Somewhere In Between
by tainted_blood_chylde
Rating: PG
Faith looked around the room, it looked like a Council of War, the Watcher spoke with Whistler about spells and mystical weapons they could possibly use against the First. While Catherine and Riley looked over maps of Sunnydale and formed battle plans. All in all, Faith felt pretty useless.
She walked into the kitchen beside Xander. "How are you holding up?" she asked him softly.
"You really wanna know?" he muttered. Buffy's body had been moved to the basement with the others.
"Why not?" Faith said as she slid into the stool beside them.
"I don't know, numb I guess. I always knew that I would be the last one, the one to remember it all" he said softly into his coffee. "But I never thought it would be this soon" he said before looking over at Faith.
"I know how you feel, I always thought it would be, Buffy putting me in a hole in the ground, now it looks like I'm gonna be the one to bury her" Faith said.
Xander felt a rub on his shoulder and he smiled slightly. "I love you too Willow" he said softly.
"Well, Well, Well" the First/Kennedy said as it walked into the room. "Quite impressive little army you got here, I must admit, you had me spooked for a second, but honestly now I think about it.. I'm still gonna crush you" it laughed. Several of the people in the room reached for a weapon and the others already had theirs trained on it.
"I mean.. look at you, you're fighing this war with children and old men, demons that would turn on you in a second and little boys that like to play GI Gonna Die every once in a while. And the only ones of you guys that might have stood a chance are untrained, dead and unfocused" it said as it pointed at Faith and Catherine and made Buffy's corpse appear in the centre of the room. "I'm gonna just eat you all up, I just came here to ask you why you even bother" The First continued.
"What's going on?" Dawn said as she tried to see over the watchers.
"I think the First's here" Spike said.
"It is" Rona said quickly, the others whirled around to see a worn out looking potential. "I don't have a lot of time" she said quickly. "I need you to listen, the First is the source of the slayer's power, it kept on going on about something about demons being impure, not understanding blah blah blah. Basically it's doing all this because it's trying to make itself whole again.. it's lonely" she said.
"Make itself whole..? How?" Willow asked. But it was too late. The First had already appeared behind Rona and stuck its hand in her chest. The spirit fell down lifeless.
"Naughty Naughty" it smiled before walking over to them. Kennedy got in its way.
"Get away from them!" she yelled.
"Fine, then I'll just take you" the First said as it burned Kennedy inside out the same way. "And now I'm done, ttnf" it smiled before disappearing and dodging Willow's lighting bolt.
Buffy ran quickly along the road, the vamps were far behind her. She jumped over the church wall and back along the alleys towards the train. The food was slowing her down, still they needed it. She hurled herself off the roof top and landed back onto the platform before running into the train. She dropped the food, there she was, Nikki laying in the middle of the Cart. Her face covered in blood, Buffy drew closer, Nikki coughed.
Kneeling beside her Buffy propped her head up on to her knee. She wiped most of her hair from her face and placed a hand over her neck. An ubervamp did this. "Wh-What happened?" Buffy said in disbelief, her voice was small and tiny.
"They... am..bushed u-us" she coughed.
"How many?" Buffy asked her quietly.
"About twelve, They we--were already on board by.. the *cough* time I found them" Nikki said.
"And the others?" she continued.
"The w--water towers. Only.. four.. I think" Nikki continued before she coughed again.
Buffy reached for a bandage.
"Nno!" Nikki said. "Dont w--aste sup-plies" she said.
"But I need to fix you" Buffy protested her eyes watering.
Nikki half rolled her eyes "It's too late for me B, you can't..." *cough*.
"I have.." Buffy said as she tried to lift Nikki "I have to get you to a hospital" that comment was rewarded by a painful chuckle.
"There are no hospitals B, there's no.... *cough* anything.." Nikki said as her head rolled back and she stopped breathing.
Shaking her, Buffy tried to get some kind of reaction from her. It was pointless. Nikki the vampire slayer after four months of faithfully carrying out her duties, was dead.
"This is impossible" Quientin Travers said as he paced the room.
"Yeah well I don't want to believe it either but what other choice do we have?" Faith said quietly.
"Look guys this is a good thing, we can beat it now" Catherine said.
"I don't see how that's very likely" Riley said.
"We know how to destroy it at least" Whistler agreed with Catherine.
"Yeah by destroying the slayer, great plan, then what will use to defend ourselves?" Vi said snappily.
