Chapter Text
Faith performed a perfect jumping spin kick and knocked the watermelon off the fence post. She grinned and admired her handy-work. The watermelon exploded in a very satisfying way. If she hadn't known better, she would have assumed it had been blasted with dynamite.
Three weeks ago she saw the move on TV. It had taken careful planning to acquire the watermelon and find enough seclusion to try out the kick. In the meantime, she had imagined it thousands of times in her head.
It had totally been worth all the effort.
"That was very well done, Faith." A woman's voice froze Faith in her tracks and sucked all the joy out of the moment. Even though the words were kind, Faith knew she was in serious trouble.
She considered running - there's no way this old lady could catch her. However, she didn't see the point if the woman knew her name - it was already too late.
Faith wasn't sure why she had been given these powers, but she knew she had to hide them. She was already too old, and if people knew she was a freak - they would never adopt her.
"Uh, thanks." She manages to choke out. She kept her eyes on the watermelon shrapnel and waited for the woman to retreat. Instead, she moved closer.
"What else can you do?"
Faith was startled at that question and how close the woman suddenly was.
"Can you run fast?" The woman asked with a hint of glee in her voice.
"Hell yeah, I can!" Faith felt the woman's excitement and fell into it. "Wanna race? I bet I can beat ya!" Faith grinned up at the stranger, never feeling this excited about anything before in her life.
"Do you think so?"
"I'm the fastest kid here." Faith crossed her arms over her chest with confidence.
"I'm Diana. It's very nice to meet you, Faith." Diana holds out her hand, and Faith eyes it skeptically. She was excited to race - not to shake hands.
"Are we gonna race?" Faith's voice is smaller now, and her arms drop to her side. She had forgotten that this woman knew who she was and saw her kick the watermelon.
"We definitely will," Diana responds with a smile.
"To the fence," Faith says and motions to the fence about 100 yards away. "If I win - you buy me pizza and ice cream."
Diana laughs. "What happens if I win?"
"Trust me, you won't." Faith says with confidence, and Diana chuckles again.
"Still, there should be some stakes in it for me." Diana thinks for a moment. "How about if I win - the pizza we get has to have some kind of vegetable on it?"
Faith scowls at this idea, but she's not too concerned. "Deal." Faith puts out her hand, and Diana takes a moment to shake it. Faith is nothing like she expected.
Faith quickly moves to a starting position, "I'll give you a head start." She motions to a post about 10 feet ahead.
Diana grins and decides that she loves this little girl and will do everything she can to protect her. "How very magnanimous of you."
"Manga- what?"
"Considerate?" Diana offers, and Faith nods in understanding.
"Ready?" Faith asks with confidence.
Diana opts not to take the head start, and Faith grins at her while deciding that she might like this woman. She refuses to really trust the feeling just yet. But Diana is definitely the coolest woman she's ever met.
"Ready, set, go!" Diana counts them down, and they are both off like a shot.
Faith decides to give the lady a break and doesn't go full tilt - that is until she looks over and sees Diana matching her stride for stride. "Hey!" Faith has the chance to say before Diana shoots ahead of her.
The race is over in less than 10 seconds, and Faith is left completely confused. It wasn't possible that she had lost this race. It just wasn't.
Then Faith realized that somehow Diana snuck up on her. That wasn't possible either. Faith could hear the tiniest of noises. She couldn't count the number of hours she sat alone in the woods and just listened. She could track every creature, identifying what type of animal and which direction it was going in. She made a game of chasing rabbits and mice down - just because she could.
Truthfully, she hated being inside with the other orphans. She could hear everything they said about her. She could even hear the adults, who were just as cruel and biting with their comments.
No human had been able to sneak up on her for over a year. Something was very peculiar about this woman, and Faith wasn't sure she liked it.
"Are you ready to come home with me now?" Diana asks with a wry grin.
"But… I…" Faith frowns. This was the last thing she was expecting. She thought she was special, but it turns out she's not special at all.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Diana doesn't immediately understand how drastic Faith's change in demeanor is.
"Nothing." Faith drops her head and kicks at a rock. "I don't wanna go with you. You can't make me. They told me I'm old enough that I get a choice!"
Diana frowns and backs up, realizing she has made a grave mistake with her approach to Faith. The girl is standing with her arms crossed over her chest with a furious pout on her face. Diana's heart was breaking at the same time she had to hold back a chuckle.
