FIC: Afternoon at the Bronze (1/1)

["M.L. Tankesly" <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings all...finally got a bit of relief from my "writer's block",
yay me! So I'm back and apparently just as strange as ever. *lol* So
without ado...enjoy.

Shadow

Title: RS1: Afternoon at the Bronze (1/1)
Series: Part 1 of the "Reality Shift" series.
Author: Shadowlander
Email: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx - or - Tankesly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with

Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended.
Pairing: B/W
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Alternate Universe type stuff, Faith is the slayer who killed
the
Master and Buffy is just a simple musician...yeah right! Everything
else is
a product of my rather unusual imagination. :)

AFTERNOON AT THE BRONZE (1/1)

Pzzzzzzzt!!

"Ouch!..you son of a bit-" Buffy Summers growled jerking away from
the mangled patch of wires and transistors formerly known as the
amplifier that powered her guitar. "Useless piece of-" she continued to

mutter in French adding several rather colourful and somewhat
impossible curses for good measure about the physical well-being of the
makers of the ancient sound equipment. Tossing aside her screwdriver in

disgust she gave the fried remains of her beloved amplifier a swift kick
and
turned her attention to her quietly laughing audience of one. "What?"
she asked before dropping down to sit on the edge of the stage with a
tired sigh.

This had not been her week - well, if she was going to be really honest
with
herself, her year. She was terribly behind in her schoolwork, about to
fail
most of her classes, except for French, which she apparently had a
natural
aptitude for. Who knew she would have a flair for French insults and
curses? Then there was her mother, who was still nagging her about the
whole "musician" thing, the two hour lectures on the possibilities of
actually being able to support herself later in life had gotten really
old five
minutes into the first lecture on the first night. Although that little
fact
hadn't stopped her mother from continuing to try to change her only
child's mind on her chosen profession. So what if she wanted to be a
musician for the rest of her life? It didn't matter if she ever got a
record
contract or made it big. Music was the one constant in her life, the
one
thing that had helped her get over her parents' divorce and the move to
Sunnydale. Then she had met Willow, the shy little redhead whose smile
lit up the whole room. Well, it seemed that way to Buffy
and that was all that really mattered.

"You're hopeless B," Faith replied with a laugh, leaning back in her
chair
with her booted feet propped up on the table in front of her. "You're
so
sickeningly in love its nauseating." The Slayer continued with an evil
little
smirk before taking a drink of her soda. Not that the dark-haired
Slayer
begrudged the blonde musician any type of happiness, especially when
that happiness happened to be in the form of her best bud, Willow, she
just liked to tease her friends.

"I'll remember that the next time you need mouth to mouth, wouldn't
want you to get a cavity because of me," the blonde shot back with a
smirk of her own. Referring to that little incident earlier that month,

when Faith went after the Master on her own without the rest of the gang

as backup. By the time Buffy and the dark-haired vamp with a soul
caught up with her, Faith was laying face down in a pool of water.

"Well since I have absolutely no desire to ever repeat my little tango
with
his dust-ship, anytime soon. I doubt you will be giving me any more
smoochies, unless Red is there too - and willing." Faith replied her
cocky
little grin growing at the immediate reaction from the blonde.

"You can keep you're smoochies to yourself," Buffy all but growled,
before seeing the laughter in her friend's eyes. Ever since Willow had
hesitantly introduced the blonde to her friends in the library, Faith
had
taken to teasing the shy hacker every chance she got. None of it meant
in a mean way, the musician had concluded, the Slayer just liked to
watch
her Wills turn red. And Wills was learning how to return the Slayer's
shots with her own fire as they researched and insulted late at night in
the
library.

To most outsiders it would seem that the three of them rarely got along
with one another, the way they and Cordelia were constantly trading
insults. Which was totally untrue, while they did like to tell one
another
off at least once a month. They didn't see it as expressing any hatred,
it
was just the gang blowing off a little stream every now and then. It
wasn't like they ever stayed mad at one another for any great period of
time. The longest the little group had ever gone without speaking was
about a day and a half, and that was only because Cordelia got stuck in
traffic
and couldn't apologize for telling off the Slayer until Monday morning.
Hell, the whole group would start worrying if they didn't pop off at one

another on a regular basis; it just wasn't healthy in their opinion.
They
were friends, in a lot of ways family really, and families argued, so it
really
wasn't all that strange to them. They would insult one another,
apologize
later and get on with their lives. It was normal...well as normal as it
ever
got in Sunnydale anyway.

