Falling From Your Grace (the “Same Old Chains” Remix)

[sroni]

Round 4.1 of the Circle of Friends Remix is now open for reading at cof_remix.

(Sorry I was late!)

Title: Falling From Your Grace (the “Same Old Chains” Remix)
Author: sroni
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine. Faith, Buffy and Connor/Stephen are the creation of Joss Whedon; Scotty and Dex are the creation of evil_little_dog.
Original Story: “Trappings” by evil_little_dog.

Falling From Your Grace
(the “Same Old Chains” Remix)

Stephen remembered his childhood. Not a hazy remembering, either, that only became clear when he thought of something. No, he remembered his childhood, with a sharp clarity that crystallized when he went through a particular memory. But when he slept at night, when he dreamed, those memories that he remembered so well disappeared, and a new childhood arose in their place. But he couldn’t remember the dreams well when he woke up, and they stayed hazy.

Stephen tried to be a good guy. His parents had raised him to respect other people, to go to church for the right reasons and not to just be a face in the crowd, even if you were a face that some people would recognize just because you come from money. He tried to donate time and money to projects that he thought were worth donating to, and he couldn’t even tell you how many houses he’d helped build with Habitat for Humanity. Stephen honestly tried to be a good guy.

But his parents also taught him from a fairly early age to not draw attention to just how strong and how fast he was. He was small and slim, and honestly could probably have passed as a pretty girl if he so desired (he didn’t), and it would have raised more than a few eyebrows if he ever showed off how much weight he could lift. (He decided to play around in the gym one day after everyone left, and discovered that the machine topped out before he did; he made sure to not do that when people were around ever.)

But Stephen worried that if he had these … talents, and he didn’t use them to help people in more ways than walking girls to their car or something, that it made him a bad person. After all, he had these capabilities, and he should be devoting them to a greater good, right? But … the hazy dreams he couldn’t remember, in them he sometimes was trying to help people and then he was hooked up to a bomb in the mall, and that was a route he very much did not want to go down. He didn’t know what was causing those dreams, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that him trying to help people had contributed to the actions in the dreams. So he’d help in the small ways that he could and hope, pray, that it was enough.

His best friends in college had adopted him on the first day of classes. High school was insular, and college was a lot more wide open than high school had been. Stephen had been excited to branch out more on his own (more, at least, than he’d had the chance to do before), while not falling flat on his face. He’d run into Scotty and Dex, and though they were froshes just like he was, they took him under their wings in a sense. Dex — Noeldechen Thibideaux — was studying to be an artist, though she looked more like she should be modeling for the artists on campus: tall, slim, with mahogany skin and riotous curls around a perfectly formed face. Her nose was barely this side of being pert, and she had thin, delicate glasses that framed hazel eyes. The only thing that marred her appearance was the perpetual charcoal smudges she seemed to have on her cheeks and hands constantly, though somehow that only added to the allure, rather than taking away. Dex had learned quickly to avoid the constant circle of guys around her, and that was why she preferred to stay with Scotty and Stephen. Guys left her alone when she was walking with Stephen, even if she was taller than him even without heels.

Scotty was Dex’s opposite in most ways, being tiny and clunking around in heavy-heeled boots that added five inches to her height and put her at maybe Stephen’s nose. Her full name was Jaime Scott Tevault, but if anyone tried calling her “Jaime”, she flat-out refused to answer. From an early age she’d waged war against the name she didn’t identify with, and each year, her teachers would learn the same lesson her previous teachers had, and spend two weeks trying to get her to answer to Jaime before giving up and calling her by the name she had chosen. Scotty had electric green eyes that could light up with a wicked sarcasm whenever she got the opportunity, and could only be described as “adorable” were it not for the goth attire that she donned. She had what her parents referred to as “entirely too many piercings”, though she had yet to get a tattoo. (Please. Piercings could be removed. Tattoos were permanent.)

