TITLE: Season 2, Episode 6(Ep. 17 Overall)-Nothing is as it Seems
SERIES: Faith, Rogue Slayer
AUTHOR: elizafan568
EMAIL: elizfaith568@yahoo.com
FEEDBACK: Yes, please.
ARCHIVE/DISTRIBUTION: This site. If you want to post on your site, just ask.
SUMMARY:
SPOILERS: Buffy season 7 and Angel season 5
CONTENT/WARNINGS: Violence
RATING: R
DISCLAIMER: All character are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. I do not own them. Written for fun not profit.
NOTE: Set post-"Not Fade Away".
Season2, Episode 6(Episode 17 Overall): Nothing is as it Seems
Scorn walked the dark, back alleys of Los Angeles once again, just like she had every night since Faith saved her from certain death at the hands of the unbelievably strong demon. A definitive split had occurred between her two personas. It had started with the murder of the little girl and had been solidified by Faith's words and actions. Now the two fought for dominance almost non-stop as the darkness of Scorn tried to regain its sway over Stacey, the true personality of the body.
*Why are you hesitating? Why are you doing this? You're letting that evil bitch win. Is that what you want? Have you forgotten your dear Uncle? How she killed him in cold blood and stole your life. You have to remain a monster to slay the monster. It is our purpose.* Scorn voice bellowed in Stacey's head, nearly inhuman.
"Because…." Stacey shout into the blackness of the alley, her anger at Scorn and at herself rising to unbelievable heights, "It's not right. The monster who took my Uncle doesn't exist anymore. She's a different person now. She's trying to make amends and has devoted her life to helping people. It doesn't change what she did or make up for it, but it does make my vengeance….unnecessary." Stacey said, slamming her fist into a nearby wall, drawing blood from her fingers.
*Unnecessary….UNNECESSARY!?!?!? How can you say that? Nothing could ever make it unnecessary! A monster like her could never change…and even if she did, it doesn't change what she has done and the punishment that she deserves. We are no longer Scorn nor Stacey. We are the instrument of her destruction and our righteous vengeance. Only then, can our miserable existence come to an end.* Scorn's aura echoing through Stacey's being, causing her to drop to her knees, fighting to keep control of her mind and body.
"You're right. It doesn't make up for what she did, but that's not the point. She's trying, and there's a lot of good she has done in the world and can still do. To rob the world of that for simple vengeance, would be just as much of a sin as the crimes she has committed in the past. Her judgment will come in time, as will mine. For now, we have to leave her be. The subject of my hatred no longer exists. My purpose is non-existent, and the monster I've turned into….the corruption and control I've allowed you to have is over. Leave me alone. Just leave." Stacey said, her voice almost dropping to a whisper as her strength began to wean. Her lust for vengeance gone.
*She still exists and you can still have what you seek. You are a single-minded monster with but one purpose: the death of the evil bitch known as Faith. Let this pass you by now, and you will never achieve it again. You'll regret it forever.* Scorn voice boomed one last time before once again retreating into the recesses of Stacey's mind.
Stacey slid down the alley wall, wrapping her arms around her legs in a near fetal position, tears streaming down her face, as emotions once thought lost, resurfaced at last. "She saved me….she's not bad, not anymore….but I am. I'm the monster that she once was…..I am the thing I hated….everything I've done, is wrong….I deserve death just as much as she does. I have no right to vengeance, not anymore….and she no longer warrants it, not now."
"Well, what a sight this is? Pathetic, really?" A deep, searing voice spoke from the darkness of one of the corners of the alley. Stacey's head shot in the direction of the voice as she picked herself up off the ground, drying her tears and regaining her composure.
"Who's there?" she exclaimed, taking stance.
From the darkness, the ancient vampire Kain stepped out, his stance and demeanor indifferent as always. He took a few steps forward, leaving enough room between them for Stacey to remain calm enough to not attack, but close enough for her to tell that he was a vampire of great age. "A vampire, huh? Well, you, I'm sure I can kill. No moral worries there." Stacey spat as she drew a stake from underneath her leather jacket and slide a step forward.
"I'd think twice about that, my dear. I didn't come here to fight. If you choose to initiate one, however, I will gladly oblige." he said with a sneer, curling his lip to reveal more of his already present fangs.
"Not here to fight!? Then what the hell do you want, cause right now, all I can see is dust in your future." Stacey shot back, Kain's utter arrogance enraging her, along with his interruption at a moment of enlightenment on her part.
