FIC: Three Years in Hell, A Lifetime of Pain (17c/?)

["Bill Gopher" <asagiri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Three Years in Hell, A Lifetime of Pain

By Red Demon & Bill Gopher

Disclaimers - Buffy and Co. belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, UPN. We're just
borrowing them for a little.

Pairing - Beth/Faith

Rating - R

Archiving - As our girl Faith liked to say; Want, Take, Have. So go ahead,
just drop us a line so we know where it is.

Spoiler – Not really, no. The story starts 3 years after what would have
been Season 5. So everything after the beginning ep of Season 5 never
happened.

Summary – An AU where Buffy is framed for the murder of Deputy Mayor Finch
and ends up in the US Marines.

Feedback - All comments and criticisms are welcome. However, flames will be
summarily deleted!!! billgopher@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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Bremen, Germany

“So what’s with all the secrecy tonight Fai?” Beth asked as she pulled on
the burgundy cotton shirt and black jeans.

“We’re going on a date.” Faith replied.

Beth stopped for a second, “A date?” Beth asked before she resumed buttoning
the shirt.

Poking her head into the bedroom, “A date, I think it’s time we had one
considering we’ve already fought, broke up, made up, made love…we’ve pretty
much done everything except for the dating part.”

Beth cocked her head slightly, “I thought we were watching our pennies…”

“Well mama hit the jackpot and who better to spend her money on than her
bit…”

“Don’t even finish that sentence Faith!” Beth said cutting Faith off, a
scowl on her face.

A pout appeared on Faith’s face, “You’re no fun B.”

“That’s not what you said last night,” Beth replied with a large grin.

Faith stuck her tongue out at Beth and pulled her head back as she walked
back into the living room.

<<<<<<>>>>>>

“Okay Faith do you have any idea where we’re going?” Beth asked as she
kneeled down to re-tie her sneaker for what seemed like the millionth time.

“Yep, it’s about 2 minutes away.” Faith replied as she leaned against the
wall.

A cold feeling suddenly washed over Beth and she stood up suddenly looking
around. “Faith, something’s wrong.”

Faith moved from her relaxed position leaning on the wall into a fighting
stance when she heard Beth, “What’s wrong B? Talk to me,” Faith looked
around the alley for anything that was out of place.

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling something’s ‘wrong’.”

Both women waited tensely looking around the alley for several minutes, but
nothing happened.

“Beth, anything?” Faith asked as she continued to glance around the alley.

Easing out of the stance Beth stood up, “No. It was probably nothing I
guess. You still up for dinner?” Beth asked, feeling somewhat stupid over
what was nothing.

Relaxing her stance, “Yep and don’t worry about it.” Faith reached over and
linked her arm in Beth’s as the two started walking down the alley and out
towards a small, cramped street. “It should be just around the corner.”

Two minutes later Faith stopped in front of a building with a small,
unreadable sign above the door, “We’re here B!”

Beth looked the building over, she was not impressed if the outside was any
indication of what lay inside. <That’s not the point though is it? It’s some
quiet time to spend with her dummy...> said Beth’s little voice.

“Okay…” Looking down Beth noticed her shoe was untied ‘again’. “Damn, one
sec Fai, my shoe again,” kneeling down Beth started to tie the laces again
when she felt something brush by her hair. Looking up Beth saw 3 throwing
stars stuck in the door just above her head. Spinning around Beth looked for
whoever had just tried to kill her when she spotted a figured dressed from
head to toe in black clothing on the third story fire escape across the
street.

“Faith!! We’ve got company!” Beth grabbed a metal trashcan just as she saw
it throw something at her, bringing it up Beth used it as a shield and felt
the lid shudder as it blocked three more throwing stars.

Faith heard Beth’s warning and stepped to her right to look down the alley
they had just walked and saw another attacker dressed like the first running
silently down towards them. “B, another one over here.” Faith settled into a
fighting stance as the second attacker closed with her.

<I wonder if he’s human> Beth thought as she watched as the first attacker
jump off of the balcony to the ground, landing almost in front of her and
tried knocking her legs out from under her with a low sweep kick that she
jumped over. <Nope, not human. That means the gloves come off,> and a grim
smile crossed her face.

