Disclaimer and Notes: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer characters and concepts belong to Mutant Enemy; Witchblade to Top Cow Productions. As always, I'm just playing in the sandbox. Written for the crossovers100 challenge, prompt #74: dark. Thanks again to Rhi and Nevada for the beta.

Revelations in a Minor Key

By Raine Wynd

"You sure this is where they'll be?"

Faith glanced over her shoulder at Sara and smiled brilliantly. "Trust me." She dismounted from her motorcycle easily and waited for Sara to finish strapping her helmet to her bike and grab a flashlight from her saddle bag.

Finished with the task, Sara looked at the younger woman dubiously. "An hour ago, you were in the process of starting a fight in a dance club, a fight I'd like to remind you I broke up. The only reason I trust you now is that something tells me you had reasons. And now you want us to go into a gated, probably locked, private cemetery at midnight."

"Dawn's not for a couple hours yet. There's always some late-rising idiot. Come on, this is fun."

Sara didn't like the images of death and darkness the Witchblade was feeding her in connection to the other woman, but not liking what the 'blade told her was par for the course. It was also telling her that the brunette held answers to questions she hadn't asked yet, and that knowledge was what had compelled Sara to follow Faith here. "If this is your idea of fun, I'm almost afraid to ask what you do for major excitement."

"Save the world every May," Faith replied.

Sara stared at her, not sure if she was joking. Something about the way Faith said it, however, and the lack of reaction from the Witchblade, made Sara think perhaps it hadn't been a joke.

Faith ignored Sara's silence, apparently taking it for either shock or a lack of something appropriate to say. "Come on, time's wasting." Faith led the way through the surprisingly unlocked gate and down through the rows of gravestones. She paused briefly to listen to something only she could hear before heading, unerring, to a recently dug grave. Faith didn't seem to need a flashlight to see in the dark; in fact, she seemed to be in her element here. She knelt by the grave; Sara followed her lead.

It didn't take long for the vampire to rise. Sara felt the 'blade stir in excitement, felt the mystical gauntlet start to change shape from its usual bracelet. With effort, Sara switched the flashlight into her left hand, but not before Faith caught sight of the Witchblade.

"Well, that's handy," Faith remarked. Beside them, the vampire was halfway out of the grave.

"Excuse me," the male vampire said, "but do you know what time it is? I think I'm late for dinner."

"Actually," Faith replied as she pulled out a wooden stake from her jacket, "you're late for your death, but we'll fix that right up." In a poof of ash, the vampire vanished as Faith stabbed his heart with the stake. "See? Wood stakes are the best. Swords just hurt them. Garlic doesn't work, but holy objects burn them. Sunlight will also kill them."

"Them being?"

"Vampires. I'm a Vampire Slayer."

"So you run around the country killing vampires." It seemed stupid to have to say the words, but Sara knew she needed to, if only to make the idea more concrete in her head. Ghosts were one thing and she'd defeated a few demons, but somehow, she hadn't believed in vampires.

"Vampires, demons, wizards, basically anything evil. Although there are some good vamp and demons and witches, you know, that whole universe-is-balanced thing." The Witchblade chattered again as Faith rose to meet the challenge, two vampires this time. Without breaking a sweat, Faith staked both of them when they rushed her. She listened for a few minutes, then said, "I think that's all of them for tonight."

"How can you tell?"

"I hear them. To me, they're not quiet when they move. I have the super strength, hearing, skill, super-fast healing and training to defeat them."

"Are there more of you?" Sara asked as they headed back to where they'd parked their motorcycles.

Faith shrugged. "More than there were a few years ago. Used to be more of 'one at a time' kind of thing - when one dies, a new Slayer is called. You're born with the potential of becoming a Slayer, kinda goes through bloodlines. What's your story?"

Sara hesitated. It wasn't Sara's nature to be open with anyone, much less anyone she'd just met, but Faith's candor made Sara more willing to return truth for truth. "The Witchblade's an ancient, mystical gauntlet with a mind of its own. It picked me to be this generation's wielder."

"You get any nifty powers with that?"

"Some. It can turn from a bracelet to full armor, complete with a sword. I can see the past and the future. I can talk to ghosts. I can tell if someone's lying to me - I don't know how, but it's more than the skill I learned from experience. It thirsts for blood, and it doesn't care how it gets spilled. It'll keep me from dying, if it continues to like me."

Faith stopped walking and stared at her. "What the fuck happens if it stops liking you?"

Sara met Faith's eyes. "It goes to a new wielder, and I'm left with the memory of what it was to hold it. From what I've seen, that memory can drive someone insane." Sara didn't hide the bitterness in her voice. Faith might look like she was in her early twenties, but she'd already proven she wasn't scared of the dark.

