Claymore Fan Fiction ❯ Faith of the Faint Smile ❯ Part 2: ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

This is my very first BTVS/Claymore/Prototype fanfic and crossover.

Date: 140410

Disclaimer: A BTVS/Claymore/Prototype crossover. All characters and concepts belong to their respective creators and owners.

Synopsis: Live the life ... Become the legend ... Does the Slayer have what it takes to live up to the name of the Faint Smile? YAHF ...

FAITH OF THE FAINT SMILE

Part 2:

A pair of consciousness returned to two bodies, and as one two people looked at each other in startlement.

"What place is this? Who are you?" Both the Slayer and the Zeppo kid asked at the same time.

"I am Xander," Xander answered carefully, not wanting to antagonize the beautiful girl before him.

"Faith," the girl answered carefully, looking at the surroundings for the usual signs of danger.

"You didn't try anything, did you?" Her voice turned accusatory as her eyes narrowed.

"No. Nothing of the sort," Xander answered nervously.

"I remember now. You tried to kill me," the beautiful girl answered as her hand lashed and seized Xander by the neck to lift him into the air.

"It wasn't me! I tell you!" Xander let out a strangled gasp.

Large spikes that easily towered over the rooftops of the surrounding buildings broke through the ground tearing through the vampires and many of the other creatures that prowled the night into dust. Xander looked on in ... the expected feeling guilt and disgust did not manifest ... strangely enough ... Was that how it felt after having killed a whole group of people? One death is considered murder while more than that is treated as a statistic?

This odd feeling of detachment despite the fact that he remembered having gone on a killing spree in Sunnydale during Halloween ... correction ... make that the Supreme Hunter that had gone on a killing spree during Halloween ... Xander desperately tried to feel something for its victims but the feelings of guilt remained elusive.

The Supreme Hunter was a mass murderer through and through ... that much was certain. It had slaughtered and consumed all that it had encountered without mercy or guilt whatsoever ... devouring not only their physical forms but memories as well. The Zeppo clearly remembered having dressed up as Captain Cross that night in Halloween.

Currently, as it was, he also possessed all the abilities and memories of the former Blackwatch commander except that he was not Captain Cross. Instead, he was the Supreme Hunter, a rejected concoction of unknown DNA designed to 'cure' both Zeus and Greene, who had then slain and consumed the former Captain Cross. The DX-1118 viral detectors designed for detecting and locating Zeus proved useless in detecting the presence of the Supreme Hunter which was the counteragent to the virus rather than the virus itself.

What was worse, the Supreme Hunter had several abilities similar to Zeus such as manifesting razor-sharp claws and towering spikes from the ground in addition to increased armour, superior regeneration, super strength, scale walls, consume and disguise. When the Supreme Hunter had detected Faith, it had been immediately drawn to her presence with the sole desire to consume and then acquire her abilities.

Her eyes lit up suddenly giving way to a playful smirk before letting him down on his feet.

"Just kidding ..." she threw him a disarming smile.

Any further conversation between the two, however was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

What looked like soldiers in old metal armour carrying crossbows in their hands surrounded them.

"Claymore!" Some of the guards voiced out in a mixture of fear and disgust upon catching sight of Faith's face and the weapon in her hand.

The rest of the words were a mystery to both Faith and Xander who didn't understand a word that the guards in archaic gear were saying.

"It's one of those silver-eyed witches! How did they get into the city undetected?" one of them shouted in anger.

"Kill her right now!"

"What about the boy?"

"What's he doing with one of those halfbreeds?"

"Are you sure it's even possible to take down one of those halfbreeds?"

Something like an argument continued to rage back and forth between the guardsmen. Finally a man, better dressed and more heavily armoured than the rest approached the group and gave an order.

"Throw them into the dungeons. We will decide their fate tomorrow!"

Both Xander and Faith were clapped in irons and thrown into what appeared to be a dungeon from medieval times.

"Not a very friendly group of people," Xander quipped despite their current predicament.

"Looks like it," the Slayer agreed though she hesitated at giving her sole weapon up.

She would have fought her way out had the circumstances been different but having loaded crossbows pointed at her proved to be quite an effective deterrent to that idea.