After the first several minutes Faith realized that she and her attacker
were evenly matched. <Fine, I can’t beat him up playing ‘fair’, so it’s time
to change the rules.> Faith narrowly avoided a series of kicks that sent her
rolling on the ground. As she came up Faith threw the dirt she had grabbed
when she ‘fell’ into her attackers eyes. Faith watched as he grabbed his
face unable to see and quickly landed several hard blows to his head and
stomach. As he doubled over from a hard blow to his solar plexus Faith
grabbed a cracked 2x4 lying on the ground and slammed it over his head
several times, watching him slump to the ground unconscious. “Hehehehe,
fuck with me will ya?” Turning around Faith saw Beth being driven back away
from her by her attacker.

Faith dropped into a run towards Beth and as she neared them she lowered her
shoulder as she got ready to tackle the ‘ninja’ B was fighting.

Beth saw Faith charge towards her and her attacker spin to face Faith as he
heard her running up behind him. As he turned away from her Beth landed two
kicks to his ribs and followed up with a spinning kick that caught him on
the temple throwing him back against the wall in a heap.

Smiling Beth walked towards Faith, “Nice tim….” Beth started to say as she
felt something wrap around her knees tripping her and knocking her to the
ground. Before she could react Beth felt a heavy net drop down on top of her
and keeping her down. As she struggled to get free Beth felt a hard blow to
the back of her head and then another and another. Trying to protect herself
from the blows Beth tried curling up and covering her head with her arms but
the net tangled from her struggles made it almost impossible.

Finally Beth felt something smash into her temple and darkness claimed her…

Faith saw the bola’s fly out of the shadows and wrap themselves around Beth’
s legs tripping her up. Faith watched as the air seemed to shimmer and three
demons appeared out of nowhere. The demons were about her height, but with
small hooked horns, black skin and had claws and faces that looked somewhat
canine. Two of them stood by Beth while the other demon moved towards her.

As the demon started to pass the door to the restaurant it opened and out
walked a young couple. Before she could warn them Faith watched in horror as
the demon whirled around to face the intruders and lashed out with its
clawed hand and ripped the throat open of the man. Blood sprayed out from
the torn jugular covering woman as she started to scream.

Even as Faith moved forward the demon was faster and snapped the woman’s
neck almost twisting her head off. <Noooooooo!!!!!!!> Faith’s mind screamed
even as she moved to kill the demon. One hand reached to the small of her
back and pulled out the long knife from its sheath. “They had nothing to do
with this damn you!!” Faith yelled as she moved to attack the demon it
jumped away from her and landed over by Beth 10’ feet away.

Faith saw the demon turn his head toward Beth, “Yxitraxzul, kill this one
and then re-join us. We will return for the Dark Slayer later.” With that
two of the demons seemed to shimmer out and disappear.

Yxitraxzul pulled out a large knife out and lifted his arm back to stab the
Slayer as he suddenly felt something slam into his chest, stumbling
backwards Yxitraxzul dropped the large knife and fell to his knees, looking
down he saw a knife embedded itself in the center of his chest. Stunned he
lifted his head up to see the Dark Slayer standing in front of him with a
gun pointed only inches from his head. Yxitraxzul saw a cold rage in the
Dark Slayer’s eyes, “You lose asshole,” was the last thing he heard before
the bullet smashed into his skull and then nothing.

Faith shot the dog-demon four more times before she turned to check on B. A
cold rage and fear filled her, she had almost lost Beth…again… <I’ll do
whatever I have to to protect you B.> Faith thought fiercely.

Slipping the gun back in the waist of her pants at her back, Faith heard
sirens in the distance. Pulling the net off Beth and took her in her arms
and headed back to their room.

<<<<<<>>>>>>

Several Hours Later

Beth woke from her sleep to a pounding headache, “Oh man. Did someone get
the license plate of the truck that hit me?” Beth moaned as she reached up
to touch her head gingerly.

“Not quite B, just an itty, bitty demon. You took quite a few hits to your
head though, you need to rest.”

“What happened though?”

