See Part One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to everyone who has sent reviews and feedback. Speaking of which, one person wrote and said, "What's going on here? You bring Spike in right at the start, and then he totally disappears, barely even rates a mention during the fourth chapter!" To this person we say, "Have faith. Spike will be back eventually. There is a purpose to this madness!!" (cue eruption of cackling laughter). Anyway, please keep on reviewing. Seriously. And now, on with the story...
Part Five: You Gotta Have Faith
Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale, California
February 25th, 2000
1:44 pm
Sunnydale was relatively quiet at the moment.
Adam had easily given his pursuers the slip that night and seemed to have gone into some sort of recovery mode or holding pattern. Harmony also was laying low and was currently holed up in her crypt reading a book called 'A Treatise on the Mythology and Methodology of the Vampire Slayer'. This was in preparation for becoming, in her mind, the newest and baddest Big Bad.
A young woman was currently vegetating in the dark coma ward of Sunnydale's largest hospital the way she had been for the last eight months or so. The coma victim's name was Faith Lehane, and she was the latest incarnation of the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's successor once removed and supposedly a champion for the forces of good. Unfortunately, however, Faith had a killed a man last year and gone bad afterwards, falling ever deeper into a quicksand of darkness and evil.
Very few people ever came here apart from the nurses and doctors. In fact, the last occasion had been roughly a week ago when Xander had come around just to check that Faith was still alive, after Cordelia had asked him about the fallen Slayer. He hadn't stayed long though. Seeing her like this, despite everything Faith had done, had truly turned Xander's stomach.
Now, even though she was in a coma, Faith's subconscious was still very much active and keeping itself busy. Right at that moment, in a dream, the brunette Slayer was having a picnic lunch with her father figure, the late and very much unlamented mayor Richard Wilkins the Third.
"Think it's gonna rain?" Faith asked uneasily, looking around the dream park they were in.
"Nonsense," the Mayor replied happily. "It's a beautiful day. Now eat your sandwich, okay?"
Faith still didn't look happy. "I dunno. It just always seems like it starts raining right about this point."
"Now, now. You're too young and pretty to start putting worry lines on your face like that," Wilkins replied charmingly. "I promise, nothing's gonna spoil our quality time together today. So, who wants cheesecake?"
"I don't get it. What did you ever see in him, apart from an evil sugar daddy?" a familiar male voice said behind Faith.
Abruptly, the dream changed as day became night and Faith found herself standing in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. She turned around and found herself face to face with the image of Xander Harris. She had never seen him in her dreams before, but the brunette was able to adapt quickly to the unexpected new presence.
"Hey there, stud. Long time no see," Faith said with a deliberate leer, reflexively reverting to the habits she'd developed to best deal with the male half of the species.
Xander just stared back at her, ignoring the sexual innuendo. "I have a theory, you know. That it wasn't supposed to be like this."
"Like what?" Faith looked up as it started to rain.
"You wearing a black hat," Xander replied calmly as thunder suddenly boomed above him. "Giles said it himself: it's not like Finch was the first ever recorded case of Slayer homicide. It was tragic. But it wasn't premeditated, really more of an accident than anything else. We should have been able to help you work through it, and you shouldn't have ended up working for the Mayor 'cause of that. Always made me wonder why things turned out that way."
"A higher power guiding us?" Faith asked, feeling weird all of a sudden as the night rain started to increase in strength.
"You've made that bed with Buffy often enough for me to have my doubts about that," the dream Xander replied. "Speaking of which..."
Faith lost all semblance of courage as a nightmarish image of Buffy Summers came out of the trees, holding the knife she had used to stab Faith with all those months ago. The dreamer turned and ran as fast as she could go, and yet she seemed unable to escape from her blonde pursuer.
Eventually Faith fell into an empty grave as Buffy disappeared from the dreamscape after attempting to kill her. There was a crash of thunder and lightning as the young woman tried to claw her way out. Then she saw Xander standing at the grave's edge, framed against the stormy sky. He was holding out his hand to her.
"All you need is a little faith, Faith," Harris said with a smile.
The Chosen One grabbed hold of her ex-lover's hand as he hauled her out of there. The very next moment Faith's eyes flew open in the coma ward.
Outside 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California
Not long after sunset
Miss Lehane was not in a good mood.
After yanking out all the damned tubes and wires attached to her body, she'd freaked at finding out that Graduation had taken place months ago and that the Mayor was now long dead. Moving on autopilot since her mind was in a daze of confusion, Faith had mugged the first woman she'd met and stolen her clothes, and later made her way to Buffy's house. She had first stopped at the high school, but to her horror it was now just a pile of rubble.
