Running on Faith, Season Two: 2.01: The New Regime
by filmtheory
“Check it out,” Xander said, showing Spike and Faith the web site. “The council’s most wanted.”
“Am I on there?” Spike asked with a smile.
“Unfortunately, no,” Xander said in his most serious voice.
“How ‘bout me?” Faith chimed in.
“No,” Xander repeated.
“I’ll tell ya,” Faith grinned. “This life on the straight and narrow sure has a lot less fame involved. Seems like nobody wants me any more.”
Spike shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
Xander turned and looked at Faith. “Speaking of which, did we ever get the final word on how you made your way off the fugitive watch list?”
Faith shuddered internally. Xander was asking a question that required more explanation than she was willing to give. “I think Connor did it.” Faith felt very satisfied with herself. Saying it was Connor was virtually impossible to disprove.
The Council’s watch list was broken down into categories. Humans, vampires, other demons. Armand du Plessis and several other Wolfram & Hart higher ups were in the human category. Andre Markovic and his group filled much of the vampire list, followed by Drusilla and various other infamous vampires. Riley had been able to amass a pretty thorough portfolio on the vampire commandos before they disappeared. Now, however, their operations in Eastern Europe were being run by the Russian Mafia. On the web site, their location was listed as Last Seen L.A. three months ago.
Among others last seen in L.A. three months ago were Angel, Buffy, Connor, Dana, Dawn, Eve, Giles, Kennedy, Lorne, and Willow. Since then, the group had dispersed throughout the world. Buffy was back in Rome. After much protestation, Lorne agreed to join the council and report to Robson, a former watcher, for training. Angel, Giles, and Willow were in England working on rehabilitating Connor and Dana. Kennedy had returned to Chicago where Dawn was acting as watcher in Willow’s absence. Xander and a witch named Gretchen had taken over Watcher duties in L.A. As for Eve, she’d been taken away by her former employers, Wolfram & Hart. Where Wolfram & Hart took her and whether they had even kept her alive was a mystery. Thus Eve’s Missing, possibly dead status on the Council web site.
“So, what’s to keep the black hats from hacking our web site?” Spike asked.
“Will’s pretty good with the computers,” Xander said proudly.
“So are Andre and his boys.”
“If this is going to turn into another dick swinging contest, can we not?” Faith cut in.
The tension was broken by a crashing sound from the next room. Xander and Faith leapt to their feet.
“Don’t know why you’re even surprised any more,” Spike scoffed, still seated with a nonchalant posture.
“Gretchen?” Faith called. “You okay?”
Gretchen stumbled out of the office. The pretty, petite, and very clumsy blonde witch of 19 waved her hands casually. “Oh, everything’s fine. But, um, just for reference, where’s the fire extinguisher?”
“Got it,” Xander said, grabbing the extinguisher from behind the front desk.
“What are you doing starting fires in the office?” Faith said angrily as Xander passed the witch, heading in to put out the fire.
“Well, what do we use the office for now, anyway? Besides, it happened accidentally. I was taking all the research materials to the new library, like you asked. Well, I found this map of L.A. and thought I could do a demon finding spell. I saw a big collection of demons in Chinatown.”
“And that set the floor on fire?” Xander said as he returned from the office.
“Um . . . no. I knocked over the candle when I got up to tell you about the nest I found. The candle lit the map and the map lit the floor and the floor lit the curtains.”
“And then Xander put them out,” Xander said with a smile, stowing the empty fire extinguisher next to two other empties.
“Gretch, you gotta be more careful,” Faith said. “How can someone so good at magic be such a . . . klutz?”
Gretchen shrugged.
“Can you just get the rest of the stuff down to the library?” Faith asked.
“Sure,” Gretchen said with a perky smile. “Um . . . which one is that again?”
Xander rolled his eye. “I’ll show her.”
The day Buffy left for Rome, Faith announced the beginning of what she called a new regime in L.A. Their makeshift hospital facility was moved to a larger but less ornate ballroom. The small lounge was now a lounge again. Faith wanted somewhere they could hang out and relax. Another of the large ballrooms was transformed into a research library with many large book shelves, several long computers, and many volumes of ancient texts.
