summary:

TITLE: It's An Unlikely World Part 6 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:

The street lights of the nearby town were starting to glow pink as dusk crept forward over the prison and the sun slowly sank into the western desert.

"Won't be long now," murmured Faith and rechecked her weapons again. Two guns, a fire-axe and a dozen large wooden splinters from the door she had destroyed getting them out onto this roof, formed their small arsenal. It had been Willow's idea to go back for the splinters; Faith had to admit the wicca was resourceful but then seven years of fighting evil sharpens your inventiveness she supposed. Faith's musing was interrupted by the jangle of the cell phone which the negotiators had given her. She checked the watch that they had also given her. It was earlier than the scheduled one hour contacts. Only half-curious, she picked up the phone.

"Faith," said a low voice.

"JC," she answered stiffly. Willow's head jerked round to watch her.

"Faith give this up now" her ex-watcher urged. "You can't hold out. You'll die for nothing and you know I hate waste."

Faith smiled "We'll die anyway JC. You never had any intention of letting either of us live."

"That's not true. I would have honoured my promise but you never had any intention of agreeing did you? You were just buying time. This may not have been how I would have planned it Faith but it's worked out well for me. You played into my hands. You'll die and no one will ask awkward questions about the deaths of two escaping prisoners."

"Forget it JC! We are not going to make this easy for you" the slayer snorted.

"Shame. But I have missed you Faith, very much and I will again."

"Yeah, yeah I'm going to die, I know, but for old-times sake just tell me one thing before you go JC. What is all this for? I mean I know it's the apocalypse, it's always the fucking end of the world but which particular one. You must know, after all you were a watcher..."

"Alright, though it's not like you to care about the bookwork Faith, you have grown up more than I realised. This is not the end of the world but the beginning of a new world. The birth of new gods. A dawn of the gods for the twenty-first century. A new hell for the living and the dead."

"Sweet," said Faith more shaken than she would have wished to admit.

"Goodbye Faith," said her old watcher and there seemed a tinge of sadness in the well-remembered voice and then the line went dead. Faith stared at the phone in her hand and threw it aside.

"What the fuck? Willow, this spell of yours to fly us off here. Why can't you teach me how to do it?"

Willow looked dubious. "Because we would probably all plunge to our certain deaths...if we left the ground at all!"

"Why? I can do a bit of chanting. I know you think I'm dumb as horseshit but hey this is my life or death and everyone else on the planet too. I can learn."

"It's not just learning the chant Faith, you need the magical skill to channel the spell and that's kind of 80:20 nature/nurture."

"You're saying you have to be born with it?"

"Pretty much...and then you have to learn to use it."

"Can you tell who's got the magic vibe and who hasn't. I mean I'm a slayer, that's already pretty mystical, so this may not be such a reach."

"Slayers don't have magical skills Faith. I have read the watcher diaries and they just don't. Perhaps their gifts are already so extreme that magic just over-eggs the pudding. There has never been a slayer/witch."

"So now you're witches!" interjected Mary sounding scornful. "You should have met my old granny, she thought she was a witch. 'Course she was about as crazy as you but then she was just a cracked old lady from Haiti, hardly spoke no English even. She had some kinds of excuses for all her dabbling in that voodoo stuff. When I was a child, she was always telling me that I'd got the gift but I used to say 'Grandma you're leading me astray from God's path with all this talk' and my Mama used to give me a pat and say 'that's right Mary, you resist the sinfulness'."

Faith looked at Willow and Willow looked at Faith. Their eyebrows raised in mutual question.

"Are you saying your grandmother was a voodoo priestess and she said you could be one too?" Willow asked carefully.

"No. I'm saying she thought she was. There ain't no such thing."

"Mary," said Faith sharply, staring into the gathering darkness. "You're about to see something else that doesn't exist either. They're coming. If one gets hold of you then do what Red told you and shove that big cross of yours in its face. Are you ready Red?"

"Ready," said the witch and clutched her makeshift stakes.

Faith smiled at her and then quickly leaned across to kiss her on the mouth. The slayer only had a second to appreciate Willow's shocked round "Oh" and Mary's heartfelt objection, "Puhleese," before a silent shadow fell on her left shoulder and she whirled to thrust her first stake of the night through the unbeating heart of the oncoming demon. A low growl from behind, alerted her that the soon-to-be dust bomb hadn't come alone. She swung the axe in her right hand and beheaded the second vampire with a championship backhand.

