"Can I know what's the matter with her Blondie?" Faith asked Tara two days later, when the blonde squarely refused to go patrolling with the slayers one more time, after having shown cold indifference toward Kira all day long.

Both women were in their hostel room; Tara was sitting on the bed and was folding some clean clothing, while Faith was leaning against the window frame as she was used to. The night was starting to fall outside.

"What? What are you talking about?" replied the blonde, pretending not understanding at all.

Faith rolled her eyes at Tara's fake innocent look, but nevertheless went on:

"Kira. I'm talking about Kira," she clarified. "S'not that I thoroughly want you to come with us, but I don't get it, what's your problem with her?"

"I have no problem with her, " Tara protested, her tone absolutely not convincing.

"That's the reason why you never talk to her and that you hardly answer when she's talking to you?" she added a little dryly. "She's kind of nice y'know"

Tara did not answer, but she could not suppress a sulky pout, whose sense was not obvious to Faith.

"What?" the slayer shouted.

"What?" she insisted, as Tara did not answer and pretended to get absorbed in the folding of her clothes. "Talk to me Blondie"

"Since when are you interested in what I'm thinking?" Tara shrieked while looking up to Faith. "I can't remember that you asked my advice about anything one single time!"

"I'm not asking your advice," Faith approved harshly. "I'm asking you what means that little pout you've just had."

"What pout?" asked Tara, pretending not to understand once more.

"The one you did when I said she was nice" Faith clarified. "She IS nice," she repeated, stressing overly the word IS.

Tara mimicked the same pout as previously, then shrugged before answering in a mocking evident tone:

"A lonely slayer who love slaying, eating and who's filled with admiration for you?" Tara scoffed "Of course you find her nice!"

"Oh! Okay!" Faith exclaimed, not even trying to hide her irritation. "I guess it's indeed because she's a lonely slayer loving slaying and eating that YOU don't like her!"

"I've never said I didn't like her!" replied Tara. "It's just that…"

The witch appeared to search for her words, then she fell silent and her attention drifted away from Faith to come back to her clothes.

"It's just what?" Faith repeated in a exasperated tone.

"You hardly know her!" replied Tara, looking up to the slayer. "Three days with her…"

"Four days," the brunette ironically corrected, a light smile starting to play on her lips.

"Four days if you want," Tara went on as if Faith had not interrupted her. "And what are you now? Best friends in the world?"

Any trace of irritation vanished from the slayer's face to be replaced by an amused, disbelieving smile.

"That's it then?" she asked.

"That's what?"

"You're jealous!" Faith triumphantly announced. "That's why you don't like her!"

"What?" Tara said, her mouth twisted in a shocked grimace. "This is nonsense!"

"Of course it's this!" went on the slayer, whom this prospect obviously entertained a lot. "You're jealous to have to share me with someone else!"

Tara opened her mouth to answer but her throat produced no sound and she returned to her task with a shrug and a pout. Faith watched her folding and unfolding her clothes with small jerky gestures for a few minutes before going back to serious mode.

"You should take it easy Tar," she finally said. "She's cool, we're having fun and that's all. I don't plan to send her postcards afterward."

Tara rolled her eyes before looking at Faith again.

"I'm not jealous," she declared firmly. "It has nothing to do with jealousy. It's…"

"So what?" Faith cut her short as Tara was about to deliver her explanation. "There's something going on here. You've not been like that with people for a while. So what?"

Tara's mouth opened and closed again without any word while she was staring at Faith surprisingly.

"Oh please," the brunette resumed, noticing her reaction. "You know it's true. You weren't really pleasant before. Not that you are completely pleasant now, but…"

"There's something weird about her," Tara interrupted.

"Weird," Faith repeated. "She's a slayer y'know," she added, like she was not sure Tara had noticed.

Tara slightly rolled her eyes but nevertheless resumed:

"She's so friendly, so enthusiastic, so gifted, so… There's something weird."

"Why?" Faith smirked. "Because she likes me?"

