Fanfiction: Don't Let The Sun Go Down
It was kind of amazing how quickly the carnage could be cleared up and ignored when the government got involved. Tectonic disturbances, encroaching local wildlife, freak weather conditions, tragic losses, miraculous escapes. The press had been speculating wildly until a few key phrases were dropped in on the official presidential press conference and now the focus was on the clean up instead of the cause.
The fact was that right now most of downtown LA was inaccessible except to those with the right uniform or the right contacts, and even those lucky few didn’t know what kind of ‘local wildlife’ could be thirty foot tall with eight-inch talons razor sharp on all six limbs. Faith did. Well, actually she didn’t know precisely what it was, but she knew there were some Watchers drooling over their books who’d be able to tell her within a few hours if she asked. The moment news had reached the new council - which was still struggling to come up with a name for itself - a team had been formed and dispatched. A Watcher/Slayer combo, a mage, medical backup and muscle (both the trainee-Slayer and the regular human kind) - with others on call able to be there in less than a heartbeat. Standard new council procedure.
She hadn’t been on the team, LA was still dangerous ground for her - what with the whole breaking out of jail and unfinished prison sentence still on the books there - but she had to go. Nothing was going to stop her being there, especially not Robin. She’d have to apologise to him later, when he regained consciousness, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve to make it up to him. Once he calmed down a little he’d understand why she had to be here. Why she had to see this for herself.
So here she was, right in the thick of the recovery mission, and she had nothing to do. The council team were keeping her very carefully - and they probably thought surreptitiously - segregated from the police and fire department volunteers meaning that she had nothing to do, nothing to fight, and nobody to help. The council team was working the way they were supposed to - like a well-oiled machine - and they didn’t need her.
She was the third wheel, the hanger-on, the million and one other clichés for the person not doing anything and barely tolerated.
She was in the way.
A shout from around the corner, a flurry of activity and for a moment the team weren’t watching her from the corners of their eyes. She felt horrible for doing it, but she took the opportunity and slipped away.
Through rubble and growing darkness she walked, not consciously heading for anywhere in particular but knowing in her heart where she was going.
There.
What had once been an alleyway behind what had once been a hotel. She stopped, looked around, feeling like she was being watched. There was no one.
This was the place, there was nothing left but she knew this was where he died.
The shadows were lengthening as the sun sank and for a moment the alley gleamed like gold.
Then, it was gone.