Mary screamed as first one vampire and then the other exploded into dust.

The dark slayer dropped the axe and grasped the shotgun, hoping to slow down any others before they could get over the wall. She could see at least twenty vampires coming across the roof towards them. Moonlight shivered on smooth metal; the invaders were not to be inhibited by tradition it seemed. They were here to get a result.

One of them hollered in the darkness. "Did you get them?"

"Hey dead boy!" Faith called back. "Your friends left kinda sudden. Couldn't see them for dust. Wanna join 'em?"

The vampires paused about twenty yards from the turret and began talking in low voices. After a few seconds they started to spread out, encircling the position.

Behind her, she could hear Willow muttering urgently to the sobbing Mary.

"What harm can it do?" the witch was asking. "Just say what I say...I'll anchor you. Mary, you saw those things. Don't you believe your own eyes?"

"I don't know...I don't know what I saw," the unbeliever snuffled weakly . " But I'll do anything you want, I just want to get away from here...get back home again."

"Then do exactly as I say."

"How much time do you need Red?" asked Faith. She had guessed what the Wicca was going to try and right at this moment, anything seemed like a good idea.

" A minute, maybe slightly more...it depends on Mary here. The spell works best in Latin."

"I don't know no Latin," Mary wailed. "We're all gonna die. Why can't you do it. You're the friggin' witches."

"If she does the spell moron, there's a good chance none of us will survive. Just take it from me, you do not want to see Red in action tonight." Irritated by the crying, Faith had to resist a temptation to slap her. For the first time Faith fully appreciated how lucky Buffy had been when she met Willow and Xander. Not just as friends but as courageous and committed team members. Most civilians would be more like Mary she supposed.

"I'm gonna cause a diversion and try and draw them away; get you some more time. If the mumbo-jumbo doesn't work Red then just run like hell for the stairs. We'll have to fight our way out."

"Be careful Faith and don't be long. Mary won't have much control, even if she's strong enough. We have to go together."

Glancing at the prison-guard weeping on Willow's shoulder, Faith rolled her eyes and said dryly "Well that's a snap then!"

She could just make out Willow's pale face in the moonlight. The witch looked determined. It made a nice change from passive despair and unusually for Faith, a small blob of optimism bubbled irrationally to the surface of her consciousness. She hopped over the small parapet with a small wave to the Wicca and then dropped into the shadows some five feet below. She began to run towards where she could sense the largest contingent of vampires, hoping to defeat any snipers with night-sights by zig-zagging. Willow's voice, quietly coaxing Mary to repeat a latin phrase, faded from her hearing and less than a second later, she was amongst the vampires and they started yelling and firing their guns wildly, regardless of each other. She heard some screams as stray bullets found a home in undead flesh.

"Over here," bellowed one of the vamps at his scattered brethren. "They're getting away. Cut them off." Running feet answered his warning.

Faith lifted her shotgun and at almost point blank range fired it into the back of the shouting vampire's neck. The hail of shot, severed his head from his body and an instant later the vampire turned to dust as his head bounced on the bitumen roof.

That worked well, she thought. A growl behind her, sent the slayer diving to the left and rolling for cover behind an air conditioning vent. She lurched to her feet and rammed her elbow back into the face of the vampire cautiously peering round the corner after her. He went down grunting in pain. His friend, who was just behind, wasn't so lucky, he charged the slayer only to find his own momentum being used against him as she sidestepped, grabbing his arm and propelling his face forward through the grille of the vent. The gaps between the bars were slightly smaller than his head and the vampire screamed horribly as his ears were sliced off. Faith moved on. Other vamps were moving in quickly, attracted by the screaming. She ran a little further on and then crouching down, she started to double back towards the raised roof. A vampire appeared in her path. Without hesitation, Faith swept his legs from under him and then, as part of the same move, fell heavily on top of him, ramming her stake into his chest as she collided. An instant later the slayer hit the floor, choking on the dust that surrounded her. She picked herself up and continued back towards Willow.

