Title: Manifest Darkness
Episode 01
Authors: Sovereign and Elizafan568
Rating: R - things get dark fast.
Notes: This story starts half way through season five of Angel in the episode "Damage". It goes AU from there with some cannon parts to it.
Summary: Factions for good struggle with each others existence while something darker this way comes.
Feedback: Sovereign - xsovereignx@yahoo.com and
Elizafan - elizfaith568@yahoo.com
Andrew stood, as confident as ever, with his parade of new Slayers behind him. He had this planned from the start, and the fact that everything was going as he planned made the smug look on his face even bolder. Dana was coming with them, and there was nothing Angel could do about it. "Sorry big guy, but she's ours. Buffy's orders. So, unless you want to reenact Attack of the Clones, I suggest you hand her over."
"What the hell is this?" Angel asked, more than amply picking up the vibes from the girls behind him. Slayers by the handful were backing Andrews play, but were they backing Buffy's orders or not? "Andrew, get the hell out of my way or I swear I'll beat your face to a pulp and let Buffy know what you tried to pull here."
"I wouldn't try that, Angel." Andrew said as his Slayer pals stepped forward, taking stance, seemingly ready to pounce at his order. Andrew was almost giddy with the knowledge that he had this much power at his finger tips, but he played it cool. That's what all the great kick ass anime characters would do. "You can call her yourself after we leave if you don't believe me." Andrew was completely full of himself.
"You little jackass." Angel menaced. He wanted to tear more limbs off him than a Star Wars movie, but knew he wouldn't get anywhere near the little punk. Angel stood his ground, but made no move or gesture that made himself offensive in any way.
Seeing that Angel was realizing he didn't have much a choice, Andrew's confidence shot up again as he motioned for the Slayers to take Dana. "It's better this way big guy, trust me. Just step aside and we'll be on our happy way." Andrew said as the look on his face barely hid how much he was really enjoying being able to stare Angel down. The look soon changed, however, as he noticed someone walking up behind Angel's group. The last person that he expected to see...Faith.
"No happy here clown." Faith spoke, shocking the already shocked Angel and company even more. She was wearing her classical heavy make up and dark leather clothing. She hadn't wore it that way in a long time, but she wore it now. Gently she let the gym bag at her side swing to and fro. With a slight nod hello to the group, she looked at Andrew and the Slayers. "What the hell are you bunch trying to do here?"
Andrew's perfected "bad-ass" persona crumbled in an instant now that he was facing the once rogue slayer known as Faith. He remembered the huge argument that had occurred between Faith and Buffy before he had been sent. With the look he saw on Faith's face now...it brought Andrew back to reality.
"Faith...buddy...friend. What are you doing here? We've got this under control. No need for you step in...or get violent...or anything..else." Andrew stammered, his composure gone even with his slayer backing.
Faith glared at him for a moment, the turned to Angel. "Angel. What up? How'd this happen?"
"We saved the girl, Dana. She's got some problems but we thought maybe we could help her out. Out of no where the cast of friends here with Gilligan at the head start throwing threats." Angel grimaced in frustration.
Faith turned calmly, gym bag still in hand. "Is that right Andrew? Did you make threats?" she looked over the girls behind him, measuring and calculating before turning back. "hmmmm?"
Andrew went into complete whiny nerd mode. "First off, I resent the Gilligan line. I think of my self more of the Skipper. Secondly...threat!? We didn't make any threats, right girls?" Andrew stammered out as he looked back at the Slayers on his side, looking for a little back up and getting none. "See...everything's peachy Faith. We're just following Buffy's orders, is all? So just calm down and let us get this done and get out of here, without any limb loss would be nice." Andrew put on his best cheery smile, trying to ease Faith and failing miserably.
"Go then, but you leave Dana here with Angel and his people." Faith replied. "Angel doesn't want to fight Slayers, he likes them., A lot actually, I mean.. well.. it goes beyond disturbing but.."
"Faith.. please stop helping.." Angel injected, feeling that if he could he would have blushed.
"Right." Faith nodded, getting back on track. "Angel is one of the best people I know. So yeah, you can go Andrew, right now and without Dana."
