Loss of Faith
Chapter 18: Slayer Connection, Not Always a Good Thing
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters contained within.
That would be Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc….
Xander's POV –
I'm sitting here in the library, listening to the same argument that's been going on for the last hour. Shannon's here and more than a little pissed off. At least Willow isn't here to make it any worse. Will is off at some Wicca club or something. Shannon's been confronting Giles about her run in with Buffy and is acting like Giles is personally responsible for it.
"Mr. Giles," she starts in again, "We have to find this vampire and kill it. The sooner the better, for all of our sakes."
Giles tells her, "I am well aware of what needs to be done, Shannon. Now please, describe to me again what she looked like."
Shannon folds her arms across her chest and starts to explain, "She was short, a little less than my height. Long blond hair, green eyes and she seemed to be rather pleased with what she considered 'wit'. She also had a small green gem on her left hand that gave me a cut under my eye during the fight." Giles and I looked at her face, but of course there was no sign now of the cut. Slayer healing and all. "Can we please now go and kill the demon?" she asks sarcastically.
"Shannon," Giles has a distracted look in his eyes but responds, "As I have said, repeatedly, we are attempting to find out more about her. If we can find out who she is, we can determine where she will be. That is the only way we have of dealing with this situation. Outside of that, we must keep up the patrols and you may come across her again. Hopefully with a more positive outcome"
Shannon gives a huff of annoyance, but at least she kept her mouth shut. For now.
"On that note," Giles continued, "I want you and Faith to start patrolling together. I don't understand why you were left unconscious and alive, but I do not want to risk the chance of you being injured happening again."
"I…. Will…. Not…. Patrol…. With…. Her," Shannon says in a cold voice. "She would probably help the vampire against me."
"Don't be ridiculous," Giles scoffs. "Faith would no more abandon you to a vampire than she would allow one to escape."
I cough into my hand to cover the laugh I almost barked out. Giles doesn't know it, but Faith has already done both of those things.
He looks over to me and then back to Shannon as she says, "What you fail to realize is that your pet psychopath was there, Mr. Giles. She did exactly what you just denied she'd ever do. She let that vampire attack me and did not lift so much as a finger to come to my aid."
I sit up straighter in my chair now. How the hell did Shannon know Faith was there?
"I assure you Shannon, that is quite impossible," Giles tells her.
"And I assure you, Mr. Giles, that you are wrong," she responds. "I know she was there. I could feel that she was there. I can see now why you were dismissed from the Council to begin with. If you are so blinded by your feelings and reluctant to see that she is working with the vampires, then I have no choice but to fulfill my duty to the Watchers Council on my own." Then Shannon stormed out of the library before either of us could say a word.
Giles sinks down onto a seat with a look of shock on his face. He turns his eyes to me and I can see 'Ripper' starting to rise there.
In a nearly breathless voice he says, "short, blonde hair, attitude and a ring on her finger that unless I miss my guess, is the gem of Amara. Does any of this sound familiar to you Xander?" I can feel the heat starting to bake off of him as he tries to hold his temper.
I'm not stupid so I am definitely not going to try and talk Giles through this. I love Faith dearly, but she can finish this conversation with G-man. "I know what you're thinking Giles and all I can say is, you need to talk to Faith about it." I say quickly.
"Talk to Faith?" he laughs. "You mean the Faith who kept Buffy being a vampire secret and started a fire to cover up the facts? The Faith who spent weeks letting us all think Buffy had died, while she met with her almost every night? The Faith that finally tried to kill Buffy and obviously failed? That Faith? Yes well, I'm sure she'll be very forthcoming with the information now won't she."
"Look Giles," I tell him, and I'm starting to get pissed at the way he's talking about Faith, "You are the one who told her it was the Council's standard practice to kill turned slayers without question. You are also the one that told her that it was possible that Buffy could fight off the demon inside her. So don't even try to lay all the blame at Faith's feet. We all had a share in what happened back then. What's important is that we make a difference this time."
"Well 'This Time' there is a Council controlled slayer on site," he says back. "How do you propose we deal with her? It is unlikely she will listen to any of us, except maybe Willow. However, if Willow finds out that Buffy is back and starts to defend her, I have a feeling that Shannon will be even more likely to do something drastic."
