Fic: per unitatem vis (Crossover Heroes/Buffy)

[alwaysenduphere]

Title: per unitatem vis (1/?)
Author: darkmerrick
Word Count: 1781
Rating: It'll probly end up being R, at least.
Characters/Pairing: Peter/Faith.
Spoilers: Heroes to "Out of Time" and Buffy...pretty much everything, I guess.
Disclaimers: I don't own either character. Kring and Mr. Joss Whedon have those esteemed honors.
Summary: This one's FAAAR AU, everybody. Basically, Peter never got back to the present when he jumped himself and Caitlin to the future. So, welcome to a future with the Shanti virus. And Faith's...still Faith, just in the ravaged future.
A/n: Wow. Thinking about it just makes my head hurt. Inspired slightly by babyfirefly, although i guess my hopping into the thread over at revenant_rpg started the whole idea. *pants* It's a little confusing, so ask if ye have questions. I've got an idea where its going, at least. And I have a feeling it's gonna be mini-epic, because I can't do epic-epic.
A/n2: Faith's the first character I ever wrote fanfic about. I feel like I'm returning to my roots, lol!
Anyway...




Faith’s tired. And not just in the sense of “it’s been a long day, time for rest tired.” More like the “I’ve been fighting all this time and getting nowhere and I’m ready to give up” tired.

But she keeps fighting. It’s the only way of life she knows anymore.

No family, no more friends. Not that she ever really had friends, but she had Buffy and the Scooby Gang. They weren’t friends, but they were…something. But they’re all dead, as far as she knows. It’s just her now, fighting the good fight.

Faith snorts at that thought. The good fight ended months ago, when the battle was obviously nothing but a losing one. There’s no hope left. The virus took it away, and replaced it with despair.

She chases another vampire, her fifth for the day. She keeps track of how many she kills now, because even though they’re demons, even though there’s no soul left in them, they were still once a part of the human race. The human race, which at this rate, will no longer exist. It makes her feel a bit like an exterminator, a thought that occasionally leaves her feeling guilty.

The virus started it; the vampires took advantage of it. Dying humans all around, and the only known cure? A myth that quickly became a reality, which quickly transformed into a nightmare. Six billion people on the earth reduced to just several thousands in mere months.

She catches up with the demon, his face contorted and his fangs protruding. Food’s a rare find for vampires these days, and his savage face locks on her, beating heart of hers resounding in his super-human ears.

Faith grimaces. The vampires of these days still pass as human, except when they have their game face on. Then, they remind her too much of the Turok-han and days when things were better. Not perfect, but better. At least then she had people surrounding her. At least then she knew what caring and compassion were. Now all she knows is pain.

Sometimes she wonders why she even bothers to fight, but she still knows the answer; it’s a fundamental part of her, and it’s not that she was Chosen or that it’s her Destiny. Those big words mean nothing to her now, knowing that one day she’ll fade away and someone will replace her.

It’s the sheer fact that she’s never known anything else, and she’s not a quitter. Fighting is a fundamental concept to her, Slayer or no Slayer. It’s the one thing she’s struggled with all her life, sought redemption for like a shaman on a vision quest. She’s not sure she’s found redemption, but she’s found her comfort zone, and it’s the business end of a pointy stick. It’s not in her to give up.

She slams the stake hard into the vampire’s chest, feels the wood splintering in her hands. The virus has only made them stronger, harder to kill and she hates it. Stronger, but not invincible. She twists the wood hard, feeling it cut her hands. What’s a little pain these days? It’s as if the vampire reads her mind, because he picks her up like she’s air, throws her across the once-pristine garden they’re now in.

She lands in a pile of dead rose bushes, their remaining brittle thorns snapping off into her skin.

“Motherfucker!” she exhales in pain. “Why can’t you suckers ever just freaking die when I want you to?!”

The vampire’s face twists into what Faith has learned to recognize as a smile, and its voice rumbles out. “Why would I want to die when I can have a little fun?” He picks Faith up by her hair, shakes her around a bit.

Faith’s head burns and she grits her teeth, but she doesn’t respond. He drops her back to the ground and wraps a clammy hand around her neck. It’s a position she’s been in many times before, and she can’t help but crack a small smile, knowing what comes next.

She lashes her arm out into his elbow, quicker than he can think to react, and the joint shatters. She throws a few solid punches into his face, none of them doing much damage. She spots the dropped stake several inches away, and gives him a solid kick to the face before crawling to the splintered wood.

He latches on to her ankle with his good arm as she’s crawling away, and she’s left without a proper weapon. All she has left is her knife, and it’s not enough to kill. Seemingly a goner once again. It’s a position she’s used to. But she’ll never give up fighting.