Unfortunately, the windfall of cash from the council that bought these amenities brought with it extra responsibilities. The L.A. crew was now responsible for scanning and typing the information from the texts into the computer. It would ultimately be loaded to the Council’s database, accessible to slayers and watchers throughout the world.
Xander and Gretchen arrived in the library and dropped a stack of books on one of the tables. The room was a mess and only getting messier with Gretchen’s ill-fated attempts to climb the ladder and place books on the shelf.
“Can’t you just float them up?” Xander asked.
“I don’t like to use magic unless I have to,” Gretchen frowned.
“Fine. Just don’t do this in the lounge. Because if you break Faith’s tequila, she, me, and Spike will all be grumpy.”
“Fine,” Gretchen said in a pouting voice. “But you shouldn’t be so smug. There’s lots I can do besides magic.”
“So Giles tells me,” Xander said on the way out of the room. When he entered the lobby again, Spike and Faith hastily stopped speaking.
“Still have the one eye,” Xander said. “So I’m not completely blind. Please. Resume arguing.”
The summer had been difficult for Faith and Spike. Neither was one to mince words and, as such, they had many arguments about their twenty-two minutes of passion in the kitchen. Faith had left over feelings for Robin and Spike for Buffy. But both slayer and vampire seemed to feel a connection with the other.
“After your half-wit half-witch said she saw a nest of demons in Chinatown, I proposed we hit the road and take a look see,” Spike said clumsily.
“Good idea,” Faith agreed.
Xander’s eye moved back and forth between the two of them. “And this is an argument? You two agreeing to patrol Chinatown.”
“Well, yeah,” Spike said. “Because I wanted to . . .” Spike shrugged.
“Take the sewers,” Faith said, finishing Spike’s sentence. “And I don’t want to because they stink.”
“But I can’t go out in daylight. So, there you have it.”
Xander looked at the two of them for a moment longer, as if telling them he wasn’t an idiot and didn’t believe them. “So . . . Spike takes the sewers. Faith and I on the surface.”
“You see?” Faith waved a hand at Xander. “Is it any wonder they made this guy a watcher?”
**
Xander and Faith walked casually through the filthy streets of L.A.’s Chinatown district. It smelled pretty bad, but Faith figured it was better than the sewers. Both slayer and watcher were wearing long overcoats to hide the weapons they kept underneath.
“So, how much longer you with us?” Faith asked Xander as her eyes scanned the street for any signs of a demon nest.
“Not sure. Got a new guy coming in next week, but he’s not a watcher.”
“Connor?” Faith asked.
“That’s the guy. You know him?”
“Not really. One of those things where I thought I knew him, then--”
“You slept with him and he changed?”
“His memory got rewritten and he changed,” Faith said, annoyed at Faith’s inference that she was loose.
“Oh,” Xander said casually. “Hate when that happens. Anyway, after he leaves England, Willow goes to Chicago and Dawn should be back here.”
Faith came to a stop. She nodded toward an abandoned building. “Kid used to live there. Connor, I mean. Wonder if he picked it for demon proximity.”
“Or demon spotting.” Xander looked at the doorway. “Ladies first.”
“Chicken,” Faith said, as she stepped through the doorway.
Xander pulled out his cell phone and used the walkie talkie feature to call Spike. “Spike, we’re in an abandon tenement near Alpine and Broadway, you read me?”
“I can hear you if that’s what you mean,” Spike chirped back. “Be there in about five minutes.”
“We wait or head up without him?” Xander asked.
Faith answered by starting to creep up the stairs. “Stay close. I can hear stuff moving up there.”
Xander opened his jacket and removed an axe. Faith pulled out her sword.
“Stay behind me,” Faith whispered. “And try not to scream like a girl.”
“Hey! I have a very manly scream, thank you!”
Faith walked nervously up the stairs. She wasn’t overly excited about stepping into the apartment that was the site of one of the slayers’ most humiliating defeats. It had been this apartment in which Dana and Connor, who were then mentally unstable fugitives, had taken out Angel, Spike, and Kennedy in their escape.
“Okay,” Faith said as she nearly gagged. “There’s going to be a stench issue.”
“More so than the street?” Xander asked before nearly gagging himself. “Scratch that. We’re on the same page.”