"Faith?" Diana risked moving closer and knelt down so she would be at Faith's level.
Faith's response was to turn her head and clasp her body tighter with her arms. This is the first time it was evident how young Faith really was.
"Wouldn't you like to know why you're so fast and strong?" Diana tries to ask softly.
Faith sniffles a little, doing her damnedest not to cry. She doesn't cry. She doesn't care about Diana or what she has to tell her. Doesn't care about pizza and ice cream. And definitely doesn't care why she's so fast and strong.
"You are a very special little girl, Faith. Please let me help you."
"Am not." Faith kicks at another rock, and it goes flying. She winces when there is the unmistakable sound of glass breaking in the distance. She hopes it's too far away for Diana to notice.
"Yes, you are, Faith." Diana is amazed at Faith's strength. She has helped train several young slayers, and she has never seen one even remotely as strong as Faith.
"You beat me." Faith grumbled and started to walk away.
"I did - and we had a deal. Let me take you for pizza and ice cream." Diana knows she could force Faith to go with her, but she also knows any chance of gaining Faith's trust will be lost if she does. "If you don't like what I have to say - I will bring you back here."
"I'll go with you if you can tell me one thing." Faith looks up with tears brimming her eyes. "What's so special about me?"
Diana pushes out a breath in relief. "Well, for one, you are the strongest Slayer I have ever met."
"Slayer?" Faith's interest is piqued, and she quickly catches up. "What's that?"
"You said I only had to tell you one thing." Diana grinned, and Faith rolled her eyes.
"You kinda suck - did ya know that?" Faith grumbled but followed Diana back to the house to sign her out.
Diana couldn't resist laughing - she knew she shouldn't let Faith speak to her this way but now wasn't the time to correct her.
Faith scowled at the green peppers on her slice of pizza. She tried to pick the one with the most pepperoni, hoping to cover up the taste. After her first bite, she decided maybe peppers weren't so bad after all.
"So when are you gonna tell me what a slayer is?" Faith asks a little too loud.
There is no one close to them, but Diana still winces. "I need you to promise me something first."
Faith stopped mid-bite and let her slice fall to the plate with a plop. She knew there was a catch. There's always a catch. "What?"
"What am I about to tell you needs to be kept in the strictest confidence."
"Huh?"
Diana frowned and realized that Faith needed more than just slayer training. "It's a secret. No one else can know what we discuss here today. Whether you decide to stay with me or not."
Faith had been told to keep secrets before, and her stomach roiled at the word. She pushed the plate away and prepared for the worst.
Diana wondered how she was going to explain this. She also wondered how the concept of secrecy caused so much distress to the young girl. It wasn't the first time she doubted the Council's decision to wait until Faith was older to approach her. It was one thing for the girls with stable homes, but Faith had been left to grow up under terrible conditions.
"Don't worry. I can keep a secret." Faith spat out in a tone far more jaded than any 11-year-old should ever have to use.
"Faith I…" Diana trailed off. She couldn't promise that she'd never hurt Faith or even that she'd keep her safe. There was no way to keep that promise. The last thing Diana wanted to do was lie or even give half-truths. "It isn't that kind of secret."
Faith's eyes snapped up, terrified that maybe Diana understood more than she should. "What does that mean?"
"It just means that it's not a bad secret. It's not the kind of secret that…. Hurts."
"What other kind of secrets are there?" Faith asks, her tone lightening, but she's clearly still skeptical.
"Do you know what the CIA is?" Diana had no idea how to relate to Faith. It was clear the girl had very little formal education.
Faith frowns with confusion. "I think so - like on TV?"
"Right - the agents in the CIA have to keep secrets to keep everyone safe. Often they can't even tell anyone who they really work for." Diana was relieved that Faith seemed to be following her explanation.
"Being a … slayer…." Faith whispers the word. "Is like being in the CIA?"
Diana grins with relief. "Yes - exactly. I am going to teach you how to keep people safe. But no one else can know - or it will put them in danger."
Faith's stomach was settling, and she took another tentative bite of her pizza while she thought about this. "But I'm just a garbage foster kid. What can I do?"
"With some training…." Diana leaned forward and grinned conspiratorially. "You are going to save the world."
Two weeks later
Diana was at her wit's end. It had only been two weeks, and she had made no progress with getting Faith to trust her. Every bit of training equipment had been destroyed, and she had no idea what to do next. And that was only half their problem.
