Full Circle
The fifth entry for The Algerina Memorial Summer Fan Creative Writing Contest is....
Full Circle
Author: lostinamerica
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13
Author's notes:Things you need to know from my previous fics before reading this story:
Shortly following “Chosen” those left from the battle settled in an old convent in Rome and based their operations there. A few years later there was a great Slayer mutiny, led by Kennedy. Both she and Xander were killed. Because of this, Buffy and Willow decided to erase everyone’s memory of Dawn, including Dawn’s herself, in order to send her away to a place unknown for her own safety.
Some 10 years after “Chosen” Giles died in bed of an aneurysm.
A year after Giles’ death Buffy is killed by Lurkey.
Also, my fics are written in the context of the TV show only. I haven’t read any of the books or comics.
Full Circle
The hunter caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his gun quickly to the left. A hand lightly grabbed the top of the barrel.
“Hey, let’s make sure this isn’t another hunter first, O.K.?” the guide whispered.
The hunter shook the guide’s hand off. “I paid good money to get me a big buck, and that’s what I’m gonna do!” he hissed. The two stood there for a few minutes, waiting, but there was no more movement. The hunter crept toward the brush, the guide just behind. He used the tip off his gun to push away some branches and swore.
“What the hell. . .”
The guide raised his gun and joined the hunter. He involuntarily lowered it when he saw what was pressing itself against the ground in an effort to hide. It was big, bigger than a deer, but the color was all wrong-he guessed the colors and patterns of its coat were supposed to camouflage the animal, but not in this forest. It didn’t have eyes, but the overly-large nose was working away, like a rabbit’s. The ears, like a bat’s, quivered. He took a step forward to get a closer look but the hunter elbowed him back.
“It’s not a deer, but it’ll do-how much you think I can get for this thing?” He aimed at the animal’s head and shot, but that was the only shot he’d get off-he was immediately tackled by something large and pushed into the guide, which forced both of them to the ground. Neither had time to scream before their heads were bitten off, their blood heavily splattering the dying animal in front of them.
_______________________________
“So, the Weird Sisters finally have an answer, do they?” Faith said as she and Robin hustled down the narrow tunnel. “”Took ‘em long enough-and here I thought they knew what they were doing!”
“A Shakespeare reference. Impressive!”
“Huh? They’re sisters. And they’re fuckin’ weird.”
Robin laughed. “Sorry--what was I thinking?”
“’Specially the youngest one. She freaks me out-what is she, ten?”
“Something like that. It’s the power in her that make her seem older--by about a hundred years! Hey, I think the storeroom is to the right. Is that it?” He reached out to slow Faith’s progress.
“Beats me. Everything looks the same down here. Is that a light?”
She and Robin stopped and squinted in the dark. They looked down the passageway and tried to discern whether the faint light was coming from the flickering torches lining the walls or was in fact something else. As they stood deliberating which way to go they saw the light seemingly zigging and zagging its way toward them. When it reached the pair it stopped, jumped around violently and then turned and went the direction it came.
“I’m guessin’ we go right.”
“Thank the gods for magicks. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the reason we’re in this mess.”
“True dat.” Faith said as she began following the light.
“Oh, I love it when you talk ghetto,” Robin said as he followed.
“Somebody has to. Harlem boy, my ass!”
“Oooh baby, don’ say dat, why you trippin’?”
Faith’s laughter echoed off the dirt walls. She stopped, turned, grabbed Robin by the face and kissed him hard on the mouth. He pulled her toward him and they kissed again, longer this time, then he pulled away. He looked in her eyes.
“I’m going to make an honest woman of you one day, you know.”
“You better hurry up. The world’s ‘bout done.” Faith turned and headed back down the passageway. “Let’s do this before I go crazy livin’ like a rat!”
______________________________
The tunnel widened suddenly. The light was hovering in mid-air next to a small girl wearing a long dress. The gold thread in the thin scarf she had wound loosely around her head caught the torchlight and glittered. Her skin was olive but her eyes a brilliant green instead of brown, betraying foreign blood in her Pashtun background. She motioned for Faith and Robin to sit in two of the chairs facing her. After they were seated she extinguished the floating light with a slight wave of her hand.
“Afsoon,” Robin nodded. Faith did likewise. “Where are Reshawna and Kinah? I thought we were to meet all three of you.”
The young witch shook her head. “Under the circumstances we thought it best I alone handled this.”
“Under the circumstances?” Faith stiffened. “I thought you’d found a way to close the holes in our dimension. Everybody’s happy, right?”
Afsoon shook her head again. “Perhaps not everybody. That is why we must operate in the utmost secrecy.”
“Oh-oh, here we go,” Robin also straightened up in his chair.
“Why does it always have to be so freakin’ difficult to save the world?”
“Not difficult. Complicated.” Afsoon played with a loose, dark strand of hair. She looked off into the gloom behind Robin and Faith. “We found the Key.”
“The what?”
“The Key is the energy needed to repair the holes in our world. It resides in, the best we can tell, a young woman. ”
“Great-where is she?”
Afsoon stopped smiling. “Unfortunately she’s in the United States-but don’t worry, I have the ability to get you there and back.”
Robin leaned forward in his seat, placed both arms on the armrests and intertwined his fingers. “Do you also have the ability necessary to kill Tiggers? The U.S. is full of them.”
“I have something better.” Afsoon turned to the boxes stacked behind her and pulled something wrapped in a piece of fabric off the top. She knelt in front of Robin and Faith, placed the bundle on the ground and pulled the fabric away to reveal a long, metallic-looking tube. “I have an RPG, ET-style.”
“Ooohhh, me likey,” Robin reached down to touch the smooth surface of the tube. “I’ve heard about these-unlimited firepower! But the ETs don’t have hands--how will I use it?”