The parapet loomed up in front of her and she jumped, hoisting herself easily onto the ledge. The noise of a single gunshot reached her ears fractionally before something that felt like a punch from a troll hammer slammed into her back. Hot searing pain began. She began to fall forward.

"You're hit" said a worried voice and then Willow's arms were around her waist, supporting her as Faith stumbled off the low wall.

"No sweat," growled the slayer, fighting off the unfamilar concern, excruciating pain and a wave of nausea. "You ready?"

She could just see the shape of Willow's head nodding. The witch's spoken reply was not so reassuring. "Probably okay."

Faith chose to disregard the note of doubt. "Let's get on with it then."

"We have to hold hands in a circle. Can you stand alone?" asked the wicca. She dropped her arm from the slayer's waist. Faith grunted and stood alone. Her chest and arm throbbed and burned, her shirt was sticky with blood and she would have sworn she could feel warm blood running down her back. Pain and dizziness swept the strength from her legs and she began to sway. Willow immediately replaced her arm round Faith's waist, supporting the slayer's weight as best she could."Hands are more traditional but I guess this will do" she murmured. "The spell just says we have to be touching. Mary take my other hand and Faith's. That's good. Now repeat what you've learnt and just hang on. When we take off, don't look down, whatever you do," Willow instructed in her best teacher-for-the-day-voice. "Remember: we will move towards whatever you are looking at so I want you to start by staring at the moon. That should be safe enough to begin with."

She smiled encouragingly unlike Faith who glowered at the prison guard and growled. "Remember Mary I still have a gun, so no smart ideas about landing in the prison yard."

"Faith don't threaten our last best hope," Willow remonstrated. "Though she does have a point about landing on concrete - for a beginner - not a good idea."

Taking advantage of the fact that she was now resting her head on Willow's shoulder, Faith whispered in the red-head's ear, "Er...Red, what happens when we actually want to come down."

"We look for something soft and bouncy" was the simple and somewhat worrying reply. Faith wanted to laugh and instead began coughing. She almost cried out at the pain and twisted within Willow's grip. Trying to prevent her slipping, Willow tightened her arm around the slayer, and hitched her a little closer. Faith groaned some more; agonised by the increased pressure on her injured back.

"I think we should make with the hurrying-up now Mary;" said Willow, concern lacing her voice. "I can't hold Faith up much longer and she's badly hurt and may faint anytime; plus I think they're coming back."

Mary nodded, drew a sharp breath and stuttered slightly as she began.

"c..c..cano ad currum alatum A..Apollinis: laxa vincula terrae, tolle me et my asylum."

Mary stopped chanting and held her breath. Nothing happened. Willow sighed.

"Shouldn't we be doing the floating thing now?" Faith asked very quietly. If this didn't work the slayer was well aware that she would find it nearly impossible to fight and their last chance was gone. Willow would have to take over and then fuck knows what would happen.

"She made a mistake" said Willow, unable to keep the frustration from her voice. "Mary, just keep calm. Try again and remember it's 'tolle me et meos in caelum'."

"I don't think I can do this. I mean this is just crazy talk isn't it," Mary whispered uncertainly. She clutched convulsively at the hands holding hers, as a raucous yell of triumph penetrated the moon-softened darkness.

"Over here! I smell blood this way. They've tried to trick us."

Faith squeezed the black woman's hand gently. "Come on Mary. Think of your little girl, do it for her. We are out of time here."

At the mention of her child, Mary's back seemed to straighten, her grip on Faith's hand, relaxed from bone-crushing fearfulness to merely firm.

"I know you can do it," Willow encouraged, "Very strong aura. You can't fail."

Staring fixedly at the moon as she had been instructed, Mary slowly, carefully, recited her lines again. All three women felt the ground fall away as the spell loosened the ties of gravity.

"Dammit, it's working." breathed Faith against the soft skin of Willow's throat. Lightheaded from blood loss, she was almost enjoying the experience; the weightlessness had eased her pain and she was held so close by Willow that she inhaled the sweet smell of her skin with every painful breath. Faith couldn't identify it but the scent was familiar. Willow had no right to smell this good after the last twenty-four hours, the slayer protested to herself irrelevantly.

