Fifteen: Get In The Game
Angel kicked out at the one remaining vampire and he flew backwards, knocking into Wesley who fell back, the stake tumbling from his hand.
Angel rushed forward and grabbed the stake, dusting the vampire before he had a chance to bite Wesley.
He then offered his hand to the ex-watcher and pulled him up.
"Well, he certainly took me by surprise."
Angel rolled his eyes.
"They all do."
Wesley frowned.
Ok, so he wasn't as strong a fighter as Angel but he could hold his own...most times.
They were so busy talking that Angel barely ducked the knife that flew at his head.
It landed with a thunk into the tree behind him.
Angel turned and found Faith grinning at him.
He was momentarily shocked.
"Faith."
"Hey, baby. I came all this way to see you."
Angel looked at her and frowned.
"Last thing I heard was that you were in a coma."
Faith nodded.
"Yeah, for like...eight months? I tried living in Sunnydale but B just doesn't like me anymore, so I thought I'd come here and we could catch up. What d'ya think? Maybe we could go for a coffee?" She said, toying with him.
Angel glared at her.
"What do you want, Faith?"
Her expression remained on something that looked like a child having way too much fun and a mentally unstable person.
"I'm here to kill you, Soul Boy. I got a contract and everything."
Angel sighed.
"Lemme guess, Wolfram and Hart?"
"Yeah. They hate you bad, boy. Almost as much as me."
Angel shook his head.
"Are they paying you?"
Faith nodded.
"Is it worth it?"
Faith shrugged.
"Sets me up for life, well that's what the business chick said anyway."
"Lilah." Angel said knowingly.
"Oh you know her?"
Angel nodded.
Faith shrugged and then turned away.
"Well I gotta get going' but I'll see you round?"
"Will you?"
Faith smirked.
"I'm here to kill you, baby, and you know I always finish what I started."
Angel nodded and watched her walk away.
Wesley frowned.
"Now what?"
Angel glared at Faith's back.
"I got a phone call to make."
Buffy didn't answer like he'd thought so Angel was now talking to Giles.
"Why didn't anyone call me?"
"We didn't think she'd come for you, Angel. Her anger has always been directed at Buffy."
Angel sighed.
"Alright, fine. Take care." But he muttered it, he was annoyed that no one had warned him that Faith was awake.
...
Wesley flipped through the pages of his new book on demons and the occult.
He was doing his best to keep his mind off things but the fact that Faith was in LA and she was hired to kill Angel, made him over think things and conjure up things that hadn't even happened yet, which made everything seem that much worse.
Wesley almost jumped out of his chair when his door flew open, snapping back off it's hinges.
he turned as Faith walked in. She still wore that same unnerving grin.
"What do you want, Faith?" Wesley asked, standing now.
Faith shrugged as she casually walked into Wesley's apartment.
"Hmm, good question, Wes. I would like a mansion to live in, servants to cater to my every whim, a different lover every night and maybe a puppy but since I'm not gonna get all that, I'll settle for seeing Angel dead."
"You must know that's never going to happen, Faith."
She nodded in agreement.
"Maybe he just needs a little motivation."
Wesley frowned as she came closer.
"And by that you mean...?"
"I think maybe if I hurt someone he cared about, I think that would do it. Get him in the game a little more, y'know?"
Wesley frowned.
"So I suppose you're here to make sure that I go wherever you tell me."
"Nah, I was thinkin' we stay here and I do some good ol' fashioned torture on your English ass."
Wesley glared at her and took a fighter's stance.
Faith laughed loudly.
"You really think you can take me, Wes? I'm a slayer and you...well, you're not even like Giles... who let's face it, has more balls than you!"
Wesley refused to let her words hurt him or to show it at least.
The dig at him being the lesser man than Giles did hurt but he did everything by the book, he could proud of that.
"That may be so but at least I kept it professional."
Faith smirked at him.
"Yeah, you did and where did it get you, book boy? Being cornered by a slayer in your very own apartment."
"I'm not cornered and I am not going to do whatever you say."
Faith tilted her head as though considering this a challenge.
"Not yet anyway but there's time, Wes. Don't worry."
That was when she chose the moment to run at him, sending a flying roundhouse kick into his abdomen.
He fell, she delivered a hard punch right at his head before he could recover, and that was all Wesley remembered...
Faith paced backwards and fowards in front of her former watcher.
She cracked her knuckles and pulled a lighter from her pocket, flicking it on and off in her hand as she glanced at Wesley.
She would definitely use this. But what else could she use? Oh yeah! Ice and blunt objects. She was pretty sure they were in the different torture groups.