The two girls had been paired as roommates, and in the first glance they shared, they knew they’d found kindred spirits. Scotty was heavy into Tarot and the like, because she’d always had a talent for knowing things and liked to use the cards to get a better handle on what exactly she knew that she didn’t know she knew yet (it made the kind of sense that doesn’t, but if you understand how things work, yes, it made sense). She’d gone to shake Dex’s hand, and a frisson of … something had shot through her and she’d instantly known about Dex’s nightmares. She’d helped the taller girl hide her freakish strength more than a few times since, and if they hadn’t already gotten along, that would have wound up bonding them anyhow. For her part, Dex hadn’t known entirely what Scotty could do, but she’d felt almost the same shiver of whatever — though deeper, stronger, yet somehow muffled — and she’d known that Scotty was a friend who would and could help her in ways she couldn’t yet perceive. After unpacking, the two of them had gone out on campus, looking for something and not really having any idea what that might be … and then Stephen had literally run into them, and they’d known that he was what they were seeking to complete their group.

Dex and Scotty had talked about it multiple times, and they didn’t know what exactly Stephen was, just that he was something. Dex had dreams about him, sometimes, in which he was so angry, and she wanted to avoid causing those dreams to happen. Scotty … Stephen was a maddening blank for Scotty, and it was more than a little frustrating. He wasn’t just a blip on the radar that she couldn’t figure out: he didn’t register on her radar at all. The best read she could get on him made no sense and contradicted itself all over the place, so she gave up and focused on being his friend.

That was before everything went to shit.

*               *               *

Stephen and Dex had been feeling like ants were crawling around underneath their skin all day, and couldn’t figure out why. Scotty had had enough of their twitching, and insisted that they all go out for a drink. Their IDs were just as fake as any of the other students’, but they were higher quality, thanks to Stephen’s knowledge and Dex’s money, so they could get into any bar they tried. There were three that they liked to rotate through, depending on their mood, because each of the three had a different scene. That night, though, Scotty directed them to one that they never went to, ever, because it was … Well. It was a hole in the wall, and Dex had maintained the first time they went that she’d rather dig a hole outside and pee in it than use the restrooms there.

Actually, what she’d said had been a lot more colorful than that, but that was the gist of it.

When Scotty had ‘suggested’ The Smoking Smurf (There were multiple stories about how it had gotten its name; if you asked the owner, the story was a lot simpler: “So people would ask where the name came from.”), Dex had given her a What the hell? look that hadn’t deterred Scotty. She’d simply suggested it again, calmly but firmly. The three had known each other long enough to realize that when Scotty proposed something like that more than once, it meant that they needed to do it. Thanks to Scotty, Stephen and Dex had been on hand to stop a few muggings and the like, so they weren’t going to ignore her.

Dex just really did not want to go to the Smurf. She was being a whiny bitch, and she knew it, but she really didn’t want to go to the Smurf. Scotty just gave her a look, though, and Dex surrendered. For whatever reason — and it was possible that Scotty herself didn’t know — they were supposed to go to the Smurf.

Damn it.

The three of them walked into the Smurf, Scotty’s boots clonking on the floor with every footstep, though only Stephen and Dex could hear the noise over the loud music. About once a month, the Smurf had a band play: not usually a very good once, since the owner got what he paid for and didn’t pay for a lot, and they’d lucked out in picking the night that a band was there. Dex gave Scotty a baleful glare, not that the smaller girl noticed. Scotty simply hopped up on a stool in the corner, where she could watch everyone in the bar. There was a small blonde roughly Scotty’s size, talking with crossed arms to a taller brunette with lots of eyeliner and leather. Stephen saw Scotty notice them and nod to herself.

Okay, then. That meant that, whatever reason they were there tonight, it at least partially involved those two. He made a mental note to keep an eye on them, ready to jump in to help however he needed to. The brunette twigged an almost-memory from him — the sky rained fire in perpetual darkness — but he couldn’t delve any deeper into the memory than that.

