WELCOME

Los Angeles. Faith wasn't sure why she was here. Something forced her to linger where Angel resided. Faith was only 'wanted' by the law after she had busted out of jail following a phone call from Wesley Wyndam-Pryce concerning the dire fate of Angel. It wasn't so much the trouble in paradise, the havoc which Angelus would undoubtedly cause and the pain he would inflict not only upon the population in general but to those angel considered friends, or friends by proxy. It wasn't the Scooby Gang she had once claimed to be a part of, or the friends she had attempted to make whilst in Sunnydale and was otherwise ostracized from. The hopeful attempt at friendship had resulted in utter ruin, pain and disaster. War stretched across Sunnydale as they battled out their differences and rage. Faith realised most of the rage originated from her and her twisted brain and mashed up heart. It was only in her coma and strange merging with Buffy that she realised her pain and hatred was misdirected and that she had seriously lost her way. There was a kind of clarity and peace which came with a sleep so deep nothing could wake her. Even after assisting her in destroying the Mayor, Buffy still didn't get it. Faith's grief and rage over his death had consumed what little sanity she had left, taking hold, gripping hard and driving her to violate what little sense of boundaries she possessed. More pain and chaos wreaked over sunnydale before she dragged it to Los Angeles seeking absoution in death. As it happened Angel never made anything easy for he did not believe in simple and uncomplicated. And so she had carted herself off to the jaihouse and lived there rather peacefully until a phone call came through.

Sunnydale was not somewhere Faith particularly liked. Luckily she would never have to return there ever. Her relationship with Buffy was slightly smoother than before but it would never be the same. She knew now it would never be recovered, nor did she want to become bosom buddies with Miss High Almighty. Things in Buffy land had to be done her way no matter what and she would become blind to all else that contained functioning brain cells. She guessed that was a hazard with being The Slayer. buffy had certainly developed her own kind of complex even if the girl couldn't see it. Buffy had a certain kind of smarts, but street smarts she ain't got a whole bunle of - she just liked to think that she did. She did not have the emotional or mental strength to handle what was truly 'the streets'. He crumbled when someone slept with her boyfriend, who really should have known it wasn't sweet, perfect Buffy in the first place. Oh please, Faith hadn't bothered trying particularly hard to even pretend she was Buffy. Sunnydale was behind her and now she was back in LA, hovering wondering where she would go to next. She doubted she would stay. She didn't particularly want to. Faith was used to not being wanted or liked. One way or another everyone decided she was a waste of space and ran, or made her run. LA was no different. Plus she had to be careful about those damn cops. They were particularly keen to catch her after she so easily broke out of prison. Well...easy was relative. There was technically nothing 'easy' about it.

So Faith went out to party. She found the nearest club which was human oriented (demons were always hanging around somewhere), and threw herself into dancing. Faith did love a good dance. As always guys gravitated towards her (or she bashed her way in with the subtlety of a bulldozer). The pulsing beat went straight for her veins, taking her over, becoming part of who she was until Faith was nothing more than another body on the dance floor consumed by rhythms and beats. Her body was moving of its own accord, knowing what it wanted far better than she did. Songs came and went, lights playing on the dance floor, scoping over slick bodies filled with blood and lust. Eventually faith decided she required some liquid fire and a deep breath. Gently prying herself away from the men she slipped off to the bar.

America... Haruka didn't imagine she would go back there anytime soon, not after the things that happened the previous year in Sunnydale. Admittedly, past experiences didn't dictate the future. The first major difference between the past year and this time was that Haruka and her lover didn't get brought across the ocean by a mysterious white light. This time they traveled by their own free will. Michiru had been invited to play in a Christmas concert – an opportunity which was impossible to turn down – and it was only natural that Haruka travelled with her. The romantic part of Haruka – which she didn't like to admit to having – would have preferred that they spent Christmas in their home in Tokyo, snuggling in front of the fireplace while the town was covered with a thick blanket of snow. Instead they were going to spend the holiday season in dry Los Angeles, in a hotel room and snuggling on Christmas Eve would have to wait until Michiru's concert appearance would be over. Perhaps it was not going to be what Haruka had imagined before the invitation had arrived but that was not going to make Christmas any less beautiful. If she was by Michiru's side, the setting did not matter.

