Faith sat on the grassy bank at the edge of the park, watching the children in their costumes as they ran laughing down the street. It was nearly sunset, and she still didn't know if she wanted to go to the stupid party. Buffy was sure that nothing slay-worthy was supposed to be around tonight, it being Halloween and everything, but still.... Buffy had invited Faith to the costume party at the Bronze; all of her friends would be there. Maybe that was the point.

All of Buffy's friends would be there; but the dark-haired Slayer was starting to get the feeling that she didn't have any friends in Sunnydale. There was Buffy, sure. But the dynamic between the two of them was a little tense, now that the novelty had worn off. Ever since the older Slayer had turned down Faith's offer to hang with her at the homecoming thing a couple of weeks earlier, she had been wondering where she and Buffy stood. They might be friends, maybe, but there were other currents there that Faith was still trying to figure out. Until she did, the old habit of keeping her distance seemed to be the best course.

Besides, she knew she'd look really stupid in any kind of costume. She didn't do stupid. So she contented herself with sitting, and watching the kids. She smiled, watching them. They had it good; better than they knew. She'd grown up in a very different way than these children, in a family that didn't have room for laughter. Only for fear.

The rim of the sun slipped below the horizon, and Faith stood up, dusting off her hands. Maybe she'd walk by the Bronze and peek inside, just to see what was going on. Anything was better than going back to that motel room. She took a step, and screamed as a burning lance of pain pierced her heart. Every muscle she had turned to jelly and she fell straight down onto the ground, writhing in agony. She'd never, Never felt anything like this! Every inch of her skin was on fire, every vein felt like it was full of ice. She gasped for air, struggling keep from crying out again. She could still hear children's voices, and the sounds of passing cars. No one had noticed her collapse. Long moments went by, and though the pain didn't go away, it slowly transformed into something else.

Pressure. She felt like some incredible force was slowly seeping into her through every pore, pushing more and more of itself into her body. She pressed her hands against the sides of her head, hard. It felt like her skull would explode if she let go, even for an instant. Something inside her chest was expanding, pushing outwards. Her arms, her legs, every finger and toe felt like it was about to rupture. A whimper escaped her lips before she could clamp down on it; and she wondered if this was how she would die.

Abruptly, a slender column of golden light thrust out of her chest. It hung there for a moment, and even in her pain and confusion she stared at it in wonder. Slowly, another one reached out of her, and then a thicker one, to which the smaller two were joined.

Faith lay on her back, staring up at the thing that was climbing up out of her, and she realized that it was a person. The outline of head was visible now, and the arms that had been the first things she had seen. The glowing form pulled itself up, raising its torso and legs free of her body. As it did, the searing pain, and crushing sense of pressure, slowly faded. It stood over her, and she lay there, overcome by the sudden cessation of pain.

The figure was made of shimmering gold light, with swirls of crimson and ebony threaded through it like nerves, or veins. It turned slowly, seeming to look around. Without a visible face, it was hard to tell exactly where it was looking, if it could see at all. Faith felt her strength returning, and she gathered herself; Buffy had been wrong about Halloween night, looked like. She managed a faint grin; if this thing thought it could hurt her like that and not get some hurt in return, then it was about to get a big surprise.

The thing suddenly rippled, and began to change. She stared up at it, thoughts of attack forgotten. The glow faded even as it seemed to come into focus, resolving itself into the form of a human being. Pale skin, black hair and tank top, red leather pants. Faith lay there, frozen, as the girl standing over her turned and looked down with dark brown eyes that she knew as well as her own.

Because they were her own. Faith stared up into her own face, and the other gave her a lopsided smile.

"Hey girlfriend."

*********

Faith sat up, staring at the image of herself that stood there, looking back at her.

"What the fuck is this?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper, not as firm as she'd been trying for. Her double was looking down at herself, running her hands over her body like she expected part of it to be missing. She raised her top and ran her fingers across her flat belly, giving a soft sigh of relief. Faith found herself growing impatient.

"I said; what is going on? Who are you?"

The other girl looked up, blinking in surprise. "Sorry. Rough trip, my first time doing this kinda shit." She extended a hand. "Hi Faith, I'm Faith, the Slayer." Her eyes were sparkling with wicked humor. "How the hell are you?"

Faith scrambled back a few feet before getting to her feet. This girl looked just like her all right, but there were differences. She had a tank top like the one her double was wearing, but she didn't have any pants like those. The hair was straight, not curly, and it was way too long, reaching halfway down the other girl's back. Still... in every other way, it was herself she was looking at.

"Is this some kind of dumbass demon trick? Did I fall asleep next to a pod, or something?" The other had turned her head to watch the trick or treaters across the street. There was the strangest expression on her face.... She looked back at Faith.

"No, no trick. I'm me, and I'm you, too." She took in Faith's expression and grinned. "I know, believe me I know. I'm not trying to bullshit you, here. It's just...." She shrugged. "Well, I'm from your future."

Faith stared at her for a full minute, trying to work that one out. Finally, she spoke. "No fucking way." All that got was another grin.

"Think it through. Where are we, again?" She spread her arms wide. "Sunnydale, remember? And what night is this?" She tilted her head back, staring up at the sky. Low, dark clouds were being pushed quickly past, driven by winds that never touched them where they stood. The last light of the vanished sun splashed across their undersides, giving them an eerie, unreal appearance. The other Faith went on in a whisper. "Samhain, when the veil between worlds grows thin. Spirits can travel back from the other side, they can speak to us, and we to them." She lowered her gaze back to Faith. "Is it so much different for me to be able to slip past the borders between what is, and what was?" She paused for a second, and then gave a laugh. "Listen to me; I sound like a freakin' Watcher."

Faith looked at the other, watching how she stood, how she moved and spoke. Without taking her eyes away, she lowered herself back down to sit on the grass. "You're really me, aren't you?"

The other Faith looked back, her face serious now. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm you. Sure, there is that 'First Evil' thing. It could probably do something that looked like this, and maybe convince you of anything it wanted." Seeing Faith's uncomprehending expression, the other girl waved a hand. "Buffy hasn't met that yet, and I'm not it, anyway. Forget I said anything." She sat down opposite Faith, so close that their knees almost touched. "I'm you, one year from now. I did some Astral Projection stuff to get here."

Faith scowled. "Okay then, why? Why come back?"

The other Faith sat there, with her legs folded under her, and stared back. "Why do you think?"

She blinked. Huh? Why not just tell her why? It wasn't like it was a trick question, or anything. The future version of herself just sat there, looking at her, seeming like she could wait all night, if that's what it took. Was it that she had to guess, or her other self wouldn't tell her? Wait. That was it.

Faith looked at her other self, her eyes wide. "This is it, isn't it?"

No answer, just that patient look. "She told me, back in Boston, right before.... She told me that there would be a test, someday. Is this it?"

The other Faith nodded slowly. "Yes. This is the test. They sent me back to lead you through it, to make sure you're good enough to be their soldier-girl."

Faith was a bit surprised at the bitterness in her older-self's voice. Sure, she herself was not a huge fan of the stuffy British crowd, but they were the bosses, after all. The other girl was playing with her hair, twisting the long, straight strands into coils, then letting them spin loose. She seemed fascinated with her fingers, too. She was running her hands over the grass where she sat, but she seemed to have no substance. The green blades remained undisturbed, and she stopped trying to touch them. When she looked up, there was a haunted look in her eyes; a sort of sad emptiness. Faith looked away, hoping that this didn't mean that she was going to get all flaky at some point in the next year.

"Uh, okay then. What do I do?"

The other was silent for a long moment, then gave a quick nod.

She stood with an easy grace that Faith duplicated with her flesh and blood body. The older Faith started off through the park, and the younger one followed after.

They were walking down the street, now. Faith watched as her other self strode along, grinning around her at all the people who couldn't see her. The girl broke into a trot, running in wide circles around the Slayer, hopping and skipping like a little girl at recess. Faith shook her head.

"Are you, I don't know, drunk, or something?"

Her older self rejoined her, crossing the distance in a series of exuberant hops, to end walking backwards, facing her. She bounced a few more times, her long, straight hair flying around her.

"Nope, I'm diggin' the freedom." She smiled wistfully. "It's just... you don't know how long it's been, since I was able to--" She blinked, focusing on the younger Slayer again. "Sorry. Got carried away there, is all." She turned and resumed walking forward.

Faith was thoughtful as they turned at the next corner and headed towards the South-Eastern part of town. "You're from my future...." The older Faith turned back to face her.

"For the fifth time: yeah." She was sounding a bit annoyed, but the Slayer ignored her.

"...Then tell me what happens to me. Between where I am and where you are. You know; the highlights."

Her future self shook her head firmly. "Nope, can't happen." Faith opened her mouth, but the other girl overrode her firmly. "I can't tell you that. I'm not just walking around here, shooting the breeze with you, you know." She made a gesture that took in the street all around them. "The whole universe is set up to keep past, present and future separated. I'm only able to be here 'cause I sort of slipped through a loophole in the rules, and even so, I'm spending energy like crazy just to exist here without a body." She lowered her voice. "I have to be 'quiet' while I'm back here. If the freakin' cosmic forces notice me, I'm gone; slingshotted back to where I started. Telling you stuff that would change the future, that would sort of, I don't know, make 'ripples' in time, or something. Too much of that, and I get knocked off of the tightrope I'm walking, here." She fixed Faith with a stern gaze. "I will tell you this; you're in for a wild year."

The young Slayer shoved her hands in her pockets, looking away as disappointment filled her. "No kidding. I could have told you that much."

They walked along in silence for several minutes. Faith finally looked up, realizing that they were nearing the Bronze.

"Hey, are we going to the party?"

