Angel had dragged them all the way to Sunnydale by train and was
being surprisingly cheerful.
"Something's wrong. We're going to see Buffy and Angel isn't
brooding," Cordelia said decisively.
Wesley agreed, "Yes, what is going on? Shouldn't we be protecting
the world from demons, vampires, evil-ness, and kareoke singers
instead of happily visiting Sunnydale?"
"Will you be quiet?" Angel asked.
Gunn rolled his eyes, "Yes master."
"Are we there yet?" whined Cordy, glancing out into teh night sky.
------------
They stared at her, stared at the madness in her eyes and the fact that
*she was so damn serious it wasn't funny*. They didn't know what to say for
a moment. They looked at each other, then to her, not knowing what to do for
one long moment that seemed to last an eternity. Were they to run or to
stay? Were they to fight or were they to let themselves die at her feet?
They were just kids! They weren't more than...than fourteen years old at the
most and five years old at the least! What did they ever do to her to
deserve this? What were they going to DO?!
Faith just gave them that sly smile of hers that said she already won,
then let fly her weapon and did what she did best: massacring people.
Dodgeballs flew everywhere, hitting every kid out on that playground. No
matter how much they tried to run or get out of the way, they couldn't escape
her, who was armed to the hilt with a full bin of dodgeballs. They were all
hit, and not a single person was spared.
"Should've all run a little faster, huh?" she asked, chuckling. "Okay,
guys, so that's game. I won fair and square. I'm out of ammo and it looks
like we've got rain. Everyone pick up the dodgeballs and dump them back into
the bin. Let's go back in...hurry up, everyone...."
As she helped the kids back into the YMCA building, one of the kids came
up to her. "Do you really have to leave, Faith?"
Faith had to bend over at the waist to meet this girl eye-to-eye.
"Well...yeah, I do."
"Where're you goin'?"
"Oh...nowhere special." She got a look in her eye that hinted at worse
times...times of despair, of going insane, of...of blood-lust that nearly
killed her....
"Are you gonna miss us?"
She grinned, trying to hide the sadness somewhere within her. "I'll miss
playing dodgeball with you guys."
She giggled. "You're really good at it. How'd you get that good?"
She shrugged. "Practice."
"So today's your last day?"
"Yep. Tonight, I'll have to leave town on a train bound for Sunnydale."
"Where's that?"
"Oh, it's not too far away from here...about an hour or so away from
here." When she felt the first few sprinkles from above, she took off her
white sweater and held it over their heads. "Let's hurry up...."
They jogged the rest of the way back into the building. As Faith shook
the raindrops off her sweater, the girl asked, "What're you gonna do in
Sunnydale?"
"Well...I don't know yet. But I know that I have some important stuff to
do."
"Muy important stuff?"
"Muy importante, chica," she replied, tapping her on the nose and making
her giggle. "C'mon...let's get back to the room and make sure everyone else
hasn't raided the snack cabinets and eaten everything in sight...if they did,
I'll be very upset with them...."
As she began to unpack a little bit later that night, she sang a little song to herself:
There's only us
There's only this...
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today....
"Knock knock!" someone called.
She glanced up from her suitcase. "It's open!"
A man came running in and made a crash landing on her bed. "Ahhhhhhh,
that's posh...."
She chuckled as she slammed her suitcase shut. "Gee, Mark, it really
doesn't take much to impress you, does it?"
"No. Just give me a box under the bed and some Capt. Crunch and I'll
survive."
"Ohhhhhkay...." She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but grin at
him.
"So, how're you holding up?"
"Well...I wouldn't want to be here, honestly."
"Here? *Here?!* But this is the Hilton Towers! Talk about taking a lot
to impress someone! Hmmf!" He snatched a pillow from the bed and stuck it
under his head, fluffing it up excessively in his annoyance.
She gave him The Look.
"Crap...what'd I do now? Aaaargh...."
"Oh, nothing. It's me, not you." She sighed. "I just have to learn
that you're just one...very special person, that's all."
"Why, thank you, Faith. I really appreciate it."
