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: Okay, naming Hope and Faith's dad Herb Saunders for the time being until I come up with a good name. You can make suggestions if you want... Cos I'm lazy hehe! A chapter of flashbacks is this one. The character of Jess will be expanded, Cobalt will be introduced properly and how she got the jacket will be included just for fun. And some stuff about her trip to LA you didn't know.
Chapter 10: Rome
(This bit is Hope, that's to say Hope in Faith's body)
Hope wandered the streets of Rome. It was a beautiful city in the night. It was so old fashioned, what with the cobblestone road and the old buildings. Maybe that was part of the reason that she loved it. It had a classically old air to it. It really was a charming city.
Hope wrapped her arms around herself as she walked, she was only wearing a tank top and leather pants. Faith had no sense of the cold and dressed like it. So Hope was stuck wearing this in cold temperatures while Faith got to wear her jacket. She loved that jacket. Her dad had given it to her as a sixteenth birthday present. She still remembered it as though it was yesterday.
Flashback-
"Hey sweetie, happy sixteenth." Herb Saunders (No I'm just kidding, I haven't given this guy a name yet so I've decided to call him the character that Angel uses to go undercover in the first season of 'Angel'. I'm not saying that Faith and Hope's last name is Saunders either. If I do come up with a last name for the duo it will be cooler. Since they drew the short straws regarding their first names and all. Onward with the story!) woke his daughter with soft words and a big smile. His daughter, however, was having none of it.
"G'way dad."
"Come on sweetie, I've got a great surprise for you." He said with a massive grin and Hope groaned.
"Leamelone." Hope slurred but this didn't deter Herb (hehe, Herb!).
"Believe me you will want to get up for this." He said gently but gleefully.
Fifteen minutes and many complaints later Herb had managed to coax Hope into coming down the stairs, if only just to get him off of her back on her sixteenth. She thumped her way down the stairs of their pleasant 'burbs home. She yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes before blinking them rather comically.
"There should be a law against fathers waking their daughters up on their sixteenth birthday at," She complained and glanced at her watch, "Eleven forty-five am." Herb laughed at his daughter light heartedly and then got out a big white rectangular box before placing it in front of his daughter.
"Happy sixteenth birthday sweetie." Hope looked at her dad over the box with narrowed eyes.
"I suppose that this is something that I'm gonna thank you for immensely. Y'know something that I've been begging you for since... ever." Herb didn't answer his daughter but just raised his eyebrows and then couldn't hold it in, and smiled widely at his daughter. She returned his smile and opened the box to find...
A top quality, absolutely beautiful and marvellous and oh-my-god stylish leather duster. She slipped it on and squealed excitedly when she found it to be an absolutely perfect fit. She jumped up and down squealing with excitement and jumped over to her dad's side of the bench and gave him a huge hug.
"I love you dad! And I love this jacket!"
End Flashback-
Hope stumbled across a club that had lights flashing crazily all over the place and dance music playing loudly that shook the building. It was exactly like where she'd met Jess for the first time. She'd met her at the bar. She walked up to the actual bar and ordered a beer.
A couple on the dance floor caught her eye, along with just about everyone else in the club. They were doing the very definition of dirty dancing and all of the guys looked like they were going to have a coronary whilst all the girls were shooting the girl dirties. She grimaced at the sight and remembered a very similar one that had happened years ago.
She got her beer and sipped it slowly. She cradled her drink as she thought of what had happened when she'd seen the similar couple years ago..
Flashback-
Hope had just managed to fleece a drink of the bartender with a smile and a few not so subtle gestures. She sipped her drink, tasting the victory. And it sure tasted sweet.
A quick scan of the dance floor caused her to see a couple who were dancing so closely that you couldn't get a piece of paper between them. It actually looked like they were going at it on the dance floor. It was amusing and as Hope looked at them she thought that she could definitely teach that girl a thing or two. Sure she had some moves but Hope... Well think Faith.
The couple stopped dancing, much to the disappointment of many a men. Then it became painfully obvious that the girl was incredibly, incredibly drunk.
The girl walked up to the bar swaying slightly, with only the guy to support her. She probably would have been flat on her face if it wasn't for him. He was being very 'supportive'. Hope was sure that the clinginess to certain parts was all to help her stand up.
"C-Can I have a pina colada please?" The girl said, not able to talk properly. The guy just held her very close to him. The bartender nodded and served her even though she was obviously as young as Hope. Hope was pretty pissed off, usually she would leave it alone but this guy had refused to sell her a drink until she'd pulled some things off. And she'd shown him a damn good fake ID too! There was no way this girl was getting away with it.
