Wowzers! Excellent story! Thanks for sharing.

Well that was a slightly darker take on anniversaries. An interesting and original choice though - I don't think I've seen much that really talks about the fallout of the stabbing other than as a reason for Faith to be pissed off or for Buffy to be remorseful. It's not a viewpoint I'd considered either. Maybe it's because the way Faith's character is usually portrayed tends to lead away from that sort of thing and more toward her problems with feeling alone/abandoned or guilty of her own choices. But she was having recurring nightmares about Buffy during her coma, so it's hardly a stretch to think what happened would stay with her.

It seemed like Buffy had no clue what was going on with Faith during the demonstration scene. It wasn't until the following one that I actually realised what she was apologising for at the end of it, but that was probably more me being slow than anything else. :p Once it had clicked, it felt like a nice moment, though her approach to trying to help Faith was still pretty ruthless (But not out-of-chararacter after season 7).

That was gripping. You had me worried, wondering if Faith was gonna go on a rampage and suddenly kill Buffy. It was evident that she still has a lot of issues to work on, at least in terms of her relationship with Buffy. I enjoyed that part where she was eating pasta and Buffy walks in all banged-up and triumphant, and then looks her in the eye. That was visually pleasing to imagine.

Then when they started the sword-fight demonstration, things heated up pretty quickly. Queue my dread that Faith will turn into a rage demon and stab senselessly. Thank you for not killing anyone (or getting anyone killed). That ending was unexpected but I'm not complaining. Yay fuffy!

Hope you find a beta. Some of the typos were sticking out like sore thumb and ruined the intensity of moments. Also, I found it hard to read the earlier sections. The sentences were a bit long, and punctuation (comma) appears at points where it makes it hard to determine the tone and meaning of the sentence. Or maybe that's the voice of your Faith and I'm being a complete ass :) I hope you don't take this negatively, I liked the overall way that Faith was thinking. It was refreshing. But the way some of the sentences' were structured made it hard for me to read and understand them.

Overall, I liked and enjoyed the different tone of your story. It was dark and intense. But in the end there was fuffy!!! Yay! Go write that other story :) thank you for sharing.

Author's Response:

 

Hello! First I want to say thanks for taking the time to read AND review. You left a lengthy one to boot, which is nice. I'll jump right in – Concerning Faith's residual issues, I honestly couldn't imagine anyone completely being over being stabbed and put into a coma. Especially when the stabbing happens because of one's own decision to kill multiple people. It wasn't so much about Buffy, as another reviewer caught (I should have made it more clear for everyone). The problems came from the trauma of being stabbed, and put into a coma. And the trauma of being a killer. Falling to that ultimate low. Sure, Faith's mad at Buffy herself too, but mostly because Buffy seems so unaffected by something that Faith could never possibly ever forget for a second. I guess that's why I also didn't catch that I made things seem so serious that it looked like Faith would actually end up hurting Buffy. Fear was what I meant to capture during the final moments of that scene.

Moving on to the sentence structure thing, and the needing a beta. Surprisingly, I actually made a point to not make 98% of Faith's sentences too long, because that wouldn't be true to her voice. I'm a sucker for Victorian and Romantic era novels, along with complex essays, so long sentences I actually love and relish in. But...I knew it wouldn't fit with her. I can think of a few places you might have felt things went on, and I think that it was my interpretation of the rambling that occurs when one is thinking sometimes. The afterthoughts that jump into the middle of your sentence. It was the most boring few hours of her life, sure, outside of her time in solitary (prison), but there was no way she could face Buffy. That's one of the sentences only slightly paraphrased (and in a different person) and like I said, I can see how it could seem a bit long. I'm just used to seeing sentences much longer, and didn't think it would be hard to track which tells me it's something I can work on. The typos RUINING moments...that's always a tough blow for an amateur writer, so I do apologize. It would be different if you said it tripped things up, but ruining is a whole different matter. I shall do my best to find a beta. I can't promise the long sentences will end though, in different points of view especially, but I can at least promise to make them more coherent and drop the ones that my (future) beta thinks are beyond fixing.

Thanks again for the review, the honesty is much appreciated :) Until next time.

This is one hell of a first fic. :)

And I mean like absolutely in a good way.

I love Faith POV stories and this is a very good one. With a nice focus on the real trauma of her near death at the hands of Buffy. It's an original take on the events that I can't recall reading before, and its nicely realised.

You nailed the residual tension between Buffy and Faith that's usually always there between them- sparking over each other.

I love the fact that Buffy wasn't clueless, that she remembered that dark time just las Faith did. And that Faith hadn't forgotten but had already forgiven but held no real malice towards Buffy.

Plus I like the resolution, turning the negative memory/association into a positive one was a nice way to wrap things up.

Buffy and Faith and rooftops- always memorable!

Author's Response:

Heyyyo! This was one hell of a piece to get out, short and all, so yay! Glad that you liked it, especially since I'm inhaling one of your fics that is complete and absolutely love it. It's always good to get a review from fellow writers. I really wanted to present something that I haven't seen posted, so I waited a bit as I came up with ideas, just to see if anyone else was going to touch on it for the contest. Worked out pretty welll. There was no way I could have Buffy clueless and it still hold the same impact, and I wasn't sure about the final moment being necessary or possible until I nailed the tension that I hoped to establish (but wasn't sure I could pull off). Thanks again for the great, in depth review!

Welcome! :D And I'm glad you've arrived because I really liked this. I think a lot about how I'd like to read fics that actually deal with the trauma we know Faith experienced (and the trauma that is fanon) in real ways, but I don't recall having read any that actually have her experience PTSD or be triggered. I love that you chose this as your anniversary. I liked the focus on Faith's feelings about Buffy trying to kill her, because so often we write Faith as just totally forgiving of it without question. Here, she forgives, but she struggles with the forgetting part. And it's not about hating or blaming Buffy. I'm rambling but I think you get my point that I thought this was really good? :)

I liked that Buffy remembered too. I would think almost killing another person would be totally devastating to her as a slayer, but we didn't see much of her feelings about stabbing Faith on the show. This makes much more sense to me. It feels like how Buffy should have felt but we never saw it. And of course, getting together is always good. :)

Thank you for sharing it! Hope you post again soon.

Author's Response:

Hey! Thanks for the warm welcome and the extensive review, I really appreciate both. Most of the time when an idea pops into my head I have a similar train of thought as what you described above. My mind searches for something I haven't seen before, or if I have, something I'd like to dive deeper into. For some reason I'm addicted to approaching high tension moments in stories, and as soon as I saw the anniversary challenge I thought -- what if it's the anniversary of the night Buffy stabbed Faith? So I'm glad you really enjoyed it, and that it gave you a bit of something you wanted to see. You're spot on when it comes to what I was trying to put across with Faith here, and there was no way I couldn't have Buffy remembering as well. To me she would have had to have thought about it, whether the canon addressed it or not. Thanks again! Your review really is a fantastic one!