Chapter 10: Twenty-First Century Slayer
ONE WEEK LATER – REC ROOM – 5:02 PM
DAWN’S POV
This is the most unnatural thing I think I have ever seen and that’s saying quite a lot considering all I’ve witnessed in my life. I don’t know why it’s so disturbing; maybe it’s that we are finally taking this fight into the 21st Century; maybe it’s because it’s so far from the ‘closeness of the kill’ I know she espouses; maybe it’s the slightly psychotic look in her eye right now. I’m not sure but there’s one thing I’m certain of: I cannot accept the sight of Faith with a gun in her hand.
When Willow hacked into the Army’s Special Forces simulation training server we knew Faith would be all over Andrew to modify the program. So in the two days since Will “borrowed” the simulation software, my guy turned the armies of enemy soldiers into vampires and a host of demons. Throw in a holographic image screen, complete with sensors and a modified target practice 9mm, spelled by Willow to the proper heft and kick of a fully loaded mag, and we have an incredibly realistic shooting range without having to waste any precious ammo. We still have quite a way to go on the demons, but Faith wanted to test it out and Andrew needed a well-deserved nap.
Now here we are, she’s testing the program and I’m making notes on both its and her performance. It’s not so much that I’m shocked she’s such a good shot; on the contrary, she excels at anything related to wielding a weapon. There’s just something eerie watching her. It’s in the precision she squeezes the trigger; the way her eyes scan the 10’ tall by 5’ wide sensor laden hologram screen; her very stance: legs shoulder-width apart, both hands firmly wrapped around the hard steel. Then it hits me: it’s the coldness, the almost systematic way she dispatches her targets, one after the other. It reminds me of the Faith I haven’t seen since I was I kid, one I hoped I’d never see again.
She’s been completely consumed with finding Richard and mastering the program. If she’s not working on one, she’s on the other. The rest of us have worked it into the mix of our other duties, but not Faith, the woman is on a mission. Even Nicky is feeling a bit on edge due to Faith’s single-mindedness. The poor kid feels kicked to the curb, and she worships Faith so much, the poor thing is hurting. I brought it up a little while ago, that’s why we are now here in silence.
Sighing, I realize, she needs time to process what I’ve said and not take it as a criticism of her parenting. I haven’t walked this thin a line with her since she first came back to Sunnydale. I know this coolness will pass, but it still freaks me out when it happens.
“Faith?” It’s Kennedy calling from the top of the stairs.
Never moving her eyes from the screen she calls back, “Shooting.”
On screen, two vamps race towards her; ‘pop, pop’ and they’re dust. It’s funny, on TV and in film, gun shots always sounds like a loud ‘bang’, but they’re really more like a dull ‘pop’. Shrugging to myself, I look at her kill ratio. Why am I not shocked: KILLS = 137, MISSES = 0, like I said, so not a surprise.
“Hey,” Ken joins us. She nods to Faith, “You wanna take them out on patrol tonight?”
Faith looks at me then back at Ken, “Yeah. Here, let me punch in your code so you can give it a whirl. It’s so fucking cool.” Faith wiggles her eyebrows, “Yeah baby, we’re slaying in the 21st century, now!”
I stand, “Faith, can you look this over first? I want to make some changes to the program, let me know if you agree.”
She takes my clipboard and reads over the list carefully, makes some notes on the bottom then returns it to me. “You now have my two cents.”
“Cool. Ken, you can go ahead; I’m going to make a copy of the program and work on the offline version. That way you two can continue ‘honing your skills’.” I turn to leave then stop and narrow my eyes at them, “And don’t think I don’t know this is just going to turn into a wicked competition between you two,” I mock-scold.
They laugh and it feels like ages since I heard them do that. You know, in a genuine way, not the forced laughter from the lame jokes we’re all guilty of telling this past week.
It’s quiet as I make my way to my office. I’m thinking I’ll be able to make the modifications to the program then try to piece together some of the cuneiform Nicky pointed out from her latest vision by the time everyone gathers for dinner. Then when Faith and Ken leave for patrol, or should I say hunting for Richard, I’ll work with Andrew to add in some more of the demon profiles into the program.