Hope grabbed the bartender by his shirt and hissed, "Why did you serve her without asking for ID? She's obviously as young as I am. So you better give me an explanation before I snap your neck like a twig." The bartender went from cocky to terrified in one millisecond and his eyes went comically wide.
"I-I don't usually give out drinks to minors, I swear. It's just that, that's James Lafferty. Everyone knows that you give him what he wants or you're dead. If he has a girl with him then he wants to get her drunk so you serve her, no matter how old she is." Hope looked at the guy who looked as if he was going to wet his pants before shaking her head and letting him go with a push.
She downed the remnants of her beer and got off of the bar stool to follow the two leaving the club through the back door. She'd felt something but it was only after the bartender's confession that she let herself believe that this guy was a vamp. And that his 'date' was dinner. She groaned with annoyance, couldn't girls not get themselves into mortal peril by jumping the bones with the first random guy that came along.
Okay, so that was slightly hypocritical, but at least Hope didn't sleep with vampires. That was just... perverted. Hope saw the guy who had the girl against the alley wall and closed in on her, vamping. She sighed heavily, time to go to work.
She jogged up to him, don't ask how she did that in high heels, it was a skill that few could master. Damn, randoms are so not worth this, she thought as she put on her own game face. The lost helpless girl.
"Um, excuse me." The vamp, James Lafferty was his name, turned to her. And she continued in 'innocent little girl' tone, "I think you dropped this..." Hope said and he looked at her puzzled. Hope reached inside her leather duster and brought out a... stake.
He looked back up at the girl and saw the smirk on her face.
"Surprise." She said and then uppercut his jaw. He was thrown back by the force of the punch into the opposite wall and he slid down it. He got up and Hope threw a punch which hit him in the face. He grunted and was thrown against the wall again. He charged her and she dodged easily. He came at her and she jumped up on a box and launched herself off it to spin kick him in the face. That had him down on the ground.
When he got up he came at her again and she just threw him against the wall. She kneed him in the back and he grunted. He swung around with him fist but she ducked it easily and just punched him for his troubles She them kicked him against the wall and threw him down on the ground. When he got up and charged her punching she dodged the punch and threw him against the wall again before staking him.
"Well that was fun." Hope said and then put the stake back her duster. She heard the girl take a step behind her and turned to find a not so drunk girl standing there with a pissed of expression.
"Why'd you have to do that?" She asked, standing completely well on her own two feet.
"Um, you're welcome." Hope said, rivalling the girl's pissed off expression with her own.
"That," The girl pointed at the dust, "was my kill."
"Your kill?" Hope asked incredulously, "What do you mean your kill? A few minutes earlier you could barely stand and had that vamp all over you..." Then she realised what was going on and was more pissed off at herself that she hadn't realised earlier, "Which was all an act to get out here and kill him, wasn't it?"
"Well, duh." She said and rolled her eyes.
"Hey, what can I say, you're a great actress. Really." Hope said sarcastically. The girl recognised the sarcasm and glared at her.
"Who do you think you are? The slayer?" The girl asked, thinking that this question was so incredibly ridiculous that there was no way that a 'yes' would come from Hope's mouth. Well she was wrong.
"Well, yeah. I'm Hope, the vampire slayer. And you are?" Hope said with a big smirk on her face as the girl's eyes widened.
"Jess. You're Hope." Jess said and Hope opened her arms.
"The one and only."
"Damn. I thought you'd be taller." To this Hope replied with her middle finger stuck firmly up at the bottle blonde.
End Flashback-
Hope drunk down the dregs of her beer and put it down on the counter. She walked out of the club without a second look at the couple on the dance floor. She felt the cool air hit her as she left the night club and automatically reached to pull her duster tighter but, of course, she wasn't wearing it.
Then she remembered her own look as she discovered later on that Jess was in fact her dad's best friend's daughter. About the same as Jess' reaction to finding out that she was Hope. Apparently her dad had been more in share mode than Hope's dad.
Flashback-
Hope and her dad were travelling to Cobalt's place. Hope was fiddling with one of the two guns that Cobalt had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Her dad looked across at her from the driver's seat and raised an eyebrow. Hope looked at him and sighed heavily.
"Come on dad. Don't be like that." Hope said and her dad looked at her.
"Don't be like what? What am I being like?" He asked with a look of confusion on his face. Hope couldn't exactly tell if it was mock or real. Her dad was good in that way.