The other Faith was searching the shadows along the edge of the street. "Not--" She looked over her shoulder at the younger Slayer. "No. What we want is through here." She moved down an alley, and Faith followed. The dim passage opened up into a small parking lot. A short distance away, several cars were sitting in front of a liquor store. As the pair of them approached, a trio of young men emerged from the store carrying paper bags. Two girls, who looked to be around nineteen or twenty years old, were waiting by a car.

Faith sighed. Just a bunch of college kids, gearing up for some partying. Unlike herself, she thought. Her double was staring intently at the group. She nodded in satisfaction, and turned to face the Slayer.

"Okay, here we go. This is the first round coming up." She pointed. "Watch this guy here." Faith watched.

He seemed normal enough, talking with his buddies, laughing at their jokes. Still.... She wasn't sure if it was something anyone would notice, or only someone who was looking for something odd, but he was a bit 'off'. He was grinning at his friends, but it was forced. His laugh seemed... brittle, somehow. Her older self leaned close, speaking in a low voice, as if she were afraid the group would hear.

"None of the others realize it, but Jim here is on the edge. Well, he's past the edge, actually." She was surveying the sandy-haired man with narrowed eyes. "About a week ago, something really bad happened to him. Either he did something, or something was done to him, and he broke." She raised her hands and mimed snapping something in half. "He's walking around and pretending everything's okay, but he basically doesn't care if he lives or dies." She glanced at Faith. "That's a bad thing when it comes to fighting off the bad stuff. His aura is barely there; his defenses are gone."

Jim had handed his load of party supplies to one of his friends. The Slayers heard him tell the others to wait while he hit the bathroom, and then he was walking around the corner of the building. Her older self nudged her, and Faith walked across the brightly-lit parking lot. She passed just a few yards from the group, smiling slightly as the guys leaning against the car paused to check her out. One of them started to call out an invitation, but his buddy grabbed him by the arm and shook him, laughing.

Faith's older self shook her head. "You know what it is?" She reached out and tugged at the mass of curly hair that hung to the younger girl's shoulders. "It's this hair. I never realized it, but this makes me, you, look too damn young."

Faith shot her a dark look, but her double only smiled. They rounded the corner. There was Jim, leaning against the building next to the door of the men's room. His eyes were closed, and he was shuddering, racked with soundless sobs. Faith paused; he was only a couple of steps away. She looked at her older self, one eyebrow raised. The older Faith was staring up into the night sky.

"Just another couple of seconds... I can feel it coming."

Moments trickled by, and a slight breeze stirred the air around them. It was warm, but Faith was suddenly shivering. She had the sensation of her stomach falling, like she was in a rapidly descending elevator. Whatever it was that was coming, something deep inside her was reacting to it. Inside her soul the Slayer-power was waking up and taking notice. Her double was watching her.

"Yep, that's what you feel." Her eyes went past Faith's shoulder. "And there it is."

The Slayer whirled, a stake appearing in her hand. Rolling towards them across the barren expanse of the parking lot came a mass of... something. It was transparent, or nearly so, but there was also a faint luminescence coming from it, like a mass of slowly boiling moonlight was approaching. It moved slowly, but with a dream-like feeling of inevitability. A car pulled into the parking lot, passing right through the thing, but the driver didn't even flinch.

The older Slayer was standing with her arms folded under her breasts, watching it come closer.

"It's invisible to the norms, of course. You'd have to be a sensitive to even know it was around." It was headed straight for Jim, who was oblivious to everything. Faith backed hurriedly away, prompting her twin to laugh. "Don't worry; it can't do jack unless you're already open to it. Or unless you let it in. You're fine. This guy, though...." She tossed her head, indicating the sobbing man. "He's about to get a visitor."

The thing had been drifting along, but as it approached him, it seemed to gather itself. Pausing for just a heartbeat, it surged forward, engulfing him. He spasmed, jerking upright, standing so rigidly that every tendon stood out clearly. His eyes were open, and his mouth was distended in a soundless scream. Faith took another step back, watching as the entity seemed to pour itself inside of him. A few seconds was all it took, and then it was just a man standing there. He slowly relaxed, running his hands over his clothing, breathing deeply. When he turned, his eyes were calm, but there was something inhuman looking out through them. He seemed surprised, looking from Faith to her other self, and back. Faith found her voice.

"All right; what the fuck is this thing?"

The older Slayer was the one backing away, now. Not because she was scared; at least, she didn't seem scared. It was more like she was giving them both some room. "It doesn't really matter. It could be a dead person, or even more than one. It might be some kind of demon, just looking for a real body." She shrugged casually. "Either way, it's evil, and it's going to go out there and get in the car with those other people. If you let it do that, then they're not going to live to see sunup." She glanced at Faith. "So, here's part one of your test: Stop it, preferably while not killing the guy." Pretending to look at her watch, Faith's twin continued. "You have forty minutes, use only a number two pencil, fill in the boxes completely."

She looked up to where the Slayer was facing the man. A shimmering distortion, like the heat-haze above a bonfire, surrounded him. His face was inhumanly calm as he stalked forward. She spared other girl a last glance before putting away the stake. Dropping back into a ready stance, she watched him come.

********

He came at her, and Faith bounced back a step, keeping the range open. She was still trying to figure out what she was going to do. Her usual style was to drive in and just keep pounding on her opponent until he fell down. If she did that here, then poor Jim was going to end up a bloody smear on the asphalt. The entity lunged forward, and she spun away, keeping out of reach. Off to the side, Faith's older self gave an exasperated sigh.

"If you keep that up we'll be here all night. Besides, his soul won't last long with that thing in there with him. I give him ten minutes, tops." She sank down into a lotus position, watching the two move back and forth across the back lot of the store. "His friends are going to come looking for him eventually, too."

Faith ducked under the thing's reaching arms. He was faster than a normal human should be, and he seemed to be getting more confident in moving the stolen body.

"If you want to help, then tell me how to get this thing out without killing him. Otherwise, shut up!"

The other girl smiled faintly, examining her fingernails. "That's for you to figure out; I'm just here to keep score. The watchers gave me strict instructions on how to do this; no hints allowed."

Faith nearly missed a dodge and had to dive and roll to get clear of his next swing. "'Watchers'? You mean there's more than one?"

He charged forward, his face still dead calm. That was the most unnerving part of the whole thing. His fingers caught the sleeve of her jacket, yanking her backwards a step before the denim tore. Off balance, she was forced to somersault backwards, then backpedal frantically as he pursued her.

The other Slayer looked chagrined. "Whoops. Slip of the tongue. I'll be quiet, now. Let you focus."

Faith found her balance. Enough. It was time to see what this thing could handle. He came at her, and this time she stepped straight into him. One arm drove forward like a piston, her open palm slamming into his chest. She pulled it, only using half her strength, but he let out a grunt, and was hurled back about five feet. He kept his feet, though, and came right back at her. He swung a fist at her, and she reached up and caught it just in front of her face. He was stronger than a man his size should be, too. But not strong enough. Her arm trembling only slightly, she slowly pushed his fist back.

She flashed him a grin of triumph... and choked back a scream. Tendrils of distortion and moonlight erupted from his arm and fist, snaking forward to dig into her flesh. They didn't tear her skin; they passed through it, anchoring themselves inside her. She let him go and tried to pull away, but the tendrils held firm. It felt like red-hot wires were being shoved up inside her hand and forearm, and she gritted her teeth against the agony lancing through her. The man took a step forward, reaching out with his other hand. More of the shimmering strands writhed and twisted into view from those fingers, and she leaned back. Her sneakers scrabbled on the pavement, trying to find traction enough to let her pull away. She dragged him forward a step, but this was a situation where mass counted more than strength. He was bigger than she was, and she wasn't going to be able to pull away from him.

Abruptly, she stopped pulling. Ignoring the tendrils buried up in her arm, she grabbed his wrist. Lifting both feet off the ground, she let herself fall, putting her sneakers into his solar plexus as gently as she could manage. Her back hit the ground as he was pulled forward, off-balance and leaning over her. She pulled him lower, then used both legs to push into him; hard. He flew over her, still held by her grip on his wrist, and slammed into the asphalt.

Still on her back, Faith torqued herself around. Looking down past her legs, she saw his eyes as he glared at her. Those eyes were colorless, seething pits of swirling energy. She drew back one foot and slammed it home right into that face. The burning in her arm got worse, reaching all the way to her elbow now. She drove her foot home again, and again, grunting with the effort. Tears of pain were running from both of her eyes, now, but she wasn't going to give up. She was not going to let this thing win. It might have been her watering eyes, or the pain, but she almost thought that she could see some kind of gold light flashing from the point of impact each time her foot smashed into the guy.

There was no doubt about the blood streaming from his nose and mouth. Finally, blessedly, he let her go. Instantly she was rolling away. Bounding to her feet, she watched him, cradling her right arm against her chest. There were no visible wounds, but it felt like she'd been wrestling with a mile of barbed wire.

He came to his feet. With a puzzled expression, he raised on hand to his pulped and bloody lips.

"More where that came from, asshole." She raised her good hand and beckoned him closer. "Come and get it."

He lowered his hand, those hellish eyes locked on her. Without warning, a thick bundle of the ghostly strands erupted from his chest. Faith didn't have time to move before they plunged into her own chest, driving out her breath in a tidal wave of torment. They stood like that, connected by that rippling tentacle of energy. Faith kept her feet, but all of her strength was gone. It was like being impaled by a burning spear, like hungry rats eating their way right through her. Out of reflex she clawed at the bundle of tendrils with both hands, but that only made it worse. Smaller strands stabbed into her palms, working their way into her flesh. She was burning alive, and there was nothing she could do. The tendrils began to pull back into him, and they were pulling her life out after them. She'd closed her eyes, biting her lip until she tasted blood, trying to endure it. She felt her essence, her very self, stretching; pulled taut between her body and his. She opened her eyes.