Andrew knew he would get it bad from Buffy if he left without Dana, but he was way more scared of Faith right now than he had ever been of Buffy. "Well, umm, I see this isn't going to get us anywhere, so I think we'll just go for now, get Buffy in on this, and see how things go from there, ok? No need to do anything viol..." Before Andrew could finish, one of his Slayer troupe charged Faith, overzealous to say the least. Andrew hit the dirt as he prepared for the bodies to start flying.
"Stupid." Faith muttered before slipping around the charge and flattening the girl with a single punch to the head. The unconscious girl hit the ground like a brain shot rabbit and all hell broke loose after that. The Slayers charged at the group of W&H personnel, Angel and his team, and Faith.
Faith immediately dropped to the ground on one knee and started unzipping the gym bag. She had only wanted to chase the little lap dog away, not start World War Three. As she relieved the bag of it's contents, she felt a presence bearing down on her. She rolled to the left, hearing the sound of a sword or knife striking the concrete. She rolled forward, coming up into a stance as she swung her weapon and stopped the Slayers Scythe an inch from the girl's head. She was not a stranger however, it was the Chinese girl who had fought at her side in the battle with the first. Had things gotten so screwed up that not only was this girl fighting against her now, but that she could not remember the brave oriental Girl's name anymore?
"STOP IT!!!! NOW!!!!" she screamed as she held the scythe against a throat it should have never been aimed at. She regretted it instantly, but life had dealt this hand to her and now she would have to play it.
The slayers all stopped in their tracks, staring at the site of Faith with her scythe pointed at their fellow Slayer. Andrew, regaining some backbone, jumped up, taking advantage. "Everyone, stop now! That's an order!" he yelled, with more authority than he thought he had.
"I did not want this to happen. You pushed it. I will tell you all right now. This is over. Dana is staying with Angel. I trust Angel and you should too. I won't ask you to though. I will tell you this. I have killed before, I don't ever want to do it again..." she pulled the Scythe away from the girl, who quickly moved away. "But if any creature on this earth.. ANY.. come near Angel or any of his people again, your going home in a body bag.. get it?"
Andrew's face wore a coat of sweat as he motioned for his Slayers to fall back. "Fair enough Faith, fair enough. If you wanna go all Majin on us now then that's your choice. We're leaving now, Dana's yours. I am going to tell Buffy all about this." Andrew said with a bit more composure than earlier, he was impressed with himself but still scared as hell. He started to back away as the Slayer troupe began its retreat.
Faith smiled. "Come here Andrew." she motioned with her index finger. "Before you go telling' any super saiyan lies to Buffy." Faith mused at the fact she had learned a little- very little anime chat from the little worm during her time with him.
Andrew was more than a little leery, but he figured it would anger Faith less to do what she said than to argue with her. "Sure, Faith. No problem." Andrew nervously edged over to Faith. "And don't worry, no evil sayian lies here, only the heart of a pure warrior of good.."
Faith smiled and put her arm around him. "Andrew... Andrew...Andrew." she chanted quietly, then with a quickness snatched his nose between her index and middle finger at the first knuckle and squeezed as she pulled him around the corner of the ambulance waiting to take Dana away. "I'm gonna put you down quicker than Bulma in a Bulma versus Godzilla match if you say anything to B that gets Angel hurt. You understand me?" she sneered, knowing that this conversation would be strange to anyone else, but the nerd boy would get it.
The pain in Andrew's nose was severe, but the fear of what Faith could still do to him was much worse. "I won't say anything that will get anyone hurt, Faith. You can count on that. I can doctor it up, if need be. You want A Bard's Tale, you got it." Andrew blabbed out, telling her whatever he could to keep himself from being broken in half. He could edge out a few details to Buffy ... sure ... what hard could that really do?
Faith lightened up on the little nerd, letting his nose go, and returning to a much gentler expression and manner. "You take good care of yourself Andrew. You can have my Suikoden series in my room, since you liked that game so much and with the game systems. I won't be going back."
Andrew's face lit up. "Really? Great, I still need to go through the third game with Geddo as the...I mean, sure Faith, that works fine for me. I'll give Buffy the news." Andrew smirked as he turned and began walking away. His head too full of getting Faith's games rather than on explaining this to Buffy.
"Oh Andy.. Tell B Angel's still Angel. I'm still me, and I stole the Scythe. Oh.. and to have a nice day." Faith smiled. She left him a ton of other games too. She liked the little freak for some reason, but he didn't get the point of a lot of things unless you hurt him first.
