Disclaimers: Joss owns Buffy
and Faith, not me. I make no claims to them.
Claimers: I own Lucy. Mine,
mine, mine.
Title: Kylie owns the line.
Not me.
Notes: More than one sentence
per line? Shocking, I know.
Close your eyes,
So you can see.
I am only here for a little while.
Buffy's POV
LaOC LVII - Remember
Here, Remember Now
I hear a knock on the door.
She's back.
Talk about getting bored all on my own here
in her apartment.
Spoken to all the plants she has and we're
great friends now.
Except me and the spider plant, he doesn't like
me.
Actually, why is she knocking?
'Faith, did you lose your keys ag... Lucy?'
I close the door in her face.
As I walk back to the kitchen she flames in
front of me.
'Why knock if you're just going to burn the
carpet?'
Great.
Faith's going to kill me for letting
her flame the pile like that!
Oh, couldn't knock again and wait for me to
angrily re-open the door.
No, had to be all, "hey I'm the Devil, look
at me and my fire, I'm so flamey".
Like, I'm all woo-hoo'd by the Devil.
I get to see Demons all day long, every day
in fact, sometimes three or four times a...
'Buffy, please! Stop. Thinking. I'm under enough
stress as it is.'
'Stress? You're the Devil, what stress could
you be under? I know about stress. I'm the Slayer. Ok, I'm a Slayer.
One of the best pair of Slayers anywhere... well, the only pair of
Slayers...'
'Arghhh! Please! Did you hear that
word from my lips? Total effort. I'm here on business. Where's Faith?'
No-one ever comes to see me.
I don't wear leather pants or spit my gum out,
but... I could be bad if I wanted to.
But no, the Devil wants her.
Why am I jealous of Satan coming to visit?
Wow, got over that one quickly.
'You're blocked. I'm exhausted but don't worry
about my pain, Buffy. I need to talk to Faith. Where--is--she?'
'Out.'
I sit on the table, and swing my legs.
Lucy makes her hand into the shape of a gun
and pretends to fire it at me.
'I'd forgotten what you were like. Ok. Where
has Faith gone? And what time is she coming back?'
'Faith has gone to get cigarettes. She'll
be back soon. Why do you need to speak to her? What's happened?'
I bet something bad's happened.
Or... no!
'Lucy, you can't have her soul. Elle told you
before that you're not allowed. Any funny games and I'll call Dis up and she'll
kick your ass back to Hell.'
She closes her eyes for a second, and her face
goes all sad.
Then she sits down on the sofa, crosses her
legs and drums her fingers on her thigh.
'I'll wait here for her. I don't want her soul.
Listen, I should tell you first because I think she's going to be... upset.
No easy way to say it. Discord's dead.'
'What about Discord's head?'
Discord's head what?
That makes no sense at all.
Unless there's something wrong with it and
she's not well.
'Buffy. Discord. Is. Dead. Dead. Dead.'
I look at her, because it sounds like she said
Dis is dead?
Dead?
Making no sense.
'Dis is an Angel. Angels can't die, they're
already dead. Der. And you're the Devil?'
You can't die if you're already dead.
Can you?
'Angels can die, Buffy. And she's done just
that. Elle's resting or she would have told you herself. She's... taken
it very badly.'
I know I'm in shock because my eyes wont blink.
Dis is dead?
'What... what happened? She's dead? I... .'
My eyes follow Lucy as she gets up and shrugs.
'There was an... incident. She died. Very heroically
of course. But, yes, she's dead. I'm sorry.'
'But...? Can't you get her back? You took her
soul once. Can't you do it again?'
I think that all came out really loud.
Dis was my friend.
I really liked her and...
Faith is going to freak!
'Once an Angels soul is gone you can't get
them back. They just... go. They know the risks when they sign up. Their souls
disintegrate, disappear. Same as my demons and minions.'
Just then the door opens and Faith walks in.
I look at her, because I don't know what to
say.
Should I tell her?
'Jeez. What's she doing here? What?
Why are you both looking at me like I vamped or something? What?! You're
gonna give me a complex.'
She lights a cigarette up and puts the grocery
bag down.
I don't know what to say, do, think.
Dis is dead?
'Faith. Sit down. I need to talk to you.'
'Fuck off, Lucy. Why'd you let her in,
B? You're still looking at me weird. I got the twins out? No, see, all buttoned
in.'
She looks worried as her eyes dart between
me and Lucy.