Faith kicked in the door and moved into the room with Xander at her back. “Okay,” she said, seeing a series of human corpses in various states of decay pinned up on the wall. “That’s just not right.”
“Come on,” Xander said. “It goes with the whole chickens-hanging-in-the-windows theme they got going on downstairs.”
The room was crowded with about half a dozen giant insect like creatures. Unbeknownst to Faith, they were the Jasmine-worshiping demons from the goddess’ previously conquered dimension. Faith had fought them once before, several months earlier.
“More talky talkies?” one demon complained. “Why they keep to come to this place. Don’t they see others all go dead?”
“That’s kind of why we’re here,” Xander said. “See, we talky talkies don’t like it when you make us go dead.”
“You are not of concern to us,” one of the demons said to Xander. He turned to Faith. “But you . . . you know he who fathered the exalted devourer.”
“Maybe” Faith said, stepping forward. “I know lots of people.”
“Tell us where he is so we can cut out your tongue,” one demon said as it stepped up to Faith, lowering its head to make eye contact. “Make you talk no more.”
Quickly, Faith slammed her sword into the creature’s eye. She twisted hard, hoping she was scooping out anything in the creature’s eye that might be important. She quickly moved back into a battle stance. “Imagine they’ll give me another opening like that?”
“Imagine not,” Xander said.
The remaining five demons charge forward. Faith swung her sword, slapping at their shelled legs. But the demons had more legs than Faith did swords. The slayer soon found herself on her back, swinging her sword wildly as she pushed with her legs and slid her body across the floor.
Spike charged in, sword ready, and ran hard for the demons pinning Faith down. “Get the hell away from her you . . . actually, don’t know what you are. Didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves last time.”
A demon slapped Spike across the room. “Too much talkie.”
A demon charged Xander, pinning him against the wall. Xander hacked off a leg. The creature shrieked, but was unrelenting in its attack. It slammed a leg against the wall to Xander’s right, preventing him from getting loose. Xander brought the axe down hard, chopping off the creature’s leg and freeing an escape path. But as he ran for freedom, a searing pain announced that the demon had pierced Xander’s leg with its own.
Unable to move away, Xander spun to face the creature. His flesh tore as he pivoted, the demon’s leg still cutting through his own. Xander brought the axe down, chopping loose the demon’s leg and allowing his own to slump to the ground. Xander was on one knee. The demon approached, but hobbled. Half its legs were now gone. Swinging hard, Xander nailed the beast right at the neck and lopped its head off.
Faith was still sliding across the floor, barely fighting off the demons, which were nearly on top of her. Spike was in the corner fighting off two of his own. One of the demons leapt at Spike. With a quick move, Spike ducked and the demon shot through the window. The demon screamed loudly as it was exposed to the sunlight. Spike rolled for cover, avoiding the fate of the demon. None of the darkened windows remained and the room was now flooded with light. Still, Xander sighed. At least the numbers were closer to even.
Xander moved toward Faith, but quickly found the pain in his leg unbearable. He collapsed onto the ground. “Faith,” he yelled, hurling the axe toward her. “More damage.”
Faith dropped her sword, caught the axe, and split the head of the creature on top of her in two. She scrambled to her feet. The other demon that had been attacking her was now charging Xander. Faith chased it.
The demon caught Xander and slammed its claw into his shoulder. With his free hand, Xander pulled a gun and fired at the demon. The bullet ricocheted off the hard armor-like shell. Shrapnel hit Xander in the cheek.
Spike stifled a laugh. “Careful with the gun or you’ll put an eye out. Another one, I mean.”
Faith caught up to the demon. Bringing down a powerful stroke, Faith hacked through part of the demon’s shell. Another hard stroke ripped almost all the way through the demon’s neck. It was slumping to the ground. Faith lowered a final blow, ripping its head in half. Using his one good arm and one good leg, Xander crawled out from beneath the monster’s dead body.
The last demon had Spike trapped in a corner. He couldn’t escape without running through a large, sunlit area. He fought hard but, like Faith, found that the demon’s many legs were more than a match for his sword.
Faith raised the axe and ran toward Spike. Halfway across the room, she was cut off by an almost blinding blue light. A dozen more demons poured from a portal into the room. The beasts snapped their claws and hissed at Faith, but didn’t attack.