"No problem Faith. See ya around." Andrew said as he turned the corner and was gone. It wasn't until he had walked a couple of blocks before Faith's last goodbye actually hit him. " She stole the Scythe!? Oh boy, I'm really gonna get it bad when I get back. Poke'mon bad." Andrew sulked away, trying to figure the best way to break this to Buffy and keep himself out of the hospital.
"Well that was bracing. What language were you speaking again?" Tiny Fred spoke up interested in knowing what the Hell a Bulma was..where or what was a Suikoden.. and what was with the impressive price of cutlery she had in her hand.
Faith grinned at Fred. "I would love to explain it to you Fred but it takes years to learn and a lot of dead brain cells. As for this thing..."Faith waved the scythe around, somewhat showing off." Let's just say it's the key to an ass whopping. So, Angel, mind if I tag along seeing as how I just burnt the last bridge between Buffy and I?" Faith remarked at Angel as he looked at her, almost dumfounded.
"Always welcome. Rest of the gang is at the shop.. Except Spike. He's having clutching issues right now." Angel giggled to himself, as Fred frowned at him.
Faith's expression changed at the mention of Spike. "Spike...? Spike!? What the hell? I thought he went all towering inferno in the hellmouth? You mean he's alive...and here?" Faith was more than a little shocked. She hadn't had much of a chance to get to know Spike back in Sunnydale, mostly because they were too busy beating each other up. So she wasn't sure if this was good or not.
"Unfortunately. He comes back like a bad siring. Wait. He is a bad siring." Angel grumbled. "I didn't need a soul to be tortured. I made Spike."
"Angel!" Fred scolded, before turning to Faith. "Yes, it's a really complicated story, but, he came out of a necklace, was a ghost for a while, then finally became not-as-bad-as-Angel-keeps-saying Spike."
Faith looked at Fred, then at Angel. "Well, thanks for making it so clear that Spike being here is a good thing...I mean a bad thing...oh, wait, you haven't made with the clear. Never mind, I'll just figure that part out myself. So, where to now big guy?" Faith said as she walked over to Angel and put her arm around his shoulders, tugging stronger than he expected as he nearly lost his balance and was forced down to her level.
"Well, first I get upright again." he pulled back to stand up. "Now we escort Dana back to the care facility where Gunn and Wesley are. After that, we check in on Spike then, we celebrate. Simple enough right?"
Faith looked at Angel and grinned. She was happy to be back around him. He was like the brother she never had, although she'd never tell him that. "Celebrate, huh? You know me, fang boy. I'm always up for a party."
"Fang boy. Always with the fangs." he shot back, a new side to Angel since he had been with the young werewolf Nina. "Let me tell you something, I'm still trying to get the funny taste out of my mouth from when these fangs bit you. It's like clam chowder."
Faith did a double take and put her hand on her chest. "Wow, Angel with a snarky comeback. I have missed a lot, and as far as my "funny taste" goes, at least I don't have a sloping forehead like some cave man. Seriously, Angel. You should look into plastic surgery. I'm sure they could fix that." Faith remarked, enjoying their little banter, putting the potential problems with Buffy in the far back of her mind.
"Forehead comeback.." he smirked. "Faith... Faith.." he stopped causing Fred to crash into his back and nearly fall down. "That's what it was.." he looked at the brunette. "Faith.. years you've been around but I never did figure out.. what the hell is your last name?"
Faith stopped, more than a little caught off guard by the question. No one had ever bothered to ask her that before, not even Buffy or the mayor. "Well, since you asked so nicely, I guess I'll tell you. It's Winters. Faith Winters, and yes, I realize the intense irony of that so don't go there." Faith said as she knew Angel would have.
Angel fell silent. He stared blankly at Faith for a moment, then ever so slowly one corner of his mouth curved up followed by the other, then same a slight giggle, a muffle laugh, an attempt to stop laughing before he became wracked with guffaws of laughter. He fell on his ass, uncaring of the impact, laughing, and finally fell to his side slapping the concrete with the hilarity of it all.
"I don't get it." Fred said watching Angel's unusual antics. "What's so funny?"
Faith looked down at Angel, a slightly aggravated look on her face. "Nothing...Angel's just an ass is all." Faith bent down to Angel to try and stop the laughing and to help him up. "Come on, big guy. Don't we need to be getting Spike somewhere?" Faith asked, trying her best to not join his laughter and just avoid the point entirely.