Afsoon pulled more of the fabric away to reveal a narrow handle pointing downward about a third of the way down the bottom of the tube. Further up the tube was a trigger. “This fell into German hands and they modified it for human use,” she explained.
“Gotta love that German engineering,” Robin said as he took the weapon into his hands and shouldered it.
“I thought the ETs had taken over Germany,” Faith asked.
“No, the Germans and what’s left of the Russians are holding them at the border. The ETs have pushed through China and are almost to the Pacific--which makes your mission all the more pressing.”
“Then your people. . .” Robin began.
Afsoon stood. “My people suffer as do the rest. I’ve packed food and supplies for you, enough for a week. That should be enough time--luckily the Key is hidden in a town not too far from a tear.”
“How are we ‘spposed to get this woman to use her energy to stop up the holes?” Faith asked.
Afsoon took a deep breath. “You throw her in the nearest one.”
Faith stared at Afsoon. Robin looked at Faith and unshouldered the alien RPG. “I guess we know why not everyone is on board with this particular plan.”
“No, no, NO,” Faith stood, gesturing for emphasis. “Been there, done that, not goin’ down that road again! What’d you think, ‘Faith’s killed an innocent before, she can do it again?’ No, thank you!”
“But this woman isn’t human, she only appears to be!” Afsoon paused, choosing her words carefully. “The energy is encased in a human form but the form has no. . .soul.”
“I wonder if anyone bothered to tell her that!”
“You’re sure we have to throw her in?” Robin asked. “Can’t she just send the energy out of her?”
“She is the energy! To release it the vessel that contains it has to be. . .broken.”
Faith and Robin again looked at each other and then down at the floor, thinking.
“She’s really not human?” Faith asked after a few minutes.
“No, not at all.”
“And we can’t get the energy out of her any other way?” Robin added. “A spell? Asking nicely?”
“No. This is the only way.”
“Figures.” Faith looked around the room. “All right, where’s the supplies?”
Afsoon hurried to her left to grab two backpacks slung on top of another stack of boxes and brought them to Faith and Robin. Robin stood, still holding the weapon, and took one of the packs with the other hand. “Yeah, yeah, I’m in. But I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“You an’ me both,” Faith said as she grabbed her pack. “So, where are we goin’, anyway? The U.S. is a big place.”
“California. The town the Key is hiding in, Cambria, is small, so it shouldn’t take you too long to find it.”
“Goin’ back to Cali’,” Robin said. “It shouldn’t take too long to find it, the town, or it, the Key?”
“The Key-I’m sending you to Cambria. Continue to think of the Key as an it, not a she-it will be easier that way.”
“Yeah, we got it!” Faith said. “How far is the tear from the town? Can we walk it?”
“No, it’s several miles, you’ll have to drive. The tear is in. . .Sunnydale.”
Faith looked at Robin, then back at Afsoon. “Of course it is!” she said sarcastically. “Where else would it be?”
“Huh,” Robin said. “Didn’t think I’d be at that big hole in the ground ever again.”
“How will we know which woman it is?”
“I’ve given you some herbs and instructions on how to use them that will help. After the energy has been. . .released, you can use the flare gun charged with magicks to better pinpoint your location and make it easier for me to get you back.”
Afsoon closed her eyes and reopened them, revealing them to be completely black.
“Ready?”
“No, but what difference does that make?” Faith grabbed Robin’s arm and closed her eyes.
______________________________
“Well, that was fun!” Faith tried to unsuccessfully gather all the saliva in her mouth for a good spit. She pulled off her pack, unzipped the main compartment and began to dig through the contents in search of something to drink. Finding a canteen, she tossed the bag to the ground, unscrewed the top and drank a large mouthful. She swished it in her mouth before spitting it out and tried to steady herself.
“Nope, still dizzy. You think Afsoon coulda warned us!”
Robin focused on a stationary spot in the distance in an attempt to stop the feeling of movement. “But that would take all the fun out of it!”
He continued to concentrate a few more minutes. “It’ll be dark soon. That Afsoon, she thinks of everything-Tiggers hunt during the day.”
“As far as we know-I’d feel a lot better if we found some cover!”
“Agreed. You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Faith bent over to pick up the backpack and placed the canteen back inside. She zipped up the pack and put it on. “After you-you’ve got the big gun, after all.”
“Shouldn’t you be carrying it?”
“Naw, I like my odds with this.” She patted the katana sheathed on her hip. “Besides, I’d never try to take a man from his toys.”
“Smart woman. O.K., stay close.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout that!”
Robin shouldered the RPG and the two walked cautiously toward the town backlit by the setting sun.
______________________________
“Wow, this is some good shit,” Faith lazily adjusted her headlamp. “Witches always get the best stuff!”
Robin turned toward Faith, his headlamp on.
“What the hell, my eyes, my eyes!” Faith said as she threw up both hands to cover her face.
“Oops, sorry.” Robin moved the lamp to the side of his head and peered at Faith. “Damn, your pupils are huge! Are you going to be O.K.?”
“Yeah, five-by-freakin’-five! I feel like I’m part of everything!”
“How about we just concentrate at the task at hand--you’re scaring me a little!”
“Right,” Faith slowly scanned the trash-strewn room. “Nope, no Key here.”
“I know, Faith-we’re the only ones here. Wait a minute. . .” he bent over his pack and fished out a length of rope. He looped one end around Faith’s waist, tied it, then pulled out two to three feet of slack. He looped the rest around his waist, tied it, bundled up the excess and tucked it under the rope at his back. “There. I feel a lot better. You take the lead but I’ll be there right behind you, O.K.?”
“Sure. Whatever.”
“Robin zipped up his pack and put it on his back. He recentered the headlamp and bent over to get the RPG.
“All right, let’s go-remember, I’m right here.”
