Friend of my Friend Chapter 16.
Title: Friend of my Friend
Author: Dark Wyldchilde (wyldchilde37@yahoo.com)
Rating:NC-17, this is me, there will be sex, and there will be violence.
Pairing: Faith/Tara, Ziva/Abby
Setting: This is the fourth story in my Lock series.
Summary: Marines are missing, and turning up as vampires. The Lock is seeking out the source, and will do so with some new allies.
Spoilers: This story can and will combine any elements I care to from all of the runs of Buffy and Angel as well as the Stony Man Farm/Executioner books. Now it also includes NCIS to present, but it will also contradict them as necessary, because much to my own delight it's taken on a life of it's own.
I have also decided to tinker with the Buffy/Angel time lines since in the case of Buffy the show has been done almost 7 years now.
Disclaimers: This is an independent, non-profit work of fanfiction. I know there are at least three sets (or more) of copyrights involved, and this story is not a challenge to any of them.
Wyld's Notes: You probably shouldn't be reading this story unless you've read my earlier fics "Life on the Farm" "Declaration of War" and "The Front" because without them this story might get confusing.
On a NCIS note I need to add I am keeping the Ziva/Gibbs cannon that she killed Ari to save Gibbs, and not the more recent nonsense that it was to get Gibbs to trust her.
More importantly I must send out my personal thanks to Lisa Countryman. She has been a wonderful sounding board, and has been essential in making this fic possible, including spoon feeding me the incredibly funny chapter 5, writing three whole chapters herself, and healthy sections of other chapters as well.
I also need to add a special thanks and welcome to my new beta reader laura jones.
Chapter 16.
Faith's debrief had finished quickly enough. At first she had simply thought it a small case of rank having it's privileges, but when she was told Tara was in the kitchen they wrapped it up so she could hustle down there.
Tara had always loved cooking, found it wonderfully soothing. It was why Faith felt bad when the woman's duties at the Lock kept her from indulging that passion. First as the Head of Occult Intelligence, and then as the Mission Controller.
While Tara was an amazing cook there were plenty of amazing cooks available, but only one Tara Maclay and the unique set of talents she brought to the table. So Tara hung up her apron and focused on helping Faith save the world.
That time the part of the world they were trying to save was populated by the "meat puppets" attractive young women and men that could be "programmed" to order for a client's specifications.
Gay, straight, dominant, submissive, Geisha girls to gourmet chefs, from all accounts if a real person could be it, they could make it, and make them ready to do anything and everything the client wanted.
Though most considered them urban legends the Lock dealt in myths and legends and when they investigated this one they found people who had their own personalities removed with a combination of magick and science to make room for whatever personality a paying client wanted them to have.
Magick had been involved, but it was the science that had led them to the man behind it all. The third generation of a scientific legacy both his father and grandfather had been geniuses the fields of neurology and biochemistry, using their talents for the greater benefit of all.
This puppet master, took that knowledge, that legacy to get himself a position of authority, to get people to trust him. Then he betrayed that trust, turned them into hollow shells, and acted as if they should thank him for doing so.
It had taken a while to finally get near the bastard, Faith had to keep him a mouse to her cat with her disrupting his operations as best she could, and trying to keep him from finding any more victims, but she had found him eventually.
His latest plan had never gotten off the ground, and Faith had found him there, literally at a ships dry dock as she drew her Mk. 23 with the silencer attached. He was talking to his henchwoman, a blonde bitch who had been with his whole sick program from the very beginning, but that didn't seem to matter much to him as when he saw Faith's gun moving towards him he pushed her into it's path as he dived out.
Faith knew the woman's sins and hadn't hesitated as she sent a pair of .45 caliber drills through her teeth and out the back of her head, but it had been enough of a distraction for a pair of .38 caliber slugs to catch her right under neath her left lung.
