Thanks a lot for reading along the years, and for those who have stumbled across this recently. There will be a release of a bunch of short chapters up to the ending. Maybe some of you will like it, or hate it and imagine doing unpleasant things to me in my sleep WHICH COULD BE LIKELY PLEASE BE GENTLE but again, thank you so much for reading through! :)
FAITH POV, SUNNYDALE
Faith hid behind the walls, cursing her indecision, fighting the numb, crushing sensation inside that made her want to be sick. She should have gone with Buffy. No way was someone going in that place and coming back out alive. Just no way. The memory of the kiss lingered, and all the confused feelings that stirred with it. The image of Buffy running into the darkness was the thing that incensed and upset her most. It played like an photo burnt into the back of her eyelids; an ominous visual of something she may never see again. Was that what caused this awful, clenching sensation in her heart and stomach, like something squeezing the life out of her?
Conviction steeled her nerves. She needed to help. Damn Buffy and her self-righteous, sacrificing attitude, and her weird, not quite fully human problem. Damn the stupid Inner Slayer. Two people were better than none. Two Slayers against the forces of the night got the job done a hell of a lot faster. Now Buffy no longer stood opposite with her words, her unwavering persuasion, Faith became more certain, gearing herself up to do the things she must. The things her body was designed for.
Only, making it to the Hellmouth turned out to be more difficult than initially thought. Dilemmas cropped up the second she moved out of safety. Although Buffy had earlier cleared the way inside, other monsters had since congregated there, attracted by the original commotion, the screams and shrieks of the dying. Plaguewalkers, vampires, demons of all shapes and colours, all of them prowled snarling outside the ruins of Sunnydale High School. None entered, though, as if afraid of what lurked within. Faith exhaled irritation. Fighting or sneaking through that lot would be next to impossible. Even if she made it to the entrance by fighting, the likely chance was she'd be too exhausted to offer any concrete help. Fuck.
She ran a tongue over her teeth, thinking. She stepped back under cover too late, though. Two of the demons had spotted her, and with a shout, more turned, looked her direction, and started streaming in their many numbers towards the Slayer.
"Argh! Really!" Naturally things got more complicated the second she decided on doing something useful. Such was the life of a Slayer. Just once, just once in her ridiculous demon killing preventing apocalypses lifestyle, she wanted things to work out in a nice and straightforward way, without any sort of extra problems appearing. Hello apocalypse, finished in time for dinner. Why couldn't it be like that?
Because that's life. The voice sounded sad, before slipping back into silence.
She sped out, away from the ruins, weaving through car cluttered narrow roads, down what looked like a nice suburban avenue, streetlights illuminating her way, trees casting twisted shadows across pavements. Sounds of pursuit hit her ears, and the places she ran to also had demonic occupants dotted around. Cold sweat broke out. More demons flooded the place than she had ever seen. There was no way she could make it out unscathed.
But she needed to try. Escape to the outskirts, find the others. Her stomach plummeted at the thought of everyone, crammed in a car, driving around in the night. With this amount of demons running around, they could just block all the exits if they caught wind of the vehicle. Damnit, Buffy was right. Faith's priorities were fucked up in this gig. Too fucked up. My decision making is shot to hell. G and V always telling me to think ahead, not to rush into dumb sitches …
Growling to herself, she sprinted past a purplish demon, jerking her stake across its midriff, hearing it fall with a satisfying thump. Buffy would take care of one end. Faith needed to sort out hers. Four demons spread out across the two roads ahead, with one path climbing upwards to the outskirts, the alternative veering right to the dodgier section of town, where shops like The Magic Box existed. She couldn't stay still to fight them for long, not with a medley of demons chasing. Faith attempted to cut through, picking up more speed, inhaling and exhaling harder, a dull burning sensation beginning to flood through her legs. Running with steel caps added that extra little force which could mean the difference between freedom and entrapment.
The demons looked big, too big to knock over or kill with a puny stake, but perhaps easy enough to swerve around – she went straight for one as it lumbered, bringing huge arms up in a grasping motion, as if to hug and crush the bones in her body. She lunged into a forward roll just short of the grab, feeling the impact on her shoulder against the asphalt, but making it past the monster without incidence. She went straight from one roll into another, this time hurtling to the side to avoid the next attempt on her life, one of the demons bending down to pincer her between clawed fingers. She looked ridiculous, of course, tumbling and swerving madly like some drunk dancer to make it past, but it did the trick. Four very confused demons swiped the air behind her, making disgruntled noises, as she launched herself off by her toes, making the climb up the slope. She chanced a look back, letting out a hysterical and exhilarated laugh at the sheer number of creatures after her. It looked like all the demons of the world had gathered here, especially to kill her.
In fact, maybe she was doing a good thing, more than she realised, leading the demons away from the Hellmouth like some kind of pied piper. If they were after her, they weren't after Buffy, or her friends.
The others are nearby!
Faith sucked in breath, digging into her senses to try and find the car. Her hand delved into her pocket to locate the last sun bomb. With an evil smirk, she twirled, in the same movement lobbing the bomb with great force to the pack of demons choking up the junctions, the street. She turned and closed her eyes, sudden light flooding the unobstructed area. Her best opportunity to disable and kill the monsters below. The cries were music to her ears. The light took a moment to fade, and she continued jogging, grinning.
If Voirrey and the others didn't see that little beacon if they happened to be nearby, then they would have to be pretty blind.
Sure enough, less than a minute later, two familiar vehicles nosed into view.
Willow swung open the side door of Voirrey's as they drew up beside Faith. The redhead saw the pack of disorientated demons. "So uh, yeah, we kind of saw the light. A-are you getting in?"
"Yeah. Lets motor way out of here."
"What about Buffy?" Giles interceded, rolling down the window of his car, eyebrows crinkled in concerned puzzlement. Xander and Anya waved at her.
"She knows what she's doing."
Faith squidged in beside Willow and Tara, with a heavy heart. Giles smiled briefly at her, before powering up his engine. Voirrey glanced in the mirror, catching Faith's eye, before pressing the pedal. They roared away, out of Sunnydale, into the night.