“No problemo.” Faith carefully stepped around the upside-down chairs, over the clothes, plastic bags and books thrown helter-skelter on the floor and made her way to the little home’s front door.
______________________________
“Ooohhh, flowers!” Faith reached for one of the tall blooms growing like weeds in the cracks in the sidewalks and asphalt. The color was dark purple, almost black, and was so shiny it looked almost liquid in the light of the headlamps.
“Don’t touch it!” Robin tugged on the rope, pulling Faith back. “Clearly Tiggers weren’t the only things that came over! It could be poisonous!”
“Don’t be stupid, it’s harmless. Jus’ like those flying things we saw back there, I can feel it!” Faith took a couple steps forward and cupped her hands around the flower. She leaned forward and inhaled deeply. “Awesome, freakin’ awesome,” she said dreamily.
Robin shook his head. “Another thing Afsoon neglected to tell us about. Look, Faith, can you behave yourself for a few minutes longer? We’ll hit this flower shop and then cross the railroad tracks. Anything yet?”
“Nope. . .ooohhh, flowers!” she said, making a beeline for the shop.
Robin sighed and followed. Faith reached the door first and tugged at it, but it was locked.
“Here we go again,” Robin said, and used the end of the RPG to smash the glass. Faith waited patiently as he reached in, felt around for the latch and turned it. He pushed the door open and he and Faith walked in.
He looked around the messy interior. It looked like so many of the buildings they’d already searched, and yet. . .he could see there was a cooler for the flowers in the back. “That’s where I’d want to be with Tiggers around,” he thought to himself.
He walked toward the cooler, pulling Faith behind him.
“Faith, here, let’s try this door.”
Robin carefully pulled the handle up and opened the door. He shouldered the RPG and walked in. At the far end he could just make out a pile of fabric. He crept toward it, reached with his other hand and ripped the fabric away. A skinny, 20-something woman with long, dirty brown hair pulled into a ponytail lay curled in a fetal position. She woke up, startled, then squeezed up against the wall, turning away from the light.
Faith poked her head into the cooler.
“What’s that? Whoa. . .” Faith pushed her way in to get a better look. “How do you do that? First you’re there, then you’re not. Cool!’’
“Please!” The woman’s voice cracked from disuse. “I don’t have much, but here, take it!” She leaned forward, shielding her eyes as she did so.
“Stop!” Robin warned. The woman shrank back against the wall. “Let’s take it nice and slow. Faith, what do you mean, ‘First you’re there, then you’re not?’”
“Faith? Faith Lehane?
Faith was about to answer but Robin’s pull on the rope stopped her. He crouched in front of the woman. “Why do you ask?”
“Faith Lehane is the only Faith I’ve every known! The light, please!”
Robin again pulled the headlamp to the side. The woman unshielded her eyes and studied his face.
“Robin, Robin Wood! Oh my God, it’s you, it’s you, Faith and Robin! Oh, I’ve been waiting so long for someone to come!” She pressed her hands to her mouth and tears began running down her cheeks.
Robin looked up at Faith, mystified. He turned back to the woman.
“Do we know you?”
The woman pulled her hands down and smiled a sad little smile. “You did. I’m Dawn. Buffy’s sister.”
Faith and Robin looked at each other.
“Buffy had a sister?’’ they said together.
______________________________
“You’re looking at me again,” Dawn said in a tired voice.
“Yeah, right, sorry.” Faith resumed looking straight ahead as the SUV sped down Hwy. 101 toward Sunnydale. “It’s jus’ that you look, you know, normal.”
“The monks did a good job, I guess, hiding the Key.”
“And here I thought all they could make was stinky cheese,” Robin said from the back seat.
They were silent for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Buffy dying for you and all.” Faith chanced another glance at Dawn.
“Yeah,” Dawn said, her voice heavy. “I wanted to, but Buffy. . .it was her job to save the world, she said, not mine. But she was wrong-the hole needed my energy to close for good. She should of let me jump. None of this would of happened if I’d jumped.” She looked down and picked at the torn places in her worn jeans.
“She couldn’t have known, that you weren’t interchangeable.” Robin reassured her. “She was trying to save you, to give you a chance at life.”
Dawn brightened a little. “I’m an artist, you know-charcoal and pastels, mostly. I had an exhibit at Fiona Bleu, it was very well received!”
“Nice!” Faith swerved past a burnt-out car in the left lane.
“You know, the object is to arrive in one piece.”
“Thanks for the tip, grandma-maybe if you’d found us a car that handled a little better it wouldn’t bother you so much.”
“Actually, I would have preferred an armored truck, but seeing as we couldn’t find one I think a three-ton Cadillac Escalade will fill in quite nicely.”
“It’s a classic! Robin’s very old school you know.” Faith said to Dawn.
There was another lull in the conversation. The minutes ticked by, the complete darkness outside pressing in on the car’s occupants.
“You could have come to us--when things started to go bad,” Robin said.
“Everything happened so fast! By the time people here figured out what was really going on half of them were already dead! The rest left. I didn’t want to try it on my own-what if I messed up again? The world would be doomed for good this time! I knew if I waited long enough, Buffy would find me, she would. . .spell or no spell.”
“How long have you known what you were?”
“Oh, from the beginning. Buffy and Willow, they wanted to protect me, but the spell. . .it didn’t work on me. The energy. . .it must of kept it from working. But I know they sent me away for a reason, so I stayed. Made a life for myself.”
“Good choice. Things haven’t been. . .easy for us.”
Faith looked at Robin in the rear view mirror. He nodded his head from left to right very slightly to let her know the subject should be dropped.
“Hey, Slayer’s sister here. Goes with the territory.”
“’Nother sign comin’ up. What’s that one say, Dawn?”
“’Sunnydale Crater, 25 miles.’ We’re almost there.”
The conversation died again for several minutes.