Though they hadn't went clean through the all too vital organ Faith had went down in a bloody sprawl. Having her laid out bloody on the ground seemed to please the man as he had moved over her and lifted his gun to finish her off.
If he had actually did the deed rather then blathering on about how she couldn't understand his intentions, or how he had taken shells that where already empty when he found them and made them great, gave them what they needed Faith wouldn't be here today.
He however had seemed quite intent on going on about his greatness for quite a while. So intent that he hadn't noticed that Faith had retained her grasp on her weapon when she fell, or that his blathering had allowed her to recover enough to bring the weapon up and cut his diatribe short with another pair of .45 caliber rounds put underneath his chin.
The irony had been that if it hadn't been for his un-silenced shots help wouldn't have arrived fast enough to find Faith after she had collapsed from blood loss trying to flee the scene.
Luckily when the puppet master was no longer able to provide his "goods" the Lock's friends at the Department of Justice had no one keeping them from showing him the villain and Faith the "undercover" officer who had to be taken out of the system right away to protect her identity.
That left Scooby Squad and the rest of the Lock's assets to help the Puppet Master's victims to recover the lives he had sealed away as best they were able while Faith herself was bed ridden back at the Lock.
While Tara hadn't neglected her responsibilities as mission controller the beautiful blonde pushed herself to be both Mission Controller of the Lock, and life partner of it's CO. Part of that had been insisting she make some of what she knew were Faith's favorite dishes herself.
Much to her own surprise the act of putting the meals together soothed a good deal of the tension the woman had been under, and ever since then when things got truly tense for Tara she started cooking.
As strange as it had initially seemed the effect it had on the Mission Controller was obvious and the Lock's technicians had wired the kitchen for the high speed data communications that mission control required without even having to be asked, and quickly Tara's cooking had become known as a two-sided coin.
While the normal chefs always did enough prep work that Tara was able to fix enough for everybody that everybody knew that no matter how wonderful her food tasted it had been made because she had needed SOMETHING to help her with the stress.
It didn't happen all that much, and even then she usually didn't start cooking until the mission was over and the operatives were on the way back, but when she found out where Tara was Faith had known the retaking of the base had rattled her love.
Faith stopped at the door as she finally caught sight of Tara and her heart stopped, both with a mixture of love, and of guilt. She knew that the odds of them growing old together weren't even enough to be called slim, but what made it worse was that Tara knew as well.
She had told Faith that "I would be rather left with the memories of our love, then to have never known it at all."
It still got to Faith however, because no matter how hard she fought no slayer in any record had ever died of old age, and what had been shrugged off by a younger Faith now conjured nightmares of Tara's tear streaked face as Faith's coffin was lowered into the ground.
Tara's head rose, and Faith realized that the white witch was literally feeling the pain of her beloved as she turned around and opened her arms. She didn't wrap her arms entirely around Faith as she stepped into the embrace, but that was because her hands were covered in flour.
No she first grabbed a towel and wiped her hands off as Faith rested her cheek to Tara's chest.
Once her arms were around Faith she spoke gently. "I'm here, you're here... I love you."
Faith took a deep breath, nodding, then squeezing Tara in a hug. "I know, I love you too."
The lovers eyes met, and slowly they found it in them to smile. Both knew that no one was ever promised a tomorrow, and while Faith's odds of old age were longer all they had was today, all they had was the moments they were given, and both knew it was better to savor them then dread their possible loss.
Just like the moment they were in was lost just as their lips came together. A swinging door to the kitchen crashed open and a pale and shaking Willow Rosenberg was standing there in front of them. "Oh! Geeze! Sorry! Sorry guys! But I really need to talk to Tara, and you should probably hear this too Faith."
While their lips parted, they didn't break their embrace, as they looked to Willow and Willow looked at the floor. "It's Lex. I was talking to Lex, and her eyes went all black, and I think she's hit her limit on the dark magick."
