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Chapter 31: ~Faith Gives Charity~
A young woman hops off a bus to Vengeance, California. Her black and pink hair rustles in the wind as the smell of a new town. Charity was released from prison and had become public enemy number one. The Senior Partners and everything evil turned on her when she was caught because they say that she is a liability to the secrecy. She was on the run now, not from cops, at least clean ones, but she needed someone that could help her. She knew just the right person.
"God, Suburban hell..." she said walking forward, unaware that she was being followed by a giant, hooded man.
A vampire ran through the cemetary as I chased behind him. He turned in time to catch me as I dove on him and we rolled around until I rolled off him and we faced each other. I put up my hand and blocked his punch, staking him. before I could turn around, I heard a growl and a vampire turned to dust and Oz stood a few feet away, brandishing a crossbow.
"Thanks." I smiled, falling out of my stance.
"Not a problem." Oz smiled, as I walked beside him, " so, how are Faith and Willow?"
"Faith is...Faith. Big fun, she's here somewhere." I said looking around, " This is like Sunnydale heavy. This place just opened and it's almost as full as Sunnydale cemetary. And as for Willow, you'd know better than me...well, you and her have been hanging, so...is there sparkage?" I asked.
"No. There's friend-age." Oz smiled, " She has a girlfriend."
"Kennedy." I said as we turned a corner, " so, you have your wolfy eye on anybody?"
"I do, but I'm not sure anyone notices." Oz said, " Except for everybody else."
"You'd be surprised." I said.
There was an awkward, yet pleasant silence, then Oz spoke.
"so, how'd the band really sound?" he asked.
"Great." I said without thinking, " The band is great."
"Thanks...I went kinda flat in the first." Oz said, noticing I had stopped, " What?"
"Nothing." I said quickly, " We should find Faith. There' bound to be trouble near her." I smiled as we walked on.
Halfway around the cemetary, Faith was teach two vamps the meaning of 'OUCH'. Faith kicked one of the vamps and smiled, " Come on, you're already dead, this shouldn't hurt." she smiled, punching the second one and wrenching his arm until he fell to the ground, " Good thing you're dead or this might really hurt."
Faith smiled, but grimaced as she looked around and saw four more vampires.
"called in re-enforcements, did ya?" Faith said, staking him and letting his ashes fall to the ground.
"S-S-S-Slayer." A vampire hissed.
The vampires dove on her, but she handled her own for a while before they got to her and she found herself on the ground while five vampires tried to kick her! Before she could get them off her, two of them dusted and the rest backed away.
"Hope you don't mind, but I borrowed a stake." Charity smiled.
Faith jumped up, " Nah, don't mind. Maybe you can help, who are you again?" Faith asked.
"Charity." Charity answered.
Faith looked her over, " Charity? Aren't you fighting on the wrong side?" she asked.
"Not anymore." charity smirked, fighting the vampires.
Faith joined in, punching and kicking until Charity threw her the stake and she dusted her vampire. Before she could stake another, a stake flew through the air and dusted the one in front of her and Charity dusted hers.
"Who in the hell..." Faith said, looking through the dust.
I walked over to Charity and punched her in the face.
"You're not supposed to hit a woman." Charity smirked, licking her lips.
"Good thing you're not a woman." I said indifferently, " Lemme guess, you're here to try and assassinate me?"
"More like I need your help." Charity said softly.
"Wha?" I said in shock.
We all sat in my living room, weary of her tricks. She sat in front of us as Doug and Willow sat up a spell, a truth spell, so that she could not lie. Faith seemed intrigued to have Charity there. I guess it was because there were one in the same, but I couldn't help feel that Charity was trying to 'play the role' again and I wasn't too much against jabbing something sharp in her again. I didn't hate her, but I really didn't feel bad for her either, unlike Faith...well, I didn't really know much about Charity other than she was taking out our whole slayer line, one at a time. It's crazy to have her here right now. Months ago she was trying to put me behind bars, now she was tyring to get my help? Somethingw as definitely off.
"So, did we get the mojo set up?" Kelly asked, " I don't like having her here, the bitch..."
"Hey!" Charity said.
Kelly looked from her to us, then put a hand in front of her mouth and whispered, " THE ITCH-BAY is AZY-Cray!"
We chuckled.
"So, how are things? Where's the other guy? The son of two vampires." Charity asked, looking around.
Everyone, again, looked at me.
"Um, Kelly, there's duct tape. Get it." I said angrily.
"uh oh, someone didn't last." Charity smiled, " Even after he came back from that Hell Dimension."
