Title: The Sunnydale Chronicles

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, or Willow, or Faith, or Tara... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Life is a computer Game, and Sunnydale is the arena, but it is not the Slayer or a Demon who has the ability to decide its fate.

Faith woke up in the spare bedroom she used at the 'Granny Flat', completely naked. With a mild full body ache for a moment she thought she had gotten lucky last night, but rolling over with a slight groan she saw the bed empty and the other side's sheets undisturbed. That was not wild monkey sex ache that was hard combat ache.

Right, time for a check. No injuries. Check. Costume clothes. Torn but check, next to a sweet duster jacket. Tomahawks. In their holsters hanging from the hook behind the door. Therm-optic camouflage. Working, check. Wait… the therm-optic camouflage was working. That sparked the memory of the night before, being chased by a group of kids in demon costumes, not that the Major knew that. Ducking around a corner, she had ripped off her tactical outfit, tossed it into a corner and activated the therm-optic camouflage. The Major had gone back twenty minutes later, after knocking the group of 'mini-monsters' out as they panicked about their invisible foe, and ambushing an adult monster for his Duster. Faith now recognised that adult monster as a real Vampire.

Shaking herself from the memory, Faith got dressed and left her room. In the kitchen, Xander was sitting sideways on a chair that had been pulled from the dining room, with Joyce checking the stitches from a few wounds Jubei had received the night before. She could remember the Major watching Jubei fighting a bunch of actual Vampires and having a hard time of it, not because he was failing to do damage, but because he did not know what he was fighting and the kept recovering from human fatal wounds. Once Jubei figured out that decapitation killed the Vampires he was able to dispatch them rapidly.

"These are holding well." Joyce said. "If you get a fever or any of these become inflamed, let me know immediately."

"Yes, Ma'am." Xander replied.

"I will make sure to thoroughly inspect Xander every morning and evening." Faith offered.

"That won't be necessary." Joyce insisted. "You're up next Faith. I need to establish baseline data on you."

"After Breakfast." Faith waved it off. "Where is Cordy?"

"Wolf-girl's outside with her new friend." Xander said.

Faith nodded. With Cordy and Tara it had been different than for Faith, Xander and Joyce. The latter three all went as well established characters, while Cordy and Tara's costumes had been more generic, meaning that they were not different personalities but rather how Cordy and Tara would have been with the agreed upon histories and abilities.

For Cordy that meant she had still been Cordy, but a Cordy who could talk to Wolves. Wolf-Sister Cordelia of the Minor Noble House of Chase had split from the rest of the group early in the night. In the early hours of morning, well after Jubei had learnt how to deal with Vampires, the group had been backed into a corner, literally, by almost forty of Longinus' 'Dark Legion' Vampires. By that stage, Jubei had been exhausted, bleeding and barely able to hold onto his Katana but still managed to kill seven Vampires; Tara had been able to fire off one fireball which set three on fire before she was magically exhausted; The Major, dressed in the ripped remains of her tactical outfit with the stolen Duster over the top, had used the last of her ammunition on the knees of the Vampires who were recovering faster than she hoped; and Doctor Frasier was by Tara's side trying to keep the Witch conscious and on her feet. All four of them were ready to meet their death when Cordy and her new friends, in the form of fifteen Grey Wolves that she had 'liberated' from the Sunnydale Zoo arrived on the scene.

Cordy had glided through the Vampires, slicing and stabbing with her daggers, the silver and wooden inlays making quick work of them, while the wolves were going either for necks or hamstrings. When the dust settled, again literally, nine Vampires were running, one of the Wolves was dead and another two were wounded, but all five of the humans were alive.

Looking out of the kitchen window into the back yard, she saw Cordy asleep in the gazebo, hugging a fully grown female Grey Wolf, who was laying beside the sleeping girl like a friendly pet dog. Faith was not fooled though. She had seen how much damage each of the Wolves could do alone, but when they worked as a Pack they were almost unstoppable.

