Joyce was impressed.
"We got back into town and Buffy was so happy to have the both of us back that all was forgiven. She even thanked Spider-man when she met him again a week later. Angel moved to a loft and before long I moved in with him. He was the only one in town who knew my secret so it made sense. He slept in the basement and I took the upper area. I had a great skylight to make entrances and exits when doing Spidey related stuff. I thought everything would be cool but you know how it is Mrs. Summers Xander luck…always bad. I could not catch a break, not with School, not with Cordy and not with Faith when she showed up. Seems like someone always needed Spider-man. Wish I could have said the same about Xander Harris.
It was a week after the incident with the band candy. Xander was out swinging. He had found web slinging to be a great way to exercise and the tightness of his outfit hinted that he had been sneaking too many candy bars. He tried not to think about Cordillia.
How many missed dates and late meetings? The danm thing was he couldn't very well tell Cordy the truth. Spidey had to stop a mugger, Spidey had to save a busload of kids, and Spidey had to halt a rampaging demon rhino. If life with Buffy proved anything, the more people knew your secrets the more people were in the line of fire when the bad guys came calling. If he decided to be Spider-man then Cordeliawas safer without him. Considering the latest date he had missed was an invite to a restaurant famous for being "the Place to break up in", he suspected Cordeliawould soon give him his walking papers. Even if he just took care of the human crime in Sunnydale, something always demanded his attention. Robberies, purse snatchings, muggings but somehow just when he was ready to call it a night, something else popped up. He wondered how Buffy stayed on top of it. The other day Cordy had snidely hinted that he was spending a lot of time with Willow.
Xander hissed in frustration, like he had time to breathe let alone play footsie with Willow. Her and Oz had such couple goodness going that frankly, Xander was jealous. Oz only had to avoid Willow three nights out of the month. The rest of the time was couples heaven.
He forgot his sorrows by doing an extra long forward flip that carried him over a building. He snagged a fire escape railing and came to rest over looking a bleak alleyway. A girl was fighting someone, actually a couple of someone's.
The group of thugs swarmed her. She took a hit that sent her to the ground. She back-flipped to her feet, kicked, and punched at the guy who got the lucky hit before lashing out with a stake. The offending thug vanished in a swirl of dust, a Vampire Slayer, but not Buffy.
He dropped down into a crouch in front of one of the attackers and launched him skyward with a punch that sent him crashing into a garbage can. "That evens the odds just a bit."
"I don't need any help." The girl snarled and Xander recognized Faith. She of the fantastic body, tight outfits and interesting morals, that she was a Slayer made the package so much more tempting.
"You Slayers really know how to party." He responded and tossed a vamp toward her. She staked the vamp in the air.
"I do OK, you're Spider-guy."
"Spider-man, I'd say my reputation preceded me but after that crack…." He web-snagged the leg of the last vampire and swung him around in a circle. The vampire smashed into a crate next to Faith with an audible crunch. She winced before driving a stake into him.
Faith looked at the smashed crate "That looked like that hurt."
"It my favorite game, I call it snap-the-twit." He said nonchalantly
Faith laughed deeply." I thought this town was all boring - all the time. "
"Vampire slayers, masked vigilantes Sunnydale has it all."
She laughed and stuck out her hand "I'm Faith, B mentioned Sunnydale had it's own masked do-gooder."
"Do good, I thought I was doing fantastic."
They made light conversation. Faith was curious about his non-Scooby status. "That's Xander Harris' thing I'm more an action kind of guy. Anything pops up that the Slayer needs help with, Xander gives me the heads up." he told her
That was the start of his relationship with Faith. Over the next few weeks, they ran into each other on and off.
After the Gwen Post affair, she avoided most of the group but Spider-man found her ready and willing to train and patrol. So, in his own way Xander kept an eye on the volatile Slayer.
One afternoon she tracked him to the school cafeteria. She avoided Sunnydale High so her presence was a surprise.
Xander smiled in greeting "Faith, what's doing. Long time no see."
"What's up X-man, can I ask a favour. I need to meet the Spider tonight."