"No. I like you," the witch protested, rolling her eyes again.

"Which kind of makes your point!" Faith scoffed. "You're probably the weirdest person I've ever known! And it's not like I haven't met a LOT of weird persons!"

"I see you always have a nice word to say…" Tara grumbled.

"Was a joke!" Faith laughed. "Well, do as you want. You should stay here tonight after all. And we're leaving tomorrow or the day after, so you won't hear about Kira and her weirdness anymore very soon!"

The slayer ended her sentence by getting up from the window frame where she was leaning on and she grabbed her coat on the back of the only chair in the room. She slipped it quickly on, checked there were stakes and a knife in the various pockets of the cloth, then she headed to the door.

"I'm leaving, Kira must be downstairs. Don't wait for me. I'll be back late."

Tara simply nodded and did not answer at first. As Faith was about to cross the threshold of the door, she just delivered a low "Be careful" that the slayer hardly had time to hear as she was closing the door on her.

***

"Faith! Your move!"

Kira's scream pierced the night at the same time as the dull sound of her fist punching the stomach of a vampire so violently that he was sent directly to Faith. The brunette turned round at Kira's call, and so did the vampire she was holding at arm's length. The dark-haired slayer immediately reacted and plunged the stake she was holding in her right hand right through the heart of her prey, before making the stake jump to her left hand which she used to dust the vampire sent by Kira in his turn.

"Well done!" approved Kira.

"What do you think!" Faith answered. "I'm good!"

As she finished her sentence, Faith bent over in order to avoid a vampire who was about to attack her from behind. Surprised by the slayer's move, the demon toppled over the brunette. She raised her arms above her to grab her aggressor and with a small movement of her wrists, she quickened the monster's trajectory toward Kira.

Being already busy with another vampire, the other slayer did not see nor feel him coming, and she received him in full back. She staggered both from the weight of the body and from the surprise. Her current enemy saw there a possibility to get the better of the slayer and took advantage of that short moment of weakness to violently punch her in her stomach. Kira stumbled backward and moved her hands where she had been hit, feeling badly out of breath. The vampire did not give her time to recover and went on with a high kick, which hit Kira hard in full face. Kira collapsed to the ground after having step back a few feet. The slayer immediately kneeled and instinctively touched her face where the vampire had hit her. She grimaced with pain at the contact and spat blood before giving her attacker a dark look. She nevertheless did not have time to react, as the vampire Faith had sent upon her, sneaked behind her and grabbed her two arms. He kept them both behind her back and forced her to stand. Kira grimaced once more at the twisting of her shoulder as the vampire was carelessly lifting her. She glanced at Faith, who had not moved in the slightest and did not appear to be ready to step in no way. As her gaze was coming back in front of her, she just had time to catch sight of the second vampire's fist punching her face again. Blood spurted from the corner of her now split upper lip, then flew into her mouth, and this sight twisted her opponent's face into an ugly grimace of satisfaction.

"Your friend doesn't look like she wants to come to your help, does she?" the demon commented, while Kira was fighting to get free. "What a shame!"

A new glance at Faith told Kira the vampire was telling the truth. The dark-haired slayer was watching the scene from a distance, her arms crossed over her chest, an unreadable grin on her lips.

"A real shame!" the vampire repeated.

Kira felt the grasp on her arms of the demon in her back strengthening and the vampire in front of her showed her his fangs, ready to swoop down on her and to taste her so visible jugular vein. As he was starting his movement, already delighted about the tasty blood of his victim, Kira pressed on her two feet and sent them forward, hitting her opponent's stomach with both her soles. He staggered backward upon the impact. In the same time, the slayer gave a violent head butt to the vampire who was holding her captive and got free in the process. She then found herself between the two demons, and she pivoted to her side, in order to not turn her back to any of them. The vampires exchanged a discreet head sign, before lunging at the slayer together. Taking great care of not losing sight of any of them, Kira slid each of her hands under her coat, and when the vampires arrived within her reach, she produced two stakes – one in each hand – and she staked both of the vampires at lightning speed. They fell immediately to dust without having understood what had happened to them.