"Look, you need my help, right? Not the way to get it." I said walking to the fireplace, " Is that spell ready?"
"Yup." Willow smiled, " She can't lie. She's all 'George Washington' after the the cherry tree."
"Good." I smirked, " Now sing canary."
"Why are you here?" Doug asked.
"Senior Partners are after me." Charity said honestly.
"What color is the sky?" Doug asked.
"Blue, with white clouds." Charity said.
"Right now." Kelly chuckled.
"Dark blue with star." Charity said.
"So, why are your bosses after you?" I asked.
"My ex-employers are after me because Lindsey and I failed to get rid of you, but Lindsey blamed it on me, sighting that I was the sole cause." Charity said looking up at me.
"So, you got what you deserved?" Oz asked.
"Yes." she said without hesitation, " You son of a bitch! You're not gonna pay for that...damn it!" she said, trying to threaten Oz.
"Settle down." I said, " Are they still after me."
"No. They figure the Hellmouth will get you." Charity smiled.
"Huh?" Willow asked.
"That's all I know." Charity said, " All I know is that it's really bad. Something about a vampire and a Goddess."
"The spell is about to poop out," Willow said, " Do you need anymore?"
"Nope, just one more." I smirked, " Are you a sick bitch that tortured animals or did you suffer some serious trauma?"
Charity choked back words, " I am the geeky, goth girl who was teased. I was raped and made to feel like I was weak. So, me exterminating slayers is my way of being the best." she said angrily, looking away from us.
"If you didn't kill slayers...people, I'd say that was sad." I said quickly, " Now let her go, she's on her own."
"What? I thought you were going to help me." Charity said frantically.
"Did you honestly think I was going to let you stay in my house? I don't trust you with a dollar bill." I said, walking back to the kitchen. When I got there, Faith was right behind me.
"Yo, Aus, you can't do that. She's a slayer and she needs us to protect her." Faith said.
"She killed so many slayers, I saw them in my dreams, you probably did too." I sighed, " And she tried to kill me, even working with the worst possible evils." I said, searching the fridge.
Faith leaned against the counter, " Just until we take her back to Giles." she said.
I shut the fridge and looked at her, " You're not taking her to Giles! There are a whole lotta slayers there and..."
"I agree with Faith." Willow said behind us, " She's a slayer and she deserves to have the same training you had."
"But she's not like me! She's..." I groaned.
"Like me." Faith sighed, " You and Buffy are so self-righteous! She's made mistakes, yeah, but she's still a slayer."
"Don't make this about you, Faith." I scoffed, " Sorry if I don't have the sisterhood bond, but guess what, she's tried to kill me more than once."
"So did I...only you were Buffy." Faith said.
"I tried to kill my friends too." Willow said meekly.
"Sorry, not in your little club, but I can actually see she's a psycho." I frowned, " Besides, you guys needed help. I offered help and she made a choice."
"Now I'm asking again." Charity said, walking into the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes, " Doesn't matter, I mean how long's it gonna last?" I asked.
"Forever! How's forever! I wanna help...I get it, it's all about helping." Charity cried.
"You'd say anything, wouldn't ya?" I asked, " But I see right through you."
"Hey." Faith said, standing, " Back off."
"Faith and Charity are right..." Willow said, " We need all the help we can get."
"Well, there's the issue. She's not helping and she's no longer welcomed in my house." I said sternly.
"Then I guess I'm not welcomed here." Faith said.
"I guess not." I said angrily.
Before either one of us could say another word, there was a crash and a scream and by the time we made it into the living room, everyone was gone and my window was broken.
I turned to Charity, " Your friends?" I asked.
"More like my enemies." she said, running to the door.
"Wiilow, I need you to get crackin on a tracking spell, Faith, weapons." I said.
"What about me?" Charity asked.
"I need you to get the hell out of my house." I shouted.
"look, you really need me now." Charity said, " And if worse comes worse, you can always use me as a trade-off."
I thought about it.
"Grab a weapon." I said quickly.
"Oh! I almost forgot." Willow said, walking to her luggage, " Here." she said, handing me sais.
"What's this?" I asked.
"A present from the girls." Willow smiled.
They were wooden and I liked them. I twirled them, " Fun." I smirked.
"One does the middle make, it make the..." The hooded figure sung, " It's a..."
The gang was tied upside down over a conveyor belt as the demon sharpened his weapon. Kelly nodded and woke up to realize what happened. She tired to swing over to the other, but found that there was no success to be had. Suddenly she stopped and looked over to see the demon holding her with a weapon in the other hand! The demon was blue with bumps all over his face and he looked similar to Frankenstein.