Kain laughed at her lust for violence and his death. "You are an interesting one, aren't you? You may be regaining control of your darker half, but that lust for destruction is still there and always will be, which is what brings me here. You must stay away from Faith. She is essential to my plans and to the preservation of things." Kain stopped, reading the look of shock on Stacey's face.
"How do you….?"
"Oh, I know all about you…your past…your other half, and your thirst for Faith's blood. If you value your existence, and the existence of the world as you know it, stay away." Kain said, a dark glimmer in his eyes.
"You don't need to worry about that…" Stacey said, "I've already decided to let her be. I have my dark side under control. Anyways, its none of your concern. All you need to worry about is how badly I'm going to kick your ass." Stacey exclaimed as she charged Kain, driving the stake towards his heart.
*Reckless* Kain thought as he easily dodged to the side. Stacey changed direction mid-thrust, and again plunged toward Kain's dark heart. "Go to hell." she said through gritted teeth. Inches from his chest, Kain caught the stake with one hand, then grabbed Stacey's wrist with the other. "Remember, I did warn you." Kain said flatly before squeezing Stacey's wrist with a force she didn't know, causing the stake to drop to the ground and herself to yelp in pain. Bringing her foot up to Kain's chest in one quick motion, she pushed away from him, making some distance. "You'll pay for that, bastard." she said as she charged him yet again, this time with a series of punches and kicks that Kain blocked with relative ease. Catching her right leg, he raked his claws along it, tearing through her jeans and drawing blood in four, long gashes. Stacey yelped again and hit Kain in the face with a right cross, causing him to stumble back wards and release her leg.
Taking advantage, Stacey leapt forward, kicking Kain in the chest with both feet, dropping him to the ground, flat on his back. Recovering the stake, Stacey straddled his chest and prepared to drive it home, when he grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, taking her breathe away and causing her to drop the stake once more.
Kain got to his feet, with Stacey's throat still in his hands, dangling her off the ground. "You are a wild card. You may indeed prove useful, but not at this juncture. I won't kill you, but I think its necessary to put you out of action for awhile." Kain said, an evil grin crossing his face. He grabbed her left shoulder with his free hand and twisted it, hearing a loud pop at the dislocation of it. Stacey screamed in pain.
"Silence, child. It'll be over soon enough." Kain whispered into her ear as he raked his claws across Stacey's toned stomach, ripping her shirt and drawing yet more blood. Kain licked the blood from his nails, savoring the taste. "It's true what they say, Slayer's blood is the sweetest." he said as she slammed her into the wall, punching her in the gut as he did so. An horrific assault of punches and slashes from claws followed until Stacey slumped down to the ground, a beaten and bloody mess with deep gashes everywhere.
Stacey couldn't move…could barely think or see as Kain bent down, bringing his face to hers. "I'll make a little call…make sure you get put into a hospital. It should hold you for awhile, but first…." Kain bared his fangs and leaned into Stacey's neck, "..a little taste won't hurt." With that, he sank his fangs into Stacey's neck, savoring the taste of her life's blood in his mouth and throat. He took enough to leave her in a state of near consciousness, but not enough to illicit a turning.
"Now, rest child. Your part in this play is far from over." With that, he seemed to disappear into a mist.
*You see…You see what your weakness and reluctance gets you. Utter humiliation at the hands of a vampire. Your pathetic and nothing without me. You can't control me…cannot suppress me…you need me. You need the monster you are to survive, and to achieve true vengeance. It is the only way." Scorn's voice returned, stronger and darker than ever as Stacey fainted, the sounds of an ambulance filling her head as darkness came.
***********************
The past several days had been unbelievably quiet at the Hyperion Hotel. Gwen was in and out at all hours with her new boyfriend Josh. Faith spent most of her time either working or patrolling. The few time she did stay home, she seemed distant. Lost in deep thought. Connor had tried to get her to open up but all she would say is she was thinking, about the things that ancient vampire Kain had said…and about Scorn, and what her next move would be. Connor wanted to help Faith deal with these issues, but she was so accustomed to figuring things out on her own, that she ignored him for the most part. Connor, however, did not relent, and at the very least was going to make sure she knew he was there, whenever she needed him, but it was becoming all the more difficult and Connor's resolve began to wavier as he was slowly being shut out. Andrew , Willow, and Lorne had been becoming pretty close with each other, even managing to get Willow to leave the hotel on more than one occasion. She was slowly beginning to open up, much to everyone's relief. As the trio prepared to head out once again this night, Connor sat alone behind the reception desk, lost in his own thoughts.