"Good!" Faith happily exclaimed, coming finally toward her.

"Thank you," Kira grumbled, giving her an upset look. "And thanks for your help." she mocked.

"You didn't need my help" Faith protested.

"I know," Kira replied proudly. "But still, you hardly moved a toe when that vampire wanted to put his fangs into my carotid."

"You should take that as a proof of my trust." Faith smiled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Kira grumbled, massaging lightly her cheek. "S'nothing."

"Anyway, you would have bitched against me if I had come to help for two little vampires." Resumed the brunette.

"That's a possibility." Kira admitted. "What now?"

Both girls fell silent and looked around them, all senses in alarm. But only the discreet sound of the wind blowing between the trees could be heard. After a minute standing still in the deathly silence of the night, Faith finally casually shrugged and put her weapons back into her jacket and at her belt.

"There's nothing more." Kira said, commenting on her companion's actions.

"Yep," Faith confirmed with a nod. "It's empty."

She buttoned her jacket back and pulled up her collar, feeling the cold again on her skin, now that all action had ceased.

"I can't believe how many vampires and demons we met around here," Faith resumed after a thoughtful silence. "There's nothing here, no hellmouth around, and then, it's swarmed with monsters in that god forsaken hole."

"Do you think about something?" asked Kira as she came at Faith's side and closed her coat in her turn.

"Dunno," the other slayer replied. "But it doesn't look natural at all. I think I'll call the council tomorrow to tell them about it."

"Do you think it's necessary?"

"Don't get me wrong here, " Faith went on. "It' not that I think you can't take care of this shit all by yourself or anything like that. But still, there's probably more to it than we can see."

"Something not nice," she clarified as both slayers started to walk in the snow. "And that kind of stuff sometimes needs other people than slayers."

"As what?" Kira asked.

"Watchers. Witches. All these people with their spells and their books, who can find out what's going on. And if you're lucky, they'll send you more playing friends!"

Kira grinned and the silence fell back between the slayers.

"So, you're leaving tomorrow?" she asked a little later.

Faith nodded thoughtfully.

"To where?" Kira went on.

"Don't really know," the brunette answered. "I think we'll see at the moment. But we're probably going to go south. Tara talked about San Francisco."

"Nice town," Kira agreed.

"Already went there?"

"Some times, for the holidays."

They looked at each other for a second, each of them seemingly waiting for the other to say something more, but nothing came and they finally looked away from each other, and the silence came back between them.

The Slayers were now walking in no hurry on a dimly lit little road. It was now snowing again and their footprints were almost immediately covered with a new white layer as soon as they left them in the snow. They had both put their stake and other weapons away and walked causally with their hands in their pockets, in a notable similar way.

"What now?" asked Kira after a silence. "Wanna go back?"

"Do you want to?" Faith said, turning to her companion.

"I'm not sure," Kira answered. "I'm not tired at all. Feel more like slaying some more. Like this was just the starters."

"I see what you mean," Faith nodded. "I kinda feel the same."

They reached a stop together and looked around, obviously looking for some more preys. Their silent search stopped at the same time and they looked at each other, each girl having reached the same conclusion.

"I'm not sure we'll find any more demon to slay around here," Faith voiced their silent agreement.

"Yeah, we probably slay any demon thingy for miles and miles," Kira commented on.

"We walked for hours. We're probably pretty far from home." Faith carried on.

"You're right, we should take the road back," Kira said.

"We'll see if we find something interesting while going back."

"Yeah."

They resumed their walk in the snow, at a quicker pace this time. It was quiet for a long time, the silence only disturbed by the crunch of their steps in the snow or by the occasional sound of animals moving nearby. They had already covered a great distance to Trillium Lake when Kira finally spoke up again, getting Faith's immediate attention.

"So, why Tara hasn't come with us again?" she asked carefully.

