Learning Curve
by rebelrsr
Chapter Seven
[reviews]
Disclaimer: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and lots of people in expensive suits. I'm not making any money here, just trying to create a happier Buffyverse for my favorite characters.
Spoilers, etc.: I altered the timeline of "The Yoko Factor," "Primeval," and AtS "Sanctuary" with reckless abandon. It's mostly AU from here.
A/N: Character thoughts are enclosed by **. Thanks to Desirata41 for the beta and encouragement! Thanks to Zigpal and Zenithar for the continuing support and suggestions. I couldn't do it without you.
Archiving: By permission only.
"Right," Xander exclaimed. "We'll bring Psycho Slayer back, spell her up, and see how many more people she can kill. She won't take out Adam, she'll just replace him."
Tara looked at Willow and Giles for support. Willow shook her head. "I know why you think this is a good plan, but you're wrong. Faith may have Slayer blood, but she betrayed that. I'll hack the discs. Hopefully, we'll find something to help take Adam down now, or we'll wait until Buffy's back on her feet."
Giles said nothing at all, merely watching the byplay between the rest of the gang. "Mr. Giles? Don't you think we should bring Faith here?" Tara couldn't believe she was the only one who saw how important this was.
"Tara, I'm sure you mean well, but I don't think that allowing Faith to act as the vessel of the entire Slayer line in is our best interest." He grimaced before continuing. "Though it pains me to admit it, Xander is right. Faith has already proven unstable. With that kind of magical power, she could do an extraordinary amount of damage."
Xander could see their newest member was upset. "Look, Tara, I know it looks really bad right now, but we always manage to find a way to defeat the latest Big Bad. Buffy's Slayer healing will kick in soon. We just need to be ready when she's back on her feet."
During the conversation, Joyce had moved toward the door. "Maybe I should see how long we need to wait. I'll check with the doctor." She headed out into the hall.
"Come on, baby. Give me a little time with the discs. I'm sure they'll have something we can use. Everything will work out, I promise." Willow hesitantly reached for Tara's hand, but the older witch moved away.
She couldn't believe how short sighted they were being. Didn't anyone understand that they might not have the time to wait for Buffy to heal? "Willow, what is it w-with you? Even if Buffy were upright, unless she's a hundred percent, the spell could literally tear her apart. She's going to be channeling centuries of Slayers as well as our powers. On top of that, she has to fight Adam." Tara wanted to scream in frustration at the looks of incomprehension she received. She tried again. "Would you rather take the chance that Adam could kill most of Sunnydale and release all of the demons in the Initiative because you've got issues with Faith? Willow, I told you what I saw the other night." She looked at the redhead. "Admit it. She was right about Buffy wanting to give up."
"Whoa! When did you guys talk to Faith?" Xander sounded confused.
Willow jumped in. "Don't worry about it, Xander. We didn't talk," she said, looking at Tara, "and she wasn't right."
Giles quietly said, "Willow, Tara is an experienced witch. I'm sure she was correct in her assessment of Faith."
"And I say again, when did you guys talk to Faith," Xander was angry now. Since the girls went off to college, he was always on the outside, never knowing things until they needed him. "Willow, when did you see Faith, and what do you mean she was right about Buffy?"
Tara sensed Willow was going to sidestep the question again. She thought the young man deserved an answer. "Faith was in Willow's dorm room last night." Ignoring the reaction to her statement, she swiftly outlined the conversation with the Dark Slayer. An uneasy silence followed the explanation.
Finally, Xander straightened up and slowly walked to the door. "I've always been there for you, Will. You and Buffy. But apparently, I'm not part of the gang anymore. You want to do this alone? Go right ahead. I'm done waiting around for you to remember I'm your friend." The door made a soft thump as it closed behind him.
"Great. Just great. Why couldn't you just leave things alone, Tara?" Willow demanded. She got up and moved a few steps away.
"I don't think you're being quite fair, Willow." Giles tried to derail her rant. "Tara has been invaluable in discovering a way to defeat Adam. You, as a fellow witch, should trust her judgment."
"Damn it, Giles. Stay out of this. Buffy's been dealing with everything by herself lately. Where have you been? Hiding at home, staring in to a glass of scotch, thinking about your lost career as a Watcher?"
Tara watched Giles flinch from the verbal blow. "Enough, Willow!" She walked over and grabbed Willow's arm. "The situation is bad enough without you making it worse. Listen to yourself. Your oldest friend thinks you don't need him. You've insulted the closest thing to a father you've ever had. And I'm done with feeling worthless and incompetent." She searched her friend's eyes, seeing no lessening of the anger there. "When this is over, I hope you can mend all the fences you've just torn down. I'm going now. You can scramble around and check the disks, but eventually you'll have to face the fact that Buffy may not be ready for an enspelled encounter with Adam. Call me. Faith and I will be waiting." She headed for the door, fighting tears.
***
*Crap. Out of all the places I could end up, I'm in L.A.* Faith pushed her hair out of her eyes and leaned against the wall. She was beyond tired. Her ribs still burned with every breath and there was a buzzing behind her eyes. She couldn't rest here. Faith didn't know exactly where here was, but she recognized the atmosphere. Vampires and demons weren't the danger and she wasn't about to take another human life — especially to save her own. Pushing her senses to the fullest, the girl known as the Dark Slayer made her way slowly down the alley.