"I'm not sure what we should do," I tell him quietly. "I do know that there's no way Faith will let anything happen to Buffy. Not now that she knows she's back." Oops. I probably shouldn't have said that last part.
"What do you mean that 'Faith knows she's back'? You know for a fact that Buffy is still alive?" He says while giving me a stern look. "You know that she's here and you didn't tell me? Didn't tell us? What if Joyce were to accidentally see her out one night? How do you think it would affect her?"
Yea, I really should think before opening my mouth. Somehow I never realize that until after I've blurted out the wrong thing at the wrong time. "Look Giles," I say to him, "I really can't explain it all to you right now. I'll give Faith a call and see if she can come over. Between the two of us we'll catch you up on what we know so far. Okay?" Like I said, I don't want to have this conversation without Faith being here. I still don't trust Giles not to go all 'Ripper' on me if he gets too angry.
He seems to have himself pretty well under control as he says, "Alright Xander. That will have to do, won't it? I really don't see that I have a choice right now, but I assure you. I will find out what you two have been up to, whether Faith is present or not. Do you understand me?"
"Yeah. I read you loud and clear, Giles," I say. I reach into my pocket to get my cell phone and dial Faith's number. As I hear it start to ring, there is an echo ringing coming through the door. We both turn at the same time and see Faith walking into the room
"Hiya Xand, Giles," she says. "Why so serious? Someone steal the card catalog?" She reaches into her pocket to grab her phone just as I close mine.
"Don't bother Faith, that was me calling you," I tell her. "Listen, we need to talk." She continues into the room and comes over to the chair next to me.
She's looking from me to Giles and back as she says, "Okay, let's talk. Whaddya wana start with? The weather? The plummeting value of real estate?" Tips on getting a better wardrobe? You're probably a little too late for that last one, though." She finishes with a laugh.
Giles is rubbing the bridge of his nose and says coldly, "How about we discuss the fact that Buffy is still alive and once again you thought it would be a good idea to keep the information to yourself."
Faith goes pale and practically falls into the chair she was starting to sit down on.
"How did you find out?" she asks quietly. She's not looking at Giles and has started playing with the rings on her hands.
"I think more importantly is the question of when you were going to tell me," Giles shoots back.
"Tell you? After the shit you were talking last time around," Faith eyes snap up to Giles and she starts yelling. "Yea, I can see that happenin. I would say 'Hey Giles, I just found out that B is still alive, isn't that kickin?' then you could say, 'That's smashing Faith, what say we go drive a stake through her heart?'. Isn't that about what you said the Council does to turned slayers? Or did I somehow hear that wrong too?"
Giles is sitting there and you can see the shame written all over his face. I know that he wouldn't have done that last time, just as I'm sure it wouldn't happen this time. I decide I gotta cool the both of them out before this gets too far out of hand.
"Will the both of you just stop for a minute," I yell. They both turn to me a little stunned by me screaming at them. That was kind of the point of course. I go on in a lower voice, "Faith, Giles is not going to go and hunt Buffy down. I think deep down inside you know that. And you Giles, what makes you so sure Faith wasn't going to tell you about Buffy, huh? She's only been back a few days and I didn't even know for sure that Buff was still around until yesterday."
They're both looking somewhat embarrassed. Hey, I think I might be actually getting through to them. So long as I'm on a roll I'm going to keep talking, "We all made some mistakes in the past. We all had certain trust issues and thought what we were doing was for the best. Let's try not to repeat those same mistakes, right?"
Giles lets out a sigh and nods his head. I look over to Faith and she says, "Actually, I came over here lookin for ya Giles. I'm not gonna say that I was ready to tell ya about B, but I did wanna talk to you about my journal. Maybe if that went well I woulda, I dunno and I guess we'll never know now."
"What about your journal Faith?" Giles asks.
His voice is much softer and he's trying to do what I said so he gets an "A" for effort in my book. As for Faith, I'm surprised she's taking this all so well. Those months off by herself must have really improved her self-restraint. I'm actually pretty proud of her. In the old days either she would have taken off by now or someone would be bleeding.