Looking through the window, the dark Slayer watched the Scooby meeting currently taking place with just the tiniest hint of envy. Things obviously hadn't changed much ever since she'd entered dreamland, even if many of the faces she'd been expecting to see were missing. ( There's G, Red, Joyce, Queen C and Little Miss Perfect...but no sign of Wes, Wolf Boy or Fang. Hmm, can't see Boy Toy anywhere around either. Wonder why the stud ain't here? And who the hell are those other two? He looks like a college beefcake, and Blondie's acting so frickin' shy she... )
At that point, Faith saw Buffy answer the telephone and then start to look worried as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the connection. After she hung up, Miss Summers began talking to her companions, and Miss Lehane didn't have to be a lip-reader to know that the white hats had just learned she wasn't in a coma any longer.
Faith left the enemy stronghold, only to run into a former demon minion of Mayor Wilkins not long afterwards.
The Harris-Chase residence, Sunnydale, California
Not long before midnight
"Buffy, what do you think you're doing?" Xander demanded as he pushed the blonde girl away.
Faith-in-Buffy smirked, having just ferociously kissed the former class clown after following him into his bedroom and locking the door behind her. "Come on, Xander, you always wanted this didn't you?" she declared confidently, as she indicated her body with a wave of her hand. After switching bodies with Buffy earlier in the evening, thanks to a posthumous gift from the Mayor, Faith was planning to make all the guy's high school fantasies come true tonight.
Xander's residual James Bond instincts were screaming to get her naked and to hell with the condoms, but luckily Harris was able to ignore them. "Not anymore I don't. Oh my God – you're under a spell again, aren't you?" he asked in genuine concern. "I mean, come on, Buff, what about you and Riley?"
"Riley?" Faith-in-Buffy asked uncertainly.
"Riley Finn, your...hang on! If you were Buffy, you'd have known who he is." Xander's eyes narrowed suspiciously, his internal secret agent instincts abruptly changing direction. "All right, that's it – who the hell are you? Some sort of shape-shifter demon?"
( Shit, ) Faith-in-Buffy cursed, her plans now thoroughly ruined. ( Guess that means game's over. ) "Okay, I'm outta here-"
SLAM!
"What was that?" Xander asked, heading for the bureau drawer but keeping Faith-in-Buffy in sight the whole time. He grabbed a stake just as the bedroom door was kicked open, splintering the lock.
"Faith?!" Xander yelled, as he saw someone who he thought was the enemy burst into the room. He raised the stake, cursing himself for not having kept the gun he'd used in the Initiative that night.
The dark-haired Slayer just glared at the other Slayer present. "You, you..." Buffy-in-Faith hissed. Then she yelled accusingly at Xander, "Did you do anything with this SLUT tonight? And the answer had better be no!"
The young man stiffened. "HEY! Now I resent that, missy, because I happen to taken. In the happy boyfriend sort of way. And not that it's any of your business, but I totally learned my lesson years ago!"
Buffy-in-Faith looked very pleased to hear it. While she was distracted Faith-in-Buffy took the opportunity to try to escape, but Cordelia and Giles arrived at precisely the wrong moment and a big fight between the two Slayers subsequently took place.
Which resulted in, amongst other things, the security deposit on Xander and Cordelia's apartment becoming nothing but a memory...
The Giles residence, Sunnydale, California
February 26th, 2000
12:33 am
"So what are we gonna do with her?" Cordelia asked, gesturing to the unconscious and restrained Faith-in-Buffy who was being carefully monitored by Xander.
The group had decided to bring the body-stealing blonde here instead of staying at the damaged apartment, so they'd just locked the front door behind them and carried away their prisoner. The former rich girl was pissed about what had happened to her home, but then she glanced over towards Buffy-in-Faith, and a tacit understanding was established between the two alpha females to call a truce to all the usual hostilities until the current mess was resolved.
Giles took off his glasses and said with some concern, "Do with her? Well, uh, that is...a very good question."
"Gee, can you believe that the Council actually let this guy go?" Buffy-in-Faith asked snarkily.
"Oh! Yes, I-I-I almost forgot, there's a Watcher wetworks team in town. I ran into them earlier on, and they're looking for you – er, that is, they're looking for Faith," Rupert hastily corrected himself. "I'm not sure what their plans are, exactly, but Smith, Weatherby and Collins are certainly not planning to shower her with gifts, I'm sure."
