FF: It's Grim Up North (3/?)

["Spik" <spik@xxxxxxxxxx>]

CaveSpik looked at the printer. Nothing happened.
"Printer bad" she said as she hit it with her club.
Suddenly the smashed printer burst into flames.
"Printer bad, fire pretty"

Disclaimer: Joss is God, he owns everything...... I am merely a small 
bacteria in this world!
Spoilers: See part 1........ Also it's a spoiler for the earlier 
parts.....
Inspiration: As before plus 'A Toute Le Monde' and 'Holy Wars' by 
Megadeth, 'Pax Diorum' by Enya and 'Dying' by VAST!
Recap: Buffy and Willow are in England answering a call for help from 
another slayer who has a secret. If you need a bit more than that, 
the first two parts are archived at 
http://www.cus.org.uk/~spik/buffy/fanfic/grimupnorth/


Part three of this here fanfic......
Feedback good, must have feedback.......

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Its Grim Up North (3/?)
By SPik



"Here we are." said Joe as he pulled into the carpark underneath the 
building that housed his and Torr's apartment. Buffy had spent the 
journey making note of how dark and grey the city looked, and how she 
swap this place for somewhere on a hellmouth anyday. Whereas Willow 
had just woken up, having spent the majority of the short journey 
snoozing on Buffy's shoulder wondering why she hadn't done this more 
often and how come Buffy was letting her now.

Joe parked next to the door to the entrance foyer and started 
unloading the luggage from the car, thankfully they'd both travelled 
light as not much luggage could have been fitted in the car. He led 
them through the foyer to the lifts and pressed the button for the 
5th floor.

"I hope you don't mind sharing Torr's room, there's a big double bed 
in there. We've only got the two bedrooms and Torr's rarely in 
anyway." Joe said as the lift reached their floor.

"That's OK, we don't mind." Willow replied not noticing the 'I get to 
share a bed with Willow' open-jaw look on Buffy's face, and wondering 
why this idea was stirring up so many thoughts in her own head.

"Well I suppose I ought to give you the tour." commented Joe as he 
opened the door to their rather spacious apartment.


*


Over in Sunnydale....

"Get the stake." yelled Giles as one of the vampires held him against 
the wall. Xander picked himself up off the ground and grabbed the 
stake that had landed next to him. With a quick blow the vamp was 
dusted.

"I wonder how they're doing?" Xander asked

"Oh I'm sure they'll be fine, even with Spike helping them." Giles 
replied coughing slightly.

"Not them, Buffy and Willow?"

"I'm sure they'll ring if there's anything wrong."


*


Back in Manchester....

"This is a nice apartment." Willow commented as they returned to the 
main room (kind of like a living room only open plan!).

"Thank you." Joe replied as he brought over their drinks.

As Buffy and Willow sat down on the sofa, Buffy decided now was a 
good time to ask the question that had been bugging her since the 
letter had originally arrived, "So when was Torr called?"

"Sometime around the summer of 1999, we're not sure exactly when." 
replied Joe sitting down in the chair opposite.

"Faith." Buffy thought out aloud

"Faith? Another slayer?" he asked

"Long story..." she replied not wanting to have to explain it all.

"Buffy died, Kendra was called. Kendra died, Faith was called." 
Willow summarised, ignoring the glare from Buffy

"You died?" Joe asked rather perplexed.

"Only for a minute or so, I was revived." Buffy replied hoping that 
she wouldn't have to go into too much detail.

Willow turned to face Buffy, "So you did kill Faith, but they must 
have revived her into the coma"

"This is far too confusing." commented Joe trying to fathom why Buffy 
would have wanted to kill another slayer.

"Buffy almost gutted Faith." replied Willow turning back to face Joe.

"There were circumstances." Buffy interrupted noticing Joe looking 
even more confused and worried now, "She'd switched sides, killed a 
few people, and tried to kill the people I love most."

Willow continued, "We never even considered whether Faith had died 
and then been revived."

"So this Faith person is still alive? Three slayers?" asked Joe

"Basically. Although Faith's in jail now." Buffy replied.

"Where she belongs." added Willow.

Joe noticed the venom in the tone of Willow's voice and wondered what 
this Faith character had done but decided now wasn't the time to ask. 
They were all relieved when the phone rang breaking the uneasy 
silence that had ensued. As Joe went to answer it, the jetlag began 
to catch up with Willow again and she decided that it might be a good 
time to go and have a lie down, Buffy decided to stay as the jetlag 
wasn't affecting her as much, she also had more questions she wanted 
to ask.


*


"If the weather report's right, I'll see you tomorrow." Torr placed 
her phone back in her pocket and headed off towards the city centre. 
The rain continued to pour down blocking the sun's direct 
light. 'Could this get any worse?' she thought as she turned the 
corner and walked through the passageway under the railway station.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that its not safe to walk in these 
passageways?" a voice came from the shadows up ahead.

'Why do I always tempt fate?' she thought, "No I've not heard that 
one." she replied as three vampires appeared from the shadows around 
her.

"Well why don't we show you. Go get her boys." said the lead vampire 
has he emerged from the shadows.