"Uh huh.." he gasped out. "Winters... oh man." he guffawed some more, but managed to walk along.
Fred walked with. completely lost on the humor. "Faith, how have you been doing since last time we saw you? You look really nice, I mean, with having the fighting and all I mean."
Faith walked next to Fred. "Been good I guess. I'm sure you know by now about the whole Slayer army that's around now and our kicking of the First's ass. Since then, just been kinda helping B out. Looking for Slayers and training them, though B really doesn't like my training habits." Faith said with a smirk, remembering using Andrew wearing a padded suit as a punching bag for the girls, her constant sparring with the newbies, often ending with a lot of them unconscious.
Fred nodded, grasping all of what Faith told her. Fred had heard tell of this new Army of good. However, that brought her up to another question. "Faith, why didn't you help run the Slayer gig. Surely as being as experienced as you are you could have been in a leadership role with Buffy? Two heads better than one?"
Faith took that in. Sure, that could have worked. It should have worked for the best, but..."Well, Fred, let's just say that B and I have a history that could take years to explain and even longer to understand and I really don't wanna go back down that road right now. I'll just say that we see things a little too differently." Faith said, the cold, hard reality of it all sinking in.
"That's too bad..." Fred added, then in a rare mean moment fired off with, "...for her. I mean, if she isn't smart enough to know what a good ally you are, then you can just come and stay with us and be home here. Okay?"
Faith was slightly taken aback at Fred's little outburst. It might have just been the fact of someone so bluntly taking her side as opposed to Buffy's that really shocked her. "Well, I appreciate the invitation and I'll have to take you up on it, at least for now, but I will say that, if you were in B's shoes, you might feel the same way." Faith replied in a somber tone. "Anyways, what's say we get to where we need to be so I can get settled in, get a lay of the land so to speak."
"Right." Fred said, looking over at Angel. He was still smiling, slightly chuckling to himself now. "We'll meet up with Wesley and Gunn. From there get you settled in and somewhere to sleep." Fred rubbed at her eyes. "or you might just crash at my place, since I am too tired tonight."
Faith grinned, "Sounds like a plan to me. It'll be good to see how old' Wes and Gunn are doing. Just hope I don't have to beat Angel senseless before we get there." Faith chuckled to herself, feeling better than she had in awhile.
**
All seemed good at Slayer Central, or it least it would if not for Buffy's burst of rage that had the whole place awake. Andrew cowered in the corner as Buffy tossed a few tables and chairs around the room, spouting out every nerd insult imaginable at Andrew as Xander and Giles did their best to calm her.
"Buffy please try to..." He dived quickly to avoid being brained by a lamp table.
"No. I won't try to nothing!" She screamed as she helped another table in the conference room become airborne. She turned fire filled eyes upon the shaking frame of Andrew. "How does someone get retarded enough to screw up twice at the same time!? All you had to do was pick up one sick girl Andrew. One. You had twenty Slayers with you with weapons, and did I mention? Oh yeah! ONE girl! Damn it! Damn it! You worthless little worm! What the hell were you thinking letting Angel get Dana?"
Andrew barely gained the confidence to speak as peaked out from under his desk. "Well, you see, the thing is, Faith has the way of making things seem okay. I mean, it is Angel after all, your ex. I wouldn't see him doing anything bad with her. I mean, its not like he'd put her in some secret training and use her as the ultimate assassin who he sends on many assignments, slowly building up to her true purpose of killing you. Not like he'd do that?" Andrew said, not realizing that he had just added to the nasty ideas floating in Buffy's head.
A lamp shattered on the table top above his head. "Dammit! I have had it with restraint when dealing with Faith!" she kicked a chair and the plastic exploded as it hit the roof. "I'm going to get rid of her once and for all, then I'm going to have a talk with Angel." she walked back and opened up a iron closet that had been triple locked. She perused the contents, then yelled angrily. "Where the Hell is the Scythe!?"
Andrew shook uncontrollably as Buffy's statement reminded him of the other half of the bad news. "Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Faith kinda...sort of...borrowed the Scythe for a while...didn't really say for how long." Andrew blabbered out, knowing he was gonna get it now.
Giles dove for the cover of another locker as Buffy turned around with a cold, dark look in her eye. Luckily for Giles, Buffy was looking straight at Andrew. "Borrowed huh? You didn't happen to maybe see if she would give it back? Maybe use the twenty Slayers to maybe take the Scythe from the one?" her voice was cold, but filled with a seething anger.