"Well, I'm just his paparazzi I have no control over where and when he shows up. "
"Listen Short Round, the web-head fessed up that you pass him the skinny on Slayer stuff. Something's hit town and I need help, I don't want to go to Buffy."
Xander nodded "is it serious,"
"Its me and I'm asking for help from you, what do you think."
"Point taken, I'll put the word out."
That night Spiderman showed up at the park that had become their regular rendezvous. "So what's this about, you're the Slayer who doesn't need help. "
"How much did Xan tell you about me."
"You're cute, you slay. Anything else I figure you'll spill when it's right."
"I'm kinda tight with the details of my past "
" As long as I can count on you to be in my corner does it really matter how you got there."
"That's what I like about you, you give me my space, and you don't treat me like you want to intervention me to death. "
"Stop this could get mushy; we might have to hug or something. "
"Back home I ran with a crowd, before I got the calling. There was a guy, he was kinda cool and dangerous like I thought I wanted back then. I came clean about the whole Slayer thing and he kinda freaked. Not in the I don't want to have anything to do with you kind of way; more like the you're-a-supernatural-freak-and-I-love-it, kind of way."
"He became an uber-fan of the dark."
She nodded "He started running with a bunch of wild bunch of animals…a real wild pack if you get my meaning. They had been attacking people, killing some, and turning others. The Watcher and me were working overtime to deal. They offered him membership in the Pack, but they wanted a loyalty test. I was the test. He passed with flying colours.
"They made him one of their own before I got free, I went postal on the rest of the pack but him …well he may have betrayed me but I still found him cute."
"Let me guess you gave him the I-kill-you-the-next-time-I-see-you speech and he hasn't taken the hint."
"I found a few traces, things that only I would know."
"…And you think Buffy and the Slayerettes would less then understanding.
"You think I don't know what they think of me. Buffy has this Pretty Princess thing going on. And where she goes, so goes the rest of the group."
"Well I could argue the point but why do you think she would have issue with your past."
"She gets her happy-on with Angel and is all conflicted. I'd rather not deal with her superior looks if she meet Donnie."
"There was a bit more to the Angel-thing then that "
"She got the need, she filled it, and Mr. Dark and Sexy morphed into Mr. dark and sinister. Aside from the trying to destroy the world thing, that would pretty much be the textbook reaction of every male on earth."
I'll try not to let your obvious prejudice bother me. So what are we hunting, wolf?"
No, cat as in panther
"A were-panther."
Faith nodded
"If you tell me he's black, I'm going home."
"Before or after he was cursed?"
"Never mind, the surprise will make the hunt more fun."
They took to the streets searching for any trace of the were-cat Donnie. Faith tracked from the ground while Spider-Man took to the rooftops and kept a long-range eye out.
Near a cemetery, Faith signaled him from the ground and he dropped to her side.
"Another trail and this one is hours old, they were by here."
Spider-man looked around and concentrated his own senses. He felt a tremor in the air and pointed. "That way something over near the mausoleums."
The duo sped to the spot and Faith started tracking a group of beings. They ran the trail; eventually catching up with a bunch of vamps surrounding a scared looking human, Willie-the-Snitch.
"You didn't say anything about a Slayer Willie." One of them called as he rushed Faith.
Two more closed on Spider-man who ducked and avoided their blows he punched and kicked at the attackers before leaping to grab a fence post and pull it clean out of the ground. "Faith catch."
Faith grabbed the pole out of the air and began whirling it around herself beating at the vampire and eventually tripping it and sending it to the ground she plunged her two foot stake into her assailant. His dust was still billowing in the air as she closed with the other two.
