"Right, once upon a time, there was this woman. More like a girl in a grown up body. And she had a boyfriend, this guy that she thought was wonderful and kind and loyal… the whole usual load of crap." Faith leaned back, her eyes following the line of ceiling tiles. "Anyhow, one day, this woman found out that apparently she and what's his name hadn't been as careful as they'd thought, and there would be a few changes in her life. Next thing you know, he's gone, she's wondering what the hell happened, and a few months later, there I am. She never let me forget that I ruined everything for her."
"But… you didn't make the guy leave. And that wouldn't keep her from finding someone else, right?" Lorrie blinked, as if the whole mess was almost foreign.
"She found other guys. Dated, dumped them, got dumped. Didn't matter that much, they were all jerks. Apparently, that was the type of guy she liked." Faith sighed, the familiar bitterness welling up inside of her. "Mellie showed up when I was nine. She offered to take care of me, to take me in. Just like that, mom handed me over. She didn't even ask any questions."
"Mellie… she was your Watcher?" Lorrie whispered, her eyes wide. "My first Watcher was Eli, but he… He was an old man, and it… People don't live forever."
"Yeah. Mellie was my Watcher. She cared about me, took care of me. She made sure that I could read, and hit the linguistics thing, so I could get headaches from the old demon books too. I learned about weapons, and fighting, and how to throw knives." Faith smiled, remembering the happiness of those days. "God, sometimes I just wish I could go back to how things were then…"
"What about the Handbook?" Lorie was leaning forward, her eyes full of questions. "Eli said that it was dreadfully outdated, obeying the rules of a society that had entirely changed and trying to shape my life accordingly."
"Mellie said it was great practice for figuring out pompous old texts written a couple centuries back. For the way they put their sentences together, and the wherefores and so forth's. The pages made decent knife targets as well." Faith grinned just a bit.
"What changed?"
` "Turns out there was this little blond girl in California. Maybe your age, but… nobody had ever told her about a sacred destiny, or about potentials and demons. And then one night, boom, a Slayer went down, and the fate of the world rested on Buffy." Faith sighed, reminding herself to try to stick to just the facts.
"Who's Buffy?" Lorrie frowned, and looked over at a hideously looming bookshelf. "Was she the one with friends and family?"
"Her mom, and a couple good friends." Faith sighed, feeling a stab of envy. She'd never had friends like that. "Anyhow, there was some sort of prophecy, a big bad vampire, and little miss Slay-girl gets drowned. Just for a few moments. But that called a new Slayer."
"How can you drown just a little? I mean, a slayer's only called by death." Lorrie frowned, her feet kicking on the chair legs.
"Thing about the whole destined powers or whatever makes girls into Slayers – they never heard of CPR. One of her friends had followed her, and when she went down, he pulled her out. Breath of life, and there you go, one not so drowned Slayer." Faith sighed, once more wondering how Buffy could have been so blind as to miss out on the guy's crush. "The Chosen One became the Chosen Two."
"There was another Slayer. Who?" Lorrie was leaning forward now, fascinated.
"Girl named Kendra. Apparently, she was all by the book, didn't even know how to talk to guys. So, there's the cheerleader and the textbook Slayer. Big bad evil on the west coast, they both try to stop it, and Kendra dies. Nest thing I know, everything's changed. Except that I didn't really know about another Slayer, didn't know that I wasn't the one and only Chosen One. Not until…" Faith swallowed, remembering Kakistos, remembering the nightmare of death and panic. "Not until later, when some bad things happened. Mellie died."
"A vampire, right? Was it… was it about information?" Lorrie whispered, her eyes filled with pain.
"I think it was just because he was an evil bastard. But I ran, headed for Sunnydale, where there might be help. And then… well…. Things didn't go like I'd planned. Kakistos got staked, but… Let's just say it didn't work well." Faith sighed, slouching into the chair.
"And now you're here?" Lorrie ventured, still looking oddly at Faith.
"Yeah, now I'm here. I got Mort, who's the first decent guy that I've known in practically ever. I got Tanya, who seems… She reminds me some of Mellie and some of Joyce. More like Joyce, actually. And there's big danger, and the fate of the world as we know it, and all these big questions about humans and mutants. And I keep dreaming about Mellie and Dick." Faith tried to control her emotions, tried to force her eyes to stay dry, her breathing to stay even.
"Who's Dick? And… I hope that's a name, and not…" Lorrie was turning bright pink as she spoke.
"Richard Wilkins. He… he sort of took care of me for a while. But he's… he's dead now too, like Mellie." Faith tried to smile, tried to avoid the deeper questions.