"Connor, you sure you don't wanna come with? We're hitting one of the newest and hottest clubs in town. Should be a lot of fun." Lorne asked as he put on his coat and hat. "No, its cool. Don't see how you guys can relax at a time like this anyways. I mean, with all that's going on, do you really think this is a time to be going out clubbing?" he asked pointedly. Lorne sighed as he put on his dark sunglasses before responding. "We're doing all we can to get more information, but we can't work ourselves to death either. Beside, we might meet a few contacts at the club and something could come from that."
"Whatever." Connor simply replied, sulking back in his chair.
Willow noticed his despondency and walked over to him, motioning for the others to wait outside. "Connor, I know your worried about Faith and where you stand with her, but you shouldn't. If its one thing I know about her, its that she's very loyal and would never forget you or turn her back on you. She just has a lot on her right now is all and you sitting there sulking all the time isn't going to help manners. If she won't open up to you then you have to figure something out another way. Don't give up, you two belong together." Willow smiled, putting her hand on Connor's shoulder who pretended not to listen but hung on every word.
"Just think about it." she said, turning and walking away, out the door to join Andrew and Lorne. Connor sat in the quiet for a moment, replying Willow's words in his head and thinking of Faith. Thinking of a way to make things better for her, for them. Lost in thought, Connor laid his head down on the desk, closing his eyes and thinking of he and Faith. Slowly, he drifted to sleep, unable to fight it any longer. Even unconscious, however, Faith was all he could think about. Perhaps in these restless dreams, an answer would come to him.
**********************
Faith was having one hell of a night. As if all the recent troubles weren't bad enough,, it seemed as if every drunken, horny guy had stumbled into her bar tonight. Each on intent on getting into her pants and each one ending the night in the alley out back, courtesy of the dark Slayer. *If one more guy tries to grab me, I swear to god…* Faith thought as she made her way back to the bar. As she bent down to take out a case of liquor from underneath the counter, another male voice came calling. "Hey babe, you got some fries to go with that shake." the man said.
Faith immediately dropped the box back down and brought her face up to deal with this newest annoyance. "That's gotta be the lamest line I've heard all…..night…" Faith trailed off when she found a very familiar face looking back at her.
"What's the matter, Faith? Don't tell me you forgot about me already." Robin Wood said from the other side of the bar, a sly grin on his face as he looked Faith up and down. "You look good, by the way. This job suits you pretty well, huh?"
Faith just stared blankly at him for what seemed like an eternity. When words finally came, they were not the words of someone greeting an old friend, much less an ex-lover. "Wood….What the hell are you doing here? How'd you know were I was." she snapped at him, a mix of uncertain emotions circling around inside her.
"Now, is that any way to great an old friend. Or should I say, someone who was much more than that at one point?" Wood replied, feigning offense and surprise. Faith simply stared back at him, her gaze boring a hole straight through him.
"Okay, okay. I can see your not in the mood. Buffy filled me in so I took it upon myself to come see how you were doing and help you deal with Stacey." Wood said, resting his arms on the bar and leaning in closer to Faith. "Plus, I really have been missing you. I tried to throw myself into work and forget about you…about us, but its just not working. Figured this might me a chance for us to…"
"..work it out!? Is that what you were going to say? You figured, let some time pass, wait until I need some help, then swoop in, lend a hand, and patch things up. That I'd forget about how things went down and how you totally sided against me? Wouldn't even listen to my side of things." Faith spat back in a tone that was full of both anger and hurt, just like old wounds being reopened.
Wood sighed long and hard before replying. "No. I know it could never be that simple, especially with you. I just wanted to make sure for my self that you were okay and lend a hand while I was here if I could. Yes, I still love you and want you back, but I'm not going to force the issue." "Good, cause it's never gonna happen. I'm with someone else now. Someone that I trust completely and he does me. He's someone I feel for connected to that any other person in my life, save Angel. So don't think your going to come here and try to mess things up between him and me or so help me." Faith ranted out once again, an anger in her that was really only hiding the true hurt that she felt concerning Wood. He had been the first man she had opened up to and had an actual relationship with. There had been Angel before, but this was something totally different and when Wood had seemed willing to throw it all away just because of Angel, Faith's one person that she considered family in life, she just could not forgive it and could not stay with him because of such.
"Faith, I'm sorry, for its worth, I am. If I had known exactly how strongly you felt back then and how much trouble it was going to cause, I never would have sided with Buffy and against you . I didn't listen and believed you were just being blindly loyal to someone who didn't warrant it. I truly am sorry." Wood said, a look of sincerity on his face and in his eyes.