Faith refused to unpack or make use of any of the items Diana had purchased for her. At first, Diana assumed this was because Faith was picky, and she offered to let Faith select her own clothes.
Faith returned that offer with a scoff that was well beyond her years. It was clear that the foster system had damaged Faith significantly. Diana just hoped it wasn't beyond repair.
Faith showed no interest in learning what slayers were or anything about the evil that lurked all around them. She gave her the slayer handbook, but Diana had no idea if Faith could even read.
There seemed to be no way to broach the subject without making things worse. She knew she just had to be patient.
As difficult as Faith was, there was also something special about her. She had a charm about her that Diana couldn't explain. She just knew if she could break through to the girl - that Faith would go on to do great things.
"Rupert," Diana whispered into her side of the call.
"Diana! It's so nice to hear from you."
"Shhh." Diana rebuked him.
"Diana?" Rupert Giles responded with confusion. They had spoken regularly for years, and he had never been shushed before for his enthusiasm.
"I'm sorry… I'm just sure she's listening." Diana knows just saying this out loud was going to put more distance between them.
"Ah," Giles replied. "She still doesn't trust you?"
"I don't know if it's me so much as pretty much everything," Diana says sadly.
Giles chuckled, "I have seen that a time or two myself."
Diana wanted to roll her eyes but stopped herself. She found that she was copying Faith's mannerisms more and more lately, and it was starting to get disturbing. "She won't accept anything from me. She hides food. And… I'm pretty sure she's been stealing."
"From you?" Giles sounded genuinely concerned for the first time.
"No!" The idea hadn't even occurred to Diana that Faith might steal from her. It would make no sense to steal when Diana offered to provide anything she might want. She refused to believe that Faith would do that to her until she had some evidence.
"How is the training coming along?"
Diana couldn't help but smile as she thought of her charge. "She is magnificent, Giles. Truly. Though… she has outgrown all of my facilities." Diana winced at the half-truth. Faith destroyed her training equipment. It was clear that she could control her strength - she just preferred not to. Diana couldn't really fault her - this would be the first time in Faith's life that she could go full out.
"I thought she was only 13."
"She is only 11." Diana retorts with some pride in her voice. It was complicated speaking to Giles about Faith. She had known him her entire life, but he was still part of the Council. She feared that if the Council knew how extraordinary Faith was - they might take her away. Diana knew that Faith needed more time to develop before the Council got their hands on her.
"Interesting." Giles ponders for a moment. "Have you considered taking her on a field trip?"
"She's not ready for that." Diana immediately dismisses the idea.
"Are you so certain?" Giles questions, "I have found a little dose of reality can be the best way to get an unruly slayer to cooperate."
"You might have a point there." Diana considers and swears she hears feet padding by her door. She decides it's time to change the subject. "How have things been going with Buffy?"
Giles sighs loudly. "She is… I'm not quite sure yet. She spent far too much time on her own, I fear. She is by far the most exceptional pure fighter I have worked with, but all our attempts to integrate her into a squad have not gone well."
Diana bit her lip to prevent suggesting that it might be only because he hadn't met Faith yet. Buffy was called young like Faith was - but the Council had foolishly decided to leave her on her own until she was 14. By that point, she had a fully formed sense of self and refused to give up her "normal life." Diana and Giles had discussed it at great length. Buffy's story was part of why she sought Faith out against the Council's wishes. If Diana had been a watcher and not a slayer - they almost certainly would have taken her away by now. As a retired slayer, she was left to her own devices.
"Is it so bad if she works solo? I can see that some missions might work better alone." Diana offered up, and Giles practically grunted.
"It might be fine, except she is adamant about including her two very human and very average friends." Giles rubs his temple. "We are making progress, I believe. It's just been a little frustrating."
"I hear that," Diana chuckles at using a Faithism. "Well, thanks for commiserating with me. Speak soon." She hangs up the phone and listens to feet scampering away from her door.
"Field trip." She ponders out loud. "Yes - I think that's just what Faith needs." Now she would just have to figure out how to convince Faith to cooperate.
"Why do you do that?" Diana finally asks after Faith sneaks the fourth roll into her backpack.
"Do what?" Faith chews her cereal carefully and looks away from Diana.
Diana sits down across from Faith. "You are fast enough to trick civilians - but I am a slayer too. I can see what you're doing."
