summary:

TITLE: It's An Unlikely World Part 5 AUTHOR: halfofone
RATING: NC17 for language mainly CODE: F/W with some B/F and W/T
FEEDBACK: Yup. Tell me the truth.
SUMMARY: This is a Buffy The Vampire Slayer fic. Faith is thrown together with an old enemy in prison.
WARNINGS: This jumps off from the end of BTVS season six and there are some spoilers. What happens next bears no relationship whatever to the events of season seven.
DISCLAIMER: BTVS is the property of Mutant Enemy and Twentieth Century Fox. I'm just playing with their toys.
CREDITS: Not beta'd so beware and this is my first BTVS story.
PUBLISHED: 6 November 2003

disclaimer:

TPTB are many. In a perfect world I would be one of them but it's not and I'm not. No infringement of copyright/trade marks or other intellectual property is intended. This story was written for fun and not profit.

warnings:

Warning: This story includes same sex relationships between women. If you are offended by this or it is illegal where you live or you are underage then please read no further.

Full warnings, credits and disclaimers can be found in the contents page and chapter 1.

text:

Buffy Summers was concentrating. She carefully transferred the contents of her mixing bowl to the cake tin, ignoring the intruders entering her kitchen.

"Hey Buff! What's with the brown goo?" Xander grinned broadly at the small blonde.

"Don't be so ignorant Xander, she's obviously making a fizzing smoke amulet," sighed Anya. "A classic defence against Chiltern demons. But I didn't know we had seen any and where the hell did you get the griffin guano? That stuff is priceless. I should know I tried to get some for the Magic Box ..."

"Brownies," muttered Buffy, ignoring Anya's misdirected ranting. "Chocolate. Touch anything Xander and you lose your hand." The slayer's voice rose slightly.

Xander snatched his fingers away from the bowl and picked up the local newspaper next to it. He scanned the front page quickly and scowled.

"I hate these guys," he complained and turned the paper so that the women could see the headlines.

LESBIAN KILLER REVENGE RAMPAGE

Xander began to read the column aloud.

"Willow Rosenberg, a UCS senior, is being held in the women's state correctional facility pending completion of the investigation of the disappearance of Mr Warren ??? and the shooting of Ms Tara McClay. Police believe the killings may be connected to an evil occultist group. Several of Rosenberg's associates have been suspects in prior criminal investigations. It is also known that Rosenberg had a sexual relationship with Ms McClay, one of the victims of this ..."

"Spoke to Willow's Mom last night." interrupted Buffy. "She wanted to know if she should come back to Sunnydale; if it would help Willow, or should she just keep out of the way. Apparently she and Mr Rosenberg are on the cruise of a lifetime. I said not to bother."

Xander grimaced. "Surprised she didn't share her sixties prison reminiscences with you ..."

"LSD possession and tying herself naked to a statue of the founder of Sunnydale to protest against the war," said Buffy tightly. "Oh yeah."

Xander made a disbelieving face.

"Always been hard to accept that she and Willow share any of that genetic stuff. Will always said her Mom must have bought her at a fundraising for Jewish orphans. Have you heard from Giles yet?"

"Yeah," Buffy answered, drawing out the vowel as she spread the mix over the tin. " ... he says we can apply for her release in the next couple of days. He thinks the authorities will be glad to get rid of her - they think she's a nut. Their investigation is stalled anyway. There's no body, no weapons and no clues. Just Willow's wacky confession and that's carrying less and less... "

Their conversation was suddenly stalled by a shriek from the living room.

"Dawn! What's wrong?" Buffy yelled.

"Guys! Get in here! You have to see this."The teen's voice was almost supersonic with excitement.

Buffy didn't hesitate, she hurled herself into the living room.

"Where is it?"

"There," screamed Dawn, pointing at the TV.

"What? I don't see anything." Buffy circled cautiously. "Is it behind?"

"No dork! It's on the news. Listen!" Dawn turned up the volume.