"You don't want to do this, I'm very tired and I'm getting a little 
cranky." Torr pulled two stakes from her pockets as the first three 
vampires charged towards her. The first two vampires that reached her 
were quickly dusted but the third managed to hit her knocking the 
stakes from her hands. As he lent over her ready to plunge his fangs 
in her neck she kicked out sending him flying into the air towards 
where the lead vamp was watching. "I said you didn't want to do this!"

The third vamp charged again but this time Torr was ready and before 
he got near her, he found a stake lodged in him. "Nice throw." the 
lead vamp commented as he disappeared into the shadows, "This isn't 
finished yet!"

"I look forward to it." she shouted back.


*


Joe headed back from the kitchen with more coffee, it seemed to be 
helping Buffy resist the jetlag that she should have been suffering 
thing, he wondered if this was a slayer thing, Torr had never 
travelled so he had no comparison.

"Just wondering. How come we've not met Torr's watcher?" Buffy asked 
as Joe joined her on the sofa. She wondered if he minded all these 
questions but he seemed so eager to answer them that she thought she 
might as well get it over and done with now.

"Torr had a watcher, for all of about a fortnight." Joe replied.

"What happened to him?"

"Torr's a little bit different to the rest of us. I'm technically 
only her half-brother - same mother, different fathers. My dad was a 
nice enough person until he ran off with his personal trainer," Joe 
stopped to calm himself down, "Sorry personal angst. Torr's father he 
was a completely different kettle of fish"

"Did he...?" Buffy asked not wanting to complete the sentence as it 
was a thought she didn't want to entertain.

"Abuse either of us? No. He just kept a major secret from our mother 
until it was too late."

"Now I'm confused."

"Torr's father was a were-wolf, making Torr part were-wolf. She can 
control it though and never actually turns completely." Joe continued 
wondering what Buffy's opinion of were-wolves was.

"Oh. Well Willow used to date a were-wolf so we're pretty used to 
them." Buffy replied hoping that this revelation would stop Joe's 
worried look, "So what happened to the watcher?"

"He came to find us, told Torr that she was the Chosen One, that the 
previous Slayer had died and that he was here to train her."

"He didn't know about the wolf-side, did he?"

"No. We weren't sure what the calling would do in terms of the wolf. 
They were sparing one day and there was a slight accident."

"Slight accident?"

"Torr didn't realise that her strength was greater than before and he 
sort of fell through the large window in the back room."

"Fell?"

"Well more like thrown, but accidentally. After that the Watcher's 
Council severed all contact we had with them and didn't even bother 
to tell us about you. It still affects Torr now she's never really 
coped with it."

"Oh." replied Buffy noticing the sadness in Joe's voice, she couldn't 
fathom what that must have been like, even after a fortnight her and 
Giles were pretty close. It was something she really didn't want to 
think about and as the jetlag began to catch up with her she decided 
that maybe she should go and join Willow.

Joe hoped that what he'd just explained to Buffy wouldn't freak her 
out too much, Torr had told him to answer any questions Buffy and 
Willow asked no matter what they were about, she wanted to be as open 
to them as possible, she wouldn't hide it again.


*


Torr continued her patrol of the dark back roads and alleyways behind 
the main nightlife area of the city. The assortment of music booming 
out from the nearby night-clubs hid the screams of the latest 
victims, "Idiots." she said talking to herself, "They go out, get 
hideously drunk and then walk through these alleyways alone. You'd 
think all these disappearances would have sent out some sort of 
warning sign, but no."

The rubbish bins behind her clattered, "Slayer..." something called 
out from the shadows.

Torr turned round just as the spiny yellow demon emerged from the 
shadows. "Not another one, I've already killed your buddy this 
morning." Torr remarked, "And what the hell are you anyway?"

"I am part of the Weequay clan, and you are about to die." With that 
he launched a razor sharp blade from his arm, it whizzed past Torr 
catching her slightly on her arm causing her to immediately transform 
into her half-wolf half-human form.

She ran towards the demon just as he launched a second blade, however 
this one was easily caught by the furious were-slayer and thrown 
straight back lodging itself in the demon's shoulder. As the demon 
was removing the blade and preparing to throw it again Torr floored 
him with a shoulder barge. She picked up his blade and drove it into 
his chest. The demon screamed out in pain as Torr twisted the blade, 
making sure that it would kill him.


*


Down in the tunnels below the city...

"How did our assassin do this time?" asked the older man

"Another failure, this bitch is strong." Graham replied

"And the rumour, any truth in that. Are there two slayers?"

"We're still checking it out, hopefully I'll have some answers for 
you tomorrow." With that Graham headed off towards the surface.


*


As the sun rose over the city a flock of birds circled above the 
abandoned market, a solitary figure was walking towards a black van 
parked between the stalls hidden out of view.

'At last a day off' Torr thought as she climbed into the driver's 
seat, started the engine and headed home.


Meanwhile across town....


The sun shone in through the thin curtains, just catching Willow's 
face causing her to stir slightly. Buffy lay there watching her 
friend thinking how cute she looked all curled up next to her and 
wondered how come she hadn't noticed this while they were sharing the 
dorm room, 'Oh why can't I just tell her.' she thought.



TBC

End of Part 3
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I thought I'd leave you in a nice place...
Hope you liked it....
Please send me feedback....

Part 4 soon-ish....

SPik