Dex returned with drinks for all three of them, opting to stand next to the table instead of sit. The ants-under-the-skin sensation was somehow stronger and more settled at the same time. Like the ants were bigger, so it was more noticeable, but moving around less so she didn’t feel like ripping her skin off. She glanced in the direction of the girls that Stephen had been looking at, and frowned when she recognized them from somewhere. Dex tried to tease him about it, though, and put it out of her mind. “Is that why we haven’t seen you date these last few years?” She nudged his ribs with her elbow. “Turns out you have a thing for older women?”

Stephen glowered at her, before schooling his face into a neutral expression. The glower made her feel that she’d unintentionally hit the nail on its head, and Dex had her open mouth to apologize when Stephen tensed and she whirled around to see what was going on.

What. The. Hell?

The blonde was sliding across the bar, booted feet hitting a guy in the chest but only knocking him back a few feet. The impact spun him around, however, and Dex saw that his face was all messed up, the way faces were in her dreams. Which meant that Dex knew exactly what to do.

She reached into her boots and pulled out the stakes, the ones she’d carved herself and kept on her at all times even though she knew it was crazy, and dived into the fight. Stephen was half a step ahead of her, which she hadn’t thought about but yeah, she should have known, and she was glad to have him. Whatever kind of freak she was, Stephen was just as strong, and even though he was no quicker than her he always reacted quicker, so it was just right to have him at her side.

Things were happening fast enough, and the bar was small enough, that Dex was having a hard time keeping track of what was happening and who was doing what. She shrieked when something grabbed her around the waist and threw her across the room: twisted in the air, landed rolling, and came to her feet looking for the next person/thing to attack.

“Fire!” Stephen yelled at her from across the room. Dex gave him a look of confusion, and Stephen slung a drink at the thing that had thrown her, following it up with the BIC lighter that Scotty had given him earlier with an enigmatic smile.

Oh. Fire.

Dex tossed more drinks on the whatever-the-hell-it-was (blue skin, form and features shifting like melting wax, God she hadn’t seen anything like this even in nightmares!), trying to make the fire spread over the thing better. “I don’t think this was the plan!” she shouted at Stephen in desperation, because rather than combust or whatever it was supposed to do, the thing kept moving, it was now just dripping flames which seemed to be a bad thing.

“WATER,” Stephen shouted back at her, and threw a glass of water on it. And, even though it sounded like he just couldn’t make up his mind, she could see what he meant: wherever the droplets of water hit, the flaming skin turned to something resembling stone. The blonde girl she’d seen fighting earlier grabbed the seltzer hose and sprayed it on the flaming creature, but it was too little, too slow. Stephen got in too close to the thing with a cup of water, and it slurrrped a tendril out at him, grabbing him tight.

Oh. That must have been how it threw her earlier.

Stephen struggled against the tentacle-whatsis wrapped around him, but wasn’t getting anywhere other than sucked further into the creature. Dex threw a pitcher on the blue-goo thing and tried to pull Stephen out. She wasn’t going to let this wax-melty bastard take her friend, she wasn’t.

Scotty was down underneath the table she’d claimed for them, face pale, bright eyes focused on Stephen, lips moving as she seemed to be murmuring something. Dex would ask her later, but right then, it wasn’t important.

Cracks appeared on the blue thing’s stony skin, courtesy of a kick from the smoky-eyed brunette she’d seen earlier with the blonde girl. Taking that as a cue, Dex kicked out as hard as she could, trying to make sure to not hurt Stephen, who was now only half-visible. “Get out, Dex,” he wheezed at her, struggling to breathe against the pressure of his captor’s body, it was almost fully engulfing him now. “You have to go. It’s okay.”

“It’s not!” She kicked still harder, sobbing from the effort. “I’m not leaving you here, Stephen!” She tried pulling on him to see if that would help. Still no budging him.

“Dex, get out,” Stephen commanded, his words garbling because his mouth was becoming fused to the thing’s skin.

“Tell me that again, and I’ll ram an umbrella up your ass and open it!” Dex snarled. “I’m not leaving you!”

The brunette appeared next to Dex. “B! Get your ass over here!” The blonde was on the other side of the thing by the time Dex had blinked. “All of us kick on three,” the brunette ordered. Dex shifted her weight, and on the third count, three legs flashed out, striking the thing as hard as they each could, and Dex yanked on Stephen with enough force to send her tumbling backwards, and she hit the floor hard.