Faith wavered a little, apparently surprised by the question. Then, she just gave a quite bored sigh and shrugged.

"Y'know, she's not action girl. More book and going-to-bed-early girl actually." She explained. "Slaying all night? Not her thing."

"So, what is she doing with you?" Kira asked. "You should get her into slaying." She added in a convinced tone.

"God, you don't know the girl!" Faith snorted. "I tried to teach her how to use a crossbow. I think we're for some years before she could hit something she actually aims at!"

"Why trying to teach her to use a crossbow?" Kira asked, her tone clearly dubious. "She's a witch for what I know. She doesn't need a crossbow to be in the field."

"She's not so much for magic," Faith said. "She's hardly using it."

"Why is that?" the other slayer asked, her voice sounding dumbfounded now.

"How would I know?" Faith exclaimed in a boring tone. "Well, she's kind of coming back a long way," she added.

"That's a shame," Kira went on thoughtfully this time. "You two could be the hell of a team together."

Faith couldn't help but snicker at this.

"Don't see how. She's not into battle at all I'm telling you." The brunette lashed, starting to loose her patience at Kira's insistence on the matter.

"Well, you know, something like she's the brains when you're the muscles. Something along this line."

"I always like when people flatters my ego like this. Thank you." Faith grumbled.

"You're welcome." Giggled Kira

"That was ironic." Faith remarked, stressing pointedly the ironic.

"I kind of figured." Kira replied. "And that was kind of a joke. But you see what I mean about the team thing."

"I'm sorry but I still don't,"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out someday," Kira said, her tone somewhat cryptic.

"Yeah," Faith answered in a dubious and bored tone, rolling her eyes in a way telling clearly she was fairly certain she would never see Kira's point about this.

Kira noticed and giggled, but she stopped insisting and kept quiet.

They walked in silence for another good thirty minutes before they finally reached the Trillium Lake banks. They stopped by the frozen lake, and contemplated its bright surface, humming the air of the cold winter night, listening to the silence.

"We won't find anything else to beat the crap out of," Faith commented, and she turned away from the lake, taking the way back to the hostel.

"I'm so disappointed," commented Kira while following Faith close. "I so don't feel like sleeping right now,"

"I know what you mean," the brunette answered. "Me neither, but what? I'm afraid there's nothing more to kill around here."

"We could find something else to do," offered Kira and she hurried to catch up with Faith.

"Something on your mind?" Faith asked.

"Well," Kira began hesitantly. "If we were in Portland or anywhere worthy of being called a city, I would suggest going to a bar or a night-club for a dance or something, but the thing is..."

"We're not anywhere worthy of being called a city," Faith finished for her.

"Right," confirmed Kira. "So, we have to be more imaginative than this."

"Any idea?" Faith asked.

She stopped walking once more and turned to face Kira who was now standing still at her side. Her fellow slayer looked thoughtful, her brows knitted in sign of focus on the matter at hand. Faith crossed her arms, decided to wait to learn what Kira was about to suggest.

"Well," Kira said, and an enigmatic light smile appeared on her lips when she looked up to Faith, an idea obviously having just struck her mind.

"I was thinking that we could..."

She took half a step closer to the brunette slayer and looked intently into her eyes. Faith frowned and she resisted the urge to step back from the sudden closeness.

"I was thinking that we could..." Kira repeated in a lower tone this time, her voice a whisper barely audible even for Faith.

"Could what?" the brunette asked in a harsher voice than she intended.

Kira's smile grew slightly larger, so slightly that Faith did not really notice. She stepped even more closer, closing the remaining distance between them, so that their noses were almost touching.

"What?" Faith breathed.

"Well, y'know..." Kira resumed in the same fashion than previously. "We could..."

She fell silent again, just staring into Faith's questioning eyes. Probably for dramatic effect.

"We could..."

Her eyes suddenly lighted up and her right fist moved at lightning speed from its dangling position along her side to try to connect with Faith's nose. Faith's eyes widened in surprise when she realized Kira was trying to hit her and she blocked the blow in her own hands just in time.