"You're dreaming about dead people. That's just weird sounding." Lorrie shook her head, looking again at the looming shelves. "But not really any stranger than vampires and demons and magic doors that are worth killing over."
"Yeah, welcome to the life of a Slayer. It starts to eat you even before you get Called, and I don't know if anything stops it but death. I wonder if any of us, if anyone with the Slayer potential gets to have a life, gets to just live for themselves." She knew that there was bitterness there, and couldn't quite bring herself to care. As far as she could tell, it was true.
"Sometimes life just…" Lorrie sighed, and pulled her knees up. "It's not fair. And that doesn't change anything, and pointing it out can't fix it, and a good Watcher can't fix it, and it sounds an awful lot like whining, but…"
"But life isn't fair, and it often sucks." Faith nodded. "Pretty much."
Lorrie sat there for a few moments, maybe thinking about what Faith had said, maybe considering the past, or maybe just staring at the carpet. "Would it be too much to hope that the new Watcher – because you know that they'll send me one – will be someone tolerable? Someone who won't try to push me into a system that's been out of date for a few hundred years?"
"You'd think it wouldn't be too much." Faith sighed, and considered the matter. ""I just don't know. Maybe it would be best to hope for someone who knows their stuff, and doesn't try to run your life too much? I mean, we can find someone else to cover how to fight."
"Just like that?" Lorrie looked over, one eyebrow raised. "It can't be that easy, can it?"
"It's a lot easier to find someone who knows how to fight, or several someones to cover different aspects, than to find someone who can read all the languages, and has the demon lore." Faith sighed, and let her feet slide back to the floor. "I just…. The Council's full of jerks."
"The whole world's full of jerks." Lorrie sighed, and got out of the chair. "I guess we might as well keep packing stuff. Do we have any leads on the door thing? Why she wants this Door of Heaven?"
"A couple ideas, but nothing that we can point to in a book." Faith sighed, part of her wanting to tell Lorrie, and part of her not trusting the other girl. "We figured that there would be researching, and I emailed someone in Sunnydale to see if they could find anything. Allegedly, they'll do some research and get back to me if they find anything, but I'm not sure if we can count on anything from that direction."
"Okay… I'll just go pack up the crossbow. And my other clothing." Lorrie vanished into a bedroom.
As they packed up everything that they could find in the little house to indicate that a girl or someone from the Watcher's Council had lived here, Faith could only hope that something would go their way. That Mort would be able to get useful contact with those Xavier's people, that Willow and the Sunnydale people would find something useful and share it, that they'd be able to get a decent Watcher. Something, anything to give them a better chance.
Faith really should have known better than to make such a generalized wish, even if it wasn't out loud.
End 33.
"But… you didn't make the guy leave. And that wouldn't keep her from finding someone else, right?" Lorrie blinked, as if the whole mess was almost foreign.
"She found other guys. Dated, dumped them, got dumped. Didn't matter that much, they were all jerks. Apparently, that was the type of guy she liked." Faith sighed, the familiar bitterness welling up inside of her. "Mellie showed up when I was nine. She offered to take care of me, to take me in. Just like that, mom handed me over. She didn't even ask any questions."
"Mellie… she was your Watcher?" Lorrie whispered, her eyes wide. "My first Watcher was Eli, but he… He was an old man, and it… People don't live forever."
"Yeah. Mellie was my Watcher. She cared about me, took care of me. She made sure that I could read, and hit the linguistics thing, so I could get headaches from the old demon books too. I learned about weapons, and fighting, and how to throw knives." Faith smiled, remembering the happiness of those days. "God, sometimes I just wish I could go back to how things were then…"
"What about the Handbook?" Lorie was leaning forward, her eyes full of questions. "Eli said that it was dreadfully outdated, obeying the rules of a society that had entirely changed and trying to shape my life accordingly."
"Mellie said it was great practice for figuring out pompous old texts written a couple centuries back. For the way they put their sentences together, and the wherefores and so forth's. The pages made decent knife targets as well." Faith grinned just a bit.
"What changed?"
` "Turns out there was this little blond girl in California. Maybe your age, but… nobody had ever told her about a sacred destiny, or about potentials and demons. And then one night, boom, a Slayer went down, and the fate of the world rested on Buffy." Faith sighed, reminding herself to try to stick to just the facts.
"Who's Buffy?" Lorrie frowned, and looked over at a hideously looming bookshelf. "Was she the one with friends and family?"
"Her mom, and a couple good friends." Faith sighed, feeling a stab of envy. She'd never had friends like that. "Anyhow, there was some sort of prophecy, a big bad vampire, and little miss Slay-girl gets drowned. Just for a few moments. But that called a new Slayer."
"How can you drown just a little? I mean, a slayer's only called by death." Lorrie frowned, her feet kicking on the chair legs.