"It certainly is working," Willow concurred. "Hey that's really good Mary. You're doing really well." A note of envy entered Willow's voice, "It took me six months to float a pencil and she's flying with passengers on her first attempt!"

Awestruck by her own success and scared witless by what was happening, Mary momentarily took her eyes off the the infinitely distant lunar landscape to look down upon the dark street-lamp sprinkled earth that they were leaving behind at a respectable rate of ascent. There was a sudden lurch downwards. Willow squealed a warning.

"No! Don't look down."

"Sorry! Sorry!" Mary yelped and the downward trajectory stablised as she swung her eyes back to the heavens.

"Don't apologise; you're doing great. Just keep staring at the moon until we've got some height ..."

Adding emphasis to the point, the sound of gunfire suddenly breached the sky and several bullets went singing past, near enough for them to feel the disturbance in the chilling night air.

"...and we need it fast," Faith enjoined, looking back down towards the prison rooftops where she could still makeout several shadows peering up at them.

"We're climbing fast, I mean wow! You're doing really well, just keep it going," Willow exhorted.

"I can't believe this," Mary sighed shakily, dark eyes again locked on the shining half-moon. "This just can't be happening, tell me I be dreamin'."

Willow squeezed the older woman's hand. "No dream. You're flying," she reassured her.

"Are you helping her?" Faith inquired suspiciously in a low undertone.

"Channelling," responded Willow honestly, "I'm providing most of the control, but the power is all hers and she is truly powerful. I don't know the odds on taking an Olympic class wicca as a hostage. I'd guess they're pretty slim, skinny even, may be even emaciated..."

Faith rolled her eyes. She regretted it, her consciousness surfed away from her on a wave of pain and dizziness. She slumped a little in Willow's arms. The slayer was weightless - thanks to the levitation spell - even so Willow was afraid of dropping her. Willow shook her, trying to rouse her.

"Faith! Faith! Wake-up Faith. You can't sleep, not yet. Come-on Faith, you're the big bad slayer."

There was no reply. The slayer's head lolled on Willow's shoulder.

"We have to land somewhere. She needs treatment soon" the Wicca panicked. " But if we go down too close, they'll catch us."

"How about my car?" suggested Mary, not dropping her glassy-eyed gaze from the moon for even a moment. "It's a couple of blocks from the prison, parked off a side street. We could drive to my friend's place. He's a nurse."

Willow didn't jump at the offer. "Are you sure this isn't some kind of trap Mary? I mean I don't want to sound ungrateful or mean, only you have turned around kinda sudden."

"Ms Rosenberg..."

"Call me Willow," Willow interrupted, "I think fleeing bloodsucking killers together sorta breaks down the need for formalities."

"Willow," Mary amended and chanced a look at the Wicca. They promptly dropped fifteen feet. Both women screamed. A second later the plunge stabilised as Mary desperately fixed on the sky, trying not to blink as the cold night air stung her eyes.

"Sweet Jesus" she moaned, "that is the worst feeling I ever had and I thought I had just about experienced all the worst feelings I would ever have in the whole of my life, in just this one day."

Willow grimaced sympathetically and squeezed Mary's hand reassuringly.

"The supernatural world says a big howdydoo Mary" said Willow wryly, "think of it as like Disneyland: funny costumes, kids screaming and lots of eating; only without any of the fun and you're the fast food snacks." Realising she sounded bitter, she added. "Less standing in line though and believe me, you can have much worse experiences; today was quiet compared to some."

"Well I've seen enough to last me; but I owe you for getting me away from those things and when I report in tomorrow, I'll tell them that you busted out and then just left me by the highway."

"Mary! You can't go back. By this time tomorrow, there may not be anyone alive in that prison. Just stay home and don't go near that place again."

"I can't just walk out on my job," Mary objected.

"They would kill you in seconds, you know too much."

"They don't know that! Hell, I don't know that! Lord forgive my profanity."

"They'd kill you anyway to be on the safe side and because they like killing, Killing humans is their reason for being. You're just a tasty meal from the bloodbank."

"Oh," said Mary, evidently thinking hard about this. After a few more moments of quiet flight, the newly former prison guard asked nervously. "How do we get down anyways? I'm real cold and tired and I know now why I hates flying."