Plus, her ice idea might even wake the idiot up.
She pocketed the lighter, then went and grabbed some ice from the freezer and filled up a bucket she'd found under the sink.
She then proceeded to pour the ice into the water and waited until the water was stone cold.
She grinned as she came back into the living room and splashed the water straight into Wesley's face.
He came awake with a start and began spluttering and coughing.
Faith smiled and put the bucket down.
"Thank God, I was begining to think I'd hit you too hard there."
Wesley glared at her as he found himself tied to a chair with a gag hanging around his neck.
She would probably use it when she didn't want to hear him talking anymore.
"Faith...why are you doing this?"
Faith raised an eyebrow.
"I told you, I'm thinkin' Angel will be more willing to play the game once he knows Ive got you."
Wesley shook his head.
"No...I mean everything. I was your watcher. You had all the potential to make an excellent slayer."
"Not better than Buffy though, right?" She questioned bitterly.
Wesley paused.
"Buffy was excellent in her own way but you were different, and just like that, you threw it all away."
"No! You made me throw it all away! You sent your council boys to bring me in. You didn't even give me a chance!"
"I was following protocol. Certain rules must be applied when-"
"Yeah, I get it. You follow the rules. When are you gonna get it, Wes? Following the rules doesn't help you to win. If you got some big bad to fight, you gotta fight just like em' or you'll die trying to do what's expected."
Wesley frowned at her.
"I thought I could save you."
"By sending me to England? You think that was you saving me?"
"By giving you the help you needed."
"Why? You think I'm cracked, is that it? That I need therapy or someone to help me open up about my 'feelings'? Tell em' why I thought mommy never loved me and why daddy fucked off to drink himself into oblivion, and do I know why older men took a shine to me?
Confess my darkest secrets and then I'd be all cured and shit?...wake up, Wes. I was never gonna be that girl."
Faith reached into her pocket again and pulled out the lighter, flicking it on and off and moving it closer and closer to Wesley's face.
"What d'ya think, Wes? You ready for a little fire?"
Wesley moved back until Faith snapped the lighter off again.
"No...not yet. We haven't tried using blunt objects first." She said absent-mindedly
She looked around the apartment and found a picture frame.
There was nothing special about it, just a photo of Tower Bridge in London.
"You got any attatchment to this?" Faith asked, holding it up, even though she didn't really care whether he did or whether he didn't.
Wesley shook his head slowly.
Faith nodded.
"Good."
Then she struck him, hard across the face.
He clenched his teeth in an effort not to cry out in pain. A gash opened on his right cheek and blood dripped down his jaw.
Faith walked around to the other side and struck him again. This time, there was no gash but she'd hit him hard enough to bruise.
"Did you ever think that maybe if you hadn't been such a pompous ass, I might've been a better slayer?"
Wesley glared up at her.
"I can't change the past."
"No, that's right, you can't but you could've been a little more supportive. I watched my first watcher die, Wes. She didn't deserve it. Kakistos did horrible things to her, things he was gonna do to me.
After she died, I forced myself to live without having to depend on anyone, then you show up, all 'do this, do that, follow my fucking orders'.
You treated me like a fucking weapon, Wes, and that's all I was to you, wasn't I? You didn't care about anything except being the best goddamn watcher there ever was!"
Wesley was getting tired and when she saw him leaning forward, his eyes heavy with sleep, she yanked his head back sharply and grit her teeth.
"No, no I want you awake for this, Wes. I want to feel everything. Every scrape, every burn, every fucking bruise. You deserve all this and more for how you treated me."
Wesley looked at her.
"Faith...I am sorry that I didn't treat you like a living human being but I have my reasons, if you'll listen."
Faith licked her lips and swallowed.
"Go on." She said but she said it softly, the hope in her voice clear to anyone who could see the look in her eyes that went with it.
"I would have treated you like a living person instead of a weapon, Faith, but you...you were already dead inside. You felt nothing and all you wanted was to do what you wanted no matter who you hurt, so I'm sorry if you think I didn't show enough care for you but why should I waste my time on a worthless piece of trash like you!"
Faith pulled a switch blade from the counter and held his head back as she pushed the blade into his throat.
"Say that again! Say it!"
Wesley swallowed and felt the cool metal of the blade.
"You. Are. A worthless piece of trash."
Faith nodded.
"Again. Tell me I don't deserve this life. That I'm better off dead." Her voice was hard and rough but it shook, like she was tired and angry and that she'd given up all at the same time.