"All... Fatherly. I mean, guns are better than stakes. I can kill vampires a lot better with two guns that with one stake." Hope said trying to defend her two guns and the importance of their use. Her dad just sighed and said,
"Alright, alright. I just wish he would've given them to you when you were older." Herb (hehe) said with a slight pout on his face.
"Aw dad. You're so cute." Hope said in that cutesy voice that everyone insists on using towards babies and animals.
"Thanks honey." Her dad said and she smirked at him.
"So we're meeting Cobalt's daughter. Fun." She said, changing the subject after becoming bored with taunting her dad.
"Yeah it should be."
"So, what's her name?"
"Jess."
"Huh, that's the name of this really annoying girl who knew me for some reason. She kept complaining that I'd killed her vamp." Hope said, reminiscing. Her dad only raised his eyebrow to this and she punched him on the shoulder lightly.
"Hey! I was just raising my eyebrow because this Jess is completely not a fighter. She's scared of vampires." He said as he pulled into Cobalt's driveway.
"Huh." Was all Hope said as she got out of the car.
Cobalt Azure stood in front of the garage with a teenage girl whose shoulder he was resting his arm on. Hope's eyes widened slightly as did her grin as she saw who the girl was. Cobalt had brown hair and electric blue eyes, he worked on his body a lot and was well built. He had a wide smile on his face and Jess had a similar one on her own. Until she saw Hope that is.
"Scared of vampires. Huh." Hope said and her smirk widened as she looked at the bottle blonde and put her guns away in their holsters. Jess seemed to gulp at exactly what Hope was going to do or say next.
And then Hope said, "Hey you're not wearing a vampire anymore. Trying out a new fashion statement?"
End Flashback-
She passed by a phone booth and thought about exactly what had happened in LA. Or what happened in the last few minutes.
Flashback-
"So you're leaving for Rome?" Angel asked, sitting on his desk in front of Hope and she nodded.
"Yeah, been putting it off for long enough I reckon." Hope got up and Angel stood as well. Hope smiled at him and then started out.
"Hope?" Angel asked and Hope turned to the vampire with a soul.
"Yeah Ace?"
"If you ever need any help, just call and I'll be there." Angel said and Hope looked at him before smiling brightly.
"Just promise that you won't just send Railroad." Angel smiled at the mention of Spike's nickname and nodded his head.
"I promise." Hope smiled at him and walked out of the office. When she got into the foyer she saw Spike and he walked towards her.
"Railroad." Hope said and Spike smiled one of his 'I'm so smug' smiles.
"So you're going to Rome."
"Yeah. Don't get all teary on me Railroad."
"I won't. Just... Don't tell her. That I'm... back." Spike said and Hope nodded. Then he decided to tell her the why, "Our relationship ran its course and now it's over. No need to go stirring anything up again."
"Let me tell you a secret, Railroad." Hope said and leaned in a bit closer to Spike, "A relationship has never run its course."
"Are you giving me hope that me an' Buff have a future?" Spike asked almost incredulously. Hope leaned back again and smirked at him evilly.
"You and Ace both. He can hear us." Hope said and Spike looked past Hope where Angel was now suddenly pretending to be busy by shuffling papers and was about as embarrassed as a vampire can get. She smirked at him and gave him one of those mischievous looks.
"Keep out of trouble, yeah Railroad?" Hope said as she walked towards the elevator. Spike smirked at her in response.
"I'm not making any promises." He said and Hope just winked at him.
"I know." Then she got into the elevator and stopped it from closing with a hand.
"Tell the rest of the gang goodbye for me yeah?" Spike nodded solemnly and Hope pulled a face at this. They grinned at each other and Spike said,
"Yippee-ky-yo."
"Yippee-ky-ay." Hope returned and then the elevator doors closed.
End Flashback-
As Hope remembered this she smiled and picked up the phone before dialling the number for the LA law firm.
TBC
Okay, Angel and Spike are coming to Rome next chapter. No bashing shall be done to either character cos I love em both to death. The relationship between Hope and the two vamps is similar to Faith's relationship with the two except it's more playful. But I'm still trying to decide whether or not Buffy and the rest of the people will know that Angel and Spike are there.
Oh yeah, and I know that Angel wouldn't actually be able, or willing, to send Spike to help Hope but she doesn't actually know about his attachment to W&A because he's still a ghost at this stage.
I'm pushing the Scooby research part to next chapter cos this one is bit long. And to those who are worried about Faith don't, she'll be fine. Promise.
JB
