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. But sometimes, I feel like I own more. Then again, it's not like I know anything much so I wouldn't trust me if I was you.
Author Notes: Sorry about the uber long break. But I'm back, strangely enough I find it easy to write in the middle of my half yearly exams. Strange how that works... Anyways, enjoy! And review!
Chapter 22: Sticky Situation
Buffy walked into the hallway that not many potentials ventured. Something about the creepiness of it, or something like that. But, surprisingly, she didn't find it as deserted as usual. This time she found Hope standing there, staring into the mirror.
"Never figured you as much of a mirror chick." Buffy said, smiling lightly at her but it dropped quickly when she saw the expression on Hope's face.
"Hope?" She asked, concerned, "Is everything oka…?"
"They took her." Hope said, emotionlessly. And then she looked at Buffy in the eye and seemed to finally wake up. She shook herself subconsciously and then looked at Buffy again, this time with more life in her. More anger in her.
"Who?" Buffy asked and Hope started moving suddenly, taking long strides back to her bedroom where her duffel bag was stored and started taking out various weapons. Mostly guns, of course. She sat on the bed as she went through these and Buffy joined her, studying her aggressive movements.
"The bunch of crazies who believe that I'm the ultimate evil." Hope said and continued to take out guns and loaded ammo into them.
"Who now?" Buffy asked, completely in shock and awe as to what was just revealed to her.
"Angel didn't tell you?" Hope asked and glanced up at her before returning to her gun, noticing the expression that had come onto Buffy's face. She clicked the clip into place and got to explaining the situation to Buffy, "Long story short, there's this cult group of demons, vampires and humans who believe in this prophecy. The prophecy says basically that if someone is drained by a vamp and then turned by the Pope's blood and a whole bunch of slayer's blood then the person will be the ultimate evil, controlling all evil in the world and will bring about the apocalypse. They believe that I'm the person. And they're using Faith as the last slayer who has to donate blood to the cause."
"And that's the short story?" Buffy asked and Hope nodded before snapping back the slide of the gun in her hands.
"Plus, instead of me being a slayer. I'm apparently a psychic." Hope said, explaining in a monotone. Buffy just blinked, obviously the amount of information which Hope had given her was a little too much for her to absorb at once.
"So what're you going to do?" Buffy asked, blinking at regular intervals, really feeling the need to moisten her eyes at this point in time. Maybe it was the incessant staring she'd done during the explanation earlier.
"Save her." Hope said and her eyes didn't show any emotion as she loaded up her leather duster with various guns and paraphernalia. She stood up and smoothed her jacket out.
"Need help?" Buffy asked and Hope froze and looked down at her. For the first time emotion entered her eyes and it was sadness. And remembrance. This was what Faith wanted, this is what Faith insisted was going to happen. And who was Hope to go against her twin's wishes. Hope nodded to Buffy and went into leader mode.
"Round up the troops, this is going to take a full frontal assault. And if we win this, maybe the world won't be threatened for at least another few days." Hope said and the ghost of a smile flickered across her eyes and lingered on her mouth for a second longer.
"So this needs the whole army?" Buffy asked, her eyebrows knotting together and Hope nodded.
"They're not a small cult. They're big. And public. They'll have plenty of security." Hope said and she saw Buffy hesitate and she touched her lightly on the shoulder, making her look up at Hope. Hope continued, trying to make sure Buffy understood full well what she was trying to put across.
"This isn't only about saving my sister, even though I would go through hell to do that, this is also about saving the world. Something you're pretty familiar with, but don't treat this like something you do everyday, even though you basically do. If something goes wrong, Faith is going to die, because of me and then evil will win, also because of me. And I don't want this to happen. And nothing will be able to be done about it then, cause I'm going to be a soulless son of a bitch with no thoughts except of obliterating everything in existence."
"Okay… So we're trying to make this not happen?" Buffy asked, trying to ask it light heartedly and Hope nodded, her eyes drooping with obvious tiredness. It was hard to keep up the façade that she was keeping up.
"Not everyone is going to get out of this alive, I want you to know that. This isn't some simple recon mission, this is going to be an all out war. Whether or not we do it now or later, it's just that if we do it now we have a chance of winning. If we wait any longer, there will be no hope left." Hope said, punning but her face showed that she didn't want a laugh or even cared about it. This was the business end of the deal, and she had to nail the clincher. Punning be damned.