“Hey,” Sophia walks in, “don’t mean to interrupt your work, just wanted to say goodbye.”
Getting up from behind my desk I come over to her, “You need a ride to the airport?”
“No,” she looks down, “Emma’s gonna drop me off on the way to the hospital, it’s her first day back, well, I guess night back.”
We haven’t had time for a full-blown conversation about what’s going on between them, but she told me the highlights. She’s trying to accept that she’s attracted to a woman, let alone that it’s Emma. Then Em gets attacked? Why is it that all the super intense emotional things have to happen at the same time? “You think she’s ok to go back?”
“Yeah, she’s a tough kid, it will probably do her good, get her mind off stuff,” she smiles.
I nod at her, “And what about you? You ok?”
“Maybe I need to go back to work too, you know, get my mind off stuff,” she winks at me. “Seriously, I’m fine. We’ll talk in a couple of days ok?”
Giving her a big hug, “If you don’t call me, I’m calling you.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
“Hey, you ready?” Emma pokes her head in.
Sophia turns to her, “You bet,” then looking back to me, “See ya, Dawn.”
They both move to leave, then I remember, “Oh, Sophia, wait. Can you give me a call when you get your schedule? I have to arrange your shipment of UV ammo, not to mention transporting a firearm over state lines to an unlicensed individual. Gods, how many laws are we breaking?”
“Not as many as the lives we’re saving,” she says very seriously. “I’ll call you tomorrow morning, ok?”
LATER THAT EVENING – LAKE VIEW CEMETARY – 4:42 AM
KENNEDY’S POV
Ok, these UV bullets are fucking awesome. If we had these babies during the fight with the First, we wouldn’t have lost nearly as many girls as we did. I can’t help but shake my head, because as much as I love our new weapons, I think Faith is in love with our new weapons. We came out looking for an army of vamps and so far, we haven’t been disappointed. We’ve lit up about 30 vampires and a couple of demons. Damn, we didn’t even break a sweat.
It’s wild to watch actually; the bullet explodes into a burst of light on impact, so there’s this flash of light, then the vamp flames up then turns to dust. Andrew told us the radioactive fluid resembles the characteristics of sunlight, hence the deadly potency to vampires. I’m trying not to be morbid, but whatever the science behind it, I love to see them light up before they dust.
“Ken?” Faith calls to me.
I run over to her, “What’s up?”
“This last one, he told me where a nest was, you game?” Damn she’s got an evil glint in her eye. I guess I would too if Emma was my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like Emma’s family, but I can see Faith’s parental need to find the bastard who hurt her daughter. It’s a horse of different color.
I take out my cell, “You got it, let me call the house for some back up. I have a couple of senior Slayers who could help out.”
“I’m going now; tell them to meet us there,” she turns to go.
I put my arm on her shoulder stopping her, “No, Faith.” Fuck, did I just say that?
“What?” She doesn’t believe it either.
Pulling her to a stop, “Look, we aren’t going anywhere without back up.” I raise my gun, “These don’t change all the rules.”
She rolls her eyes at me, then tilts her head, “Alright, alright!”
I take out my cell and call the SiT house, “Hey Jen, did I wake you? Cool, I need you to grab a couple of girls, ahh Liz and Claudine, and meet me and Faith at,” I look at her “what’s the address?”
“37-82 Denison,” she sighs out. Jeeze, she would have driven me crazy if I had to train her.
“Jen? Yeah, it’s 37-82 Denison, how fast can you be there? We have a nest situation, so take the 9mms and load up on ammo. Ok, cool see you in 20.” I hang up, “See only 20 minutes and we’ll have someone covering our backs.”
“Hmm,” Faith scoffs, itching to leave, “back in the day, B and I would just go in and dust ‘em. We didn’t worry about back up.” She scowls at me.
I raise my eyebrows and ask, “How many other Slayers were 20 minutes away?” I ask knowingly.
“None,” she rolls her eyes again.
I smile, “Exactly my point. You’re not on your own anymore, Faith.” I raise the gun with one hand and pat my chest with the other, “There are people behind you, you’re not alone in some God-forsaken hell dimension, ok?”