"What's the fuck?" she asked more surprisingly than angrily. "Whatcha doing?"

Kira jerked free from Faith's grasp and took a step back to get away from the other slayer. She smiled brightly at Faith before finally finishing her sentence:

"I was thinking that we could fight."

"What?" Faith asked in a dumbfounded tone. "You want to fight with me?"

"Yep," Kira replied, like it was the most natural and evident thing in the world. "I mean, you're good and I'm good. No one will dare denying that. But the thing is: ever wondered who's the best of us?"

She smirked as she finished her sentence and looked expectantly at Faith. The brunette remained silent for a while, staring at her questioningly, not totally convinced that she heard correctly what Kira had just said.

"You're kidding me, right?" she finally asked.

"Nope," Kira said, shaking her head, her smile growing larger on her face. "Absolutely not. And I'm going to repeat myself here, but: ever wondered who's the best of us?"

Saying this, she closed her fists tight, this way intending to show Faith she was serious. Faith noticed the gesture and looked at the fists and the fighting stance of the girl before meeting her eyes again.

"Never." she then replied in a resolute tone.

***

"I'm not gonna fight with you," Faith stated firmly, staring at Kira with an unusual serious look on her face. "This is not a game."

"C'mon Faith, don't play it so moralizing! It doesn't suit you!" the other slayer exclaimed ironically with a cheerful smile.

"It's not a game." Faith repeated.

"What's the matter with you?" Kira interrogated, opening her arms in front of her. "You like fighting, you can't tell otherwise, I can see it in your eyes when you beat up those demons. So what?"

"Slaying vampires is one thing, fighting a slayer is another," Faith said calmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I won't fight with you." She added in a tone she wanted to sound confident.

"Faith, Faith…" said quietly Kira while shaking her head. "It's not like you never did it before…"

Faith was stunned for a second and she stared at Kira in a new way. Her counterpart kept smiling and resumed without giving her time to answer:

"Anyway, you have no choice,"

"There's always a choice." Faith answered in a harsher tone.

"So, when I attack you, you will let me hit you?" asked Kira in a fake questioning tone, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Try and you'll see." Faith retorted without blinking.

"It's fine with me."

Kira did not need much to go though with her threat. Without another single word, the young woman took a step and threw her fist forward to the brunette slayer. Faith easily blocked the punch and seized the other slayer's wrist and pulled the girl to her.

"Stop that while you still can," she hissed between her teeth.

"You're threatening me now?" Kira asked in a mocking tone.

"Who knows?" Faith replied in a blank voice.

"I love that," Kira concluded.

Saying this, she tried to hit Faith with her free hand. The brunette was expecting it to happen and she pushed Kira out of her reach. The young woman immediately tried again with a series punch-kick-punch and Faith understood at the decision she read in her counterpart's gaze that she would not reason with her.

"Too bad for you," She whispered in a low voice, more for herself than for her opponent.

Kira nevertheless probably heard her because a light smile appeared on her lips and she charged again at Faith. This time, the dark-haired slayer did not content herself with dodging the attack but she struck back in her turn. Kira's response was up to Faith's one violence and within only seconds, the battle between the slayers reached an outstanding intensity.

Series of straight punches right-left, high kicks, low kicks, blows with elbow or knee, back flips, somersaults, head butts, the two women did not save themselves anything, each attack outdoing the previous one in speed and violence. Each time Kira bit the dust, she always stood up stronger, more resolved than before, and Faith generally ended up lying in the snow in her turn.

But the dark-haired slayer had seen worse, and each time Kira's blows hit her, she promised herself she would show this young impudent person who was the strongest of them; and it would be her of course. If Faith had to admit that Kira forced her to draw on resources she had not needed in a long time, she had to admit too that it quite suited her.

"So Faith, not that bad finally?" said Kira, as if she could read her mind, and while giving the slayer a series of kicks that eventually sent the brunette crashing into a young tree that ended up broken in the process.

