Forgotten Conscience
by Christopher Andrews
The Prophecy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I throw him into the chair. Cordelia goes behind the chair and starts wrapping chains around his wrists.
“Well maybe I should do this for a living. I did a great job on Faith earlier and I can just see how good this is going.”
Geez, you’d think after facing death a few 100 times she’d get a little less self-absorbed.
“Just make sure he’s secure. I’d hate to have to kill him before we get what we need from him.”
“Whatever.”
She pulls tightly on the chains and locks them.
“Ow!”
So he has a voice, that’ll make it easier to communicate. I bend down to look him in the eyes.
“Hey…”
He looks at me.
“You gotta name?”
Cordelia gets up and leaves the room. He looks away.
Okay fine, be difficult.
I punch him in the face. He pulls at his chains but they are locked tight.
It’s a good to know Cordelia’s learning something; lord knows it didn’t look like she learned useful in school. Maybe I need to be a little more direct.
“What’s your name?”
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’?”
“I mean what does it matter what my name is? It’s not gonna matter in a couple of hours anyway.”
“Why’s that? Are your buddies coming back for round 2? They didn’t fair too well in round one and I don’t think fewer of them is gonna make their chances better.”
“You think that’s the last of them? I hate to burst your little Scooby bubble but there are more of us than you think?”
“I saw your reserves on the way in, I wouldn’t call 40 vampires a cult just yet.”
Scooby bubble, how does he know we call ourselves that?
“What’s not even the worst of us, you two have no chance. The prophecy will be…”
Prophecy, what prophecy?
“What prophecy? What do you mean you two?”
He clams up and just stops talking.
You two, could he mean me and Angel? There’s a prophecy about me and Angel?
“What prophecy?”
“Two into one…”
What?
“What is two into one?”
“Are you sure you wanna know?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to know?”
“What if you knowing screws up the prophecy and it don’t come true?”
“So it’s a good prophecy?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yes you did, you said ‘what if knowing about it screws it up for me and’…”
“I didn’t say anything about screwing it up being good for YOU.”
“But it is about me…?”
“I didn’t say that.”
This guy is really starting to bug me. Maybe I should hit him again? No, if I hit him any harder I may take his head off and then we’d never get any answers out of him. Okay, brainstorm time, of course it’d go better with more brains.
“Don’t plan on going anywhere.”
I walk out of the room into the next one. Cordy and Wesley are in the main room sitting and waiting.
“Where’s Angel?”
“He’s in with Faith.”
My thoughts drift to that vision thing I had earlier with Faith beating up Angel. It’s a good thing she’s tied up in there.
“Look, guys. Something is going down.”
“Gee, ya think? Did the hordes of swarming vampires all gunning for our throats give it away?”
God damn it.
“Cordelia shut the hell up.”
“I have to agree with Buffy. These were clearly not a bunch of guys out for a good time. These vampires were obviously organized. The two in the front seemed to be the ones in charge.”
They didn’t look like friends.
“They didn’t seem to like each other.”
“That’s probably why one of them is sitting in the other room chained to a chair.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing specific, I managed to weasel a little out of him. He kept mentioning something about a prophecy.”
“A prophecy what kind of prophecy…?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. He kept talking in circles like he was trying to push me. There’s only one thing he really said.”
“What’s that?”
“Two into one”
Memories
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I pull on my chains around my wrists. I deserve this. After everything that I must’ve done, I-I killed that guy. He probably wasn’t the first one either. So many faces… all of those people… I must’ve destroyed all of their lives. I pull on me chains so hard it pinches my skin.
“Ow!”
“You probably shouldn’t pull too hard. If you pull too hard we may have to tighten your chains.”
“Thank you…”
“For what…?”
“Thank you for stopping me.”
“I couldn’t let you kill her. She-she’s…”
“She’s important to you.”
“How do you know that?”
“I may not have my memory but I remember that much.”
At least I think I do.
“So your memories are returning then?”
“Well I think they’re memories. I keep having these weird dreams.”
“What kind of dreams?”
Just ask him, it’s better for everyone if you ask him.
“I dunno. They seem real enough but…”
“But…?”
“I keep getting this feeling like, like they haven’t happened yet. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes more sense than you might think?”
Hun...?
“A slayer has a sort of sixth sense when it comes to evil. Some times she will even get visions in her dreams about what’s to come.”
Visions, there are gonna be more of these things?
“You think I’m gonna get more of these things? More of these… visions?”
“I don’t know… we don’t know when or why it happens, it just happens.”
You should just ask him.
“Angel…?”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you just kill me? With everything I’ve done, why haven’t you just killed me?”
“Kill you? Why would we want to kill you?”
“I hurt you didn’t I?”
“Yes…”
“Then just kill me…”
“No, I…”
“Just kill me… PLEASE!”
“Faith…”
“Kill me, please kill me?”
He gets up and comes over to me.
“Look… Faith we’re not going to kill you.”
“Then you better not let me out of here then.”
“Why?”
“Because if you do the first thing I’m gonna do is kill myself.”
He grabs my head and I stare him in the eyes.
“Faith, don’t ever say that. Killing yourself would be the coward’s way out.”