“Ok,” she grudgingly replies.
I tilt my head towards her, “And you’ve got more reasons to stay alive then most, so we play by the rules, ok?”
“Ok,” she nods, agreeing in earnest this time.
I clap her on the back as we walk over to her bike, “Come on, Buffy would tear me to pieces if something happened to you when you were out on patrol with me.”
“That’s a fight I’d love to see,” she laughs hard.
Shaking my head, “I wouldn’t, you should have seen her prowling around when you came back from Sanal. I thought we were all on borrowed time.”
By the time we get to the nest, the girls are just getting out of their car. Jen is handing out the guns, ammo and stakes. “You two ok with supplies?”
We nod. Jen’s ok, a little too much by the book for Faith’s taste, but then anyone who sits near a book can get on Faith’s nerves. She does a good job helping me train the girls, so she’s fine by me. She’s no Sara, but then I won’t let any of the girls get that close again. It hurts too much when you lose them.
Taking a look around the house, we see the tell-tale signs of vamps: blacked out windows, no birds or other animals nearby. I take Liz and Claudine with me to the back, Faith and Jen will hit from the front.
The girls know to follow my lead so they wait as we stake it out, making sure the vamps are inside and looking to bed down before dawn breaks in another hour. The house would seem empty to anyone but us. Concentrating on listening, we can hear them moving about inside. I give Faith one beep on her cell, then she busts in the front as I kick in the back door.
Two vamps are in the kitchen, they jump up from the table and move to me. I take out one, Liz the other. Four more come streaming in, now it’s becoming a fight. I level my aim and get one in the chest – dust. Liz and Claudine each get one, then Liz’s gun jams. Claudine takes out the other. Ok, close, but good back up there. We wait, but no one else comes in. Liz clears her weapon and we move on.
Hearing the barrage of gun-fire at the front of the house, we quickly move inside. The place is crawling with vampires, like every freaking one in Cleveland is here. They are frenetically coming at us. We empty our clips, reload, then empty them again. The kill numbers are getting too high to count. We’re basically shooting anything that’s not one of us and the vamps are giving us their own little light show. Slowly making our way through the hallway, we meet up with Faith and Jen. The ground floor is secure, so we start to climb the stairs while they go to the cellar.
At the top, it’s eerily quiet; can anyone say “trap”? One by one we clear the bedrooms. We find a vamp or two, but nothing like it was downstairs. Not liking that hardly any were up here, I motion the girls to head back down. I stop thinking when I hear rapid gun-fire downstairs. The girls follow as I run down to the cellar.
The shooting has stopped by the time we get there. Jen is sitting on the floor against a box, one arm slack in her lap, the other holding her gun on the vamp Faith has pinned to the wall. There are about 20 mounds of ash littering the dirt floor. “Whatcha got there Faith?” I ask not understanding why the vamp is still around.
“He took Jen’s gun then shot her with it.” She slams him against the wall again, “I was explaining how I didn’t like that.”
Nodding I check Jen’s arm, it’s pretty fucked, but she’ll be ok. Emma will look at when we get home. “Why is he still around Faith?” Can I tell you I have a really bad feeling?
“He was there last week, Ken,” she sounds kinda weird, like her cadence is too even.
Nodding again, I move closer to her, “Where’s your gun Faith?”
“Don’t need it right now,” she says between her teeth, her face inches from the vamp, who is young and very, very scared.
“I have it Ken,” Jen says as Liz helps her stands up. Liz takes over covering the vamp.
Trying to keep Faith in this tranquil state, “Do you want to bring him back to house and see what he knows?”
“No,” she leans her forehead against his, “I want to kill him Ken, but I want to kill him real slow. I want to make it last a real long time.” She’s resting her whole body on him now, “a real long time.”
Ok, the freaky thing is, she’s calm, albeit, way too calm, but calm. This is what Willow was talking about when she told me stories of when they were in high school and let me tell you, she’s scaring the shit out of me. “Faith, let’s bring him to the house and get some information out of him.” The vamp looks at me as if he just saw Christ, little does he know I’m just going to let her kill him after he talks.
