Hth

Author at http://gatefiction.com/hth/.

Witness (Buffy/Dark Angel)

Reviewed by Kathryn A on 4th July 2004
Tags: Short Story, Crossover, AU
Characters: Faith Lehane
(42K)

First warning -- rated M. This is, after all, a Faith story, and she's always been very... forward. And with the mouth of a guttersnipe too. This is very much a Faith story, AU, where Faith is the oldest Slayer, old enough to still be around in Dark Angel universe, old enough to have outlived almost all of her friends. Still going.
    She hitch-hikes into town, following a breadcrumb trail of rumors about the Dark Angel. Just hearing the name makes Faith's heart pound a little faster, and by now almost nothing does that. In spite of giving it the old college try, she's gotten jaded over the years. Life doesn't amaze her, front to back, the way it used to -- just the fact that she's still alive. That's a little amazing. The rest of it.... On a good day. On a good day, Faith can still be knocked for a loop by the sheer scope and force of life as she knows it.
    And it's a good day when, after almost six months of no-call, no-show, she hears that name for the first time: Dark Angel. Young, beautiful, unstoppable. Righteous. Hero. Oh, yeah. Yeah, finally Jesus Christ, finally. Take me there.

This is a very introspective angsty piece, cutting back and forth between memories and present time. With a good older Faith voice and lovely flows of prose.
    There's noise, too, in Seattle. Everywhere, a dull, bass-heavy throb of music and engines and yelling. It's the sound of a whole city screaming in anger, Faith thinks, and then she shivers, because it's strange for thoughts like that, subjective, impressionable thoughts, to come out of her head. They feel like someone else's thoughts.
    But there they are, and there they stay. Seattle roars like a wild thing, it does not go gently into the post-apocalyptic night, it won't forget what came before the collapse, it won't forgive anything or anyone. It hates, purely, more purely than any human ever could.

(Also note that this site warns that it has slash and adult stories there.)