"Yesterday's news, Giles, I already kicked their asses. Now can we get on with putting me back in my own body already?" Buffy-in-Faith asked.
"First, tell me exactly how this happened," Giles commanded her.
The currently brunette Slayer obliged. "Well, Faith grabbed me wearing some kind of clasp-y bracelet thing on her hand. I don't know what it was, but it looked gold-colored with a large jewel or something in the middle of it. Very tacky-looking, to tell you the truth, but it suited Faith perfectly. And when she grabbed my hand with that darn thing, it kinda felt like a big electric shock went through me," Buffy-in-Faith explained. "Then there was this flash of light, and when I could see again I was in here," she said, indicating her new body. "Looking at myself."
"Well, uh, i-it sounds to me like it could have been a Draconian katra device," Giles mused, recalling something he'd read about back at the Watchers Academy decades ago. "That, um, that requires physical contact between the two people wh-whose bodies are being switched. Er, I'm right in assuming the device has been lost ever since Faith used it on you?" the British man asked.
"It wasn't there when I woke up from after she knocked me out, so I think you can take that as a big honking 'yeah'," Buffy-in-Faith said in exasperation.
"Right. Well, there's a transferral spell I know which might be able to help," Giles mused absently.
"Transferral spell?" Xander finally spoke up, glancing across at the ex-Watcher.
"Well, yes. You see, Buffy's consciousness or katra, despite its present location, s-still has a metaphysical link to its original body over there," Rupert gestured to the sleeping Faith. "The device's mystical energy, o-or whatever caused the transfer, is most likely what's keeping both their katras from returning back to their true homes. I-if we can disrupt the energy for long enough, I think we'd be able to reverse the effects of the device."
"Cool! So then let's do it," the conscious Slayer proclaimed at once.
"No, it's, it's not that simple. That ritual – it requires a level of power I'm not sure I possess," Giles confessed. "I mean, I've done some spellcasting in the past, but my record in the field i-i-is anything but a shining example of all things good and pure," the man added, recalling his catastrophe with Eyghon back in his wilder youth.
"Come on, G-man. You were able to help me deal last year, remember?" Xander asked, referring to the work Giles had done suppressing his potentially crippling James Bond memories.
"And who else is gonna do it? Willow? The only big success she's ever had is cursing Angel with a soul, and that might not even have been her," Cordelia threw her two cents' worth into the conversation.
"Because I was there, and I still don't know whether or not Willow got possessed at the time. Y'know, it could have been someone or something was being channeled through her in order to get the job done," she said. "And if you're considering asking Tara? We don't know her well enough yet for something like this. So bottom line, Giles, you're it. I mean, I'm sure Buffy doesn't want to spend the rest of her life in there!" She gestured at the foreign body Miss Summers currently occupied.
"Yeah, I sure don't," Buffy-in-Faith agreed wholeheartedly. "Giles, c'mon, you have to do this. Please."
"Very well," Giles sighed.
A few minutes later their captive finally woke up. "Gotta say, B, I can tell you're not keeping up with the old Slayer training these days, y'know? This body, definitely feeling the weight gain," Faith-in-Buffy smirked at the brunette. "Ever thought about going to the gym once in a while?"
"Shut up, you bitch," Buffy-in-Faith hissed. "If that wasn't my mouth you're speaking out of, I'd punch you so hard my teeth would go flying out the back of my neck. Now be quiet unless you want me to gag you again!"
"Hey, Jeeves! I see they invited you to the party. But where's the rest of the gang?" Faith-in-Buffy asked merrily upon seeing the ex-Watcher. "Out partying, right? It's Friday night after all. But I guess an unemployed has-been like you doesn't have anything better to do than be here, huh?"
"Faith, it's been a long time. And I see that despite current appearances your long period of sleep hasn't helped you improve in any significant way at all," Giles said with a strong hint of disapproval. The Englishman was finding it hard to stomach how his former charge had willingly sunk so low like this.
That attitude only pissed off Faith-in-Buffy completely. "You really need to get laid, old man. You know that, right? Too bad odds are the only action you'll ever see is Mother Thumb and her four daughters."
"So says the killer who belongs in jail being Big Bertha's butt buddy," Cordelia said scathingly. She alone truly had no problem dealing with Faith in Buffy's body, as she disliked both Slayers, albeit not to the same level of course.
Her taunts fell on deaf ears as Giles continued setting up for his transferral spell. Xander himself began securely tying up Buffy-in-Faith after injecting her with some sort of yellow chemical in a syringe. "How's that?"