“If remembering all the pain I’ve caused is the only thing I have to look forward to, I don’t want to remember. Please just kill me.”
“Faith, like I said before… we’re not going to kill you.”
“With everything I must have done before coming here, why am I still alive?”
“Well, we didn’t know how you were gonna react when you got out of your coma so…”
Coma…?
“I was in a coma?”
“Well, yes… didn’t you wonder why you were in a hospital?”
Hospital…?
“I-I don’t, remember a… hospital… I-I don’t…”
“What’s the first thing you remember?”
First thing… I-I remember was, running…
“I remember I was… I was running.”
“Running? Running how?”
“I’m… I’m not sure…”
“Concentrate… Were you running to something or from something?”
“I-I-I wasn’t… I don’t think I was running to something. I remember wanting to get on a train…”
“A train, do you know why?”
“I… I wanted to get away.”
“Away? Away from what…?”
“I-I can’t remember. The next thing I remember after running is… is getting off the train.”
“… and then you ran away? Where you found me?”
N-N-No… that’s not what happened.
“No… I remember, I remember getting off the train… and then I looked around.”
“Then what…?”
Then what…? I heard…
“I heard something… people coming toward me and then…”
“And then…?”
I… I…
“I don’t… know I-… Ow… I…”
“What’s wrong?”
My head… it’s, it hurts.
“Angel?”
“Faith…? What’s wrong?”
“ANGEL?”
Someone’s calling Angel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Two into one…? What’s that?”
“Well gee Wes; I was kinda hoping you’d tell me.”
“As much as I’d like to help you I really don’t have the resources I did as a watch. In this situation I’d usually consult my books… but as you can see my books are no where in sight…”
Okay I get it you’re useless without your books. God, when Giles got fired he got cooler, Wesley just seems to be a bigger loser than he already was.
“You can’t remember anything? Most times prophecies aren’t something to forget about.”
Course the reason I don’t forget is because most of the prophecies I hear are about me.
“I… I’d have to check…”
“Are you sure you can’t remember any prophecies about a slayer and a vampire with a soul?”
“You think the prophecy is about you and Angel?”
I’m not sure.
“He was talking in circles so it was hard to figure out what was true and what was bullshit, but he did say ‘you two’ have no chance. So I think it’s safe to say it is at least about me.”
“We can’t be sure of anything at this point.”
Could it be about Angel and Faith? No, Angel would never go for someone like Faith; she’s too much of a psychopath. Then again he did have a thing for Drusilla.
“Well one thing is for sure… I can’t hang around here much longer.”
“Why?”
“There was one other thing he said. His friends will be back, and there’ll be more of them. If this prophecy is about me I no longer have the element of surprise. They’ll be prepared for me this time and that means we all could die.”
“Isn’t this something we should get Angel’s opinion on?”
He’s right.
“Angel?”
I don’t hear anything, something must be wrong.
“Angel?”
“Wesley, get in here. She needs help.”
Something is wrong.
Wesley, Cordy and I get up and go in there. Faith’s passed out in the chair.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know… We were talking about what she could remember…”
Wesley rushes to Faith’s side and starts to check her pulse.
I hope she’s okay.
“What were you talking about?”
“I asked her what the first thing she remembered was … she got on a train, and then she was talking about people coming when she got off the train… and then… something happened and she passed out.”
“Wes… will she be okay?”
“I think so. The only thing I can figure is that whatever happened was so traumatic that something inside her didn’t want to think about it. She’ll be okay… she just needs some rest.”
“Good, I was afraid she was gonna die.”
Why is it so important to Angel that she be okay? Could the prophecy really be about them? Maybe we should get out of L.A. before those vamps come back.
“Look, I think we should probably get Faith out of L.A. I kinda doubt it’s all just coincidence that Faith wakes up and all of the sudden these guys want us dead.”
“You’re probably right. You should take Faith back to Sunnydale with you.”
“Good idea Angel, perhaps if these vamps have to spend the time to look for Faith it will give us time to regroup, perhaps even research this two into one thing.”
“Two into one…?”
“Yes, uh… Buffy was just filling us in on what she got out of our little friend in the next room…”
“Well I think Wesley is right. As soon as Faith is coherent enough you take her to the train and get her out of my town. I’ll handle evil boy in there.”
Okay time to get back to my territory.
The Price of a Tortured Soul------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------God she’s heavy.
We walk down the street, her arm over my shoulders.
“Faith…?”
She sort of half grunts in response, just to let me know she was still conscious.
I wish we could’ve waited till she was a little more alive but she didn’t seem to wanna wake up. We tried smelling salts, and all sorts of bad smelling recipes. Cordelia even tried slapping her a couple times before we stopped her. It must be something to do with whatever they’ve done to her. Faith might be a lot of things but a drug addict? Never.
I look up at a sign and it says ‘Commercial train station this way.’ It’s pointing the way we’re going.
Okay, Wesley said it was only a few minutes from here. Whoever those guys were they must have done this to her. Angel will get whatever he can out of that vamp we captured, it’s time for me to do my job and keep Faith safe.
We step on to the station grounds and I can feel the gravel shift under my feet. Faith’s steps are wide and uneven; it makes it hard to get her to go where I need her to, one wrong step and Faith trips sending her tumbling to the ground.
