Title: Five by Five

Summary: Faith's long lost 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 don't own any of the characters except for Hope.

Author Notes: Willow's back! Hehe. And Kennedy's back too. And I'm bringing Dawn in, in this chapter! So let us celebrate! Unfortunately Xander actually went back to Africa after the incident in the third chapter (not cos of the incident itself but because that was probably just a short visit). Sorry Xander fans! Also: Some stuff is discovered by Willow when helping Hope. And just informing all you people out there when I refer to the girls as potentials it's really that they're slayers. Just a thing with calling Buffy and Faith slayers cos then you get it better. You know, just to distinguish between the two groups of girls.

Chapter 7: Land Of The Lost

"Will!" Buffy greeted Willow with a wide grin and open arms. Willow grinned back and hugged Buffy. Faith was standing behind Buffy and waved, with less energy than usual, to Kennedy who was standing behind Willow. Kennedy returned the wave with the same amount of vigour.

"So what's up? Giles was pretty quiet on the trip over. He seemed lost in his own thoughts..." Willow said and Faith stepped in on this one.

"Hope. She's... There's something wrong with her." Willow's face went from confused to more confused. Faith had failed to realise that Willow didn't yet know that she had a sister, much less that she was called Hope.

"Who's Hope?" Willow asked and Buffy decided to jump on this one.

"Faith's twin sister. She came here a few days ago."

"Oh." Willow said without really getting it. She looked at Faith, "Twin sister huh? Is she really like Faith in... y'know everything?" She finished lamely and Faith got what she was hinting even if the hint would've been less revealing if she'd just said what was on her mind in simple terms.

"No, she's not a convicted murderer. No, she's not a slayer. But yes she does fight vampires. Oh, and she lived with my Dad so she's less psychotic." Faith said all of these things in more of a factual tone instead of a mocking tone or a sarcastic tone, well except for the last sentence. She just had to throw that in for their later reference. If they ever thought of later referencing it.

"So what happened to her?" Willow asked and Buffy answered her while Faith proceeded to wonder exactly why she'd left Hope's side to meet Willow and Kennedy.

"I-We, well... There was a dead girl that Hope and Faith found and then Hope went all psychic and then led us to another girl who had just been murdered and then her head started to go all 'ahh' and then her eyes went fully white." Buffy said in an almost non stop manner much like Willow's famous ramble-mode.

"White?" Kennedy piped up behind Willow, not helping the fact that she was intensely curious. After all she didn't even know Faith well so she was still curious about that and the fact that she had a twin and that twin was suffering mystical illness was even more wood to add to the fire that was her curiosity. Plus Faith's earlier speech and you have one majorly curious slayer. Also you could add pissed at the fact that she was in the dark. But that one wasn't majorly.

"Enough talk. We go help her. Now." Faith cut in with a dangerous stormy expression on her face. It was obviously killing her every second that Hope was in pain and none of the other three disagreed with the dark slayer.

Buffy then led them to Hope's room and through the questioning potentials that were just as bad as the press. Eventually all four women got into the room without any extra baggage and they all looked at Hope and Dawn who was sitting by her side, just having gotten back from school and taken over from Faith in the looking over Hope aspect.

"How is she?" Buffy asked as they all gathered around the bed, but before Dawn could answer Faith did,

"The same." Buffy turned to look at Faith who was the only one not kneeling over Hope but had, instead, chosen to stand at the foot of the bed.

"How did you-?" Buffy asked but stopped when she looked into Faith's eyes and remembered the 'connection' that she'd talked about earlier.

"She's in constant pain. Every second of every minute of every hour. It's going through her body but her mind... It's not there." Faith frowned as she explored the connection more than she'd dared to do before, "She's not there. All that's left is the pain." She looked at Willow who was listening, rapt with attention like everyone else in the room, and continued,

"You have to help her Red. You have to save her."

"I will Faith." Willow said meaning every word and returned her attention to Hope. (Alright now this next bit it completely made up by me so I have no idea what I'm doing or what can be done in Wicca terms but this is being made up as I go. Oh and this next bit in the brackets is meant to be in Latin).

"(I beseech access into the land of the lost,

Where those who are lost travel among,

The things which guide and trick.

Allow this lowly being to enter this plane,

And find this lost one who is so dear,

To people present and people near.

Permit this lowly being to find and return,

Withholding the lost one so as to quieten,

Those near and dear who wish it that,

They were to see this lost thing once again.

To unburden your hands of this being,

To return it back to its own plane,

And never darken your threshold again.)"

Willow then collapsed and Kennedy quickly rushed to her side to try and make her as comfortable as possible whilst being unconscious. Then everyone heard a thump behind them and turned to see that Faith had also collapsed and Buffy and Dawn went to attend to the slayer. The three conscious females all looked at each other, worried about exactly where the other two had gone off to, no one being able to understand what Willow had said exactly.

