Part 12: Tennis balls, tension & potatoes
Faith was standing in the middle of the training room, a tennis ball in her hand. Lifting her arm, she wound up and threw it full force at the wall opposite her. The soft thwack of it hitting the wall and the successive rubber sounds of it bouncing back to her were all the sounds she could hear at the moment. Things were pretty quiet, actually. It had been two weeks since she and Buffy, along with the others, had gone to investigate the Toalith demons. To say it was useless was an understatement. The demons were obviously one of the weaker breeds on the demon chain of power, and something had scared them into not revealing anything or helping at all when Buffy had inquired. Oh, don’t forget how they ended up conversing with them in the first place- Kennedy had sneezed, of all things- and they were caught. Nothing bad happened; these demons were just like Dawn had said, peaceful.
As Faith was thinking over the only really demonic activity that she had encountered aside from vampires recently, she heard a scream from the main floor, and left the tennis ball to bounce its way over to the arena as she ran out of the room and up the stairs. Entering the long hall, she saw Buffy yanking a guilty-looking Andrew into view from the entrance hallway, and Willow backing up to allow what looked like a Toalith demon female further into the house. Beckoning, Willow led the Toalith demon into her study where Faith quickly followed Buffy in before the doors were shut on the group of people who had heard the scream. As she focused on the female Toalith in front of her, she faintly heard Dawn teasing Andrew behind the doors about his “manly” scream. Ignoring the sounds behind the doors, Faith looked at the Toalith who stood in front of the loveseat, and began addressing Buffy and Willow almost immediately.
“I have come at the risk of my entire clan. They do not know that I am here, but I must tell you, in the hope that all the suffering may end,” The demon fell silent as Willow spoke.
“Suffering? Who’s making your clan suffer?”
“The Kartuk. They bully us so-called ‘lesser’ demons into doing their jobs for them, allowing for the danger to be directed away from them. They do this to allow for their main purpose to occur.”
“And what is that?” Buffy asked, her arms folded across her chest.
“The apocalypse,” The Toalith replied, sounding surprised that Buffy wouldn’t know. “I must take leave, if my clan notices my absence, punishment will be given accordingly.”
Willow nodded curtly and smiled reassuringly before flicking her gaze to Faith, who opened the doors and allowed the passive demon to exit the room and quickly leave the house.
Sighing, Buffy turned to Willow, “What kinds of events must be set into motion to allow for these Kartuk demons to bring about an apocalypse?”
Willow shook her head, “I’m not familiar, I’ll have to research it. I’ll put Dawn on the web and Andrew and I will look through our texts. Get back to you in an hour?”
Buffy nodded, and left the room, her eyes briefly flicking to meet Faith’s gaze before continuing past. Faith exhaled slowly and, after sparing a sympathetic glance at Willow, retreated back down to the training room. She heard the door open behind her as she retrieved the tennis ball from the floor, and turned to see Xander standing a little ways inside the room.
“Hey,” Faith allowed a small smile to appear briefly, eyeing Xander as he moved closer.
“Hey,” Xander replied. “I think I’m the only one you haven’t had an in-depth conversation with yet aside from Andrew, and he doesn’t really count.”
Faith shifted and smirked, but remained silent.
“There’s a lot of history between you and the original Scoobies, and while I can’t forget it, no matter how long it’s been, time changes people,” Xander sighed, and Faith took in a deep breath, feeling the guilt wash over her. “It’s been what, almost eight years since, well,” Please don’t say it. “Everything…” Xan-man learned tact. Thank God. “And moving past it wasn’t easy, but I’ve come to the point where I can respect you beyond the past events because of the courage you have exhibited over facing so many demons of the non-literal kind.” And he learned new words. “So…yeah.” Maybe not so much.
Xander bit his lip after he finished, and nodded before turning to leave.
“Thank you,” The words left her mouth before she knew it.
Xander stopped and turned around, a quizzical look on his face, “For what?”
Faith was silent a moment before swallowing and opening her mouth to speak, “For forgiving me.”
Xander smiled, “What can I say, you get older, and holding a grudge seems petty in relation to the world ending. See you upstairs for dinner in a bit.”