“Demons came, demons left. I’m not real sure what’s going on though. I’ll
tell you everything tomorrow though.” Faith sat down on the bed and reached
over and ran her fingers thru Beth’s shoulder length hair.

“Tomorrow? Why?”

“Doc who looked you over said you’ve got a concussion and need some rest.
And I know you, you’ll worry yourself ragged if I told you now. I promise I’
ll tell you all about it later and when we’re in out of Bremen and across
the river to Bremerhaven. For now you need to rest, okay?”

Sighing Beth lay back down on the bed, “I want to know what happened now,”
Beth raised her hand to stop Faith’s objections, “but I’ll wait, cause right
now my head’s hurting too much to think.”

========================================

3 days later…
Port City of Bremerhaven
Germany

“Hello? I need a long distance operator for a call to the United States.”

“Hallo? Ja? Zu wo wünschten Sie diesen Anruf?” [Hello? Yes? Where do you
want to place this call?] the operator answered in German. “Vereinigte
Staaten?” [United States?]

“Yes, yes! The United States. I need to call Los Angeles, California in the
United States.” Faith replied testily.

“Ja. And this is und direct call, ja? Haben Sie eine Kreditkarte, zum für
diesen Anruf zu zahlen fraulein? [Do you have a credit card to pay for this
call Miss?]

Faith frowned as she tried to make heads or tails of what this woman was
saying, “Credit Card?” Faith finally puzzled out as she flipped thru the
pages of the German-English dictionary.

“Ja, ja! Kreditkarte.” [Yes, yes! Credit Card.]

Rolling her eyes Faith counted to 10, she needed to make this call and
yelling at the operator was a good way to end this call before it even
began. Faith patiently gave the woman operator the credit card information.

Beth sat back amused as she watched Faith as she struggled to stay calm and
not yell at the operator. <If only I had a camera, that expression would be
great blackmail material,> Beth thought cheerfully at all the fun she could
have teasing Faith with it.

Faith looked over at Beth who had a large ‘cat who ate the canary’ grin on
her face. “Just you laugh now B, just remember paybacks are a bitch and so
am I.” Faith watched the grin disappear off of Beth’s face as she suddenly
turned thoughtful at Faith’s threat and then Beth smiled broadly again.

“Promises, promises!!” Beth retorted and stuck her tongue out at Faith.

After several quiet minutes Faith heard a click as the operator came back on
and the muzak was cut off, “Was ist die Telefonnummer, die Sie benennen
möchten?” [What is the telephone number that you want to call?]

“Uhmmm, 661-257-9443,” Faith answered testily.

Beth turned and looked down the side street, just in time to see a Polizei
car pass by, its lights flashing. “Faith, we need to go!”

“Not yet B, the phone just started ringing. Just another minute.”

“Come on, come on,” Faith whispered and there was a click as the phone
picked up.

“Angel Investigations. We help the helpless,” came Cordelia’s voice.

“YES! Cordy, it’s Faith…”

Beth watched as a second police car now pulled into the side street and
started driving slowly towards them, the car lights flashing. Turning Beth
ran and grabbed Faith pulling her away from the phone and back down the
street away from the police.

“B, wait…” as Faith felt the phone yanked out of her hand just as she heard
Angel’s voice and was pulled down the street.

“Cops. Come’on we’ve gotta get out of here.”

Several minutes walking later they found a small, out of the way bar and
walked inside. Grabbing a seat they sat down in a darkened booth near the
back where they could see anyone coming in the front door.

“Damnit B. One more minute, that’s all I needed.”

Faith saw a waitress walk over to their table and quickly squelched what she
was going to say. “Hi,” Faith said and forced a smile on her face.

“Gutenabend. Kann ich Sie alles erhalten zu trinken?” [Good evening. Can I
get you something to drink?]

Beth looked up at the waitress “Ja. Zwei Biere und etwas Privatleben.” [Yes.
Two beers and some privacy.] Beth pulled a $20 Euro bill out of her pocket
and slid it over to the waitress.

Beth watched as the waitress picked up the money and put it in her pocket,
“Kein problem. Wenn Sie alles benötigen, bitten Sie um Katherine. [If you
need anything, ask for Katherine.] The waitress said to Faith before
leaving.