Wesley looked up at her.
"This world would be a better place...without you in it."
Faith clenched her teeth and instead of slitting Wesley's throat, she kicked his chair back.
He hit the floor hard and she stood over him.
"I'm gonna get Angel. He's taking way too long to get here. I think I need to send a message, don't you?"
She knelt down behind Wesley and grabbed his tied hand, slicing his palm with her blade, making him hiss out through clenched teeth in pain, and ripped some fabric from his shirt then wiped the blade on it.
She then righted Wesley's chair and looked at the ex-watcher.
"I'll be right back. Don't even think about trying anything."
Wesley couldn't move if he wanted to.
He was helpless...
Angel caught the brick that flew through the window of Angel Investigations.
Tied to it, was a piece of material with blood on it.
He brought it to his nose and sniffed it.
Wesley's blood.
Angel could also smell Faith's scent too; a little spicy and dark.
She had him.
Angel grabbed his coat and headed for Wesley's apartment.
Angel found Wesley's door broken and his apartment a mess.
As he walked further into the room, he found Faith standing behind Wesley.
She had tortured him.
"About time, Soul Boy. I was wonderin' when you were gonna show."
Angel took a step closer and Faith shook her head.
"Ah ah, you stay where you are or I kill good ol' Wes here quickly but painfully."
"You look like you've done a number on him already." Angel said, unable to keep the growl from his voice.
"Well I'm sure it's not as good as your handy work back in the day but hey, I try."
"This isn't about Wesley, Faith. You came here to kill me, so let's finish this."
Faith nodded and then pushed Wesley out of the way as she lunged at Angel.
The vampire grabbed her as she raised her fist at him and he threw her across the room.
Faith hit the wall with a thud and rolled onto her knees.
Angel came over and she let out a sharp kick to his shin, buckling him for a moment before she stood and pushed him into the glass cabinet.
Angel turned just as Faith took a stab at him with the switchblade.
"A knife? You know that won't kill me."
"I don't wanna kill ya just yet, Angel, but I need you weak enough to take you out."
She ran at him again and he punched her square in the jaw, watching her head snap back.
She regained her composure and lunged at him again, throwing every kick and punch she could until she realised Angel was holding back.
"Come on! Fight me you bastard!"
"I'm not gonna do what you want, Faith."
"Like you know what I want." Faith sneered.
Angel blocked another few of her punches until Faith found herself being pushed out of Wesley's apartment and into the corridor.
Angel kicked out, sending the girl tumbling down the stairs.
Faith jumped to her feet once she hit the bottom and drop kicked Angel as he came after her.
She knew what he was doing, he was trying to get her out of the building.
She went with it and they both found themselves on the street, the rain beating down almost relentlessly as Faith's punches.
Angel grabbed her wrists and tried to hold her back.
"I do know what you want, Faith, but I won't be the one to do it."
Faith glared at him and kept hitting him but no matter how hard she hit, Angel only blocked, he wouldn't hit her back.
"You know I'm gonna kill you so why don't you just end it?!"
"Because you're not here to kill me."
"I am!"
She kept punching but they were getting weaker.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Faith."
"Yes it does! I've killed people before! You think I care if you live or die?!"
Angel could hear her voice breaking, her heart pounding so hard, like she'd been running for hours.
"I'm a murderer, Angel! I'm evil! The world would be a better place if you just took me out of it!"
She was echoing Wesley's words earlier because she believed them to be true.
"I won't kill you, Faith."
"You have to! Please, Angel, just do it...kill me, please, I don't want this anymore..."
She was still throwing punches but they hardly hurt anymore and soon she was on her knees on the rain soaked street with Angel looking down at her.
"I can't kill you. I won't."
She looked up at him, her hair soaked and her eyeliner running down her face.
"Please...just kill me." She sobbed as she clung to his legs, almost mirroring what Angel had done with Buffy back in Sunnydale that time when he'd returned from hell.
Angel reached out and touched her head.
"Angel...please..."
She was full on crying now and Angel's jaw clenched as seeing the strong slayer so tortured.
He knelt down in front of her and held her as the rain beat down on the both of them.
"I'm gonna help you. I swear...we'll get through this, Faith."
She continued to cry as Angel held her.
It seemed as though Faith had been broken in more ways than one...
Author's Note- Hope you enjoyed this chapter guys.
I loved the episode where Faith had that breakdown, it was so heart wrenching and I wanted to do the same here, I just hope I did it justice even if it was a little different.
I'd love to know what you guys think.
Stay tuned, the next chapter will be up soon. X