“Hey, it’s O.K. . .Don’t feel bad, I know what I have to do. I would of done it the first time but. . .I was scared. I didn’t want to die! But I’m ready now. This time, I’m ready.” Dawn said, smiling bravely up at Faith.
Faith smiled back and again looked at Robin in the rear view mirror, doubt in her eyes. She returned her attention to the road and they continued on.
______________________________
“Welcome to Sunnydale!” Faith slammed the door as she exited.
Dawn and Robin did the same and the three of them met in front of the car. Faith leaned against the hood and hooked the heel of her black boot on the bumper. Robin joined her, but Dawn appeared to be mesmerized by the sight: a bungee-jumping tower at the south end of the crater illuminated by a large, pulsating hole suspended in the air.
Faith read the sign at the top of the tower, “Sunnydale Crater Family Fun Zone!”, and shook her head. She leaned closer to Robin.
“Not much fun here,” she said quietly.
“But there’s go-karts-how can you go wrong with go-karts?”
Faith lightly punched him in the arm and turned to Dawn. “Hey, Dawn, what’s up?”
Dawn had not moved. “This is crazy, I can’t believe it!” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “It’s just like before! It’s like, destiny! ” She started walking toward the tower.
“Dawn, hey, wait!” Faith and Robin left the front of the car and caught up to her. Dawn ignored them and kept walking. Faith shot Robin a questioning look and he shrugged in reply. The three continued to cross the parking lot to the base of the tower. Dawn stopped and bent her head up.
“I have to go up. . .that’s what I did before, go up.” She reached for the farthest rung and began climbing.
Faith and Robin watched. “What do we do now?” Faith asked after Dawn had gone up about 20 feet. “Afsoon said she’s not human, but she’s so real! I know this is how it’s ‘sposed to go but. . .”
A sudden movement out of the corner of her eye caught Faith’s attention. She quickly swung around to the left and just as quickly turned back and pushed Robin to the ladder.
“Climb Robin, climb!” she yelled.
“What, what’s wrong?” Robin looked over Faith’s shoulder and saw three large, multicolored shapes moving toward them from a distance. He immediately began pulling himself up as fast as he could with one hand, the other cradling the RPG.
“Is that them, are those Tiggers? Isn’t it night?”
“They’re big, they’re fast and I’m not waitin’ to see the five rows of teeth!” Faith pulled herself to the other side of the ladder so both she and Robin could climb at the same time. They kept at it, as fast as they could, until they were about as high as Dawn was when they first saw the Tiggers.
“How high can they jump, is this high enough?” Faith asked, gasping for air.
“No intel on that. Just that they’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! You keep going, let me try to get a shot off!”
“Fuck that! I’ll steady you!” Faith grabbed Robin’s waist and wrapped her legs as best she could in the rungs. Robin pulled his torso away from the ladder, awkwardly shouldered the RPG, aimed at the nearest animal and pulled the trigger. The laser-like stream went wide right, scorching the earth black.
“Again, again!” Faith shouted just as the closest one launched itself in the air. Its heavy body thudded against the ladder not five feet below them. As it fell to the ground Robin twisted down and shot again. The Tigger let out a terrible scream, almost human in sound, but the laser had merely wounded it. It threw itself against the base of the ladder, shaking Faith and Robin.
Faith looked up to see what Dawn was doing. She was still climbing, the excitement below not slowing her progress. The second Tigger leapt into the air but couldn’t reach them. The third also tried, but was unsuccessful. Robin fired shot after shot, finally killing one. It appeared the two remaining Tiggers decided their best bet was to throw themselves repeatedly at the base of the tower to dislodge their prey and it was a race to see if they would be able to topple it before being killed by the RPG.
“Hold me, dammit, hold me!”
“I am, you’re moving too much!” Faith squeezed harder and looked up to see that Dawn was at the top of the tower. She watched as the tiny speck fell into the hole. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then the hole slowly started shrinking until it winked out of existence. Robin was busy firing at the one Tigger still alive, so Faith tried to reach back with one hand in an attempt to get the flare gun. Suddenly she could feel the tension in Robin’s body ease. He turned back toward her, let the RPG fall against his body and slumped on the ladder.
“Three down, none to go! Damn fine shooting, if I do say so myself!
“Yeah, yeah, you’re da man! Now reach in and find that flare gun so we can get the fuck out of here!”
Robin pressed the RPG and his body against the ladder with his right arm and reached down behind Faith’s head to unzip her pack. He fished around until he grabbed the flare gun by the handle. He pulled it out, raised it and shot. A bright light exploded out of the barrel, expanding out in concentric rings like the shock waves of a nuclear bomb.
“That ought to do it.”
“C’mon, Afsoon! I don’t get paid enough for this shit!” Faith hugged the ladder and waited to be transported back home.
______________________________
Faith and Robin were still hugging each other when they realized they were no longer hanging onto a ladder but standing on the floor. Faith pulled away, her head swimming, and saw Afsoon looking at her.
“It’s done. The holes are closed.”
“Thank the gods! I’ll go tell the others!” She began to move away.
“Not so fast! You didn’t happen to know, by the way, that Buffy’s sister was the Key?”
“Yeah,” Robin chimed in. “A little something that might have made it more difficult for us to do our job, knowing we were sending Buffy’s sister to her death. Like not telling us about how sick the transportation spell would make us, or that Faith would be out and pretty much defenseless for most of a day after using those herbs!”
Afsoon looked confused. “But Buffy had no sister.”
“Not anymore she doesn’t.” Faith took a few faltering steps toward Afsoon and tried to determine if she was telling the truth. She put her hand to her head. “I don’ know if I can trust you or not, Afsoon. But right now I’m gonna trust you to take us to our room because my head is killin’ me. We can talk more later.”
Robin came up Faith’s side and the two leaned against each other for support. Afsoon turned to lead them down the passage, her face unreadable.