A hazy, golden glow surrounded her entire body. It was flaring and shifting, and the entity's tendrils were sunk deep into it, pulling it out of her like stiff taffy. She focused past it; staring at his face.

"No." Her voice was hoarse, but she felt stronger just for having said it. "No!" A ripple went through the gold, and it wasn't being pulled out of her anymore. She buried her hands in the pulsing cable of energy that connected them... and pulled. His eyes widened, shock registering for the first time, as suddenly it was his life-force that was being pulled away from his body. He fought her, but she bared her teeth in a snarl of determination. The tendrils buried in her hands let go, but she didn't stop. The entity's body was dragged forward a step, and it released its grip inside her chest. She dragged in a shuddering breath, but didn't stop. Her hands were swathed in blazing gold, and they pulled at the entity's life with slow, inexorable force.

She was the Slayer, and she was stronger than this thing.

She had masses of glowing spirit-energy floating around her, and still it came out of him. She was pulling it out hand over hand now, taking slow steps forward until she was face to face with him. His face with distorted with pain, and sweat was streaming down his face. He raised a fist and took an awkward swing at her, but just ducked her head out of the way... and pulled. The last of the thing came out of him, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping.

It was like trying to hang on to a basket of snakes, but Faith kept hold of the thing, ripping and tearing at it with both hands. Long pieces of it floated away, unraveling as they went. After a long minute, the last of it was shredded, fading away into the still night air.

She held up her hands, watching the golden glow play over her flesh. Slowly, the shimmer grew fainter, finally vanishing.

Off to the side, her future self slowly clapped her hands. "One down, two to go." She tilted her head to one side. "I hope you don't think they're all going go be that easy."

*****

Faith walked past the young people standing in front of the store, listening with half an ear as their buddy Jim staggered over to join them. From the sound of it, he didn't have any clear idea of what had just happened to him.

The other girl strode alongside her. "That went well, I think." She looked back over her shoulder. "And don't worry; having his soul smacked around by that thing should mean that his memory will be all confused. He shouldn't remember you."

The Slayer nodded, working the fingers of her hand. A fierce tingle was running through those parts of her that the entity had latched onto, and the residual pain was fading. "What now?"

Her older self shrugged. "We've got some time to kill before the next one. Wanna get something to drink?"

That sounded good, and a short time later they were both leaning against the side of a building along Sunnydale's main street. Trick or treaters were still abundant, and moviegoers were lined up in front of the theater across the way. Faith sipped her cola, watching the crowd. After a few seconds, she started to get a strange feeling, and she turned her head to the side. The other Faith was watching her intently, an odd look on her face. Faith lowered the drink, wondering at the faint chill that had just gone through her.

"Are you sure you can't manage any of this?" She offered the coke. Her other self shook her head.

"No, thanks. Even if I feel solid to you, I'm not really here."

The Slayer nodded. Then paused. "Where are you?"

"Huh?" She turned to face the other girl.

"Your spirit, or soul, or whatever, is here with me. Where's your body?" She gestured around them. "Are you living in Sunnydale, or did I ever get to move to Seattle like I decided I wanted to, last week?"

The older girl seemed to consider her response. "I think it's safe to say that I'm in Sunnydale...."

Faith nodded, unsurprised at that. "But, is somebody watching you, while you're here? I'd hate to get drained by a vamp because I was running around in the past. I mean, I'd hate for it to happen to you, but it'll be me, eventually. So, you know."

Her other self grinned. "I knew what you meant. Um. Yeah, my body is being... cared for."

She was still picking her words carefully, and Faith was still trying to figure out what was going on here. Suddenly, she whirled to face the other girl.

"I'm dead, aren't I?!" She felt all the blood leave her face, and she thought she might be sick right there on the sidewalk. "Fuck, that's it, isn't it? I'm dead, and you're a ghost."

Her double was playing with her hair again, looking down at the lock she'd pulled forward over her shoulder. She glanced up at Faith, even as her fingers deftly wove the dark strands into a tiny braid. "I think I'll have to pass on that one."

The younger girl took a step forward, her shock quickly turning to anger. "What! What do you mean, 'pass'?"

Some of the passersby were staring, giving a wide berth to the pretty girl who was ranting at a bare section of a wall. Faith the elder gave her an amused look. "Okay, try and follow me, here. If I tell you that yeah, you'll be dead in a year, then you might decide to not even try, and go jump in front of a bus right now. On the other hand, if I say 'Nope, I'm alive', then you might think that you're invincible, and do something stupid that gets you killed." She flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "So I'm going to leave it up to you to figure it out."

Faith put one hand to her stomach, feeling the queasiness there.

The other girl watched her for a moment, then gave a sigh. Leaning closer, she spoke softly, like someone might overhear. "But just between you and me.... Knowing how well we can kick ass, if it were me, I'd be betting on you being alive, a year from now." She straightened, looking around unconcernedly. "But that's strictly a playing the odds sort of thing. I'm not actually saying, one way or the other."

Faith swallowed, trying to slow her breathing to something like normal. She reached out to squeeze her twin's shoulder gratefully. "Thanks."

The other girl shook her head. "For what? I didn't say anything." She turned her head and stared down the street. "Uh oh, I can feel the next one lining up. We'd better go." She walked quickly down the street, passing with blissful disregard through the pedestrians. Faith, following after, wove her way between them but still managed to keep pace.

*******

Three streets over, they came to a seedy bar. A dozen or so motorcycles were parked out front, and the overamplified country music blasting out of the place grated across her nerves. She looked at the other girl, a feeling of dread coming over her.

"In there?"

The other Slayer was giving the place a long look. "Yeah.... At least, he's in there." She glanced at Faith. "But that's not where you'll meet him." She turned and took off at a brisk jog. The younger girl followed, matching her speed.

"What's this? Don't I have to fight the guy? It is a guy, right?"

Her future self nodded. "It's a guy. And you do have to fight him. But you shouldn't fight him in the middle of a bar filled with drunk-off-their-asses bikers, either. 'Sides," She nodded at the road they were running beside. "It doesn't get him until he's somewhere along here, on his way home."

A mile or so passed in silence, with both of them running easily. Of course, Faith wasn't sure the other girl's astral body was actually running in the same sense that hers was. Maybe future Faith was just 'thinking' about running down this road. Hm.

Speaking of thinking.... "Answer a question?"

That got her a look. "Maybe. Try me."

Faith thought it over for a few hundred yards, trying to figure out what she wanted to ask. Finally: "Why am I doing this?"

Silence from the other for a second or two before she responded. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if you're there, with the Watcher. Or Watchers, if I heard you right, earlier.... Then why am I the one getting tested? Why aren't they testing you? You're the one they have to work with, right?"

Her twin spread her hands. "Hey, I just work for these people, I can't read their minds." She looked thoughtful. "I suppose they want to find out what you're made of before they waste too much time on you. Who knows what these guys are up to, anyway?"

Her tone made Faith slow down for a few seconds before speeding up to run alongside the other girl. What they were up to? There was a lot of bitterness there, sounded like. She would have to think about that later. She tossed her hair back from her face, keeping her breathing even. "All right, how about this? If you're me, then you've already done all this. You know how it's going to turn out, because you've already gone through it. So why do I have to do it at all? Can't you just go back and tell them how it went, and leave me alone?"

The older Faith made a rude sound. "Do you know how stupid that sounds?" She put one hand to her head. "Man, you're really trying to give me a headache, aren't you? Let me see if I can explain...."

The occasional oncoming car went past, throwing Faith's shadow off into the grass beside the road. Not surprisingly, her twin had no shadow at all. "Okay, try this." The other girl dropped into a lecturer's voice. "I went back in time, but I didn't go to my own past. At least, not exactly. Imagine that time is like a piece of string." She paused, making a face. "On second thought, don't; I hated that show. Imagine that time is like... a water hose."

Faith stared at her incredulously, nearly missing her footing on the dark roadside. "'Time is a water hose'."

The other Faith nodded. "Yeah, that works pretty well, actually. Picture it like this. Time is this hose, and at one end it runs off into the past; that's where the water is coming from. Water being like, the world and all of us. We're flowing along inside this hose. And the other end is the future, and it's just out there doing whatever, but that's not the important part of this. So here I am, going back in time, right? Except I can't go straight back, because that's not how the water's going. I can't fight that current, it's impossible. See what I'm saying?"

Faith stared straight ahead. "I'm still trying to deal with the waterhose thing."

The other girl gave a snort. "Deal with it. So if I can't fight the current, how can I go back to sometime in my past? I can't." She shot Faith a look. "But I can get close. Imagine taking the hose, and looping it around. So one end is still hooked up to the past, and one end is still running off into the future, but now it's coiled up with a loop of it laying right up against itself. The water is still running in the right direction, but the hose has gone back to where it was before. From a distance, or the right angle. it might seem like that looped part is the same piece as was there the first time. Get it?"

Faith jogged for a hundred steps before answering. "No." She looked at her other self. "You're right here, you came back."

The future Faith sighed. "Look, I'm not the expert. I did it, and that's what I saw while I was doing it. This isn't quite my past. What you've done and said to me aren't exactly the same things I said when I was where you are. The broad outlines are close, but the details are different. So you're not locked into anything here, not really. You can change your future; you already are, every second. But the general trend will be the same, probably. Maybe not, though." She shrugged. "So that's why I'm here. You're doing your own thing here, and they need to know how you do."

Something about all of this still struck Faith as being... off, somehow. She tried to find the flaw in the explanation that she's been given. She had the feeling that there was one.