That ended the women's embrace as Tara stepped closer to Willow, speaking slowly, and calmly. "What happened exactly Willow?" While neither woman was dismissing what Willow had said they knew if there was a real problem an alert would have sounded.
Willow took a deep breath, and let it out, after doing it a second time some color came back to her normally fair complexion and her voice was steadier as she started speaking. "Ok, I was updating her file and flagging it active duty. When I was reading Lex's file I noticed her family history and saw she came from a black magick line. So I went to her because I wanted to help. I figured with my black magick experience I could help her keep it under control."
Faith and Tara shared a look, but it was Tara who spoke. "Willow, sweetie, while you have a definite gift for magick you were self-taught five years ago while Lex has been learning black magick from masters of the art since she was five."
Faith actually blinked and interrupted. "Why five?"
Tara quickly shifted her focus. "Because they wanted her vocal skills and coordination fully developed, and "oops" in magick is never a good thing, light or dark." Both women's focus shifted back to Willow as Tara spoke. "But at twenty that means she's have fifteen years experience to your five, and your dark magick experience was less then a year all combined."
Willow nodded. "She said she has "swam in oceans of night" while I dipped in my pinky toe."
Tara seemed to pause to consider the wording, and then she nodded, but Willow started speaking before the other witch could say anything. "But why is she here then? I mean if she's SO big with the dark?"
Tara spoke softly. "Because Willow, dark doesn't equal evil. Dark is primal, and dark is dangerous, but I've talked with Lex, I trust Lex."
Faith spoke from over Tara's shoulder. "If you take anything Dracula said to Buffy into account MY power comes from darkness."
Tara looked over her shoulder to her slayer. "She's right. The power of the slayer is rooted in darkness, in the spilling of blood, the taking of life, but just like Faith, and Buffy and all our slayer's put that darkness to good uses... but Willow? What made her eyes go black?"
At first Willow didn't want to respond, and Tara's eyes widened as she guessed the answer and looked over to Faith. They both however looked to Willow for confirmation of their fear as the pale young woman finally said the words. "When I talked about wiping your memory."
Author: Dark Wyldchilde (wyldchilde37@yahoo.com)
Rating:NC-17, this is me, there will be sex, and there will be violence.
Pairing: Faith/Tara, Ziva/Abby
Setting: This is the fourth story in my Lock series.
Summary: Marines are missing, and turning up as vampires. The Lock is seeking out the source, and will do so with some new allies.
Spoilers: This story can and will combine any elements I care to from all of the runs of Buffy and Angel as well as the Stony Man Farm/Executioner books. Now it also includes NCIS to present, but it will also contradict them as necessary, because much to my own delight it's taken on a life of it's own.
I have also decided to tinker with the Buffy/Angel time lines since in the case of Buffy the show has been done almost 7 years now.
Disclaimers: This is an independent, non-profit work of fanfiction. I know there are at least three sets (or more) of copyrights involved, and this story is not a challenge to any of them.
Wyld's Notes: You probably shouldn't be reading this story unless you've read my earlier fics "Life on the Farm" "Declaration of War" and "The Front" because without them this story might get confusing.
On a NCIS note I need to add I am keeping the Ziva/Gibbs cannon that she killed Ari to save Gibbs, and not the more recent nonsense that it was to get Gibbs to trust her.
More importantly I must send out my personal thanks to Lisa Countryman. She has been a wonderful sounding board, and has been essential in making this fic possible, including spoon feeding me the incredibly funny chapter 5, writing three whole chapters herself, and healthy sections of other chapters as well.
I also need to add a special thanks and welcome to my new beta reader laura jones.
Chapter 16.
Faith's debrief had finished quickly enough. At first she had simply thought it a small case of rank having it's privileges, but when she was told Tara was in the kitchen they wrapped it up so she could hustle down there.
Tara had always loved cooking, found it wonderfully soothing. It was why Faith felt bad when the woman's duties at the Lock kept her from indulging that passion. First as the Head of Occult Intelligence, and then as the Mission Controller.