They both did. She’d finally pulled him free.

Dex hugged him hard enough to crack ribs on anyone else, before giving him a smack on the shoulder that would have stunned a young bull. “If you ever tell me to leave you again, I am going to beat the shit out of you!”

Stephen gave her a sheepish smile. “It seemed like a good idea at the time?”

“You’re an idiot,” she laughed, even as she started to cry.

*               *               *

The group of them stood at the beach, bare feet in the sand as they looked out at the ocean. “It was like the world was a mirror, or a plate of glass, or something,” Scotty was saying. “And then someone broke it, fractured it, split it into hundreds and hundreds of pieces. Stephen, I’ve been trying to figure out for three years what you are, and now I think I know.”

Stephen sighed, digging his toes into the damp sand. “Yeah. Son of two vampires, right?”

“Holy shit!” Faith’s head snapped up. “Connor? You?! … How?” She had the look of someone who’d just realized something, and couldn’t believe she hadn’t been able to see it before.

Buffy gave them all an irritable look. “Want to clue me in on who Connor or Stephen or whoever he is, IS?”

“B, he’s Angel’s son.” Buffy jerked in obvious shock, and Faith kept going. “I would have told you, but I didn’t remember. Not until literally just now, when it was like a rubber band snapped and I could remember it all.”

Stephen nodded grimly. “Angel. He cast a spell or something. Taking control without asking other people what they thought as usual.” (Father issues? Nah.)

“He was doing what he thought was best, Stephen,” Scotty said, speaking quietly. “You scared him, in that mall. He thought this was the best thing for you.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t. Or maybe it was. I don’t know.” Stephen kicked at some of the sand, sending up a spray of granules. “He still should have asked me. I wasn’t given any choice in the matter.”

Buffy gave a rueful laugh. “Yeah, I know how that one goes. He thinks he’s right a lot, and makes decisions for you that you wish he’d let you make on your own. I get it.”

Stephen focused on Buffy for the first time. “You’re the one Faith left to go help. After L.A.”

Buffy gave a rueful grin. “Guilty as charged. We had a lot of things going on.”

“You’re a Slayer.” It wasn’t a question.

“Also guilty as charged.” The rueful smile was gone. “Like Faith. Like your friend Dex. Like a lot of other girls in the world who weren’t given a choice, but we did what we thought was best because we had no other options.”

This time it was Dex’s head that shot up. “I’m a what now?”

“Slayer,” Buffy explained. “One girl in all the world, except not really anymore. Stronger, faster, accelerated healing, generally hard to hurt. We fight vampires and demons. Sometimes it’s easier than others, like you just saw.”

Dex’s face was stiff, and when she spoke, it was very softly. “I don’t want this.”

“I know you don’t.” Buffy wasn’t being flippant, she was just saying it straight. “Most of us don’t. We were in an end-of-the-world scenario, and we did what we thought was our only option. This is the result. Look: it’s safer now than it used to be, but it’s okay to say no. We’d just like you to come out to England for a month or so, while we train you so that you don’t get killed by things out there. If, at the end of the month, you want to tell us to jump in a lake, that’s fine. We’ll give you contact information and an emergency kit, and you can do whatever you want. We just want to give you some basic training, so if you don’t want to play you’ll know what to avoid, and so you’ll be able to handle stuff that won’t let you avoid them.”

Dex glanced at Scotty and Stephen, sighed, and turned back to Buffy. “You’re going to keep at this, aren’t you? I know the signs. Well … okay. But only if Stephen and Scotty can come with me.”

“That’s … not normal,” Buffy tried to hedge.

Dex snorted. “Please. Stephen’s the son of two vampires and Scotty’s a seer. I’m pretty sure they’d fit right in at your Hogwarts-on-the-Heath.”

Which is how Dex and Scotty and Stephen wound up celebrating Christmas in England. Christmas itself is another story. One that gets turned into a drinking game whenever Scotty tells it.


THE END