Her older self jogged a few yards ahead of her, then turned right, off onto a smaller side road. "Here we go, third house down." It was a nice house, set in an immaculately groomed lawn. Faith walked across the springy grass, noting the neat rows of flowers in the beds along the drive. She turned to look at the road, swinging her arms idly, trying to stay loose. Her twin was also looking back towards town. "He's on his way. It won't be long."

Faith dropped down to the ground, stretching her legs out straight in front of her. She took hold of her feet and pulled her head down until it lay against her knees. After that run she needed to stretch out. Especially if there was another fight coming up. The other girl stood looking down at her.

"Want to know what we learned from the first one?"

The young Slayer sat upright, pulling a blade of grass from her hair. "Sure, tell me."

"That you're strong. Being the Slayer is all about being strong, both inside and out." She looked back at the house behind them for a moment. "You beat that thing with brute strength, but sometimes being strong isn't enough. Even the Slayer isn't stronger than everything. You have to be something else, too."

She looked up at her twin. "What else do I have to be?"

All that got her was a rueful smile. "That's what we're here to find out. Here he comes."

She looked out at the road, picking out a pair of headlights. They made the turn, and she saw a luxury sedan of some kind coming slowly down the street. It pulled into the drive, and she stood up, brushing off her hands. The car door opened and a man got out. Faith walked across the grass to meet him.

******

This was a big man. He had broad shoulders and dark hair, but any details were hard to make out. He was wrapped in such a powerful aura of shimmering distortion that it made his features seem to blur and shift. Faith could feel the power blazing out of him from fifty feet away.

"Holy Shit."

Her twin was standing behind her. "Yeah. Doesn't look like you'll be able to out arm-wrestle this one, does it?"

Funny.

He stared at her for a moment, then turned away, walking up the drive. The other Faith pushed her a step forward.

"Don't let him get inside the house." She pulled away from her older self, straightening her shoulders. Breathing deeply, she trotted across the lawn, cutting him off on the sidewalk that led to the front door. The thing never even slowed; it stalked up to her and unleashed a backhand. Faith got an arm up to block, but let out a grunt as she was knocked aside, doing a full rotation in mid-air before crashing down in the grass. She managed enough of a roll to absorb some of the impact, but her arm was throbbing painfully.

He was stronger than the last one, all right. She got to her feet. The entity had brought its host body to the front door, now, and was fumbling in its pockets for the keys. It was ignoring her. That wasn't going to last long. Bounding onto the porch, she fired a fist forward into the base of his spine.

He staggered against the door, and she hit him over and over, as fast as she could work her arms. She was pounding his kidneys when he whirled. She slapped her palms against both his ears, as hard as she could, then scrambled back as he reached for her. He roared, staggering out onto the lawn after her, blood streaming from both ears.

From off to the side, the older Faith was observing with interest. "Hm, let me see, here...." She ran a finger over her lips, staring at the thing with her eyes narrowed in concentration. "This is Paul. He's a successful business-guy of some kind... and he's channeling the ghost of his father." She blinked, looking closer. "And his grandfather... and his father, and his father, blah blah blah." She waved a hand in dismissal. "I'm not sure how many generations, exactly, but there's a crowd in there. Looks like some kind of family curse thing going on with this one."

Faith was too busy to spare more than a sliver of her attention for what her twin was saying. This one was only a little faster than a man, but it was a shitload stronger. She was spending most of her time ducking and dodging his swings. She sure as hell wasn't going to try another block. He kept coming after her, and even though the aura of distortion around him made it hard to tell, she had the impression that his face was twisted into a snarl of rage. His attacks were wide sweeps of his arms, with almost no footwork at all. He was spending a lot of time off-balance, reaching for her or stumbling from the force of his swings. She launched the occasional jab or low kick, watching how he moved.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the older Slayer shook her head in silent disapproval. Faith wondered what she was doing wrong. The man gave a scream of rage and frustration, charging her with wide-open arms. She turned and unleashed a side kick into his gut, giving it everything she had. He came to a sudden stop, but otherwise seemed unfazed. She pulled her leg back before he could grab it, backing away.

Her future self gave a sigh. "No, being strong was the first lesson. This is part two."

Faith wanted to snarl. She stayed ahead of him, and the next time he reached for her, she reversed direction, moving into him along his left side. Grasping his arm, she set herself and yanked him forward and down. Already off-balance, he executed an involuntary forward somersault, slamming down hard on his back. She spun into a sitting position with her legs across his chest, his wrist still held firmly in her hands. She levered the arm across her thigh; if he struggled now, she could snap his elbow in a heartbeat. He didn't seem to understand, reaching up with his free hand to grab her by the hair. She gritted her teeth and forced his captive arm past the breaking point.

Or at least, she tried. It wouldn't move. She used all the strength in both her arms, trying to budge one of his, but it would not move. Using the grip on her hair, he pulled her off him, twisting to come up onto his knees. He held her in place with one hand, and with the other he hit her. He used his open hand, striking her across the face, but the force of it rocked her head back. She brought her arms up, trying to protect herself, but forced them away, wrestling with her until he had her pinned beneath him. She writhed, trying to throw him off, fighting to remember her skills. She knew how to fight someone stronger than she was, how to use their own strength against them, but that knowledge was out of reach, somewhere beyond a rising tide of fear. He hit her again, harder, and she tasted blood in her mouth. He hit her again, and again, and again, in a steady rhythm, and she could feel herself falling into a feeling of helpless hysteria. This was just like--

Her father. The beatings, the rape. She'd been just eight when he started, and he was so much stronger that she couldn't fight him. But she'd never stopped trying; it wasn't in her to stop trying.

Years of that, and she never stopped fighting him. Her brother hadn't fought back. He'd only gotten the beatings, mostly when the old man was drunk, but with him it was brutal. Broken bones, burns from the stove. In the end, he'd died of it, and their mother became a junkie, just to escape from what her husband had become. Only Faith had fought him, as best she could. In the end, running away was the only thing that had kept her alive.

He seemed to lose interest in her, letting her go and rising to his feet. Faith lay on the ground, feeling the world spin around her. She heard him moving towards the house, but she was still struggling with the past that had escaped from the barriers she'd put around it, surprising her with the power it still had, to turn her into a helpless child again. Her twin knelt beside her.

"I know it's hard, but you need to get up. All of these guys inside him, they're just like dad. That's what they're here for, to rape and kill the wife and kids." She caressed Faith's face with gentle fingers. "You can fight him; you can. But you have to remember that you're fighting spirits, more than a man, here. Physical stuff is just a side-effect; it's your mind that has power here, more than fists." She stood up, still looking down at where Faith lay on the grass. "You couldn't fight him then; you were just a little girl. But you can use what he gave you. Just let it out."

She closed her eyes. The other girl's words had eased her fear, and she reached out for what lay behind it. The fear was a wall, built brick by brick by every horrible thing her father had ever done to her. But there was something behind that wall, something else that had come from those years.

Rage.

Faith opened her eyes, and the fear fell away. The pain fell away.

Only the rage was left.

She came to her feet, turning slowly to look at the house. The man had been reaching for the door again, but he paused, as if aware of her gaze. He turned to face her, and she was walking forward, so full of boiling fury that it felt as if she were floating across the ground towards him. A golden haze seemed to lay over everything in her sight, but she ignored it, focusing her entire being on the man before her.

He reached for her, and she struck his arm aside. He was still stronger than she was, but a gold flash erupted from her hand at the point of contact, and his limb was thrown back. She rammed her fist into his stomach, and gold light illuminated the space between them. He fought back, clubbing at her with incredibly powerful arms.

It didn't matter.

She was consumed with a fury that had been a part of her for most of her life. It moved through her like a flame, setting every part of her on fire. She was a conduit for a rage that transcended anything that could be described, or defined, or restrained. She had never been able to punish her father, but this thing she could punish, this thing she could destroy. The Slayer-power took her fury, and turned it into a weapon that could do what her fists and feet could not. Every blow she delivered seared the entity with gold fire; with her bare hands she grabbed hold of the thing that was inhabiting this man, and she tore it from him.

He screamed, long and loud, and she screamed too. Finally, after so long, to know release. She stared at the mass of shimmering spirit-stuff she held in her glowing hands. It writhed like a mass of maggots, radiating evil like a fire gave off heat. With a vicious smile, she tore it asunder. A ripple of distortion, a last, lingering howl that was felt more than heard, and it was gone.

Faith took a step back, wiping her hands convulsively. The stink of the thing seemed to cover her, and the gold light was gone once again. She stood there, the rage still coiling through her. The man was laying before her, groaning incoherently. She turned away.

"What lesson was this?" Her voice was harsh, and she was still trembling with the force of the emotion that had rushed through her in such a powerful torrent. Her twin was watching the man awkwardly rise to a sitting position, and she replied almost absently.

"That passion is more powerful than strength."

She nodded. "All right. Let's motor." She'd taken several steps towards the road when she realized that her other self hadn't moved. She sent the girl a questioning look.

The older Faith met her eyes calmly, then turned towards the house. The Slayer followed her gaze. The front door was open, the silhouette of a woman visible against the light from inside. The man staggered to his feet, and even from where she stood, Faith could see the woman flinch as she saw him. He was at least slightly drunk, and even though the entity possessing him had absorbed the brunt of the damage during the fight, he was battered and bruised. He glared at her, one hand going to touch a rapidly-swelling eye.

"Get off my property right now, Bitch." He clenched his hand into a fist, but didn't move to approach her. "Go on! Leave!"

She was still looking past him at the woman in the doorway, trying to make her out more clearly. A dangerous void was swelling inside her; those memories had been roused after being suppressed for so long. If this was....

