I'm dead from all the loneliness, this is how I feel
Understanding everything has never been my deal
Maybe you have crossed my path to live inside of me
Or maybe you're the reason why I'm losing all my decency
But I believe that you and me, we could be so
Happy and free inside a world of misery
And I believe that you and me, we could be so..
Inside of you, inside of me
~"The One", by Limp Bizkit~

..and in that instant, I achieve a higher level of consciousness, of knowing.. I am her and she is me. The light glowing from the metal contraption in our hands is symbollic; it's not changing anything that couldn't have been changed on its own. I look into chocolatey-brown eyes, eyes that belong to her and I at the same time. They are scared and confused, she doesn't understand it yet. That's the difference: I understand and she doesn't. But she will.

The accusations and anger are completely gone from the eyes now. I wonder what she's seeing when she looks at me? Is she seeing what I see, the unity, the symbolism? Or is it lost on her?

"Buffy," I say softly. "Please.."

Her mother comes into the room and stops short, watching the two of us stare at each other. "I called the police?" she offers meekly, as if not sure it was the right thing to do.

My eyes go wide with terror. They'll take her away, and that's not the plan. Of course, there really wasn't a plan until my revelation, but that's not the point. The point is, I can't let them take her.

"Mom, tell them a burglar dressed completely in black ransacked the house, but he's gone now, okay?" I say, the voice coming out of my mouth sounding strange and familiar at the same time.

"What?" she says, aghast.

"Just do it!" I snap, and grab Buffy's arm. My arm. I drag her upstairs and into the bedroom. I quickly shut the door and turn around.

"What the hell is going on?" She's back. And she's pissed. Those dark eyes blaze at me, and if looks could kill, I'd be pushing up daisies.

"I don't.. It's a device the mayor left me that switched our bodies, I guess. I didn't-"

She cuts me off by socking me in the jaw. "You bitch." she says, her voice low and even.

I hold my jaw and sit down on the bed. "I know," I say softly.

She studies me. "Why didn't you turn me in?"

"Huh?"

"You could have let the cops take me, your problems would have been over. Why didn't you?"

I lower my eyes to the bedspread, tracing the checked pattern. "I couldn't. We.. It's meant to be, can't you see that?"

Her eyes narrow. "We're meant to be in each others' bodies, trapped forever in each others' lives? What the hell have you been smoking, because I definitely want some."

"We're one. That's what's meant to be. We're two halves of one person, you know what I mean?"

"No," she says plainly.

I sigh and get up, walking around and motioning. "Okay.. when you died, right? Your Slayerness is in halves now, because there's two, instead of one. Everything about me is dark, and everything about you is light. Now it's like, both halves have dark and light in them. We're whole, we're one."

She stares for a moment, then shakes her head. "You are criminally insane. I can't believe you're actually trying to tell me that I'm supposed to be trapped in your body because it makes us the same, or something."

Joyce peeks in the door. "Um.. I took care of things with the police, and frankly, I don't want to know what this whole thing is about. I'm going to bed."

"Good-night, Mom," Buffy and I say at the same time. Joyce pauses, shakes her head, and leaves, shutting the door behind her.

"You can't be serious," she says without missing a beat.

"I should have known you wouldn't get it. You're the same old, narrow-minded, whiny, bitchy Buffy," I snap.

"Yeah, well now so are you," she retorts. She's got a point.

"Why don't you trust me?" I ask accusingly. I know what I'm talking about with this body-switching thing.

She bursts into laughter. "Trust you? Trust you! You stole my body!"

"That's not the point!" I nearly yell, disbelieving that she could be so dumb.

She shakes her head. "Just.. it's late, I'm tired.. can we just go to sleep and deal with this in the morning?"

I nod and climb under the covers. She does the same, and lays as far away from me as she can. I think it creeps her out to be talking to herself.

===Interlude: Buffy===

Tara seemed to float towards me, a long lavender gown trailing behind her. Her lips don't move but I can hear her voice.

//Unity. Dark and light, yin and yang, peace and war, hot and cold. Opposites. Together. Without one, the other dies. It has no meaning, no purpose. It merely exists. Together they have meaning, you have meaning.//

I think, and my thoughts echo against walls I can't see. //Why us? Why now?//

//I can't answer those questions. Soon Dawn will come and you'll both share the burden.// //Dawn?//

//Sleep now. Morning will come, and you will understand.//

~*~

I wake up confused and uncomfortable, and in my clothes. No, not my clothes. I look down and realize these clothes do not belong to me. Then I realize someone else is in my bed-but that someone else is me. Then I remember. She switched our bodies, the bitch.

But I can't even think that with much conviction. I know what she said last night is true, I knew it even before Tara told me. I can't imagine that the Powers That Be would arrange something as lame as this, but it really does make sense.

The way I see it is like this: Together, we *are* one. We have the ultimate speed, strength, and power. We have light, darkness, love, hatred, ice, fire, and everything in between. We are everything, we are eternal. Together.

But we weren't together. We were two seperated halves; she took all the darkness, the hatred, and the fire, and she turned it on me. And I took the light, love, and, admittedly, the ice, and I used it against her. By switching our bodies, with no hope of switching them back, we have to be together. We have to learn to share everything we took from each other.

===End Interlude===

I wake up to the sun shining in my eyes in an unfamiliar room. Oh, right, I remember, this is my room now. Sorta. I roll over and gaze at myself-only it's not me anymore. Not really. I guess it doesn't matter much, since we're kinda stuck together anyway. I wonder if she'll ever realize that..

Her eyelids flutter slightly as she comes awake, and she gazes at me. She's not angry..

"Hi.." I whisper.

She blinks and squints at the alarm behind my head. "What time does that say?"

I roll over. "Seven-thirty."

She pauses. "Seven-three-oh? It's time.." she says. She rolls out of bed and stands.

"Time?" I'm confused. What's going on?

"It's Dawn.."

"Dawn is at like, five-something.."

"No!" she cries angrily. "It's Dawn, she's here!" She takes off out the door and flies down the stairs. I follow, running after her.

Standing in the living-room is Joyce, and a girl of maybe fourteen or fifteen. Buffy, in my body, pauses..

~*~

I look at Faith's sister, just coming in from getting the morning paper. I brush a few strands of my brunette hair behind my ear.

"Buffy?" Dawn says, looking at me.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you here again? Don't you have your own place to live?"

Faith glares at the kid. "Dawn! Get a life."

Joyce looks at her daughters, the skinny blonde I love, and her brat kid sister. "Faith.. Dawn.. stop. I'm too old for this. Faith, why don't you and Buffy go to Mr. Giles' or something? I think you and Dawn need some time apart."

Faith leans over and kisses me quickly on the lips, her blonde hair preventing us from seeing Dawn rolling her eyes. "Get a room!" she says, and huffs up the stairs.

Faith links her arm in mine and leads me out the door. "See ya, mom!"

"Bye, Mrs. Summers," I call as Faith drags me down the front steps.

She cracks her gum, and something seems wrong about that.. Something seems weird about my walk, too, like it isn't quite right.. But I shrug it off..

I tap on the face of my watch. Damn thing's stuck at seven-thirty..