"Funny thing about that. It didn't really cross my mind. Maybe she used the Jedi mind trick on me or something. That would make sense. Yeah, that's what happened. So, no fault on me." Andrew said, hoping that he had found an outlet.
"How bout I use a Slayer fist trick on your face you..." Xander hopped out of the closet he'd been hiding in, stopping Buffy from beating Andrew into a variation of tomato paste.
"Buffy. As much of a screw up as he is, Andrew didn't let Faith take the Scythe from here now did he?" Xander slowly moved in front of the Slayer. "Not if he was on the flight to L.A. when Faith took it, meaning..."
Buffy huffed out a ragged breath. "Meaning someone let her have it." Buffy's anger at Andrew subsided just a bit. "Still, Andrew screwed up with Dana, I mean... who knows what diabolical things .... " she trailed off in frustration.
Giles stepped up, seeing Buffy's anger subside slightly. "Now, now. There is no need to go placing blame on anyone at this time, Buffy. It won't help the situation. All we can do now is sit tight and try to keep tabs on what Angel is doing with Dana and what Faith is doing with the Scythe."
Andrew began his slow crawl out of the room "Well, I can see you guys have a lot to discuss, so I'll just be on my way." He said as he quickly made his way out of the room.
"I don't get it though Giles. I don't see why Faith stole the Scythe." Buffy said, pushing her hair back out of her face. "Okay, we had bout of the century about the Dana thing, but other than that.. I don't get it. I don't get her either."
"Giles put his hand on Buffy's shoulder. "That's always been the two of you's biggest problem. You just don't understand each other. I think it may be best this way...at least for now." Giles said in that fatherly tone he always used.
"Yeah, don't sweat it Buff. Everything will be cool. Let's just try to trust Faith. At least once, see if you like it. You never know" Xander giggled, doing his best to lighten the mood.
"Trust Faith." Buffy muttered. "Sounds like the ad of a really bad televangelist, but I guess I could...try....once...a little... now...I suppose." Xander jumped at the opportunity to smooth things over. "That's the spirit, Buff. Just put your faith in a higher power and things will be alright. Can you feel the power!? I say yes! Can you feel it, Buffy!? Have the faith in Faith." Xander exclaimed, doing his best televangelist impersonation.
Buffy laughed slightly at Xander's antics. "I'll call Angel later, nicely, and see what I can find out. I don't like this or his involvement with an evil law firm.. evil law firm.. That's like repeating yourself isn't it? Evil law firm.."
"I tend to agree with that. For now, let's go and help train and bandage and teach these young women something to help keep them alive shall we?" Giles smiled, more grimaced, then walked toward the main courtyard of the training center.
**
The next morning Willow walked purposefully into the room where Buffy and the gang did their research now. Although they were now in charge of many Slayers, they had not really put much planning into exactly how to go about running the show. Remnants of the watcher council pitched in, and Giles tried to keep things levelly operating. There seemed to a be a mild confusion. Kennedy had the training thing down pat, and with help from others, she was keeping the girls busy when they weren't busy with other duties. However, there were odd occurrences, and now this.
"Hey Buffy." Willow said, looking down at one of the pieces of paper in her hands. "You got a sec?" she looked up seeing who was around. "I need you to see this."
Buffy walked over to Willow and glanced down at the paper she was holding. She hope it wasn't more bad news, but she knew it usually was. And if it wasn't, it would probably lead to some. "What is it, Will? Something interesting?"
"Remember that patrol you wanted sent down to Georgia to check on a report in Columbus about a demon or demon cult supposedly kidnaping humans?" Willow flipped a page to show what the battle plan had been for the event.
"Vaguely, yeah...why? Did we miss something? More reports coming in from there or something?" Buffy asked, a worried expression on her face. How could they have missed something with so many Slayers at their disposal.
Willow made that squishy face she always made when the answer was uglier than Buffy had guessed. "Well, they kinda didn't go .. there.. to Georgia... " Willow shrugged squeamishly. "Said they didn't think it was necessary to get picked up by a hurricane and squashed into a peach tree for a rumor."