"Paul?" The woman's voice was tentative, almost fearful. "Are you all right?"

His tension and fear of Faith exploded into rage, and he whirled. "Shut up!"

She cringed back in the doorway, and he strode up the walk, leaving Faith standing on the lawn. Her older self came up beside her as she stared after him. They shared a bleak look. Faith started towards the house.

The man reached the doorway, grabbing the woman by the hair even as he flung the front door shut behind him. Faith stopped the door before it could close. He whirled, his face a mask of disbelief, but the Slayer was looking at the woman. She stood, slightly hunched over, not meeting Faith's eyes. Under her careful make-up one side of her face was puffy and discolored, and the collar of her dress revealed the brown and yellow mottling of old bruises along the base of her neck. The man was sputtering in furious disbelief, but the young Slayer ignored him, moving farther into the house.

She glanced around the living room, then strode down a hallway. She glanced into empty rooms, noting that everything was absolutely clean, with not a single item out of place. Not a stray sock, not a speck of dust or misplaced cushion. It didn't look like a place where anyone actually lived. Coming to a closed door, she slowly swung it open. Darkness, but she could make out the two figures huddled together on the bed. She found the light switch and flipped it on.

A young girl, maybe eleven or twelve years old was staring back at her. She was terrified, her face filled with a sick dread that Faith remembered all too well. She could see herself in that face. The girl held a younger boy protectively. Her arms didn't hide the marks that marred the exposed skin of his arms. The man's bellows were coming closer as he searched the house for her, and she stepped out of the room, pulling the door softly shut. These children did not need to see what would happen next.

An hour later, the two of them were walking along the dark road, about half-way back to town. Neither of them had spoken since Faith had walked out of the house still wiping blood from her hands. Now, with the lights of Sunnydale growing brighter ahead of them, she felt driven to say something, anything.

"Must be close to midnight, by now." She glanced over at her older self, who nodded.

"In a little while, yeah."

The silence grew between them again. Faith looked down at her hands, checking again to make sure the red stains were completely gone. She took a long, shuddering breath. While she had been doing... what she'd done, to the man, the fury she'd felt had burned itself out. With every crack of a bone breaking, with every scream he'd tried to get past her muffling hand, it had run out of her. By the time he had gone still and quiet, there had been nothing left inside her but ashes. She shook herself, trying unsuccessfully to banish the memory.

"I've never killed anyone, before. Not," Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat before continuing in a whisper. "Not a real person."

The other Faith nodded. "I know." Her voice was quiet, but steady.

The younger girl turned to regard her twin. "Have you.... How many more have you done, by the time I'm you?"

A long pause, then finally: "Pass."

She glanced over again, but there was no expression on that version of her face. None at all. "But, some?"

A sigh. "Yeah, some."

"Why?!" It came out more plaintively than she'd meant, but she couldn't help it. She'd felt something in herself tonight that frightened her. She'd killed a man, and maybe he'd deserved it. If she'd killed him quick, in the heat of rage, that would have been one thing. That hadn't happened. She'd been cold, completely in control of herself when she'd done it, and her only thought had been to make it last as long as possible. She'd done everything she could to make sure he felt every bit as much pain as he'd dealt his wife, and son, and daughter; and there had been a sickly-sweet pleasure in doing it.

Her other self was regarding her. "Why? There's lots of reasons, and most of them you wouldn't understand, yet. One of them fits what you did back there, though." She looked up at the stars, her feet silent on the gravel of the roadside. "To some acts, for some crimes, there can be only one reply: Death."

Faith hung her head for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. "Did I lose any points, y'know, in the test, for doing that?"

"Not in my book you didn't."

*******

They had made it back to town, and Faith surprised herself by asking for a break. It wasn't her favorite thing, admitting to being tired, but she was feeling seriously slagged. Her older self looked at her in concern.

"You sure you're okay?"

She nodded, looking for someplace to sit. "Uh huh. I just feel like... I don't know what I feel like." She found a bus bench to sit on, and her phantom self settled down beside her. Faith lifted a hand, holding it out in front of her. A slight tremor shook it, and she clenched it into a fist before dropping it to rest on her thigh. "What's wrong with me?" She looked over at her double. "I should be able to fight all night long easy."

The older Faith was watching her closely. "Don't sweat it. You're doing stuff tonight you've never done before, fighting these spirit things on their own ground." She raised her own hand and flicked a finger at the other girl. A tiny ripple of golden light hung briefly in the air between them before fading slowly from view. "I'm helping you channel the Slayer power in a way you can't do yourself, to do the special-effects spirit-slaying stuff. That's where all your energy is going." She gave the younger Faith an encouraging smile. "Relax, you're doing great. One more and you're done."

Faith nodded wearily, leaning back on the bench and closing her eyes. Within moments she was drifting, the sounds of traffic and the occasional costumed passerby fading to a faint hum. It occurred to her that she was out in the open, and that this was no place to be this vulnerable, but she knew it would be all right just this once. Her older self would watch out for her. She dozed fitfully, only semi-aware of her surroundings.

"There you are, murderess!"

She sat up with a start, panic surging through her. They'd found her! The cops, the wife must have called the cops, and they were going to catch her sleeping and that would be it. Faith was on her feet, trying to figure out which way to run, when her surroundings registered. There were no police in sight, and she couldn't see who--

"You thought no one would know where you had gone? I saw! I followed you here, and now I see what you're up to!" It was an old man, standing across the street. He was heavy-set, with thinning hair, glasses, and a bowtie. She stared back at him, caught between fear and confusion.

Who was this guy? Was he one of the neighbors? He could have seen the fight on the lawn, and then gone to investigate once she'd left. The wife and children had been out of it when she'd barricaded them in the basement; they shouldn't have been able to tell anyone anything, at least not until she called somebody in the morning and told them to go let the poor things out. So how had he found her? He was walking towards her now, ignoring the traffic on the street. As she watched, a minivan drove right through him, the driver seemingly unaware that he was there at all. When the vehicle had passed, he was still walking forward, unfazed.

Faith took a step back, and a voice came from behind her. "Lester?!" Her older self had stood, and was looking at the man with an incredulous expression on her face. "Lester, it is you!" She folded her arms, sparing a glance for Faith. "Don't worry, he can't do squat. He's just a lame-ass ghost."

The man had come to a halt just a few steps away from them. He glared at the future Faith, and then at the Slayer herself.

"No, I can't do anything to you, spawn of evil. But neither can I stand by and let you carry through whatever mischief has brought you back to this time." He looked at Faith, and she was startled by the revulsion in his eyes. "You are the one from here and now. Already she's tainted you; stolen whatever innocence you might have still had. I can see the blood on your soul." He shook his head. "You've killed, tonight; and took pleasure in it." She shifted uncomfortably, and he looked at her twin. "Why have you done this? Gone to all this effort, come all this way back?" His eyes narrowed, and his voice grew thoughtful. "Expenditure of energy, and tainting of soul? That would be necessary to--"

The older Faith cut him off. "That's enough, Lester." She stalked forward, a smooth, gliding walk that reminded Faith of a panther. So far tonight, she'd hadn't seen her older self doing anything but casually walking or jogging. This was different; this was a predator moving in for the kill. She wondered if she looked like that now, when she was in hunting mode. She kinda hoped so. Still....

"Uh, Faith?" That sounded weird, saying it like that. "Could you tell me who this guy is?"

Her twin didn't turn, but she came to a halt on the curb, watching the man with an amused detachment that still held a lethal intensity. "Nobody who matters; nobody you have to worry about." She reached out to the side with her right hand, and a knife made of gold and crimson light blazed into being. She raised it, running her eyes lovingly over the wickedly beautiful double blade. Lester took a hesitant step backwards, his eyes wide with horror. He tore his eyes from that knife, sending Faith a look full of pleading.

"Child, whatever she's told you, whatever she claims, it's a lie! She's a murderer, and worse! Don't let yourself become what--"

Faith's older self had heard enough. "Save it, Lester." She moved forward, ignoring the adventurous band of costumed party-goers who walked through her on their way past the streetcorner. The ghost man backed away, plainly terrified, but unwilling to turn his back on her to run. Faith took a hesitant step forward, uncertain of what to do. He didn't seem dangerous or anything, and even if he didn't like her future self that didn't seem like reason enough to waste him. She opened her mouth to say something, even though she had no idea what, exactly, she would say. It was too late.

The older Faith blurred forward, impossibly fast. Unencumbered by the flesh and bone of an actual physical body, she moved, literally, with the speed of thought. Poor Lester barely had time to scream before that knife was ripping through his ghostly form for the fifth time. Shreds and tatters of his body drifted away, unraveling into nothing even as his anguished cry faded away. Faith took a step back, swallowing with difficulty. The pure terror in that scream.... Her twin was watching with satisfaction as the last of the ghost faded away. With visible reluctance, she opened her hand, letting the blazing knife dissolve into a wash of gold and scarlet that was quickly gone. Turning, she tossed her hair back.

"That's a first; I got to kill him twice." She walked back to Faith's side, her manner changing once again. In moments the darky dangerous killer had vanished, and she was back to being herself, again. The younger girl watched her warily.

"What, was all that about? Why did you have to rip him up like that?"

Her twin sprawled on the bench, stretching her legs out and crossing them at the ankles. "Him?" She made a dismissive gesture with one hand. "I told you, he's nothing. Ancient history." She smiled up at the younger girl. "What you need to worry about is Slayer test question number three, which is just about lined up. You ready to go?"

Faith stared down at the other girl. The feeling; No, the knowledge that there was more going on here than had been explained was still there. She had done everything she'd been asked to do, tonight, and a man was dead because of it. Maybe she couldn't exactly blame her older self for that one, but the fact remained; she'd killed someone, and if not for this 'test' thing, then that person would still be alive.

