Disclaimer: The buffyverse and its character's do not belong to me, however Hope does.
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Faith sat alone on the steps of the front porch, tilting her head back she blew out a thick cloud of smoke, looking up at the sky for a few seconds before lowering her head and taking another drag from the cigarette in her hand.
"You smoke?" Hope's voice said breaking through the silence.
"I don't in the future?" Faith asked taking one last drag from the cigarette.
"No I guess you kicked the habit." Hope said stepping out of the shadows
"How long you' been out here?" Faith asked before dropping the cigarette to the ground and crushing it with the heel of her boot.
"Long, enough." Hope shrugged before sitting next to Faith on the steps.
"How's your shoulder?" Faith asked the younger slayer.
"Better." Hope said before turning to Faith
"If I could just go a week without getting my ass kicked, that'd be great." Hope said with a playful smile.
"That bad huh?" Faith asked shifting positions on the step so that she was facing Hope.
"’Took a few good hits." Hope said with a shrug, "For against one, not exactly a fair fight. Hope said before pausing for a moment.
"But here's the thing the one I thought took me out without even breaking a sweat." Hope admitted
"But that doesn't make any sense, the spell was only cast last month, there's no way...how else could they be that good that fast." Faith questioned.
"They were revved up, they’ve gotta be it's the only way...Spike said that just before they left they we're talking about being called to." Hope said
'So we're dealing with something power full enough to give these girls the extra juice, maybe even control them too?" Faith began but stopped when she heard hope laugh.
"Control them? What make's you think they didn't do this out of their own free will? Hope asked.
"Are you sure they didn't know he was..." Faith began but stopped, not really wanting to go down that road.
"I get what you're saying Faith as long as there has been a slayer there's had to have been mistaken identities, good and evil, it all looks the same now, but there are also slayers who choose to walk that path, who choose to take lives. Spell or no spell the end result is still the same, there's still blood on their hands." Hope told Faith
Faith remained silent, fearing where this conversation would lead, when she had first arrived Hope hadn't known anything about what she had done, killing Finch, siding with the Mayor, going to prison, Faith was beginning to think that wasn't so true anymore. Faith was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Hope's voice.
"Giles is home." Hope said as Xander’s car pulled into the driveway.
Faith turned to face Hope only to find the spot next to her on the step empty, looking over her shoulder she saw Hope walking into the house, she remained sat on the step for a few more seconds before heading inside.
Giles and Buffy walked inside the house to find everyone gathered around the living room. Dawn was the first to step forward and give the watcher a quick hug.
"I'm glad your back." she told him before stepping aside.
"Mr Giles." Kennedy greeted from the doorway where she was stood.
"Hello Kennedy." Giles said giving the newly activated slayer a small smile.
A second later Andrew quickly rushed forward and hugged Giles who simply stood there unmoving, before looking at Buffy for some assistance, only to receive none.
"Mr Giles I'm so glad you're back." Andrew said still holding Giles.
"Let go." Giles said but there was no sign of movement on Andrew's part. "Now please." Giles said when Andrew still hadn't move.
Andrew quickly let go and took a few steps back, Giles the turned to see Faith who was now stood beside Dawn.
"Faith." Giles said with a small smile
"Giles." Faith said greeting the watcher.
It was then when Giles spotted a face amongst the group he didn't recognise.
"Ah and you must be Hope, Buffy has been keeping me up to date on recent event's ... I must say it's nice to finally meet you." Giles said extending his hand.
"Nice to see you again Mr. Giles," Hope said shaking his hand, then seeing the confused look that crossed Giles face she explained.
"Oh... we've met before in the future that is..." Hope told him
"Ah yes... how silly of me" Giles chuckled softly before turning to see Xander and WIllow coming up the steps of the front porch.
Xander walked up the steps toward the front door. In his arms he was carrying a large box, so large in fact that he could only just see over the top of it. Walking inside he dumped the heavy box at the foot of the stairs.
"Okay Giles what did you do bring England here with you?" Xander asked rubbing his arms that were possibly an inch or two longer now.
Before Giles could reply Willow placed the box she had being carrying beside Xander's.
"Yeah Giles what's in these anyway?" Willow asked as she stood next to Xander.
"Book's," Giles replied as he opened one of the boxes.
"Okay but don’t you have like a million of those already?" Xander asked seeing that the boxes were in fact filled with books.
"I'm guessing it was you who loaded the boxes into the car in the first place." Hope asked Buffy
"All five of them?" Buffy said with a quick smirk at Xander who clearly wasn't looking forward to bringing the rest of the boxes inside.
"Come on I'll help you..." Hope said seeing the look that washed over Xander’s face only to be quickly replaced with a goofy grin.
"Ah slayer strength to the rescue." he said as they headed towards the door.
"So Giles got anything in those books that could explain what the hell happened tonight?" Faith asked stepping forward.
"I just might, any theories?" Giles asked the group
"I might have a few." Faith told them thinking back to her earlier conversation with Hope
"Right, well best to get started as soon as possible then," Giles said moving over to the boxes.
In the center of a dimly lit warehouse two girls stood in the center of a large blue training mat, each of them holding a quarterstaff as they slowly began to circle each another. One of the girl's was slightly taller then the other and sported a nasty looking scratch across the top of her chest from where the demon had slashed at her with its talons. The smaller girl swung out with the quarterstaff only to have her attack blocked, before ducking to avoid an attack from the taller girl who suddenly began to come at her in a fit of rage, swinging the staff which narrowly avoided connecting with the side of the other girls head.
"That's enough" came a voice from the shadows.
Ignoring the voice she swung out again at the smaller girl who was now on her back on the training mat. The girl closed her eyes knowing she couldn't defend herself from the attack. Waiting for the staff to connect with her head, but it never did. Slowly opening her eye's she saw that’s someone had caught the staff before it could hit her.
"I said that's enough." said the black haired slayer who had thrown Hope into the bar back at
Willy’s before pulling the staff from the slayers hands.
"That's it for tonight, rest." she said helping the smaller slayer to her feet, before turning to face the other.
"One more stunt like that and it'll be me slicing you open not the demons." She said running her fingers over the scratches on the other girls chest.
"So in future I suggest you save your anger for them and not one of your own. Am I clear?" she asked.
Her only reply was a quick nod from the other girl before she walked away. A few seconds after the girl was out of sight a voice broke through the silence.
"The mission was a success." came a man's voice from the shadows. The voice was deep and filled with power.
"We lost a girl, I would hardly call that a success." the black haired slayer replied.
"You did what I asked that's all that matters." the man said
"I don't understand why you didn't just let me kill the slayer back at the bar." she told him.
"Because my dear girl if the rumors I've heard are true and this Hope is indeed from the future, wouldn't it be better to have her on our side?" he asked
"Okay but what makes you so sure the slayer and her watcher will even know where to start after our little stunt at the bar." she asked
"Because..." the man said stepping out of the shadows.
"...Ripper and I go way back." Ethan Rayne told her with a cocky grin.
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