Faith No More.

By Oxnate.

My titles are usually inspired by songs, but this time it's a band name. Faith No More was an 80's band that had a hit called Epic. The band name fit. Don't own the band or their rights, etc. Also don't own Buffy. If I found the ownership to Buffy on the ground, I would give it to Joss trusting that he either owns it or knows who does better than I do.

Inspiration for the fic itself came from fan art by cloudleonsgurl: Worlds She Never Walked #228. (On Twisting The Hellmouth) There is also a great banner that cloudleonsgurl made. You can see the whole think over on TTH. www . tthfanfic Story-28620/Oxnate+Faith+No+More . htm (Remove spaces)

If anyone deserved a do-over it was Faith. She had made so many mistakes in her life, and she wishes she could change them. When Buffy and the gang think she's gone dark again, Faith has to battle a big bad and the Scoobies.

But when Faith sacrifices herself to a spell meant to kill…the PTBs give Faith that chance, upset the way their champions treated one of their own.

She is now back on the run from the Master Vampire who killed Linda, and headed towards Sunnydale. What will Faith change?

Well, she's definitely not going dark side. She definitely going to mess with Buffy thinking the blonde's jealously is funny, she's going to call Willow out of her shit with Xander, and if boytoy is good Faith might take him with her after they destroy the Mayor.

What? You thought Faith was going stay so Buffy can go to college? Heck no! Faith is carving out her own destiny,

I dislike Deus Ex Machina and I think I can set it up better; but I like the idea. So here goes.

Oh, and there will probably be some bashing of almost everyone in this fic. This is Faith and she doesn't take shit from anyone, especially not these kids who will one day be Scoobies. I'll try to keep it mild.

Not intending anything kinky to begin with, but it's Faith and you know there's going to be some good sex and swearing there. Hopefully both at the same time. Some chapters might be rated FR21. (M)

One last note: Diana Dormer is the name listed for Faith's Watcher in the Buffy Wiki. I'm bad at coming up with names anyways. The nickname of DD (Pronounced: Double D) is mine but it seemed like something Faith would come up with in reference to the woman's bra size.

Chapter 1.

"I know, right? I wish I had a chance to do this whole Slayer thing over. Do it right."

"Done."

Okay, not her proudest moment ever. But seriously, they hadn't seen a vengeance demon in over a decade. She figured they'd lost interest by now.

Faith laid in bed for another couple of minutes moping about her stupidity. She'd never even seen the demon that granted the wish so the odds of finding the veiny thing and smashing its necklace were low. Then again, Anya was probably still alive here or maybe even Anyanka. She could beat her to a bloody pulp until she got sent back. If that didn't work, she knew who D'Hoffryn was and that there was a spell to summon him. So plan C was to summon him and beat the ever loving crap out of him until he took the wish back.

Faith took a deep breath and almost gagged. God. Where was she sleeping? A trash heap? No. It was just her old room. The one she still shared with the bitch that called itself her mother. She got up and stretched a bit. She was pleased not to feel the twinge in her right shoulder where she'd taken the hit from the horn of a Yarnack demon a couple of years ago. Other assorted creaks and pangs were similarly gone. Slayer healing healed a lot, but not quite everything. Well, at least if she had to be cursed by a demon, she got a younger body out of it. A younger body but still retaining all the knowledge of a life of hard knocks and bad choices.

What was that saying? 'Age and treachery will always beat youth and skill... until it doesn't.' But now she had all four. She was probably as close to unstoppable as she could be.

The first thing she had to do was get the fuck out of this house. Because she remembered very clearly how this day went and she didn't want to meet her watcher like she had the first go-round; when the lady bailed her out of jail. She packed all her clothes. Stole as much money as she could find and then was out the door without leaving a note. She never looked back.