She seems to be coming to.
I grab her arms and pull her to her feet.
“Come on Faith, let’s go.”
She stumbles as we start walking again. We get out to the tracks and suddenly she stops.
Well okay I guess we can wait here till the next train comes along.
“W-where, where are we…?”
She’s becoming more alert… but she also doesn’t seem too calm.
“It’s okay Faith. We’re going home.”
God I never thought I’d ever say that to Faith. Ever since I put her in a coma all I’ve been thinking about is trying to kill her when she gets out. Now I’m helping save her.
“I-I’m back… I-I’m here.”
Back? Angel did say she was talking about taking a train before she passed out. Could this be where she got off the train?
“N-no… we-we have to, to leave uh… I have to leave.”
Faith pushes me away, trying to stand on her own. She takes a few steps back though and trips over her own feet, falling back on the ground.
“No I… help me? Help me get away from, from…”
She reaches out a hand to me. I can see tears forming in her eyes.
“Look, Faith… I don’t know what happened but you can’t run from it. If you run from it like you did before, sooner or later it will catch up to you again.”
She starts backing away.
“I… I…”
I think she needs a little push.
I kneel in front of her.
“What happened? What happened to you here?”
“N-no… I…”
Maybe she needs a little bigger push.
“You said you got on the train and came to L.A.”
“Y-y-yes…”
“When you got off the train… was someone there?”
“Yes…”
“Was it Angel?”
“N-no… it was someone else.”
“Did you know them? Were they old friends?”
“I didn’t know them… I-I got off the train and, and then they were there.”
“What happened next?”
“They came over and… and wanted to talk to me… they were talking about t-turning me over to, to the cops…”
Well that would have been ideal.
“One of them… one of them wanted to, make a… a deal…”
God, why do men have to be such pigs?
“What kind of deal?”
“I… I didn’t want to find out. I… I…”
“What happened, Faith? What did you do?”
“I… I killed him.”
I grab her by the shoulders, pulling her to me.
I can feel her heart beating fast. I can feel the tears coming as I wrap my arms around her.
“I-I-I-I killed… someone.”
This is definitely not the same Faith I put into that coma.
It’s, its okay. It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.”
I can tell this isn’t gonna be easy.
“I-I’m so sorry. He didn’t do anything and I killed him.”
What can I do?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angel’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I walk into the room and stand in front of this guy tied to a chair.
Something about him just makes me wanna punch him. So I do
I punch him in the face; he waits a moment to absorb the pain and then looks up at me and smiles.
“Hey Angel… how’s Cordelia?”
What? This guy researched his target before he attacked. I better be careful so I don’t give away too much, so…
“Hey I bet her and Wesley… or should I call him Wes? Anyway, I bet they weren’t too happy you brought a psycho killer home from the pound now were they?”
He’s trying to play mind games with me.
“Hey don’t even try to play mind games with me. You’re talking to the king of mind games.”
“Actually, wasn’t that Angelus? You’re nothing like Angelus.”
He knows about Angelus, it could be that I’m part of the prophecy. Let’s see what I can get out of him.
“You’re right, I’m nothing like Angelus, and don’t expect to see him any time soon.”
“Well let’s hope not… he’d have the balls to kill me.”
“What about the prophecy?”
“What about it?”
“There’s a prophecy about me and Buffy…”
“Who said anything about Buffy? Or you for that matter?”
“When you were talking to Buffy, you mentioned something about ‘you two’. That means Buffy and someone…”
“And you automatically assume that means you?”
“Well I…”
“Wow ego much? You have a long time yet before you’re even a blip on the boss’ radar screen…”
The boss…?
“What boss?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your boss, who is he?”
“He’s my boss; I can’t put it to you that many ways you know.”
This guy is really starting to piss me off.
I nearly take his head off with a right cross, his chair falls back on the floor and his hands are crushed under his own weight. I put my foot on the side of his head and slowly press my weight against it.
It’s time to take it up a notch.
“I’m tired of playing games with you. Just tell me if Buffy is going to be okay.”
“Buffy… you think she’ll be safe against the first of us? Never”
The first of us…?
“The first of who?”
“He who was here at the beginning at shall endure until the end, Omega, the first vampire.”
Omega…? Oh fuck.
I pick him up off the floor, making sure he can’t escape before I set him on the floor. I turn around and walk into the next room. Wesley and Cordy are flipping through books, reading.
“What have you got?”
“Cordelia has been looking for references to this cult or group with varying success…”
“Success…? That’s not what I’d call it. I’d say it’s a complete and total failure.”
“Right, well… anyway, I’ve had a little better time researching this two into one thing that our attackers mentioned.”
I walk over to him and he hands me a book.
“There are small references to it in many different texts…”
“Just tell me, is Buffy gonna be okay?”
“The… the details are… are still sketchy…”
He’s all dodgy and nervous, he knows something and he’s not telling me.
“Wesley just tell me the truth, will she be okay?”
“T-to be honest I can’t be sure…”
He takes the book from me.
“They seem to make reference to, a joining of some kind.”
A joining…?
“What kind of joining?”
“That’s where things get a little sketchy it refers to the warriors that fight the darkness becoming as one…”
Hun…?