"Okay, let's go get everyone rounded up." Buffy said, ignoring the pun Hope made, mostly because she didn't enjoy getting death stared.
Some time later...
Hope stared up at the night sky and breathed deep the air of Rome. A wind whipped up around her and she pulled her leather duster closer around her. She stared at the full moon and shivered slightly as another wind whipped up the side of the building and ran up from her toes that were stepping the edge of the building to her hair that was thrown into chaos by the wind. Tucking a rogue strand behind her ear she closed her eyes and lost herself in the sheer feeling of standing on the edge.
It was like being halfway between life and death, one inch forward and she would plunge to her death and one inch back and she would be safe as houses. Not that houses were all that safe, she never really did get that saying…
She felt someone step in behind her and a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her waist. She leaned back into the touch and they held her closer as she did.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier." The person behind her spoke, his British accent lilting his voice and Hope smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time.
"It's okay." She replied, "You're here now, and that's all that matters."
Spike planted a kiss on the crown of her head and held her closer to him. On a whim Hope suddenly turned in his arms and looked into his eyes for a moment, as if she was searching for something in them. Then, looking as if she'd found what she'd been looking for she leaned in and kissed him softly. It was a chaste kiss, more of a gentle whisper of a kiss, different than their usual and she pulled back ever so slowly, so that their lips still ghosted over each others.
"I love you." She whispered so quietly that he felt it, as her lips brushed against his, more than he heard it. Then he pulled back and looked into her eyes and tucked the rogue strand of hair that had managed to escape once more, behind her ear.
"I love you too, pet." He said and bent down to kiss her but she pulled away.
"It-this, scares me." She said, looking up at Spike with wide eyes. "My experience with love hasn't exactly been the best. Sometimes, I love you so much that my heart feels like its going to burst, and other times I'm so scared, of hurting you, of being hurt myself."
"I would never hurt you, pet. I'd rather die than hurt you." He said seriously.
"That could happen too." Hope said and laughed humourlessly. She looked down at her shoes, "Right now, things are bad. Faith is captured, everything I've believed in my life is a lie, and I find out that I could destroy the world… I just, I don't know if I could take one more thing without experiencing some sort of implosion." Spike lifted her chin up gently and looked her in the eye.
"You got nothing to worry about, pet. Nothing at all." With that he hugged her too him and they both closed their eyes, relishing being in each other's arms.
"I hope you're right." She whispered into his chest and they stayed like that for a few more moments until Spike's eyes opened suddenly as he realised something.
"Wait a second, 'destroy the world'?" He asked and Hope's eyes opened. Oops.
Meanwhile...
Angel sat on the floor of the office, forgoing the gaily decorated furniture of the room, he was surrounded by papers and books. Next to him was the phone, on speaker mode, and every so often he'd talk and then move around, looking for something, skim over it quickly, and then talk into the phone again. The Italian CEO watched him from outside her office, tapping her well manicured nail on the bench of her receptionist's desk.
Up to now she had been extremely accommodating, but the large American was beginning to overstay his welcome in her office. She raised a freshly waxed eyebrow as she saw him drop the paper he'd been holding, and pace angrily from one end of her office to the other. She decided that it was the time to go and try and convince him to leave her office, maybe to go sightseeing or something of the sort. She really did just want her office back.
Smoothing over her stylish Italian designer jacket she walked into her office. He looked up at her as she entered and something looked like it clicked in his eyes. He walked over to the table where he'd hung his coat and picked it up, and put it on.
"Listen, I have to go, something came up. But thanks for the office, it helped." Angel said and gave her a half grimace and walked out. The Italian CEO was left standing there with a confused expression, which turned into a triumphant expression as she realised that she was rid of the American. Then she looked down at the pieces of paper which decorated her floor and saw what was written on it most of the colour went out of her face.
She muttered an Italian swear word under her breath as she bent down and picked up the piece of paper that had Angel's handwriting all over it and a name written in large letters that were connected to another word. Apocalypse.
Then she picked up the phone.
"It's coming earlier than we thought. Get them ready."
At this point in time Buffy and a select group of slayers were playing scouts, lead by Hope to the building which Faith was being held, and had snuck around the side and were trying to find an easy way in. The building itself looked abandoned, with every window boarded up and it looked like it really needed repair. Hope stood out the front and shivered at the look of the building and sat down on the curb.
There was a soft 'whump' sound and Hope looked up to see Spike standing in front of her. She smiled at him and he grinned at her.