Faith scowls, pushes her bowl away, and jumps to her feet. "I wasn't doing nothing!" Faith stomps off to the front door with her backpack clutched tightly to her chest. Diana watches her go without a word. With the slow steps Faith takes, she obviously expects to be stopped.
Diana just sits back with her arms crossed over her chest and stares when Faith looks back as she opens the door.
Diana can't read Faith's expression, but she hopes it's regret.
"Faith, wait a second." Diana hops up, opens her weapons chest, and pulls out two stakes. "I am well aware that you can take care of yourself, but will you please take these for my peace of mind?"
Faith eyes the weapons skeptically. She had been begging for access to them since she arrived and wasn't a fool enough to pass up the chance. Even though she had yet to have any actual training with them.
Faith snatched them from Diana's hand and shoved them into her bag. "I am not coming back." Faith said each worth with authority and confidence that she didn't feel.
"That is your choice. As I said, I know you can take care of yourself. Just know that I am not upset with you for hoarding food. I only wanted to know why."
"Hoarding?" Faith asked the same way she always did when she didn't understand a word.
"Putting extra food in your bag." Diana always did her best to not show any judgment that Faith wasn't very well educated.
Faith eyed her for a moment. "You're not mad?" Faith looked back at the bag as she considered this. "But you gotta be. I stole from you, and now you're kicking me out."
"You didn't steal anything from me. That food is for you. You can do whatever you want with it." Diana pauses, watching Faith's face scrunch in confusion. "And I am not kicking you out. The last thing I want is for you to leave. But I understand that you don't feel safe here."
"I feel safe." Faith pouted, clearly at war with herself.
"If you're willing to stay - I thought we might go on a little field trip tonight."
Faith's eyes narrowed at the mention of the field trip. "So you can scare me into staying with you?"
Diana realized she had walked right into an impossible trap. Her only way out might be the truth. "Scaring you is not my intention."
"Right, I heard what you were saying. 'Dose of reality,'" Faith quoted Giles, though Diana wondered if she knew what that meant.
"I have told you stories of slayers, vampires, and demons, but I thought you might be interested in actually meeting some of them. Not to scare you, just so you understand what I want to train you for."
Faith pursed her lips. "Maybe that sounds okay."
"It will be dangerous for sure, but I will be there to keep you safe," Diana promises.
Faith was proud of herself for not laughing at the idea of Diana protecting her. Diana was fast, but Faith didn't think she could fight. "I got a question first." Faith moved back to the table and resumed eating her cereal. "What the hell is a Buffy?"
Diana swore under her breath as she rolled to the side. She had dusted the first vampire with poise and ease, but this second one is giving her real trouble.
"Yo!" Diana swore louder at the sound of Faith's shout.
"Faith, no!" But it was far too late. Faith had leaped from the top of the mausoleum with a stake in hand. She missed the heart, but the force of her blow ended up with her whole arm through the vampire's chest.
"Shit." Faith grumbled as she tried to pull her hand out. The vampire was flailing as it attempted to pull the small girl off its back, and Diana was left dumbstruck. "Aha!" Faith shouted with glee as she twisted the stake just right and was able to pull her arm back in such a way that the vampire's heart was impaled, and he turned to dust.
Faith dropped to her feet and clapped her hands together to wipe off the dust.
"That was wicked!" Then she jumped up in the air and spun around. "You were awesome! So fricken smooth on that first vamp." Then Faith perfectly mimicked Diana's moves on an imaginary target.
Diana still hadn't moved as she watched Faith's jubilant display.
"You okay? He didn't vamp you or something, did he?" Faith drew her stake back, clearly ready to deliver the killing blow if needed.
That woke Diana from her stupor, mostly because she was annoyed that Faith refused to listen to her on how vampires were made. "He would have had to have drained my blood first and then made me drink from him."
Faith grins widely, and Diana can't help but chuckle.
"You knew that, you little shit, didn't you?"
This response got Faith cackling and rolling on the ground as Diana was frozen in the horror of what she had just said.
"I'm so sorry, Faith. I didn't mean that!"
Faith stayed prone on her back as she wiped away the tears caused by her laughter. "Nah - you called it right. I totally am a little shit." Faith said this clearly without any negative connotation.
"Well, maybe you are. I still shouldn't have said it."
"Don't sweat it, D. I was trying to get under your skin." Then Faith performed a kip-up and was on her feet in one smooth movement.