In the light of the past events, Haruka felt tempted to amend that thought. If Sunnydale still existed to this day, that would have been the only place in the world in which she would have never wanted to spend Christmas again. That town might have been erased from the map but the memories of everything that happened there remained fresh. Fortunately, Los Angeles seemed to be nothing like Sunnydale. Sure, there had been a slight bad vibe that reached her senses but it was nowhere near how she had felt in Sunnydale. Los Angeles was not a place that felt evil in itself. Haruka idly wondered if the bad vibe meant that vampires and other types of creatures were also at home on its streets, as much as humans were. If that was true, there was not much which she could do about it. She no longer had her powers so she could only be careful, specially for her lover.

That didn't mean that Haruka was going to act like one of those paranoid lovers and stay by Michiru's side all the time. The tall blonde had been quick to discover the best racing circuits in town, so she had something keep her entertained while her lover was out, rehearsing. Usually rehearsals happened during the day but, as the concert was drawing nearer, it happened that a late rehearsal was decided for the day. Haruka found no reason why she should have spent the evening alone in the hotel room – and she didn't want to ruin Michiru's focus by being at the rehearsal – so she went out in town. She didn't have a particular destination but a night club caught her attention and Haruka entered, taking a seat at the bar. The bartender, a young woman, did not waste time to come and ask what she wanted to drink – better said “he”. Haruka's choice of clothing had been androgynous, as it often was. Unlike it often happened, though, Haruka didn't flirt. She just ordered a cocktail, losing herself in thought as she waited for her drink to be brought.

Faith had never travelled beyond the United States. The US of A was a large country – incredibly vast with different topography across the nation. One State could be like a fridge and another a vast, dry, hot desert. Faith had never any need to go beyond the boundaries of her home country. She had never seen Europe or Asia and she didn’t regret that one bit. She loved America and knew nothing different. In her short life she had seen a lot of the country – she had crossed State lines and broken a law perhaps that didn’t exist in the State she just came from. The States were so huge they were a law unto themselves. Rules for each – some overlapped and some didn’t. The age of consent could be eighteen or twenty one, it was just your luck. Faith didn’t really care for those kind of rules, never had. She was old enough now for it not to matter. She started drinking when she was fourteen, or was it twelve? Her mother never had been much of a role figure. She spent most of her days drunk out of her mind.

Faith did like to travel: off and on the beaten track. Sometimes she had to move, run away and leave wherever she was. Sometimes she did it in the middle of the night – as though fleeing the scene of a crime so she wouldn’t get caught. That may be true. Most of her life was spent running: from the foster homes she didn’t like, from friends or Kakistos. Running for her life hadn’t been fun, nor had it been any more difficult than her near constant gypsy like lifestyle she had been leading before he came into her life. Damn the world if they thought moving constantly was a bad thing. It had kept her alive. It had kept her safe. It had kept her going against all odds. She looked around the club and saw happy couples (sickening really,) single girls and single guys all rubbing against each other and hoping to get some. Curved lines and hard lines joining together in pleasant friction as each sought their own pleasure in the thrumbing beat and the bouncing melody.

What to do? Dodge the police and have some fun, that was her goal. She sat, alone, at the bar, throat dry and begging for the amber liquid to burn down the flesh of her larynx. Perspiration glistened along her chest as it heaved dramatically. She wasn’t puffed. She wasn’t even near slightly physically tired. She was putting an act on to snag the guys’ attention. They did like heaving bosoms. Faith herself liked smooth features, strong arms and toned abs. She would never be with a man who was not physically fit. She was never particularly attracted to geeks anyway (and the fat boys always did seem to be nerds). Faith kept her eye open for any random vampires choosing victims but at that moment she couldn’t seem to spot any. There was a woman at the bar too, ordering a drink. She sidled up to the girl and asked ”Hey, you know where the little stick figures live? I can’t find a sign anywhere in this place,” Faith asked her. A girl had to dance, a girl had to drink, and a girl had to pee.

As she was waiting for her drink, Haruka casually glanced at the dancers in the club. For the moment, their only concern seemed to be dancing and that was just the way it should have been. Other than the common worries and problems which anyone met in life, there was no more greater threat that constantly loomed behind them. Haruka wondered how many of them were aware of that, though. How many humans have noticed that, since one year ago, something had changed? Did they notice that the world was different now, that it was free of Evil, of Chaos or did this make no difference in their lives? The tall blonde doubted that the number of people that did was a high one. They had defeated the greater evil but the smaller aspects of it continued to exist, Haruka could feel it. There were still youma on this planet that didn't vanish when the First and Chaos were buried on the bottom of the Hellmouth. They continued to torment the innocent and, sadly, now there were fewer people that could defend them.