'Faith? Lucy has some bad news. You better
sit down.'
'I don't want to sit down!'
Lucy finally speaks.
'There was an incident...'
'Cut the chat, what happened?'
I watch Faith take a long drag on her cigarette.
'Discord's dead.'
I feel my body tense up as I wait for the hurricane
to go off.
But it doesn't.
She just stands still and takes another drag
on her cigarette.
The only thing that's different is her hand.
It's shaking.
She hasn't stopped staring at Lucy. She's not
even blinking.
Then it starts, as I knew it would.
Because I know Faith. Better than she does
sometimes.
She goes to walk away, but stops as if she's
unsure what she should be doing.
I want to go and give her a big hug, but if
I touch her it's going to set her off.
Learned that the hard way.
'You're lying. Why isn't Elle here? She'd tell
me not you. So... you're--lying.'
Lucy sighs, then moves and takes the cigarette
from Faith's hand, inhaling before giving it back.
'I needed that. I'm not lying to you, Faith.
Not about something like this. Ellie's... you know how she felt about Discord.
She's incapable of anything other than crying at the moment.'
Again, Faith gets that little bit closer to
losing it.
At least she can't hurt Lucy... weird that
I suddenly don't want her beaten up.
She moves really close to her, so their
bodies are almost touching.
Lucy just raises an eyebrow, but doesn't back
off.
'You're the Devil, you wouldn't know the truth
if it bit you on the ass! This some freaked out joke?'
Then she jams a finger into Lucy's chest, making
her take a step back.
'This some big funny to you? Huh? This ain't
funny.'
Another jab, and Lucy takes another step back.
Say something, Buffy.
Don't stand here like some statue.
'Faith...'
'Stay outta this, B. Why are you really here?'
'Faith, don't poke me. Discord's dead. I'm
sorry.'
'Faith...'
She turns to me, her face angry, telling me
pretty well that I need to not be interrupting.
'Shut up, B! She's not dead. I would've...
known! I should bust you up for saying that kinda stuff to me.'
Then she's back In Lucy's face.
Even I can see that it's not the best way
to be treating Satan.
Another push in her shoulder and Lucy hits
the wall.
'That's enough! Discord's dead! I'm not lying
to you.'
'Enough? You don't know the meaning of the
word. You want me to show you what I think is enough? This ain't, for
one.'
She grabs hold of Lucy, pulling her towards
her.
I can see from here that Faith's whole body
is shaking, and she's all heavy breathy.
'Faith...'
'Stay. Out of it, B! Get Elle down
here, I don't believe you!'
Lucy pries her fingers off her shirt, and shakes
her head.
'Fine. You want to see, Elle? I'll go and get
her.'
She flames out.
I forgot how smoky it is when she does that.
I go to walk over to her, but she holds her
hand up, stopping me.
She doesn't say anything, just stares at where
Lucy flamed out.
Even from here I can see goosebumps on her
arms.
Then before I can do anything they're back.
And if I doubted it before, I don't now.
I look at Elle and she's crying.
Faith backs away from me.
She cuffs her eyes and only stops moving
when she bangs into the table.
Then she's looking round as if she's not sure
if she should break something or run out the door.
'Faith. I should have come down myself to...'
Elle pauses as she composes herself.
She sounds like she's been crying non-stop.
What a stupid thing to think, Buffy.
Of course she has.
Idiot.
'... I should have told you myself. I'm sorry.'
'No. You're lying to me, too. She... you're
liars!'
She grabs her jacket and walks towards the
door quickly.
'I'm going to patrol the sewers. Get them out
of here, B.'
'Wait! Don't go running out and...'
The door slams before I can finish the sentence
off.
I look at Elle and she doesn't know what to
do either.
I'm not leaving Faith, that's something I do
know.
I walk over to Elle and hug her.
Her arms hold me really tight, then she lets
go.
'Go after her. Make sure she's ok. If you need
anything; anything, you call one of us.'
I smile at her, not that I feel like
smiling.
Dis is dead.
Everything's so unfair.
I grab my jacket and head off to the sewers.
Someone has to make sure Faith doesn't do something
stupid.
Guess as her girl, I get that job.
Upset Slayer, sewers, Demons, God and Satan.
Not a good combo.
I feel like I'm heading off to try and slow
down a hurricane.
And I know from experience, once that
whirlwind gets going--it destroys everything in its path.