"Since when do you call me D?" Diana buried her awe at Faith's moves once again. She had suspected that Faith learned her fighting moves from television and movies. Often they were over exaggerated and impractical. Faith had just perfectly mimicked her own actions after only seeing them once.
Faith shrugged and twirled her stake. "Where to next?"
Two years later
"What do you mean she can't go?" Diana shouted into the phone, not even caring that Faith might hear her. "You assured me that if she defeated Kakistos and his minions that she would be allowed to go!"
"We explained to you that she is simply too young to…" The arrogance oozed off the Council member whose name she didn't bother to learn.
"No, screw that. Faith is not too young for anything. Send someone here to evaluate her, and you will see." Diana didn't wait for an answer before she ended the call. "Self-righteous bastards."
"D?" Faith knocked and pushed the door open. "Everything cool?"
Diana looked up at her charge, now 13 years old and clearly in need of more than she could provide on her own.
"It's not that big of a deal if I don't get to go to SunnyD." Faith says with sadness, and it breaks Diana's heart.
Faith never asks for anything, not a single fucking thing. This is the only thing she's ever wanted, and Diana hates that she can't provide it for her.
"Got plenty of sh… stuff to kill in Boston." Faith dimples are out in full force, and Diana appreciates the self-censoring.
Diana crosses the room and places her hands on Faith's shoulders. It's the only affection Faith seems to tolerate even after over two years. "You belong there, Faith. You need to be around the other slayers your age, and you need to be part of the fight for the Hellmouth."
Faith flushes at the contact and the compliments. "Most of 'em are older, though, aren't they? Just that Buffy chick is close to my age."
Diana raises an eyebrow at the gleam in Faith's eye. "Wouldn't you like to meet her?"
Faith tries to cover her smile but doesn't quite manage it. "I mean, I guess."
Diana opts not to push Faith on this. She knows that Faith has developed a fascination with Buffy and hopes that things work out when they do meet. Though, she hopes Buffy's unwillingness to work with a team does not rub off on Faith.
"Who could that be?" Diana moves past Faith to answer the front door, and she is completely shocked to see six teenage girls on her doorstep.
"Are you Diana?" The oldest one says and pushes past her with the others in tow. "Where is Faith?"
"Rude much?" Faith says as she leans against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
"Are you kidding me? What is she 12?" one of the girls in the back mutters, and Faith's eyes narrow.
"Do you have a training room?" The oldest girl asks, and Diana is struck silent as she motions to the basement door.
The stream of new girls heads into the basement.
"The fuck?" Faith hisses, and Diana thinks the same thing, so she doesn't chastise her for swearing.
"Are you coming or what?" The girl complaining about Faith's age calls up to Faith.
"Should I?" Faith is very conflicted. She very much wants to train with these new slayers, but they just were extremely rude to the woman she considers to be her mother.
"You should." Then Diana approaches Faith and leans in close. "Don't be afraid to show them who you are."
Faith grins at this and sees that she might have an opportunity to teach these girls a lesson. "I'll make you proud, ma."
Tears well in Diana's eyes. Faith only occasionally called her ma, and Diana's heart swelled each time. "Of course, you will. You always do." Diana risked pressing a quick kiss to Faith's temple before pushing her in the direction of the door. She desperately wanted to follow but felt that might undermine Faith's confidence.
Faith eagerly tromped down the stairs to the basement, only pausing for a moment near the bottom when she saw that the lights were off. She almost laughs. This was going to be too easy.
Before fully entering the basement, she catches a knife aimed at her face and blocks a baton attack from the right. She keeps the knife and rolls to the side, using it to pin a slayer to the wall by her shirt. Faith knows that it's embedded so far into the wall that there's no way the other slayer can remove it.
She rolls to the side again and dispatches two more slayers before the lights turn up.
"Hold." The oldest slayer says and moves forward to inspect the damage. She's trying not to show how impressed she is until she sees the slayer pinned to the wall. "Wha... How…?"
She tugs on the knife, but it will not release. The slayer flails against the wall but cannot get free. The blade was not sharp enough to cut through her clothing.
"I got it." Faith moves forward and pulls out the knife like it had been buried in butter.
The snarky girl from earlier scoffs. "She's probably another Buffy." Several other slayers laugh at this comment.
The leader snaps her fingers, and the giggling stops instantly. "Can you work in a team?"
"D and me work together all the time."