Haruka fought the urge to sigh. If a youma were to appear into the club, what would she do? Until one year ago, she would have pulled out her henshin pen and transformed into Sailor Uranus, then she would have taught the youma a lesson about tormenting innocent people that had wanted to enjoy a pleasant night out in town. Now... Knowing herself, Haruka was convinced that she would want to fight a youma with her bare hands, as years of practicing track and field, as well as martial arts, had given her a strength above that of other girls of her age but, at the same time, she knew that she should act in the way which she completely hated and make a run for her life. She couldn't do this to Michiru, she couldn't put herself in danger and die again. This time, there would be no one to bring her back to life.

Why was she having such foolish thoughts anyway? It was better to be hopeful that nothing bad was going to happen this night. Haruka's attention was caught by the sound of another young woman's voice and she turned her head to look at her. The blonde gave her a look over – she definitely looked sexy, Haruka couldn't deny that. She chuckled at the question. ”I'm sorry, it's my first time here. I'm as lost as you are.” The bartender returned with the order. Haruka took the cocktail from her hand, giving the bartender a playful wink before taking a sip of her cup. She kept her eyes on the other young woman.

Buffy, Faith had decided once more, needed to lighten up. She would never go out into town and have a good party. She would never let loose and that was why she was wound up all the time with her face that was beginning to wrinkle. Faith chuckled to herself. Once upon a time she liked Buffy, and once upon a time she hated her but now she didn't care so much either way. She didn't want the girl dead any more and when push came to shove she'd protect the one true Slayer with her life. As far as Faith was concerned she and Buffy were square though she was sure the blonde didn't feel that way. Tomato, tomato because Faith was doing what she could to make amends and travel on a path that wasn't easy. Buffy accused her once that she would get bored of the redemption thing but she had yet to feel a wobbly. Faith was truly serious about it, but understood what it meant to relax, let loose and have fun. God, Buffy was so boring these days. She had morphed into this soldier, a militant authority who barked orders and stamped her feet and thought everyone should follow her because that's the way it's always been. Faith hoped she had learned that people had needs, especially scared girls.

The last time Faith went partying, Buffy had went on dictatorship on her, smacking her on the mouth like she had been cussing to her mama. It was all water under the bridge. The experience hadn't dampened her spirits at all...well, not for long. Now she was back on the horse, so to speak, and living it up as much as she could. The way she figured it, trouble was always just around the corner and she had to keep sharp, stay alert and enjoy the calm while it lasted. This world was determined to be in trouble. It sure kept the good guys busy. Dancing was a good way for Faith to release all her pent up energy without smashing someone to pieces. Releasing her energy on someone these days usually meant they were demonic, or she was planning to sex them out of their minds - both of them coincide quite strongly with one another. Slaying made her horny and sex mad her want to slay something afterwards. who needs a normal chick, huh?

Buffy aside, that girl still haunted her thoughts a tad too much for faith's liking, Faith was having a great time. Too much of her life had been about sticking it to the authority. Well guess what? She was the authority now and she said, have a good time and party while you could because tomorrow could be prison day and that was no fun at all. Serious times lay ahead. the brunette was waiting for the other shoe to drop and was convinced it was going to happen some time. The evil guys did not like being defeated, especially not by a bunch of girls on their own territory. A fight was coming. She could feel it in her bones.

One drink to many and Faith was feeling a twinge. She asked the girl next to her if she knew were the toilets were but was drawing up blank. "Thanks anyway. I'll just ask..." Faith trailed off when she noticed a guy leave with a girl, bearing all the hallmarks of vampire picking up its dinner. It happened all the time in the Bronze so Faith knew what it was without having to sense it. Apparently Buffy got all the weird Slayer sensing powers whilst Faith just had to guess but there was no mistake this time. "Back in a minute," Faith said, from her leaned over position and stalked off out back. Faith faked a stumble, swore and caught the attention of the vampire. "You wouldn't know where the little girl's room is would you? Only I had one drink too many and...," Faith said punching the guy in the face forcing him to vamp out. "Oh jee. Maybe you should look in the mirror," Faith replied "Why don't you run along now, get home to your mother," she said to the girl. Kicking the dude in the stomach she grabbed a sharp wooden piece of debris and shoved it through his chest.

