Angel: Faith’s Secret(An Interlude)_Fanfic_Part 1
“I’m not like you! I’M NOT LIKE YOU!”
Angelus snarled. “You will be!”
That day…that conversation…still haunted her. In her dreams. In her waking hours. While she was having sex.
Because she had never told anyone…anyone…the ugly truth.
There’s always a turning point. There’s always a day when you go from being an innocent child to…whatever you are after that, because it’s different for every person.
That goes up by a factor of 10 for a Slayer. =====================================================
Click to read “The Return of Fred” FIRST
♫♪♫ Well I talked about it, talked about it, talked about it! Ah-ah talked about it, talked about it, talked about movin’ on! ♫♪♫
“Hello?” Faith answered her cell.
“Hey. Faith. It’s Angel,” sounded the voice on the other end. “I thought you weren’t gonna pick up at first.”
“No, it’s all good man, I just like listening to my ringtone,” she grinned. In that dirty sort of way she had of making everything naughty. “What’s up?”
Angel, the human, laid it all down. Wesley. Lilah. Pylea. Groo’s death. And the Big Bads that were running around LA with his friends’ faces on them.
Faith was uncharacteristically silent. “Faith? …You still there?” queried Angel.
“Yah…yeah man, I’m here. The mentals are spinnin’, y’know?
…So…have you heard from…well, Angelus? Kinda weird sayin’ that.”
“Weird doesn’t begin to describe it. Knowing Angelus, he’s all about tenderizing the meat. He’d want us to sweat awhile, wondering when he’s going to strike befo-” Faith heard a loud crash.
“Angel? Angel?” Then the call went dead.
Faith sat perfectly still for 9.7 seconds. Then she called Willow. “Will? Stop whatever you’re doing with whoever you’re doing it with.
Shit just got real.” =============================================================================================
Of course Will can’t come right now. She’s always 10 steps behind the party, thought Faith as she sped towards Los Angeles. She always figures that she’ll make a quantum difference when she *does* show up. Because magic tends to give you the big head. Faith chuckled. Connor would say that a lot. …Connor. Now *there’s* a bronco that needs breakin’. And Wes. He’s all in spook jail with Lilah. I’d buy their sex tape for sure.
And then it happened, like it always did. When she was alone, when there was no one around to screw, or to screw with, in her mind’s eye, she saw it. Saw her. And she was nine years old again.
Faith quickly blocked it out. She had to focus. Because there was no telling what she was about to walk into. Funny thing about this Slayer life. I’ve seen the world ending more than once…and for some reason, somehow, some way, the stakes get higher every time.
She knew that she was coming up on some speed traps. So she sped up. Because cops giving speeding tickets? They always liked to fuck. Or fight. The two things she was best at.
Oh and that whole taking condoms off with her teeth thing. But that was another story. =============================================================================================== Blood. Ridiculous amounts of blood, everywhere, all over the Hyperion floor. There was some blood that was a darker hued red than the rest, and Faith just assumed that that used to be Groo. She braced herself. “Guys?” she called out. “Hello, Angel? Guys?”
A chorus of moans came from behind the front desk. 
Faith rushed over to see Angel and Fred, all bunched up behind the desk. Looking like they’d done their laundry while still wearing their clothes.
She crouched down. “What happened?”
“It was, *cough*…Angelus.” Angel spat blood. “He crashed in while we were on the phone.”
Faith looked around. “Where’s Cor & Gunn?”
“They’re outside,” squeaked Fred. “Resetting the perimeter alarms.” Fred had a strange look on her face. And her head was slightly cocked to her left side when she answered Faith.
Kind of like Illyria would do.
“Give it to me straight, no chaser, Boss. How’d you survive?” asked Faith. Angel pushed forward a contraption that Faith had never seen before. It looked reminiscent of a mini gun, but the firing mechanisms were partly spring loaded.
“It’s an auto gun that shoots wooden stakes,” volunteered Fred. “It’s something I made right after the last time that we faced Angelus.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” chuckled Faith. “This actually worked against him? And how come you never used it before?’
Angel spoke up, somewhat ashamedly. “Because…because I never had to.”
“Oh. Right. You’re human now.”
“…You say that like ‘human’ means that I’m walking syphilis, Faith. I’ve been human before, remember?”
“Yeah, but that means you’re way less useful in a fight. Especially with Crazy A.”
“Yeah, well, “Crazy A” wanted to kill me as quickly as possible, to get rid of any chance-” *argh* Angel winced and grabbed his right side was he was standing up. “…Get rid of any chance that we could be merged again. But Fred’s gun stopped him.”