“I can’t let Emma see him, Ken; she’s been doing really well this week.” She states as if I haven’t been living there the past week. Then she turns to me, “Can’t we talk to him here? I won’t take very long I promise,” her voice is sugary sweet now, almost like a kid. Damn, if I were him, I’d be pissing my pants right now.
Hoping she’ll listen to me, I shoot out an idea, “Look, Faith, why don’t you take Jen on the bike. Then you can call Emma and ask her how to take care of Jen’s arm. We’ll take,” I nod to him, “Name?”
“J-J-John,” he stutters
“Ok, we’ll take John to the lead room, and ask him some questions. Then when you’re finished patching up Jen, you can ask him some too. How does that sound?”
Ignoring me, she just stares at him, “Where’s Richard?” she asks very low.
“I-I-I-I don’t know,” he stammers.
She leans closer and twists his arm until it breaks. Tilting her head, “You sure?” she twists it again until it snaps out of the socket, “cause I don’t think I believe you.” She lets go so it hangs limp.
“AHGGGGG,” he screams.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, “Holy shit, Faith, stop,” I don’t know if I can watch this.
“In a second Ken,” she turns back to him and grabs the other arm, “Where is Richard?” She repeats very slowly.
“I-I-I r-r-really don’t know,” he pleads.
Faith takes a stake out of the back of her jeans and rests it on his chest. Not the left side where his heart is but the right and presses it in very slowly. “I can go all night and day, John, how long can you go?” She asks menacingly as she turns the stake gradually imbedding it into him.
Again he screams. Faintly, in the distance, we can hear sirens.
“Faith,” now I try to pull her away from him, “we gotta go, the police are coming.”
“In a second Ken,” she shrugs me off then leans on the stake sinking it further into him. “Where’s Richard?”
Now he does piss his pants as he whimpers, “He’s in a house on Payne Avenue, don’t…please…”
She swallows, “House number?” She takes the stake out and lays it over his heart.
He closes his eyes.
Then she asks again pleasantly, “What’s the number, John?”
“It’s-it’s 98 Payne Ave,” he hangs his head in defeat.
Faith leans back, no longer touching him. “Thank you, John,” she smiles and pats his face. Then she looks at him thoughtfully before turning to go, slowly walking towards the steps. Thank fucking God that’s over. I turn to follow her but like a flash, she’s on him again, “Emma said ‘don’t’ too, you fucker,” as she slams the stake into his chest. He explodes into dust. She puts the stake in her back pocket, picks up her gun from Jen and starts up the stairs. “Come on Jen, I’ll get you home on the bike, it’s quicker, then I’ll take a look at you.” She’s so laid-back, it’s creepy.
Jen looks at me then follows her upstairs quickly. The police must only be a couple of blocks away by now. The rest of us haul ass to Jen’s car. Driving away slowly so we don’t attract too much attention, we just make it out of there. I realize I’m going to have to talk to Faith about this. Fuck that, maybe I’ll just talk to Buffy. That was too fucked up. I heard stories of what she did to Wes, but that was…
“Ken?” Liz asks from the back.
I shake my head, “I know Liz, I’ll talk to Buffy - ”
“No, don’t, I would have done the same thing if he did that to my family. If I were Emma, I would want Faith to have done that, because we need to stop Richard; whatever it takes, right Claud?”
Claudine, who’s riding shotgun nods, “I gotta say yeah, Faith took it a little far, but then, I don’t know, did she? What would you have done if it was Willow, Ken?”
What a fucked up world we live in when torture under the false pretense of sparing life is not only condoned, but applauded. The only thing that makes it worse is that they’re right. If it were Willow, I would do exactly the same thing. Why the hell did I try to stop her? These 17 year old kids had such a clear vision of right and wrong, good and evil. It’s no wonder the shadow men chose teenage girls to be their Slayers. It’s easy to be self righteous and guiltless when you’ve only barely tasted life.
When we get to triage, Jen is sitting on the exam table and Emma is covering her arm with Silvadene burn cream. Jesus, it looks worse here than it did in the cellar. “Hey, we thought you’d still be at the hospital.” Nodding at Jen’s arm, “How does it look?”