"It's okay, Robin. It's in the past so let's just leave it there, alright?" Faith replied, just wanting the subject to die so she could forget about and get back to dealing with current situations and current loves. Faith thought of Connor and how badly she had been treating him as of late. *I need to fix that. Do something about that. He's been so good to me and he doesn't deserve that. Damn me and my social retarded ness and self-involvedness.* Faith thought, silently thanking Robin for unconsciously helping her put some things into perspective.
"You okay?" Robin asked, puzzled by the look on her face and seemingly deep thoughts she was having.
"Ya, I'm fine. So, I get off in five, wanna come patrolling with me?" she asked with a grin. "Wouldn't miss it for anything." Wood replied with an equal grin.
************************
Ten minutes later, Faith and Robin Wood were in the alley behind Faith's place of employment, trying to decide the best avenue of patrol for this night Faith quickly took charge and started heading for her hog parked at the end of the alley.
"Come on, you can ride shot gun on my bike. I figure we'll head down town and do some patrolling there. Took out a whole nest down there last week." Faith said as she neared her bike. Suddenly, Wood grabbed Faith from behind, one arm around her waist and one over her mouth. A brief state of shock followed that Faith quickly shook of and began to struggle free. Try as she might, however, Faith couldn't budge. Robin seemed to posses an incredible strength. Certainly one beyond that of any normal human. Even beyond that of her own Slayer strength.
Faith managed to free her mouth and spit out, "What the hell are you doing, Robin!? How'd you get so damn strong!? What the hell is going on!?"
Wood used his free hand to pull out a syringe from his pocket, out of view of Faith. "Nothing, my dear. Your just going to take a nice nap. And when you wake up, it's going to be play time." he laughed as he jabbed the needle into Faith's neck and forced its contents into her body. Almost instantly, Faith felt its effects. The strength left her body and she became very light-headed. Her vision blurred and she lost her balance, falling to the ground as Wood released his grip.
As darkness overcame her, Faith mumbled out, "Who…..are…..you?" and then the darkness was everywhere. ******************** Hours later, Faith began to come to. Her vision was still blurry and she felt incredibly weak. Shaking her head to help clear it a bit, she found herself in some sort of warehouse. She was chained to a steel pillar so tightly that she could almost not breathe. Faith struggled against the chain but it was no use, they weren't budging. Even if she was at full strength, she didn't think she could break them.
Faith looked around, trying to make out her surrounds but the place was very poorly lit. All she could see was a table about ten feet away with various nasty looking instruments sitting atop it. Vials of who knows what, syringes, various sharp objects, and devices she didn't care to guess as the purpose they entailed.
A figure stepped out of the shadows and into Faith's view. It was that of Robin Wood. "So, it seems you're at last awake. Now the fun can begin." he said, an evil grin on his face. "Who the fuck are you!? You're not Robin, I know that much. What the hell do you want!?" Faith exclaimed, her voice sounding much weaker than she wanted.
"Well, my dear. I am…." Wood began, as his body was enveloped on a blinding light, causing Faith to do her best to look away. A few second later it ended, and where Robin Wood once stood, stood someone Faith did not recognize. Some one who was defiantly a demon, and someone Faith just knew had to be a member of the Dark Assembly.
"My name is Basken, the Illusionist. Proud member of the Dark Assembly, at your service." he replied, giving a mock bow as Faith grimaced, tugging at her bonds once again. His skin was a sickly orange, covered with disgusting growths. His teeth were like daggers and his eyes glowed an eerie yellow.
"So, you're one of them. You guys need me dead, right? So why don't you just kill me and get it over with them." Faith spat, looking at the demon with seething hatred and disgust.
"Now, where would the fun in that be?" he replied with an evil smirk. "There is much more going on here than you realize, my dear. Simply killing you out right here and now who eventually prove unfavorable to me. No, I have something more planned, but before that, I'd like to have some fun. I need you docile, spirit broken, and I just so happen to specialize in that area." he said as he walked over to the table and began fiddling with various instruments on it, seemingly attempting to decide on which to use first.
"I also specialize in all methods of torture, but its really more of a hobby of mine than anything else." he said as he picked up one particularly nasty piece of equipment and been walking towards Faith. "Now, let's start the fun then, shall we?"
Faced with imminent death, Faith had but one thing in her mind. *Connor. I am so sorry. I promised that I'd never leave you. That you'd never lose me and that you'd never get hurt because of me. Looks like now I'm going to be a disappointment and break that promise. I'm sorry, Connor. I love you." she thought, as she knew her life was going to end soon. Very slowly, and very painfully.
To Be Continued…..