The leader is not impressed. "Vi, Rona, and Kennedy." The three slayers step forward, and Faith frowns when she sees that the snarky girl is part of this grouping. Faith isn't really worried about the team aspect. She knew how to work people.
"We are going to disperse through a nearby cemetery." The leader motions to the remaining slayers. "The four of you will work together to find and defeat us."
Faith can see that Kennedy hates this idea and is opening her mouth to say something.
"Faith will be team lead." Kennedy scowls at this but doesn't say anything. "My name is Kendra," the oldest slayer says before following the rest of the slayers out of the basement.
Vi had been the slayer Faith pinned to the wall. "How did you do that?"
"It was just home-court advantage." Kennedy chuffs but neither Rona nor Vi take her bait.
Faith eyed Kennedy for a moment as she decided the best way to handle her. "You got a fairer fight in mind?"
Kennedy folded her arms over her chest and scowled. Faith had to resist rolling her eyes. Wasn't Kennedy supposed to be the mature one here?
"You play video games?" Faith asked and really hoped she called this right. Kennedy had the look of a rich spoiled brat, and they always played video games.
"What kind of video games?" Kennedy dropped her defensive posture.
Faith grinned and made her way upstairs. "I don't have a ton - but we can probably pick something up if you want to play something I don't have."
Three hours and countless rounds of Street Fighter later, Kennedy jumped up and shouted in victory. "You put up a good fight, kid, but no one beats the champ!"
Faith laughed and didn't bother pointing out that Kennedy kept changing the rules. Faith knew her battle with Kennedy wasn't nearly over.
Faith led them out of her room and back into the kitchen. "You guys hungry?"
"I ordered a few pizzas," Diana popped into the kitchen to get a read on the situation. It was evident that Faith had the other slayers well in hand. She couldn't possibly be more impressed with Faith.
"You rock, D." Faith grinned and sat down at the head of the table. Her choice of seating was strategic. It was time to make sure everyone knew she was in charge.
The slayers chatted amicably while they waited for the pizza to arrive. Faith asked questions and paid attention to everything. She could tell that no one really liked Kennedy. She was bratty and a bit of a bully. They laughed along with her nasty comments uncomfortably.
The pizza arrived, and they dug in.
"So," Faith started and waited until she had everyone's attention. "We've got a bunch of maps of the area we can go over. Is there anything you can tell me about Kendra and her crew?"
Vi and Rona jumped right in. Faith did not miss Kennedy's scowl or her silence but ignored it for now.
When Faith was thinking about wrapping up lunch and getting into the planning - Kennedy spoke up.
"So Faith," she leaned back in her chair with a nasty grin and her arms folded over her chest. "Why do you live with your watcher? Don't you have a real family?"
Before Faith could stop herself, she had Kennedy pinned to the wall by her throat. Neither Vi nor Rona stepped in to help.
Faith squeezed just a little harder than she knew she should. "Don't know where my family is. Maybe they're dead. Maybe they just abandoned me like trash. Don't really give a shit. D is good people, and you can say whatever you want about me - but you will not disrespect her. You got it?"
Kennedy had enough sense to nod, and Faith released her. She was ashamed of losing control of her anger, but it just wasn't right.
Kennedy rubbed at her neck with a scowl. "You know she only took you in because you're a slayer."
"What is wrong with you?" Vi spoke up before Faith could slam her into the wall again. "The only reason anyone cares about us is because we're slayers."
"Your family jumped at the chance to send you away. When was the last time they called?" Rona jumped in, and her comment actually made Faith feel a little pity for Kennedy. Only a little, though.
Kennedy looked like she had just been slapped across the face. "Whatever, let's just get this done."
Faith considered telling Kennedy to stay back. She had no idea how much trouble the girl was going to be. But that was probably part of her test. Could she work with entitled assholes? They were all about to find out.
"You two go check out the maps in D's office." Faith didn't take her eyes off of Kennedy.
"What? Do you expect me to apologize or something?" Kennedy rolled her eyes.
"Nah." Faith casually leaned against the table and crossed her arms loosely at her waist. "I figure one of two things is going on here."
Kennedy doesn't bother to respond to that, giving Faith another moment to collect her thoughts.
"Either you are part of my test. Or I'm part of yours."
Kennedy scrunches her face in surprise. "Why would I be the one being tested?"
"You got any real friends up at slayer camp?" Faith knew she hit the mark there. "Do they keep shifting you around to different teams?"