Willie bolted and Spider-man darted after him. Willie led the chase into an abandoned building and up two flights of steps before bursting out on the roof. Fleeing, he tried to jump to the next building but his bad conditioning finally caught him up. He plunged off the roof. Spidey leapt to the building edge and snagged him with a web line arresting his fall. Spider-man shook the line a bit. "Willie I'm stronger then I look but those goons you hired got a few good shots is there anything you'd like to confess before you're street pizza. "
Willie gave a small unmanly scream as he dangled over the drop "Anything you want to know anything. You want to know who was on the grassy knoll. A Largas demon was in Dallas saw the whole thing. You want I should give the number of the demon clan the mob sold Jimmy Hoffa to, they showed me pictures of the picnic lunch they made out of the carcass. "
Faith appeared on the roof still brushing Vamp dust from her sleek form. "Who is this?"
"A snitch, knows all and hears even more then he knows and shares it when he has been persuaded."
"She wouldn't hurt me she's a Slayer like that Buffy-chick "
"Oh no Willie I'm a Slayer but I'm also a professional who enjoys her work. I prefer my men with a bit more …stamina…. I guess I could amuse myself with you. "
"What do you mean." He asked fearfully
Spidey sensing her game dragged Willie back to the roof and strung him up so that he still hung upside down. Faith sauntered up to him and caressed his bald, sweating, head.
"Willie, I can do…things. Things that make men scream. Sometimes it's good screaming sometimes its not. Tell me what we are looking for or I'll do things to you that will make you beg "
"Beg to make you stop."
She leaned in, her lips mere inches from his ears. "You'll beg me to keep going. You'll know that your body can't handle it and that you'll literally drop dead if I don't stop but you'll beg me to keep going cause you won't care if you die. "
Xander gave the suddenly pliable Willie a finger-poke sending his body swinging "Were-beasts, they are fresh into to town and they are looking for a home you probably know where they are or who hooked them up."
"Yeah they were kind of nervous, I gave them a tip on a squat over on Blistren street. "
"Why were they nervous? " Faith pressed
"Something has been haunting them."
"You mean someone?" Spider-man corrected
"No I mean something, and that something has popped up here before. Nobody who knows what it is will talk about it and anyone that has actually seen it are among the living …or the un-living."
Spider-man left Willie hanging. He seemed upset at the idea until Spidey volunteered to leave him alone with Faith and go find a means to cut him loose. Oddly enough after that he calmed down and relaxed in his web-bindings.
Spidey and Faith web-swung across the city to the address Willie had given. "Willie normally needs more threats to body and soul then you gave him. " Spidey asked archly
"I threatened something he values more, " Faith replied flirtatiously "his manhood. All men fantasize about strong women but most are afraid of …not measuring up… very few would know what to do with one if they had the chance."
Arriving at an abandoned house, Spider-man and Faith scouted the place. "Let's wait, I'll see if there is anything we need to know about. " She nodded and He web-swung them back across town to her motel.
As they hurtled though the air Faith clung to him and he found the sensation extremely pleasant, if a bit distracting. "You are one scrumptious piece to have at the back during a throw down." The Slayer smiled
Xander was glad of the mask covering his face, Faith had already proved she could read men like the simple Dick and Jane books she felt they all were.
"You did the heavy lifting I just applied a bit of lubricant." Xander winced at his choice of words.
"All this hunting and fighting, gets me kind of keyed up, you know." She supplied
Her sly invite to crash was not lost on him but he reluctantly declined. "Unlike you my dear, we spider-men need our beauty rest."
Sure I can't persuade you," she smiled sliding closer to him. "You look like you could handle anything I threw at you. But, Suit yourself." She entwined her arms around his shoulders and slipping his mask up about half way, gave him a kiss on the mouth. It felt like sweet, warm, honey sliding across his tongue. "You know The Sister's were right, waiting does make it more fun."
Xander buried the Faith-The-Naughty-Nun scenario that popped in to his head "I'll get Harris to get the info to you during the day and we can meet this evening."
Faith laughed at that "Are you sure, nothing against Harris but B' seems to think he gets in trouble almost as much as he helps with. I think she would ditch him for his own good if she thought Red…Willow I mean, would let her get away with it."
Xander was again thankful for the mask he wore. It totally hid the look of dismay that drained the lust from his body. Suck it up Harris he thought to himself, Faith thinks Xander Harris is safe in his bed, not standing in front of her. Aloud he said to Faith. "Harris has some hidden talents, he might just surprise you." He didn't trust himself enough to say anything else to the Slayer as he leapt away.
