Chapter 4.
Faith showed up at the Bronze to find the three joined by Oz. Everyone but Cordy looked ready to slay something with at least a stake and maybe a cross. Cordy looked like she could be ready to slay or walk down a runway. Even her shoes looked practical, yet stylish. Faith just shook her head.
Oz spotted her first and brought the others across the street to where she was carrying six spears.
"What's with the poles? We going camping?" Xander joked.
"Slaying." Faith unshouldered her spears.
"But- I thought you needed stakes to slay?" Willow cried, pulling her own out. "I mean, it's tradition. Isn't it?" she turned questioningly to Oz.
"Wood through the heart. Decapitation. Fire. Sunlight." Faith ticked off on her fingers. "If you have enough holy water, you can get them that way too. Or wood through the brain, but that's hard even with Slayer strength unless you get lucky and catch one under the throat." she finished her list. "Those are the ways to kill vamps. No one ever said the piece of wood you use has to be small. It's just convenient to keep a stake on hand at all times." She pulled one from a pocket, flashed it, and put it away. "If you hunt with me, you carry a spear until you learn another way. End of story. Or I'll escort you home right now."
"We're going to look stupid." Cordelia complained.
"Better than looking dead. Trust me, even you can't pull off dead-chic. Last two Slayers never thought to carry a spear and they both died within about a year or so. But let me show you what I'm talking about." she threw a spear to Xander, who caught it. "Defensive stance." she ordered.
Xander automatically took up a ready stance that a soldier might have used if he was about to fight with a bayonet.
Faith walked up and put the point of the spear right in her chest. Then she stuck her arms forward and wiggled her fingers. "See? Can't reach." Without warning, she knocked the spear aside and stepped past. "Draw your stake." she ordered.
Xander did as he was told and put the stake in the same place the spear had been.
Faith wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Stakes put you in range of being bitten." she knocked the stake away and gave a mock bite towards him. Cordelia glared at her after that move. Hey, no one ever called Faith subtle. she thought as she breathed on Xander's neck and smirked at the reaction she produced from the kid.
They walked to a more secluded place where Faith gave them the basics. Keep the point between them and the vamp. The basic two handed thrust. Not overbalancing when they thrust. Thrusting and pulling back as quickly as possible so vamps couldn't catch their spear. And teamwork. It certainly hadn't been her intention to train them when she came here. But seeing how poorly trained they were, she worried that it had just been sheer luck that they'd survived the first time and was determined not to lose anyone.
"Good enough for now." Faith stated. "I'll get one of the watchers to give you guys some real lessons. I'm not much of a teacher. Rule number one is 'Don't die'. Follow that one and we'll be fine."
"That's a good rule." Xander noted. Cordelia elbowed him.
It had been two weeks since Faith came to Sunnydale and the Scoobies were patrolling with Faith and DD watching their backs. Diana glanced at Faith when two vampires appeared. She had been against involving the civilians at all and very much against taking them on patrol. But Faith had very quietly insisted. She hadn't even threatened at all, which was something she and Xander... Best not to think about that.
The four of them were now working as a team. A rough and almost untrained team compared to the Slayer teams she was used to working with; but a team none the less. And they attacked the two vampires as a team. Confident thanks to several weeks of training and fighting. They also gained confidence knowing that the Slayer and the watcher were backing them up, ready to step in if anything went wrong. And Faith did have to step in many, many times that first week. But less and less as their experience quickly grew. Faith gave a small smile as the second vamp turned to dust without her having to lift a finger. Two vamps at a time. Something they couldn't have even thought of two weeks ago.
"You are giving them a false sense of security." DD whispered.
Faith frowned. She her memories of her first watcher were clearly idealized because there was no way she would have gotten along with this fuddy-duddy otherwise. "I don't think it counts as false when they take out two without me helping. And they took out a group of three last night." she whispered back.
"A group of five which you reduced to three with your bow. And they were keeping an eye on you while they fought the children. They were distracted."