"What are they going to do with us?" the Slayer wondered.

"I think we will find out before long," Xander answered.

"Not too long, I hope. I'm getting tired of this place," Faith commented.

She was already seriously considering the thought of using her Slayer strength to break out of the medieval prison.

"Me too," Xander agreed.

"So what did you do before this?" Faith asked.

"Nothing much. Went to school and all that. What about you?" Xander asked.

"I did a lot of housecleaning, clearing up dust and all that," Faith answered somewhat evasively.

She did not want to tell him what she actually did for a living. Her Watcher had warned her about it, telling her that people would think she was crazy and all that. What normal person would believe in the existence of vampires and demons?

Their small talk continued until their conversation was interrupted by the opening gates of the large dungeon. A man in brown robes stepped into the dungeon with what appeared to be a holy symbol affixed to his robes. He was accompanied by three guards in heavy chainmail, holding loaded crossbows and spears.

With but a gesture, he dismissed them, before turning to the two prisoners.

"Must be a priest or something," Xander remarked.

The man started by introducing himself but Xander and Faith did not understand a word. Faith tried English but the old man simply shook his head. Then the old man tried what seemed like another language but neither Faith nor Xander understood what he was saying.

Then Xander tried whatever foreign language he knew (Greek in this case), but the old man understood not a word. The lack of a common language to communicate eventually forced both sides to resort to sign language. After a few minutes of sign language, they managed to get the basics handled down. Namely :- I, Xander. You, Father Malone. I, Father Malone. You, Faith. And from there, it grew.

The minutes slipped into hours with both sides making serious attempts to communicate. The results were mixed.

Suddenly, the sound of a large bell tolling in the distance disrupted the monotony of their communication session. There were shouts and the sounds of running feet. The gates to the cell block burst open and several men in heavy chainmail rushed up to the old priest. Their faces were grim as were their voices.

The leader of the armed group pointed at Xander and Faith but the old priest simply shook his head and said something to the heavily armed man that made him even more unhappy. The old man, however, remained resolute though the leader glared back defiantly.

Finally, the leader acquicsed and took the keys to open the door to the dungeons. The doors opened and the leader stepped in to unlock the chains that tied their arms and legs together. The leader pointed at the two of them and pointed again at the entrance to the dungeon. The old man simply nodded his head and indicated with his hands that they should follow the heavily armed man.

"Wonder what they plan to do with us?" the Slayer could not help but wonder as she was still feeling apprehensive about the whole matter.

"Guess we're about to find out," Xander answered.

The large steel sword was being handed back to her and Faith received it gratefully. As her hands closed around the weapon, however, her mind was suddenly bombarded by a flood of images, depicting a beautiful but deadly blonde woman with hair that reached down to her shoulders, fighting and killing monsters even more dreadful than Kakistos.

Dropping to her knees, she stopped while taking a deep breath.

"What happened?" Xander asked worriedly as he moved to catch the Slayer before she hit the ground.

"A dream ... more like a vision ... of someone," Faith answered while taking deep breaths.

"You can let go of me now. I'm fine," she added as she moved to straighten herself.

The Zeppo released her from where he caught her.

The guards simply snorted in disgust at the scene before resuming their march to wherever they were taking them.

A large tall building like a cathedral towered before them in its splendour.

Heavily armed soldiers guarded the entrance to the cathedral with its beautiful mosaic multi-coloured glass panels on the wall. They drew their weapons upon seeing Faith but a gesture from the Sunnydalers' escorts silenced the sentries. The guards stood past and let the pair through into the large building. A silent but solemn atmosphere permeated the building. But it wasn't the hostile looks of the guards or even the bodies lying on the ground that made the air stiffling.

It was something else in the air ... something subtle but present. Faith could feel its malignancy ... and evil lurking in the background of the structure ... like a predator lying in wait for its prey.

"What's wrong, Faith?" Xander asked upon seeing her slight frown.

"Just keep your eyes open, Xander. There's something evil in this place," Faith let her otherworldly senses guide her footsteps through the large structure.