As she walked she tried to remember what she'd been told about her predecessor. No one talked about her much but she knew the girl had visited Sunnydale once to help deal with Spike restoring Drusilla. Then Buffy and Angel had done the horizontal mambo and sucked Angel's soul right out of him. She grinned at the imagery that brought up.

Angelus hadn't been much of a player himself, but he did bring two Big Bads with him. The Judge and Alcatha. Alcatha was where Angel got his soul restored and then he got sent to a hell dimension. Angel had told her a lot about that. A lot more than he'd told anyone else, she knew that for certain.

But she couldn't for the life of her remember when Kendra had been killed. Judge or Alcatha? She might have to just resort to calling SunnyD and asking if Buffy was in town. If she was then she might be able to help with Alcatha and save Angel a trip to hell. Otherwise, she could wait a couple months until he returned.

Till then, she had a watcher to find.

Faith decided that the fastest way to find her Watcher would be to start dusting some vamps. Enough to get noticed but not enough to draw Kakistos' attention. Yet.

There weren't nearly as many vampires in Boston as there were in Sunnydale. Kakistos ruled his minions with an iron fist and made sure that there were only a few victims each night and no unauthorized turnings. Most vamps under his thumb subsisted on cow or pig blood and only got the occasional human as a reward. But it kept the humans from finding out about them, which kept them safe.

That meant that finding a vamp to kill would be more difficult than she'd originally thought. And it wasn't like she could ask someone. Even if everyone had known about the supernatural, the unofficial city motto was 'Fuck You Asshole', which meant they weren't likely to tell her anyways.

So she walked. Pretty soon her feet brought her to a place she recognized. Nostrovia (with the Russian На здоровье underneath the main sign), the local demon bar.

Walking in, she was reminded very much of a village in Africa.

Thirty or so dark and angry faces armed with a mixture of spears, stakes, and knives greeted her when she approached the village. Thirty young and mostly untrained Slayers in various states of undress that wouldn't budge when she stated that she was looking for Xander. At least one of them had gone running off to somewhere. Hopefully to find Xander.

Once Xander had come out and introduced her to the girls, they had mostly relaxed. She also realized that the state of undress some of the girls were in was simply how they went about the day. Nearly a quarter of the girls went around topless as a matter of course. Xander was unfazed by all the nudity. He was also shirtless. The first thing she noticed were the scars – more than the last time she'd seen him without a shit – white against his now very tan skin. Skin which rippled with strength. Not Slayer strength, gifted to those that never asked for it. But real strength. Earned by the sweat of his brow and the blood he lost in fights with demons he had no business fighting. But beat anyway.

And then there was that eye. A calm determination behind it, that frankly both scared and excited her. It was the first time she'd ever considered sleeping with a man more than once since she and Wood had broke up.

That one eye calmly looked right back at her and he said, "What do you want, Faith?"

"Huh?"

"Are you deaf? I said what do you want, kid?" the bartender gave her the stink eye.

Faith stood there for a moment. She didn't really have a plan.

"Get her out of here." the bartender ordered.

Two vampires rose from their seats to escort her out and possibly drain her. That was all the more encouragement she needed. In three seconds they were both dust. Then the bar erupted.

Slayers have instinctive fighting skills, however training is required for building speed, strength, stamina, and muscle memory. Faith hadn't realized how untrained this body was until the fight started. Her mind knew all the moves but her body didn't. Had never done them before. And she paid the price for that. She stumbled out of the bar into the dark streets, landed on her back, and looked up at the stars. She had never been more glad to see the last demons run away from her bluff. Then from her compromised position, a shadow approached.

"Faith Lehane?" a woman's voice asked.

"Faith. Just Faith." Faith allowed herself to cry again over the woman she thought she'd never see again.

A/N: Yes, Faith misremembered Acathla's name. Her mistake, not mine.

A/N2: Yes, Faith is a Slayer. She was transported back to when she was first called. This will become clearer next chapter.

Ok, I'm not sure that my setup was any better than the original one but it was a heck of a lot simpler. On with the story!