Kennedy opened and closed her mouth a few times. "I have a special skill set. I am an excellent slayer!" Kennedy raises her voice, but there is an unmistakable tremble.
"I have no doubt that you are." Faith capitulates, even though she's got all kinds of doubts. "You made that comment about B - Buffy." She quickly corrected herself. The last thing she needed was Kennedy finding a way to use Buffy against her. "About how she's a loner and can't work with anyone."
"Yeah, so? I'm not like she is. I have friends. People ask for me to be on their team!"
Faith blew out a breath. She thought she was making progress, but maybe Kennedy wasn't ready to see who she really was.
"But…" Kennedy said quietly and rubbed at her throat. "I do end up with the shit patrols a lot of the times, and they never send me out on missions."
"Except this one." Faith feels the point is more than made. "So how about this? We work together to catch Kendra and her crew, and we show 'em that we can both work in a team."
Kennedy groans loudly and rubs at her face. "Yeah, okay. I get it."
Faith contains her grin. She's not totally sure she has control of the situation. "I know you've got some dirt on Kendra that you didn't want to share."
Kennedy's lips twitch up, but she doesn't say anything.
"How good would it be for you if you were the one who caught her?" Faith asks mischievously, and the way Kennedy grins, she knows this mission will be a cakewalk.
The mission is not a cakewalk.
"Fuck." Faith hisses as she watches her team dissolve in front of her. She hadn't thought to ask how experienced any of these slayers were. She assumed they had seen at least as much as she has, but that is clearly not true. Kennedy was the best of the three, but she still wasn't a very good fighter.
"Vi, work your way to me." She shouts out, "Kennedy - get Rona's back."
Both slayers do their best to follow Faith's orders. Instead of four individual slayers surrounded by twenty vampires, they were in pairs, and twelve vamps were left.
"Go back to back!" Faith shouts out. "We got this, Vi. Trust me and trust yourself." She whispers to Vi and bumps her a little with her back.
"Got it, boss," Vi says back automatically and drives her stake into another vampire's heart.
Faith can't believe someone just called her boss, but she totally loves it. It only takes a few more moments until only three vampires are left. They each turn tail and run into the woods. Faith hears crossbow bolts and watches as each of them is dispatched before they can reach the trees.
"The fuck?" Faith hisses yet again. Her rage builds further when the other slayers emerge from the darkness. "Yo, Kendra! What the hell was that about? You leaving us hanging out to dry like that?!" Faith is incensed.
"It was part of your test," Kendra says with a head tilt, not understanding Faith's anger. "You performed up to standards."
"Up to standards? Are you fucking kidding me? Have those girls ever even fought a vamp before - even seen a vamp before tonight?" Faith points back to her team, feeling a little bad about ragging on them. "Man, fuck this. If this is how you treat your slayers, the last thing I want is to be a part of it."
Faith clenches her fists by her side and walks away.
"Hey, Faith. Wait up." Kennedy calls to her, but she doesn't slow down at all.
Faith is not in the mood for Kennedy right now, but she's too angry to send her away.
"I cannot believe you told Kendra off like that," Kennedy says with complete awe. "She is like the general of the slayer army - if we were an army."
"Canon Fodder." Faith grumbles under her breath. "That's all we are to them, isn't it? I bet there's some council of ancient rich white dudes making all the calls. They decide where and how many. They decide how to gear us up. They decide which ones of us get to live or die."
Kennedy gasps at the points Faith is making, but Faith isn't done.
"The hook us up with a watcher to train us, but they don't give a fuck about us. One of us dies, and another just pops up in her place." Faith wondered if they knew at birth who would be a slayer. She wouldn't let herself think too much about that. Her past was her past and as awful as it was - it lead her to this moment.
"Your watcher does care about you," Kennedy argues though she's not entirely sure why. Faith is shaking her confidence in everything she's ever believed in.
"Yeah, maybe. But like you said - only cause I'm 'special'" Faith scoffs and rolls her eyes. It hurts her more than she will acknowledge knowing that Diana doesn't actually care about her.
"So you're not coming back with us?" Kennedy asks, more than a little surprised that she really wants Faith to come.
Faith stops walking and looks back into the graveyard. The slayers are still in sight, and Faith can see that Kendra is staring at her. "Fuck that." Faith says, "I'm coming, and I'm fixing that fucking place."
"You swear a lot for a kid." Kennedy points out, and they both burst into laughter.