"So you're going hunting for that werewolf again?" Buffy asked changing

the subject. Sometimes it was best not to let the dark Slayer think
about
smoochies and sex too long, she tended to start acting on such thoughts.

Every since that big hairy thing had evaded the Bronze two nights ago,
she had been on edge. Something about the way the creature was acting,
besides the over all "grrr" part and trying to eat several people on the

dance floor, had bothered her. Granted, Faith was able to step in
before it
could kill anyone, once Buffy had introduced the creature to the effects

of getting a live mike too close to an amplifier. There was something
to
be said about feedback...it was our friend. 'At least, the amp went out
a
hero of sorts,' she ruefully thought thinking about the fried remains of

the heroic amplifier she had been trying to fix all afternoon.

"Oh yeah, going to introduce Big Bad to Mr. Dart Gun, the two of them
just have to meet," Faith replied merrily, a big goofy-looking grin
plastered across her face. After finally taking care of the Master once
and
for all, a wasted six months dusting half his minions, including that
annoying little one, just to get close enough to the mutant Uncle
Fester.
She was looking forward to wrapping up this little problem too and
spending the rest of school year sleeping in class like a normal
teenager.
Thankfully the werewolf problem didn't cause too many headaches while
she was hunting down the master and his bratty kids. Well, except for
the
three nights during the full moon cycle, sometimes she didn't get in
until
after sunrise the next day as she chased vampires and one really elusive

werewolf around town at all hours.

"You really like that dart gun, don't you?" Buffy asked cocking her
head
to one side, remembering the glazed over look the Slayer got every time
she went near the weapon's cage in the library.

"What's not to like?" came the eager reply, as Faith pulled her feet
off of
the table and stood to stretch. "If I can figure out a way to get it to
shoot
little wooden stakes my job would be so much easier.
"You hear that?" she asked suddenly her enhanced hearing picking up a
stray
noise near the back door. Since Big Bad's little romp through the
Bronze two
nights ago, she had also been a little edgy.

Aside from it being the first time the werewolf had been spotted inside
a
building, that earlier incident where she fought it inside the sporting
good
shop not counting since she was the one that throw said werewolf
through the picture window to begin with. The creature seemed really
focused two nights ago, like it was really determined to get to a
certain
person in the Bronze. She hadn't said anything to B, but Faith was
pretty
sure that Big Bad had been headed right for Red. Maybe she was
overreacting and Red just happened to be in the general vicinity of the
creature's path that night...yeah right. If she believed that one, then

Darla had been one hell of a snappy dresser before Fang dusted the
blonde
vampire. Something else was going on with Big Bad, she could feel it in

her bones she didn't know how it involved Red...yet. But she was going
to find out. No one, vamp, demon or otherwise messed with her friends,
it tended to annoy her when one of them got hurt. It made her want to
break things, put people in hospital, and do several other really
antisocial
things to people and demons she didn't know. In all it made for an
unhappy Slayer and when the Slayer was unhappy the demon populace
was made to feel pain. It was one of those unspoken rules of Sunnydale
not found in any of the tour guides, along with the fact that the town
itself set over the mouth of hell.

"Nah," Buffy replied jumping down from her perch on the side of the
stage. "It could be one of bouncers or something," she suggested coming

to stand beside Faith.

"Yeah could be...wanna take a look?" the Slayer offered with a twinkle
in
her eye.

Buffy was near the back door when she finally heard the noise that had
first alerted Faith near the stage. Putting her hand on the handle of
the
door, she listened for a moment to see if she could hear the noise
again. Sunset was still a few hours away. so it couldn't be a vampire.
Then
she heard it. A voice she could recognize in a thunderstorm, just
outside
the back door. 'Willow!' her mind screamed, jerking open the door she
rushed outside without a second thought, reason being overwhelmed by
instinct. Her Wills was in trouble and she didn't care if she had to go

through a chaos demon, but she would get to her girlfriend one way or
another.

*****************

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" she growled, grabbing a hold of the
figure that had backed the small redhead into a corner of the alley, and

forcibly pulled him away from her Wills with a jerk. "You!" she all but

cursed recognizing the senior that had been following Willow around
campus the past few months. At first they didn't think too much about
it until he had nearly followed her into the girls' locker room one day.

After that the gang had closed ranks around Willow trying to keep the
guy as far away from the redhead as possible.