As he sat up, she patted him on the back. "I just have to realize that
even though you're a very nice, kind, generous, loving person...you're just
not the brightest crayon in the box...and I have to know how to deal with
that. If that means I have to explain things to you many times, using much
simpler words, and it means I have to talk...to...you...more...slowly...then
that's what I have to do."
"Aw. I'm touched. Gee, Faith, you really know to make a guy feel
special."
She gave him her most innocent smile. "It's a gift."
"We don't have anything to do till later on today--like, around noon.
Wanna go out? Everyone else is gonna check this little old cracker of a town
out." He chuckled. "Will's thinking of going out there in drag and seeing
what people think of him. He calls it 'giving his character a test drive.' "
"Well, it won't be the weirdest thing people'll see around here, I'm
sure."
"Oh? What else is around here?"
She stared at him above her open suitcase lid, not knowing what to say in
response to his question. "Aw, you know..."
"Yeah...?"
"You know..." She shrugged. "People...."
"*Really?!* People? *Here?!?!* Here, out in the sticks? Oh, my God,
what's this planet *coming* to? C'mon, what's the matter with you? I know
you like acting all weird and cosmic sometimes...or all the time...but look,
it's a nice day out and everything. We won't get too many chances to go out
and do stuff when everything gets underway."
She thought about it, and she really did want to go out. But she wasn't
sure if that was the best thing to do, given all the stuff that had happened
to her here--all the things she did here and all the things that were done to
her here. Too many bad memories. Why the hell did she decide to go back
after all?
"I'll make the cute puppy dog eyes if you don't go."
"I'll be sure to turn away, punkin."
"I'll take you by the hand and pull you from your suitcase and drag you
out of this place kicking and screaming."
"I'll flip you over and drag you out of this place by your *hair* kicking
and screaming."
"Ouch. You must really be great in the sack, huh?"
She decided to not reply to that.
"So where were we...oh, yeah. So are you coming?"
"I don't know...."
"I'll hold onto your leg and won't let go until you leave with us."
"No."
"I'll be clamped onto you like a leech, and everyone's going to look at
you and wonder why you don't have pity on a such a gorgeous guy like me. And
then they'll start begging...."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, no, not the begging...."
"Getting ready to beg in three...two...one...."
It was a pathetically shameful display. To see a grown man on his knees,
crying, trying to make his way to her while pleading loudly,
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! Oh, God, pleeeeeeeeease...oh, God...oh, *God,* and
I...I...I...it would mean so *much* to me if you just went with
u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-s! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh," well...that was just pathetic.
Faith had to yell at the top of her lungs to tell him she would go with him
after all.
"You will?"
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
"Great!" He got up in a flash, wiped a tear from his eye, and said, "Aw,
that was fun. I'll wait for you outside, okay?"
"Okay..."
"Great. If I don't see you out there in five, I'm begging again."
"Uggggh...."
"Eeeeexcellent."
Once the door closed, Faith looked into her suitcase again just as she
finished taking out the last of her stuff. At the very bottom of her
suitcase was the one thing that she couldn't part with--her stake, wrapped in
black velvet. It was hard to part with her other weaponry, but the stake?
That was something she just couldn't part with.
Gripping the stake in her hand, she slowly walked to the window, then
stared outside. Who knew what lay out there? How the hell could anyone not
know what was going on in this town? How could anyone want to do anything
even marginally normal here, with all the vampires and other loser sleaze
running around here to ruin everything? Well...in her case, she made a deal
with herself. She wasn't going to go back to all of that. The counselors
and everyone else who took care of her had helped her so much, and the least
she could do to repay them was to do things right this time around. Then
again, this place had a weird way of undoing anything good and turning it all
into something bad. But...no. She wouldn't let it happen to her. This
time, she wasn't alone. There were a lot of people rooting for her. And,
hey, she was really on the road to making it big thi time. She wouldn't have
to kill anybody. She wouldn't have to see weird monsters. She wouldn't have
to worry about being the good guy...the goody-two-shoes brat running around
to save the planet while figuring out what shade of lipstick looked the best
on her.... She got a chance to finally live a normal life, or something as
close to one as she could get. Things were going pretty well for her now,
and her life was really beginning to mean something to her. She was well on
her way to building herself up from the inside out, and if everything went
well and she could survive a month in Sunnydale without problems, then she
believed she could survive anything and not fall into that dark trap again.