"They didn't...WHAT!? Just what I need, first Faith goes AWOL and now the other slayers aren't following orders. What next, you and Xander bail on me? Ugh..." Buffy exclaimed as she gritted her teeth. Things just seemed to have gotten all the more harder since they left Sunnydale. This was something she was going to have to nip in the butt...quickly. "Where are they now?"
"They're sitting in the cafeteria. About thirty of them all told. Eating, joking, training, and just minding their own business. It was..." Willow hesitated. She knew who organized this. The same girl who insisted that they have teachers there to educate them while they fought. Buffy had seen no point in it, but the odd eyed girl had fought, and won, the right to get her girls an education if they were going to die. "...it was Raven who sent you the message about hurricanes and peach trees." Willow sniffled slightly, a nervous tick more then a necessity.
A look of seething anger crossed Buffy's face, but she kept her cool. "Rave, huh? Well...we'll see about that. I want to see her now, in private, and then I want to talk to the girls. This has to be sorted out, now. Raven's getting a bit too confident in her power with the other girls." Buffy remarked, the rage bubbling just beneath the surface of her calm exterior.
"Alright. Alright. Just be mellow." Willow bit her tongue, as 'be mellow' was one of Raven Raines' sayings. "I'll just go get her. Here. Read this. Might cheer you up a little." Willow handed her a piece of paper, the scooted it on out of there.
It read: Buffy. "See you got your own Army now. Glad to know you are doing well. If you ever need any back up from us, you have our full support. Signed Major Finn, Riley J Commanding Officer Initiative Project."
"What does it say Buffy?" Giles asked, having been very quiet during Willows report for his as well as other sake.
Buffy smiled at the memory of her ex-boyfriend and the fact that he was still in the game."It's a note from Riley. Seems he's been doing well for himself and he's ready to back us up if we need it." Buffy replied as she sat down.
"Yes, well, that's Riley. Always the soldier." Giles said, trying his best to jump at the opportunity to talk about something other than their current problems.
It was about five minutes later that a girl came into the room. She held a coke in her left hand. She had a cigarette in her right, but quickly put it out before coming any closer. She had naturally dark auburn hair, and a soft complexion. She stood a tad over Buffy's five foot four. She wore jeans which looked as though something really nasty had attacked them with all the shredded holes. High tops dark work boots, with light blue paint spattered on them. A green shirt with Gumby on it and the words 'Party Attack' stenciled above the little character finished the wardrobe. "Willow said you wanted to see me?" she asked in a polite, questioning voice.
Buffy couldn't help but be reminded of Faith when looking at Raven. That thought alone bothered her to no end. "Yes. I heard that you and your slayer troupe disobeyed my orders and didn't investigate the goings on in Georgia. Wanna tell me why you think you have the authority to overrule one of my orders?" Buffy asked as she did her best to stare the young slayer down.
"Oh." Raven smiled slightly then put her soda down. she then wiped her hands on her pants a couple of times, then walked up to meet the blonde. Raven was awed by Buffy. She truly was. There was just this one problem she had with Buffy. She didn't agree with her on a lot of things. "I was meaning to get around to that."
Raven looked into Buffy's eyes, something quite a few Slayers would not do even now, and met them with her own. Here was Raven's only really outstanding attribute physically. She had 'odd eye'. Her left eye was a clear sky blue, her right a shiny emerald green. It cause a bit of disorientation the first time anyone looked at her. "Anyway. Listen, the only thing taking anyone to anywhere down in Columbus is the gas stations taking the customers to the cleaners on the gas prices. There's nothing down there, and if there was, it could not be there any more, because all the action done stopped."
Buffy crossed her arms against her chest. She had to admire Raven's backbone, but this was neither the time nor the place for it. "So, you think just cause things have quieted down, that everything is okay. Well, I know from experience that it more than likely means whatever was doing it is about to go to the next level and make things worse. Besides, that's not really what's at question here. I gave you an order and you blatantly dismissed it. Not only that, but you have swayed a large number of the girls into your favor and gotten them to follow you in this behavior. I can't let this go, Raven. We have to have order here...a chain of command." Buffy said as she walked around the desk separating them and stood mere inches from Raven. "Anything else you'd like to say?"
Raven nodded. "I have only one question. It's the question all of 'my', as you put it, girls have been asking. If we must have a chain of command here as you suggest, why does it have to be 'you' at the top?" Raven furled her eye browns in concentration. "I mean, who do you answer to?"