"You'll find all this far less funny when I would have smashed your face in." Faith grumbled threateningly as she stood and dried some blood pouring from her right nostril with her sleeve.

"Pissed off now?" Kira ironically asked. "And about getting my face smashed in, I'm not seeing anything coming!"

This provocation had the effect Kira was expecting. Faith lunged toward Kira like a wildcat on its prey, and the dark-haired slayer violently elbowed her counterpart's face. Kira staggered but she managed to pull herself together and replied with the same aggressiveness. In the series of blows that followed between the slayers, both of them gained the upper hand in turn, each taking then giving attacks more and more brutal.

Blows rained down on the slayers without idle time for minutes and those exchanges asked Faith way more attention, power and reactivity than the battles she fought against a dozen vampires in the last hours. To her great disappointment, she didn't manage to have a definitive upper hand on Kira, this one resisting to everything Faith inflicted on her, getting up always more threatening than previously and knocking the brunette over more and more often.

As Kira punched her once more in her lower jaw, Faith fell flat on the snowy ground and felt her lower lip split and blood oozing in her mouth. The blow had been so violently given that Faith felt as if her head had come off her body for a brief moment before finally coming back into place. Her lower jaw and her lip hurt and she felt somewhat giddy.

She sat up straight and wiped again the blood on her face with her now spotted with red stains sleeve. She stood up slowly, her hip hurting after having harshly hit the ground and taking several blows there before. She looked up at Kira who was looking at her, standing five feet from her, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Okay, you're probably the strongest slayer I've ever met," admitted Faith. "With the noteworthy exception of two." She added. "And I'm one of them." She concluded, taking a step forward.

It did not impress Kira at all, and she even smiled brightly at the brunette.

"You're giving yourself way too much credit," the young woman replied with a true confidence in her attitude. "You may be strong, but you're no match for me."

"We'll see,"

"It's done!" Kira exclaimed while punching Faith so quickly that the dark-haired slayer did not have time to ward off and ended up lying on the ground again.

Faith stood and cast a questioning glance at Kira. How could she be so fast? Faith did not have time to search for an answer at her question. Kira was again on her, and once again, Faith could dodge only one out of every two blows. And her counterattacks were becoming more and more imprecise under the pressure Kira was putting on her.

"So Faith, cat lost your tongue?" mocked the other slayer. "You don't have time for more one-liners anymore? Or you're missing energy?"

She made a double jumping kick, which hit the brunette in her stomach on the one hand, and on her face on the other hand; and once again Faith fell into the snow, which became spotted with red when the slayer's face touched the ground. Faith spat some more blood and stood with difficulty and a glimmer of rage in her eyes. She was hardly on her feet when Kira sent her to the ground again with a new series of punches and kicks too fast for Faith to avoid every blow. Faith did not get up immediately and this time, Kira did not wait for her to do so to get closer to her. As she came up to her and was about to bend over the dark-haired slayer, ready to strike her again, Faith violently hit Kira's tibia with her sole and tripped her up with her other leg. Kira let escape a discreet surprised shout, toppled over and fell onto Faith. The brunette caught her wrists and pushed her aside in order to put her on her back on the ground and stepped over her. She then started to beat her up with undisguised wild joy. But her success did not last for long, as Kira was really resourceful. The young woman put one of her arms up across Faith's blows and seized the top of the dark haired slayer's sweater; then she pushed on her legs at the same time she pulled on Faith's collar to push her and threw her above her head. Faith crashed head first into the trunk of a tree five feet from there.

"You're resourceful," Kira said while jumping to her feet and drying some blood at the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. "But it won't be enough."

She walked over to Faith who was struggling to stand.

"If you want to get the better of me while you're still in one piece, you should call your friend the witch. Maybe being two, you'd got a better chance."

Faith snickered at this comment and she finally got to her feet.

"Calling Tara? You're kidding me?" she mocked.

"She could help you," replied Kira in an evident tone.

"The day I need Tara for anything ass-kicking related is not about to rise."