Still, as she stared out there and watched some of the cast and crew leave
the building, she couldn't help but feel like she was going to be facing one
hell of a battle to not undo everything else she'd done to build herself back
up.
She stared at the stake in her hand, tucked it in just the right place in
her jeans, then grabbed her jacket and went off with everyone else.
Sunnydale didn't seem to be too big of a place. In the minivan or the
tour bus, they could probably cruise all over town and get back to the Hilton
in half an hour or so. But since the minivan and the other trucks were being
used to pick up the set pieces and put everything together at the theater,
they were stuck going around on foot. At least they were in a big group,
though, and it was broad daylight. It didn't look like they were going get
into any problems.
Faith let everyone else lead the group around. She decided to hang
around in the middle of the group, somewhere, and she decided to keep quiet,
avoiding the stares of Sunnydale locals. If she did that, then maybe nobody
would recognize her, and maybe she wouldn't run into any problems.
Unfortunately, that wasn't to be....
"Faith?"
Faith, for one moment, felt a horrible knot in the pit of her stomach and a
great amount of anxiety--of not being able to run, not being able to hide, and
not being able to fight. It was that fight-or-flight response again. It told
her there was danger around...not that it was such a big surprise in
Sunnydale...but what was it? How could she stop it? She'd gotten this feeling
before and proved it wrong many times over. But what about now? Now, she
wasn't so sure....
She felt a pair of loving arms gently go around her from behind. "Faith,
babe, are you okay?"
"What? Oh...I'm fine."
"You're not coming down with something, are you? We have a show
tomorrow...."
His lips tenderly graced her shoulder with two sweet kisses, and then he
rested his head on her shoulder and held her close. Faith smiled a little, then
turned so she could give him a great big hug and let him hug her a little
tighter.
"Nothing's wrong, really," she murmured. "I'm just kind of nervous."
"Stage fright?" He chuckled softly. "I didn't think you were a 'stage
fright' kind of person."
"We'll be okay."
"Just okay? Not five-by-five?"
"Well, we'll see about that...."
------------------
Opium breathed through his round nose. "Ah, Sunnydale," he
sighed, "Sweet Sunnydale. Full of vampires, witches, slayers,
and demons. Even a god or two.”
He walked forwards and onto the darkened grass in the park from his
cave. Opium stared with his center eye at the wall. "The insane slayer comes,"
he muttered, "Dokair, make sure she gets a warm welcome. She will become
helpful."
A transparent man with black hair and unibrow stepped forward, bowed, and
said, "Yes m'lord." He strode from the cave and out into Sunydale to search
for Faith.
------------------
Xanders held Anya down as she kept leaping excitedly into the air
crying, "Is that them? Is that them?"
"Calm down!" Buffy said.
"Yes ma'am," Anya smirked.
Willow snorted, "Anya!"
"Willow!" Anya retorted.
"That's them, look!" Xanders cried.
Giles looked around asking, "Where? I don't see them!"
"Their the ones getting off the train," Xanders told him.
"Right," Giles said vaguely.
Buffy looked at Angel and all the love for him came flooding back.
She waited for him to get off the train before she had said anything
to him. "Xander what do I say to him? I mean I havn't seen him for
a long time how do I act?" she asked.
"Just be calm," Xander whispered as Angel approached, "And act normal."
----------------------
"Angel, man, where are we going?" Gunn asked as Angel led them over to a
group of teenagers.
Wesley whispered, "That's the slayer."
"Oh," Gunn said.
Angel walked over to Buffy and embraced her. "I've missed you," he said.
Buffy smiled as Angel embraced her. "I've missed you too." she said as
she hugged him tighter not ever wanting to let him go again.
"Eh-hmm" Dawn cleared her throat to remind Buffy and
Angel that there were other people there.
"Hi Angel, how was your trip?"
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