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Summary: In an attempt to get over her grief for Spike, Buffy has cut herself off from her past life, and anything that reminds her of the vampire that's still in her heart.  But when a news story brings her attention to the battle in LA, the Slayer finds herself once again facing old betrayals and old faces.  Returning to LA she finds even newer betrayals and the possible death of her most secret hope.


Faded Hope

by bitchee

Chapter 2

A little under 6 hours later, a small privately chartered plane touched Down at LAX. Its only passengers, one pissed off Slayer and a very tired ex Key.

Buffy had fumed all the way, she was so angry with Giles and the others that she didn't realize, that for the first time in nearly a year her thoughts of Spike weren't ones of grief and regret.

She kept thinking about Giles betrayal, his conspiracy with Robin Wood to kill Spike, and the fact that he obviously still didn't trust her when it came to a vampire she cared about. And topping all her thoughts was the one unassailable fact, that Spike was the only man in her life that had never treated her like a child.

He'd insulted her, mocked her and tried to kill her more times than she cared to remember, but he had never, not even at his most evil, treated her as anything less than a woman and a slayer. He'd had more respect for her, his mortal enemy, than both Giles and Angel put together.

Ok, so she'd chosen to take a back seat to the whole slaying thing, it didn't give either of them the right to treat her like she no longer mattered. She was still THE Slayer, just because she wasn't sucking up to the council like certain other back stabbing Scythe stealing brunettes, didn't mean that she deserved to be kept out of the loop.

Angel was her ex, and LA was her home town, how dare they have an apocalypse without her. Ok so sure, she didn't know if it was really an apocalypse... even so... a Dragon and mega demons? Worth a phone call, you might think, even if only out of courtesy.
Seven Freakin Years and I don't even get an email. Willow is so dead when I get my hands on her.
And that two faced bitch Faith? Well, maybe they'd finally get to find out just who the better slayer was.

Her sole comfort was the apoplexy Giles was sure to have when he received her credit card bill, listing the expense of chartering a plane to fly her and Dawn direct to LA.
She smirked evilly at the thought of the look on his face, and the undoubted glassage breakage that would no doubt result from her act.
"Serves him right" she muttered as she hauled the bags with Dawn in tow to a waiting cab.

Dawn was tired, stressed, and worried, and not necessarily in that order. In fact, if pressed she'd have to say that worry was the definite front runner at the moment.
She didn't get what was up with the gang not calling, no matter what might have happened in the past she was sure none of them would have left Buffy out of this.
Admittedly it had been a while since she'd talked to anyone other than Andrew, but she was sure she remembered Buffy mentioning talking to Giles just last week, and surely she would have talked to Will or Xander in the last couple of days. Her worry only escalated when on asking her sister when the last time it was that she spoke to the others Buffy's reply had been as vague as her own memories.

It seemed neither of them could clearly remember talking to any of the Scoobie's of late, with the notable exception of Andrew.
As a matter of fact, Dawn found it more than suspicious that both her and Buffy had, up until the news report, been perfectly content to coast along. To such an extent that neither could recall the actual amount of time it had been since they checked in with anybody other than Andrew. Oh Yep She smelled a rat, An Andrew shaped rat.

By the time they had reached the offices of Wolfram and Hart she had gone over every conversation she'd had with the former Sunnydale residents in the last year, and every single one of them, bar the ones she'd had with Andrew, were as foggy as all getout.
Headed towards Angels old hotel after finding the Law offices a smoldering shell, Dawn came to the grim conclusion that it had to be at least six months, if not more, since she'd held an actual real conversation with any of the Scoobie's.
Someone, had been fudging the lines. In the form of a very sneaky spell, not exactly mind control, she mused, more of misdirected suggestion that made both Buffy and herself not think to question the lack of contact. Somewhat like a glamor spell she'd once found in one of Giles moldy old books. Though instead of covering their perceptions, it had just sort of turned them away from looking too closely.

Oh yeah...she was gonna have a very serious talk with Mr Andrew Wells, and if what she suspected was true?... then there was going to be some heavy slayer sic-age, very shortly.
The real question was why? Why would Andrew go to all the trouble of keeping Buffy and the Scoobie's apart? And who else might be involved?

As the cab turned into the Hyperion's Street, Dawn gaped at the scene before her, immediately shelving her worries for later, she turned her frightened gaze on her sister.

"Pull over, we'll get out here" ordered Buffy.
Hastily throwing the fare, plus a generous tip at the driver, Buffy didn't even wait for the cab to come to a complete halt before she had jumped out and was issuing fresh orders aimed at her sister.

