My thanks to those who have reviewed and otherwise indicated interest. I do appreciate it.
The Dawning of Faith
Chapter 31
But tears could also be healing, and Faith had so many years of pain to be healed.
"Giles has things set up for Tuesday, as long as everything else works out on schedule," Willow greeted Dawn at their session Thursday afternoon.
"No problem that I can see, Faith and I both felt the preliminaries last night," Dawn told her.
"For real, this time of the month I'm glad I'm not a Slayer, imagine cramps with muscles like that!"
Dawn did not care to imagine it.
"I tried that thing I talked with you about, it works," Dawn told her.
"Of course it works," Willow said confidently, "what about the energy drain?"
"Minimal, want me to show you?"
"Sure!"
Dawn moved into a clear space in the room, and waited for Willow to join her.
"Okay," Dawn began, "I'm going to hold your hands so that you can feel the energy flux better, but you don't have to have contact for this to work, got it?"
"Got it," promised Willow.
"Everything is connected, right?" Dawn asked.
"Yes," agreed Willow.
"So this is what it feels like to be disconnected…"
Willow felt a strange surge of energy, she reeled, and for an instant, she was aware of nothing whatsoever. When she had regained control of her perceptions, Dawn was several feet away.
"I had no sense of you moving," Willow told her.
"You had no sense of anything;" Dawn corrected her, "go back through the feeling."
Willow stepped back into herself, eyes closed, recalling the surge that she had experienced. Things nibbled at the edge of her understanding, and beads of sweat appeared on her brow. Dawn stood silently, watching.
Willow's eyes snapped open, and went round.
"As simple as that?" she asked in wonder.
"Everything is simple if you know the answer," Dawn replied.
"Well just fuck me," muttered Willow, stunned by what she had learned.
"Buffy wouldn't like that, nor Faith," Dawn teased, "but if I were free to do it, I would crawl you like a monkey on a banana tree," Dawn promised her.
"Thanks Dawnie," Willow smiled at her, "that's sweet."
"Don't tell Buffy I said that, okay?"
"Promise, and for my sake, don't tell Faith…"
"Done," promised Dawn.
"How long was that?" Willow asked.
"Not even a second. If I start to move as I invoke the flux, I can move several feet undetected, and I can do it for as long as I need to. It takes more energy from my opponent than it does from me. I can eventually incorporate this into my fighting style, but I don't want to rely on it too much. Better to save it for a real need than to get lazy with my training."
"Can you teach me?" Willow asked.
"I believe so; you, and likely Rachel too. I don't think many others will believe it enough to learn it," Dawn replied.
"So," Willow said with a rueful grin, "the student has become the master…"
"Only of this, Willow," Dawn admitted, "I still kind of suck at a lot of it."
"You can learn, the hard part is to believe, and you've got that covered."
Friday morning passed into Slayer legend.
"Everyone is… disabled?" Giles asked Buffy, who was the only other person in the dining area.
"Trust me, this sucks," Buffy promised as her face contorted and she pressed her hands to her abdomen.
"Is there anything I can do?" Giles asked, concern plain on his face.
"If I were you I'd go somewhere else," Buffy told him candidly. "I think this is a case of all of us girls rising to the occasion. Dawnie might be outside the circle, but Faith is dead center of it. Willow warned us it might happen, since she's already started work on the spell. This is messy, and it's painful, but it's beautiful."
"Indeed it is," Giles agreed. "I almost envy you all."
Buffy punched him in the stomach.
"Still envy us?"
"Only in the abstract," Giles admitted with a gasp. "Do call my cell if there is anything at all that I can do."
"You might get a shitload of Chunky Monkey and a ton of chocolate," Buffy suggested. "Oh, and some more heating pads."
"Done. Should I call Dr. Blake?"
"Not unless you want us to kill him," Buffy informed him.
"Right. Carry on then," Giles said as he fled the room.
"Like we have a choice," Buffy groaned.
"Diva cup, huh?" Faith muttered as she looked at the thing that Willow had given her. "Sounds like I'm shoving Diana Ross up my…" But she did it, because Willow had promised her that this was the best way to collect what they needed for Dawn's scythe. And because it would connect her with Dawn.
"This part of me is going to blend with Faith forever," Dawn thought as she dealt with her own appliance. "But I hope the next connection is a little less…"
Friday was a loss, Saturday a blur, and Sunday… Sunday was not too bad.
"I took the liberty of having breakfast catered…" Giles said hesitantly on Sunday morning. The breakfast crew mobbed him.
"Oh, I say..." mumbled Giles into someone's chest.
