Ready To Cut Loose?
Giles opened his eyes on his alarm clock. 3.11 AM. The noise that had woken him up was someone banging at the door of his apartment, which instantly led to equal parts worry and hope; he hadn't slept well recently, and so he'd given specific orders not to be disturbed unless it was really important. Maybe it was good news. He put on his bathrobe as he made his way towards the door, looked through the peephole - Alright, so not good news then - and opened.
"Hello, Faith."
"Hiya."
He went back to sleep. That's usually what happens when a pissed-off Slayer punches a completely unprepared middle-aged man.
"You ever get the feeling you done something before, G?"
At first, Giles wasn't sure where he was or why he couldn't move. Then he opened his eyes on Faith, casually leaning back on her chair with her feet up on his dinner table, giving herself a manicure with his sharpest steak knife in a casual display of Slayer abilities. To anyone who didn't know her, she seemed calm. But he knew that smile, that cruel look in her eyes... only she seemed distracted somehow. Like she was making herself do this.
"I mean, I think there's a word for it. You know, when you're sure this exact thing has happened to you already, and you're just repeating it?"
"Déjà vu."
"Right. I keep forgetting how clever you are, Giles!" She pointed with the knife at the ropes that tied him to the chair. " Me and Wesley did this once. I tied him up and tortured him for, like, hours. Beat him, cut him, burned him... weird how I couldn't break him, though." Faith let her legs slide off the table and leaned forward, staring him down. “Wouldn't it be fun to see if you're as tough as he was?”
He didn't look away. "For your sake, I really wish you wouldn't. But if you think you need to... déjà vu. I've been tortured before, by people far more experienced than you."
"Oooh, that sounds like a challenge!" She flashed him what was obviously intended as a bright smile... which faded quickly. "But I'm not gonna. We're just gonna have a talk, where one of us asks the questions while the clever one gets to sit in that chair until he answers them. Starting with an explanation of what happened in LA two weeks ago, and it better be good."
Giles sighed and winced at the pain in his jaw. "We... we don't know everything that happened. It seems Angel and his colleagues went after the circle of the Black Thorn, one of the most powerful demon cabals in the world, and as far as we can tell they wiped them out. But they paid for it. There was a huge battle, and... well, apart from Wesley, we can't be sure."
"So Wesley's really..."
"Dead." Giles watched Faith slump back in her chair, her jaw muscles working, and found himself wishing - not for the first time in the last two weeks - that he didn't have to be the one delivering the bad news. "Someone brought his body back to his flat, arranged his weapons around him and left the door open so he would be found. As for the rest, we have no idea. Spike called Buffy just before the battle started, but all we know about the outcome is that there were an awful lot of dead demons. But the fact that we've been unable to locate or contact them since then would suggest that..."
"They're all dead," Faith mumbled. Giles had never been told exactly what happened between Faith and Angel, but he knew they shared a bond of some sort. Even if he hadn't, the pained expression on her face spoke volumes. For a second he thought she would... then she forced it back and was all cold business again. "OK. So we know who was there. Let's talk about who wasn't."
"Excuse me?"
"You know what I mean." She pointed the knife straight at his face, raising her voice. "You command the biggest demon-fighting army since Army Of Darkness, G. Exactly how many of your girls were sent to help them?"
"We couldn't..."
"Bullshit! You've got your seers and secret agents and I know they asked you for help. Wesley wrote -"
"For once in your life, will you SHUT UP AND LISTEN?" Giles was just as surprised as Faith when he snapped at her, and at the ragged edge in his voice. He tried to calm down again, and looked away from her. "We did receive a request - or perhaps I should say a demand - for help some time before all of this. What I told Angel then still stands: the Watcher's Council does not help the CEO of Wolfram & Hart, no matter what his credentials. Surely you remember - they were the ones who hired YOU to kill Angel. I've no doubt that Angel thought he was doing good, but neither do I doubt that he was being used. That battle was a suicide mission, Faith, a desperate last stand, and they knew it. Sending Slayers to die for a lost cause would have been senseless. I'm not proud of that decision, but it was the right one."
"Right. And it just happened that the people who paid for that decision were Angel, Wesley and Spike - none of who was ever on your best friends list."
"If you're suggesting -" He almost snapped at her again, but she didn't give him a chance.
"I ain't suggesting shit. I'm saying that you sat on your bony British butt and let them die without lifting a finger! And I can't let you get away with that." Faith was standing up now, shouting, and her grip on the knife had tightened. For a while, it was a staring contest, both having said too much, neither willing to back down. Again, it was Giles who looked away first.
"Faith... I know this is hard. But I also know you. You've worked long and hard to make up for what you've done in the past. You do not want to step across that line again."
Faith kept staring at him for a second or two. Then suddenly she was in his face, the knife - *THUCK* - buried several inches deep in the table right over his lap. "Well then quit fucking MOVING the line on me! You can't..." And once again she reeled herself in, pushing the fury down and turning her back on him, her knuckles white around the knifehandle.
"I... I did what I had to do, Faith. We all make our choices and live with them. They understood that. I know you want someone to blame, but somewhere inside you understand that too."
When Faith spoke again, her voice had lost all fire and was shaking badly.
"You don't sell your friends out, Giles. THAT'S the line you don't cross. The one that puts you on probation for the rest of your life. 'Cept it only applies to some people, I guess? The good ones get away with anything, but..."
Giles grimaced as he thought back on the last two weeks. Tell that to Buffy. Faith slumped onto his couch, reached into her pocket and produced a crumpled and torn piece of paper. She didn't read it, just held on to it as she wiped at her eyes with the back of the hand holding the knife.
"H-he believed in me. God, I ruined the guy's LIFE, and he still... him and Angel were the only ones who ever did."
"Then prove them right."
"I'm sorry, Giles, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do this... any of this..."
They sat there, two lonely people, both looking at the knife as Faith turned it over and over in her hands. Then she got to her feet and walked over to Giles.
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