"Don't let a Slayer get a hold of it, then," Faith warned her. "We're already a bit fucked up. We dream of what is to come if we don't stop it. Every night, I see the future as it may be."

"And last night's dream made you come to New York?"

Faith shrugged easily. "I was already here. Friend of mine needs supplies you can't buy over the Internet. Some things you can only find in New York, I guess. I kept dreaming I needed to meet a woman wearing a gauntlet."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Faith answered as they started walking again. "My dreams never make much sense. It's like watching late night TV - you have no idea why the fuck you're watching the campiest sci-fi you've ever seen, but you don't turn the TV off, and later, you try to explain the whole plot to someone else and you only remember the half-naked guy in the blue fin costume."

Sara laughed. "I knew about ghosts and demons. Guess someone thought I needed to know what else is out there."

"World's full of shit people think is only science fiction," Faith agreed. In companionable silence, they made their way back to their bikes.

"Anything else you'd like to know?" Faith asked.

"Why do you do it? I can't imagine anyone paying you to kill vampires."

It was Faith's turn to laugh. "Actually, nowadays, they do. There's a Council to keep track of the Slayers, help focus our efforts to where we'll do the most good. It's not a lot of money, but it means I don't have to deal with trying to find employment elsewhere. Something about temper control." She grinned. "I'm the bad Slayer, you see."

"Am I likely to find an outstanding warrant for your arrest if I headed back to my office right now?"

"Not anymore," Faith admitted. "Do you remember hearing about dragons in L.A.?"

"That was a couple of years ago. There were really dragons?"

"Flames and all. Mayor of L.A. commuted my sentence to time served after I helped save the city."

Sara looked at her companion as the Witchblade filled in the rest of the details for her. "You didn't save everybody you wanted to save."

In the glow of the parking lot lights, Faith looked haunted by the memory. "No. I lost friends. You, ah, you ever lose anyone like that?"

Sara hesitated. Telling Faith more about herself wasn't the hard part; the memory was. "I'm a homicide cop. My partner got shot and killed. You tell yourself life happens, but it never goes away." She half-chuckled. "Only consolation is I get to talk to his ghost sometimes. He still doesn't tell me everything."

"At least you get to say what you want to say without having to use spells." Faith shuddered. "I hate casting spells. I'm always afraid I'm going to say something wrong and the world's going to be worse off. Give me a fucking stake, or a sword, or a gun, and I'm your girl." She paused. "So do you know of a bar that'll serve some good whiskey and a cheap hotel?"

"I have some Jack Daniels in my fridge, and you're welcome to crash at my place tonight. That is, unless you needed to be out fighting more vampires or whatever else you fight."

Faith smiled. "I did some of that already. Feel like I gave my fucking share for the evening. There are other Slayers at work in New York; they can handle whatever else crops up. You sure about this? For all you know, I'm a convicted murderer. I could be after the Witchblade."

"If you were after the Witchblade, I'd know by now. If there's one thing the Witchblade recognizes, it's ambition for someone to possess it." Sara was calm. "Besides, you haven't killed anyone human in seven years."

"That thing makes you something other than human."

"No more than you are. You weren't the first Slayer of your generation to be called. The third, really, but the first one beat death more than any Slayer in history, and you never fit in until after you'd already tasted evil. You've been trying to prove to everyone that you've gone good, and they still wait for the other shoe to drop, don't you?"

Faith stared at her. "Fuck. That thing told you that?"

Sara didn't smile. "I told you it helps me see the past. I'm not going to die at your hand, either."

"Fuck, even if I wanted to, I don't think I want that freaky thing. Shit. I wasn't going to kill you, you know. I just wanted to let you know I'm not your fucking girl next door. Girl, you know that thing's got fucking tentacles?" Faith squirmed out of reach of one.

Sara sighed. "Yeah." She willed the stray tentacles back into the bracelet. "Like I said, it's got a mind of its own."

"Listen, if it's like that, I think I'll take my chances on finding a bar by myself. Thanks for the offer, though. I'd tell you to take care, but I think you can do that by yourself just fine. See you around, Detective Pezzini." Faith mounted her battered motorcycle.

"Be safe, Faith."

Faith nodded, then put her helmet on and fired up her motorcycle. Within minutes, she was gone.

Sara mounted her own bike and headed off into the night. Her mind was spinning with the implications of a bunch of vampire slayers running around the world. For one thing, it meant that the darkness Sara had committed herself to fighting was a hell of lot bigger than she'd ever dreamed. For another, it meant there were a lot more people involved than she'd initially thought, and she wasn't alone in being something of a freak. She took that last thought home with her for comfort.

Finis 7/2/06

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