Faith was playing with the rings on her fingers and fidgeting around in her chair. She does that a lot whenever she gets nervous. "Since ya know about B and all, I guess we better start at the beginning so ya know the whole story," she says. "Xand, why don't you start with why you went to find me and I'll kinda jump in as ya go."
"Okay," I say. I turn to face Giles completely and start, "After one of Shannon's first patrols when she came to Sunnydale, I found her here waiting for you. We started talking and she told me about a vampire that she came across the night before. The vampire she's been obsessing over ever since. The description she gave me sounded a lot like Buffy to me and I couldn't get the idea out of my mind. When I went to bed that night I remembered something from Faith's journal that I couldn't figure out at the time. It had to do with Buffy returning Faith's lighter to her the night Faith set the crypt on fire. I couldn't figure out how Buffy could have gotten that lighter out of a flaming crypt without being toasted. I mean, we all know that vampires go up like dry paper when you put a flame to them, right?"
"Yes, that's usually the way it works," Giles says. I can see the wheels start turning in that Watcherly brain of his and he says, "However, by all accounts a slayer turned vampire would have greatly enhanced strengths. I do not see why that should exclude a resistance to fire."
"Well that information would have been useful a little earlier," I kid him. "Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that maybe Buff survived the sun long enough to get in the water. After talking to a guy that was there that day, I was pretty sure she did. That was the day I took off to track Faith down. I didn't want to tell you or Will until I was sure and I figured the best way to be sure was to get Faith to come back and find her."
Faith jumps in then saying, "So the night that I went over to Joyce's, after I had such a nice introduction to the mini slayer, I went on patrol since the newbie wasn't up to it." Yeah, Faith can be a real smartass sometimes. She continued, "So I'm out until almost dawn with nothing really goin down, ya know? The last cemetery I hit I run into a group of vamps and one of them smacks me in the head with a tree branch. Now they got me held down and I figure it's gonna be over, when B shows up."
Giles has a small smile on his lips as he asks, "Buffy was there?"
"Shit yea, G," Faith says. "She waltzes in and trashes those fuckers. She really saved my ass. Then we went back to my house and talked for awhile." Is it my imagination or did Faith just blush at that last part?
"The rest is pretty simple," Faith says. "B was the one keepin me afloat till you yanked me outta the ocean. Then she went back for the gem of Amara. Seems she didn't want to hang out with the fish all day. Turns out Xand here overheard your new girl on the phone with the Council talkin about getting some package, so me and B went to her mom's house today to check it out. Looks like they sent her something to try and put me to sleep so the Council can have their evil way with me."
I'm paying close attention to this part because I didn't know her and Buffy were going on a treasure hunt today. You would think they could have at least asked if I wanted to tag along. "Did you find it?" I ask her.
"Nah, just a letter and the box they sent it in," she says. "Doesn't matter anyway. Now I know what she's up to, I'll be watchin out for her. By the way Xand, what was the name of the stuff they were gonna send?"
"Interfector Mortis," I tell her. "I tried looking it up on the net but the only thing I found didn't make any sense. It talked about using it to kill a corpse. I guess it's used against zombies or something. Anyway it wouldn't work on you Faith, cause, you know, you're alive."
I look over at Giles and his face has gone completely white. He gasps out, "Good Lord, Interfector Mortis translates to Killer of the Dead. It is the only poison known to man that will kill a vampire. Any vampire. A very small amount is all that is needed, it just has to make contact with the blood."
I say to Giles, "Shannon was pretty pissed when she left here a while ago. Where do you think she's headed?"
"I got this one Xand," Faith smirks. "The newbie showed up at B's house just as we were leavin."
"Good," I say. "The way she was talking when she left I thought she might try to get you at your place."
"Or," Giles says, "she stopped at Joyce's first to get her supplies, then would head to Faith's house to try and capture her."
"Shit," Faith shouts and jumps up from the table.
"Faith, what's wrong?" Giles says in alarm, "When Shannon gets there she won't find you since you are here."
Faith is still headed for the door and I'm getting a real bad feeling. She yells back, "I'm not there Giles, but Buffy is. Xand, try and track down Willow, maybe she can help stop Shannon from doin something I'm gonna hafta kill her for." Then Faith is out the door and gone.
Whenever Faith starts calling people by their right name, you can bet the shit is about to hit the fan.