______________________________
Full Circle
Author: lostinamerica
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13
Author's notes:Things you need to know from my previous fics before reading this story:
Shortly following “Chosen” those left from the battle settled in an old convent in Rome and based their operations there. A few years later there was a great Slayer mutiny, led by Kennedy. Both she and Xander were killed. Because of this, Buffy and Willow decided to erase everyone’s memory of Dawn, including Dawn’s herself, in order to send her away to a place unknown for her own safety.
Some 10 years after “Chosen” Giles died in bed of an aneurysm.
A year after Giles’ death Buffy is killed by Lurkey.
Also, my fics are written in the context of the TV show only. I haven’t read any of the books or comics.
Full Circle
The hunter caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his gun quickly to the left. A hand lightly grabbed the top of the barrel.
“Hey, let’s make sure this isn’t another hunter first, O.K.?” the guide whispered.
The hunter shook the guide’s hand off. “I paid good money to get me a big buck, and that’s what I’m gonna do!” he hissed. The two stood there for a few minutes, waiting, but there was no more movement. The hunter crept toward the brush, the guide just behind. He used the tip off his gun to push away some branches and swore.
“What the hell. . .”
The guide raised his gun and joined the hunter. He involuntarily lowered it when he saw what was pressing itself against the ground in an effort to hide. It was big, bigger than a deer, but the color was all wrong-he guessed the colors and patterns of its coat were supposed to camouflage the animal, but not in this forest. It didn’t have eyes, but the overly-large nose was working away, like a rabbit’s. The ears, like a bat’s, quivered. He took a step forward to get a closer look but the hunter elbowed him back.
“It’s not a deer, but it’ll do-how much you think I can get for this thing?” He aimed at the animal’s head and shot, but that was the only shot he’d get off-he was immediately tackled by something large and pushed into the guide, which forced both of them to the ground. Neither had time to scream before their heads were bitten off, their blood heavily splattering the dying animal in front of them.
_______________________________
“So, the Weird Sisters finally have an answer, do they?” Faith said as she and Robin hustled down the narrow tunnel. “”Took ‘em long enough-and here I thought they knew what they were doing!”
“A Shakespeare reference. Impressive!”
“Huh? They’re sisters. And they’re fuckin’ weird.”
Robin laughed. “Sorry--what was I thinking?”
“’Specially the youngest one. She freaks me out-what is she, ten?”
“Something like that. It’s the power in her that make her seem older--by about a hundred years! Hey, I think the storeroom is to the right. Is that it?” He reached out to slow Faith’s progress.
“Beats me. Everything looks the same down here. Is that a light?”
She and Robin stopped and squinted in the dark. They looked down the passageway and tried to discern whether the faint light was coming from the flickering torches lining the walls or was in fact something else. As they stood deliberating which way to go they saw the light seemingly zigging and zagging its way toward them. When it reached the pair it stopped, jumped around violently and then turned and went the direction it came.
“I’m guessin’ we go right.”
“Thank the gods for magicks. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the reason we’re in this mess.”
“True dat.” Faith said as she began following the light.
“Oh, I love it when you talk ghetto,” Robin said as he followed.
“Somebody has to. Harlem boy, my ass!”
“Oooh baby, don’ say dat, why you trippin’?”
Faith’s laughter echoed off the dirt walls. She stopped, turned, grabbed Robin by the face and kissed him hard on the mouth. He pulled her toward him and they kissed again, longer this time, then he pulled away. He looked in her eyes.
“I’m going to make an honest woman of you one day, you know.”
“You better hurry up. The world’s ‘bout done.” Faith turned and headed back down the passageway. “Let’s do this before I go crazy livin’ like a rat!”
______________________________
The tunnel widened suddenly. The light was hovering in mid-air next to a small girl wearing a long dress. The gold thread in the thin scarf she had wound loosely around her head caught the torchlight and glittered. Her skin was olive but her eyes a brilliant green instead of brown, betraying foreign blood in her Pashtun background. She motioned for Faith and Robin to sit in two of the chairs facing her. After they were seated she extinguished the floating light with a slight wave of her hand.
“Afsoon,” Robin nodded. Faith did likewise. “Where are Reshawna and Kinah? I thought we were to meet all three of you.”
The young witch shook her head. “Under the circumstances we thought it best I alone handled this.”
“Under the circumstances?” Faith stiffened. “I thought you’d found a way to close the holes in our dimension. Everybody’s happy, right?”
Afsoon shook her head again. “Perhaps not everybody. That is why we must operate in the utmost secrecy.”
“Oh-oh, here we go,” Robin also straightened up in his chair.
“Why does it always have to be so freakin’ difficult to save the world?”
“Not difficult. Complicated.” Afsoon played with a loose, dark strand of hair. She looked off into the gloom behind Robin and Faith. “We found the Key.”
“The what?”
“The Key is the energy needed to repair the holes in our world. It resides in, the best we can tell, a young woman. ”
“Great-where is she?”
Afsoon stopped smiling. “Unfortunately she’s in the United States-but don’t worry, I have the ability to get you there and back.”
Robin leaned forward in his seat, placed both arms on the armrests and intertwined his fingers. “Do you also have the ability necessary to kill Tiggers? The U.S. is full of them.”
“I have something better.” Afsoon turned to the boxes stacked behind her and pulled something wrapped in a piece of fabric off the top. She knelt in front of Robin and Faith, placed the bundle on the ground and pulled the fabric away to reveal a long, metallic-looking tube. “I have an RPG, ET-style.”
“Ooohhh, me likey,” Robin reached down to touch the smooth surface of the tube. “I’ve heard about these-unlimited firepower! But the ETs don’t have hands--how will I use it?”
