on what little memories she had regarding the mysterious wooden box they were going to examine later.
'There's just nothing there!!!' She wanted to scream in frustration. Nothing at all in any of her Watcher studies that brought up anything regarding exactly what it was the Slayer's experienced when they passed through the portal.
'Every piece of information we have is based on the Watcher's side of it.' She sighed. 'And what they needed to do in order to deal with the creature that replaced the Slayer on this side of the portal.'
The only semi-official piece she could actually recall was when Buffy Summers herself passed into the portal. And they seemed to be mainly complaints about what she referred to as the Shadow Men basically raping a young girl with the essence of a demon in order to begin the Slayer line.
'Is that true..?' She mused to herself. 'Are there official recordings stored somewhere, hidden for centuries because the Council don't want either the Slayers or their Watchers to know exactly how this all began.'
Trying to find another alternative that wouldn't paste her ancestors in such a bad light, she played devil's advocate with herself.
'Maybe the Watchers were simply happy to get a more willing Slayer, and chose not to question why..?' She reasoned. 'Not really much of a better explanation, but something I suppose I could accept.'
'Guess we'll find out once Shote's been inside.' She figured, getting distracted from her thoughts as Roger walked into the kitchen.
"Amy..?" He began in a hesitant tone.
"Roger, what are you doing up at this time..?" She asked before she could stop herself.
"Something was going on last night." He whispered in a low tone. "Something they didn't seem to be saying..."
Sighing, Amy glanced in the direction of the bedrooms. "You do remember that Faith was in prison, right..?" She asked confidentially.
"Ahhhh... So that's what he meant when he talked about a friend turning into a monster." Roger stated as he came to the realisation.
"I think so, yes." Amy agreed, hoping this discussion would be over before anyone else in the apartment awoke.
"Was she possessed or something..?" Roger asked.
"I'm not sure." Amy confessed. "Mr. Giles had been fired from the Council's employ by that point, there are approximately two entire years worth of chronicles missing from both his and Buffy's files as she refused to accept any replacement."
"Didn't Faith have a Watcher..?" Roger leaned in closer to her, apparently desperate now for the whole story.
"Faith's first Watcher died before she went to Sunnydale." Amy commented. "I'm not sure what happened to those chronicles, or even if they recieved any."
"What did Faith do that they would have censored her chronicles..?" Roger looked at her confused.
"It wasn't anything Faith did." Amy shrugged. "Faith's first Watcher... wasn't exactly official. I couldn't tell you anything except rumours regarding her."
Roger raised both eyebrows at that information.
"Faith was then conned by her second Watcher into retrieving a mystical object for her. That one was even less official than the first one. After that Faith chose not to accept the authority of any Watcher assigned to her." Amy answered the silent question. "Technically, Mr Wyndham-Pryce was her Watcher."
"Did he have any chronicles at all..?"
"He was fresh out of the academy." Amy stated. "He hadn't even trained to be a field Watcher, their were rumours that he was either trying to prove himself to both family and peers or that his parents pushed him into it."
Roger sighed sadly "Trying to make a man out of him..?"
"Something like that." Amy answered. "The chronicles apparently read like a list of complaints against both Buffy and Faith. And reports on how Rupert Giles was undermining his authority." She shrugged, "They didn't seem worth researching... I was only interested in reports that let me understand Xander and what I might expect from him, I didn't know Faith was coming here."
Their conversation clammed up as one of the bedroom doors opened.
It was Xander that walked out. "What time does Shote arrive..?" He asked as he opened the fridge and retrieved a bottle of water.
"Two hours or so." Roger responded automatically. Amy noted he looked a little red in the face, obviously wondering if they'd been caught gossiping. She idly wondered if the heat she could feel coming from her cheeks made her look the same or worse.
"What's up with you two..?" He asked, Amy tried to hold his glance as his eye examined each of them in turn.
"We were just talking about last night." Amy blurted out before Roger said anything. "Both what we did, and what we all discussed when we got back."
She saw Xander visibly sigh. "Any questions..?" He asked.
"Not so far." Roger responded.
Xander's eye moved slowly between them. "Is this about the demon..?" He asked quietly. He then turned to Amy. "Cos I've been thinking about asking you to go with Shote."
"Me..?" Amy asked in surprise.
"What about me..?" Roger said at the same time.
"Might as well get the only official Watcher in on the act." Xander explained. "You can probably go too... I wasn't sure if you were interested."
"No." Roger replied. "I'm out here with the demon..?" He wanted clarifying.
Amy thought excitedly about what she might see. 'And between me and Shote I'm sure we can sort most of what's going on out.'
"You'll be safe with me and Faith." Xander was facing Roger. "That's assuming we get a demon at all."
"Why wouldn't there be a demon..?" Faith asked as she walked up to them, Amy was surprised to note that she never heard Faith's bedroom door open.
"Spike killed the last one." Xander automatically answered. "So we might either get a new one, or maybe just a demon corpse."