*********************

Oz, the blue haired senior, rolled quickly to his feet and charged the
blonde standing between him and his prize. He had been following the
redhead around for weeks trying to get her alone, but one of her friends

had always been hanging around running him off. But not today, he had
caught her alone on her way to the Bronze to meet the annoying blonde
bitch that was the most vocal of her friends running him off. He had
almost had her too, when the very same blonde had come out the back
door and ruined everything. Well he wasn't going to take it anymore, he

had only wanted to talk to the shy redhead, get her to go out with him.
Now it seemed that he was going to have to take what he wanted and
maybe shut up that annoying blonde for awhile.

*****************

The sounds of fighting had drawn Faith out the back door as well, taking

in the situation quickly she made two firm decisions. One, that B was
having a lot of fun without her, fighting a guy with blue hair. And
two,
that the same blue haired guy was the one that had been creeping out
Willow lately. "All right, do I have to get a hose?" She questioned
reaching for the guy struggling with Buffy. Only to be stopped by a
strange little growl followed closely by a cry of pain.

Shaking off her surprise, Faith grabbed Oz by the back of his shirt and
forcible removes him from Buffy, momentarily forgetting her own
strength and sending him flying further then she intended. "Oops!" She

said, as he flew into bunch of empty boxes piled next to the dumpster,
taking a moment to enjoy the sound he made on impact.

"Faith!" Willow's cry prevented her form doing a little more pounding
on Oz, like she so wanted to. Something about the guy annoyed her,
maybe it was his inability to decide on a hair colour and stick with it
for
more then a week, such indecisiveness really got on her nerves...and she

absolutely hated that shade of blue on him. Turning her attention back
to her friends, she found Willow crouched next to a bleeding Buffy.

"What happened?" she questioned, briefly wondering if he had a knife
she
didn't see at first. If there was a knife somewhere in that alley she
was *so*
going to hurt blue-boy.

"He bit me," Buffy replied, pressing her right hand against her
bleeding
upper arm.

"What!?"

"He bit me," she said again trying to stop the blood steadily
flowing down her arm.

'No that can't be right,' Faith told herself firmly after the initial
shock
wore off. 'B wouldn't be bleeding that much unless...' she added to
herself before dropping to her knees in front of Buffy to take a look at

the bite mark herself. "Let me take a look," she said, trying to keep
her
own fear under control. She was the Slayer, she could handle anything.

Well just about anything. "That's not human," Willow said in a dull
whisper her eyes wide with fear for her girlfriend. "Because human
bites
shouldn't look like that and even if they do they still shouldn't be
considered human..." The redhead continued going into full babble mode,

turning her eyes to Faith begging her to make everything all right.
Because Faith the was the Slayer and she could make anything all right,
she always did, it was her gift.

Tearing her eyes away from Willow's scared and confused ones, she
threw a quick look over her shoulder. "Damn!" She cursed as she caught

blue-boy disappearing around the corner of the building. 'Worry about
him later,' she decided thinking fast. She would tear apart the town if
she
had to, but she would find him. "Giles, we've got to get to Giles,"
she said
firmly, helping Buffy to her feet. 'Then I'm going to add blue-boy to
the
"things-to-Slay" list.'

***********************

The School Library

Giles looked up from the ancient tome he was reading when the three
young girls came crashing through the library doors with little warning.

"G, we need you over here!" Faith called out, guiding Buffy to the
nearest chair.

'W-what happened," he asked scrambling around the research table once
he saw her blood soaked shirtsleeve.

"Blue-boy bite her," Faith replied moving out of the way to let the
Librarian/Watcher take a look at the wound. The redhead had already
disappeared into the office only to return moments later with the first
aid
kit, that bordered on actually being a trauma kit; Giles's private stash
of
medicinal herbs and the fire extinguisher. Although Faith was a bit
puzzled over why they would need the fire extinguisher she wisely kept
her mouth shut, Willow looked like she was about to spit nails. And
while the Slayer did tend to be reckless at times, she was not stupid.
She
could tell an emotionally distraught person when she saw one and wasn't
about to risk getting attacked by one. 'No sir, not this Slayer,' she
told
herself leaning back against the table so she could watch Giles work
from
a safe distance.

Dumping everything onto the table Willow planted herself next to the
injured blonde, her demeanor shifting from being scared out of her wits
to being outraged that he wasn't moving fast enough.

"Blue-boy?" Giles questioned crouching down so he could a better look
at Buffy's arm.

"Oz...you know the guy that's been hanging around Red a lot."
"Ah...I thought his hair was green," Giles replied absently, carefully
peeling away the shredded blood soaked shirtsleeve. "Ah, I-I'm going
to have to re-remove your shirt," he added glancing up into Buffy's
pain-clouded eyes. In the time it took to get to the library, the pain
in
her arm had developed into a steady throbbing and she had begun to get a
bit
light headed from the loss of blood.