Xander was still fuming at Faith's little dig, He couldn't really blame her after all she had to have gotten her ideas from somewhere and chances where it was from Buffy herself. Obviously, things were not as back to normal as he might have hoped. As He landed on the skylight of the loft, he heard Buffy and Angel talking. Their voices raised to somewhere just south of screech level. .
Since Angel's return and Xander moving in, Angel had been limiting his alone time with Buffy. At first, his excuse was his slow recovery from his time in the Hell dimension, for Buffy, Xander and rest it had been a few months. For Angel it had been decades of torture. He was only now finally recovering his full strength. Eventually, the truth was obvious. Angel did not trust him self. Angelus was only an incautious moment away. Far better to push Buffy away then risk the alternative. Buffy was feeling his rejection and was taking it badly. Xander's heart ached for her but in his opinion, Angel was taking the right course. Xander could have told Buffy that Angel still thought of her. The passion filled moans Xander heard while Angel slept bespoke of a dream-state that was All Buffy, All The Time, Xander had to wonder if Angel's Buffy dreams were a secret torture or the only blessing in a tortured unlife.
Xander waited until the Slayer left before slipping through his Skylight. Angel stood in front of the kitchen sink clutching a wineglass. As Xander watched, he crushed it, grinding the broken shards into his undead flesh until black blood dripped into the sink.
"I'm thinking that The Talk didn't go well." Xander said quietly. He passed the vampire a towel to wrap his lacerated hand.
"What really annoys me is all her arguments about why we shouldn't let the curse stand in our way are the same as mine." Angel said quietly
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "The heart wants what it wants. And it don't care too much about what gets roasted along the way."
Angel walked out of the kitchen "How was your night out."
Xander winced "Faith has found the perfect partner, if I could get her to respect Xander as well as Spider-man, life would be perfect."
"You always wanted to have a Slayer of your very own." Angel smiled
"Yeah well, as Spock says having a thing is not so pleasing as wanting a thing, it is not logical but it often true."
"What is it you're always saying…Xander luck, Always bad."
Xander sleepwalked through the rest of the day. Web slinging at night followed by research pre-school will do that for you. However, he found his friends full of questions about his alter egos nighttime activities.
"What's with Spider-man hanging around with Faith." Willow had been having Faith related issues since the Party girl/ Slayer hit town.
"Faith just likes having someone she can work with." Xander said soothingly
"Faith works alone " Buffy snapped peevishly
"No Faith HAS to work alone. There is a subtle difference." Xander supplied a note of annoyance creeping past his tiredness
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think she feels on the outside she might appreciate it if we didn't do that."
"Who told you I treat her bad you little Spider-friend."
"Buffy, if the sky wasn't the right shade of blue, you'd blame it on Spider-man. You don't want his help and you don't want Faith's help. How about next time I find you face deep in a pool of water I'll just let you drown, I might chip a nail saving your life again."
"If anything happened to you, saving my life I'd never forgive myself. Or did that thought not occur to your stubborn pig head.
"No" Xander shouted, "I was too busy thinking that I shouldn't be hiding behind a best friend when more often then not she marches in to danger to save people I care about."
Well if you are so worried about my safety why would you tell Spider-man stuff that we discuss."
"Maybe because I constantly fear that one night there will be one vampire too many or a demon just a bit too strong and you won't come home. How could I forgive myself knowing that you went down fighting for me and I was hiding in the library."
"Is it just me or this friendly conversation gotten really loud." Willow shouted
Xander slumped in a chair, for over a year he had been fighting to juggle his life as Spider-man and his life as a Slayerette. He wondered how it had gotten this far. He looked at them all and promised he would tell them the truth, the whole truth when this was over.
"Look I have to find some title info on a house on Blistren Street. Faith was followed to town by some were-beast named Donnie and she wants to handle it herself"
Buffy nodded "I assume by handle herself she wants Spider-mans help and came to you to get it."