“As I said the details are sketchy we still don’t know who these guys are and why they want us dead, but we will figure it out.”
“I know… I know…”
The warriors of who fight the darkness? I hate cryptic prophecies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Someone’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Someone’s in the other room, I better be really, really quiet.
“Psst… hey… hey Dave…”
Dave tries to turn around but his chains stop him.
“Hey Dave… don’t worry it’s me. I’ll get you out…”
I gotta stick to John’s plan.
The Beginning
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Faith…?”
Good, she’s finally sleeping. The constant rhythm of the train must’ve calmed her down. The stress of what she’s gone through really hit her hard.
I’m sitting against a bale of hay, Faith’s head in my lap.
She looks so peaceful and content, like sleeping beauty.
I stroke her chestnut locks and watch her sleep.
Wow… her hair is so soft and milky. No wonder so many guys want a piece of her ass, though I bet her ass has more to do with it than her hair.
I run my middle finger down her side.
Not to mention she keeps her body in perfect shape. Wait, what? Well hey I don’t do so bad myself. I can kick her ass any day of the week. Matter of fact I kicked her ass into a coma. Speaking of which seeing as how I’m the one that pretty much put her in this situation, maybe I should try and not mention it to her. Having no memory might make her a little edgy when I try to help her. Edgy is not what we need right now, especially from Faith. I’ll have to find a way to corner Anya; she tends to blurt out shit at exactly the wrong time.
I look out the window… I can see the lights starting to come on over the town. I look down at Faith, something about how peaceful she looks makes me lean down and kiss her on the cheek. She stirs in her sleep. I look back out at the sunset.
“And then there was Sunnydale…”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A vampire jumps out in front of me. I grab him and throw him against the wall. I grab him and throw him against the wall. Before I can react she stakes the vamp. She takes the lead and as we round the corner a figure jumps out at her. She grabs it and thrusts it against a dumpster and its own weak legs give out from under it. She cries out as I lunge towards it.
“FAITH NO…!”
I plunge the stake into its heart and step back, waiting for it to burst into a pile of dust but it doesn’t. Blood starts to flow from the hole in his heart I just made.
She looks like she’s panicking as she kneels down and tries to stop the bleeding. She’s saying something but I don’t hear what.
I start to hear something in the distance. I look around but see nothing. They sound like sirens. The police are coming… if they see this they’ll, they’ll blame me. I look left and right. They’ll be here any minute.
“We-we have to go. Come on, we have to go.”
I try and get her to come with me, and at the last second she does. We run down the alley. I dump the bloody stake in a nearby dumpster and climb over a fence.
W-What am I doing? What have I done? What am I gonna do? I should go back… I can’t, I can’t let them find the body.
I start back towards where we left the body.
Out, out of sight out of mind. Yeah, the-that’ll work... I’ll take the body, I’ll weight it and dump it in the water and that’ll be the end of it. I’ll never h-have to worry about it again Never have to worry, can’t worry.
I look down at the body.
I-I killed him.
I kneel down and look him in the eyes.
They’re so… empty. It-it’s like the life was just drained from his eyes.
I reach out and touch the blood on his chest. The sirens get louder.
I gotta get the body out of here.
I grab the body by the arms and pull it over my shoulder. It feels light for a body that’s gotta be at least 160 pounds.
I-I gotta get… get rid of the evidence.
I feel someone kiss my cheek and my eyes flick open.
“And then there was Sunnydale…”
And Then There Was Sunnydale
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Where are we?”
I turn to Buffy as I ask.
Wow, Buffy... it’s nice to finally have a name to go with the face burned inside my head.
“We’re in Sunnydale.”
Right, I guess I should’ve read the ‘now entering’ sign when we passed by it earlier.
We’re walking through a nice residential block.
I can see why people like to live here.
I look up ahead to see if I can tell where we’re going and I notice a graveyard up ahead.
How many graveyards can a town have? I mean we’ve only gone a few blocks and this is like the third cemetery we’ve passed.
“And you live here?”
“Yeah well… well actually I live about 20 minutes from where we’re going, on campus at Sunnydale U.”
She looks uncomfortable talking about it.
“Is it nice?”
“Is what nice?”
God I suck at small talk.
I look down at my feet to make sure one of them doesn’t suddenly find itself in my mouth.
“Do you like living on campus by yourself?”
“Well yeah… b-but I don’t live alone. Willow and I are roommates…”
“Oh… Willow’s the witch right?”
“Yeah sh-sh-she and Tara…”
I look up at Buffy.
Wait I’m confused.
“So you, Willow and Tara all live together?”
She looks up at me and she has this weird look on her face.
“No… no Willow and Tara are witches. They’re sorta… learning together.”
Learning together?
“Learning together? Learning magic right?”
“Yeah sure…”
I squirm a little at the thought.
It still bugs me.
We stop and face each other. She looks me in the eyes.
“It still bugs you doesn’t it?”
“Well… yeah… I mean on the one hand it’s kinda cool you know, magic, vampires, evil things that go bump in the night and all.”
Wow what the hell am I saying?
I step back a second and think about what I’m saying.