Faith allowed a half smile to appear as he left, and then turned to start throwing the tennis ball against the wall again, this time much harder than before. Xander’s short talk had caused guilt-filled memories to bubble back up to the surface. The calm exterior that she had worked so hard to master and control was struggling under the barrage of emotions Xander had inadvertently activated. Winding up her arm, Faith let the tennis ball fly and heard the sound of it making painful contact with the wall before it quickly returned to her. Sighing, she dropped the ball, trying to get a handle on her emotions, Gotta keep control.
Faith was crouched on the edge of the roof of the building, rain pouring down on her, slipping down the collar of her jacket, causing a shiver to run up her spine. She had been waiting nearly an hour for the vampire meeting to assemble. It was going to happen tonight, where the fuck are they? Faith had been in Taipei for about three months, and it appeared that the vampires made a killing on survival by groups, but lacked the smarts that were necessary to go with it. Sensing a few approaching, Faith ran her hand through her hair and pulled it into a tight ponytail before pulling a pair of night vision goggles out of the knapsack next to her. She had been watching this group of vampires for two weeks, and this was obviously their hideout. Every night, the same place, and roughly the same time. Seeing about a half-dozen go in, Faith shifted her weight slightly, knowing this would be about a twenty minute process of arrivals.
Moving away from the edge, Faith pulled out a nice bow and a single arrow with a clothed point. Keeping the cloth under the knapsack to stay dry, Faith moved back to the edge, sensing more arrivals. Lifting the goggles, she watched as another small group entered the building. The sound of gravel crunching behind her caused Faith to move back again from the edge and whip around, hands lifted into a ready-stance.
“Whoa, just me Faith, calm down!”
“Jay, what the fuck are you doing here?” Faith relaxed, casting a quick glance down into the streets below. “I told you to stay back at the shelter!”
“How often do I listen to orders?” Faith winced at the loudness of his voice, it could easily alert the vamps, and this would all be for nothing.
“Jay,” Faith whispered harshly. “Be quiet, they’ll hear you.”
Jay laughed softly, a glint in his eyes, Oh, you fucker, Faith thought, suddenly realizing his reason for being here.
“Why fight them Faith? They’ll win out in the end anyway. Not that someone like you could ever slay enough to make up for everything that you’ve done,” Jay shrugged, grinning.
It was less than a second before Faith’s fist connected with his jaw, sending him sprawling backward. She was on him in a second, anger boiling through her veins, “Listen you little rat, I could easily throw you off this fucking building, and let you be fish food, but your scumbag life is worth even less than a hearty meal for those bloodsuckers,” Faith saw the fear in his eyes, and felt the sick grin curl up on her lips, “Instead, I’m going to ask you to deliver a message for me.”
Thirty minutes later, Faith watched calmly from the rooftop, the bow pulled taut, and the arrow lit and ready to fly, as Jay stumbled up to the only entrance and exit from the vampire’s lair- again, not that bright. Shoving open the door Jay ran inside and Faith let the arrow go. It sailed right through the open door and embedded itself in the floor, immediately setting it alight. Faith smirked, glad the vampires hadn’t noticed the smell of the gas she had carefully put around the inside of the building. It was next door to a shut down gas station, and the inside had already reeked of gas beforehand. Hearing the screams of the vampires, Faith watched as Jay ran out and shut the door behind him, yelling as he tried to put out the fire on his arm.
As soon as his arm was no longer on fire, Faith turned and backed away from the edge, allowing the anger and betrayal within her to calm itself, and the guilt of not keeping control of herself started to bubble up. Shaking her head, Faith sighed, four years going solo on the road to redemption, and I’m still losing control of my emotions, fuck.
Faith heard the multitude of voices coming from the kitchen and dining room as she mounted the stairs. Entering the dining room, she was greeted by several of the younger slayers and smiled gently in response, watching as they moved to the high tables and began to eat. Faith’s eyes flicked to Kennedy as the younger brunette brought out two bowls of salad.
“Can you go grab the third salad bowl and give it to the mongrels?” Faith grinned at the request, and quickly moved into action, making her way through the crowded kitchen to the island. Eyeing the stack of small salad bowls beside the large salad, Faith grabbed them as well and exited into the dining room.
