The Varos Triad
Part 6
Disclaimers:- See part One!
Pairing: Faith/Cordelia predominantly
Rating: PG-13 I think - but if
anyone thinks it should be higher
let me know.
Archive: Disco Inferno, CordySlash
and Miss K's site. Anyone else,
please ask.
Summary: Faith returns to Sunnydale
in pursuit of a demon but is not
well received by Buffy and the Scoobs. However it appears that they
must work together when the history of the artefacts is discovered.
While celebrating Cordelia's birthday at the Bronze, Faith is seen
leaving with a tall blonde woman...
_________________________________________________
Faith wanted desperately to look back at the others and try to give
them some sort of signal, but didn't want to alert her 'escort' about
any assistance she might have.
She had met the woman at the bar, having successfully extricated
herself from the perpetual torture of pointed looks and stilted
conversation with Buffy and the scoobs. The LA gang had shielded her
to a point, and Cordelia had almost dared anyone to say anything
about Faith's presence, but bullying them into accepting her wasn't
enough. The dark slayer shook her head sadly, wondering when it was
exactly that she cared what the others thought of her. Her thoughts
took her back to the events around her release and to what she
seriously described to Angel as 'finding her sanity again'. She
finally managed to break the self-constructed barriers that she felt
had protected her for so long and consider and deal with the
consequences of her actions. Now she had to get past the barriers
Buffy and the scoobs had erected to protect themselves against her.
Remembering how difficult her own transition had been, Faith was not
confident that she had the strength or the will to do it.
As she was mulling over her problems, her slayer senses started
tingling crazily. Drawn from her reverie, the young brunette
cautiously looked round, hoping to discover the source of the
warnings.
Halfway up the bar, a tall blonde woman was questioning the
people
surrounding her. In her hand was the third artefact. Faith glanced
back at the table where the others were seated but was unable to
catch Angel or Cordelia's attention before the woman sidled up to her.
"Excuse me, I know this is going to sound a bit strange, but
I don't
suppose you've seen anything like this anywhere in Sunnydale?" The
blonde woman had a low, sensual voice, but it was all Faith could do
not to shudder in her presence. There was something very wrong about
the woman but Faith didn't know what it was. She knew she wasn't a
vampire, but that really didn't narrow down the options.
"What's it to you?" She asked gruffly, trying to sound disinterested.
"I have a collection of pieces that were stolen a few weeks
ago.
They're priceless and I need them back." There was a chilling sense
of foreboding lacing the woman's words.
Faith looked at her carefully, noting that the woman's grey
eyes
seemed almost shark-like in their appearance, adding to her
impression of underlying menace. "Sorry, can't help you," she told
her, shrugging her indifference and at the same time calculating how
quickly she could return to the table to gather reinforcements and
take the bitch down. She knew that a while back, she would have had
no hesitation in going after the woman single-handed but Faith had
long since learned that she was *not* invincible and that her
reactions should be tempered with consideration and, she hated to
admit, planning. Her instincts were screaming at her, and that alone
told her that she needed help.
"I think you can, Faith," the woman contradicted, a false
smile on
her face as she encroached on the brunette's personal space.
"Back off lady," Faith warned, hackles rising. "And
how do you know
my name?" She challenged, turning to face the blonde, unconsciously
moving into a defensive stance.
Suddenly, the blonde woman brought her hand in close and punched
Faith in the abdomen. The brunette gasped as searing pain went
through her, feeling something tear into her body. Looking down, at
first she thought she saw the woman holding some sort of multi-bladed
knife and then Faith realised that the weapon was the woman's hand
itself. Three blades were now where her fist had been, and they were
buried deep into her abdomen. Instinctively, she began to struggle
free of the implement.
The woman used her free hand to grab Faith round the waist.
"Pull
yourself off and you'll die of blood loss, slayer or no slayer," she
warned. "Now, you're going to take me to my missing artefacts," the
blonde woman told her brightly.
"I don't think so, bitch," retorted the slayer.
"Please don't tell me you think you have any choice in the
matter,"
the blonde rejoined, twisting her arm slightly and moving the blades
in Faith's body.