"Steak and eggs! Waffles! Bacon! Strawberries! Whipped cream! Hot maple syrup! Fresh squeezed OJ! Giles, you're a GOD!" exclaimed Buffy.
"I can't take all of the credit, I did ask Richard for advice on the menu, and he knew the caterer to call," Giles admitted.
"I hereby absolve you of the guilt that the rest of the males of the species must carry," said Willow seriously as she dug into her breakfast.
"Me too!" cried the other Slayers in chorus.
Giles had never been so happy in his life.
"I have also arranged to have the clean-up handled," Giles announced as the carnage wound down.
"I want your babies," Rona told him flatly.
"I'm done for," thought Giles, as he smiled nervously.
"She's got him," Buffy whispered to Willow.
"Not quite yet," Willow answered, "but my money's on Rona. Hand it to the girl, she plays to win."
"Yeah," agreed Buffy, "and she's fuckin' hot."
"May I assume that the necessary blood has been gathered?" Giles asked on Monday.
"Got a barn that needs painting?" answered Faith.
"Not just now, thank you," he replied. "Yoshi has assured me that he will be most honored to work with us on this. And he has arranged for complete privacy during the time we will be there. We need only to arrive prepared."
"We'll be good to go in the morning," Buffy assured him.
"That's great, Dawn," Faith told her as she felt the blow of the training scythe on her arm. "You're doing this just the right way. Don't let your opponent call the shots, stay loose, keep moving, and cut whatever you can. Remember that, if you fight at Yoshi's. Stick to your training, don't try and impress him by going for a quick kill. What impresses him is discipline and correct technique. Let's take a break."
They sat together on a bench and had some water.
"Ryuki has really helped me with my balance," Dawn volunteered, "she compares fighting to dancing, and it works for me. Dance, I know."
"Yeah you do," agreed Faith, "when we get back I'll get Buffy to help us out and see how we can handle two opponents for you."
"I'll train however you want me to, you're my instructor, but if I'm alone and there is more than one opponent, I'm going to 'port the hell out." Faith gave her a dazzling smile.
"That's my girl!"
"Not in here, in here I'm your student," Dawn responded.
"Then back to work, and watch out. Time to pick up the pace a little."
Tuesday morning found Faith and Dawn, and Buffy and Willow, in Giles' study, along with him and a neat pile of luggage.
"I'll handle the luggage," Willow said.
"Leave room for us," Dawn requested, "and I need to trace this sending."
"Right," said Willow as she reached for Dawn's hands. After a moment the pile of baggage vanished.
"Should the rest of us hold hands or something?" Buffy asked.
"No need," Dawn assured her, "except for Willow, touching her helps me to draw energy through her for the transfer."
"Transfer of wha-" Buffy began.
They appeared at the foot of a mountain, slightly dizzy from the transfer. The grasses on the hillside were flattened by a strong wind, and birds in the sky struggled for a moment.
"Fuck," muttered Buffy in awe as she looked around her.
"Okay," Willow agreed.
"Remarkable," murmured Giles.
"That's my Dawn!" said Faith proudly. Dawn took her arm, laying her head on Faith's shoulder.
"Yes I am."
The slopes of Mt. Fuji reared behind them, and in the nearby valley was a walled compound. A solitary figure stood before the gates.
"I'll go first," Faith said as she led off into the valley.
"Faith has to go first," Giles explained to Dawn, "then Buffy, Willow, myself, and then you, Dawn. This is a matter of tradition and respect, and it is quite serious."
"I understand," Dawn replied. The file moved steadily towards the gates, and at a little distance from them, Buffy halted the group.
"Faith goes now, just watch, you wouldn't see this from Yoshi with any other person on earth. This is a meeting of equals. Faith is the only person to defeat Yoshi-Sama since he assumed his mastery." Dawn felt a swelling of pride.
Faith stepped up to Yoshi, and they both bowed formally. They then each placed their right hands on one another's left shoulders, and gazed levelly at each other for a time.
"It is good to see you again, Yoshi-San," Faith greeted him.
"It is good to see you, Sumizome Shishi - San, Yoshi replied.
"Did he just call Faith a sissy?" Dawn asked Giles in an outraged whisper.
A/N: The next chapter and most of the rest of the story will contain made-up Japanese names such as Sumizome Shishi. I came up with these by using translation sites and then doing a little research on the various meanings of the results the translations yielded. I have zero knowledge of Japanese grammar and no doubt have them wrong in some measure. No disrespect is intended. I felt that these names were important to the story, and I like the way they sound.