“Hey!” Xander yelled. “No fair portalling in reinforcements!”
“Reinforcements sounds like a good idea,” Spike yelled. With a loud yell, Spike dropped his sword. Faith and Xander couldn’t see why until his squirming body was lifted from the ground by a long leg. The demon had managed to slip the leg behind Spike and drive it into the vampire’s back. It now lifted Spike into the air.
“We’re not leaving!” Xander yelled.
“Go,” Spike managed to groan as blood poured from his mouth.
Faith began to echo Xander’s sentiments. “We’re not-”
“Get help,” Spike yelled, his voice indicative of the excruciating pain he was now experiencing.
Faith frowned, then ran to Xander’s side. “Come on.” She helped Xander up.
“Faith, we can’t,” Xander insisted.
“We’re in no condition to stay and fight. We’ll be back.”
***
Faith walked and Xander limped into the library where a glass of cherry Kool Aid had been spilled on one of the tomes Wesley had smuggled out of the old Wolfram & Hart building.
“It was like this,” Gretchen began. “I was drinking my juice when I remembered a book that mentioned demon clusters. So I climbed the ladder and-”
“Lost your balance, yada yada yada, juicy book,” Xander said angrily. “Where’d we put the tequila?”
“We came back to regroup,” Faith said angrily. “Not drink. We drink when we get Spike back”
“Hey,” Gretchen said. “Spike’s not here!”
“Quick as a turtle, this one,” Xander said bitterly. “Where are we going to find backup in time to save Spike?”
“Since when do you care about Spike?” Faith yelled.
“Since he got caught! I don’t know how well you knew those girls back in Sunnydale, Faith. But I knew them. I knew them all. And a lot of them died. Not to mention Anya. And Miss Calendar. And Jesse. If they all had to die for the good fight in a world with one slayer, I can cope with that. But not now. In a world with hundreds of slayers, we shouldn’t have to lose anyone anymore!”
“Then we won’t. We can’t get any slayer here before those things rip Spike apart. Best we can do is plan instead of running headlong into things.”
“And who’s idea was that?” Xander snarled.
“Hey!” Faith yelled. “This is the planning. Blaming comes later.”
“Both of you shut up!” Gretchen yelled. Faith and Xander looked at her, both in shock. “Tell me what happened,” the witch continued softly.
****
“Agggh, come on!” Spike shouted as the demon bent Spike’s rib outward. “If you’re going to kill me, then kill me. But this is just . . . gross.”
The demon snapped it’s pincers at Spike’s face. “Keep making squeals, talkie. Take your throat out. Then you talk less much.”
“Bon du soir, messieurs,” a refined French voice came form the doorway. “I see you have taken up the residence of your former quarry. You think the way to catch him is to be where he has been? I think you should be more interested in where he’s going.”
The other demons in the room started at the Frenchman’s sudden presence. The one ripping through Spike’s chest, however, continued its work. “We know where he goes not. We are knowing soon enough. Flesh and bone tells us more than your squeaking. His flesh and bone, closest to it we find are able.”
“Ah, but you and I are after the same person,” the Frenchman continued. “And I know where he will be in less than two weeks. If you wait, he-”
“We shall know now,” the lead demon snapped at du Plessis, finally turning to face the man. “Kill this new noise-making one,” the demon continued. “He does our spell no good.”
The other demons began to crowd around the man. Suddenly, he raised his hand. Although nothing seemed to change in the room, the demons scuttled away from him nervously.
“I see you know old magicks,” the lead demon said, now back at work on Spike. “Blood magicks. Flesh magicks. Bone magicks.”
“I know many magicks.”
“Let me guess,” Spike said with much trouble. “Armand du Plessis?”
“And you must be William the Bloody,” Armand answered. “Quite a fitting moniker, considering these demons seemed to have tied your organs together. Tell me, does it hurt?”
“Aw, no, mate,” Spike said, glancing down at his nearly empty chest cavity. “Better than a hand job, it is.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Armand said, stepping forward. “It’s been a while since my chest was sucked out and I’ve never had a hand job.” Armand glanced at the demons around him. They were still keeping their distance, almost quivering in fear. “You want revenge for Jasmine-”
“Dare not use your talkie words name of her!” the lead demon shouted angrily.