Willow didn't answer immediately. She looked down carefully. They were clear of the prison though the giant searchlights sweeping the area around the prison were still visible. Since they had gained quite a lot of height, she couldn't see any detail of the town that abutted the jail. She could only just make out the vague lines of streetlights and the moving lights of a few cars.

"Okay Mary, you need to level off. We're going to have to drop down a little, see if we can pick out a nice spot. Honestly I think it's going to be hard to find where you parked your car. Same county maybe but anything beyond that is tricky."

"Fine, but I really need to get down now plus I need to pee. Cold air always gets to me."

"Are there any landmarks you can think of - anywhere near your car - that we can aim for?"

"There's my church, Ms Rosenberg, its got the tallest tower in the county. Might be able to find that."

"WIllow," Willow corrected automatically. "Mary I want you to try and guide us towards the horizon and then gradually lower. Very gradually. When we've lost enough height, level off again."

"Man! This sucks!," whimpered Mary. "I've seen all those airport films and I've heard the 'we're gonna talk down the air-hostess' speeches. It never works. They always crash. And anyway there ain't no horizon. It's dark."

"I guess," Willow murmured trying hard to think. "Umm perhaps we could kind of parachute."

"Parachute! Parachute! Hell I forgot my damned parachute," Mary yelled. " Why did no-one mention I had to pack a friggin' parachute. And sweet Jesus forgive me again for swearing" she added fervently. "But I am sorely tried."

"No. I mean a spell that acts like a parachute."

"Now I know I don't like the sound of that..."

"If you can float, you can sink..." said Willow firmly. Mary stared at her and they started to fall again. "...in a controlled way please Mary!" Willow cried desperately, clutching tightly to Faith. Breathing too fast and gripping too hard, Mary again brought the little flying circle back under control.

"What's this spell then. Cos I mean I have to get down now" said the older woman, her voice shaking, "I am near spent. On the bright side there's no need to worry about the bathroom now. It's way too late for that." She shook her left leg. "Now I'm cold and wet. Let's just do this."

Patiently, Willow taught the agitated newbie the correct wording. It was a little easier this time, since this spell was in english, archaic but still recognisable. At last Mary was ready to believe she had mastered it.

"Tho' I still don' see why you can't do it!" she grumbled. "You are obviously some kind of professional."

"When we get down I'll tell you," Willow promised. "Let's find this church tower and then you can tell me where the nearest patch of grass is."

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

Buffy banged her fist on the wing of the car. It dented two inches, though the slayer didn't seem to notice. Xander thought to mention it, then thought again. Better the car than him.

"They flew out," she exclaimed angrily.

Anya was also annoyed. "It is extremely careless of the prison authorities to allow jet-packs into the prison, personally I want to see a reduction in my state taxes if that's the best..."

"Willow did a spell."

"But it said on the radio..." One look at the slayer's face and the vengeance demon went quiet.

"Where would they go?" Buffy marched up and down glaring at the walls of the penitentiary where sirens were still howling. "They could be anywhere but I'll find them and when I do, Faith is history."

As she spoke, a gate in the wall of the prison opened and a group of thirty to forty people emerged at a run. They ran past the watching scooby gang, heading in the direction of the town. They were mostly armed.

"That was odd," said Dawn.

"How odd?" asked Xander who was still calculating the cost of fixing his car.

"Didn't some of them look like prisoners?"

Buffy stared after them, her eye-sight better in the dark. "Dawn's right, some of them have the same uniforms that Faith and Willow were wearing."

"Well that's just terrific. More incompetence. Now there's a mass breakout." Anya was determined. "I shall write to the governor. He will not be getting my vote this time."

"I don't think you need bother," said Buffy slowly. "I think the posse scores a little too high on the pointy teeth and glowy eyes scale and he didn't get your vote last time anyway. You said he reminded you of a demon you once knew who cheated on you."

"And he won't get it this time either" said Anya decisively and with a touch of triumph.

"So perhaps Faith and Willow didn't have much choice?" Dawn suggested in a quiet voice.

"Perhaps they didn't," Buffy agreed, "but where are they?"

Xander stared into the darkness. "Well Buffster. I think we need to find them before the hole-in-the-head gang. Let's make like the cavalry."

tbc