Faith thought that she would either pass out from the pain
or throw
up. Pure stubbornness kicked in. "I'm not tellin' you anything,"
she hissed.
The woman shifted her weapon so that she was supporting the
young
girl's weight on the blades. Faith moaned as more agony tore through
her and she clutched the woman's forearm in an effort to stop it
moving. "Would you like to have a rethink on your position?" Her
attacker asked lightly.
"Fuck off."
"Such nasty words coming from one so young," the woman
taunted. "However, despite the crude language, I can understand your
noble stance on the matter. Perhaps I should tell you that I know
exactly where the artefacts are but can't get to them due to a nasty
magic protection spell. I also know that you've handled the two
pieces I'm after, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that
the protection spell isn't going to affect you." The woman once
again adjusted her grip before draping one of Faith's arms over her
shoulder.
Faith found herself leaning heavily on the woman in order
to take
some of her body weight off the knives in her abdomen, easing the
pain by a fraction.
"So what we are going to do is take a nice stroll to where
you've
put the artefacts and then, you'll collect them for me." With a
gentle nudge towards the exit, the woman led Faith outside using a
cruel frog-march to keep the slayer in check.
* * *
"Well this brings back memories," Xander remarked. "As I recall,
first time we met 'Slut-o-rama' she took her 'Disco Dave' outside."
Cordelia winced at the memory before deciding that there was
nothing
she could do to change the past. Then as realisation hit, she was
once again assailed with conflicting emotions. Relieved and certain
that Faith would not betray her, she was angry with herself for
doubting the Bostonian for even a second. "You're a prick, Xander
Harris," she told him in no uncertain terms, and before he had a
chance to respond, the Seer turned towards Angel. "Time to work,"
she called, nodding her direction towards the exiting slayer.
Both Angel and Buffy caught her words and glanced at the exit.
At
first all Buffy saw was Faith leaving with someone, but as soon as
she registered the presence of the blonde woman, her slayer senses
went off with an intensity she had rarely experienced. She looked at
Angel. "What the hell is that thing she's with?" She asked worriedly.
Angel shook his head and opened his mouth to answer when Tara
interjected.
"It's a shape-shifter," she told them, her face etched with
concern. "And it's extremely powerful."
"Let's go." Buffy stood up and snaked her way
round the tables and
other patrons of the Bronze to catch up with Faith, not even
bothering to see if she was being accompanied.
Stunned at the sudden departure of Buffy and the remainder
of the LA
gang, Willow looked at Xander, Anya and Tara for a moment.
"Honey, I really think we should help," Tara told her softly,
squeezing her hand.
Xander's expression remained closed, still uncertain over
what to do.
"Staying here is good," Anya commented. "Much safer,
so we get to
live longer."
Strangely, her words of comfort did not have the desired effect
and
Willow found herself standing and moving towards the exit, her hand
still clutching her lover as she left.
Hesitating for a fraction longer, Xander looked at the departing
wiccans and his girlfriend before sighing and following.
* * *
Buffy looked round frantically in the road outside.
"Where did they
go?" She pondered out loud.
Cordelia joined her. "I've looked in the alleyway,"
she told
her. "Nothing." The tall Seer felt herself getting more anxious
by
the second. "Where the hell is she?" She asked to no one in
particular.
"Over here," called Angel from across the street. The
others ran
over to where he was crouched down in the road.
"What have you found?" Wesley demanded.
Angel rubbed his thumb and fingers together in an effort to
remove
what was on them and resist the urge to lick them. "Her blood," he
replied tonelessly.
"Oh God!" Cordelia could feel the panic rise.
Before she could reach hysteria though, Buffy shot another
question
at Angel. "Has she left a trail?"
"Yes," affirmed the vampire. "This way."
By this time, the whole group had assembled and fell into
step behind
the dark vampire and blonde slayer as they hurried down the road.
"Am I paranoid or is this leading to the Magic Box?" Anya
asked
nervously.
"Yes to both of those questions, Anya," replied Xander, jogging
next
to his girlfriend.
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," supplied Gunn from
behind the
couple.
"You're not the only one," Xander retorted.