Buffy was taken aback at that question. The same one she had been asked back in Sunnydale before the fight with the First. "Because...I've been a Slayer the longest. I have the most experience and everyone's best interests in mind. I've always been in charge and there isn't any reason for that to change now. Besides, no one else is jumping at the job." Buffy answered. Hating the way it sounded but having to say it nonetheless.
"Faith said the same thing." Raven's voice, her body language reeked of utter disappointment. She hung her head slightly as she just seemed flattened. Odd, but everyone knew Raven saw things differently than most, and it was part of the reason so many followed her. She turned to go, walking the short distance to her soda, looking sadly like a kid who had just missed her favorite cartoon. "I'm sorry I wasted our time boss. I'll get on the next plane out to Peachland tomorrow. Get you a report ASAP."
"You do that, and if this happens again, I am going to have to reprimand you in some way. Just be aware of that." Buffy said as she watched Raven leave the room. As her anger subsided, Buffy thought about what Raven had said, that Faith had given the same answer. She was still angry with Faith but she couldn't help but feel for her a bit too. *Never stop surprising me, do you Faith?* Buffy thought.
"Well, I must say, you handled that very well Buffy. I'm proud of you." Giles said, giving that fatherly look as he always did.
Willow was not so much impressed. She had been in Raven's shoes once, being told by Buffy what she had to and could not do. Willow also remembered the crash she had taken into magic despite Buffy's efforts. Now Raven Raines, the odd but pleasant girl was leading a rather large group of Slayers within the Army, and she had just given up on her ideas and let Buffy have her way. Willow knew Raven was a deep thinker, and for her to give up this easy would be like the fox leaving the hen house just because you said please. However, not wanting to challenge her friend's decision, she kept her own council.
Buffy sat down at her desk, ready to start getting things in order. "Now that we've taken care of that problem, what's next? Anything big and evil brewing that needs our attention?"
**
Raven looked around at the faces as she played back the recording for the Slayers who were unsure as to where they stood in everything, as well as the ones she knew liked her ideologies. Raven clicked it as the session ended, then looked up. "I really like Buffy, I want you all to know that I have personally fought side by side with her. I look up to her and I respect her. This is not about hurting Buffy or trying to overthrow Buffy." Raven still had a bit of hurt in her voice that Buffy would not listen to her. "But we just can't go on praying that one woman, no matter how legendary, can always be right. I mean, she needs to have more of a restraint on what she does with our lives, don't you think?" she asked in general.
"I agree. Buffy's just shut out any other way of doing things other than hers." said Jill, another young slayer who had basically become Raven's right hand. They had become fast friends after meeting at Slayer Central and Jill hung on Raven' every word and ideal. If Raven ever need anything, Jill as there...always at her side.
"Look. We can't go on like this, but Buffy is still a force for good right? We can still agree on that right?" Raven asked looking around the group. "So how do we go about this? Any ideas or suggestions that could help?" She looked around. Another reason why Raven had gained in popularity was her ability to reach out and listen to her people. Someone once said something about the hearts and minds of the people, and while Buffy held their loyalty, Raven held the heart and minds of many Slayers.
"Maybe we could go on strike or something? Until Buffy's decides to consider our view on things." One slayer spoke up.
"We could always leave. Form our own little slayer troupe, open to new ideals and things. Show Buffy through actions instead of with words." said another.
Raven looked at the two girls. The first to speak was named Rachael the second was a very young girl, named Samara. "Rachael, Samara, those are both perfect ideas. Here's the plan. It's very simple, get everyone who agrees with us on the planes to Georgia, we can leave Buffy and everyone else here in Cleveland, and until she wants to hear us, we become our own little Slayer force down in Columbus. Whaddya say?"
All the girls nodded their heads in agreement. They were with her. They'd open Buffy's eyes, no matter what it took. "We're all with you, Raven. You lead and we'll follow." Jill said, voicing the thoughts of the group.
"I hate this." Raven replied, wiping a tear from her eye. "Till the day I die, I will always hate that it came to this." Raven stood straight and cleared her throat. "You all know what to do. The planes will leave at five tomorrow morning. Get a good nights rest. It may be a while before it comes again." She watched as the girls dispersed to their rooms. *Why couldn't you just listen to us Buffy. Why?* she screamed mentally all the while keeping a stoic expression. she wondered how many would come, how many would stay, and most of all, what would happen to them all come independence day.
T B C. . .