"Dawnie, you stay back till I work out just what's going on." She commanded. Even as she charged towards the fighting she could see taking place amongst the staggering array of demon corpses that littered the area.

Dawn grumbled under her breath, but after retrieving the bags from the very nervous and impatient Cab driver, she was quick to make her way across the street, taking cover in the doorway of a mostly untouched building. Grasping a stake in her hand, she put her back to the wall and watched anxiously as Buffy reached the first of the battling figures.

As soon as Buffy entered the mouth of the alley the angry girl faded and the Slayer stepped forward. In one quick scan, she recognized at least three Slayers that she knew for a fact had been assigned to Faith. She also noted that she must have arrived pretty late in the game, she could tell by the girls' casual air that they were obviously on cleanup detail and that the worst of the battle was finished.

She waited until Corrine, one of the girls she knew, had finished dispatching her Demon and then approached her.

"Hey, Corrine guess I'm a bit late" she quipped "I see you guys have it all under control. Don't suppose you know where Faith and Will are, I was supposed to check in earlier but my flight was delayed."

As the other slayer whirled to face her Buffy prayed that her bluff wouldn't blow up in her face, after all she was flying blind here. She really had no idea what the others knew about her recent life, or what they had been told.

"Buffy?" The younger girls' eyes widened even as her use of the name attracted the attention of the remaining girls.

"Wow, didn't expect to see you here" drawled a familiar voice. "Thought you were ‘busy' in Rome 'partying', to what do we owe your unexpected presence. What's the matter; did the immortal finally get bored with hanging with the chosen one?"

Buffy's' head whipped around to glare at the owner of the sarcastic question, even as she rolled her eyes and groaned in her own head. Perfect, my night is now complete.

"Kennedy great to see you too" she offered perkily. "Love to stay and dish, but right now I sorta just wanna catch up with the what, so if you could just tell me where Faith or Willow is, I'll leave you girls to it."

At Buffy's honey coated tone, Kennedy scowled, before moving closer to the older slayer.

"Same old Buffy I see, still doing things by your rules, regardless of what we think.
You know you may still be Giles little darling," she spat bitterly "but the rest of us don't follow you any more. You think you can just do what you want? Then come swooping in at the last moment like you own the place. Times have changed Buffy, your precious Scooby gang might believe that your thing with the Immortal is all innocent fun, but I for one still believe the only good demon, is a dead demon.

And just so you know" she finished her tone scathing "that goes for your former lover as well."

Turning her back on the older slayer she addressed the others. "Ok you lot, lets finish up here, Giles has us slated for Prague day after tomorrow and I would like to get some shut eye before boarding another plane."

Just as a now very confused Buffy was sure Kennedy was going to walk off without answering her question, she turned back with a nasty little smile twisting her normally pretty features.

"Oh yeah" she offered, eyes glittering with malice. "Just so you know Wills is at the hospital seeing to some of the wounded, but if you want Faith she's upstairs looking after your ex, room 26.
And Buff, I'd knock first, cos they've been pretty cosy for the last day or so, what with the mutual life saving and blood sharing thing. You remember how it is with certain Slayers and vamps" she finished with a mocking laugh.

Turning her back to join the other girls she couldn't resist one last contemptuous look at the older Slayer, before moving off with the rest.

Buffy was left feeling like she had come in right in the middle of the movie. What the Fuck was going on? She and Kennedy had never been best buds, but the others bitchiness was way up the scale from the last time they'd met. And who the hell was this Immortal person that she seemed to think was Buffy's new best friend?

And the Faith and Angel dig? Huh... like she cared. That ship had definitely sailed, and it wasn't like she hadn't seen them all comforty in the past. Though she supposed she should at least find out what the blood sharing crack was all about.

Determined to make some sense out of what, to her was starting to feel like an alternate dimension, Buffy headed into the hotel.

The lobby was strangely deserted as she made her way to the first floor, so it didn't take her more than a couple of minutes to find room 26.

Standing outside the door she felt the familiar tingles that signalled vampire, the little something extra, telling her it was one she knew well.
Gritting her teeth, she prepared herself for the upcoming confrontation and knocked.

At Faiths' "Wait a sec" she shifted impatiently, waiting for the others ok.

When Faith threw open the door a minute or so later, every angry word or thought vanished, as over the dark haired slayers shoulder, she took in the sight of tousled bedding and an equally tousled Spike.




Don't flame me yet, things aren't quite what Buffy thinks. Though, the next couple of chapters should be interesting.
Please review.