"If Spike dealt with it, I'll have no problems." Faith nodded in Roger's direction. "But stand behind Xander just in case."
"Sure..." Roger answered.
After running through a variety of options in her head while watching this conversation, Amy finally answered. "I'd definitely like to go with Shote."
"Cool." Xander replied, grinning at her.
"When's he arrive..?" Faith casually asked.
Several hours later
Faith may have been sitting with her feet up on the sofa, looking as relaxed she possibly could. But her eyes examined Shote carefully as the man entered the room.
'Large.' Was her first thought as the newcomer entered the room.
She idly noted that he wasn't as tall as Xander, but taller than Roger. But he looked to be by far the heaviest person in the place.
There seemed to be nothing sexual in the way he greeted Amy. He seemed to defer slightly to Xander, 'Possibly cos Xander's set up as the boss of this little outfit.' she figured, never taking her eyes off him as he moved to the next member of their little trio.
The easy-going friendship he appeared to have with Roger gave her a little insight into all the jokes Roger had been pleading with her to pull on him. A mention of some place she'd only seen on a map set them both off into a bout of laughing and backslapping.
There was a grace to the way she swung her legs to the floor that Faith knew men paid attention to.
'Especially when I'm showing as much skin as I do in these shorts.' She figured, idly noting the reactions from all the people now watching her.
Roger's eyes followed her motion until her feet were firmly on the floor.
Ignoring that she glanced across in Xander's direction, where his attention seemed to be returning to Shote. 'Interesting.' She thought to herself. 'Was he looking..?'
Amy's reading was probably the most difficult. There was no attraction there, but if anything Amy seemed a little jealous. 'Of the attention..?' Faith wondered, cos she knew without a doubt that if Amy would cover up less she'd get more than her fair share of glances. 'Or of the confidence she doesn't have..?'
Whereas Shote appeared to examining her closely. 'Not my type.' she thought, 'Maybe if he was a little younger, and lost quite a few pounds.' She tried to imagine it, quickly giving up as she was unable to mentally convert him to a place where he would be a serious consideration. 'And apparently since I got out, I've somehow developed standards.'
Standing up she held her hand out for him to shake.
He took it, the handshake was firm but nothing to be impressed by. 'Not a warrior then,' she reasoned to herself knowing she'd already made that decision by his general build.
She glanced towards his eyes, partly wondering if they'd be focused on the slight patch of cleavage the shirt she was wearing showed. Instead they seemed to be staring at her own hand.
"One of your Slayers..?" He asked, bringing her out of her confusion.
'What the hell..?' She thought as he let go of her hand, her eyes casually going over her palm trying to find out what gave her away. 'What..? They rougher than you'd expect from a female?' Her mind went back to what little she knew about lifestyles in Africa. So far they hadn't taken her anywhere like you saw on the news reports. 'Or rougher than you'd expect from an American..? Probably of either gender.'
"Yes." Xander responded on her behalf, after apparently waiting for her to answer the question.
"Faith." She informed him, mentally trying to figure it out. 'Lots of people in the know about Slayers have figured that I was one; but it's normally due to my attitude or the way I move or they've heard about me.' Moving both hands behind her back she began to examine each of them. 'Okay so they're not exactly dainty, but what the hell made him make the leap to Slayer..?' Glaring at the elder Brit she asked, "Did Rog tell you that..?"
"No." Roger turned to her. "I was the one telling you not to tell him, remember..?"
'Oh yeah,' Faith thought, trying to shrug off her confusion.
Shote turned back to his friend, "Playing tricks on me..?"
Roger held his hands up before turning towards her. "Faith." He hissed at her. She was unable to resist the smirk as a response.
"Told him about the missing Slayers..?" She asked.
"What..?" Shote asked, eyes intently focused on his friend.
"Faith!" Roger repeated. "Okay... but truthfully it's their problem not yours." Roger informed the other man quickly.
Faith spotted Xander and Amy exchange a glance before returning their attention to Roger.
"Yeah... that's our problem." Xander answered, there was something about the way that his eye glanced at everyone in the room that confused Faith.
"Moving on." Amy quickly stated, glaring at Xander and nodding her head in Shote's direction.
"Yes. Moving on." Xander agreed. "We'd like Amy to accompany you when you enter the portal."
Shote shrugged casually. "Sure. If you think that's wise... I mean you know more about what's going to happen than I do."
"Barely." Amy muttered to herself.
"So shall we begin..?" Xander asked, Faith spotted Amy eagerly begin setting up the box and the journal that accompanied it.
Faith looked on, curious. When they were in Sunnydale she'd only heard the basics of this from the potentials. 'And it was more of a monster story.' She figured from what they said. 'B was too pissed to ever give a real explanation. And I don't think she told Giles as he didn't have much more to offer when he suggested she make the delivery.'
She stared at Xander, wondering if he had anything else to add. 'So far he's been confident that I can take care of the demon, but I'm not sure how close he and B were before SunnyD blew... do we know anything about what we're going to face..?'
End chapter 9b