Giles took off his glasses and absentmindedly cleaned them before turning to look back at Buffy. Sighing, he rearranged them back onto his face.

"And you are absolutely sure the pair were human?" He asked for the seemingly umpteenth time that night.

"Like, super human." The Slayer responded. Frowning, after hearing her statement out loud, she amended herself. "No demon or vampy-ness to them."

"And your Slayer senses?" Giles drilled.

"Situation Normal All Fouled Up. Little buzz-y feelings and general haywire-ness." Buffy confirmed her earlier statement.

"Tell me again how they fought?" Giles asked as he flipped through several old books, a fusty smell rising from the pages.

Buffy paused momentarily, recalling the battle. "They fought like animals. Wild and feral. Yet they moved in synchrony to each other."

"As if they were trained?" A cloud of dust exploded from one tome leaving Giles hacking for air. When the air cleared Buffy responded.

"They were either trained together or have been fighting together for a long time. But there's no way they were untrained – they dusted more vamps than me."

Giles paused. "Their strength rivaled that of a Slayer, and you're certain they were human?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Yes. Or at least the older one was."

"The younger one wasn't human?"

"No, the older one was way stronger. She didn't even get hurt in the fight. She also ripped off a vamps head with her bare hands."

"She has bear hands? Whoa, what kinda Big Bad are we up against here?" Xander took that moment to enter through Giles' unlocked front door. Giles decided not to respond to Xander's stupidity and lack of knocking before entering. Willow followed Xander inside. Buffy had called them after she had hung up her conversation with Giles to cancel their plans at the Bronze for the night, but they insisted on joining the meeting at Giles'.

"Possibly a Big Good." Willow suggested. "I mean, she dusted a bunch of vamps and helped out Buffsters."

"In Sunnydale?" Buffy scoffed. "The only Big Good in Sunnydale is the Slayer, and I already hold that title."

"Actually you don't, what with the dieing and the reviving, and the dieing again and the black magics. Technically Kendra was the Slayer, but she went the way of the hypnotizing and the dieing." Willow trailed off. "I'll stop the babbling now."

"Actually," Giles cleaned his glasses again. "Hold that thought."

"The hypnotizing and the dieing? I'd prefer much happier thoughts. Like kittens. I think I'll adopt a kitty, and name her Miss Kitty Fantastico."

Giles cleared his throat, and Willow promptly shut up. "What thought is she supposed to be holding? Because I personally favor the kittens to death. And I'm a dog guy." Xander not-so-helpfully supplied.

"Buffy is no longer The Slayer, meaning that there is the probability of the new Slayer showing up here in Sunnydale." Giles theorized.

"With a sidekick and greatly in need of a shower." Buffy grumbled.

"It's worth looking into." Willow suggested to Giles. The librarian nodded and excused himself to the other room to make a phone call, no doubt to one of his remaining friends in the Council.

The three Scoobies awkwardly waited in the living room. "What are you going to do if she is the new Slayer?" Willow asked.

"From the look of it, give her access to running water and a new wardrobe." Buffy paused. "And you know, feed her. Take her on walks. Clean up after her. Dawn did mention she wanted a pet the other day." They had a mild chuckle at the thought.

Giles returned from the other room.

"Do we have a wild Slayer on our hands?" Buffy asked, intently.

"Well, that's up for you to decide, Buffy. My contact in the Council has agreed to send me the file on the current Slayer." Giles motioned at Willow, who looked up. "And, uh, if you could get that blasted computer working, he's going to be sending over the file. It also might be encrypted."

The Scoobies smiled at that. Despite being in the modern age of technology Giles still insisted on being an old, British - stubborn - man and tried to avoid computers. That didn't stop him from having a state of the art desktop for whenever he did use it, however.

Willow immediately set to work downloading and decrypting the file. Within minutes the document was in typical readable format, and was being printed off. Giles picked up the first sheet and started reading off important tidbits.

"Faith Lehane. Born December 14. Activated after the death of Kendra Young. Before her activation she trained with her Watcher Diana Dormer. She continued to train with her until her Watcher's untimely death. No one has heard or seen of her since."

The gravity of the situation slowly set in. The printer whirled in the corner, printing the final page. A old photo of Faith. She was younger, and the picture was not the best quality, but she was clearly the girl Buffy had encountered earlier. Buffy stared at the picture for a while. The other Slayer was younger and certainly less feral. The picture had probably caught her unaware. She was laughing, face partially turned away from the camera. Her eyes had caught the camera right before it flashed, still mid-laugh, she had smiled at whoever had been holding the camera. Obviously she had cared about whoever was the camera holder. Her Watcher perhaps? The photo was cropped around the Slayer, as if someone else had been in the picture. In the background there were several weapons hung up on a wall. It was obviously her training room.

"Is that the girl, Buff?" Xander asked.

"Yeah..." Buffy confirmed their suspicions. Slowly, she gently folded the picture and slipped it into her back pocket. She looked at Giles. "Now what?"


"Not that I'm apposed to some good, old best friend quality time in the woods, but wouldn't it be easier if I just do a locating spell?" Willow wondered as she shined her flashlight around the woods, ahead of her Buffy was ferociously attempting to plow a trail through the trees.

"We don't have anything of her's to track her with, and if you tried to track her by her Slayer-ness you'd just find me."

"So what are the two of us doing then?" Willow turned in a circle, not seeing much in the woods.

"I'm playing a game of Hot-Cold with my Slayer senses, and you are swinging around a flashlight for me. Also if we find them you get to play medic. …I swear this game was at least more fun when I was five." Buffy mumbled the last sentence, but Willow still caught it.