"Thanks anyway. I'll just ask..."

Haruka gave the other woman a nod of her head and another look over. She was definitely beyond pleasant to the eye and it didn't go unnoticed to Haruka how her chest rose as she was trying to catch her breath. ”Oi, oi, Haruka”, the sandy-haired blonde gave herself a mental nudge. She was engaged to Michiru so she needed to change some of her old habits. Michiru was fully aware of how Haruka tended to act around a pretty girl and how she liked to flirt and tease, specially if the other girl was under the impression that she was dealing with a man, and she hadn't asked her to change her ways, not even after they became more committed to another. That didn't mean, though, that Haruka didn't want to change her ways. She felt like she owed that much to Michiru, as a sign of the love she carried for her – Haruka always felt like she didn't express her feelings as often as she should have. After the past year, when death caught her by complete surprise during the Hellmouth battle, Haruka felt the need to make sure that Michiru would always be aware of how she felt about her. She didn't want to take the chance of leaving the world one more time without Michiru knowing how much she loved her.

The woman at the bar didn't look like one of the silly girls which Haruka had the habit of charming with her flirting, she looked like the kind of woman with whom flirting could quickly lead to their bodies tangled between the sheets. The thought was tempting but she didn't want to betray her fiancee – though she was probably betraying her just by being tempted. Haruka took another sip out of her drink and gave the other woman a smile as she excused herself. ”Take your time”, she replied, watching as Faith stood and left. Haruka frowned slightly: was it her or was the other woman following a couple? Something seemed off to Haruka so she stood from the bar stool and headed off in the same direction as Faith.

Keeping herself hidden in the shadows, next to a wall, Haruka witness the scene: the mysterious woman that had caught her attention at the bar grabbed a piece of wood and shoved it through the guy's chest, turning him into dust. ”So you are a vampire Slayer?”, Haruka asked, stepping forward from the place where she had been standing. She knew that Sunnydale had a vampire Slayer but, from what she remembered seeing in the chaos of that last battle, the Slayer was blonde and slightly shorter than the woman she was facing right now. ”I didn't know there were more of them”, she added. ”I like how you took that guy out.” It was no mystery to those that knew her that Haruka loathed vampires more than she loathed any other kind of youma. It was a shame she lost her powers and, implictly, her Space Sword – Haruka would have gladly used it to take out some fanged bastards herself, as a form of vengeance for what one of them had done to Hotaru-chan in Sunnydale and for what their bigger, nastier relatives from the Hellmouth had done to her.

Slaying had been part of her life for so long now. It was second nature for her long before that to watch her back, but now she wasn't just watching it for human threats. More often than not, Faith was guarding herself against the demonic life forms. She ate, she slept, she slayed or she didn't and that was her life. She dodged the police and tried not to get her picture taken anywhere though CCTV imaging was inevitable. She was a Slayer, it was supposed to be an honour, a gift, a calling that she was to uphold with dignity unto the end. Faith wasn't one for dying, in fact she wasn't one for following the rules or doing what she was told. Slaying wasn't just part of her life, she was the slaying, the fighting, the death, the violence. She believed with her heart and soul that she had the right to decide her own fate because why did she have to answer to some unknown power? It was someone else who decided that she was to be awoken when the previous slayer died. The constant killing hadn't been good for her. To violent, too messed up and twisted to begin with, she took what she could and made it dark. She perverted the cause, her destiny, the calling and made it something vile. It had been so much fun. There was no rules that could hold her, no rules she had to follow, no rules to bind her.

Where she had loved it before, Faith hated it now. She wanted out. She wanted nothing more to do with this slaying gig. The others might be happy about that, they might not considering when the big bads come a calling it's nice to have another able warrior on board that can heal quickly, fight dirty and get the job done without being protected. She did like having the strength and Faith wouldn't know what to do without it now. However she didn't want to be in the game any more. It was no good for her emotional or mental state.Her damn prison psychiatrist babbled on about environment and structure and social cohesion. To be honest she was concentrating on how not to murder his ass more than half the time. Inside Prison she wasn't the Slayer, the reject Slayer, the psycho bitch, whatever. Inside prison she was just like everyone else - inside because she had committed a crime and got caught, or confessed or was ratted out. Inside prison she wasn't super powerful, she was just a woman serving her time.