As they rounded the corner, they spotted Faith and her captor
some
distance ahead and close to Giles' shop. Without waiting, Buffy and
Angel broke into a sprint after them, prompting the others to give
chase.
Turning as she heard the syncopated footfall behind her, the
blonde
woman smiled. "Oh, how sweet!" She exclaimed in a false tone. "Your
friends have come to your rescue, saving me the task of rounding them
up and killing them." Her grey eyes somehow became paler as she
continued. "This is going to be easier than I thought," she told
Faith.
The young slayer was sweating now. Every step was accompanied
with a
shooting pain through her body and she was finding it difficult to
breathe. Despite her incapacitation however, she found the energy
and the will to grin back at her attacker confidently. "I'll remind
you of that thought just before you die, you bitch," she retorted and
was grimly satisfied to see a flicker of hesitation in the cold eyes
of the woman.
"You won't be able to remind anyone about anything, slayer."
She
glanced up to see Angel and Buffy closing the gap and without
warning, theatrically extracted the blades from Faith's side and
dropped the brunette on the floor. Without even glancing at the
fallen slayer, she stepped away from the girl and turned to face her
new enemies. "Ready to die?" She asked them playfully. As she
spoke, her body shape shifted to become a hulking dark-green, scaled
demon and now she was suddenly and unexpectedly in range. Without
pausing, the demon lashed out and caught Buffy round the side of the
head, launching her into a nearby chain link fence. The blonde
slayer bounced off the fence and landed on the ground, winded and
surprised. As she looked up, Buffy saw the demon throw out another
fist to punch Angel, sending him flying into some nearby trash cans.
"What the...?" Breathed Gunn as his group skidded to a halt.
There was a palpable pause as the others faced the demon,
wide-eyed
at it's effortless sweeping aside of the slayer and vampire. The
demon sneered at its prey, waiting for them to attack. It's grey
eyes burned at them with arrogant confidence . "Which one of you
volunteers to collect the artefacts?" The same sultry tones that
Faith first heard in the Bronze fell incongruously from the demon's
now blood-red mouth. Even as she spoke, there was the sound of heavy
footfall and a group of demons, similar to the one Faith fought in
the cemetery, ran to join the battle alongside the shape shifter.
Suddenly, the doors to the Magic Box burst open and Giles
shot a bolt
from his drawn crossbow directly at the shape shifter's chest. The
bolt glanced off the scales and clattered harmlessly to the ground,
but the demon spun round and screeched in anger at the Englishman.
It was the signal the others needed and they sprang into action.
Tara chanted quickly and threw a fireball at the demon, timing
it
perfectly to upset and disorientate the beast just before Angel and
Buffy rejoined the fray with kicks and punches. Willow sent a
fireball of equal force into the melee of lesser demons, sending them
into confusion. Xander and Anya sprinted into the Magic shop heading
for the weapons stockpile as Giles threw a mace towards Gunn. He
swung towards the smaller demons, his face set in concentration and
was quickly joined by Xander as they tried to fend off the attackers.
From Giles' side, Cordelia deftly loaded the crossbow she
acquired
from Anya and began picking off the demon hoard, not bothering to
take aim at the shape shifter after seeing the earlier failure by
Giles. The ex-Watcher reloaded his bow with a different style bolt
and attempted to hurt the creature again.
Willow joined Tara and together they incanted another spell.
Bolts
of yellow energy left the out-strectched arm of the red-haired wiccan
as she aimed her spell at the grey-eyed demon, hoping to weaken the
thing. Wesley stood next to the two witches with a sword given to
him by Xander and drew attacks away from the girls and towards
himself or back towards Gunn and Xander.
As the energy struck its intended target, the shape shifter
screeched
again, turning towards the wiccans. "At least I now know who the
witches are," she spat at them venomously before swatting Angel with
a vicious uppercut, once again throwing him into the rubbish pile.
Buffy used the momentum of the shape-shifter's punch to her
advantage
and yanked on its limb, forcing the swing to continue and finally
getting the demon off-balance. As soon as she sensed it's
instability, she dropped low and swung her leg round in a brutal leg
swipe, and managed to floor the shape shifter. As she stepped
forward to continue her onslaught, the demon changed shape again,
fluidly changing into a large black wolf still with grey eyes, and
snapped at the slayer with wickedly sharp canines.
