It was in their fifteenth year that the twins' lives took a drastic turn. For Faith it was less traumatic, violence was a day to day deal and a home life didn't really feature in her priorities. In fact time spent away from Hank was much appreciated. When Faith heard the 'Into every generation speech' and that Miss Spencer was her watcher their friendship was sealed. She spent more and more time with Miss Spencer, fighting, now with weapons previously hidden in a locked trunk in the bedroom and relishing every minute she could let loose without being afraid of her father.
'Into every generation a slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a chosen one. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil.' Strange to think how those few lines could have such different effects on two people. They darkened Buffy's life but to hear them when things were at their brightest made things feel like a spiral into blackness. Merrick's revelation was hard to bear, unlike faith Buffy didn't want to escape from her life but to live it. Her relationship with her mother grew more strained as she was out late and more secretive than ever. Fighting was new to her and it took her a while to learn how to control the powers she got landed with.
Each day Buffy grew more and more lonely, she found herself having to make excuses to friends for why she couldn't go out. Instead she spent time in the gym so that the physical abilities she possessed were enhanced to a level unforeseen. Each night she patrolled the cemeteries, between them the twins racked up a huge number of kills but very few people knew of their connection. Neither of them knew the other was a slayer, each believed themselves to be the only slayer, the chosen one.
Merrick could have known otherwise but if he did he followed the time honoured watcher tradition of revealing only 'need to know' information, maybe he simply ignored Faith- it wouldn't be hard. He had a slayer and there was only meant to be one, why waste energy on someone who disrupted the teachings of time? Maybe he didn't know, Buffy certainly didn't. Miss Spencer didn't know about Buffy. She had explained to Faith that she didn't work with the council. She offered Faith a watcher from the council but there was no way Faith wanted to go through her life without her best friend. So the pair worked together and worked harder to cope with the lack of support they received, many council members simply disregarded Faith, concentrating their knowledge on aiding Buffy.
The twins continued to live their separate lives, each fighting evil with everything they had, neither giving in to the steep hill in front of them and yet neither using the silver safety rope that still held them together. To be honest it lay forgotten, just sparkling every now and then but fading rapidly to invisibility.