"Tighter. Otherwise, she might be able to get loose," Buffy-in-Faith grated.
"What are you guys doing?" the other Slayer asked, curious.
Xander finished with the ropes. "Well, here's the thing, Faith. Buffy wants her body back, so we're doin' our best to oblige. I've just injected her with a lot of that Crucia-whatsit drug and tied her up, so that once we switch you two back to where you belong – you won't be a threat to anybody."
Faith-in-Buffy began to struggle furiously. "Like hell!"
"Sorry. No Slayer strength anymore, as I'm sure you must have guessed by now. I already injected you as well with a big dose of the stuff while you were sleeping. Now you just sit there and relax. This'll all be over soon," Harris taunted her, indulging in a bit of payback.
The renegade Chosen One paid him no heed and kept on struggling until Giles finished his incantation. "The inward eye, the sightless sea...Ayala flows through the river in me. Return what was switched unto where it should be!"
Two glowing spheres of blue-white light enveloped both Faith and Buffy, before they exploded like a mini-supernova and Cordelia, Giles and Xander had to cringe and look away. When they were able to look back at the two females, Buffy said joyfully, "It worked! I'm me again, thank God. Xander, untie me already!"
"Not so fast. What's the code phrase we agreed on just now?" Xander asked, glancing over toward Faith.
"Ampata wasn't evil, and I had you to bring me back."
Xander's eyes lit up. "That's the Buffster all right!" He quickly untied his friend, who hugged him intensely.
"So what now?" Faith asked, deliberately attempting to look bored. "What were you guys planning to do with me, y'know, afterwards?"
Xander, Buffy and Cordelia all turned to Giles. "Yeah, that's what I wanted to know," the Chase girl nodded. "We can't just hand her over to the cops, can we?"
"No. The Sunnydale police are not only corrupt and thoroughly incompetent, th-they wouldn't know what to do with a Slayer even if they knew such people existed," Giles said, shaking his head. "Um, what about the Council?"
"Been there. Tried that. Not unlike being offered a live grenade and then getting asked to make friends with it, in my experience," Buffy said sarcastically.
"What about Riley?" Giles asked. "I know the Initiative's been shown to be relatively untrustworthy, but surely h-he's still someone we can rely on-"
"Initiative? And yo, who the hell is this Riley character?" Faith interrupted since she wanted to know who and what they were talking about, and she remembered Xander's comments from not long ago.
"Buffy's new boyfriend," Cordy said with a certain amount of anticipation in her voice.
"WHAT? Are you telling me that the guy B stabbed me for, she ain't even dating him any longer?!" Faith yelled, the cold rage instantly swallowing her whole. "What the hell happened to Fang? He finally end up dust?"
"No, actually, Buffy and Angel, are, are no longer together. He left town after Graduation, Faith," Giles told the captive Slayer, noting Buffy's almost-hidden grimace. "He's currently in Los Angeles according to what I've heard. But that's irrelevant right now. The question remains, w-what are we to do with you?"
Xander spoke up, "Guys, I'd like to speak with Faith alone for a few minutes."
Cordelia instantly shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea-"
"Please, Cor. For me?"
It was impossible to resist those big pleading chocolate-brown eyes, not ever since they'd gotten back together, so Cordelia just grabbed both Buffy and Giles and reluctantly hauled them out of the room. ( You so owe me for this one, mister. We're talking back massages and foot rubs for a month, not to mention a romantic weekend in Santa Monica plus a shopping trip all the way along Rodeo Drive! )
Xander focused on the rogue Slayer and asked, "I have a couple of questions. And the first one is, why?"
"Why what?" the Slayer replied with an attempt at an innocent look.
"Come on, Faith. I know we have this little thing between us called history, but the last time we were alone together you tried to kill me. And yet tonight, you acted like you wanted to have sex with me. 'Kinks or vanilla', isn't that how you put it? I mean, why? Was it to hurt Buffy, or me?"
His matter-of-fact tone somehow made Miss Lehane reconsider her original smart-ass reply. "Little bit of both," she eventually said. "But I guess there's also the fact that I had a dream about you..." Faith then proceeded to fill Xander in on the way his dream self had helped her out of that grave, just before she'd woken up.
Harris thoughtfully considered her for a few moments. Finally he went with his instincts and said, "The only way out of here is through that door, and the others are standing guard on the other side. And we both know that right now, with that drug you've been given, the best you could do is just hit me like a girl. So if I untie you...will you give me your word that you'll stay put? Will you swear by your first Watcher's memory that you won't do anything stupid?"