Afsoon pulled more of the fabric away to reveal a narrow handle pointing downward about a third of the way down the bottom of the tube. Further up the tube was a trigger. “This fell into German hands and they modified it for human use,” she explained.
“Gotta love that German engineering,” Robin said as he took the weapon into his hands and shouldered it.
“I thought the ETs had taken over Germany,” Faith asked.
“No, the Germans and what’s left of the Russians are holding them at the border. The ETs have pushed through China and are almost to the Pacific--which makes your mission all the more pressing.”
“Then your people. . .” Robin began.
Afsoon stood. “My people suffer as do the rest. I’ve packed food and supplies for you, enough for a week. That should be enough time--luckily the Key is hidden in a town not too far from a tear.”
“How are we ‘spposed to get this woman to use her energy to stop up the holes?” Faith asked.
Afsoon took a deep breath. “You throw her in the nearest one.”
Faith stared at Afsoon. Robin looked at Faith and unshouldered the alien RPG. “I guess we know why not everyone is on board with this particular plan.”
“No, no, NO,” Faith stood, gesturing for emphasis. “Been there, done that, not goin’ down that road again! What’d you think, ‘Faith’s killed an innocent before, she can do it again?’ No, thank you!”
“But this woman isn’t human, she only appears to be!” Afsoon paused, choosing her words carefully. “The energy is encased in a human form but the form has no. . .soul.”
“I wonder if anyone bothered to tell her that!”
“You’re sure we have to throw her in?” Robin asked. “Can’t she just send the energy out of her?”
“She is the energy! To release it the vessel that contains it has to be. . .broken.”
Faith and Robin again looked at each other and then down at the floor, thinking.
“She’s really not human?” Faith asked after a few minutes.
“No, not at all.”
“And we can’t get the energy out of her any other way?” Robin added. “A spell? Asking nicely?”
“No. This is the only way.”
“Figures.” Faith looked around the room. “All right, where’s the supplies?”
Afsoon hurried to her left to grab two backpacks slung on top of another stack of boxes and brought them to Faith and Robin. Robin stood, still holding the weapon, and took one of the packs with the other hand. “Yeah, yeah, I’m in. But I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“You an’ me both,” Faith said as she grabbed her pack. “So, where are we goin’, anyway? The U.S. is a big place.”
“California. The town the Key is hiding in, Cambria, is small, so it shouldn’t take you too long to find it.”
“Goin’ back to Cali’,” Robin said. “It shouldn’t take too long to find it, the town, or it, the Key?”
“The Key-I’m sending you to Cambria. Continue to think of the Key as an it, not a she-it will be easier that way.”
“Yeah, we got it!” Faith said. “How far is the tear from the town? Can we walk it?”
“No, it’s several miles, you’ll have to drive. The tear is in. . .Sunnydale.”
Faith looked at Robin, then back at Afsoon. “Of course it is!” she said sarcastically. “Where else would it be?”
“Huh,” Robin said. “Didn’t think I’d be at that big hole in the ground ever again.”
“How will we know which woman it is?”
“I’ve given you some herbs and instructions on how to use them that will help. After the energy has been. . .released, you can use the flare gun charged with magicks to better pinpoint your location and make it easier for me to get you back.”
Afsoon closed her eyes and reopened them, revealing them to be completely black.
“Ready?”
“No, but what difference does that make?” Faith grabbed Robin’s arm and closed her eyes.
______________________________
“Well, that was fun!” Faith tried to unsuccessfully gather all the saliva in her mouth for a good spit. She pulled off her pack, unzipped the main compartment and began to dig through the contents in search of something to drink. Finding a canteen, she tossed the bag to the ground, unscrewed the top and drank a large mouthful. She swished it in her mouth before spitting it out and tried to steady herself.
“Nope, still dizzy. You think Afsoon coulda warned us!”
Robin focused on a stationary spot in the distance in an attempt to stop the feeling of movement. “But that would take all the fun out of it!”
He continued to concentrate a few more minutes. “It’ll be dark soon. That Afsoon, she thinks of everything-Tiggers hunt during the day.”
“As far as we know-I’d feel a lot better if we found some cover!”
“Agreed. You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Faith bent over to pick up the backpack and placed the canteen back inside. She zipped up the pack and put it on. “After you-you’ve got the big gun, after all.”
“Shouldn’t you be carrying it?”
“Naw, I like my odds with this.” She patted the katana sheathed on her hip. “Besides, I’d never try to take a man from his toys.”
“Smart woman. O.K., stay close.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout that!”
Robin shouldered the RPG and the two walked cautiously toward the town backlit by the setting sun.
______________________________
“Wow, this is some good shit,” Faith lazily adjusted her headlamp. “Witches always get the best stuff!”
Robin turned toward Faith, his headlamp on.
“What the hell, my eyes, my eyes!” Faith said as she threw up both hands to cover her face.
“Oops, sorry.” Robin moved the lamp to the side of his head and peered at Faith. “Damn, your pupils are huge! Are you going to be O.K.?”
“Yeah, five-by-freakin’-five! I feel like I’m part of everything!”
“How about we just concentrate at the task at hand--you’re scaring me a little!”
“Right,” Faith slowly scanned the trash-strewn room. “Nope, no Key here.”
“I know, Faith-we’re the only ones here. Wait a minute. . .” he bent over his pack and fished out a length of rope. He looped one end around Faith’s waist, tied it, then pulled out two to three feet of slack. He looped the rest around his waist, tied it, bundled up the excess and tucked it under the rope at his back. “There. I feel a lot better. You take the lead but I’ll be there right behind you, O.K.?”
“Sure. Whatever.”
“Robin zipped up his pack and put it on his back. He recentered the headlamp and bent over to get the RPG.
“All right, let’s go-remember, I’m right here.”
“No problemo.” Faith carefully stepped around the upside-down chairs, over the clothes, plastic bags and books thrown helter-skelter on the floor and made her way to the little home’s front door.