Faith poured some cereal into a bowl as Joyce finished looking over Xander and he put his shirt back on. Faith sat down at the breakfast bar while Xander and Joyce were getting their breakfast. Tara entered into the kitchen, dressed in a long bathrobe and her hair wet from a shower, and slumped into a chair at the breakfast bar. She still looked exhausted.

"You ok, Tare?" Faith asked.

"Tired." The Wiccan replied. "Physically ok, but magically drained still."

Joyce quickly looked Tara over, checking her temperature and her eyes before nodding.

"You'll be fine." Joyce said. "Now that you've finished, Faith, time for your medical."

Faith looked down and saw her bowl empty. Fuck!

Cordy awoke in a situation that was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. For Cordy Chase, sleeping outside with a Wolf was most certainly a first, but for Lady Cordelia of House Chase, it had been her life for the last six years. She snuggled into the fur of Night River and the Wolf licked her face. Night River had almost seemed to adopt Cordy as something between a Cub and a best friend.

The night before when Lady Cordelia had reached out with her mind from her location at the Museum, she had found the wolf pack at the Zoo and introduced herself. When talking to Wolves introducing yourself meant sending your scent and Wolf Name, but Lady Cordelia also sent an image of her human self.

-Two Leg Who Talks?- had come the reply, from a female Wolf, who turned out to Night River.

Cordy's Wolf Name was 'Snow Stalker', or perhaps 'She how hunts in the Snow' was a better translation. Unlike human names, Wolf Names were complex images interlayered with smells, sounds and other senses. 'Snow Stalker' came from Lady Cordelia's the first contact her Pack had with Darkfriends and Trollocs, huge human and animal hybrid soldiers of the Shaddow. It had been a snow-covered forest in Andor, when the Pack had gone North from Tear in order to help Young Bull and Long Tooth, two Wolf Brothers.

A female wolf, stalking through the shade of the trees, with inches of snow laying on the ground and a soft curtain falling. The cold air burning in her lungs and the snow crunching softly under her paws. The vague sound of grunts and fighting around her, but her focus on her prey, ignoring the Two Legs and the Twisted Ones as she was stalking a Neverborn. The feel of her Pack around her and her heart pounding at the hunt. The Snow Stalker.

Cordy promised, as she made her way from the Museum to the Zoo, that if the Pack helped her with the Unnatural Ones, she would get the Pack out of the Hard Place and into the Forests. The Pack had eventually agreed and Cordy had broken them out of the Zoo and lead them to the wooded area to the east of town, near the Chase Estate. There were twenty Wolves in the Pack, but four of them were yearling cubs. The cubs had been left in the forest with one of the younger females, while the rest had come with Snow Stalker.

They had found a group of Unnatural Ones surrounding four Two Legs. The Pack fell on them from behind, ripping into the Unnatural Ones as viciously as Snow Stalker's original Pack had hunted Twisted Ones and Neverborn. Wolves only feared fire and they would go through fire to get a Twisted One or Neverborn. A young Male, Shadow for his dark coat, had died fighting the Unnatural Ones, throwing himself between the Unnatural One and Night River, allowing Night River and Snow Stalker together to kill it.

Snow Stalker and Night River had become fast friends and watched each other's back. Part of it was that Night River was curious about the Two Leg Who Talks.

Cordy sat up in the morning light and wiped her face where Night River had licked her. She glared at her Wolf friend and received what passed for a chuckle from the Wolf. Another Wolf, a male and Night River's mate called Wind Swept, emerged from the trees on the far side of the manicured lawns of the Chase Estate, stopping just outside the tree line. Night River loped across the lawns to her mate, while Cordy stood up and went inside the 'Granny Flat' to find Xander and Tara sitting at the breakfast bar while Joyce was looking over Faith.

"You're next, Wolf Girl." Joyce said.

"Think she needs a flea shot?" Xander asked.

"Tara?" Cordy said, nodding to Xander.

Tara blushed and then slapped Xander over the back of the head the way she had seen Cordy do a few times.

"Thanks." Cordy said.

TBC….