"Have fun following on the rooftops?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and he smirked.
"Can't say it wasn't a rush." He replied and took a seat next to her on the curb, "Had to make sure nothing would happen. That's what tends to happen at the last second before you save the day."
"Thanks for the tip." Hope replied.
"Murphy's law." Angel said from the shadows. Hope jumped up and turned, and spotted him in the bushes next to the building. Spike didn't quite move as fast, and did more of a glance over his shoulder and a rolling of his eyes.
"Look who's turned up." Spike grumbled and Hope mock punched him in the arm which caused him to stand up and actually pay attention to the other vampire.
"Hey Ace, what's up?" Hope asked as she moved in for a hug which Angel reciprocated.
"I heard about the whole, er... Well, I found out about who they think is the, er... 'Saviour'." Angel stumbled about verbally until he finally seemed to find the words and Hope's eyes widened at this. He looked at her meaningfully, and she panicked internally.
"Oh god. How did you-?" Hope trailed off and Spike, seeing her distress, slipped an arm around her waist but she remained rigid, trying to keep her panic at bay. She couldn't afford to lose it right now.
"Wolfram and Hart. Definitely with the connections having." He replied and looked down at his shoes, as if disappointed at his ability that made him find Hope to be the ultimate evil.
"But, I mean, you know I'm not..." Hope trailed off again and Angel immediately shook his head.
"Of course not. I know that you're not evil, I would smell it on you. You're nothing but confused and," Angel paused and frowned slightly, "Scared?"
"It's Faith." Hope explained, "They captured her. And they're going to kill her." Hope said and bowed her head. Spike squeezed her side lightly and she looked up at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears in the moonlight. Angel's eyes widened at this and he launched into action mode.
"Then let's go get her." He said and went to go inside but he noticed that the other two weren't moving. He tilted his head questioningly and Hope gave him a sad shake of the head.
"No, she made me promise I wouldn't. Buffy went in with a team of her own, I just have to trust that they get to her in time..."
Meanwhile...
Faith was in what could be referred to as a 'sticky situation'. More so than usual. After being led from her cell in a blindfold and chains, she found herself chained and bolted down to a large wooden table. Which was strange considered this was a cult directed at vamps, so you'd figure that there would be a lack of wood, but Faith wasn't really in the position to mention this to them.
A person in a long cloak and hood, that hid their face, went around checking the chains and Faith went into defensive mode, the way she had to deal with what was happening at the moment.
"Were you at least planning on buying me dinner? I mean, the whole cloak and dagger thing is a bit of a turn off, but I'm sure we can work around it. Of course then there's the whole 'you wanting to kill me' thing, but hey, it's kinda kinky." Faith quipped, rattling the chains and the cloaked figure paused and Faith could almost see it shake its head.
"Jeez, don't you ever stop Faith?" She barely heard the figure mutter, if it wasn't for slayer hearing, she wouldn't have been able to. She recognized the voice and her eyes widened.
"B?" She hissed and the cloaked figure looked at her and then the hands lifted up and took the hood off. It revealed the face of the older, blonde slayer. Buffy was giving her a look, clearly because of her earlier comment and Faith let a grin slip onto her face because of this.
"C'mon get me outta these." Faith said and rattled her chains at Buffy again. Buffy nodded and went to work on the chains that held her hands down. Faith looked at her as her brow furrowed in concentration and her curiosity over came her.
"How'd you get in anyways?" She asked and Buffy shrugged.
"Knocked out a straggler and took his place." She explained as she finally got the shackle to open and Faith took her hand out of it and rubbed it with her still shackled hand. Buffy moved across and started to work on the other one and Faith decided to bring up the tope of her psychic sister.
"So I'm guessing Hope told you." Faith said and Buffy paused for a moment and looked at Faith. Something flashed in her eyes, and she wasn't quire sure of what it was but it looked like sympathy.
"Yeah, she did." Buffy started to struggle harder with the shackle that just wasn't giving up.
"Are you going to prove her right?" Faith asked and this time Buffy stopped fully and stared at her.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked and Faith shifted on the wooden table, trying to find the right words to express her twin's earlier worries.
"You aren't going to kick her out or anything are you? Just cos she isn't part of the gang anymore?" Faith asked, searching Buffy's face for an answer. What she found was anger, and hurt.
"How could you think that?" Buffy asked, halfway between a puppy dog eyes and a pout, and intense anger. Faith just shrugged and tried to keep herself from being pounded, she couldn't exactly defend herself could she?