Dancing and drinking and having fun was a great way to get away from all the Slaying. Unfortunately it occasionally led to some slaying of its own. All she wanted to do was dance, have a feel good time, perhaps snag a guy and ride him back at his place. She wanted to get sexy, naughty and loose with somene she didn't know and didn't plan to know. She had been dancing around, having fun, drinking when the sudden urge to relieve the pressure in her bladder ignited. At first Faith had ignored it, preferring to dance the night away in style surrounded by boys than stop for a minute. There were a couple of girls in the corner eyeing the guys she was dancing with, and while she was confident she could regain their attention should it wander, Faith knew that such possessive competitiveness only lead her to dark places. She never wanted to go back to the twisted place she carved for herself. So when the urge grew to strong, Faith slinked off to the bar to ask a girl if she knew there the little ladies room was.

Of course that wasn't to be. She had the choice to go to the toilet and allow that young girl to die - she really shouldn't have been wearing that outfit - or she could do the good thign, the right thing, the Slayer thing and save her life. It really wasn't a contest. Perhaps at one point in her life she would have had to think about it: she would have chosen to go to the toilet, or watch, or kill the vampire and beat the damn girl up herself because she had been twisted like that. Nowadays Faith was walking the straight and narrow. It was pretty much like walking the twelve steps - another result of Prison. So she had slipped off to save someone's life which was more a call of duty than anything else. That, and she didn't want anyone becoming vampire food because that was never pleasant.

Just after she dusted the vamp the girl who failed to provide her with directions to the bathroom stepped forward. Faith tensed, keeping herself ready but did nothing to provoke any action or attack without warrant. "Um yeah. Big Ancient Wigglies never factored in advance in medicine," Faith said. "So you know about Slayers," Faith added.

If the girl was a Slayer or not, what did it matter to Haruka? That was a question which she didn't have any answer for her. She guessed that she was curious, the same way young girls in Tokyo used to be curious about the fuku-clad girls that fought youma and saved their lives. It was interesting how life worked and how the roles was reversed. An year before, Sailor Uranus was the one watched into action, turning heads, raising questions and theories about who and what she was and how could a girl have so much power. Now, Haruka was the one watching as another young girl fought a youma – as far as she had been bothered to find out, vampires were a combination between a human body and a youma – and she was the one displaying curiosity at the scene in front of her. It hurt her ego a little. It made her miss everything she lost.

Another proof that life had a funny sense of humour, wasn't it? Haruka could never forget the way in which she reacted that her life had been predestined to be dedicated to more than track and field and racing. Stubborn by nature, she had rebelled against the idea that someone, in a very distant past, decided what she was supposed to do with her life. Haruka wanted to be the artisan of her own destiny, she wanted to free and soar like the wind – where she wanted to, how she wanted to. It took meeting Michiru to understand that being a senshi and fighting along her side was an important step she needed to take because Sailor Uranus was a part of herself, something that defined her – not a chore that was going to take her away from the other things she liked. Times had changed since her destiny had been written and it was no longer as set in stone as she had feared it to be. She had to protect the Princess and future Queen and keep the Solar System safe from outside intrusions but she didn't have to stay in the Miranda Castle any more, away from the woman she loved, for fear that their presence in the same place could awaken the power of the Senshi that needed to remain dormant for the world to still exist. Haruka could have a normal life and do all of the other things she loved doing.

After losing her powers, nothing felt the way it used to feel. No matter how fast Haruka raced or how fast she ran on the track, something was missing and keeping her from enjoying herself as much as she used to. She hoped that she would get that something back one day. In the mean time, she had to carry on with her life and enjoy what she had, because it had been proven to her how fleeting life was and how quickly she could lose everything. Her attention returned to the young woman in front of her and, taking note of her stance, she lifted her palms in a gesture meant to emphasize that she was no danger. ”I heard about the Slayer last year, in Sunnydale – that she was supposed to kill vampires. I remember her being shorter and blonde, though”, Haruka answered with a shrug of her shoulders.