“And then I think about the whole slayer destiny thing. I’m destined to fight and kill, death destruction, mayhem, and that other… apocalypse averting stuff…”
Oh god.
“… I’m scared Buffy.”
I feel a chill run down my spine and all I can think is… Oh god.
“Faith it’s all right.”
“No it’s not I mean, the world is gonna end if I don’t’ do something when the big evil shows itself. I’m… I’m…”
“Scared?”
My voice cracks as I feel tears fill my eyes.
“Yes… I feel… I feel alone.”
Buffy takes my hands in hers and holds them.
“Faith, you’re not alone. I’ll be here for you. I know what you’re going through because I went through it too…”
I raise my head to look her in her eyes.
But that would mean…
“I know how hard it is to be a slayer, and yea… it scares me too sometimes. But you don’t have to be alone. We’ll work through this together, and when the big evil comes looking for us we’ll fight it together.”
She grips my hands a little for just a second and then smiles at me.
Suddenly it’s like all that fear just disappears and I know what she says is true.
I smile back at her. She lets go of one of my hands, reaches up and wipes a tear away from my cheek with her thumb. A tear which only moments before was a tear of pain, thanks to her, is now a tear of joy.
“It will be okay.”
We start walking again.
“Now let’s go, we’re almost there. It’s like a block and a half from here.”
I don’t say anything. I just follow her wherever she’s leading me.
Maybe it’s what she said, or maybe it’s the way she looks at me, but I’m not worried about where we’re going. It doesn’t matter that I’m about to meet a bunch of people I should already know and probably hurt in some way. It doesn’t matter that there’s some one out there who wants me dead and is willing to use a whole army to do it. None of that matters because if they come, I know we’ll face it together. She stops us in front of a house.
“We’re here.”
Jailbreak------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Someone’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I hate chains.
I pull on Dave’s chains one more time and they break.
Thank god, I was gonna stake him if the chains didn’t break soon.
Dave gets up off the chair and starts stretching out his arms. He turns to look at me.
“Christian?”
Yeah it’s me.
“Let’s go.”
Feel free not to thank me any time soon.
“I got in through the sewer exit; you’d think someone this powerful would have thought about that escape route.”
“We don’t have time to debate how stupid Angel is. Let’s get out of here.”
All right, fine.
I start to the sewer and open the hatch, it creaks open.
“Stop, we can’t have them knowing we’re escaping.”
“Duh…”
Dave walks up and jumps into the sewer.
Well hey, if you’re gonna jump into something, it might as well be with both feet.
I jump in after him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angel’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Wesley, there’s something you should cross reference…”
“What’s that?”
“Omega…”
“O-Omega…? W-he-why Omega…? Are you insane? Why?”
I knew this would happen.
“He’s involved.”
“I-he… involved how?”
“Who or what is Omega?”
Cordelia…
“Omega is the original vampire, the first of the first of us. Legend has it, Omega was The First’s original creation. Before any other demon, HE was created.”
“He’s the first thing we’re taught about as watchers.”
“So if he’s so old why hasn’t anyone taken him out yet?”
“Many have tried, none have survived.”
“None…?”
“Omega has killed six confirmable slayer killings…”
“Six confirmable…?”
“There are rumours that he’s killed more but it’s not for sure.”
“Why not? I thought you watchers were supposed to WATCH of your slayers?”
Good old Cordy, queen of questions.
“The reason it can’t be confirmed is because with the other cases, the watchers died with the slayers. Also, in the 6 confirmed cases the slayers were completely drained of their blood. I don’t mean regular drained, I mean the bodies were literally white.”
“What happened in the other cases?”
“In the other cases Omega was rumoured to be in the area but the slayers were simply dead.”
“Goodie.”
“So Angel… h-how is Omega involved?”
He won’t like this.
“Our little friend in there calls him boss.”
“So what you’re saying is we have an evil vampire that’s been around since before evil was evil with a taste for slayers who really wants Faith dead for some reason, and he’s decided to form an army to do it?”
I turn to Cordy.
“Pretty much…?”
“Oh great why can’t we have people suing us for invasion of privacy like normal investigators?”
I turn to Wesley.
“So do you think you’ll find something else on it now?”
“It’s more than possible, as important as he is… there’s bound to be a prophecy or two about him. Even so, I think you should find out as much as you can from our little lackey in there.”
You read my mind.
“Good idea.”
I turn around and head back into the room.
“Oh shit.”
Wesley and Cordy come up behind me.
“He’s gone.”
Friends you can’t remember, or enemies you shouldn’t forget
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We walk up the stairs to Giles’ front door. I stop in front of it. I take a deep breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just… nothing.”
The gang isn’t gonna be too happy to see Faith.
I knock on the door and wait.
I’ll just have to convince them that what’s happening with Faith is real.
The door opens and Giles is behind it. He sees me and smiles, but as he looks to Faith he gets that British frown on his face.
Wow, I didn’t think I’d have to relieve the tension so soon. Giles seems reluctant to speak. Okay I guess I will.
I take Faith’s hand and put it to my heart.
“Look Dad…”
I sniffle and wipe away a fake tear.
“I’m getting married.”
Giles gives me a weird look for a second and then steps out of the doorway allowing us in. I let go of Faith’s hand as we go into Giles’ house.