Long blocks later, slums blended into an old commercial strip. Faith relaxed slightly. The area was fairly deserted and her Slayer senses were quiet. After a few minutes of searching, she found an ethnic grocery without the usual metal barricade blocking the storefront. A quick glance reassured her no one was watching. She grasped the heavy padlock on the door and twisted. It took longer than she expected for the lock to break. *Too bad I'll never get the chance to ask B what those Council guys did to me.* She entered the store without turning on the lights and scanned the shelves of food before randomly grabbing boxes and bags. Carrying her booty past the dairy cases, Faith searched until she found a small office.
With a sigh, she sat down behind the desk and opened a bag of chips. Hunger took control after the first handful. In no time, the food was gone and the trash can was overflowing with empty packaging. Sated, Faith felt the pull of exhaustion. Even the dubious comfort of the rickety rolling chair called her to sleep. Shaking her head, Faith pushed herself to her feet. The owner probably wouldn't be in for a couple of hours at least, but even in this part of L.A., the cops would notice the broken lock. Another trip through the front door was too risky so the Slayer headed out back. It had started to rain while she had dinner, and Faith cursed the thin jeans jacket she was wearing as she wandered through the downpour. Walking in the wet darkness gave her too much time for thinking. Slinging her soaked hair over her shoulder, Faith picked up her pace and started looking for a little action to take her mind off the memories.
She ran for several minutes, keeping to the shadows, before she found it. A tall man in a leather duster fought a handful of vampires. The Slayer never questioned how the lone fighter kept the fangs at bay. She simply charged into the battle, fists flying. There were no stakes hiding in her jacket, so Faith resorted to old fashioned butt-kicking. A combination of blows knocked a young, well dressed vampire out of the fight. She grabbed another opponent, pushing him against the wall of the nearby building. The rage from the church returned, but this time, she wasn't swinging at herself. Her control fled as she battered the vampire with blow after punishing blow. The pummeling might have continued indefinitely, but a hand grabbed her arm and spun her away. Shaking and still fueled by anger, Faith turned on her attacker, throwing a wild right.
The vampire behind her growled and blocked the potentially damaging punch. Hands grabbed both her shoulders, pinning her arms. "Faith? What are you doing here?"
***
By the time Tara got to her dorm room, she had her tears (if not her emotions) under control. She lit a few candles and grabbed a water from the tiny fridge before dropping gracelessly onto the bed. She lay there, the final minutes in the chapel on endless repeat in her mind. A few tears leaked from her eyes before being impatiently scrubbed away. Vowing to avoid the self-pity, Tara rolled off the bed and headed to her desk. *I told Will Faith and I would be here when they finally bowed to reality. I'm going to need to find a way to figure out where she is, then,* she thought. Convinced that the wanted fugitive had left Sunnydale ruled out the locator spell Willow had used to find Buffy. Tara was going to need something that worked over larger distances. Unfortunately, most of those spells required a personal item from the individual being sought.
She moved a pile of school books out of the way and noticed a message light blinking on the answering machine. *Probably Willow calling to tell me she's sorry. Too late for that.* Steadfastly ignoring the indicator, Tara grabbed the spell books from her bookcase and returned to the comfort of the bed to research. Two hours later, she was no closer to an answer. Rubbing her temples, she tried to think of other alternatives. *OK. If magic won't work, what else can I try? Faith was terrified Buffy would find her. She needed to leave fast and get as far away as possible.* Tara remembered how beaten up the other Slayer looked in the hallway yesterday. Hitch-hiking was probably out, then. Sunnydale had an airport, but that required money and usually an ID. Even the Sunnydale police would watch the bus depot. That left the docks or a cargo train. She needed to check departure records for yesterday afternoon. Hoping that this would be more successful than her magical research, Tara grabbed her bag, a cross, and some holy water before heading for the UC-Sunnydale library.
It was still early enough in the semester for the library to be nearly deserted. Tara logged on to the computer and tried to find the train and shipping schedules for Sunnydale. Biting her lip, she devoutly hoped she'd picked up enough about the Internet from Willow to do this. It was easier than she'd thought. The shipping schedules showed no departures for the day before. She tried the train schedules next. A few searches and some dead ends later, she found the departure times and destinations for the cargo trains that passed through town. Five trains had rolled through Sunnydale yesterday. Only two were possible escapes routes — one to Houston, the other to Los Angeles. Tara wanted to bang her head on the table in frustration. There was no way to know which train Faith had taken. She wasn't ready to give up, but it was time to call Giles and see if he had any other magical means for locating Faith.
The trip back across campus was uneventful. At least Adam had one positive impact on things, vampire and demon activity were at a standstill. Once inside her dorm room, Tara moved to the phone. The red message light was still blinking. Sighing, the witch decided to listen to Willow's hyper apology before calling Giles. She pressed the message button and listened to a completely unexpected voice: "Hi, Willow? I really hope this is the right number. It's Cordelia. Look, Angel had this number in case we needed to get in touch with Buffy, and, well, I think Buffy needs to get here soon. Psycho Slayer's in town, and Angel's deeply into his 'everyone deserves another chance' mode."