Twenty: Bad Blood

Faith had never been to hell but she imagined that if she did, it would look and smell like this.

The place was disgusting. Blood splatters were dotted on the floor, it reeked of alcohol, smoke and blood. Humans lay about, high and weak from the blood loss while vampires fed shamelessly on the ones who were barely alive but completely out of their heads. It was dark, dank and Faith hoped that Angelus wouldn't stoop so low.

There were beds, matresses really, and they were pushed into corners and covered by net curtains. It was a complete and utter shit hole.

Wesley glanced back to see Faith's expression.

He knew this wasn't a place she'd ever been to before. She had known they'd existed but as tough as she was, she wouldn't ever step foot into one of these places without a good enough reason.

A girl who was shooting up, sat on one of the matresses.

Wesley glared at her.

"We are looking for a vampire named Angelus, has he been around here?" Wesley asked her, his tone hard and all business.

"Nope. I ain't heard no one by that name." She slurred.

Wesley sneered at her.

"Why don't I believe you?"

"I'm telling you the truth, man. I aint seen him!"

"And I'm just supposed to take the word of a filthy blood whore?"

Faith looked at the Brit. She's never heard him use any phrases like that before but then, much like herself, he had changed. He was darker, more serious.

"I haven't seen him." She slurred again.

Wesley suddenly grabbed her, holding her up against the wall and pushing her into it as hard as he could.

Faith licked her lips as she watched, slightly uncomfortable.

"Tell us the truth!" Wes shouted at her.

"Ow! He wasn't here!"

"You're lying!" Wes shouted and before Faith knew what was happening, Wes had the girl pinned to the wall via a spike through her shoulder. She screamed and cried as blood poured down her arm.

"Wes, stop! She's human!"

"She's a blood whore. The lowest of the low."

Faith shook her head and put herself between the girl and Wes.

"She's still human, Wes!"

Wesley's dark gaze locked with the other woman's.

"She's lying, Faith, and we want to know the truth."

He shoved Faith aside and pushed the spike deeper into the woman's shoulder, making her cry out again, more blood covering her arm.

"Where is Angelus!" He roared.

"Ok! Ok! He was here!" She screamed.

Faith looked up from keeping her eyes averted. She really had changed.

Wes eased the pressure off the spike.

"Did he say anything? Did he say where he could be going? What he wanted to do?"

"I don't know, it was late and I was high-"

Wes pushed the spike back in again and Faith inwardly winced.

"That wasn't what I asked! What did he say?!"

"He was mumbling to himself, something about a voice getting in his head, that's all I know, I swear!" She cried.

Wes, seemingly satisfied, pulled the spike back out and dropped it on the ground. The girl fell back onto the matresses, her blood staining the material.

Faith moved over to her, grabbing a piece of material and holding it over the girl's wound.

"You're gonna be ok, just breathe, alright?"

The girl nodded as Faith looped her arm around the girl, holding the material over the opening in her shoulder.

Wes looked down at them both.

"You should get to a hospital. Get them to stitch it back up for you. Go."

Faith frowned up at him.

"Wes, you can't just-"

"I said, go." He barked.

The girl, still crying and bleeding, got up and hurried out of the room.

Faith stood and glared at Wesley.

"What the hell's wrong with you, man?! You can't just do that to people!"

Wesley turned around to face her.

"And why's that? Because you're really the poster child for humanity aren't you, Faith?"

Faith looked down.

"I'm not sayin' that what I did is justified. I hurt a lot of people but I don't think you should stick spikes into their shoulders when they're not giving you the answers you want!"

"But we know more about Angelus because of it, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do, but it didn't have to go that far." Faith said, her voice low and quiet.

"I don't need you like this, Faith. This is what I was talking about. When it comes to Angelus, we must be as brutal as he is."

"Then we become just like him. What's the point?"

"To defeat Angelus, we have to think as he would."

"No...I don't believe that. We do this our own way."

Faith brushed past Wesley, determined to leave the bar. She'd already seen too much and now she just wanted to get out of here.

"You think showing concern for a blood whore makes you a better person?"

Faith stopped.

Wesley took a step towards her.

"You think that maybe if you do good, if you act more like Buffy, people won't hate you?"

Faith's jaw tightened at the mention of the other slayer's name, for more reasons that one.

"Here's the truth, Faith. No one really wants you. You're useful. You're good at what you do, but at the end of the day, everyone wants you to crawl off and die somewhere so they never have to deal with you ever again."

Faith looked down, her fists were clenching at her sides and Wesley pushed his luck.

"Angel tried to help you, you ignored him. I tried to help you, you beat and tortured me. Buffy tried to befriend you but it wasn't enough for you, was it, Faith?