“Well I suppose that answers my first question. My next question would have to be have you lost your mind?”
Whoa wait a second.
I turn around to face Giles.
“Giles what do you mean?”
“What is Faith doing here?”
“I brought her here.”
“Well, obviously. How long has she been out of her coma?”
“A few days…”
“And you knew about this?”
“No I…”
“Umm…”
“…didn’t. Wesley called me two days ago and told me that she was in L.A.”
“Los Angeles? Did you stop and think about how she managed to get there while she was supposed to be in a coma?”
“Umm…”
“I didn’t have to, she told Angel she got there on a train. Look that stuff isn’t important. We’ve got more important problems.”
“Hey…”
“Yes, I believe we do. Like the fact that you’ve brought a killer back to Sunnydale.”
“HEY!”
We both turn to see Faith.
We’ve been ignoring her.
“I know I have no idea who you guys are, and I barely recognize my own name. But would you please stop talking about me like I’m not here?”
“I’m sorry Faith.”
I really am.
“Look… I’m obviously not welcome here. I’ll leave.”
She turns to the door and starts walking.
I can’t let her leave.
I catch up to her and take her arm.
“No wait Faith… Don’t go.”
She stops and turns around.
“He doesn’t like me. Anyone can see that.”
Well he has reason to.
“It’s just that… well, there’s a lot of history to work through. Just let me talk with him for a few minutes, and then we’ll figure out what to do.”
“I… okay.”
I look in her eyes.
She-she trusts me. If with everything she doesn’t know, she can find it in herself to trust me then… then we can help her. I feel better knowing that. Okay, now I gotta deal with Giles.
I turn to Giles.
“Giles, we need to talk about this. Okay?”
Come on.
He looks at Faith and then back at me.
“Okay.”
We start to walk into another room.
“Wait.”
“We’ll just be a second. Stay here, and don’t worry.”
She’ll stay. I know she will.
We go into another room. I close the door and face Giles.
“Giles what the hell are you doing?”
“What am I DOING? What are YOU doing? You brought her back here. What makes you think you can trust her?”
I pace a couple steps.
Okay time for the big guns.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about Forgotten Conscience?”
Suddenly Giles gets very uncomfortable.
“What?”
“Faith, she has no memory.”
“Are you sure?”
“Wesley is convinced that this Forgotten Conscience thing is the cause. Faith doesn’t seem to have any memory of anyone.”
“And you think you can trust her?”
“Wes examined her. Besides you saw her in there, she has no idea who you are.”
Giles starts to calm down.
“So what are you planning to do now?”
“Well there’s something more going on here.”
“Something more, what happened?”
“When I got there, we had some unwelcome visitors pay Angel Investigations a visit.”
“What kind of visitors?”
How did I know he was gonna say that?
“There was an army of vampires who seemed to have a taste for Faith.”
“You think they were there because of Faith?”
They certainly weren’t there for Cordelia’s company.
“I think so.”
“Do you have any idea what they want with Faith?”
“I’m not sure except that they want her dead.”
“So what’s your next step, assuming you have one?”
“Well I’m hoping you can tell me why they want her dead before they get here.”
“How do I do that without any information?”
“We managed to capture one of the vamps who attacked us. He said something about something called ‘Two into one’.”
“Two into one…?”
“Yeah, Wesley didn’t know what it meant either. The vamp said it has something to do with a prophecy.”
“A prophecy…?”
There’s a loud noise outside.
What the?
We walk out into Giles’ living room.
“XANDER…!”
Xander
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Wait.”
I don’t want them to fight over me.
Buffy stops and turns around for a second.
“We’ll just be a second. Stay here, and don’t worry.”
She looks at me like she’s trying to decide something.
She’s trying to decide if I will stay or not.
She turns and goes into the next room. I hear the door close and they are shouting at each other.
Oh god!
I run my fingers through my hair as I walk over and sit down on the couch. I lay my forehead against my palm and lean against it.
They hate me. I have this haunting fear everyone I’m about to meet is gonna hate me. What if she looses her friends, trying to convince them to be my friend? Why do they hate me so much? What did I do to them to make them hate me? Did I hurt one of them? Did I hurt all of them? Could I have killed one of their friends? They’re all friends of Buffy. Did I hurt Buffy? Did I try and kill her? Is that why they hate me?
I stand up.
Ah! I punch the table and the corner breaks off. Why can’t I remember?
“Faith…?”
I turn around and there’s some guy standing in the doorway.
“Who are you?”
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’re coma made you forget about me already. Where’s Giles?”
I look behind me at the room they went into and then back at this guy.
“He’s in there I think, with Buffy.”
He starts walking towards me.
He seems kinda upset, this can’t be good.
“What did you do? Catch them by surprise?”
“What? No…”
“Knowing you, you probably attacked them from behind while they weren’t looking.”
Knowing me?
I start backing away from him.
He’s obviously not gonna be friendly.
“You know me?”
“The least you could do is acknowledge what happened between us. I mean I know it probably didn’t mean as much to you but it’s something I’ll never forget.”
What happened between us? Something happened between us? I-I never even thought about hurting them in other ways. Oh god! What am I gonna do?