"... and just after 8am this morning, the prisoner, described as very dangerous, took one of the wardens hostage. There is another prisoner with her but it is not clear at this stage whether that prisoner is an accomplice or a hostage also. They are on the roof of one of the cell blocks. A full emergency has been declared by the Chief Warden and trained prison negotiators are attempting to make contact. Faith Spencer is described as one of the most dangerous prisoners in the Southern California correctional system. Her hostages are Mary Torrance, a warden who had been in the job for only six weeks and Willow Rosenberg, an unconvicted prisoner being held on suspicion of murder. We will keep you up-to-date with any breaking news on this hostage crisis. Our prayers go to the families of the hostages ..." The TV picture cut to a long range view of the prison.

"I will kill her" intoned Buffy. Her hazel eyes narrowed venomously.

"I don't believe it." Xander glared at the prison id photo of Faith now being displayed on the screen. "Every time she fucks us every which way."

"Xander, get the .."

"..car. On it. We'll be there in two hours."

The big guy was out of the house, Anya following on his heels, complaining. "You always jump whenever either of them is in trouble." She didn't have to explain who 'them' was. This was an old argument and Xander met it with his normal response.

"That's what they call friendship An; you should try it sometime."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Umm, my name's Mary you know. In case you want to call me or say something..." the warden's frightened voice trailed off.

Faith looked over her shoulder from where she was kneeling, towards her hostage, a burly black woman huddled on the other side of the small roof space, still dressed in the dark grey riot-control uniform, complete with kevlar jacket. The woman was sweating freely in the shimmering heat; fear prancing in her brown eyes as she met the dark slayer's indifferent gaze.

"I thought 'Hey guard-bitch,' would meet my requirements," Faith responded cruelly. "... but if you want to put us on first-name terms then, sure, Mary is fine. This is Red and I'm your hostess for this evening, Faith, 'psycho-slayer extraodinaire'." Faith pulled a handgun from her waist band and pointed it at the guard who shrank against the wall as Faith intimidated her.

Willow responded sharply. "Faith don't." The wicca took the guard's hand and squeezed it gently. "It's okay Mary, she's just a little antsy right now. This is her first breakout," Willow confided as if discussing a case of first-night nerves.

Faith rolled her eyes impatiently. The searing midday sun left little shade, its painful white glare reflecting up off the white chippings, forcing the slayer to squint as she kept watch. The slayer was pissed off, hot, thirsty and her knees hurt like hell from hours of kneeling on the rough, overheated asphalt roof.

"Red, I'm not interested in some dumb hack trying to put into practise her hostage-situation 101 assignment. I just want her to keep quiet and keep out of my way."

"Faith she didn't ask for this," Willow retorted. "She has plenty to be afraid of; none of us are likely to leave here alive if you won't let me help and I don't really understand why this promise to Buffy means so much to you," she finished in a rush. Faith didn't answer. Willow waited until frustrated by the silence she asked sarcastically. "I am assuming we are still trying to escape and not just sitting around waiting for them to come for us?"

"We are waiting for sun-down. I'd rather face the vampires than the guns."

Faith peeked southwards over the top of the small wall that rose around the small square section of roof they were trapped on. She could see something glinting in the sunlight maybe fifty yards away, binoculars maybe, or snipers looking for an opportunity to pick her off. It was the same in every direction.

"Don't the vampires also control the guns in this scenario?" Willow queried sardonically. She had seen the gleam of metal too.

"Well yeah, but at least I can kill the evil bastards, if they get near enough. And they can't surprise us here. I'd see or hear anyone trying to sneak up."

"Faith, they're not going to sneak up. They'll rush us as soon as darkness falls and then the only question will be how many you can kill before they kill us. You're beloved JC isn't going to want any of us to live through this."

"Why are you talking about killing?" wailed Mary pathetically. "You don't have to kill anyone Spencer. I have a little girl and I just want to go home to her. Please just let me go." The warden started to cry and Willow patted her gently on the shoulder.

The witch looked entreatingly at Faith. "Please Faith, let me deal with this. I can have us all out of here in minutes, seconds even. Mary can go home to her daughter and you and I can get out of here. All it would take is a small flying spell. I can do them in my sleep."

Faith snorted "I know what you can do in your sleep Red. No way are you doing magic. Could you promise me on a stack of Bibles that you wouldn't turn into Wanda the Wicked?"

Reluctantly, Willow shook her head.