"Believe me, if you don't call her, you won't see any day rising anymore."

"You're crazy."

"Call her," Kira repeated in an imperious tone while stepping closer to the brunette slayer.

Faith tittered but her past serenity was started to weaken. Something in Kira's attitude was telling her she was not joking.

"You were a lot more fun some hours ago." She commented. "Tara was right, you're weird."

"Call her," Kira ordered again.

"What do you want from her? You want her to throw fireballs at you so that you can avoid them as if you were in a sideshow?" Faith exclaimed in a mocking but nevertheless humor-free tone.

"Why not," Kira replied seriously. "It would liven up the good hiding I'm giving you."

"Believe me, I don't need her." Faith stated in a dark tone.

"Believe me, just the opposite." Kira retorted. "So what? Why wouldn't she have the right to have some fun too? Not only slayers can be fun you know. Some fireballs would liven things up around here."

"You really are a nut job."

"If you don't call her, I'll get her myself." Kira said, ignoring Faith's comment. "Maybe you'd rather I get her myself? Probably easier for your excessive ego?"

"Leave Tara off your madness," Faith growled threateningly.

"And you, you should really include her in your fights instead of treating her like an incompetent."

"I don't need her!" Faith bellowed, suddenly beside herself. "I don't need her to kick a nut job's ass like yours!"

"Wanna bet?" Kira ironically asked.

Saying this, she warded off a series of kicks that Faith was delivering with renewed energy.

"Throwing all your might into battle?" Mocked Kira, nevertheless stepping back. "You…"

Faith's elbow perfectly placed between her nose and the top of her mouth shut her up and she cursed in her breath. Faith did not have to wait for her reaction; Kira gave Faith each blow back, forcing her to step back in her turn. While retreating, the dark-haired slayer taped into what little strength left she had to pick up the trunk of a young fallen tree and tried to use this improvised weapon against Kira whose energy and healing capacity seemed to never run out. But none of the super-powered blows Faith gave with her new weapon, managed to weaken Kira.

While stepping back under the pressure her dangerous counterpart was putting on her, Faith suddenly stumbled backward, her foot hitting a rock hidden in the snow. She managed to keep her hold on her tree trunk as she fell, but Kira made it jump from her hands with a powerful kick. Kira then lunged at Faith before she had time to get out of Kira's way and the other slayer pressed her forearm on the brunette's neck while her other arm held Faith's shoulder down. Faith's head limply hit the snowy ground under her, and the dark-haired slayer felt the cold freeze her to the bones. She tried to struggle and to push Kira away, but the other slayer's strong grip was more powerful than any Faith had already experienced.

"So, still convinced you don't need to call Tara?" Kira asked in a strangely blank tone.

"Still convinced," Faith uttered with difficulty, even trying to add a smirk to her composure.

"It's a shame, I'll do it myself then." Kira announced.

She then tried to slide her right hand into Faith's jacket pocket, probably looking for the young woman's cell phone.

"Leave her out of this!" Faith screamed in a muffled voice.

She bucked with all her might and this time managed to free herself; she put her two soles on Kira's stomach and sent her flying a few feet away. Faith made the most of this calmer moment to stand up back with difficulty and to turn on her heels as fast as she could in the hostel's opposite direction. She had barely covered two dozens feet when she took a violent kick at the bottom of her right leg and fell again. She held back a cry of pain and the pain was so acute that she wondered if her leg was broken as she rolled on her back in order to face her attacker. She did not have time to try her leg to check if it was borken or not, as Kira was already on her, preventing her from standing up. She tried once more to reach Faith's pocket where the slayer kept her cell phone, but the brunette was faster than her. Before Kira could do anything, Faith shattered it between her fingers. The cell phone ominously cracked and fell into pieces in the already spattered with Faith's blood snow.

"It's between you and me," the dark-haired slayer breathed. "Only you and me."

Kira considered what remained of the cell phone in the snow and grimaced.

"Too bad for you," she whispered.