Faith and Missy are staring at, what seems to be, their identical twin. Their jaws simultaneously drop and they stand there, speechless.
"Who...who are you?" Missy finally asks, unnerved by Faith's resemblance.
"I'm Faith, a Vampire Slayer," she breathes out. "You're Missy, the other one," she continues.
"But how? They...they told me that you were in...in prison," Missy stammers, unconsciously looking around for an escape.
"The Council let me out," Faith says and Missy cocks her head to the side. "They want you to have a Watcher, but you shot them down. Good job," she smirks.
"What the fuck does that have to do with your being here?" Missy asks.
"They want me to be your Watcher," Faith says with a laugh. "They got me out of prison just so I can be your Watcher," she repeats, shaking her head.
"I went four years without a Watcher. I think that that means I'm doing something right," Missy replies, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh yeah?" Faith challenges and Missy nods. "Okay then, hit me," she says. Missy takes a swing at her head, but Faith ducks and Missy ends up with her back to Faith. She turns just in time to get punched in the face.
"Fuck," Missy gripes as she brings her hand up to her face. After she regains her focus, she takes another swing. This time Faith catches her fist in the air and twists her arm around to her back, shoving Missy against the lockers.
"Evidently you need a little improvement. Especially if rusty, out of practice little old me can take you," Faith says into Missy's ear with a smirk.
Missy grunts in acknowledgement that Faith is right. "Fine. Shit, unstable much?" She groans.
"Cool," Faith beams with a triumphant grin as she releases her hold on Missy. "Here's the address I'll be at," Faith states as she copies it down on a piece of paper and hand it to the younger girl and turns to leave.
"Faith?" Missy calls before Faith can disappear. Faith turns around and faces her with an expression encouraging her to continue. "What's with the resemblance between the two of us?"
"I don't know, I guess you just got lucky," Faith grins trying to cover up her doubt. "Look, I'll catch you later," she says as she picks up her backpack, turns and walks off.
Missy stands still a moment, watching Faith leave. She runs a hand nervously through her hair. "No way that really just happened," she murmurs to herself.
Faith turns the corner and heads toward the school parking lot, her confident stride giving way to a slow, uncertain gait. Then, the thought hits her that she doesn't know what car she's got. She looks down at the keys, that she has a tight death grip on, and sees an alarm on the key chain. Faith hits the button and sees the lights flash across the lot on a black Jeep Wrangler.
"Sweet," she mumbles to no one in particular. She gets into the car and sets her head on the steering wheel. "I have no fucking clue what I'm doing," she moans before starting the ignition and taking off.
Faith pulls up to her apartment and gets out a piece of paper with the apartment number on it. She reaches in and finds that it isn't there. However, she pulls out an ID and sees that she grabbed Missy's bag by accident. "Shit," she mumbles as she digs through her pocket, pulling out Missy's address.
Faith drives up, gets out of the car and walks up to the door. As she stands there, Faith pauses before ringing the bell. She hears the thumping sound of someone coming down the stairs and the door swings open.
"What happened Miss, you go and lock yourself out?" A boy asks with a smirk and it takes all of Faith's self control not to throttle him. He walks into the house and she follows him in.
"Something like that," Faith mumbles, feeling incredibly awkward in some stranger's house. Then it dawns on her that as long as he thinks she's Missy, she can freely roam the house. So, she goes upstairs, hoping to find the real Missy up there.
Missy's sitting on her bed listening to the radio to try and clear her head. Then she hears a light knock on the door. So, she gets up and turns her radio down. When she unlocks the door, she turns back around toward her bed before she even sees who opens the door.
"What do you want Cliff?" Missy says as she turns around when she sits down on the bed. That's when she notices that she is looking at Faith. "What are you doing here?" She asks nervously.
"Grabbed the wrong bag," Faith explains with a smirk as she holds up said bag. She notices the apprehensive expression on Missy's face. "I didn't come here to off you, you know?" She says softly.
The tension in Missy's back noticeably releases. "Yeah," she replies, but Faith looks at her skeptically. "It's just, I kind of got the impression from the Council that you were this cold-blooded killer," she shrugs nervously. "In fact, that's the only thing about you that they told me."
"Yeah," Faith mumbles as she leans over to set the bag down on the floor by the door to Missy's room. "I'll see you later," she says with a faint smile as she turns and walks out.