While Tara was an amazing cook there were plenty of amazing cooks available, but only one Tara Maclay and the unique set of talents she brought to the table. So Tara hung up her apron and focused on helping Faith save the world.
That time the part of the world they were trying to save was populated by the "meat puppets" attractive young women and men that could be "programmed" to order for a client's specifications.
Gay, straight, dominant, submissive, Geisha girls to gourmet chefs, from all accounts if a real person could be it, they could make it, and make them ready to do anything and everything the client wanted.
Though most considered them urban legends the Lock dealt in myths and legends and when they investigated this one they found people who had their own personalities removed with a combination of magick and science to make room for whatever personality a paying client wanted them to have.
Magick had been involved, but it was the science that had led them to the man behind it all. The third generation of a scientific legacy both his father and grandfather had been geniuses the fields of neurology and biochemistry, using their talents for the greater benefit of all.
This puppet master, took that knowledge, that legacy to get himself a position of authority, to get people to trust him. Then he betrayed that trust, turned them into hollow shells, and acted as if they should thank him for doing so.
It had taken a while to finally get near the bastard, Faith had to keep him a mouse to her cat with her disrupting his operations as best she could, and trying to keep him from finding any more victims, but she had found him eventually.
His latest plan had never gotten off the ground, and Faith had found him there, literally at a ships dry dock as she drew her Mk. 23 with the silencer attached. He was talking to his henchwoman, a blonde bitch who had been with his whole sick program from the very beginning, but that didn't seem to matter much to him as when he saw Faith's gun moving towards him he pushed her into it's path as he dived out.
Faith knew the woman's sins and hadn't hesitated as she sent a pair of .45 caliber drills through her teeth and out the back of her head, but it had been enough of a distraction for a pair of .38 caliber slugs to catch her right under neath her left lung.
Though they hadn't went clean through the all too vital organ Faith had went down in a bloody sprawl. Having her laid out bloody on the ground seemed to please the man as he had moved over her and lifted his gun to finish her off.
If he had actually did the deed rather then blathering on about how she couldn't understand his intentions, or how he had taken shells that where already empty when he found them and made them great, gave them what they needed Faith wouldn't be here today.
He however had seemed quite intent on going on about his greatness for quite a while. So intent that he hadn't noticed that Faith had retained her grasp on her weapon when she fell, or that his blathering had allowed her to recover enough to bring the weapon up and cut his diatribe short with another pair of .45 caliber rounds put underneath his chin.
The irony had been that if it hadn't been for his un-silenced shots help wouldn't have arrived fast enough to find Faith after she had collapsed from blood loss trying to flee the scene.
Luckily when the puppet master was no longer able to provide his "goods" the Lock's friends at the Department of Justice had no one keeping them from showing him the villain and Faith the "undercover" officer who had to be taken out of the system right away to protect her identity.
That left Scooby Squad and the rest of the Lock's assets to help the Puppet Master's victims to recover the lives he had sealed away as best they were able while Faith herself was bed ridden back at the Lock.
While Tara hadn't neglected her responsibilities as mission controller the beautiful blonde pushed herself to be both Mission Controller of the Lock, and life partner of it's CO. Part of that had been insisting she make some of what she knew were Faith's favorite dishes herself.
Much to her own surprise the act of putting the meals together soothed a good deal of the tension the woman had been under, and ever since then when things got truly tense for Tara she started cooking.
As strange as it had initially seemed the effect it had on the Mission Controller was obvious and the Lock's technicians had wired the kitchen for the high speed data communications that mission control required without even having to be asked, and quickly Tara's cooking had become known as a two-sided coin.
While the normal chefs always did enough prep work that Tara was able to fix enough for everybody that everybody knew that no matter how wonderful her food tasted it had been made because she had needed SOMETHING to help her with the stress.