A few minutes later the waitress returned with the beers and deposited them
on the table. Buffy watched as Katherine started giving ‘her’ Faith long
‘hard’ stares as she didn’t hide she was checking out Faith’s body.

Beth saw the looks this ‘Katherine’ was giving her girlfriend and felt her
temper grow short. “Wenn Sie erfolgte Überprüfung aus ' meiner ' Freundin
sind, können Sie gehen. Jetzt!” [If you’re done checking out ‘my’
girlfriend, you can leave. Now!” Beth said angrily.

The waitress sniffed at Beth, turned and walked away, <No doubt she’s
cursing me out as some stupid American, but no-one checks out ‘my’
girlfriend in front of me! Even ‘not’ in front of me for that matter!> Beth
thought angrily.

“Feel better B now that you’ve scared our waitress off?” Faith asked
lightly.

“Yes!”

“Good. Then tell me again why we couldn’t have waited one more minute B.
Cordy had just answered the phone when you pulled me away,”

Beth looked up from the large beer stein in front of her, “We didn’t ‘have’
one more minute F. 30 seconds more and that cop car would have been right up
to us.” Beth answered before talking a long drink from the beer stein.

“So what now then?” Faith asked sarcastically.

“Hey! You’re the spy, not me! I’m just a jarhead.”

“Ha ha! B. The only spying I ever did was trying to look thru the keyhole in
your bathroom when you were going to take a shower.”

Beth felt herself blush, “Figures, you’ve got a one-track mind Faith.”

Faith leaned forward, “Yeah, but don’t you like the track it’s on?” Faith
asked as she waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “But seriously though, we’ve
got to try again.”

“I know,” looking around the bar Beth saw a booth with a sign *Telephon*
[Telephone]. “Faith, over there’s a telephone booth.”

Both women slid out of the booth and walked over to the telephone. Faith
slid in the seat by the phone and started dialing.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity Faith finally heard a click
and then the phone ringing, “Hello, Angel Investigations. We help the
helpless!”

“Cordelia,” Faith said as she high-fived Beth.

“Faith?” Cordelia asked. “ANGEL!” Faith heard Cordelia yell over the phone.

Moments later there was a click and Angel’s voice on the phone. “Faith!
Thank god, I was worried when we lost you before.”

“Where are you?” Angel asked.

“We're over in the port city Bremerhaven, Germany. Actually we’re in a dive
of a bar.”

"So Beth's with you then?"

Faith reached over and gave Beth's thigh a squeeze. “Yep and right now all
we want to do is get the hell out of here.”

“Well you can’t come back on any of the airlines.”

Faith frowned as she heard this news, “Why not?”

Angel sighed, <Faith is not going to like this piece of news>. “You and Beth
are wanted for questioning in the deaths of two German civilians.”

“WHAT?!” Faith yelled out.

Beth leaned over and put her hand on Faith’s back as she whispered in her
ear, “Fai, you’re attracting the attention of all these ‘nice’ people here.
Relax.”

Faith looked around and noticed several of the patrons she saw were staring.
“Shit, sorry. Okay Angel what’s going on?”

“All Wesley could find out from his contacts is that you’re wanted for
questioning as witnesses to the murders and that they’ve given your pictures
to all of the major airports and sea ports in northern Germany. Somebody
doesn’t want you leaving un-announced.”

“Hold on a sec,” Faith leaned over and filled Beth in on what Angel had just
told her.

“Okay so how are you going to get us out of here then?”

“That’s going to take a little time, right now I’m working on an ‘alternate’
transportation for you two.”

Whispering as she listened to the conversation, “How long?” Beth asked.

“Beth wants to know how long Angel.”

“I don’t know. How are you two doing for money?”

“We’re doing okay Angel, we just need to get the hell out of here,” said
Faith.

“I understand. Call me back in 4 days and I’ll have an answer for you then,
okay?”

“Yeah, four days Angel.” Faith hung the phone up.

Faith looked over at Beth, “I guess we wait four days and keep our fingers
crossed. Once we’re out of Germany and back in the U.S. at least we’ll be
safe.”


End Chapt 17