Title: Five by Five
Summary: Faith's twin sister Hope has come to Rome in search of her sister. When two sisters meet everything seems to brighten but does something supernatural threaten to end this new reunion of sisters? And the question of whether Hope is a Potential is overpowering but will she bow down to the ways of the slayer?
Disclaimer: I own Hope but I don't own any of the other main characters.
Author Notes: Explanations, Lots o' Talking and Grinning and Fun Fun Fun. So tell me what does this chapter have that others don't? Well maybe betrayal and lust and affairs and stuff like that but for a Buffy fanfic chapter I think it does pretty well. I'm also trying to make this one a decent length to make up for the other one so let me try really hard... Also just as a note, dunno if it is actually possible for Hope to get the nightmares but let's just say that the Faith and Hope bond is strong because they're twins and really really close. And besides, this is the Buffy universe where anything can happen.
Chapter 2: Nightmares
"Twin sister? Faith has a twin sister?" Buffy asked doing that whole big eyed oh-my-god thing with her face.
"Yeah." At Buffy's shocked reaction the girl seemed to relax a bit. At least the attention was off her now. She didn't like getting attention from strangers. Attention meant them remembering you and them remembering you meant that they could ID you later on when the cops finally got there. If you were ID-ed by a witness then that was trouble and you would have to explain what couldn't be explained eg vamps.
"She never said..."
"She probably was told that she didn't for so long that she started believing it. Like I did. We haven't seen each other in over a decade." At this Buffy's mouth went into an 'o' and she went from just plain confused to being interested in the girl lying down in front of her. The girl got up and continued,
"I went to L.A. Talked to some of the cops and they said that she confessed to a murder before escaping from the jail later. This guy, Angel was there with her when she confessed and he was at the trial as well. So I tracked him down..."
"You tracked Angel down?" Buffy said with a slight hope in her voice. Hope's eyes lit up and she seemed to forget her previous fear of the small blonde. She grabbed her gun which she'd dropped before and moved to one of the gravestones and sat cross legged on it adopting a relaxed pose and started her tale. (Think Faith in the Bronze saying the stuff about the nakedness and the priest and the crocodile tale. Also as she's talking she's making the typical 'Faith' gestures.)
"Yeah, turns out he's some big law guy so I manage to get up to his office by dodging and on occasion confronting guards with my fists. So anyway I come bursting into his office and he looks up at me and he freezes. I freeze too cos there's this big wall of weapons behind him. And then this pack of guards come charging through the doors behind me and it takes like five of them to get control of me. So they start carting me out and apologising to the big guy.
"Then when I'm like halfway out the door he unfreezes and gets up and tells them to leave me in the office. They look at him like 'What?' and then they leave and I'm all like 'Haha'. And they're pissed off. But anyway, this big guy sits me down and looks at me. We musta been there for like ten minutes, just sitting there and looking at each other. Then I realise, this guy's a vamp. Anyway so he asks me what I want. I say that I know he knows Faith and I want to know where she is.
"He doesn't respond right away so I whip out my gun and I have it in his face. I'm all like 'I know you're a vampire.' And he's all like 'Then you should know that guns don't kill me.' Then I'm like 'This one will.' Then at that moment another guy comes in and I can tell he's a vamp without even looking at him and I shoot him without even looking away from Angel.
"Angel sees this guy go into flames and his eyes go all wide. When he looks back at me I'm expecting fear but what I see is respect. He says after a moment that I should take a train to Sunnydale and find Buffy Summers because then I would find Faith." Hope gave Buffy a moment to process all of this and then asked,
"Do you know Buffy Summers?" Buffy seemed to snap out of her distant thoughts and looked at Hope.
"Uh, yeah. I kinda am Buffy Summers."
"Oh. Oh you're Buffy!" Hope said in a slightly unbelieving and slightly happy voice. Okay she was a little more than slightly happy. Quite a bit happy but she still had this scared little animal look in her eyes every time Buffy got close. And Buffy noticed it.
"Are you scared of me?"