"Yeah, alive and beating the shit out of his wife and son." The older Faith's voice was full of scorn. "Alive, and fucking his daughter. Would that have been better? Is it wrong to have stopped that?"

Faith stared at the other girl in amazement. "You can read my mind, now?"

A shrug. "Sort of. I can read auras, when I'm on this side of the spirit world. I've gotten pretty good at it, too." She scowled. "I should be, I've only had five months of free time to practice."

Faith wasn't really listening. She was thinking about the night's events. The other girl was right, that guy had deserved to die, and stopping those spirit-things was a good thing, obviously. Her twin was staring at her intently, and she felt her doubts fade. This was herself, after all. What reason would she have to lie to her? Besides, she was so tired, her brain felt like it was stuffed full of cotton.

"All right. Forget it."

The other Faith gave her a smile. "Beauty. Now lets get going, the main event is just about here." She hopped to her feet and led the way down the street, headed for the eastern side of town. "Don't worry about a thing, everything is working out just the way I hoped it would. Everything is going to be fine. Trust me."

Faith nodded, plodding along behind the other girl. The big clock on city hall read ten minutes till midnight. As they passed, she noticed her twin giving the building a long look, but she didn't ask why. It was enough to know that all of this would be over soon.

******

They were crossing the heart of Sunnydale for the third time that night. Faith followed after her future self, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to stay awake. Her brief nap on the bench hadn't helped much; she still felt like she was running on empty. They passed an all-night deli, and her stomach growled.

"Hey."

Her twin glanced back at her.

"Could we stop for a second? I'd do better if I could get something to help me recharge."

The other girl shook her head.

"Sorry, we're on a tight schedule here. Things are going to happen in just a couple of minutes, and we have to be there."

Faith grumbled, but followed her.

Moments later, they came out of an alley that faced onto a darkened street. Faith had only been in Sunnydale a few weeks, but already this spot was familiar.

"The Bronze." She cocked her head at the older Faith. "I thought we weren't coming to the party?"

Her other self had found a spot to lean up against the wall, crossing her arms and gazing speculatively at the building across the way.

"We're not. But here's where we meet the last person you're going to help, tonight."

The Slayer sank down to sit on a small wooden crate next to the wall. She watched the Bronze for a minute, but that got boring fast. She turned her head and looked up at her twin. Illuminated softly by the lights in front of the club, the other girl remained focused on whatever she saw with her spirit senses. She was beautiful, Faith realized. She knew how she herself looked, and this was the first time she'd had the chance to observe her double at leisure. There were more differences than she'd initially realized. The hair, obviously, and she had to admit that it looked pretty good like that. The other girl's face was more defined; she'd lost the traces of baby fat that the younger Slayer still had. Her body was leaner, in some places, and just a bit riper in others. The differences were subtle, but they were there, and the overall effect was considerable. Faith still looked like a teenage girl, her twin was a young woman.

She sighed.

The older Faith turned to look at her, and blinked.

"Huh?"

"What?"

Her future self shook her head.

"I just caught this... envy or something from you. You envy me?!"

Faith shifted on her seat uncomfortably, but didn't look away.

"Well, yeah, a little. You just seem so, I don't know, strong. Sure of yourself. You know what's going on, and you could probably kick my ass in a fight, too. Besides, you've got the whole...." She waved a hand at the other girl, from her feet to her hair. Leaning there casually, radiating self-assurance, the other girl looked like a sleek, beautiful weapon.

The elder Faith gave a harsh laugh.

"You've got it all wrong." She looked at the ground for a second, then up at the younger girl, her dark eyes shining through the silken curtain of her hair. "If only I could get away with telling you just how fucked up I really am.... My life is such a pile of, well, it hasn't all been fun. Especially lately. I...." She looked away for just a second. "I wish I was as strong as you think I am. I really do. And this?" She looked down at her body, then back at the other girl. "This is just me being a little stuck up, actually." She gave a sad little smile. "My real body doesn't look quite this good, right now. It was a tough summer."

Faith sat and considered that for a moment, but her other self spoke up suddenly.

"There it is; it's happening."

There was a barely restrained excitement in her voice that hadn't been there during the other parts of the night's test, and the younger Slayer looked up at her face. Her eyes were bright, the bitterness and melancholy of a minute before banished without a trace. She headed across the street, waving for Faith to follow her.

The girl took a deep breath before rising to her feet. She was weary, but this was the last one. She could do one more, no problem.

She hoped.

They walked past the front of the Bronze, and of course the bouncer only saw one Faith, not two. Her twin led them around to the side of the building, where the club's side exit let out into the small parking lot. There were a dozen or so cars parked there, but no one was in sight. The older Slayer cut a straight course across the shadowy pavement, her expensive shoes utterly silent. Faith stayed right behind her, still wondering about what the other girl had said. For all her hints that times were tough in her future, she certainly dressed like she had money.

The pair rounded the back corner of the large building. There was another alley here, and it stretched for at least a hundred yards in either direction before there was a break in the structures that walled it in. Small, metal-clad doors and large overhead ones, intended for the delivery of cargo shipments were the only other access to the man-made canyon. Faith shook her head in disgust. Anyone who came back here after dark was just begging for a gruesome death; it was prime vampire hunting ground.

Her nightvision showed her something sitting next to the right-hand wall, and she altered direction slightly to get a closer look.

A small backpack, looking like someone had just set it down for a moment. She raised her head to see her twin walking quickly down the alley. Faith jogged after her, trying to keep her footsteps quiet; sound traveled forever in a place like this.

Speaking of which....

She heard a crunching sound, then a scuffle, from just ahead. The other Faith was gesturing for her to hurry, and she sped up a bit, watching her footing as best she could. She came upon a setback in the back wall of a warehouse, apparently a space provided for trucks to park and unload. Two figures faced each other in the harsh illumination of an overhead light. They were both women, both in what looked like Halloween costumes. She'd barely registered them when one raised both hands and unleashed a wash of glittering red sparks that swirled forward, engulfing her opponent. The hapless victim had tried to dodge to one side, but she'd moved like she was drunk, or half-stunned, and the move was far too slow. The spell had her in its grip, and she froze in place.

The older Faith leaned close to the Slayer and whispered in her ear.

"Don't be to hard on our girl over there. I see lots of backwash still fading around here; the sorceress had to throw a lot of magic before she ended up winning this one."

Faith spared her a glance, and a shrug. What did she care how much of a fight the now-frozen woman had put up? She was just here to destroy whoever this spellcaster was. At least, she guessed that was the case. As they watched, the victorious figure stalked slowly towards her paralyzed foe. Faith saw that she had short blonde hair, and was carrying a fair-sized object of some kind in one hand, the light glinting off of its golden surface. She was unaware of the watching Slayers, focused completely on her goal.

"At long last...."

Her voice was a triumphant hiss.

"Taking my miserable brat of a daughter would have been sweet enough, but this is even better. This is the body I deserve."

She raised the object in her hand, pressing it against the side of the captive woman's face, which was still in shadow. There was a silent concussion that rocked Faith back on her heels, and actually blew the spirit form of her older self back several feet. When it was over, the sorceress was stumbling away from the other girl, straight towards the Slayer. Faith stood her ground, dropping into a fighting stance. If she started throwing magic, Faith wasn't sure what she was going to do.

She didn't. The woman staggered right up to the young Slayer, and Faith was startled to realize that she recognized this girl. She'd seen her at the high school, hanging out with Willow. They were always talking about witchy stuff. The pretty blonde girl stared at her with wide, unseeing eyes, then fell forward, landing heavily. Faith prodded her gently with a toe, but she seemed to be out cold. Strangely, the thing in her hand was some kind of trophy, with a little gold person on top of it. Behind her, the future Faith spoke quietly.

"All right, here we go." There was a brief touch of a hand on her shoulder.

"I hope you're ready for this one."

Faith raised her eyes to the girl standing across the open space from her. The red swarm of the spell had faded, and she was moving again. She was looking straight at the Slayer, and the force of the possessing entity was blasting out of her like the heat from a furnace. She stepped forward, and the light from above finally fell on her face. Faith had already begun to suspect, but seeing it still took her breath away.

It was Buffy.

*******

Buffy stood there, tremors racking her body as the thing from the trophy struggled to pour itself into her. Faith started forward, but a strident whisper from her other self shocked her to a halt.

"Wait!" She turned and looked at her older twin.

"Why?! I can get it before it's all the way set inside her."

The future Faith shook her head firmly, her eyes on the blonde Slayer.

"Too late for that. It's already got its claws in her; if you slap them around now, you could scramble Buffy's brains for good." She shot her younger self a quick look. "Give things a minute to settle, then you can start working on pulling them apart."

The young Slayer stared at Buffy, watching helplessly as the girl shuddered, raising her hands to her head and pressing them to her temples, her eyes rolled back so that only the whites were showing. The air around the girl seemed to ripple as the thing gradually levered itself the rest of the way into that tiny body.

Faith clenched her hands into fists, waiting. Her eyes flicked over the older girl's straining form, and she frowned, diverted for just a second by Buffy's Halloween costume. She was wearing a stylish black mini-dress that showed a lot of leg, which was not unusual for Buffy. But she was also wearing black stockings, high heels, and pale make-up. A large plastic gun was suspended in a shoulder holster, and a pair of very real knives were strapped to her forearms in leather sheaths. The curly black wig that she'd been wearing had been torn off in her scuffle with the witch-girl, and was lying against the wall.

"Who was she dressed as?"

She hadn't really meant to say it out loud, but her twin answered.