"I thought so. There's some fucking big bad rising here who would probably be grateful for an armed and dangerous, wicked powerful witch on hand..."

"... I wouldn't be on hand, I'd be gone and we'd be in better shape to deal with whatever it is, from outside these walls. We could re-group, get some research done on this new, or ..." Willow amended thoughtfully, "... probably old, evil that's hatching and come back with whatever we need."

Faith wasn't having any of it. "I don't want you doing magic" she ordered.

"You are just being stupidly, stupidly, stubborn Faith. We are trapped here. There is no way off this roof; no matter how many vampires you kill." Faith looked away, and Willow, despairing of Faith's intransigence, demanded forcefully "Do you want to die here?"

"Do you?" Faith challenged and met the witch's eyes. Willow's expression lapsed into uncertainty. The slayer held her gaze and slowly Willow shook her head.

"Guess not," she muttered softly and quirked her mouth sideways, scrunching her eyes, as though bewildered by herself. It was cute in a way that would have had Faith reaching for a stake in the past but today the slayer just reached forward as though to stroke an unruly lock of red hair. Willow's face showed a little surprise and the slayer converted the gesture into a light tap on the witch's nose. Their gaze held.

"I don't want to lose you to the bad guys, Red" Faith said softly.

Tears were running down Mary's face making little dark rivers in the white dust that clung to her cheeks but she stopped sobbing long enough to whimper "What are either of you talking about?" She looked at her captors in turn, but neither responded, still caught up in their moment. "Vampires?" she prompted. "Evil?"

Faith turned her head to look at the disconsolate woman and smiled with an edge of wickedness. "Think I'll let Red here explain the bad in this institution of correction while I try and save our sorry asses."

The slayer winked at Willow and then went back to looking out for sniper positions and possible gaps although she knew trying to escape in daylight was hopeless. There was one way on and one way off this roof and they would be picked off before they got ten yards but in darkness they might have a chance, especially if they could sow a little confusion.

The guard looked at Willow for enlightenment. The Wicca gave an embarrassed little shrug.

"We think that some of your correctional officers are evil...not that I'm being you know all white liberal about this," she reassured guiltily and confusingly, "I mean evil in a really evil kind of way...I know jail is a tough gig, a hard job and all and someone has to do it...so I'm not saying that you know, like all prison guards are evil just that some of you, maybe, are...you know, evil."

"W..what do ya mean?" Mary stuttered, sounding more frightened than before. She flinched away from Willow, afraid that even the red-head was a candidate for the loony toons.

"Willow are you going to get to the fucking point sometime before we die?" Faith sighed impatiently. "See Mary, some of you bulls and some of the cons too, have become blood-sucking vampires. We have to get out of here before an enormous fucking lump of shit hits the proverbial and your old colleagues use us as the jelly-filling in their sandwiches."

Willow coughed and said, sotto voce, "Faith, I'm not sure we should just tell people about vampires like that; it's traumatic and it makes us sound like crazy people." An odd expression then came over her pale face as though finding something long lost. "Hey you called me Willow ..." she realised aloud and her earlier disapproval melted to a shy smile followed quickly by embarrassment.

That embarrassment was reflected back in Faith's dark eyes and her quick denial. "I did not ..." she snapped too quickly and then had to admit, "... well I did but don't expect it to become a habit...Red." Faith frowned, unsure why her slip made her feel uncomfortable. Willow was plainly perplexed by the dark slayer's sudden irritability and it suddenly occurred to Faith, watching the play of befuddlement and shyness on Willow's face, that there were few things on this earth, sweeter than a perplexed Willow. Faith's ill-humour faded quickly, her frown twisted to a grin and with an expression of fake innocence, she suggested, "Of course you could call me something other than Faith if you like...you seemed to have plenty of names for me last night."

Willow reddened at the memory. She visibly struggled for a moment to hold onto a semblance of seriousness and then she too was smiling.

"You are incorrigible."

"Whatever. Is that a name or a complaint?"

The slayer and the witch studied each other with mutual amusement until the easily forgotten Mary exploded with frightened frustration and dragged their attention back to the now.

