tle: Futures Hope : Blind Sided Author: Firecracker Disclaimer:The Buffy verse and its character's do not belong to me, however Hope and Adam do.
A/N: This is a follow up story to Enter Hope, Into The Woods and Return to Chaos so it might not make any sense unless you've read them first
chapter eight
After everything that had gone off that evening, the three of them had finally crashed, spread out across the huge couch, they watched the TV as they devoured the pizza Xander had kindly ordered.
'So what was in that stuff anyway?' Faith asked before taking a bite out of her last slice.
'The demons eyes...' Hope and Xander said in unison, causing the rogue slayer to drop the pizza back to the plate.
'I hate you guys... ' Faith spat in disgust.
They ate in silence for a short time, Hope's attention turning from one to the other and back again just as quickly, fighting against her better judgment as to whether she should speak up.
'Spill it.' Faith said, catching the future slayers movements.
'You were right. What you said before about this being a suicide mission.' she spoke softly.
'That's not what...' Xander began.
'Yeah it is.' Hope said, she wasn't about to listen to their excuses.
'I'm not an idiot, I know what it means...' she had no misunderstandings about what the future held for her.
'And you're okay with that...' Xander said trying to understand.
'It's not that I'm okay with it, I just don't think it matters.' she said, a hint of defeat in her tone.
'Your life matters Hope.' Xander spoke his voice firm.
She sat in silence, showing no signs of what his words meant to her.
'I lied.' She spoke up, causing the others to stop and listen.
'The night I met you, I lied.' She finished.
'The watchers council didn't send me, they're all dead.' She paused seeing Faith tense up beside her.
'When the world ended, it became the demons playground. We travelled from city to city gathering what information we could, we eventually found a gateway. One that would bring us here, there was an attack before we could reach it.' She continued cautiously.
'I woke up in this world alone…' she paused.
'Hey it's okay you don't have to…' Xander began.
'Yes I do.' She said meeting his eyes.
'I came here to save the future, or at least change it... I came into your lives and I dumped all of this on you, expecting you to trust me when I never gave you any reason to.' she admitted.
'My recent behavior not really working in my favor.' she added, taking a deep breathe.
'Five minutes... what do you wanna know?' she said looking between the two of them.
'Seriously?' Xander asked, not believing his ears.
'Hope.' he said with a small smile.
'Yeah...' the future slayer answered.
'First name or last?' he asked.
'First... my last name's Ryan.' she informed them.
'Hope Ryan...' Faith said trying it out.
'You're gonna stick with Future Girl aren't you?' Hope asked shaking her head in defeat.
'The Scythe's...' Faith said, not wasting any time.
'So we're skipping to the big ones huh?' Hope said, hardly surprised by Faith's question.
'After your deaths, the council thought it best to lock them away. They couldn't risk them falling into the wrong hands.' she began.
'The wrong hands?' Xander asked.
'Vamps, Demons, Slayers... pick your monster.' she replied.
'We took them the night this whole mess started... that was three years ago.' she continued.
'We?' they asked stopping her there.
'Me and my sister...' Hope answered.
'Ashleigh.' Xander remembered mention of the girl's name.
'And the scratches?' Faith asked.
'No bear traps around to interrupt this time.' she thought as she leaned forward.
'As far as weapons go they're pretty indestructible, you've seen it yourself. What better way to destroy one, than with the other. The perfect balance.' she said, unable to mask the sadness in her eyes.
'What happened Hope?' Xander asked softly.
'Nothing you need to be concerned with.' she said, her voice empty of emotion.
'Times up.' she said eyeing her watch.
Not wanting to push the future slayer any further they quickly returned their attention back to the film they were previously watching. Each of them appearing lost in their own thoughts.