“I-I’m sorry I…”
“You think an apology is gonna make up for…?”
We hear something get knocked over in the other room. He looks at me. His face quickly goes from upset to angry.
Uh-oh…
“Hey, look, that’s… that’s not my fault.”
“And pigs fly…”
He runs at me and jumps, knocking me down. I struggle but he’s got me pinned down. I start to feel like someone’s choking me, but he doesn’t have his hands on my throat. Someone comes in, it’s Buffy.
I look back up as the pressure on my neck starts me coughing.
Oh my god it’s me. I’m choking myself I… when did I have time to go to a cheesy motel? Ah, I’m choking myself. But my hands aren’t on my neck. What the hell is going on? I blink and suddenly that guy is on top of me again.
“You wanna feel a connection? It’s just skin. I see… I want… I take. I forget.”
Oh god… what’s he saying. I gotta stop him.
“No, wait. It was more than that.”
“Faith, what are you talking about?”
“I could do anything to you right now, and you want me to. I can make you scream.”
I feel myself trying to breathe but I can’t.
“I could make you die.”
God no please stop. Something’s choking me and I can’t feel anything on my neck.
All of the sudden, someone grabs him off me and throws him across the room.
“Xander, don’t!”
I sit up and I’m breathing normally.
What the hell? It must have been all part of that, whatever it was that just happened.
I look up at him as he gets up.
“B-Buffy, you’re okay!”
“Well YEAH! Why the hell wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, well Faith was here. I didn’t see Giles or you and… and then she said you were locked in the other room and…”
I didn’t say they were locked in there.
“I didn’t say anything like that.”
“So what happened Xander? You just assumed Faith was trying to kill us all again?”
Again…?
I start pacing in a small circle.
Again…?
“Buffy it’s Faith! Psycho bitch of death.”
Again usually means it’s happened a first time. I tried to kill them all? No wonder they all hate me.
I keep pacing.
“Xander things are different now.”
“How…?”
I’m, I’m surprised this Giles guy didn’t shoot me the second he saw me.
“She can’t remember a thing.”
“Oh so that’s it? You just forgive and forget and all the things she did to us? All the things she did to you?”
Things I did? Oh shit… could whatever have just happened be a memory of something I did? Something I did to him?
“No Xander. The Powers That Be are doing that for us.”
“What are you talking about?”
I stop pacing and look at Buffy arguing.
“The Powers That Be have given her something called Forgotten Conscience. Basically, they made her wake up from her coma with amnesia so that she can see the mistakes she’s made.”
I can’t let her do this.
“And what happens if she gets her memory back and decides she likes killing more than feeling sorry for herself?”
I WON’T let her do it.
“If she does then I’ll have to k-deal with her.”
Deal with me?
“What do you mean DEAL with me?”
She was gonna say she would kill me.
She takes a few steps towards me and I start backing up.
“Faith please, just calm down.”
“DEAL with me?”
Calm down? She’s gonna kill me and she wants me to calm down?
I start breathing heavy.
“I-they, she… Something’s happening to me, I… I feel like my insides are burning all over. I-help me…”
Something j-just snaps.
I run at her.
“YOU BITCH!”
The Unknown------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xander’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“YOU BITCH!”
What the hell?
She starts running; she steps up on the couch and uses it as a springboard to jump at Buffy. Buffy flips her backwards and she lands next to me. Buffy gets up and squares off.
“Not this again.”
Again, this happened before?
Faith gets up and I back off a few steps. She charges at Buffy again and Buffy hits her with a right cross.
What do I do? Should I get involved?
Faith responds with a left jab to Buffy’s stomach.
Buffy said she’s dealt with this before; I’ll let her deal with this unless Faith gets the upper hand.
Buffy throws a left hook and follows with a roundhouse kick which sends Faith to the ground.
I guess Buffy has everything under control.
Faith turns over and kicks Buffy’s legs out from under her.
Okay maybe not.
Faith climbs on top of her and puts her hands around Buffy’s neck. Buffy starts to choke.
Oh crap.
Giles and I both rush to stop her but I get there first. I grab her and pull her off Buffy. She falls to the ground and starts shaking. Buffy sits up.
“Buffy what the hell was that?”
“Is Faith okay?”
Faith…?
“Is Faith okay? Buffy she just tried to kill you and you wanna know how Faith is doing? What the hell is going on?”
Buffy gets up and rubs her neck.
“There’s something wrong with Faith.”
“No shit, what was your first clue?”
I’m pretty sure killing someone isn’t a good omen.
“Xander…”
“Buffy he’s right. We may have to consider killing her. This can’t be normal behaviour for Forgotten Conscience.”
“I know. Wesley examined her and he’s convinced she’s been pumped full of drugs.”
Drugs…?
“She’s been taking drugs?”
“No… Faith may have been many things but a druggie? Never…”
I have to agree there.
“Whether or not she’s been taking drugs, she’s clearly a threat. Whatever these drugs are they are obviously making her more violent.”
“More violent than she used to be?”
“Xander, look, it’s not as simple as all that. She may not have been taking the drugs, but obviously someone was forcing her to take them.”
“You think whoever wants her dead is the one who’s been making her act this way?”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this army pops up just after she comes out of her coma. We at least have to keep her around until we figure out what they’ve done to her.”