Emma turns to me, jaw set, she’s all business, “She’ll be fine. One of the other residents is covering my last couple of hours. It was a rough first day back.” She looks back to Jen, “Use the cream twice a day, and take ibuprofen for pain. You should be fine in a couple of days.”
“Thanks, Em,” she slides off the table, “God, what did you guys do without a doctor for so long?”
They all look at me, “We managed, Willow knew some healing spells and we all knew how to stitch each other up and dress wounds from Sunnydale.” There were a couple raise eyebrows then some shrugs. “Where’s Faith?”
Jen looks up at me, then Emma sighs, “She’s in the lead room, getting more ammo.”
Then Faith is in the doorway, “So who’s coming?”
“We just need to load up,” Liz says then motions Claudine to follow.
Why do I think this is a very bad idea? She’s going back out? Now?
Before I can say anything Faith turns to me, “Look Ken, I know you think we need to wait, or plan, or something - ”
“Nah, just let me grab some more clips too, maybe he hasn’t been alerted yet. You never know, we might surprise him.”
She smiles then gives Emma a hug and makes her way upstairs.
Emma grabs my arm, “Kennedy, please make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy.” She thinks for a moment, “Well, you know what I mean.”
I squeeze her shoulder and smile, “You got it,” then go to load up on clips. I’m thanking the God’s it’s daylight, we need as much help as we can get.
It doesn’t take us long to find the house. When we do, the door is wide open. At first I’m thinking “trap” again, but after we scout it out, we see it’s abandoned. One of the vampires from the Denison Street house must have phoned and tipped them off here. They probably figured one of them was going to talk, so why take a chance?
Remarkably, Faith takes it in stride, figuring at least we’re getting closer to him. That is until we find Richard’s letter to her posted on the mirror above the fireplace in his flowing handwriting. I read it over her shoulder:
*****
My Dear Faith,
I am so sorry to have missed you this morning. Your reputation has preceded you as we were alerted to your impending visit. I’ve also been told you have new toys. How exciting for you! We will meet again soon, but you must be patient and try not to spoil it, there are plans that cannot be changed.
Perhaps next time you can bring your little Canadian with you. I’d love for my new pet to taste how sweet she is. Would you be kind enough to bear witness again? That was great fun last week with your older daughter, wasn’t it? She’s quite a striking young lady, enchanting really; perhaps it’s the witch in her? The smell of her blood reminded me of a lovely Wicca Healer I had the pleasure of draining some time ago in the Yucatan. Do you recall the year, Faith?
Until we meet again,
Richard
*****
Holy fuck, like she really needs another reason to kill this bastard. She’s so angry she’s shaking. Man, for a second I think she’s gonna torch the place. It takes a couple of shots of Richard’s very old brandy to calm her down, and when she finally is, we go home. I take the letter to Dawn, she and Andrew will figure something out. I also take the brandy, hell, why not?
By the time we crawl upstairs it’s almost 7am. We go to our respective rooms then wave across the hallway. As I’m trying to sleep, I kept flashing on Faith shooting down vampires in the cemetery, then her torturing that vamp, then the rage in her eyes as she read that letter. But my thoughts kept going back to John, and how the 21st Century Slayer went back to the stake to finish him off. I’m sure there’s some poetic justice in that, I’m just too tired to figure it out.
NEXT AFTERNOON – BUFFY’S OFFICE – 3:12 PM
BUFFY’S POV
When Faith came in this morning I was heading for the shower. Never one to miss an opportunity to talk after an extended night of slayage, I convinced her to join me, not that that was a hard task. As she held me under the spray of the shower, she told me all about her night and morning. Her pain was evident; her control, noticeably dwindling. She needed to be close, and I try to never again miss an opportunity to give her what she needs. Her torturing the vamp should worry me, but I really don’t give a shit if she kept him in agony for days on end. Yeah, I know it should: just do the job, don’t get emotionally involved… but I can’t, not this time; you just can’t get any more emotionally involved. Goddamn, Richard’s letter bugs me. He knows far too much about us. We need to step up the research.