“He’s got a Fang twin now too, you said, right?” asked Faith.
“Not that Gunn, this gun, Faith. And he’s not mine, not for a while now.” drolled Fred.
“Oh, right, ’cause you and Wes were startin’ the horizontal mamba…and then…right.” Fred just glared at her. Sensitivity was never Faith’s forte.
“Hey, look, I’m not one to judge or keep a scorecard, okay Fred? I just know two things: One, romantic attachments are a huge liability in a firefight. Two, since we’re facing Big Bads that are essentially you four with all the creamy goodness ripped out, we’re gonna have to come up with some new strategies. Because they’ll know everything that we do. Ya feel me?”
Angel and Fred greeted Faith’s accurate assessment with silence.
“So, I’ll take that as a ‘yes, we feel you.’ Look, Angel, without your-”
“I know Faith, I know, but I know how Angelus thinks. What he’ll do, where he’ll go. You still need me.”
“I know how you…he…thinks too. Except I’m not down for an Orpheus trip this time. And you need more automatic weapons, unless you think you can still handle yourself in hand-to-hand.”
“He can,” Gunn said, stern faced, as he walked back in the front door with Cordelia.
“And what about you, G Man, you feelin’ five by five these days? Oh, and, hello Cor.”
“Faith. What a pleasant surprise in a oh-shit-here-we-go-again kind of way.”
“The last time you filled out a job application, did you put snark as your first language, Cor?” laughed Faith.
Cordelia walked over to Angel and Fred. “Since we have Slutty of the SlayerPuff Girls all piped and primed here, hows about we get started on our new plan?”
Gunn kept looking around as he joined the others. “I’m all for that, because this last attack was just a little too close for comfort. And by comfort I mean I just got my life back I don’t wanna die again.”
“Well kids, first things first. You’re going to have to tell me the truth about where you are, and what you can do.” If Faith knew how to do anything, she knew how to assess and prepare for a brawl. There was a reason for that. “Angel we know, is human, but he has tactical knowledge that could help us. Still not sure about his Fight Club cred without vampire strength and speed. Fred?”
Fred just stared. Then she snarled and said, “I owe no explanation to any creature!”
The gang all stepped back in unison. Fred trembled. “Ah…ah’m sorry, ah don’t know where that came from,” her voice returning to normal. “Ah’ve had a constant headache since-”
“Oh, that’s just peachy!” interrupted Cordelia. “So now Fred has a 24 hour radio station in her head with her favorite DJ Cranky Blue playin’ the hits on her brain.”
Faith turned to her. “What, are you from 1970?”
“No…no,” grumbled Cordy. “Just…been hanging around old man Angel too long and I get my time periods mixed up sometimes since I saw so many of them when I was a higher being.”
Fred hesitantly asked, “What…what do you know about ‘Cranky Blue?’ You weren’t there.”
“Angel told me what happened.
And. Since we’re talking about who we used to be….Um. I…..I no longer have the visions.”
“You what?” asked Angel. This was the first he’d heard of this.
“You heard me.” Cordy lowered her voice and her head. “They’re gone.”
Fred spoke up. “Do you think you actually passed them to Groo?”
Groo. Cordy realized she hadn’t even really had time to grieve the loss of her personal champion. This was the second time she’d come back from being not really alive, and realized that it wasn’t any easier. “N-no. I’m pretty sure that Groo didn’t get them. I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure, but, I’ve watched lots of people getting hurt on the news, and I had no sense of any of it beforehand. The Powers have cut me off. I’m assuming for good. Since. You know.”
“Since you went all Nudist Camp and boned Angel’s son you mean?” said Faith.
“That wasn’t me! IT wasn’t!” screamed Cordelia in embarrassed frustration.
“Okay, okay, remember, I’m just sizin’ everything up. ‘Cause right now, we’re lookin’ more like the straight jacked gang than champions. So, so far Cordelia is visionless, her boyfriend’s dead, Angel is human, and Fred is still mentally connected to Bluesy in the Sky with Diamonds. Gunn?”
“I’m aight, as far as I can tell,” answered Gunn. “Although I’m still tryin’ ta figure out the legal precedent for killing yourself and being guilty of homicide and not suicide.”
“…Right. Because Wolfram & Hart scrambled your street marbles with some legal ones.”
“Somethin’ like that. …Yeah.” Gunn realized that he and Fred still hadn’t had ‘the talk.’ The one where he talked about how he let the sarcophagus through customs.
“Then, here’s what I have to say,” started Faith. The gang all turned to look at her.
“You’re all sittin’ this out.” =============================================================================================
Continued in Part 2 (coming soon)