"This chick from some books she read, 'Carlita Drake: Vampire Hunter', or something like that. She tried to get me to read them, but...."

With a final surge of power that seemed to warp the substance of the world, the thing inside Buffy settled fully into place. Everything got very quiet for a moment, and then the blonde girl raised her head and looked Faith in the eyes.

She stared at Buffy's face, searching there for some trace of her friend. The other Slayer stood awkwardly, as if uncomfortable with her body, and her green eyes were cold.

"Who are you, girl?"

It was Buffy's voice, but the way she said the words made it sound like someone else. Faith licked her lips and answered.

"I'm her friend. I'm the one who's gonna kick your ass out of her."

It came out in a whisper, and she was moving forward very slowly. Whatever it was that was inside Buffy, it didn't seem to be radiating as much power as the last entity she'd faced. Of course, the last one hadn't been inside the body of a Slayer, either. The blonde head tilted to one side, and a slow smile curved her lips. Faith came to a halt, just out of arm's reach.

"Buffy? Are you still in there?"

The other girl's face was suddenly twisted into a snarl, and she lunged forward.

"It's mine!"

Faith spun to one side, easily slipping around the clumsy attack. Buffy stumbled, nearly falling before recovering her balance and turning to face her. The younger Slayer had already started the windup for a spin kick, but her mind caught up with her reflexes and she aborted the move, backpedaling away and to the left.

Off to the side, her older self was watching.

"You're going to have to fight her, Faith. It's the only way to save her."

Buffy's head snapped to the side, fixing the spirit with a manic stare.

"What manner of phantasm....?"

Faith slid forward, taking advantage of the momentary distraction. Her fist flashed across, striking the other girl across the jaw, but even as it landed the younger girl muttered a curse. At the last instant she'd pulled the blow, falling back into the habits formed from hours of sparring with the older Slayer. Buffy hardly noticed the impact, turning into the younger girl's body and launching a straight punch. Faith reacted instantly; blocking with a forearm, turning with the punch and guiding it past. She grabbed the extended arm in both hands, in perfect position to snap Buffy's elbow back in the wrong direction... and she let it go. Ducking under another swing, she bounded away, gaining some room. Her twin was shouting.

"What are doing? Hit her!"

The frustration in the older Faith's voice found an echo in her own.

"I'm going to hit her! I'm not going to cripple her!"

Buffy had paused to kick out of the high-heels, and was moving towards her again. Her movements were still stiff and uncertain; like her body was put together wrong. The entity brushed the blonde hair out of her eyes, and her voice was a smug croon.

"You can't save your friend, little girl. She's already beaten, and soon she'll be only fading memories." She smiled. "It's justice you know. She took my body, so I take hers. A fair payment."

Faith snarled, coming in and firing a front kick into the other girl's belly. Buffy folded forward with a wheeze, and this time the strike Faith landed on her jaw was not so gentle. The blonde girl went down, scraping her arms and cheek on the asphalt of the alleyway. The younger Slayer knelt on the other girl's back, grabbing both her arms and holding them out to the sides. It looked like whatever was inside Buffy didn't have access to her physical skills. She had the strength and speed, but she had to stop and think about each move before she made it. There was no way that she could beat Faith like that. She leaned forward, speaking into Buffy's ear.

"Get out of her now, or I'll hurt you."

Faith's older self took a step forward, and the younger Slayer glanced up at her. The spirit girl was looking down at them with an anxious look on her face.

"C'mon. C'mon, it can't be that easy."

Faith looked at her in confusion, and she didn't hear the words Buffy was muttering until it was too late. An invisible force slammed into her, hurling her up and away from the girl's prone form. Faith cartwheeled through the air, kicking and twisting as she flew. She managed to come down on her feet, but the momentum sent her stumbling backwards into the brick wall on the far side of the alley, and the impact made the air leave her lungs in a whoosh. She shook her head, trying to clear the blurred haze that had suddenly fallen across her vision. A lurid green flash drove back the shadows for a moment, and she heard the older Faith gasp in pain. Buffy was rising to her feet, practically spitting with rage.

"I can destroy a spirit as easily as I can the living! You'll both die this night!"

Faith's vision came clear, and she saw her twin stumbling back, a flickering green glow crawling all over her. The younger slayer raised her hands, yelling to her other self as she moved towards Buffy.

"I need that gold stuff, now!"

There was a growly sort of sound from her double.

"You've GOT the gold stuff, moron! I'm enabling you, all you have to do is fucking call it!"

--Damn-- She thought. --I can be a real bitch, sometimes--

Faith focused, reaching for the power that she'd been channeling all night. It was part of her, but using it like this was something that would take her a year to learn. She wasn't sure how, but her future self was helping her with it, supporting her as she reached out and forged the energy that powered her Slayer abilities. A faint golden radiance came into being around her body, and she moved towards Buffy. Off to the side, the older Faith had shaken off whatever spell she'd been hit with, but she looked a little frayed around the edges.

Buffy was standing in the center of the alley, her arms raised and a strange keening coming from the air around her. Another spell was building, and Faith didn't want to see what new shit was about to be thrown in her direction. She struck at the other girl, her fist taking the blonde in the gut. She landed the blow before the entity even started to move her arms in a block, and two hues of gold light blazed from the point of impact. Faith bounced back, shaking her stinging hand.

"What the....?"

Buffy seemed surprised too, but that didn't prevent her from making a broad gesture with one arm. A wash of dim purple energy filled the air around Faith, and she felt herself being driven to her knees, weakness and fatigue turning her limbs to lead. That almost off-handed spell having bought her a few moments, the thing inside Buffy continued building power for a more powerful one. Faith was struggling, her dim gold aura slowly burning away the effects of the magical attack. The lethargy slowly faded, and she struggled to her feet. Just standing was a colossal effort, and taking a step forward seemed impossible.

She did it anyway, raising one trembling fist and driving it into Buffy's beautiful face. That double flash of gold came again, hurting her hand as much as it hurt the other girl. Still, the blonde Slayer staggered back a pace, and Faith followed, rapidly recovering from the debilitating spell. She launched a spin kick, taking Buffy across the side of the head, then reversed direction and kicked her again. Light flashed from both impacts, but the other girl had barely registered the blows. The thing inside her seemed completely out of her element so far as the fighting went, but she still had a Slayer's durability. Besides which, Faith's power didn't seem to be getting through to the thing inside the body, like it had with the other things she'd fought.

The future Faith had been watching, too.

"That's not working." She looked at the younger girl. "She's got the same power that you're using, inside of her. It's blocking you. Remember; Strength isn't always enough."

--Great, the middle of the fight and it's zen-philosophy time--

She stared at her opponent for a moment, breathing deeply.

Okay, if she didn't have enough strength, she'd try for passion. The most important thing in the world to her, at that moment, was driving this thing out of her sister Slayer. Focus on that, live for that, and put everything else aside.

Now.

Faith drove forward even as Buffy lowered both arms to point at her. A screeching, ear-piercing detonation of magical force erupted from the blonde girl, and Faith screamed as something that felt like a hundred buzzsaws passed through her. She didn't catch the full force of the spell, though. She'd already gotten too close to the other girl, almost inside the reach of her arms. The golden shell of energy created by the Slayer power within her also helped blunt the attacking magic, at least a little. She was hurting, and weakened, but she was still on her feet and ready to rumble.

Buffy opened her mouth to snarl something threatening, but Faith didn't wait for it. She grabbed a handful of that blonde hair and yanked the other girl's head downwards, while driving her right knee upwards as hard as she could. Her knee smashed into Buffy's face, and the older Slayer straightened up with bone-jarring force. She blinked, more surprised than anything, and Faith waded into her. She launched a flurry of jabs and strikes, staying in the other girl's face, not letting her have a moment to think. Buffy started to gesture the beginning of a spell, and Faith grabbed that hand with both of hers, capturing the arm and twisting so that her back was to the smaller Slayer. She shoved upwards and back, carrying them both off of their feet, falling backwards so that Buffy landed beneath her. The other girl grunted, and Faith rammed an elbow backwards with all her might. Another grunt, and then both her arms were wrapped around the younger, larger Slayer. Buffy had her around the ribcage, just beneath her breasts; and she began to squeeze. Faith fought, trying to pry those arms away from her body, but her breath was slowly forced from her.

The future Faith was pacing anxiously along side them, watching them struggling on the ground.

"Not good, not good." She paused, leaning over to stare down at Faith. "C'mon, you're smarter than this! You'd better be, anyway. Don't let her make it be about strength; she's in Buffy's body, and Buffy is stronger than you."

The world was trying to go dim. A Slayer could go for a while without air, but not for very long when she was at maximum exertion like this. She jerked her head back, trying to hit the other girl's face, but Buffy was shorter than her, and not lying directly under her, and she missed. The entity increased her efforts, and Faith felt her ribs creaking as they began to bend inwards. She snaked her right leg around, getting it underneath Buffy's shin, lifting the other girl's leg several inches off the ground. Lifting and bending her other leg, the dark-haired Slayer brought her left foot down on Buffy's unsupported knee, bending it several inches back in a direction it was not intended to flex.

The thing inside Buffy screamed in pain, and her grip loosened.

Faith erupted, breaking free and bounding to her feet, spinning to face her opponent. The other girl was getting up, murder shining from her eyes. Faith kicked her, the sole of her heavy shoe slamming into the side of Buffy's jaw. She sprawled backwards on the ground again, and the younger girl leapt forward, straddling the prone body and reaching down to grab the front of her dress. She drew back her fist, measuring the distance carefully; she was still trying to avoid any permanent damage.

Buffy opened her eyes and hissed a single word.