The guards followed gestured at them as though wanting them to follow. But Faith did not. Instead her footsteps took her further and further away from the guards until ... she reached a large wooden coffin that was left exposed to the open air in a corner of the chamber.

The captain noticing Faith's deviation from the path he wanted, immediately barked a command, which Faith promptly ignored. His face growing red with anger, he gestured to his armed escorts to bring Faith back to him. Instead she drew out the large two-handed sword, startling the armed escorts who responded by pointing their crossbows at the Slayer.

"Faith ... I think they're serious ... You're not seriously considering fighting your way out of here, are you?" Xander asked a little nervously who didn't feel he was ready to take on fully armed guards with loaded crossbows.

"Take it easy, honey. The only thing that has something to worry about is ... THIS!!" her voice ended in a shout as her large blade plunged itself straight into the corpse lying in the coffin much to everyone's disbelief.

A loud roar of pain and anger tore through the silence of the cathedral, startling the guards as the 'corpse' leaped up high into the air, shifting in shape and size to become a large monstrous creature with glowing yellow eyes.

"Youma!" the guards shrieked before turning their crossbows from Faith to the nightmarish creature that had terrorized the guards for many nights in the past.

The creature responded by dodging their shots ... or tried to being the key words here as it was rather difficult to do so when the lower half of its body had effectively broken off from the top half to fall to the hard ground in its leap upwards. It seemed that the Slayer's blade had done more damage than just stabbing its body in that downward strike.

In the distance, the sound of the guards' cries of shock and the creature's roar of pain had attracted more guards to the site and the creature could only watch helplessly, unable to move as the vengeful guardsman unleashed volley after volley of their deadly metal bolts into its injured body. Still it struggled mightily to defend itself by extending its claws towards the guards but one quick slash from Faith's large two-handed sword instantly put an end to that offending limb.

From a distance, Xander watched the slaughter dispassionately as the creature struggled valiantly against the soldiers. It wasn't enough, he realised. If the creature had the Supreme Hunter's regeneration and inhuman capabilities perhaps ... but not in this case.

Another volley of deadly metal shafts punctured its body, forcing out another roar of pain and anger though its struggles were weaker than before. More arrows hit the body and in its final death throes, it emitted a howl loud enough to wake the dead before falling to the ground in a heap for the last time. It did not rise again.

For a few moments, as if not believing the creature was dead, the soldiers were silent, unable to move or speak. Finally, one of them mustered the courage to approach the creature and struck a mighty blow, removing the head in one clean strike for all to see. The removal of the creature's head seemed to have brought the soldiers out of their stupor.

As if registering the death of the creature for the first time, the soldiers shouted in joy over their victory. One of the priests approached Faith and thanked her for her assistance before pressing a large bag filled with gold ingots into her palms. The Slayer could not help but open her eyes wide with wonder at the sheer amount of it. This was a lot of gold!

"Thank you!" Faith answered even though she knew he could not understand her words.

Xander could only look on in amazement and a little envy at his new friend's good fortune before they were both ushered out of the large cathedral-like structure by the guards. The pair followed the guards through the city streets where they were led to the city gates. Around them curious onlookers gathered to watch them though they whispered fearfully among themselves upon catching sight of Faith's silver-coloured pupils.

Since the city was pretty big and they had to walk at the pace the guards were using to get from one point to another, the entire trip took slightly more than an hour to reach their destination. Their escorts gave the sentries guarding the entrance the go-ahead and the gates opened opened to reveal a boy and a woman in a hooded grey robe on the other side.

The boy just looked like another average street urchin though the blonde woman beside him ... bore something different ... something dangerous ... like an otherworldly cast to her features despite her seemingly ordinary appearance. As though feeling the Slayer's stare, the woman turned her head to look straight into her eyes and the expression on the woman's face changed rapidly from shock to disbelief before finally settling onto sadness.

"Teresa!" the hooded woman cried out before throwing her arms around Faith.

Upon hearing the name being called out, the Slayer dropped to her feet as if in pain!

TBC

Another idea that I had while writing up Blacklight and Shadowwarrior. Seems like I'm in a Prototype phase .... ^_^