"Wha? Me scared of you? Nah, of course n..." After a look from Buffy Hope gave in, "Yeah." And just before Buffy could ask why a vamp tackled Hope off of the gravestone and took the two females by surprise. Hope wrestled with the vamp on the ground and before Buffy could get her stake she was straddling the vamp. She took out her gun and put it to his head. His eyes widened,
"Slayer?" He asked and Hope just smirked.
"Nah, I'm something better." Then she pulled the trigger and he cried out as he turned into fire sparks and then to dust.
"Something better?" Buffy asked incredulously. Hope got up and brushed her jacket off.
"Yeah, sorry about that but it's just a great line. Scares the crap out of vamps that there could be something out there that can kill them better than a slayer." Hope slid the gun back into its holster, "Whether it's true or not." Buffy's eyebrow failed to go back down but she remembered the topic they were on before the vamp came charging onto the scene.
"Why are you scared of me?" Buffy asked and Hope hesitated. Then she grimaced and replied,
"A few years ago, I'd say about four or so, I started getting these dreams. Or nightmares really. You were in them. You were always chasing me with this almost robotic like quality. I could never stop you. You always said that you told me you had things to do... And at the end you'd gut me with this scary looking big ass double bladed knife." Buffy's eyes widened. She could guess who she was getting the nightmares from. And she also guessed that it was about the same time as Faith was in a coma. No wonder she'd been so pissed at Buffy when she'd woken up. She always had nightmares about Buffy gutting her with her own knife. Hope continued,
"I mean they stopped like six months later but they still pretty much haunt me."
"They stopped six months later?" Buffy asked, Faith had woken up after six months. It all fit but why did Faith dream that she killed her?
"Yeah. The last one I fell into a grave and you followed me in and then I fought you and I actually defeated you and I crawled out of the grave and it started raining. Then I woke up. And I haven't had that dream since."
"Oh." Was all Buffy could manage to say at that particular point in time.
"Yeah." Hope replied, not really knowing what to say that wouldn't make her seem like a weirdo.
"Cool." Buffy said. Looks like Buffy wanted the job of seeming like a weirdo and was more qualified than Hope. Strange. Hope was the one who usually came in first in that contest.
"Cool?" Hope asked incredulously. I mean these were the nightmares that plagued her for six months so it didn't exactly qualify as cool in her opinion.
"Sorry." Buffy said apologetically, she really hadn't meant to sound the way that she did. It just kinda slipped out before she could stop it or even think about what she was saying and the possible implications.
"No problem just... Cool?" Hope asked again with such an incredulous look on her face and tone in her voice that it would've been funny to anyone observing from outside that neither girl could hear.
"Seemed like the thing to say." Buffy tried to explain. Hope looked at her with a puzzled (and incredulous) expression on her face.
"Okay..."
"Do you want to meet Faith? She's living in the same place as me and the rest of my friends." Buffy asked trying to change the subject off of her putting her foot in it. She was expecting Hope to answer immediately and eagerly but was instead met with silence, an uncomfortable look and shifting of weight from one foot to the other.
"Well..."
"You're nervous aren't you?" Buffy asked, getting what Hope was going through. Kind of. It was like waiting at home for your new sister to arrive except Hope's sister was the same age as her and fully grown. Wondering if you're going to get along with them or even like them in the slightest. Nervous about if your personalities are going to mesh or just collide in one big bang of fireworks.
"Yeah. What's she like?" Hope asked and Buffy smiled slightly, she'd been forgiven for her little slip by Hope. And she was extremely grateful for it.
"She's quite a bit like you. The words dark and likes killing things comes to mind." Hope grinned at Buffy's response.
"She really is like me. Except I don't know about the dark bit."
"You can be dark if you want. I mean you two... Well, when I saw you I thought of Faith but I also saw the differences. You're like similar... But different."
"That makes sense." Hope said with a slight cock of her head and a wiggle of her eyebrows.
"Yeah..." Buffy said picking up on the obvious sarcasm but at the same time affability of the sentence and actions. Hope grinned at Buffy and said,
"So, Buffy. Where you camped out?" This time Buffy was the one who grinned and just motioned for Hope to follow her back to the house.
TBC
Reunion's next chapter so move it along peoples. Promise not to leave it for too long. Or not to leave it at all... Either one's good.