You think we can't see it? The way you are around her, the slayer that is better than you in so many ways...You wanted her to love you. Everyone knows how pathetic that is. Buffy could never love someone like you. A waste of space, a rat, a useless little bitch who's only talent seems to be in the sack, or so I've heard."

Faith lashed out, a hard punch to Wesley's jaw and his head snapped back.

His teeth sliced into his lower lip and blood dripped from his nose.

Faith's eyes were dark and angry, like a storm and her teeth were clenched, she was shaking from her anger.

Wesley straightened and looked at her, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"I knew she was still in there." He said knowingly.

Faith looked at her knuckles which were now bleeding from the impact; yep, she'd hit him that hard.

"All that to bring the 'real me' forward?" She questioned, her voice was uneven.

Wes shrugged.

"I knew it would take a lot but now you're ready."

She licked her lips and nodded her head slowly.

"Let's do this."

But there was no emotion in her voice, only pain and determination.

Those words had cut deep. Deeper than Wes even knew but at least the old Faith was here and this Faith could take on Angelus. He was sure of that.

They walked around for a while, seeing if they could track Angelus but he was no where to be found.

They were almost about to give up when Faith stopped, tapping Wesley on the arm.

"I think we've found our boy, Wes."

Wesley followed her gaze to a banner that read, 'WELCOME, FAITH', and it was pinned to the side of a huge abandoned building.

"I'd say he was in there." She said.

Wesley raised his eyebrows at her and she sighed.

"So much for trying to be funny." She muttered.

Wesley ignored her and turned around.

"I think the best course of action would be to get in through the r-"

"Got it!"

Wes turned back around to see that Faith had already climbed up onto the roof and was now running towards the skylight.

He shrugged and followed her up but Faith was already inside before Wesley had even begun his climb.

It looked like some industrial building that hadn't been used in years and Faith trod carefully, in case one of the floorboards gave way.

After climbing down a few frames that were made up of scaffolding poles, she made it to the floor.

Then Angelus showed himself, well, he spoke but she couldn't see him.

"Hello, Faith. I see you noticed the banner."

Faith spun around in the direction his voice, stake out and at the ready even though she had no intention of using it.

"How could I not? It's big enough."

He laughed darkly.

"Always with the dry humour. I wonder if you use it to cover up more of your pathetic self than you already do."

"Alright, cut the crap. let's do this." She growled.

"Do what?"

"Fight."

He chuckled again, that deep, dark chuckle that made a not so pleasant chill slide down Faith's spine.

"Is that what you're here for, Faithie? Cause' I have a buddy who does that for me now."

Faith spun around too late and was punched hard in the stomach by the Beast.

She flew backwards, hitting the wall to her right.

Faith heard something crack and wondered exactly how many ribs that was.

"This is the other slayer?" She heard the Beast say, his tone clearly unimpressed.

He pointed at her with his rocky, clawed hand.

"This is the woman you all fear?"

Angelus shrugged.

"Hey, not me, buddy, but most of my kind do, yeah."

The Beast sneered down at Faith's form as she tried to stand.

"She's nothing but a weak little girl."

Faith lunged and tried knocking him down the Beast picked her up as though she weighed nothing and threw her down hard onto the floor.

Faith called out as blood filled her mouth and her vision blurred.

"Wow! Now see, Big guy, that's what I'm talkin' about!"

Angelus went over to Faith and crouched down beside her.

"I was really rooting for ya, kid. Seriously! Between you an' me, the big guy? He's kinda cramping my style."

Faith blinked, trying to clear her vision but her head pounded, she had cuts and bruises all over body, plus those broken ribs that would heal by the morning and she felt, for the first time in her life...she felt weak.

"You want me to do you a favour, do ya, Faithie?"

Faith glared up at him.

"Screw you." She snarled.

"Would you? Because we almost did but Angel was all, 'Buffy, Buffy, Buffy', wasn't he? Now you and I...Oh, I can only imagine what that would've been like."

She spat blood onto the floor just by his boot.

"Guess we'll never know."

"Well, we might. Because after I get rid of him back there-He gestured over his shoulder to the Beast with his thumb- "Me an' you, we're gonna fight and I'm gonna kill ya but before that, we're gonna do all those things that I know you're capable of. Now, you can either play along or you can-"

"Tell you to fuck off?"

Angelus laughed then turned around, a strange looking spike in his hand and plunged it into the Beast's heart.

The Beast howled in pain and fell to his knees as a bright light seemed to burn him from the inside out and in turn, the sun became visible once more.

Angelus rolled his eyes when he saw the light through the blacked out windows.

"Hmm, shoulda thought about his death and that it could mean the return of the sun, damn!"

Faith swallowed and moved sso that she could sit the sun's rays that came through the dust covered window.

Where Angelus couldn't reach her.

"Aww, what's a matter, Fathie? Scared of little 'ol me?"