______________________________
“Ooohhh, flowers!” Faith reached for one of the tall blooms growing like weeds in the cracks in the sidewalks and asphalt. The color was dark purple, almost black, and was so shiny it looked almost liquid in the light of the headlamps.
“Don’t touch it!” Robin tugged on the rope, pulling Faith back. “Clearly Tiggers weren’t the only things that came over! It could be poisonous!”
“Don’t be stupid, it’s harmless. Jus’ like those flying things we saw back there, I can feel it!” Faith took a couple steps forward and cupped her hands around the flower. She leaned forward and inhaled deeply. “Awesome, freakin’ awesome,” she said dreamily.
Robin shook his head. “Another thing Afsoon neglected to tell us about. Look, Faith, can you behave yourself for a few minutes longer? We’ll hit this flower shop and then cross the railroad tracks. Anything yet?”
“Nope. . .ooohhh, flowers!” she said, making a beeline for the shop.
Robin sighed and followed. Faith reached the door first and tugged at it, but it was locked.
“Here we go again,” Robin said, and used the end of the RPG to smash the glass. Faith waited patiently as he reached in, felt around for the latch and turned it. He pushed the door open and he and Faith walked in.
He looked around the messy interior. It looked like so many of the buildings they’d already searched, and yet. . .he could see there was a cooler for the flowers in the back. “That’s where I’d want to be with Tiggers around,” he thought to himself.
He walked toward the cooler, pulling Faith behind him.
“Faith, here, let’s try this door.”
Robin carefully pulled the handle up and opened the door. He shouldered the RPG and walked in. At the far end he could just make out a pile of fabric. He crept toward it, reached with his other hand and ripped the fabric away. A skinny, 20-something woman with long, dirty brown hair pulled into a ponytail lay curled in a fetal position. She woke up, startled, then squeezed up against the wall, turning away from the light.
Faith poked her head into the cooler.
“What’s that? Whoa. . .” Faith pushed her way in to get a better look. “How do you do that? First you’re there, then you’re not. Cool!’’
“Please!” The woman’s voice cracked from disuse. “I don’t have much, but here, take it!” She leaned forward, shielding her eyes as she did so.
“Stop!” Robin warned. The woman shrank back against the wall. “Let’s take it nice and slow. Faith, what do you mean, ‘First you’re there, then you’re not?’”
“Faith? Faith Lehane?
Faith was about to answer but Robin’s pull on the rope stopped her. He crouched in front of the woman. “Why do you ask?”
“Faith Lehane is the only Faith I’ve every known! The light, please!”
Robin again pulled the headlamp to the side. The woman unshielded her eyes and studied his face.
“Robin, Robin Wood! Oh my God, it’s you, it’s you, Faith and Robin! Oh, I’ve been waiting so long for someone to come!” She pressed her hands to her mouth and tears began running down her cheeks.
Robin looked up at Faith, mystified. He turned back to the woman.
“Do we know you?”
The woman pulled her hands down and smiled a sad little smile. “You did. I’m Dawn. Buffy’s sister.”
Faith and Robin looked at each other.
“Buffy had a sister?’’ they said together.
______________________________
“You’re looking at me again,” Dawn said in a tired voice.
“Yeah, right, sorry.” Faith resumed looking straight ahead as the SUV sped down Hwy. 101 toward Sunnydale. “It’s jus’ that you look, you know, normal.”
“The monks did a good job, I guess, hiding the Key.”
“And here I thought all they could make was stinky cheese,” Robin said from the back seat.
They were silent for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Buffy dying for you and all.” Faith chanced another glance at Dawn.
“Yeah,” Dawn said, her voice heavy. “I wanted to, but Buffy. . .it was her job to save the world, she said, not mine. But she was wrong-the hole needed my energy to close for good. She should of let me jump. None of this would of happened if I’d jumped.” She looked down and picked at the torn places in her worn jeans.
“She couldn’t have known, that you weren’t interchangeable.” Robin reassured her. “She was trying to save you, to give you a chance at life.”
Dawn brightened a little. “I’m an artist, you know-charcoal and pastels, mostly. I had an exhibit at Fiona Bleu, it was very well received!”
“Nice!” Faith swerved past a burnt-out car in the left lane.
“You know, the object is to arrive in one piece.”
“Thanks for the tip, grandma-maybe if you’d found us a car that handled a little better it wouldn’t bother you so much.”
“Actually, I would have preferred an armored truck, but seeing as we couldn’t find one I think a three-ton Cadillac Escalade will fill in quite nicely.”
“It’s a classic! Robin’s very old school you know.” Faith said to Dawn.
There was another lull in the conversation. The minutes ticked by, the complete darkness outside pressing in on the car’s occupants.
“You could have come to us--when things started to go bad,” Robin said.
“Everything happened so fast! By the time people here figured out what was really going on half of them were already dead! The rest left. I didn’t want to try it on my own-what if I messed up again? The world would be doomed for good this time! I knew if I waited long enough, Buffy would find me, she would. . .spell or no spell.”
“How long have you known what you were?”
“Oh, from the beginning. Buffy and Willow, they wanted to protect me, but the spell. . .it didn’t work on me. The energy. . .it must of kept it from working. But I know they sent me away for a reason, so I stayed. Made a life for myself.”
“Good choice. Things haven’t been. . .easy for us.”
Faith looked at Robin in the rear view mirror. He nodded his head from left to right very slightly to let her know the subject should be dropped.
“Hey, Slayer’s sister here. Goes with the territory.”
“’Nother sign comin’ up. What’s that one say, Dawn?”
“’Sunnydale Crater, 25 miles.’ We’re almost there.”
The conversation died again for several minutes.