I look over at Faith who’s still shaking. She’s rolled herself into the fetal position.
“What if whatever she’s been pumped full of is supposed to kill her?”
“Then we’ll just have to get it out of her system.”
“How…?”
“I dunno… maybe this outburst she has is how she gets it out of her system.”
“Yeah and while she gets it out of her system one of us may wind up dead.”
“Where is she gonna stay? None of us are safe if she goes off again.”
“She’ll stay with me. I’ll take her back to the dorm with me.”
Whoa, wait a second.
“Buffy you can’t do that. Whatever’s wrong with her obviously happens when she gets stressed out. With your history…”
“Buffy she just got the best of you. What if she remembers something you did to her? Next time she could kill you.”
“Look, this isn’t open for discussion. I’m the only one with the power to stop her if she does go berserk. I’m taking her home with me.”
“And when she tries to kill you?”
“Like I said… I’ll deal with her.”
“Will you be willing to kill her?”
“I will if I have to.”
“Good. She may be better off dead anyway.”
“Xander you can’t be serious.”
“He’s right Buffy.”
“What?”
“Buffy, no slayer has ever survived long enough to regain their memory.”
None of them survived?
“Well this time is different.”
“Why? What’s different about this time?”
“She has us.”
Triggers you’d rather not pull------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith’s POV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I’m standing in front of Buffy squaring off again. Why do I keep having this dream? I still can’t make out where the hell we are. She throws three punches and again I dodge them easily. I duck for a leg sweep and kick her legs out from under her.
I crawl on top of her and pin her down. She tries grabbing at me but I pin her arms above her head with one hand and look down at her. I think I stop breathing as her beauty just hits me like a punch in the face. I brush her blonde bangs out of her face and stare down into her beautiful eyes as I lean into her.
I can feel her hot breath heavy on my face. I have this weird urge to bite her bottom lip. So I do, but instead of stopping I bite down harder. She squirms under me as I bring my hands to her throat.
I let go of her lip as it starts bleeding and I put all my weight on her neck. She starts gasping for air.
“F-Faith…”
She’s trying to get out from under me but I’m too strong.
“Faith…”
I can feel her windpipe being crushed under my weight. She coughs a few times before she collapses limply on the floor. OH GOD NO!
“FAITH”
I open my eyes and she’s staring down at me.
“Faith, are you okay?”
I sit up and rub my head.
What the hell is up with these dreams? Angel said that slayers sometimes have visions of the future.
I look over at Buffy.
She looks scared for me. Could these dreams be visions of what will happen? Is whatever’s wrong with me making me destined to kill Buffy?
“Faith what’s wrong?”
Wrong?
“Nothing, I-I’m okay.”
“You don’t look okay.”
“It’s nothing. It was just a dream.”
“What was the dream about?”
“It’s okay it was just a crazy dream.”
“Was it about me?”
“Look it was just a STUPID DREAM.”
“Okay, don’t bite my head off.”
She gets up and backs off.
Oh good, all she wanted was to help you and you yell at her.
“I’m sorry I, you just caught me by surprise.”
“It’s okay; you’re under a lot of stress. Hell if I was in your shoes I’d probably be just as jumpy.”
I look around and the place is empty.
“Where’d everybody go?”
“They… decided to go out for a while…”
Out?
“You mean they saw what happened and decided they wanna stay the hell away from me.”
“Faith it’s like I said… there’s a lot of history they have to work through before they can start trusting you again.”
“Well I’m sure me trying to kill you isn’t helping anything.”
“What happened back there, Faith?”
What happened?
I get up off the couch and sorta half pace around the room.
“I’m not so sure. Something just snapped in me. When you were talking about wanting to kill me I… it was like I lost control of myself, and all I could think about was hurting you before you could hurt me.”
She takes a few steps towards me.
“Faith I need you to know. Especially if I’m gonna help you, that I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to help you get your memory back.”
Whatever it takes? What if what it takes is killing her?
I stop pacing and face her.
“I know you don’t want to hurt me and I believe you but that didn’t stop me. It was like I had no control over what I was doing.”
I’ve never felt so out of control. But then I’d have to remember something before feeling out of control.
What about those people, those vampires who attacked us… who attacked me? Do we know what they wanted?”
“No, we’re not sure what they wanted but if these guys are like most big bads they’ll show their crooked faces again.”
“Big bad…?”
“Oh, it’s what we call evil things that roll into town bent on destroying the world.”
“So you think whatever’s out there is trying to destroy the world?”
“Well we don’t know what their plan is, we never do, but it usually ends in some big life and death struggle.”
Oh good. I like it already.
I take a deep breath and my eyes drop to the floor.
“So what do we do now?”
“There’s nothing we can do for now. I’m tired and I’m sure you are too.”
I scratch my pretend itch on my shoulder.
I do kinda feel like I’m gonna drop dead.
“Yeah, I guess I am kinda tired.”
“All right, let’s go back to my place and get some sleep. Giles will research this prophecy thing and we’ll figure out what we gotta do to stop it.”
She puts her arm around my shoulders and leads me towards the door.
“Okay let’s go.”
We leave Giles’ place and lock the door behind us.