"You should sleep now." the demon said.
"Um, not sleepy...I should be going home." Kelly squeaked.
"You shall die!" the demon shouted.
"Why?" Kelly gasped as the demon raised his machete!
An arrow shot through his arm and he roared and looked back at me, Charity, and Faith.
"I think that got his attention, " I nodded, tossing the crossbow to Charity, " Hey, smurf, what's the deal?"
"YOU!" he said, pointing at Charity.
I looked at Charity, " You have no friends, do you?" I asked.
She shrugged and the demon ran towards us and I pulled out my sais and jumped out of my way and let Charity and Faith take him on. I ran to the gang and jumped onto the conveyor belt, cutting them down one by one.
"Cool knife thingys, where'd you get 'em?" Kelly asked groggily.
"The other slayers." I answered before I felt a hand on my collar and felt myself fly backwards!
Before I could get to my feet, a machete came down at me, but I put the sais up and stopped the machete before it came through me! I kicked his leg, but nothing happened.
"You are nothing!" the demon said loudly.
"Think so?" I asked, moving from in front of the machete and kicked the back of his knee, causing im to lose his balance, but he elbowed me so hard that I flew back.
The demon marched towards me, but stopped as an arrow came through his head! I looked up to see Charity with her crossbow aimed at him. She walked over and helped me up.
"Are you okay?" Charity asked.
I nodded, " Thanks." I smiled, then I pushed her out of the way and jumped back, nearly missing his machete, then crossing my sais across his neck, decapitating him!
charity got to her feet, " Thanks." she said.
"It's what we do." I smiled, looking down at the demon, " I prefer vampires, no messy clean-up."
"I think we should leave him." Faith said, joining us.
"I second that." Charity said, following Faith.
"It's unanimous." I said, walking away.
The next day, I stood in the kitchen, watching Faith teaching Charity some kung fu moves and meditation. I knew that shew as going to connect with Faith in that way, like I did with Buffy and that maybe Charity was right. I was the Buffy to her Faith. I had talked to Doug and Kelly, who had gone to Doug's apartment to help him with his head injury after falling on it. I gott remember to catch them when they fall..lol. They said they'd meed Oz and I at the expo at college, so I smiled to myself and turned around to see Willow, who had gotten a cup of coffee and sat at the counter, smiling.
"What?" I asked.
"You do love the dark jeans and hoodies, don't ya?" Willow chuckled, sipping her coffee, " A little jealous?"
"No." I said immaturely, " A little."
"Don't be...between you and me, they're criminals." Willow smirked.
"Still haven't gotten over that whole 'I hate Faith' thing, huh?" I smiled.
"I have...I mean, she helped save the world and there's..." Willow paused, " I'm making great strides.
"I know." I said, getting a cup of coffee.
"So, umm, Oz is great with the band, huh?" Willow said.
I walked to the counter with my coffee, " Oh yeah, he's..." and that's when I met her gaze, " Willow, I..."
"No, it's...Oz. He's all grown up." Willow said, " Plus, I have Kennedy and..."
"How'd you know?" I asked.
"It's not that hard to see, I mean, he drools over you just as much as you drool over him." Willow smirked, taking a sip of coffee.
"Nothing's going to come from it, I respect him too much and I need him too much to ever lose him." I confessed.
"Somehow, I don't think it's gonna work like that." Willow said.
"You've talked to him, haven't you...what'd he say?' i asked.
Before I could say anything else, Oz walked through the backdoor.
"Did you know that you have two felons in your backyard?" Oz joked.
"Yeah, I'm keeping them as decoration." I smiled.
"You ready? Van's all gassed up." he asked.
"Ooooh, where ya going?" Willow asked.
"College expo, wanna go?" I asked.
"Sure." Willow smirked.
"I've gott go get my keys in the living room, be back." I said, leaving.
Willow looked at Oz, " You were listening around the corner, weren't you?" she asked.
"You felt me?" Oz asked.
"Yeah, and also, you should work on your 'wolfy' stealth." Willow chuckled.
"So, he's not gonna make the first move?" Oz asked.
"Nope. I think he really needs you as a friend right now." Willow replied, " Do you love him?"
"Yes." Oz asked.
I walked back into the room, " Ready?"" I asked.
"Yes." Oz and Willow said as we left the house.
Thank you for reading. If you have thoughts, suggestions, comments, just E-Mail me.