“Hey, it’s O.K. . .Don’t feel bad, I know what I have to do. I would of done it the first time but. . .I was scared. I didn’t want to die! But I’m ready now. This time, I’m ready.” Dawn said, smiling bravely up at Faith.
Faith smiled back and again looked at Robin in the rear view mirror, doubt in her eyes. She returned her attention to the road and they continued on.
______________________________
“Welcome to Sunnydale!” Faith slammed the door as she exited.
Dawn and Robin did the same and the three of them met in front of the car. Faith leaned against the hood and hooked the heel of her black boot on the bumper. Robin joined her, but Dawn appeared to be mesmerized by the sight: a bungee-jumping tower at the south end of the crater illuminated by a large, pulsating hole suspended in the air.
Faith read the sign at the top of the tower, “Sunnydale Crater Family Fun Zone!”, and shook her head. She leaned closer to Robin.
“Not much fun here,” she said quietly.
“But there’s go-karts-how can you go wrong with go-karts?”
Faith lightly punched him in the arm and turned to Dawn. “Hey, Dawn, what’s up?”
Dawn had not moved. “This is crazy, I can’t believe it!” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “It’s just like before! It’s like, destiny! ” She started walking toward the tower.
“Dawn, hey, wait!” Faith and Robin left the front of the car and caught up to her. Dawn ignored them and kept walking. Faith shot Robin a questioning look and he shrugged in reply. The three continued to cross the parking lot to the base of the tower. Dawn stopped and bent her head up.
“I have to go up. . .that’s what I did before, go up.” She reached for the farthest rung and began climbing.
Faith and Robin watched. “What do we do now?” Faith asked after Dawn had gone up about 20 feet. “Afsoon said she’s not human, but she’s so real! I know this is how it’s ‘sposed to go but. . .”
A sudden movement out of the corner of her eye caught Faith’s attention. She quickly swung around to the left and just as quickly turned back and pushed Robin to the ladder.
“Climb Robin, climb!” she yelled.
“What, what’s wrong?” Robin looked over Faith’s shoulder and saw three large, multicolored shapes moving toward them from a distance. He immediately began pulling himself up as fast as he could with one hand, the other cradling the RPG.
“Is that them, are those Tiggers? Isn’t it night?”
“They’re big, they’re fast and I’m not waitin’ to see the five rows of teeth!” Faith pulled herself to the other side of the ladder so both she and Robin could climb at the same time. They kept at it, as fast as they could, until they were about as high as Dawn was when they first saw the Tiggers.
“How high can they jump, is this high enough?” Faith asked, gasping for air.
“No intel on that. Just that they’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! You keep going, let me try to get a shot off!”
“Fuck that! I’ll steady you!” Faith grabbed Robin’s waist and wrapped her legs as best she could in the rungs. Robin pulled his torso away from the ladder, awkwardly shouldered the RPG, aimed at the nearest animal and pulled the trigger. The laser-like stream went wide right, scorching the earth black.
“Again, again!” Faith shouted just as the closest one launched itself in the air. Its heavy body thudded against the ladder not five feet below them. As it fell to the ground Robin twisted down and shot again. The Tigger let out a terrible scream, almost human in sound, but the laser had merely wounded it. It threw itself against the base of the ladder, shaking Faith and Robin.
Faith looked up to see what Dawn was doing. She was still climbing, the excitement below not slowing her progress. The second Tigger leapt into the air but couldn’t reach them. The third also tried, but was unsuccessful. Robin fired shot after shot, finally killing one. It appeared the two remaining Tiggers decided their best bet was to throw themselves repeatedly at the base of the tower to dislodge their prey and it was a race to see if they would be able to topple it before being killed by the RPG.
“Hold me, dammit, hold me!”
“I am, you’re moving too much!” Faith squeezed harder and looked up to see that Dawn was at the top of the tower. She watched as the tiny speck fell into the hole. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then the hole slowly started shrinking until it winked out of existence. Robin was busy firing at the one Tigger still alive, so Faith tried to reach back with one hand in an attempt to get the flare gun. Suddenly she could feel the tension in Robin’s body ease. He turned back toward her, let the RPG fall against his body and slumped on the ladder.
“Three down, none to go! Damn fine shooting, if I do say so myself!
“Yeah, yeah, you’re da man! Now reach in and find that flare gun so we can get the fuck out of here!”
Robin pressed the RPG and his body against the ladder with his right arm and reached down behind Faith’s head to unzip her pack. He fished around until he grabbed the flare gun by the handle. He pulled it out, raised it and shot. A bright light exploded out of the barrel, expanding out in concentric rings like the shock waves of a nuclear bomb.
“That ought to do it.”
“C’mon, Afsoon! I don’t get paid enough for this shit!” Faith hugged the ladder and waited to be transported back home.
______________________________
Faith and Robin were still hugging each other when they realized they were no longer hanging onto a ladder but standing on the floor. Faith pulled away, her head swimming, and saw Afsoon looking at her.
“It’s done. The holes are closed.”
“Thank the gods! I’ll go tell the others!” She began to move away.
“Not so fast! You didn’t happen to know, by the way, that Buffy’s sister was the Key?”
“Yeah,” Robin chimed in. “A little something that might have made it more difficult for us to do our job, knowing we were sending Buffy’s sister to her death. Like not telling us about how sick the transportation spell would make us, or that Faith would be out and pretty much defenseless for most of a day after using those herbs!”
Afsoon looked confused. “But Buffy had no sister.”
“Not anymore she doesn’t.” Faith took a few faltering steps toward Afsoon and tried to determine if she was telling the truth. She put her hand to her head. “I don’ know if I can trust you or not, Afsoon. But right now I’m gonna trust you to take us to our room because my head is killin’ me. We can talk more later.”
Robin came up Faith’s side and the two leaned against each other for support. Afsoon turned to lead them down the passage, her face unreadable.
______________________________