"No, maybe that's the plan" Faith said as she stood up. "The First wants to reconnect with the Slayer essence, the part that we stole from it. What if we give it back? But with a slice of death mixed in" Faith said.
"What do you mean?" Catherine said.
"I'm saying that we give it what it wants" Faith said.
"This is proposterious!" Quentin Travers argued.
"How?" Catherine said.
"By giving it me, a connection like that goes both ways. If we were connected and I was to die.. it could solve this whole thing" Faith said. "Take away the First forever."
"That's suicide" Catherine said angrily.
"It's only suicide if I'm alive, I was dead a long time ago" Faith said before leaving the room in an uproar.
Catherine followed her. "You can't be serious about doing this" she protested.
"I am" Faith said sternly. "Look I'm sorry if you don't like my choices kiddo but the harsh fact is, none of this is up to you. It's my choice."
"And what about me?" Catherine said.
"Do what Buffy always did, clean up my mess if I screw up" Faith said dismissively.
"And if I'm starting to fall in love with you then what? Am I supposed to carry on without you?" Catherine yelled.
"You can't love me" Faith said softly.
"Why? Because everyone who loves you winds up dead?" Catherine snapped.
"No, because I can never love you back" Faith said before leaving Catherine sobbing in the hallway as she headed down to the basement.
Faith's Journal
I know this seems like an insanely stupid idea, I look out the window and I look across Sunndydale and I see nothing but failure. "The Power of the Slayers comes from the thing that created the need for it." Makes sense to me. I just hope to God I know what I'm doing. Catherine is so mad at me right now, not that I blame her. But honestly, part of me really thinks that this is the solution.
I miss Buffy so much, I know this is what she would do. Catherine is going to lead the troops into Battle, Willow thinks she's found someway to get the souls of other potentials and slayers into the fight as well. Looks like we got quite a war on our hands.
World's doomed anyway. Might as well make some fireworks on my way out.
I love you all.
Buffy bolted up the ladder and kicked the ubervamp out of the way, Stewy was only three feet away. She had to get to them. It was too late, the ubervamp hurled Stewy and Ralo off the edge of the tower, Nicolas hadn't been as fortunate to make it this far.
Gorgina backed herself into a corner, straining to get away from the ubervamp's reach. Buffy grabbed it by the ankles and threw it downwards. It collided with the ground and shattered to ashes.
She looked at the frightened girl before her and reached out to grab her. Too late, a sudden pain gripped Buffy, she fell to her knees, heard Gorgina call out her name, too late. Buffy fell, and everything exploded into a painful light.
Angel pulled the axe from Octigell's side, he was dead, mission complete. He turned to see his son dead and smiled. "I'll see you soon Connor" he said as everything around him exploded into light.
Faith marched her army over the hill, they looked down at the open fields. The ubervamp army was just three hundred yards away. They let out a large roar and charged forward. Faith bite her lip and prayed.
It held. Most of the ubervamps exploded on impact. The Rah Amulet was working. All they had to do was hold them here until dawn, then pick off the others. If they lasted that long...
Crossbolts and axes flew across the barrier and Whistler and his allies charged at the ubervamps from the west side, and Riley's troops from the east. The Spirit Warriors attacked them from behind with boulders and the like, they all Battled furiously, Catherine began to lead the girls into the centre, the very heart of the battle. To face Caleb. He had a large looking Axe-like object in his hand. A scyth. Faith gulped.
That didn't look good. Still. She had a job to do.
Faith walked up to the hill where the First/her watcher was waiting for her.
"Are you ready to come home?" it asked.
"Sure, but I'm driving" Faith said cheekily.
The First smiled, then stuck the blade deep into Faith's chest. She staggered backwards.
"But that's just it you see, I need BOTH slayers" The First smiled and Faith looked back towards Catherine with a worried look. She could feel the First beginning to pour into her. She couldn't move. Slowly, she reached her hand to her mouth and swallowed the vial of poison. The First turned and gave her a shocked look.
"No!" it screamed as Willow and Dawn held it down as its physical form disappeared.
"Like I said, I'M driving" Faith sighed and collapsed. Her eyes begining to roll back in her head, she could feel the poison in her veins. "Help, Catherine" Faith instructed Willow. She did as she was told.