She struggles with the vampire, her hands all she has left. A finger goes into an eyeball and blood gushes out. But he’s determined now, hunger and instincts taking him over. Faith’s struggling to keep him away from her neck, gain any bit of ground in their battle, when the vampire freezes. She watches as a long line of red appears on his neck, and then he evaporates to dust.

Through the cloud she sees a human figure, a man. But she knows better than to trust easily, so she quickly grabs the stake again, arming herself to fight again if need be.

The man holds his hand out. “Don’t. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Faith sneers. “That’s what they all say. Right before they try to take a bite out of my neck. At least he didn’t bother with the pleasantries.” She gestures at the pile of dust that was her last nemesis.

The man puts both hands in the air. “I’m human, I swear. Not hungry, and certainly not looking to bite your neck.”

“Human. So how’d you kill him?”

The man stared at her, a slight look of incredulousness spreading onto his face. “You haven’t met anyone else like me? I’m not the only one left. I can’t be.” He sighs, his shoulders slouching in the process. “I don’t know how to explain it, really. It’s genetics. I can do…extraordinary things, and I pick up more as I go along.”

“Like witchcraft? I knew someone once. She was powerful. Are you powerful?” Faith pulled her knife with her free hand. Vampire or Human, the knife would do damage.

“No. I know next to nothing about witchcraft. This power’s a part of me. I don’t know how to explain it any better. And yeah, I guess I’m pretty powerful. I absorb all the abilities I come across, so I’ve got something of a collection. It’s hard to keep track sometimes.” He slowly moves one of his hands out of the air, but pauses when Faith flinches, her knife catching the glint of the setting sun. “I’m gonna show you something. Just hang on.” He lays his palm out flat in the air, and Faith watches as a little bubble of blue electricity crackles to life in his palm. He snaps his palm shut and the light disappears. “I saved your life. I’m not a vampire. You don’t have to trust me. You don’t have to care. But you don’t have to be alone any longer if you don’t want to.”

Faith’s eyes widen at his last sentence, and she prepares to attack him. “In my experience, anyone who saves my life generally wants something in return. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out here, and I’m not big on keeping people around. They usually end up betraying you.” She flashes to her last partner, a handsome man like the one standing in front of her, and the day he ran away from the fight to save himself and left her to fend for her own. She’d had to shove a stake in his heart the next time she caught up with him.

“Life sucks. I know. But you got to keep living it, because it’s better than the alternative. You obviously believe that, or you wouldn’t be out here fighting.”

Faith shakes her head. “I’m out here fighting because it’s what I was born to do. I used to think it was a job, but now it’s all I have left.”

The man cocks his head sideways. “Funny. I heard someone else say the exact same thing once. I watched her head get ripped apart from her body several days later. I think she was the last person I spent any fair amount of time with, but it’s hard to keep track anymore. She was a Slayer, like you.”

The stake slid from Faith’s hand, its surface slick with her blood. “Sometimes I forget it’s not a secret anymore. So you knew a Slayer, congratulations. We’re a rarity these days. Although, I guess pretty much everything but death and destruction is a rarity now.” Faith let out a groan as her left knee gave out on her and she collapsed to the ground. The stranger rushed over to her. She reached for her knife, but it had fallen away from her on the way down, and she couldn’t see where it was now.

“It fell over there,” the stranger gestured, and off her look, he said, “Sorry. I can hear your thoughts, too. I knew you were going to attack me, I just was hoping to talk you out of it. Now, if you let me help you, I can probably fix your knee.”

Faith just nodded, the pain starting to dampen her senses.

“Looks like you wrenched it out of its socket at some point. It’s going to need set, and it’s going to hurt.”

“Just do it,” she gritted.

He jerked the kneecap into place, and Faith clamped down on her screams the best she could, but she knew she was loud. She just hoped no creature heard and came running. She was fighting to stay conscious when she noted that the pain had started to fade, and through the pain-induced black spots in her vision, she could see the stranger’s hands hovering over her knee. He smiled back at her, adding, “Healing. I picked it up…Hell, I don’t even remember. I don’t use it much anymore. No one around to use it on, really.”

Faith felt the pain fade. The stranger backed away from her and stood up then, offering a hand out to her. She ignored it, and carefully made her way to her feet. The pain was gone. She looked back to the stranger, who had her knife in his hand. “Want this back?” he offered.

She wretched it away from his hands. “Thanks.”

“No problem. My name’s Peter. Anything else hurt?”

She hesitated, surveying her body before replying. “Faith. And nah, everything’s five by five.”
**