"Can't blame me, B. Past experience tends to not be in favour of us Winters girls." Faith said, and the defence seemed to work. Well, she wasn't as angry.
"Wait a second, one, you can't blame me for that. And two, Winters? I thought your name was Lehane."
"Winters was my dad's, and Lehane was my mom's, they couldn't decide which last name we would get so they gave us different ones. But, I'm thinking of changing it. My dad did more for me than my mom ever did, and my dad left so long ago that I can barely remember him. I just remember feeling safe, something I didn't ever feel again." Faith said and Buffy's eyes were wide with sympathy. Faith noticed this and shrugged it off, "How about we get me out of these cuffs?" Faith asked and raised an eyebrow and Buffy looked at her for a second and then slammed her fist down, making the shackle shatter.
"Nice shot." Faith rubbed her newly freed wrist with her other hand and grimaced at Buffy. Buffy nodded and grimaced as she rubbed her fist. A look of concentration came over Faith's face as her eyebrows knotted together and then she kicked upwards with her legs, successfully breaking the chains, but left with the shackle on her ankles. She glared at them but then when one of the slayer team came running she forgot about them momentarily.
"Jules?" Faith asked, cocking her head as she sat up on the table. The slayer offered Faith a shy grin, Faith was something of a legend around the slayer household, and some of the girls had a tendency to be shy around her.
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, demanding the attention of her slayerette. Julie turned to Buffy and immediately adopted 'soldier' mode.
"The perimeter has been breached. They're on their way." Julie said and Buffy nodded. She shared a look with Faith and Faith sighed.
"I'm guessing we're running now?" She asked and Buffy nodded. Faith's mood suddenly changed as she grinned, "Good, I was looking to stretch my legs. Even if I am weighed down with these stupid metal things." She said gesturing to the shackles around her ankles. That was when the other three slayers appeared, running for their lives and the other three that had been standing there saw this and shared a look before joining them.
Legs pumping, Faith's chains clinking, and all six slayers puffing as they sprinted through the maze like building, trying desperately to escape from the small army that was chasing them. This army consisted of vamps, humans and a few demons. As Faith glanced behind her she wished she hadn't, sure she had some pent up need to slay some of these son-of-a-bitches who were responsible for all the crap she and her sister went through, but seeing the sheer number of them... Well she was worried, which was something she never was.
Throw me in the hornet's nest, what the hell... It was different now, she had something that depended on her. Someone. And she knew how much it would kill Hope if she didn't make it, and hell, she promised her that she would. So she ignored the heavy weights on her ankles and pounded her legs harder than she ever had before. The sprinting she did in her nightmares was a walk in the park compared to this.
As her heartbeat got steadily faster she thought of Hope and her face appeared in her mind. In her mind's eye her sister was grinning at her and running ahead of her. Just a little ahead of her. She could catch her if she sped up. But she couldn't, she tried so hard but she couldn't. She just couldn't...
Then the image of what the sons-of-bitches behind her would do to Hope if they caught her sprung into her mind. And that was what gave her that little extra speed. Buffy and the others were having trouble keeping up, but Faith wasn't worried. Buffy would keep up, just for the sake of competitiveness, and the others would keep up with Buffy because she would fry them and then make them run drills if they didn't. General Buffy, ever the hard ass.
And then, the end was in sight. Well, less of an end and more of a window. Buffy and Faith looked at each other and then jumped, putting their hands in front of their faces and trying to shield themselves, though it was a little in vain, especially since they had to also break through the wood, which they tackled by a strong kick. The other four followed them through the, now broken, window.
When they got up from the ground they saw the huge army that was assembled outside and Faith's jaw dropped. Buffy grinned at this.
"Surprise." She said and then the mini army that was behind them saw the slayer army in front of them. The expressions on most of the faces clearly said 'Oh shit'.
"Well ain't this gonna be fun." Faith said, grinning at the now outnumbered cult army. Then Hope stepped next to her, followed by Angel and Spike.
"Hell yeah." Hope said, taking out her prized guns and pulling back the safeties, and the sisters grinned identically at each other and ran into battle.
AN: RAWR! Take that cult! And that! And that! Sigh, there just had to be a big fight scene, but considering how crap I am at writing them, I will have to leave that up to your imagination with another annoying time skip going into the next chapter... But it's not of so much time this time, it's just a couple of hours or so... Wonder how Rome will react to the war? If at all?