A slayer's work was never finished. It lasted from the moment they got up, to the moment they slept and the space in between. It lasted from the moment they were called -though often before hand because the Council liked to train and brainwash Potential Slayers to the point where they were practically all powerful slaves - to the point where they died, murdered most likely, at the hands of the thing they were trying to kill. Of course ,that didn't rule out being hit by a bus at speed, because vehicular transport was a popular and common phenomenon within the United States of America. Stepping out onto the road or the pavement could result in disaster. Somehow Faith doubted the Council would ever want to advertise their Slayer was murdered by a drunk driver, caught the Ebola Virus, was slipped a rouffie and murdered in some alley by a perfectly normal and overpowerable eager man, or fell down the stairs whilst running from her doom. No, the Council wouldn't want the young girls they took under their wings to know any of that. They didn't want to remind them that Slayers could die just like anyone else could, even with their speeded up healing and their healing comas. The world is a dangerous place. It was a shame they didn't advertise that on the tin. Poeple would be a lot more cautious and less likely to wander into an alley with a guy they just met, or stroll through the cemetery, if they could just use their brains to remember bad things lurked around poorly lit areas. But no. They would continue to do stupid things and Faith would continue to slay where slaying was required.

Faith was on edge, of course, by the fact she was facing a girl who knew about Slayers. Off the drop of a vampire going poof, she was commenting on her technique (there was nothing wrong with it, though it probably could use a little tightening) and how she thought the Slayer was blonde. The thought Buffy in a bored, annoyed tone laced with 'typical' seered through her brain before she could prevent it. She still wasn't too happy with the blonde bitch but, hey, you win some you lose some right? At least B wasn't trying to kill her, though did have a tendency to punch her face whenever she clapped eyes on the rogue slayer. Fair dues. Faith was willing to let it go if it gave Buffy a slither of catharsis. The brunette had done a lot of damage to the blonde's mental state if 'you made me a victim' was anything to go by. Apparently, too, no one had told Buffy victim status was a state of mind and that Faith never considered herself one. She wasn't a victim. What happened was her life, and while it may be unfortunate, it wasn't a series of unfortunate events that should have happened to someone else but by some stroke of horrid fate happened to her instead. Faith wasn't about to wish her life away like that. Whatever happened, it made her stronger, and it made her better. Faith vowed to turn everything she could into a positive aspect because she'd fail her redemption gig if she didn't. And she wasn't about to let Buffy win, now was she?

"That's not something you just hear," Faith replied. She was a bit out the loop. She had no way of knowing if Buffy had met this girl or not. Being prison did suck when it came to Intel. "Different Slayer," Faith replied, noting Haruka's gesture mentally but not changing her stance. She didn't feel like a demon, but then, Faith never really hd been able to tell about demons. All she knew was she wasn't a vampire because she was concentrating pretty hard and her spider sense wasn't tingling 'stabbity stab!'

"That's not something you just hear"

A slender brow was arched at Faith's reply. On one hand, the comment made sense. One never really “just heard” about the ones that spent their lives in the shadows, at ready to protect the innocent from the evil that constantly loomed and threatened to destroy their lives. Generally, one didn't know that the good guys existed unless they were rescued by them from a situation in which their lives were in danger. Even then, they never knew details and, because of the fear which was so predominant, they didn't care about the details either. On the other hand, Haruka would have expected things to be a lot different as far as Sunnydale was concerned because, well, that town seemed to defy everything the sandy-haired blonde would have considered normal.

Haruka could still remember how powerful the presence of evil was in the little town, how it grated at her senses from the first moments after the bright white light faded away and left them so far away from their homes in Tokyo. She could also remember another particular detail, which she only noticed after a couple of days of staying in Sunnydale: humans were as aware of the evil that existed among them as the ones with special senses was. The only difference between the two categories were that the humans pretended not to notice anything was off, while the others had no choice but to deal with it, so that the chosen ignorance wouldn't lead them to their perdition. Even so, Haruka would have thought that the humans in Sunnydale pretended not to see anything because they knew that a Slayer was among them, keeping vampires and demons at bay. Apparently, she had been wrong, as it often happened when she made assumptions about the city that had become a crater.

Faith's other comment also intrigued Haruka. Different Slayer? Well, she definitely never heard about the fact that there were more of them. Then again, Haruka never claimed to have an extensive knowledge about Slayers either. ”Ah, I understand”, she replied and then proceeded at giving Faith some explanations about how she came to know about the Slayers. ”Trust me, you don't have to be defensive”, Haruka reassured the Slayer. ”I was there when the Hellmouth opened an year ago. I fought that battle.” Her voice was kept low, in case someone felt like eavesdropping on them. ”Tenou Haruka”, she introduced herself, extending a hand towards Faith. ”Do you want to head back to the bar?” Haruka thought that some things were best discussed when there were plenty of people around them – the loud music, the drinking, they were distractions which would have kept curious ears away from their conversation.