Faith sighed, even smiled a little. It was starting to get light. The Watcher's spell was working, bringing daylight early. She turned her head to see most of the enemy army falling away. It was nearly over. She closed her eyes and waited.
Buffy fell, she didn't know where she was at first, she looked around her. It was the middle of a battle of some kind. Travers lay dead at her feet and several demons beside him. Buffy ran towards Catherine, she turned her around. "Where's Faith?" she demanded.
Catherine turned and pointed towards the top of the hill. Buffy ran to her. This scene was all too familiar. In Buffy's perspective she'd been in this same situation just an hour before. With Nikki, crying she lifted Faith up and propped her head up.
"Faith?" she asked quietly. "Can you hear me?" Buffy saw no visible wounds. There was no reason for this. Then she saw the vial.
Caleb swung his axe at Catherine, it collided with her neck, taking her head with it as it followed through.
Angel ran after the Nivican she was scared now, Angel smelled of her lover. This wasn't good. He stabbed at her chest and it collided with a lot of force. "What do you want?" it screeched.
"I want to take it back, I want it all taken back" Angel said gasping.
"Very well" it said.
Buffy kissed Faith's head, her tears falling carelessly down her face. "I love you" she said.
"Have you any idea what you've done?" the First screamed.
"Yes, We destroyed you!" Buffy said quietly.
"You're going to destroy yourselves!" the First screamed.
Buffy smiled.
"So? A slayer's gift is death" she said simply before everything around them exploded into light.
Buffy's Diary
I still don't know how it all happened, I don't know if the things I remember are real. When I came to I was in LA, in my old bed, Dawn wasn't there, apparently she never existed. Mom was though, and Dad. The divorce never happened. There were no monsters or demons. Nothing. It was all gone.
I tried tracking down newspapers of what happened in Sunnydale, but there was no Sunnydale. Never had been. I looked up reports on Giles, he was a fighter pilot, apparently he won some award but he was in an accident a few years back so I never got to meet him. I ran into Xander about a week afterward. He had no idea who I was. But he was kind enough to invite me for coffee. Willow wasn't too hard to track down, she was discoveror of some great cure for lots of diseases, she didn't remember me either.
I searched around LA for Angel, but he wasn't here either. None of them were, Anya, Spike. It's like they didn't happen at all. And as for being the slayer. I'm not. I can't open a jam jar without needing help. I found Stewy though, yeah, he's the chief of my local fire department. Nikki's somewhere in Europe though I imagine. And as far as Faith goes. I never found her.
Now from what I remember about Giles' theories on alternate universes, there's still a world out there somewhere that Faith spent her final hours alone. That we lost. I keep thinking about that night we spent together and how much there was so much I never got to tell her. I just wish--
Buffy started writing in her journal when a knock on her class room door distracted her. It was tough being a TA here at LA University.
"Are you Buffy Summers?" the voice asked timidly.
"Yeah I am just a second" she said as she put her things away and looked up at the stranger.
"My name's Faith Spencer. I'm here to enroll in your class" Faith smiled.
Faith's Final Journal
I still don't know how it all happened, one minute I was laying there gasping for breath, the next I was there in my old room in my foster parent's house. Gale had no recollection of being a watcher and she actually suggested I go see a doctor when I asked her about it. Seems like the last five years were nothing more than a dream.
I track Buffy down, wasn't easy. I finally found her in a room teaching Human Behaviour. I haven't told her I remember yet. I'm not sure she'd even believe me if I did. I don't want to scare her.
I just have a few things people I want to thank before I put this Journal away and never open it again.
To Wesley. Thank you for having the (pardon the pun) faith in and helping me to make amends.
To Angel, thank you for giving me back myself. I was lost for so long.. you were the one that really helped bring me to my senses.
To Giles, you were the teacher I never got to love in high school.
To Xander, I know it was short lived but the friendship you showed me will last forever.
To Willow, I know we had our differences, but thank you for making this possible. I don't know how the world got turned this way, but I'd like to think you were part of it.
And finally to Buffy. Thank you for giving me the best night of my life, and if it's possible. For the hope of a normal future in this world.
The First
Most will misunderstand me. Most will judge me, many will fear and loathe me. But I can't understand why. All I ever did was what was in my nature, and now I've been cast aside and left in the dark. The world was shifted somehow. I don't know how they made it this different. There is nothing here. It's all blackness. No demons, no slayers, nothing. It's like it was taken back to the time before a world existed and now I am truly alone.