"Who cares what your pet names are! Sweet Jesus help me! I am stuck on the roof with two crazies and a couple of guns and all they can talk about is their names." She rolled her eyes and half ordered, half begged. "Why don't you just let me go back to my little girl and you can go right on back to being all fresh and flirty and deciding what you should call each other..."

Willow yelped "We are not flirting! We don't do that." She saw Faith smirking and self-consciously moderated her voice. "I don't want you to be frightened Mary and I realise that you may find all this pretty hard to figure but believe me if we let you go now, you wouldn't survive. Those vamps in there will kill you before they let you out of here."

Mary rose to her knees and threw up her arms in despair. "You want me to be honest with you?" she looked at Willow and then at Faith. "You want me to be honest?" she yelled loudly. The two prisoners looked bewildered as Mary stared at them wild-eyed.

"You guys are completely nuts! You should give yourselves up right now! I mean right this goddamn minute!"

Her rough voice softened, becoming imploring. "Trust me, you jest ain't got what it takes to be criminals on-the-run. Firstly you gotta actually be on-the-run, not stuck up in no little turret on top of the most secure prison in the state of California. Second, you gotta be in touch with reality, not living out some old horror movie and third," her voice rose again, "you could call each other Ms Pinky and Ms Green like in that dog movie for all I care but just get over the darned name thing 'cos you are driving me crazy right along with you." She sagged back down and began sobbing again.

Faith made a face. She was getting pissed off with all the yowling. "Hey! That is not a bad idea guard-girl! I'll be Ms Black, all cool leathers and a Harley Hog,...and Red here, well that's kind of obvious, she'd be Miss Scarlett in the bedroom with the candlestick." Faith smirked. It was obvious that neither Mary or Willow understood the reference. "Haven't either of you ever played Cluedo?"

They shook their heads.

"Bummer," said Faith, her eyes sliding scarily sideways like some half-crazed teenager from a slasher movie. Faith could still be unnerving and she was in an evil mood. She directed her attention back to the hostage. "Mary. Thanks for the advice but you're still not going anywhere. So could you just keep the noise down? Or maybe you won't see another day let alone your kid."

"Faith! Don't be so heartless!" exclaimed Willow. "She's terrified."

"See this?" Faith lifted the handgun, "And that?" she gestured at the shotgun beside her. "When I took those from Ms Mary, they were trained on me and I don't think she meant me any kindness by them. She's a screw Red, a hack, a bull, a fucking correctional officer. She is not our friend. Come nightfall she is on her own."

"She's human and it's the slayer's job to protect her from vampires and demons" said Willow vehemently. Faith shook her head angrily and looked away over the rooftops.

"Again with the demon shit," muttered Mary crabbily. "Like that's a major urban problem! Sure it is, right up there with druggies, parking offences and doggy doo-doo. All I can say is bring on nightfall, I ain't got no problems with the dark. You just leave me here in the nice warm dark and I'll be happy."

"Mary, please shut up" Willow beseeched but Faith wasn't listening to either of them anymore. Her attention was fixed on a distant point.

"Bling bling," she intoned and dropped back down from the parapet where she was keeping watch. "Guards," she explained and picked up the shotgun, "three of them, coming from the south. They've got their hands up. Negotiators."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Can you go any faster?"

"Any faster and we'll be joining Willow and Faith on the inside, Buff."

Buffy sighed heavily and tried not to grind her teeth. She turned on the radio.

... and there is still no end to the hostage siege at the state's premier women's prison. The senior warden, Ms Jennifer Carlisle, said in a statement earlier today that her main concern was the safety of the hostages. No action will be taken that will jeopardise their safe return. Breaking news this afternoon, negotiators have established a telephone link with the escaped prisoner, Faith Spencer, in exchange for food and water ...

Buffy turned the radio off and glared at it.

"Hey! I was listening to that," Dawn protested from the back seat. "They might have given some news of Willow."

"Yes," agreed Anya reasonably. "She might be dead already and then this journey would be unnecessary. Though of course we would still have to collect the body ..." The vengeance demon shut up when she encountered Xander's glare in the rearview mirror.

"She's not dead," said Buffy with some certainty. "I would know."

"How?" chorused all three of her companions.

"I just would."

tbc