Her only bright note was the outstanding performance of the UV guns. In all the fire fights, only one gun jammed, and it was quickly cleared. Although never a weapon I respected, it seems these guns can really make a world of difference. She couldn’t give me hard numbers because there were so many, but she thinks they dusted well over 75 vampires last night, and that is huge.
We talked some more as she crawled into bed and I got dressed. Then I let her get some sleep and went downstairs to my office, promising to wake her by 4:00 at the latest. It’s been a pretty full day, a bit of back and forth with the other SC Headquarters, trying to track something down on Richard. I don’t understand why we can’t get information on his background. Vi said she had a weak lead in Pulborough in Southern England and was flying over to check it out.
So I look at the wall across from my desk and its 6 clocks, one for each of the SC’s. I check our time, then look at Switzerland’s to see it’s almost 9:15 pm, that means it’s nearly 8:15 in the UK. Vi said she’d call tonight, so I’m trying to fill the time by going through the paperwork I’ve neglected the past week.
“Hey, are you busy?” Emma says from my doorway.
I look up, “Not really, just waiting on a phone call, come on in.” She looks so, “You ok?”
“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind.”
I cock my head towards the couch, motioning for her to sit down, “You want to talk about it?”
“Kinda,” she sits.
Ok, this is like pulling teeth. “You upset Richard slipped away last night?”
“Oddly, no, Faith will find him; I have no doubt about it.” She shakes her head, “It’s funny, she’s so intent on finding him and, well, you know… that I haven’t thought about it. It’s like I’m so sure she will, it’s one less thing I have to worry about, you know?”
Nodding, I let out a little laugh, “Yeah, she had the whole retribution thing down. She still feels guilty” I watch Emma lower her head then nod, “it’s her way of making it up to you.”
“I know, and I know nothing I say will ever make her feel that I don’t blame her.”
I nod again, “Welcome to my world,” I say smirking.
She sits, looks at her shoes, the clocks on my wall, my desk then finally me, “That’s really what I wanted to talk about.” She takes in my questioning look, “How did you know?”
“Huh?” totally lost, I furrowing my brow at her, “Know what?”
“That you loved Faith.”
I look down at my desk then back at her and say softly, “I always knew.”
“But, you guys... I mean it wasn’t until I came here with you that you...”
Leaning forward, “That’s a really long story,” I tilt my head to the side, “What’s up, Em?”
She pushes out a huge breath, “I don’t know what Faith told you, but I’m kinda freaked out about what happened, well, what’s happening between me and Sophia. That this is so completely…” she blows out another breath, “I mean, I’ve been with a lot of people but…” she stops again, “Faith said earlier this week that I should talk to you about it.” She laughs, “She said you had insight into how the other half thinks.”
Whoa, ok, Faith told me about Emma reading Sophia without her permission and that Em was all broody. But ‘how the other half thinks’… Hmmm. “Got a couple of hours?” I ask jokingly.
“Actually, I do,” she soberly responds, “I don’t have to be at the hospital until 8:00.”
Sitting back in my chair, “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with you and Sophia?”
“I don’t really know what’s going on Buffy,” she shakes her head then rubs her eyes. “We were talking, then I got this idea of us being together, then I read her and she kinda had the same thought. Now whenever we touch it’s like there’s these jolts running though us. And then we kissed and now it’s like I can feel her, like right now, I can feel her breathing, her heart beating, that’s she kinda stressed and really tired. I swear I’m not trying to read her; it’s like I just know, I can’t cloak it or turn it off. God, I could even feel her getting further from me when she flew home yesterday.” She shakes her head again, “Is this what you feel with Faith? Because, let me tell you, I never felt like this before.” She puts her head in her hands, “It’s freaking me out.”
Trying to take in everything she said in that long stream, seemingly without even taking a breath. I raise my eyebrows as I utter one word, “Kissed?” I can’t help the grin on my face.
“Buffy!” she rolls her eyes then laughs, “Yes, kiss, as in singular, duration: 2 seconds, but it was long enough for me to know this is not just another ‘favor of the week’ as she would call it.” She looks at my clocks, the door, then pleadingly back at me.
Holding up my hands, I lean back in my chair and nod; she does need to hear this, “The first time I saw her she was dancing at a nightclub in Sunnydale...”