“Very well. Still, I think it best we work together, yes?”
The lead demon became even more furious. “We are not of work with scum talkie word-maker like-” The demon backed away from Spike and began shrieking horribly. The other demons followed suit. Suddenly, the shrieking stopped.
Spike’s eyes drifted toward du Plessis. He noticed the warlock removed a pin from a glowing blue orb in his hand just as the demons’ cries of pain ceased.
“So,” du Plessis smiled calmly. “I assume you’re now more willing to listen to reason, yes?”
*****
“You sure you can do this?” Faith asked as she loaded up on weapons.
Xander sat with his bandaged leg up on the couch next to him. Over his objections, Faith was benching him due to the injury. He would be remaining in the lobby, but still want to oversee preparations. “I know you’re a powerful witch. But making a force field, that’s Willow territory.”
“No,” Gretchen said, packing some supplies of her own. “Maintaining a force field is Willow territory. Making one is easy.”
“What’s the use of a force field you don’t hold it up?” Faith said, dropping two small axes into a belt holster.
“If I were to try to magic the demons individually, I’d be wiped out before you could say Hecetate.”
Faith shrugged. “Makes sense since I can’t say that anyway.”
“If I create a force field. I can knock them all back with one spell.” Gretchen turned and stepped toward a book on the counter. She tripped over the empty fire extinguishers and fell to the ground, knocking the others over.
“You two are going to get yourselves killed without me,” Xander said nervously. “You know that, right?”
Gretchen scowled. “I so don’t need your negative energy right now.”
“Ditto,” Faith said. “Can the fatalism until we’re actually dead. And you’re not coming with, so don’t ask again. It’s already dusk, Gretch. We ready to roll?”
“Ready,” Gretchen said, climbing to her feet.
******
“So what’s the plan, mate?” Spike asked du Plessis. “Join up with as many demons as possible and rebuild your sodding law firm?”
Armand looked at Spike with mild annoyance. “I agree with my distinguished colleagues here,” he said, indicating the demons surrounding them. “You talk too much.” He turned to the demon who seemed to be their leader. “What exactly are your plans for him?”
“He is the last talkie I need,” the demon said, indicating the corpses hanging on the wall in a horrific tableau. “I will do old magic. It will take me to he who fathered the divine one.”
“The person is quite a distance away from here in this world. But he’ll be coming soon. We should kill this one.”
The lead demon seemed to balk at this. With a homicidal glint in his eye, du Plessis’ raised the blue orb. This seemed to convince the demon to obey.
“I will kill this talkie, then,” the demon muttered bitterly. As it approached Spike, claw raised, a crossbow bolt hit its arm, snapping it. The demon turned to see Faith.
“Actually,” Faith said, dropping the crossbow and removing her axes. “I’d prefer you didn’t.”
The demons turned. Armand du Plessis smiled, not believing Faith was both brave and foolish enough to return alone. “Kill her.”
“That talkie not concerns us,” one demon said. Armand raised the blue orb. The demons turned toward Faith and bucked as if about to charge.
“Come on, you ugly bastards,” Faith shouted.
“Us is ugly!” The lead demon said, deeply offended. With a loud growl, it charged, followed by its comrades.
Faith took three steps back and shouted, “Now, Gretch!”
Gretchen stepped in from the stairwell and, with all her might, pushed out an invisible protective field. It lasted less than twenty seconds. But that was enough. The shield shot toward the charging demons and collided with them. They hissed and yelped in pain as they either scrambled back under their own power or were forced through the air by the power of the spell.
Gretchen dropped to her knees, nearly passing out from the energy the spell had taken. Pressing her advantage, Faith hurled one of her small axes at a demon, nailing it in the head and killing it. She quickly hurled her next small axe, but a wave of du Plessis’ hand shot it off course and into the wall.
The demons were hurt, but recovering much more quickly than Gretchen was. Faith knew she needed to get to Spike and fast. She pulled her large battle axe from the weapons bag slung over her shoulder. Dropping the rest of the bag, she charged hard for Spike.
Armand raised his arm to perform a spell when a crossbow bolt ripped through the flesh of his hand. He quickly turned to see that Gretchen, though light on manna, had crawled to Faith’s abandoned crossbow.