Placing the salad on the closest table, Faith counted out enough bowls for each of the three tables before plopping down at the corner of the main dining table. As people filed in, the last of the food was brought out to the dining room, and everyone began to take their seats. Faith was amazed, that even in this day and age; in a house filled with non-related people, the family unit ideal of eating dinner together remained intact. Faith watched everyone take their seats, and Buffy came in last with two bottles of wine, placing one by Xander at the end near the kitchen, and brought the other with her to the far end, where Faith was sitting. Faith glanced at the blonde as she took the seat at the end of the table beside her. The older slayer was tense about her current seating arrangement- that much Faith could tell. Hell, I’d be worried if she wasn’t tense. It’s been two weeks since we’ve “spoken” and…nothing.
As the food was passed around, Faith’s attention went to eating, until Buffy asked for her to pass the potatoes. Grabbing the dish to her right, Faith lifted it and handed it to the older slayer, who took it from her, her hand brushing the dark slayer’s for a moment. Tensing slightly, Faith took a deep breath and let it out slowly before focusing on her plate. She heard the bowl of potatoes being put down and glanced over at the blonde for a moment, chewing in silence. For her part, Buffy was poking her potato with a fork, an eyebrow arched at the amount of steam coming from the hot spud.
“Too steamy for ya?” Vi asked Buffy from a couple of seats down, causing Buffy to blink, and refocus before smiling.
“Yeah, just a bit,” Buffy laughed before looking quickly at Faith.
Faith resisted rolling her eyes and making a crack at the double entendre that had just been laid out in front of her, but decided to refrain out of Buffy’s already visible nervousness. The amount of people at the table that could pick up on it was large, but with a quick look around, Faith was glad to notice that the group was ignoring it purposefully. Within moments, Dawn started talking about her classes from the day, and began going on a tangent about a professor who had a tendency to start giving random information that wasn’t necessary to the subject, and Faith smiled softly, enjoying the normal dinner conversation that released any remaining group tension. Faith had learned within days that slaying and everything included in it, was not a dinner subject, and she couldn’t help but be glad for the daily reprieve.
As Faith brought the last of the serving dishes into the kitchen, she flicked her gaze up to see Buffy climbing the stairwell. Scraping the leftovers into small containers, Faith put them in the fridge before telling the others she was going upstairs. A nod from Willow, who was washing off the plates at the sink, was all she needed to be free from the rest of the after-dinner cleaning duties. Exiting quickly, Faith climbed the stairs after Buffy, and walked the long hall down to the blonde’s bedroom doors. Knocking softly, Faith heard no response, and opened the door and entered, shutting it quietly behind her. Faith saw that the television was turned on and just loud enough to have muffled her knock, before her gaze quickly flicked to the bathroom door as it opened, light pouring out into the dimly lit bedroom. Buffy entered the room, and stopped when she saw Faith.
Faith shifted her feet as she became aware that Buffy was not going to start talking, so she took the plunge, “Is everything okay, B?”
Buffy closed her eyes for a moment before averting her gaze, “Not completely.”
Faith cocked her head slightly, “Anything I can do to help?”
Faith was taken aback by the look Buffy settled on her, her eyes traveling the length of the dark slayer’s body, before she blinked again to refocus, “Not right now.”
Faith stood, tingling from the look she had been given, before noticing that Buffy had moved across the room and had just gone out onto her terrace. Sighing, Faith followed her out, and leaned on the railing next to her. Faith didn’t speak, and she had a feeling Buffy wouldn’t either, so they stood out there for a few minutes, enjoying the company of the other. When are you gonna figure shit out B? Faith thought, shaking her head slightly. She caught Buffy looking quizzically at her and allowed her mouth to curl up slightly into a small smile.
“Why are you shaking your head?” Buffy asked, turning slightly towards Faith.
“Just thinking, B,” Faith replied, hoping the subject would be dropped. She broke the blonde’s gaze and turned to look out over the backyard once again.