Missy is sitting on her bed, kicking herself and looking for an excuse to go after Faith. She then sees that she still has Faith's backpack next to her bed. She grabs it and runs off down stairs, careful not to draw her brother's attention.
"Faith!" Missy calls as she jogs out of the house and Faith turns to face her. "You forgot your bag," she says, handing it over.
"Thanks," Faith says, disappointment clouding over her for the briefest of moments as she grabs onto the bag.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Missy says, still holding on.
"Right, tomorrow. I guess we can head over to my place after school," Faith says, drawing out the word 'school' with distain, causing Missy to smile back at her.
Faith finally made it into her apartment and her eyes lit up at the spacious living room. "Those Council bastards don't disappoint," she mutters to herself as she moves around to check out the rest of the place.
"Nice!" She says with glee as she finds where they put the weapons. She pulls out a sword and swings it around a few times before setting it back in the closet.
Next, Faith takes a stake from the closet. Reverently, she turns it around in her hand, reveling in the feel of the wood against her skin. She examines it as if in a trance, feeling the weight and size of it.
Looking out the window, smile spreads across her face as she watches as the sun slips below the horizon. She smiles fondly down at the stake in her hand as if it were an old friend. She walks purposefully to the door, grabbing her jacket on the way, and she heads out, slipping the stake inside her jacket.
At first, Faith starts to just wander aimlessly around the city. She's not so much looking to start trouble as she is trying to prevent it. Eventually, she manages to make it to a cemetery. A familiar tingle runs up her spine and she's suddenly juiced up.
Her hand instinctually goes to where her stake is hidden in her jacket and she starts to make her way to where the danger is. She hears a muffled scream in the distance and she is off and running. When she approaches, she sees a mourner being taunted by a vampire.
"Hey," Faith says to the vampire, to draw his attention away from the woman.
"You can wait your turn," the vampire says with a low chuckle as he turns from the woman to face Faith. The woman scrambles away next to a tombstone.
Faith looks at the woman and rolls her eyes, silently wishing that people would just run away when faced with a distraction. But no, people have to huddle up in a corner, cower and wait to be eaten.
Unfortunately, Faith is pulled out of her musings as she dodges a punch to the head. The vampire falls forward at the force and Faith takes advantage of his momentum by grabbing him and sending him flying into a nearby tree. She cringes as she hears wood splinter. The vamp gets up and tries to shake off the fuzziness in his head as he lunges forward again. Faith casually steps aside and he lands on the ground with a thud. She then walks over and crouches over him to plant a stake in his heart. She smiles at the shocked expression on his face as he disappears in a cloud of dust.
Faith walks over to the woman. "Are you alright?" She asks with concern as she helps the woman up.
"T...T...Th-" she stammers.
"That..." Faith says, helping the woman along.
"That was...was a-" the woman continues.
"That was a vampire," Faith says to clear any confusion the woman may have. The woman just nods in response. "Yeah, it's not really safe to be out at night," she warns. "Let me walk you back to your car," she offers. Another nod.
Once they reach the car, Faith turns to leave, but the woman reaches out and takes Faith's hand in her own and Faith turns to face her with a puzzled expression. "Thank you," the woman says sincerely.
Faith closes her eyes briefly to let the sound of the words wash over her. She opens her eyes and smiles. "No big. Just doing my job," she replies earnestly and the woman lets her go as Faith turns to walk off.
"Who are you?" The woman asks, trying to get a good look at her in the moonlight.
"I'm just a girl," Faith replies simply with a shrug of her shoulders. The woman just stands there watching Faith go. She shakes her head to clear it up before getting into her car and driving off.
Faith smiles with self satisfaction as she sets her keys down on a table when she walks in the door. She kicks off her shoes and flops down on the couch and drifts off to sleep with a smile plastered to her face.
Light filters into the room through the shades and lands on Faith's face. She reluctantly opens her eyes and squints at the bright sunlight. She covers her face with her hand, but pauses as she looks at a clock on the other side of the room.
"Oh shit!" She exclaims as she hauls ass to the shower to hopefully not be obscenely late for class.
Half an hour later, Faith hauls ass into her first period class, US History. "Hey," she says casually as she walks in.
The teacher regards her for a moment. "You're my new student," he looks down at his role sheet, "Faith," he says, though it sounds more like a question.
"Yeah," she replies and the teacher motions for her to take a seat in the back and he continues on with class. Faith breathes a sigh of relief. I need to get an alarm clock. She thinks glumly.