"Vamps need to learn to fight distracted then. Think of it like a vaccine. You give people weakened diseases for your body to fight off. I'm giving them fledgelings to cut their teeth on. Let them find their strength. Because you're looking at some of the best demon fighters in the world. They just don't know it yet." Faith's stomach clenched when Xander and Cordelia kissed. She forced herself not to look at DD. The watcher was already aware that Faith disliked the relationship between Xander and Cordelia, but she hadn't brought it up so she probably didn't know exactly why even if she could guess.
"Buffy!" was the cry that brought her out of her reverie.
Buffy. Already? A fresh start with B. Well here goes nothin. She walked over to where the mob was surrounding the petite Slayer. "You must be Buffy. The gang's been telling me all about you." Faith offered her her hand. "I'm Faith."
Buffy took it.
"And I'm her watcher, Diana Dormer. You may call me Diana when we are out in the field."
"I just call her Double D." Faith nudged her watcher playfully.
"Though I've asked her many times not to." the watcher gave a resigned sigh. That was one habit she could not cure her of. Like the foul language. But she was kicking the smoking habit, which was good. Apparently, she'd kicked it in the future, but her younger body was still addicted. It was rough having to conquer an addition twice.
"You're a Slayer?" Buffy looked surprised.
"Yeah. I cleaned up Boston and then we heard that you might need some help here." Faith waved to the gang. "Turns out they were already covering for you. I gave 'em some stakes with a little more reach and a few pointers then sent them on their way."
"That's not true." Willow squeaked. "She was totally covering our backs the whole time, Buffy. Last night she took out two vamps with her bow and then gave the evil eye to the other three while we dusted them."
Buffy looked at the redhead in shock. "You guys dusted three vampires? By yourselves?"
"That's nothing. You should have seen the demonstration she gave on the group of seven." Xander added. "Took out six of them with her spear like that," he snapped. "and then herded the seventh back to us to finish off."
"Wow, she's... amazing." Buffy replied sullenly.
"Don't sweat it, B. I got enough spears for everyone and I'll show you all my moves." There was no way in hell she was going to show Buffy all her moves. But most of them. All of them she'd used in SunnyD at least. But the conversation was already moving on.
"...this morning. I- I wanted to spend some time with my Mom first."
"You talk to Giles yet?" Xander asked seriously.
And suddenly they were in front of Giles' crib. Faith wasn't quite sure how she'd gotten dragged along but Willow had been insistent. After greetings and a really bad joke from Xander (he gets better, she told herself) they were all seated around Giles' coffee table. Or was it tea table? The man hardly ever drank coffee.
"I got in a few hours ago, but I wanted to go see my mom first."
Giles nodded. "Yes. Yes, of course. How, how did you find her?"
"Well, I pretty much remembered the address." Buffy quipped.
"Ah, yes, I mean, uh... How are things between you?" Giles was interrupted by his teakettle. "Ah. Excuse me." Diana got up to help him, leaving the kids alone for a moment.
Oz took the opportunity to mention, "Hey, so you're not wanted for murder anymore."
"Good. That was such a drag." Buffy joked.
"I know, right? It probably sucks even more since you didn't even get to kill the guy first." Faith was now able to joke about her past. "I mean, prison is better than school and all. But it's a lot easier to take when you actually deserve it." she deadpanned. Luckily no one here knew her past and they just assumed that she was joking.
"What about you, Xander? What's up with you?" Buffy wanted to move the conversation away from murder.
"Oh, you know, same old, same old." he joked.
Cordelia took his hand. "Hardly."
Faith felt her stomach clench.
Xander broke out in a smile, "Okay, I lied, a whole lot is new."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Buffy looked to Willow, "New is good. Right?" seeing if Willow was okay with the Xander/Cordelia situation.
"Oh yes." Willow grabbed Oz's hand to show how much she was in love with Oz. "New is good."
"Yes, though there were those last couple weeks where her parents dragged her away for a luxury vacation." Xander joked.
"I know!" Cordelia cried. "I so didn't want to go. I mean, Cancun? Uhh."
Buffy patted Cordy's knee, "I feel for you."