Startled, Buffy leapt back and out of the way of the snarling
lupine,
giving Giles a free shot with his crossbow.
The creature yelped as the bolt struck home cleanly this time
and it
looked around hurriedly, surveying the slaughter of its demon
minions. With an enraged growl, the shape shifter leapt over Buffy
and raced away from the fray, the bolt waving madly from it's
imbedded position in the wolf's front shoulder, leaving the few
remaining demons to fend for themselves.
Buffy was about to give chase when she heard Wes' cry for
help.
Looking over, she saw the two witches and the young ex-watcher being
closed down by two demons, with Gunn and Xander fighting another
demon that blocked their path to Willow and Tara's rescue.
Hurriedly, Buffy joined the Englishman and stopped one demon
quickly
with several swift kicks. By the time she turned to face the second
demon, Angel was already exchanging blows. She was about to jump in
and assist when the almost silent swish of a crossbow bolt thudded
into its chest. Following the trajectory of the missile back to its
origin, she raised her eyebrows in admiration as Cordelia barely
paused in her work, reloading the weapon with a familiar ease.
Buffy surveyed the scene and breathed a sigh of relief as
she
realised that the danger was passed. "Are the artefacts safe?" She
called over to Giles, recalling what the demon had said as she lay in
a heap by the chain link fence.
"They're safe," Giles assured her, looking round wearily.
"Stuff the artefacts," Cordelia muttered angrily as she made
the
crossbow safe and threw it to the ground. Quickly she ran over to
Faith's prone body, kneeling by the fallen slayer as Tara and Angel
followed her. Gently she turned the young girl's body over, her
throat constricting as her hands felt the slick blood covering
Faith's body.
"Faith," she called gently. "Faith, open your eyes,
you're safe
now," she told her, unable to get her voice above a hoarse whisper,
absently tucking the girl's chestnut hair behind her ears after
settling the girl's head into her lap.
Faith groaned as her eyes fluttered open. "Hey," she
croaked, her
arms wrapped protectively round her abdomen.
Cordelia felt her throat constrict and blinked rapidly to
keep the
tears from falling. "How many times have I told you not to go off
with strangers?" She demanded.
Faith felt the corners of her mouth move into a grin but she
didn't
have the energy to turn it into a full smile. "Didn't know you
cared C," she replied, her voice barely audible.
"Yes you did," Cordelia contradicted her, equally as softly.
From
behind the two brunettes, Angel and Tara exchanged glances but said
nothing.
"Faith, I know you hate them, but we have to get you to hospital,"
Cordelia continued, stroking the younger girl's face softly.
"You coming with me?"
"Of course. I'm surprised you had to ask," the seer
responded
quietly.
"Then I won't hate it," Faith told her, this time managing
to widen
her smile a fraction. For the first time, she noticed Angel and Tara
hovering over Cordelia's shoulder. "Hey big guy, blondie," she
acknowledged.
"Faith, what happened?" Angel asked. By this time, the
others had
crowded round the dark slayer.
"That bitch forced me out the Bronze, Angel. I would
never have gone
after her myself," Faith started to explain but the dark vampire
interrupted her quickly.
"I know that Faith. But what did she want with you?"
"Angel, she needs to get to the hospital, can't this wait?"
Cordelia
interjected protectively.
"It's okay C," Faith told her. "She was after the other
artefacts.
She knew they were at the Magic Box and she wanted me to get them."
"Nice to know that she got away empty handed," Buffy commented,
trying not to look at the wounds in Faith's side that reminded her of
the near fatal injury she had inflicted on the younger slayer four
years ago.
"More empty handed than you think, B," Faith told her and
she shifted
her hand to reveal a blood-soaked yet easily recognisable wooden
artefact.
"Good work, Faith," exclaimed Giles genuinely.
"Yeah, it's amazing what skills you can pick up in the slammer,"
the
Bostonian replied.
Angel leant down and took the girl into his arms carefully.
"Come
on, let's get you sorted out," and with that, he carried the girl to
Giles' car.
To be continued...