Faith was swinging her axe wildly, trying to hack her way to Spike, whom the demons guarded fiercely, despite his current lack of utility in their plans. “Behind you!” Spike shouted to the slayer.
Faith turned back and was annoyed to see it was a false alarm. No one was behind her but Armand, who now was pointing his injured right hand toward Gretchen. His left still held the blue orb. Suddenly, Faith realized he was about to perform a spell.
Faith turned and swung her axe down hard, hacking off the lower part of du Plessis’ left arm. He grabbed the stump of his arm and bellowed in pain as he fell to the ground.
The orb, too, fell to the ground with the severed part of du Plessis’ arm. Faith heard the scuttle of feet behind her. The demons were going for the orb. It was important to them.
Holding the axe in one hand, Faith dove for the orb, scooped it up, and rolled to her feet. “Stay back!” she yelled, holding the orb up.
“Stupid talkie,” the lead demon said. “You are even not knowing the power our key to has.”
“Maybe not,” Faith said, placing it on a table and quickly raising her axe over it. “But I bet I know how to destroy it.”
The demons backed away. Faith sighed.
“Got your back!” Xander yelled from the door as he stumbled into the room. He held a cane in one hand and a small axe in the other.
“Good to hear,” Faith said. “But the fight’s over.”
“Oh. But, um . . . demons.”
“They’re just leaving.” Faith looked at the lead demon intently. “Now, I don’t really know what the hell you want with my world. And I don’t understand your interesting take on the concept of modern art,” she added, nodding to the decomposing bodies pinned on the wall. “But if you come back here, I’m going to open up a can o’ whoop ass so big, you’ll be like God damn was that a lot of whoop ass!”
“We not even wanting come to,” one of the lesser demons whimpered. “This one,” he said pointing to the leader, “and the priest is made us of come.”
Faith nodded. With a quick movement, she leapt forward and hacked the leader’s head off. Just as quickly, she moved back away again. She pointed her axe at the lead demon’s head. “Pick it up!” she barked, as if they should have known to do so already. The demon tentatively did so.
“Now take that back to your priest and let him know that fate is all that’s waiting for him in this world. I don’t know what went on in this town during Angel’s watch, but there’s a new god damn regime in Los Angeles. You come here again . . .” Faith raised the key. “And next time, I’ll use this.”
The demons backed away again.
“Blood,” Spike called. “I saw them use that thing. Put blood on it. That’s how they get back to their dimension.”
Faith rubbed the blood from one of her cuts onto the key. A portal opened. The demons scrambled and shoved each other to get through the portal. Finally, it closed.
“So,” Xander said. “What does that thing do besides portals?”
Faith shrugged. “Fuck if I know.” She tossed it to Gretchen.
The witch quickly bobbled and dropped the orb. “Sorry.”
“’kay then,” Faith said. “Let’s get Spike down and go home. Then Xander can photo the orb and upload it to the Council’s web site or something.”
Gretchen carefully handed Xander the orb and walked toward Spike. “Oh my god, they hollowed out your stomach!”
“I’m aware. And don’t touch me! If you’re taking me down, use magic, but don’t. Touch me.”
“Oh, you’re delirious,” Gretchen said, awkwardly ripping Spike’s right hand from the peg holding him up.
“Graghhhhhh!” Spike yelled painfully.
“Nobody trusts magic more than the human touch,” Gretchen continued absent-mindedly as she did the same thing to Spike’s left hand.
“Gretch,” Faith interrupted, handing Gretchen the axe. “Let me get this part.”
“Oh yes,” Spike moaned. “Handing her an axe is a great idea.”
“Good news is I brought the car,” Xander said.
“And the bad?” Spike said through gritted teeth as Faith helped him down.
“You need to ride in the trunk.”
“But it’s nighttime!” Spike protested.
“Yeah,” Xander said, limping for the door. “But I don’t want you bleeding all over the upholstery.”
Seeing Xander struggle to walk and carry the orb, Gretchen trotted up beside him. “Let me get that.”
“No!” Xander, Faith, and Spike yelled simultaneously.
“God, alright,” Gretchen said in annoyance. “So, when we get home, who’s for ice cream sundaes?”
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