Giles and Diana returned with two trays of tea and biscuits, or cookies as they were called here. "Here we are then." he said.
Buffy, Faith and Willow each grabbed a cookie. Faith just looked at hers though. "Okay, I get the whole Soccer/Football different name thing. But what I don't get is how we can both have things called biscuits and they can be so different. I mean, down south biscuits and gravy is almost a delicacy. But you try ordering that shit in England and they look at you weird. Or worse, they give you cookies smothered in beef gravy. Why would you call cookies, biscuits?"
"That is a good question, actually." Oz turned towards the British pair.
"We don't have biscuits as you know them. We have crumpets." Giles answered patiently.
"Perhaps scones would be the closest analogue?" Diana offered.
That being out of the way, Giles searched for a way to break the ice about her time away gently. He needn't have bothered with Cordelia there. "So were you, like, living in a box, or what?" she asked bluntly.
Buffy closed off immediately. "Well, it's a long story."
Faith recognized that B wasn't up to talking yet. "Let's skip it then."
Giles glanced appreciatively at Faith. "Yes. Perhaps Buffy could use a little time to adjust before we grill her on her summer activities."
Buffy quickly agreed.
"Fair enough," Xander allowed. "Faith's been helping us with the slaying. So if you need some time, we got you covered."
Buffy nodded. "I noticed. You guys seem down with the slayage, all tricked out with your spears and everything."
"Yeah, but the outfits suck. This whole Rambo thing is so over. I'm thinking more sporty, like Hilfiger maybe."
"Still, we're getting good. We dusted 20 between us." Willow insisted.
"Twenty-three." Oz corrected.
"Twenty-three." Willow repeated.
"And we have backup. So you don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt." Xander noted. "Take your time, ease yourself back into it."
"Well, thank you for the offer," Buffy said, "but I think I just wanna get back to my normal routine. School, slaying... you know, kid's stuff. In fact, I'm jonesing for a little brainless fun." she turned to Xander, "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Xander was tied up but Willow agreed to coffee. Faith invited herself along.
After seeing her team and her watcher to their homes, Faith stopped by the butcher's for some fresh blood. She carried it to the mansion and replaced the stuff there that was forming some sort of crust. She took that to the nearest cemetery and popped the top off the plastic bucket before setting it on the ground. She climbed a large tree nearby and settled in to wait.
A mini Slayer from West Virginia named Mary-Beth had introduced Faith and Xander to the joys of hunting vampires from a tree stand. She had been an active bow hunter before being called and transferred her skills directly to killing vamps. The council had been... slow to capitalize on this new technique. Just as they had been slow on picking up spears even after the African Slayers had showed them what was what. But that had suited Faith, Mary-Beth, and Xander just fine. Fewer people using the technique meant it was more effective for them. The three of them hunted together for a couple months. Xander's metalworking skills weren't quite as good as his woodworking skills, but he dusted them off to weld two steel bows for the Slayers that no normal human on earth could have a prayer of drawing. All he asked in trade was Mary-Beth's old bow that was nothing more than a toy for her now anyways.
A lot of the time, Faith got too impatient sitting in the trees and ran off to play bait for the demons to bring them back to the other two. She loved fighting them right under Xander's tree. He called it providing covering fire. The demons just called it unfair.
Eventually, Faith and Xander went on their way. Mary-Beth thanked them for teaching her and for the new bow.
Faith pulled herself from her reverie as a vampire followed its nose to the sent of fresh blood. It wasn't a master vamp. Masters could control themselves well enough to fall for someone just leaving blood out as bait. But this was a good way to winnow the minions. She pulled back her bow and loosed. The dust floated to the ground and she smiled. Wondering what Mary-Beth was doing right then. Considering she wasn't even 10 yet, probably not out hunting. Then again, knowing Mary-Beth, maybe she was.
A/N: It's unclear as to how long it was before Buffy came back but the jump in tactics the Scoobies showed from Ep 1 and Ep 2 leads me to believe it was at least a week or two.
Thanks to Cutiepie for pointing out that Faith would have to change the blood.