It didn't happen all that much, and even then she usually didn't start cooking until the mission was over and the operatives were on the way back, but when she found out where Tara was Faith had known the retaking of the base had rattled her love.
Faith stopped at the door as she finally caught sight of Tara and her heart stopped, both with a mixture of love, and of guilt. She knew that the odds of them growing old together weren't even enough to be called slim, but what made it worse was that Tara knew as well.
She had told Faith that "I would be rather left with the memories of our love, then to have never known it at all."
It still got to Faith however, because no matter how hard she fought no slayer in any record had ever died of old age, and what had been shrugged off by a younger Faith now conjured nightmares of Tara's tear streaked face as Faith's coffin was lowered into the ground.
Tara's head rose, and Faith realized that the white witch was literally feeling the pain of her beloved as she turned around and opened her arms. She didn't wrap her arms entirely around Faith as she stepped into the embrace, but that was because her hands were covered in flour.
No she first grabbed a towel and wiped her hands off as Faith rested her cheek to Tara's chest.
Once her arms were around Faith she spoke gently. "I'm here, you're here... I love you."
Faith took a deep breath, nodding, then squeezing Tara in a hug. "I know, I love you too."
The lovers eyes met, and slowly they found it in them to smile. Both knew that no one was ever promised a tomorrow, and while Faith's odds of old age were longer all they had was today, all they had was the moments they were given, and both knew it was better to savor them then dread their possible loss.
Just like the moment they were in was lost just as their lips came together. A swinging door to the kitchen crashed open and a pale and shaking Willow Rosenberg was standing there in front of them. "Oh! Geeze! Sorry! Sorry guys! But I really need to talk to Tara, and you should probably hear this too Faith."
While their lips parted, they didn't break their embrace, as they looked to Willow and Willow looked at the floor. "It's Lex. I was talking to Lex, and her eyes went all black, and I think she's hit her limit on the dark magick."
That ended the women's embrace as Tara stepped closer to Willow, speaking slowly, and calmly. "What happened exactly Willow?" While neither woman was dismissing what Willow had said they knew if there was a real problem an alert would have sounded.
Willow took a deep breath, and let it out, after doing it a second time some color came back to her normally fair complexion and her voice was steadier as she started speaking. "Ok, I was updating her file and flagging it active duty. When I was reading Lex's file I noticed her family history and saw she came from a black magick line. So I went to her because I wanted to help. I figured with my black magick experience I could help her keep it under control."
Faith and Tara shared a look, but it was Tara who spoke. "Willow, sweetie, while you have a definite gift for magick you were self-taught five years ago while Lex has been learning black magick from masters of the art since she was five."
Faith actually blinked and interrupted. "Why five?"
Tara quickly shifted her focus. "Because they wanted her vocal skills and coordination fully developed, and "oops" in magick is never a good thing, light or dark." Both women's focus shifted back to Willow as Tara spoke. "But at twenty that means she's have fifteen years experience to your five, and your dark magick experience was less then a year all combined."
Willow nodded. "She said she has "swam in oceans of night" while I dipped in my pinky toe."
Tara seemed to pause to consider the wording, and then she nodded, but Willow started speaking before the other witch could say anything. "But why is she here then? I mean if she's SO big with the dark?"
Tara spoke softly. "Because Willow, dark doesn't equal evil. Dark is primal, and dark is dangerous, but I've talked with Lex, I trust Lex."
Faith spoke from over Tara's shoulder. "If you take anything Dracula said to Buffy into account MY power comes from darkness."
Tara looked over her shoulder to her slayer. "She's right. The power of the slayer is rooted in darkness, in the spilling of blood, the taking of life, but just like Faith, and Buffy and all our slayer's put that darkness to good uses... but Willow? What made her eyes go black?"
At first Willow didn't want to respond, and Tara's eyes widened as she guessed the answer and looked over to Faith. They both however looked to Willow for confirmation of their fear as the pale young woman finally said the words. "When I talked about wiping your memory."