It actually didn't take Faith long to get custody of Hope. Between the high priced lawyer Corda was able to hire and the bad situation in Hope's foster home, coupled with Faith's very stable situation, it didn't take long for a judge to rule that Hope Lahaine could live with her sister, Faith Lahaine. Corda sent Faith to Boston on the Chase's family plane to pick up her sister. When thirteen year old Hope stepped off the plane, it was to be greeted by her new family, Alexander and Corda, Buffy, Oz, Johnathan, Giles, Jenny and Gunn. People who would willing bleed and die for her if necessary.
Hope was a tall for her age girl, thin with long, dark hair and eyes. She was wary and distrustful. And given her situation, who could blame her. She settled into Gunn and Faith's second bedroom in their apartment and was enrolled in an L.A. middle school. She turned out to be smart and enjoyed her new school.
Everything was going just fine, until Doyle got a vision of something powerful and scary, looking for something it called the Key. What the Key was, was anyone's guess. Right up until a routine patrol by Buffy, turned up a man being tortured by a woman. Buffy managed to get him away from the woman and got him out of the building they'd been in before it collapsed behind them. Just before he died of his injuries, he told Buffy something that finally gave them a clue to what the Key was. She called the group together, with Faith and Gunn on speaker phone. Fortunately, Hope was in class at the time.
"He said the Key was energy. They made a human somehow and hid the energy in it. He said, they made the body from the Slayer and gave her to the Slayer to protect."
"But no one has asked you to protect anyone, Buffy.". Giles protested.
"That just it, Giles. They didn't recognize me as a Slayer. I tried to tell the guy, no one gave me anyone to protect. He just looked confused and said, of course they didn't give me anyone, they gave the human they made to the Slayer, as a sister."
"A sister?!" Faith exclaimed. "You're talking about Hope aren't you?! They're claiming they made Hope! How? And just to hide this Key?! Why?"
"Interesting that they don't recognize Buffy as a Slayer." Alexander said. He pulled out his scanner and scanned her. "I've never scanned you before, so I have no baseline, but I wonder, if I compare these readings to Faith, will I find a difference? And if they made Hope, when did they make her? And when did they integrate her into your life? I think I need to scan her too. Preferably without her realizing what's going on. This could seriously mess with her head. She's a child, regardless of anything else. She needs to be protected."
"Damn right she needs to be protected! She's my baby sister, I don't care about the rest. You figure out what you need to, so we can keep her safe!"
"Yo, Alex, she's got class until three today, which is five hours from now. If you drive straight to her school and scan her when you see her, before we pick her up, that should give you what you need to know, right?" Gunn asked.
"Hopefully, yes. I'll leave right away, just give me the address of the school, I'll find it. Don't worry, Faith, we'll keep her safe."
Later, after he returned from L.A. the group once again met over speaker phone.
"She's spending the night with a friend, it's the first time we've let her. We wanted time for her to settle in and I was hoping for a few more months. But Shyla is the daughter of one of Gunn's crew. We trust them to look after her." Faith reported. "What did you find, Alex?"
"Alot actually and it may explain why Corda and I had no idea you had a sister, because six months ago, you didn't. That thirteen year old girl, is six months old. They integrated her into your memories. Our psychic abilities would have protected us from that, since talking about your sister would be natural and they integrated knowledge of her into the memories of people you know. They deliberately put her in a situation where you'd have to help her. Also, her whole body is suffused with dimensional energy. The kind of energy that could open or close a dimensional rift. Calling that energy a key, is a fairly accurate description. And she is made from Faith. She's a clone, her DNA has been tweaked slightly, to avoid a twin appearance."
"How do we get it out of her? Because whatever is after the Key, is gonna come for her if they figure out it's in her." Faith was trying hard to control her emotions. Gunn wrapped an arm around her and held her tight.
"I have no idea, I don't even know how they did it. But I do know of some people who might be able to help. The people who taught our ancestors how to work the energy of a world. The Nox. Problem is, we don't have the coordinates of their Homeworld." Alexander said.
"But Stargate Command might." Corda said. "We could tell them we want to reach out to our old allies, see if any of them are willing to help find a solution to the dimensional rift. It's not a lie, just not the complete truth. If the Nox can remove it from her, we can use it to close the rift. We just don't tell the Stargate people about it being in her."
"Let's do it!"