Xander nodded "Apparently I have my uses."
"You've were useful long before Spider-man showed up." Buffy said warmly. Willow glowed at the kind words.
"Look I have to finish this thing. Then maybe we should talk."
Buffy and Willow nodded. They spent the next hour in companionable silence digging up info. By the early evening, Xander knew everything about the Blistren street address including that it had Sewer Access.
"You want me to do what?"
"Go in through the sewers. I bust in through the front, grab their attention then you take them from the rear."
It was after moonrise and Xander was back in costume. Faith was having trouble with the intrigue-ridden nature of his plan. He explained that Were-beasts possessed senses more acute then human or even Slayer senses. The sewer would cover her sight, sound, and smell. She whined some more but in the end, she had no better ideas herself. They separated. Xander counted to five hundred then hit the door running. He slapped the two beasts just on the other side and back-flipped his way up a set of stairs to crouch on a railing perfectly balanced.
"I'm the local welcome wagon, welcome to the neighborhood. " one of the beasts leapt at him and he caught it in mid-air body slamming the creature to the floor. Down Odie." He snapped then dodged an attack by two more of the shape-shifters. He snared their feet in webbing then hurled them into the air to leave them dangling over a several foot drop. He saw a were-panther (reddish brown, not black) darting toward the back of the house. Knowing that Faith was coming that way he didn't give chase and instead laid into the crowd of beasts who had finally realized the darting form flitting among them was one man and needed to be killed.
He dodged as best and as fast as his spider reflexes let him. Landing punches when he could to keep his more persistent attackers at bay. "Danm it Faith get your Slayer ass in here." he muttered as he dodged a were-paw sporting claws the size of steak knives.
As they herded him toward a corner, he saw glimpse of Faith. He spun and ran to a wall, rebounding off it and scattering the pack like pins in a bowling alley. Bouncing through the doorway, he saw Faith angling for a shot at the fleeing Donnie but a larger creature that was obviously the alpha of the grub was about to jump her. Spider-man crouched and unloaded a devastating punch that caused the leader to yelp and sent him flying though a window
The last thing Xander saw as he leapt after the leader was Faith ram Donnie to the ground with an audible crunch.
Outside the smell of wet fur fouled the night. "Come out. Come out wherever you are." He called the flare of his spider sense almost arrived too late
"You're dead, " the Alpha male screamed. Spider-man back-flipped over top of the thing but the leader got a paw on him and slammed him to the ground. Crouching over him the leader bared his jaws intending to rip out the throat of the interloper. For Spidey, thought and action were one. He cocked his arm and fired a mass of webbing into the face of his foe. The beast screamed and tore at the sticky webbing. Suddenly the ground beneath them tore and ripped thawing both of them to the side.
A thing, a man in military fatigues rotted and decayed by time rose from the ground. It had a blindfold over its eyes yet it looked at both Spider-man and the Alpha male.
"You " the leader cried out in fear. "We lost you in Portland, we saw you die."
Wailing, as though in pain, the army man cried out, "I live as long as your sins need Punishment."
The alpha started to run. The Punisher dropped to the ground, crouching. Xander noticed for the first time that strapped to the demonic being's back was an odd assortment of guns that literally seemed to grow from its back. The guns swiveled seemingly of their own accord and locked onto the fleeing were-beast a roar filled the air and the leaders' body flipped high as shots twisted and threw it to the ground like a broken rag doll.
Xander looked on in amazement. "What the hell was that."
The Punisher returned to his feet and looked at Xander. "Justice, the only Justice his kind understand, or deserve."
He turned and Xander shouted to stop the behemoth "You can't just gun someone down there are laws, rules."
The zombie turned back "I used to believe that, Death opened my eyes to the reality. There is only action and consequence, crime and punishment. A life taken and Lives I take in return." The demonic thing slipped back into the ground leaving no trace it had ever been there. Save for the cooling body sprawled on the grass.