"Thing about the whole destined powers or whatever makes girls into Slayers – they never heard of CPR. One of her friends had followed her, and when she went down, he pulled her out. Breath of life, and there you go, one not so drowned Slayer." Faith sighed, once more wondering how Buffy could have been so blind as to miss out on the guy's crush. "The Chosen One became the Chosen Two."
"There was another Slayer. Who?" Lorrie was leaning forward now, fascinated.
"Girl named Kendra. Apparently, she was all by the book, didn't even know how to talk to guys. So, there's the cheerleader and the textbook Slayer. Big bad evil on the west coast, they both try to stop it, and Kendra dies. Nest thing I know, everything's changed. Except that I didn't really know about another Slayer, didn't know that I wasn't the one and only Chosen One. Not until…" Faith swallowed, remembering Kakistos, remembering the nightmare of death and panic. "Not until later, when some bad things happened. Mellie died."
"A vampire, right? Was it… was it about information?" Lorrie whispered, her eyes filled with pain.
"I think it was just because he was an evil bastard. But I ran, headed for Sunnydale, where there might be help. And then… well…. Things didn't go like I'd planned. Kakistos got staked, but… Let's just say it didn't work well." Faith sighed, slouching into the chair.
"And now you're here?" Lorrie ventured, still looking oddly at Faith.
"Yeah, now I'm here. I got Mort, who's the first decent guy that I've known in practically ever. I got Tanya, who seems… She reminds me some of Mellie and some of Joyce. More like Joyce, actually. And there's big danger, and the fate of the world as we know it, and all these big questions about humans and mutants. And I keep dreaming about Mellie and Dick." Faith tried to control her emotions, tried to force her eyes to stay dry, her breathing to stay even.
"Who's Dick? And… I hope that's a name, and not…" Lorrie was turning bright pink as she spoke.
"Richard Wilkins. He… he sort of took care of me for a while. But he's… he's dead now too, like Mellie." Faith tried to smile, tried to avoid the deeper questions.
"You're dreaming about dead people. That's just weird sounding." Lorrie shook her head, looking again at the looming shelves. "But not really any stranger than vampires and demons and magic doors that are worth killing over."
"Yeah, welcome to the life of a Slayer. It starts to eat you even before you get Called, and I don't know if anything stops it but death. I wonder if any of us, if anyone with the Slayer potential gets to have a life, gets to just live for themselves." She knew that there was bitterness there, and couldn't quite bring herself to care. As far as she could tell, it was true.
"Sometimes life just…" Lorrie sighed, and pulled her knees up. "It's not fair. And that doesn't change anything, and pointing it out can't fix it, and a good Watcher can't fix it, and it sounds an awful lot like whining, but…"
"But life isn't fair, and it often sucks." Faith nodded. "Pretty much."
Lorrie sat there for a few moments, maybe thinking about what Faith had said, maybe considering the past, or maybe just staring at the carpet. "Would it be too much to hope that the new Watcher – because you know that they'll send me one – will be someone tolerable? Someone who won't try to push me into a system that's been out of date for a few hundred years?"
"You'd think it wouldn't be too much." Faith sighed, and considered the matter. ""I just don't know. Maybe it would be best to hope for someone who knows their stuff, and doesn't try to run your life too much? I mean, we can find someone else to cover how to fight."
"Just like that?" Lorrie looked over, one eyebrow raised. "It can't be that easy, can it?"
"It's a lot easier to find someone who knows how to fight, or several someones to cover different aspects, than to find someone who can read all the languages, and has the demon lore." Faith sighed, and let her feet slide back to the floor. "I just…. The Council's full of jerks."
"The whole world's full of jerks." Lorrie sighed, and got out of the chair. "I guess we might as well keep packing stuff. Do we have any leads on the door thing? Why she wants this Door of Heaven?"
"A couple ideas, but nothing that we can point to in a book." Faith sighed, part of her wanting to tell Lorrie, and part of her not trusting the other girl. "We figured that there would be researching, and I emailed someone in Sunnydale to see if they could find anything. Allegedly, they'll do some research and get back to me if they find anything, but I'm not sure if we can count on anything from that direction."
"Okay… I'll just go pack up the crossbow. And my other clothing." Lorrie vanished into a bedroom.
As they packed up everything that they could find in the little house to indicate that a girl or someone from the Watcher's Council had lived here, Faith could only hope that something would go their way. That Mort would be able to get useful contact with those Xavier's people, that Willow and the Sunnydale people would find something useful and share it, that they'd be able to get a decent Watcher. Something, anything to give them a better chance.
Faith really should have known better than to make such a generalized wish, even if it wasn't out loud.
End 33.