She could feel Buffy move beside her, but ignored it, only to tense up when she felt the older slayer’s hand gently grasp her forearm. Swallowing audibly, Faith cast a sidelong glance over at Buffy. What are you doing? Her thoughts were answered when Buffy leaned in and left a soft kiss on Faith’s cheek, causing the area to burn on contact, fuck. Faith turned to look more fully at the older slayer, her eyebrows knitting together slightly in confusion. Buffy merely smiled reassuringly, squeezed Faith’s arm and moved back inside. Faith’s eyes followed the other Chosen One as she moved back into her room, her body humming from the tender contact, I’ll take that as progress then…
They were only in the room a matter of moments when a speaker near the door buzzed. Buffy went to it and flicked the switch up, allowing Willow’s voice to crackle through, clearing up as she spoke longer, “Buffy, if you want to come down, Dawn, Andrew and I can let you in on what we found.”
“Sure, we’ll be right down,” Buffy replied after flicking the switch back down. She was about to turn away, when it buzzed again, and Buffy flicked it back up.
“We’ll?” Willow’s voice came back quickly.
Buffy shut her eyes, and Faith cocked her head to one side, a smirk on her face, get yourself outta that one B.
“Faith’s up here, we were talking,” Buffy replied. “See you in a couple of minutes.”
With that, Buffy let the switch go back down and turned to Faith, “Coming?”
Faith snorted at the comment and before she knew it, the retort was out of her mouth, “Not without your help, B.” Within seconds, Buffy’s face went red and she turned and walked to the main door, leaving without waiting for Faith, whoops…must make a mental note to be careful with the sexual innuendos. At least until she’s a bit more comfortable with ‘em.
Once Faith entered Willow’s study, she took in who was there, Buffy, standing awkwardly, and as far from her as possible, Xander, Kennedy and Dawn crammed onto the loveseat and Andrew sitting next to Willow. Taking a seat in the other plush chair, Faith waited for the Willow to begin.
“Okay, so, the Kartuk exist mainly just to end the world, which is not so fun, and kinda stupid to exist just to die, but, anyway,” Willow curbed her tangent quickly. “So, yeah, they need a rare form of power that has never been able to exist before…” Willow paused, thinking, “1997.”
“Ah, ’97, the year of the…” Xander paused, his face contorting in confusion. “What did happen in ’97?”
Buffy sighed, “I died, Kendra was called, Angel went to hell…”
“I was called,” Faith added, silencing the room.
“Two slayers in the same place, specifically two actually ‘Chosen Ones’,” Willow clarified, “First it was Buffy and Kendra, but they were never around each other enough to harness the power needed from a physical life source. But then later on, Faith came along, and you guys were around each other a lot, but these guys were living in Africa, South Africa to be exact, and they didn’t get here in time before the two of you…split.”
Faith nodded, swallowing the lump that formed in her throat.
“Then with the end of Sunnydale, you were together again, allowing for the power to grow, but we were moving across the U.S. for the most part, so again, these guys aren’t too skilled in the mobility area. When we settled here, they moved in closer, hoping that Faith would come back, and you have, so now it’s just a waiting game.”
“How do they harness the power?” Buffy asked, “I mean, is it through physical contact, or a spell?”
“Spell,” Dawn replied, “You don’t actually need to be near them, they can just, literally suck the life force out of you, and you wouldn’t feel it, or notice a difference. But something like this takes time, months even. They can’t just do this in a matter of days.”
“Okay, so what’s our timeframe, how do we stop the spell?”
“The most we can do is muffle the spell,” Willow replied, leaning back in her chair, “I can perform a buffering spell that would protect you from the majority of their spell. Kind of like putting up a wall, but leaving a very small window.”
“Why not just shut the window?” Faith asked, crossing her arms.
“It’s not that simple,” Willow sighed, “I can’t just counter-act their spell, I don’t know what it could do to you, and if I did, they would run and wait for us for another time.”
“So you want them to still get their power, just not as fast? While we try to find them and stop it?” Xander inquired.
“Exactly,” Willow answered, smiling gently.
“Great, so we’re the bait,” Faith shook her head, sighing.
“Yup,” Kennedy turned to look over at Faith, grinning, “Go act baity.”
