Faith turned the corner to find the young couple vanished. She looked down the street.

"Nuh uh," she muttered under her breath, eyeing the two alleys and single turn off. "Ain't nobody that fast."

"But some people are that quiet."

"Jesus!" Faith yelled, jumping back from the voice. The pair she had been following stepped out of a shop door alcove.

"No, Clark," he said. "But I'm guessing you already knew that. Some reason you were following us?"

"Uh, no, I wasn't following you," Faith lied. "I was just looking for –"

"Don't bother," Lana said. "What with that creep yesterday, I'm just tired of people—"

"Creep?" Faith asked.

"Look," Clark said calmly. "Just leave us alone, please?"

"Hey, I'd love to," Faith said, raising her hands. The pair walked off down the street past her towards a truck.

"Thank you," Lana said as they passed.

"But just cuz I want to, doesn't mean it should happen," Faith called after them. "More are gonna come looking for you."

They stopped and turned around.

"Look, Lana, right?" Faith asked as she jogged back up to them. "Something's changed with you, in the past few months. Strength and speed you can't explain, don't know what's going on, but you've had dreams. Dreams where you were another girl, like you, only she was fighting people, and monsters. Some of the people, though, they had weird faces, like, disfigured."

"How did –"

"And whenever she killed them, they turned to dust, right?" Faith asked.

"Look, whoever you are, just leave her alone," Clark said.

"You're in danger, Lana," Faith said. "More than you know. And I'm not asking you to do anything except listen."

"That's not true," Lana said. "That guy yesterday was trying to tell me I need to go to some school... like I have a defect or something."

"Who, Robin?" Faith asked. "He's a dick. Trust me, I've wanted to hit him a time or two myself... although I probably would have stopped before tossing him into a wall."

"That was actually... me," Clark said, as he ducked his head, shamefully.

"Yeah, I guessed. Surprised you could get the drop on him like that, though. Robin's a pretty good fighter."

"It wasn't much of a fight," Clark said.

"Yeah, well, don't sweat it," Faith said. "No permanent damage. Anyway, Lana, what you have is in no way a defect... although, if history is anything to go by, you will hate it sometimes. Please, could you just come talk to me and my friends? I swear we're not going to force you to do anything."

"If you know what I am, what's going on with me," Lana said, "you know that it's going to be pretty hard to force me to do anything."

"The reason I know what you are, what's going on with you," Faith said, "is because it's the same thing that's going on with me."

Lana's eyebrows shot up.

"Are you okay?"

Willow looked up and saw the man who had given her the coffee. "Huh?" she said.

"I asked if you were okay," he said.

"Oh, yeah," Willow said. "Just waiting for my friend. Friends, really."

"I thought you had somewhere to be," he said, smiling at her.

"I do," Willow said pouting, and finding the smile cuter than she thought she should. "But I don't have the keys, and that tends to be a problem."

"Understandable," he said. He reached out a hand. "Lex Luthor."

"Willow Rosenberg," Willow said shaking his hand. "You know, you've got the same name as..." she trailed off as she got a better look at him as he sat, uninvited, on the curb next to her. "O-or you actually are him."

"Don't let it get to you," he said, smiling. "I try not to."

"Yeah," Willow said. "I should not let it get to me that the guy I just bought coffee from could have bought my hometown and not flinched. I see that happening. Speaking of which, don't you have customers?"

"Oh, yeah. I didn't feel like working, so I gave the waitress a raise."

"Really?"

"No," he said. "But from here I can see if anybody goes in, and it's not like we're that busy."

"I guess that's true," Willow said. She sipped her coffee.

"So what are you in town for?" Lex asked.

"Oh, we're from a private school in Cleveland, and we're here on a recruitment drive," Willow said. "There's a girl here we're interested in."

"Really," Lex said. "Cleveland. How big are you?"

"Well, we don't actually have many students yet. We're kind of just starting up. Still needing, you know, teachers, funding... students, like I said."

"Do you specialize in anything?" Lex asked.

"Well we're kind of a –"

"Hey, Will."

Willow and Lex looked up and saw Xander and Buffy standing there, smiling at their friend.

"Oh, hey," Willow said, as she and Lex stood up and wiped off dirt off their respective butts..

"Hey, there," Xander said. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh right. Uh, Buffy, Xander, this is Lex Luthor. You know, the Lex Luthor."

"Nice to meet you," Lex said, shaking hands with both of them.

"How's Robin?" Willow asked.

"He's all right," Xander said. "A little worse for wear, but..."

"You guys know the man who was hospitalized yesterday?" Lex asked, one eyebrow raised.

"He's a colleague," Buffy said.

"Interesting."

"Hey, where's Faith?" Xander asked.

"Uh..." Willow said.

"I think that's probably her over there," Lex said, pointing over Xander's shoulder.

Everybody turned to look, and saw Faith approaching the group with Clark and Lana following behind her.

"Hey," Faith said when she reached the group.

"Faith, this is Lex Luthor, as in –"

"Whatever," Faith said, waving off Willow. "This is our girl, Lana, and her beau, Clark. Kids, meet Buffy, Xander and Willow. They're our 'A' team for this kinda stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Lex asked.

"Oh, recruitment stuff," Willow said. "Um, Mr. Luthor –"

"Please, call me Lex," he said, flashing another dazzling smile at her.

Willow blushed a little, drawing an interested gaze from Xander. "Well, anyway, the uh... school... private school, like I said, well, it's kind of... do you think we could have some privacy?"

"Of course," Lex said. "I'm intruding. I need to get back to the shop anyway. Nice meeting you all. Clark, Lana, I'll see you two around."

A chorus of goodbye's and waves followed him.

They all turned back to Lana and Clark. "Is there somewhere we can talk?" Xander asked.

"We can go to my house," Clark said. "My parents are at a farmers market in another town, won't be back till late."

"Do you want us to drive, or..." Xander asked.

"My truck's around the corner," Clark said. "You can follow me."