People knowing about Slayers wasn't generally a good thing. Faith knew that from experience. Bad usually came from people knowing about the supernatural. The Mayor had known and had tried to kill them both before Faith had killed his right hand man. And there was Gwendolyn Post had used her too. There ain't nothing good that cme from being a Slayer or being surrounded by people who knew. One way or another they screwed you over. Buffy had finally had that pleasure after years of working with her precious scoobies. They chucked her out, drove her from the nest. But to be fair, she deserved it. She drove them too hard because she cared too much...or not enough. whatever. She hadn't even bothered to learn their names. That might be because it was easier not to, knowing most, if not all of them would die at the hands of the First. But part of her job was to give them hope, which not learning their names did not give. It told them they weren't going to survive. They weren't worth it. They were insignificant. She had made them all feel small. How did she expect to win with an army of girls who believed their leader didn't believe in them? Faith hadn't been much better in the end. Worse was a leader who had no idea what they were doing. At least Buffy had had experience with these kinds of plans. Faith was a more, smash and grab kind of girl.

This girl, whomever she was, wasn't what she appeared to be. She was more likely a 'something' rather than a 'who'? What species she was Faith didn't know. She suspected it may be Wiccan. Concentrating hard Faith wasn't getting any demon vibes, but she never really did. There were whole gaps in her knowledge about being a Slayer and she didn't think Buffy was going to help her, nor Giles or even Wesley. Not that she wanted to. This Slayer thing was no good for her. What she really needed was to get away from it all but that didn't look like it was going to happen any time soon. The world didn't want Faith to be left alone. It seemed she had to fight for her right to be left alone. Life wasn't fair. Life was never easy. This was the way it was meant to be.

Trust her? Why should she do that? Trust had gotten Faith no where but hurt, lost and angry. The reason she was here was because of trust. There was only one person she trusted in the world now...well...maybe two. Trust was a commodity to be earned not just granted. Faith didn't have any spare for strangers. The most she would trust this girl right now was to not kill her as soon as her back was turned. That was all she was getting.

"Faith," The slayer said warily, ignoring the hand. "Sure," She said walking into the bar again.

There was a small smile on Haruka's lips when the Slayer who introduced herself as Faith completely ignored the outstretched hand. Giving a small shrug, the sandy-haired blonde lowered her hand and tucked it into the pocket of her black leather pants. It wasn't the most polite reaction to an introduction but Haruka couldn't really blame the other young woman for acting like that. Lack of trust. The senshi could understand it and recognize it. Being trusting wasn't among Haruka's qualities, her lover could testify towards it – so could the Inner Senshi. All of them had the bad luck of seeing how distrustful Haruka could be towards people she didn't know. Haruka's philosophy was that trust was something to be earned, not handed over. Maybe this second Slayer shared the same opinion? Haruka thought that people like them, Senshi or Slayers, needed to be careful about who they trusted if they wanted to stay relatively safe. Usagi, for example, wasn't careful and this drove Haruka completely crazy. The blonde thought that the Moon Princess and future Queen of the Earth needed to learn how to be more cautious and wait to learn a thing or two about people before opening to them the way she always did. It was something Haruka and Usagi didn't see eye to eye on – one of the many things they disagreed on lately.

The Senshi of wind tried to push away her thoughts about the Moon Princess. It didn't do her mood any good to think about the way in which their relationship deteriorated back in Sunnydale because of Seiya Kou. It certainly didn't do any good for the hostility she already felt towards the Starlight Senshi, that was for sure. Seeing that she was in a bar, Haruka felt tempted to improve her mood by having a couple of extra drinks and she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to return home in a drunken state. She would have told Michiru that she had been at the night club, it was not a matter of her intending to hide the way in which she spent the night. The Senshi simply didn't want Michiru to somehow think that she had done something stupid because of her long rehearsal hours and her dedication to her passion.

Focusing back on the “now” instead of the things that could happen, Haruka moved back towards the bar, following Faith's lead. She waited until the Slayer took a seat before taking one next to her, allowing her gaze to drift across the dance floor for a few moments before averting it on the brunette, giving her a look over. ”So...”, she started, trying to see if she could get another conversation started, ”... any more vampires in the club or do you think you can sit back and enjoy yourself?” Haruka's question was accompanied by a gesture towards the bar tender. She wanted to order something light for herself and, depending on how the conversation with Faith went, buy her a drink or let her buy herself a drink.