"Sure, why not?" Faith shrugged.
"I'm gonna need some better convincing than that, Little Miss Body Thief," Xander said coldly.
"Fine, I swear by Diana's memory that I'll be a good girl 'til I get my strength back. Satisfied?" the Chosen One growled.
Xander didn't reply, he just silently released her from her bonds. Faith wasn't sure why, but she suspected that that "have a little faith" thing she'd mentioned might have had an unexpected impact on him. "Now what?"
"Time for my second question. What do you intend to do now?" Xander asked.
"What do you mean?" the young woman cocked her head slightly.
"Well, there's this Watcher hit team that's come to town to assassinate you. From what I've heard they're practically amateurs, but they're enthusiastic and out there gunning for you. Even if you run away from Sunnydale they'll track you down eventually, no matter where you go. Giles has told me how the Council has all these cool mystical ways to find a Slayer; they've been doing it for thousands of years so it's something they're really good at. Which means odds are that one day, someone somewhere will kill you for everything you've done. So like I said before, what do you intend to do now?"
Xander's casual tone only made Faith angry. "What do you care, either way?"
"I care, Faith. Oddly enough I can't help it. Like it or not, you were my first and that actually means something to me. Not all guys are just their John Thomas in action, if you know what I mean?" Xander asked in that calm tone of voice that was really starting to infuriate her.
"John Thomas?"
"Sorry. British slang, it occasionally pops up ever since I became James Bond during Halloween last year. Go figure," Xander shrugged, ignoring Faith's surprise. "I just meant that the one night we spent together, different circumstances, maybe it coulda led to something special. It wasn't just a meaningless lay for me, even if that was all it was for you."
Miss Lehane snarled, "Fine. Then the answer to your second question is, I'm open to any good ideas!"
Xander outlined a plan of action. After Faith apologized to Buffy for what she'd done tonight, he and Giles – assuming the British man could be talked into it – would help her pull a fast one on the Watchers who wanted the Boston girl dead. In other words, they would stop her heart long enough for the next Slayer to be called before reviving her.
The Council would instantly know a new Chosen One had been activated, and assume the wetworks team had finally done their job or that Faith had ended up dead another way. And once the Watchers were off her back, Faith would leave town and never return.
"How do I know you guys won't just kill me?" Faith asked point-blank.
Xander shrugged. "I guess you're just going to have to have a little faith in me."
"Why are you really doing this?" Faith subsequently demanded. "The truth, Boy Toy. Or I take my chances on the run."
"Fine. It's because I want you out of Sunnydale permanently on a friendly basis, without you and Buffy having some sort of grudge match. Don't get me wrong, I think the odds are the Buffster would win if it came to that; but I prefer not taking any chances with the life of one of my girls." Xander shrugged again. "Besides, there is also the possibility you'll do some good in this world. Who knows, maybe a fresh start in life is just what you need."
Faith was surprised all over again that he would think so charitably of her after all the insults lately, and so she considered his offer carefully. ( And there would be three Slayers in the world at the same time? Can't fault the X-man for being able to think outside the box. ) Eventually she said, "Alright, fine. Answer me one question, and you got yourself a deal."
"And your question is...?"
"You and your ex. What's the what there? The snob finally forgave you for cheating on her?" Faith smirked, determined to get in one last dig before the big event.
"Yeah. Obviously, I'm a very lucky man. It's also why you never actually had a chance with me tonight, whatever body you were in." He stared at her stonily. "So are we done here?"
Faith nodded, and then Xander called the others back into the room. Upon hearing the plan Buffy went ballistic about it, pretty much as expected. But when Xander asked her what else they could do apart from murdering Faith in cold blood, given how not even the Initiative's holding facilities could guarantee the rogue Slayer's incarceration, Buffy quickly turned quiet. Cordelia was very much against the plan too, but in the end, Xander managed to talk her around as well.
Less than an hour later, it was done...
But something very unexpected happened.
Kelkor's spell last year had modified its targets in ways that they couldn't possibly understand. Cordelia becoming the psychic named Solitaire had given her an affinity to one aspect of the Slayer essence. And due to her proximity before Faith was revived...
It ended up inside her.
All the Slayer psychic stuff, the ability to sense vampires and the prophetic dreams, passed into Miss Chase, while the potential Slayer named Kennedy got all the physical powers and healing abilities. It was all utterly unprecedented...
And despite the information provided by their seers, it was also something that the Watchers Council simply could not believe at first. Not at all.
TBC...