Faith glanced at the sun and saw the chain hanging from the ceiling.

"Nah, I'm just seeing if you got the balls to come and get me." She said but she was breathing hard and her voice was hoarse.

Angelus moved but not near enough.

"How ya feelin', Faith? Tired? Weak? Defeated?"

Faith glared up at him and grabbed the chain just above her.

"Defeated? Never."

She then swung the chain hard and it shattered the glass sending Angelus into the shadows before he grinned over at her.

"Maybe next time then."

Then he was gone and Faith collapsed in the sun.

...

Wesley was sat beside Faith as she came to.

She frowned as she sat up slowly but everything still ached and her muscles protested at the slightest of movements.

"At least he killed the Beast."

Faith looked around and winced as the sun caught her eyes.

"Yeah..."

Wesley moved towards her and she got to her feet instead.

"I need a shower." She muttered.

Wesley nodded and they both headed back to his apartment.

Wesley showed Faith where the shower was and left her alone, telling her that he was going to to the hotel to talk to the rest of the guys and to meet him there.

She agreed and stepped into the shower, letting the blood and feeling of failure wash off of her.

She then stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself.

She felt like she couldn't do this. She felt like taking on Angelus would be too hard but she wasn't going to give up on Angel. She owed him too much and she cared about him but still, she needed to talk to someone.

She picked up Wesley's phone and dialed the number she knew off by heart.

She waited then started to put the phone down, regretting her choice and then hanging on again.

"Hello?" Buffy's voice came through on the other end.

Faith opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again, putting the phone back down.

She sighed and went to change into clean clothes.

Back at the hotel, no one was pleased but Faith ignored it and spoke to Wesley about coming up with another plan.

He had one but he knew she wasn't going to like it.

He sat down and showed her a syringe.

She immediately turned her nose up at it.

"It'll put Angelus into a coma-like state. All you need to do is take it and let him feed from you."

Faith licked her lips and nodded.

"Ok...well if it works-"

"Faith, don't agree to this readily; by doing this may mean that you don't wake up from it. Ever."

Faith's brow furrowed and she grabbed the syringe from Wesley.

"It's Angel. I'll do it."

Wesley looked into her eyes and could see that she was serious.

He nodded and handed the syringe to her.

"Only when you're ready." He said gently.

She nodded and looked down at the syringe and frowned.

Faith went upstairs to one of the rooms and shut the door to give herself some privacy as she picked up the phone, forcing herself to stay on the line, no matter whose voice she heard.

She dialed that same number and waited.

"Hello?"

Faith licked her lips and forced herself to talk.

"Hey, B, it's me."

There was a slight pause.

"Faith?"

"Yeah. I just um...I wanted to talk to you before...well, before some shit goes down."

Another pause.

"What are you talking about, Faith?" But there was concern in the other slayer's voice.

"It's just somethin' I gotta do, B, but I wanted to talk to you before...before it happens, ok?"

"Where are you?"

Faith closed her eyes.

"In LA. At...the hotel."

She could practically hear Buffy's eye roll.

"So you're not in prison."

"No. I got out. Again."

"But you said-"

"Yeah, I know what I said but Wes- look it doesn't matter. I just wanted to have one civil conversation with you before I-" She cut herself off but the blonde caught on.

"Faith, what's going on?"

"Nothing! Jeez! Can we just talk without it turning into a fight?!"

Buffy sighed.

"Fine. I'll bite. Let's have a nice conversation."

Faith smirked but she wasn't happy. She could hear the mockery in Buffy's voice and she decided to give up.

"No, y'know what? Whatever, see ya round, B."

Faith went to put the phone down when she realised that this could be the last time she would ever speak to the other girl.

"Wait, B!"

"I'm still here."

"Listen I um, I want you to know that...I never stopped lov-caring-about you. You're a good friend, even when I wasn't such a great one." She added.

"Ok now you're scaring me, Faith. You never talk like that."

"It's gonna be ok, Buffy. I promise."

Faith then put the phone down. That was the best she could've said, given the circumstances.

She then went back downstairs to Wesley and held up the syringe, exposing her arm.

"I'm ready."

They found Angelus or rather, Angelus found them.

Wesley watched Faith's back as they fought. She was scared, she would admit to that. She had to let him bite her and she wondered if he would take too much before the drug entered his system.

They kept on throwing punches and trading kicks. Faith let him get close until he had her pinned beneath him.

He grinned down at her.

"Well this wasn't the way I pictured it but hey, it'll do."

He then bit down and Faith cried out as his fangs pierced her flesh.

he drank deep and she felt herself getting weak before he suddenly pulled back and stared at her in shock.

"What did you do?"

She grinned but she was weak from the blood loss.

"Got ya a little gift. Enjoy."

She then passed out and Angelus followed soon after.