Obviously, this is totally unofficial and based on Joss Whedon's Buffyverse. This is in no way an official story; I'm simply borrowing Joss' characters for a while. I hope he won't mind and with any luck I'll return them all in a few instalments time in one piece.
I will give most new characters that I introduce a description in the text, but I may also suggest at the beginning of each story who would be the guest star to play them if it were a real T.V. episode. For example: Holly/Quetzonatl would be played by Shannon Elizabeth as she appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
This is set in an alternate Buffy verse. All of the events that have happened in Buffy have still happened in this Buffy verse with the exception of the death of the slayer Kendra who survived after series 2 but 'died' after Drusilla cut her throat in that her heart stopped, calling Faith. Events following this have been different in so far as they now include Kendra. She recovered in Sunnydale and remained there when Buffy fled to Los Angeles. She returned again after Faith's turn to evil and fought alongside Buffy against her, capturing her alive. Together, they brought her back around and the three slayers fought the mayor together at graduation. She then returned to her home and returned only sporadically after that, notably during the fight against Glory and the battle against The First's minions. Faith meanwhile went to Los Angeles to help Angel Investigations, returning to aid in the fight against Willow when she turned to evil, in which Faith was almost killed. She returned to Los Angeles again to fight evil after Angel's move to Wolfram and Hart, then returned to Sunnydale to fight The First Evil.
In this instalment, the character of Gwen Raiden (played by the delectable Alexa Davalos) appears as she did in Angel Season 4, as does Illyria (played by Amy Acker) as she appeared in Angel Season 5.
*
Faith had tried to sleep for the whole first half of the flight but to no avail. She watched the movie the on the small screen in front of her more from a sense of bored desperation than genuine interest. Xander by contrast had fallen asleep almost immediately in the seat next to her and had slumped over onto her shoulder once or twice.
Their situation was complicated. She enjoyed the idea of being just sex-buddies with Xander, yet she knew that he would have a hard time leaving it at just that. She was also surprised that she actually lusted after him. Their first night together all those years ago had been fun, especially since it was his first time, but nothing special. But their recent antics in his car had been born from a lust for him that was overpowering.
She was still unsure where it had come from. True, she had been horny anyway and he had disturbed her porn film before she had a chance to act upon that urge herself, but still, she should not have felt so strong an attraction to him.
She stirred uncomfortably in her seat, bumping Xander slightly, but he just gave a low moan and turned, remaining asleep.
Faith was sat in the centre seat of a row of three on the aircraft. Xander sat to her left and to her right was a man she had not given much attention to. She wasn't used to airline travel and so far it was not to her liking.
The man to her right chose that moment to return to his seat from, she presumed, the bathroom. Although she gave him only the briefest of glances when he returned, she could not shake the feeling of vague familiarity she felt. Not someone she knew she was sure, but possibly someone she had met. She also felt that she had shared intimacy with him, although something felt strange about how this had occurred as well.
She tried to look at him without being too obvious but it proved difficult and eventually she simply looked over. She found him trying to sneak glances toward her also and looking into his face recognised him.
'Riley Finn??'
The man looked shocked at her. For a moment he said nothing.
'Yes, do I know you?' His eyes held the same kind of unsure familiarity that she had felt. 'You're familiar but I'm not sure if...'
'Yeah, we never met in this form I don't think. But I think Buffy may have shown you some pictures of me before.'
'You know Buffy?'
'Yeah, but we have a... complicated, past.'
'What's your name?' he asked.
'Faith.'
His eyes widened in shock.
'Yeah, don't worry I'm not evil anymore.' She grinned at his suspicious look. 'Angel helped me, along with my big slayer sisters B and K of course.' She sighed. 'I did some time, and came to terms with what I did. I can never make up for the lives I took, I know this but I can do my best to redeem myself and so I'm gonna try to.'
He looked unconvinced.
'You did horrible things Faith, you should still be in prison.'
'Yeah, I had to quit that gig when the First did its thing.' She shook her head at his look of puzzlement. 'It's a long story,.'
'So it's an incredible coincidence that we're on the same flight at the same time let alone next to one another.' She cocked her head, 'What's that about? You and your government buddies keeping tabs on me or something?'
'No, I...' He gazed into the distance, 'It's just, well, I don't really know. I just got this... this feeling I guess. I recently, well, that is I...'
'What? Just spit it out army boy.' She laughed.
'Well, I recently got a divorce...'
'Jeez you were married? B never said anything about that.'
'Yeah I was, well, we had a bad break up. We carried on in the spec ops but being that close together with so many conflicting feelings, it was just difficult. I put in for a transfer but they made me take a month of leave first.' He shook his head. 'I had considered travelling to Europe but I just got this, this, random urge to travel there right now. When I got to the ticket desk they just assigned me this seat.'
'Wow, that's a rough gig for you, I'm sorry.' Faith shook her head. 'I still can't believe the odds of us being sat together like this though.'
'We've been alot closer than this,' his face reddened, 'in mind if not in body.'
She laughed openly.
'You didn't seem to have a problem with the body in question though.' She licked her lips mockingly. 'I suspect it was a little more unleashed when I was behind the wheel .'
His face remained red but he obviously did not want to appear to be out of responses and so he said;
'You'd be surprised.' Before she could respond again he changed the subject. 'So why are you going to Europe?' He looked over her shoulder, 'And is that Xander?'
'Yeah it is.' She turned to look at him. 'He's a little tired, he had a busy night. Well, we're going to see Buffy and her army of slayers. Apparently there's some big evil arising, there's a surprise right? And we have to go and stop it.'