Closing her eyes Buffy focused in on her Slayer senses. The warm buzzing she had been feeling earlier was in the back of her mind, a gentle humming. Turning, she felt the humming intensive as she got closer to the other Slayer.

"Buffy." Willow attempted to get her attention.

Buffy took a step towards the warmth. It was working!

"Buffy." Willow tried again.

Buffy took another step, the warmth burning through her.

"Buffy Summers." The deep husky voice clued Buffy in that it wasn't Willow.

Buffy snapped open her eyes and found herself face to face with the wild Slayer. For a moment time seemed to stop as the two Slayers looked into each others eyes. The Slayer bond was open and free between them, it was if some sort of dam had broken inside of them. Buffy could feel the power flowing off of the other Slayer. Power just like her own. She took a deep breath, steady herself at the sudden exposure to power. The other Slayer outstretched her hand, hovering within centimeters of her face. No doubt she too could feel it.

"Danielle." Willow supplied. It took a feel moments of Buffy to realize her friend had spoken. She didn't look away from the other Slayer, but she was puzzled. "Willow Danielle Rosenberg. You know," Willow added helpfully. "If you are looking for baby names yet."

Buffy attempted to grasp the Slayer's hand, but it shot out of her reach at the faintest hint of touch. "You're Faith, aren't you?"

Slowly she nodded. "She's hurt." It took both Scoobies a second to remember who Faith was talking about.

"Lead us to her." Buffy said, motioning for Faith to lead. The Slayer didn't wait for more instructions, bounding off into the forest. Buffy and Willow began to run after her, but found that neither could ever hope to match the pace she was setting.

After seeing that Buffy and Willow were lagging behind Faith doubled back. Then, she took off into the forest again. Buffy and Willow tried to not lose sight of her, but ultimately found they just couldn't keep up in the dense foliage. Just as they would lose her, Faith would come running back, silently urging them on. This happened several times. Finally they reached their destination.

Underneath a large tree Faith's companion lay. Crumpled in a heap, she didn't look in a good shape. Her shirt was even more in rags than Faith's, and scraps of the dirty fabric could be seen tied around her leg. Her face was contorted in pain, and her eyes were squeezed shut. Instantly Willow's heart went out to the girl, and decided to do everything in her power to make her better.

Mentally thanking herself for reading a first aid book when she was bored in Biology class, Willow set to work. First, she took her first aid kit out of her backpack, and while the Slayers watched over her shoulder, she took out the necessary supplies. Almost instantly Willow realized she would not have enough gauze, their go-to first aid kits were designed for Buffy's injuries, and she had Slayer healing.

She sat down next to the Slayer's companion and got a closer look at the wound and the girl. She was not well fed, no doubt an effect of living in the wild. The gash was on her lower left leg, just below the knee. The rags around it were soaked in blood, and Willow feared the worst when she gingerly removed them. A pale white could be seen at the bottom of the wound, the cut went all the way to the bone.

Assessing the situation Willow realized that immediate action would be necessary. Sterilizing, stitches, and prevention of infection would come later.

"I need you to take off her pants." Willow informed Faith. Buffy looked mildly shocked as Faith instantly co-operated with Willow and followed her instructions, how ever strange they may seem. With little ceremony Faith stripped her companion of her pants, stopping only when the girl made sounds of protest at the movement. "Buffy," Willow ordered, obviously in command as she was in her element. "Apply direct pressure to the wound. Keep her leg elevated and above her body level." Willow handed over several strips of gauze, hoping it would be enough to stop the bleeding before she could be transported to where more supplies were.

Situating herself next to Buffy, Willow traced the girl's thigh. Which, if Willow had not been in super serious mode she might have noticed was certainly well toned. Instead, Willow focused on the wound. Tracing back to the crotch area and then outside the leg Willow found the femoral artery. Applying pressure just above the hip joint Willow began to cut off circulation. It was a job she didn't trust to either of the Slayers. Though she knew that while, at least Buffy, knew her own strength, Willow didn't trust either to know how their strength affected humans.

If either Willow or Buffy had been paying attention they might have noticed Faith lingering around feeling useless. To remedy that she sat down next to the girl and grasped her hand in her own. Briefly she looked up at Faith, and attempted to smile through the pain. It was obviously an attempt and Faith squeezed her hand before looking away again.

After a few minutes of working together Willow and Buffy had stopped most of the bleeding temporally. Quickly wrapping the wound and gauze with bandages Willow had fixed up the girl as best she could. Turning to Faith, Willow explained the situation.

"We've done all that we can for her for now, but she still needs immediate attention. The wound needs to be sterilized and most likely stitched up. She also needs to rest and recover. It would be best if you came with us." Willow looked to Buffy for confirmation, and received the go-ahead. "You can stay with us, and we promise we won't bring her to a hospital unless absolutely necessary."

After sometime and consideration Faith nodded her agreement. Buffy knelt to pick up the girl, but was immediately greeted with a threatening growl from Faith. "I'll take her." Were the only sharp words she offered. Sensing the problem in the situation Willow piped up.

"You need to lead us out of here."

"I'll take her." Faith repeated, with conviction. Gently gathering the barely conscious girl in her arms, leaving no room for argument, Faith stood and began to walk. Hesitantly Willow and Buffy followed. Their trek was silent and not nearly as swift as before, as Faith was careful with her human burden and made sure to clearly avoid all obstacles.

As the not so merry band reached the edge of the forest Buffy and Willow realized they were surprisingly close to their home, seeing the threshold of 1630 Revello Drive in the distance. Ahead of them, far enough away and softly enough to evade even a slayer's hearing Faith whispered to her companion.

"We're gonna make it through this, Ken."


I will attempt to update ever Saturday or Sunday, provided I have time and get enough reviews to show there will be interest in this story.

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