He returned to the house to find Faith in battle frenzy. Donnie was cowering in a corner as Faith raved at him between aiming kicks that took him in any part of his body not protected by the ball he was folded into. "Faith Don't"
She kicked him hard he crawled away but the enraged Slayer jumped on top of him and slammed his skull to the floor. Then she wrapped her fist around his throat. "She's dead because of you, now it's your turn."
Donnie let out a very human like yell of pain and then began choking as Faith began crushing his windpipe. Xander came up behind her fast and grabbed her lifting her off the prone and helpless were-best.
She swore and spun to tag him with her fist. He shook off the momentary daze and then released her.
"Are you better now, I signed on for a sweep and clear. You never mentioned murder "
"He attacked me I kind of lost it"
"Ah good of you to penetrate his cleaver plot. Cause it looked to me like he was running from you like his ass was on fire."
"You have to protect me, save me she's nuts." Donnie cringed
"Do I even need to tell you to shut up" Xander snapped at him before turning back to the still agitated Faith. "Ok out with it Faith, what detail did you leave out of your story."
"He killed my watcher."
"Kokistos killed your watcher "
"Harris been telling tells, He would probably blab any little secret he had on me."
"Harris isn't the issue, how did this guy kill your watcher.
"I knew Kokistos was on my tail, I was trying to stay on top of things, then lover boy comes on to me, love love, need need, playing on our past like going horizontal makes him special. I fell for it and he kept me distracted long enough for Kokistos to grab my watcher, the rest is history."
"He didn't come here looking for you he just showed up like everyone else does."
"If it weren't for him maybe my Watcher might still be alive, I wouldn't be living in Princess Buffy's shadow."
"You don't know that Faith. You were out for revenge, pure and simple."
"He had it coming "
"Because you got distracted, All revenge does is blind you to what's going on around you."
"I was totally focused."
"So focused, I had to hold off the entire pack and save you from the leader just so that you could get to Donnie, if anyone else had been at your back they would have been toast."
"I'm a Slayer, I realize with Buffy running around bonking them you forget but that means I kill the bad guys
Xander ignored her "Donnie the thing your leader was running from caught up to him. I suggest that you gather your pack and get out of town, the next time you see her will be the last time."
"I'm not letting him leave here alive."
"Then you come though me to get him, I don't want to do that but I'll do what I have to if it keeps you from doing something you'll regret."
"I could take you,"
"Maybe you could but could you do it and still catch up to Donnie-boy, you know I don't go down quick. Make the smart choice."
She cursed and spun on her heel, Donnie fled and soon the house was empty.
He searched the town and eventually found her at her motel on a whim he switched back to his civilian clothes. Thus, it was Xander, who joined her on the roof watching the Sun raise.
"What do you want, is it lecture time. "Did Spidey rat me out."
"He mentioned there had been words but from the way he talked he guessed you might want some non-Spidey time."
Faith laughed. "Figures I finally meet a guy who doesn't want to use me, abuse me or cower at my feet like a dog and I piss him off."
"He did the right thing, you would have regretted killing Donnie."
"It would have made me feel better. "
"For awhile, then you would have started looking for another Donnie and another. Soon the face and the crime wouldn't matter, just that killing them makes you feel better."
"You know what Xan-man thanks for come here tonight, and tell the Spider I appreciate him sending you over."
"Hey Spider-man knew that what you needed was a friend. " Xander said hopping down to the ground followed by the tortured Slayer.
"That's why he's an awesome dude, He knew I was totally jonesing for him but he guessed where my head was at."
Xander stiffened; "Please God do not let her say the words I know are coming" he pleaded silently to the universe.
"I guess that's why you hang out with him. He's easily twice the man I've ever known, you were sharp for hooking up with him Xander. I'm glad we can all be friends."
Xander had a brief moment as he watched her close the door. Spider-man could get in there. She would do anything for Spider-man, thing was Xander was who Spider-man really was and Xander was out here. Another female saw him as a friend and nothing more.
"How does Clark stinking Kent do this. " He moaned, as he walked homeward "No wander Bruce Wayne is crazy, he frustrated at all the chicks that love Batman and ignore him. "