Willow looked around and found herself in a misty looking place with a bumpy dirt floor underlying the thick fog hanging just below the floor. It looked like a scene out of a B horror flick and she almost expected some black and white zombies to come staggering out of the ground moaning.

"What the hell?" Willow heard from behind her and turned to see Faith getting up and brushing herself off with an almighty pissed off expression on her face.

"Faith?" Faith looked up at Willow, still brushing remaining dirt off of her dark denim jacket.

"Red." Faith said with a tone that so obviously said 'Oh thank god'. Then she got with the 'what the hell' again, "Where are we?"

"The land of the lost. I don't know exactly why you're here Maybe they took the whole 'near and dear' thing literally." Willow said, thinking aloud more than explaining to Faith. She frowned slightly as thinking, depending on her memory which seemed to be fading faster than normal.

"Huh?" Faith pretty much summed her feelings up in one word she knew that she could always count on to do the summing up.

"The spell. There's a bit where it says stuff about the people near and dear to Hope wishing that they could see her again." Willow looked at Faith and shook the fast disappearing memory off as much as she could.

"And you're thinking that they took this to the next level."

"Well, yeah."

"So we're looking for Hope in the land of the lost."

"Well... Yeah."

"So..." Faith began before the two women turned to the expanse of empty fog in front of them and then continued as the sense of dread settled over them like the fog, "We got a plan or we just going to wander?"

"Well there is a plan." Willow sounded proud of herself as she stated this fact but lost it as Faith looked at her expectantly and she had to explain the plan, "A plan to wander. It's a wandering plan."

So the two women looked at each other with a vaguely worried expression before setting out in the bare, misty, with a strangely blue tinge, land with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the memories in their heads. The latter would be harder to hold onto but they didn't know that yet.

After what seemed like an eternity, Faith decided to bring the success, or lack thereof, to the Wicca's attention. Just in case she'd overlooked it, like how they seemed to be overlooking Hope.

"Um Red, not whingeing or anything, but do you happen to have a better plan stowed away? Cos I know plenty of lost people that should be here, but this place seems... I dunno... Kinda empty."

"Well maybe Hope doesn't want to be found."

"You saying she likes playing ghostie in the 'Land of the Lost' more than killing vamps in the 'Land of Yours Truly'?" Willow shrugged, anything was possible. She didn't even know what Hope was like in the first place so that was possible even more so. Faith seemed insulted by this reply, okay more than seemed more of a 'was'.

"I know my sister. There's nothing she likes more'n a good fight with a vamp, or twenty."

"Maybe that's the problem." A voice said out of nowhere and that left both women with the heebie-jeebies and frantic looking around. Okay, one was frantically looking around, the other knew exactly who it was.

"Hope." Faith said simply. This stopped Willow who just looked at Faith who was looking up into a random piece of fog.

"You know how this goes Faith. You know my secret."

'Well yeah, but what's 'that thing' got to do with vamps?" There was silence and then,

"Okay, you clearly not with the knowing of my secret."

"So it's not 'that thing' you did back when you were three years old with the..." The voice cut her off abruptly at this and Willow had a feeling that it was a very embarrassing story from the abruptness of the cut off.

"No. Nup. No way. Nope. That's a secret, one you should go to your grave with, but not the secret."

"Well then, what's the secret?" Faith asked.

"I'm not telling you." The voice whinged so Faith coaxed it gently.

"Come on, I'm your twin Hope. I'll find out sooner or later."

"I thought you'd known sooner cos of the whole sharing feelings but I guess you just mistook it as your own. Can't say I blame you. I've never been that good with the distinguishing of mine and yours. Except for the random ones."

"Hope what are you-?" Faith stopped suddenly and then her face betrayed her shock, "Oh my god. No you can't..." Then she appeared to be bombarded with evidence for the 'Yes I can' side and her face betrayed her emotion so much that Willow realised that she'd never seen the slayer so open and so... shocked.

"It's what I am Faith. Even dad knew."

"Dad's wrong then. I know how you feel Hope, you don't want this."

"I know I don't Faith. But then it's not as if I can change it. After all I was chosen."

"You don't have to. There are hundreds of girls out there. You don't need to be it."

"I was it when you were." The voice said and Faith swallowed hard. Willow just looked on with a concerned, worried and curious expression on her face.

"I mean, I was fighting vamps before that... but then I was fighting them from when I was six. But one day, same day as you, everything changed." Willow's eyes widened as she suddenly realised what was going on and what they were talking about. She whispered it quietly to herself, barely moving her lips.

"You're a slayer."

TBC

Dun, dun, dun. Hehe alright so I kinda let that slip earlier than I'd planned. But (and here's a spoiler) we don't know that the voice is Hope... Think of the spell... Hint, hint. Re: 'The things which (bleep) and (bleep).' Think of the 'bleeps'. Then again I could just change my mind. Never know, it could happen. Please review, make me happy. Grin.

JB

PS For those who read the AN and realised that I said slayer (or more specifically Willow) there's a hint to stuff happening in the next chapter.