"Its blue today," Faith commented leaving her safe position to step
closer
to Willow and Giles who were both trying to take off Buffy's shirt
without causing her too much pain. Batting their hands away, she
briefly
caught the musician's eyes with her own. "Hate to be doing this B," she

said in a low voice before grabbing a handful of fabric in each hand and

ripping the shirt open down the front.

"No you're not," Buffy replied with a weak smile, trying to lighten the

mood a bit.

After a moment, "You're right, I'm not...so am I better than Red at
tearing your clothes off?" she couldn't help but ask, a naughty little
grin
shining in her eyes as she retreated to her former position.

"Wouldn't you like to know..." Buffy shot back as Willow slipped the
ruined shirt off over her shoulders, Giles having turned his attention
to
the medical supplies and...the fire extinguisher. Giving his Slayer a
confused look, he decided to drop the matter when Faith only gave him
an amused smirk and a shrug. Some things he was just happier not
knowing, he decided before opening the medical kit and rummaging
around inside it for bandages and the disinfectant.

Returning his attention to his patient, he set about cleaning and
disinfecting the injury as best he could. "You say you were bitten by
another student?" he asked after a few moments, having finally gotten
the
bleeding to stop so he could take a closer look at the wound.

"Yeah," Buffy replied, trying to crane her head around to see what he
was
doing to her arm. "Came out the back door of the Bronze and found Oz
backing Wills into a corner," she explained between hissing as Giles
cleaned the wound as carefully as he could. "We got into a fight, then
Faith showed up to pull him off me...he gave me this in return."

"Was there anything else? Anything unusual?" he asked, his mind
racing.
He knew that the bite had not been made by a human, it couldn't have
been. There were two rather deep puncture marks around some badly torn
skin. The bite mark seemed familiar he just couldn't place where he had

seen such a bite. It wasn't a vampire bite, too early in the day for
that. No
this was something else entirely, he decided, trying to remember just
where he had seen the bite mark before.

"Yeah.. ah, there was this growl...not like a vamp. More like a dog or
something," Willow replied placing a hand on Buffy's uninjured
shoulder.
The overwhelming panic that pretty much taken over when she had first
seen all the blood was leaving her as Giles calmly cleaned up the
musician.
'Why does Giles have the fire extinguisher out?' she asked herself ,
giving
Buffy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"A dog?" Giles questioned, looking up from his work sharply.

"Yeah...at least that is what it sounded like anyway," Faith answered
pulling herself out of her relaxed position. 'Oh damn!' she cursed,
her
mind already working. "Red where did you put those autopsy photos
from last month's werewolf attack?" she questioned remembering just
why the bite seemed so familiar to her back in the alley.

"W-werewolf attack?" Willow said in a really small voice, a feeling of
dread going through her and settling in the pit of her stomach.

"Yes...the werewolf attack, I need to see the bite marks," Faith
replied
trying to remain calm because if what she thought had happened really
did happen then B's life had just become a hell of a lot more
complicated.

"Giles?" Buffy asked while Faith and Willow descended upon the
library's
computer where the redheaded hacker kept most of her 'somewhat illegal
but very valuable' information. "What's going to happen to me?" she
questioned in a small voice once she had gotten his attention. She
wasn't
kidding herself, she had seen those autopsy photos just like the rest of
the
gang had, she knew what bite marks they were talking about on the
remains
of the werewolf's victims. She had also read up on the whole werewolf
curse,
when the first victims started to turn up a few months ago. She knew
perfectly well that she had just been screwed over by a werewolf named
Daniel Ozbourne. And that now she had the curse too.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Giles replied after a
moment. "But first we have to make sure that you are confined for the
evening..it'll be sundown in a few hours, you need to be safely locked
up by then," he continued, his eyes never once leaving the young
woman's
face. He could tell that she was terrified and that she was trying to
be
brave in the face of a very uncertain future. 'But it's a future she
will not
be facing alone,' he vowed to himself, knowing beyond all doubt that he

would not rest until he found a cure for the werewolf curse.

The End.

Well, not really, this story is continued in "A Night in the Library"
the
second story in the Reality Shift series as well as the rest of the
series
itself as the Slayer and her band of misfits try to keep the hellmouth
from
going nova on them. Anyone interested in seeing how the rest of the
ride is like?

Shadow