Faith's world went strange, and she was drifting aimlessly across the alley, a strange singing filling her ears. She crashed into a stack of large trash barrels and sagged against them, uncertain for several moments about what was happening. She came back to herself slowly, but it felt like her brain had been brutally clubbed. A few yards away, the other girl was again getting to her feet. She was showing some damage; her face was puffy and blood trickled from her nose and mouth. Faith herself was in better shape physically, but she knew she was loosing this fight. Buffy was too tough to for anything short of death to stop her, and none of this was hurting the spirit thing inside that body. Besides which, the spells were wearing Faith down; this one had nearly stunned her unconscious, the next one might finish her.

There was a sudden movement, and her twin was crouching beside her.

"How are you feeling, champ?"

Faith shot her a disgusted look, trying to keep the remaining disorientation from turning to nausea. Having to vomit would screw her chances in this fight. Her older self looked sympathetic.

"Okay, you see that sometimes being strong isn't enough, and sometimes even passion and intensity won't get it done either, right?"

The younger girl nodded slowly, watching Buffy begin mumbling and gesturing. The elder Faith smiled.

"Well, then. Time for piece of wisdom number three: Trust."

Faith managed to stand, but she didn't think another charge was a good idea. On the other hand, standing here would get her killed, too. Running away was an option, but that would mean Buffy would die, leaving this thing inside her body. Her older self grabbed her by the shoulder, spinning Faith to face her.

"You listening? I'm telling you how to win this."

Faith blinked.

"Trust? What's that supposed to mean?!" She pointed to where Buffy was shouting at the sky, little arcs of black and green energy crackling around her. "I can't stop her, and I can't beat her! She's too strong!"

The other Faith glanced at Buffy, then back at her younger self.

"She's not stronger than both of us." She spoke the words quietly, but with a surety that penetrated the young Slayer's hopelessness.

"What are you talking about?"

The other cast a quick glance at the blonde Slayer; things were reaching climax, over there.

"Not enough time to run it all down for you, but believe this: Sometimes nothing you can do alone is enough. Everybody needs help sometimes. You have problems with that; I know because I've lived your life. But if you let me in now, if you let me help you win this, then you'll be able to let others in later. You'll be able to be a real person, again." She gave Buffy one last look, then turned those dark eyes on her younger self.

"Please, Faith; trust me."

She had only a split-second to decide. If the sorceress spirit inside Buffy had taken this long to wind up a spell, it was because it would be big enough to annihilate her twice over. But everything in the last decade of her existence had shown her that trusting in others was only going to get you hurt. Could she trust this girl? On the other hand, it was herself that was asking this of her. If she couldn't believe herself, then who? Besides, living like she had been; that sucked. She wanted to change, and if this was the first step, then she was willing to take it. She needed to take it.

Those thoughts raced through her mind in less than a second, and she nodded acceptance.

Her twin gave her a dazzling grin and leaned forward, as if to hug her. There was a rippling, and a disorientation that made her head hurt and her gut seem to twist; then the other girl was gone, and she was standing there facing Buffy, alone.

Buffy extended one hand, clenching it into a fist and gripping that wrist with her other hand. A dark nimbus of energy sprang up around her, and she shouted out three words that made Faith's ears hurt just from hearing them. Black lightning exploded from the girl's fist, snarling towards the young Slayer in a stream wider than she was tall. It smashed into her, tearing and clawing like a living thing, and for long seconds she could see and hear nothing but that hideous power. Finally, it faded away, leaving her standing there, unharmed. She took a deep breath, then sighed. Looking at the dumbfounded Buffy, she smiled.

"And?"

Faith was shining like a golden star, the combined power of her and her older self blazing through every cell in her body. Deflecting the energies of that attack had been a strain, but they'd done it. Together. She could sense her twin inside her mind, could feel her power added to her own. She took a step towards Buffy, but the older Faith's voice drew her to a sudden halt.

--Don't. She can't hurt us with spells, but all we can do is hurt Buffy, not what's inside her. We need to force her into loosening her hold.--

Faith frowned, watching Buffy watching her.

"How do we manage that, exactly?"

A smile inside her head, felt instead of seen.

--Very simple. Let me just....--

She felt a tugging at her body, and she let go her own control enough for the other girl to guide their movements. Faith found herself leaping at the blonde Slayer, landing practically on top of her. Buffy threw an awkward punch with one hand, and began a series of arcane gestures with the other. Faith swayed aside to let the blow slide past, and ignored the beginning spell. She whipped her open hand across Buffy's face, slapping her hard, forehand and backhand. Blinding flashes of gold light erupted from both strikes, leaving the older Slayer dazed and staring. Faith felt her mouth form a smile, and she was shocked when her head dipped forward to plant a quick kiss on Buffy's lips before turning and sprinting away.

She seized control of the body back from her older self, stumbling and nearly falling in the moment it took to make the transition.

"What the hell was that?!" The younger Faith asked.

She was running down the alley, away from the Bronze, and she had no idea what the next part of the plan entailed. A mental giggle sounded inside her head.

--I told you; we need to screw with her head. That's just my way of doing it-- A sigh escaped her. --Besides, haven't you wondered what it would be like? I know I was, back when--

Faith shook her head as she ran.

"Weird time to find out, is all." But she licked her lips, treasuring the lingering taste.

Behind them, they could hear the sound of Buffy running after them, her voice raised in a stream of profanity that neither of them had ever heard the older girl use.

--Wow, and I thought I was a bad influence on her-- Faith's twin muttered from inside her head.

Faith spared a glance back over her shoulder, and saw a bolt of writhing grey and yellow light streaking at her. There was a shifting inside her as the older Faith flooded more of her essence into the body, strengthening their defenses against magic. There was an uncomfortable squeezing sensation as Faith's own space inside her body was unavoidably reduced, but it was a small price to pay for not getting turned into spiders, or whatever. The bolt hit her in the back, splashing harmlessly off of her blazing aura. She ran out of the alley, coming out onto a main street. The scattered people still out at this hour were staring at her glowing form as she sprinted past, but she ignored them.

"Which way?"

A pair of crackling bolts whipped past, one striking a light post, the other smashing a late-night jogger into a pile of lifeless gravel.

--This way!-- There was a sense of frustration. --C'mon, we gotta move faster! Let me--

The tugging came again, and Faith reluctantly released control of her body's actions. Instantly her twin leapt into the street, right in among traffic. The young Slayer thought that she was going to have a heart attack, if such a thing was possible, for a chosen one. The older Faith ignored her mental screams, bounding forward in a dive that carried her over the low roof of a passing sportscar. She danced across four lanes of traffic, and if the cars were relatively few at this time of night, that did little to ease the anger Faith felt towards her older self. She snarled, annoyed to find that with her twin in charge of the body, she was now the one relegated to a mental voice.

--What the fuck was that all about?! Are you trying to get us killed?--

Her future self was grinning, all but dancing as she ran easily up the sidewalk.

"What, that? That was nothing!" She broke into joyous laughter, flinging her arms wide and throwing back her head. "You've got to take some chances if you're gonna know you're alive, you know that!" She slowed just a bit and executed a forward somersault, just for fun. "You're just freaked because somebody else is driving. Relax." She looked over her shoulder, scanning the street behind them. "This won't take too much longer."

Buffy was paralleling them, running along the sidewalk across the street. She hurled another spell, and a ball of dark red flame engulfed Faith for a moment before she ran clear. The ends of her hair smoldered for a moment, filling the air its stink. The young Slayer had been on the verge of demanding that full control be returned to her, but the fire made her remain silent. Without the other girl reinforcing her resistance to magic, that would have fried her. She could put up with being a passenger for a few minutes more.

Her older self was looking up at the buildings they passed, searching for something.

--What?--

Man, having no voice was annoying.

Long moments passed before her twin answered.

"There it is, this is the one."

She crouched, then sprang upwards at the bare brick wall. She struck it over twelve feet off the ground, her shoes finding purchase in the split-second she was pressed against the rough surface. She pushed off, reaching out as she gained another eight feet in height. The huge sign running along the front of the building was anchored with thick iron struts. Faith's hands grabbed hold of the lowest ones, and then she was pulling herself up behind the massive metal and neon sign. There was nearly two feet of open space between the metal and the brick, and the struts and cables were as good as a ladder. She pulled herself upwards rapidly, going hand over hand.

--Cool. Been this way before?--

Faith was still grinning happily, seemingly finding the whole thing amazingly amusing.

"Oh yeah, all the time."

Seconds later they were running across a series of rooftops, leaping gaps that dropped several stories to the street. Faith remained quiet, watching how the older girl moved her body. Even though it wasn't actually hers, it was still one that very close to the one she used in the future, and apparently in the course of that year she'd gotten in a lot of practice at moving that body around. It was odd having to let someone else take charge of everything so completely, but at the same time, it was nice to know that a mere year could make such a positive change in her skills. Not that she sucked now, or anything, but still....

They came to an iron ladder bolted to a wall, and the older Faith guided their body up it in a single surge of graceful movement. They landed on a fair-sized flat area surrounded by a low wall on three sides. A floor above them a large window looked out over the city, but the glass was dark. Nobody home tonight, apparently. Her twin looked up at that window for several long seconds, then turned to survey the rooftop. She nodded in apparent satisfaction.

"Here we are, again."

Faith wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean; she'd never been here before in her life. Her body cocked her head, listening. Her ears became a hundred times more sensitive, catching the slightest sounds. There were too many; cars passing in the street, people talking and shouting, a passing jet high overhead, the activity in the building below her feet. She couldn't make out anything over the roar. Her older self made a rude sound.

"Can you squeeze over a little more? We've gotta know where she's coming from."

Faith felt her twin reaching for another part of her body, and she gave way with a growl of annoyance. Her older self brought another of her skills to bear, sorting through the thousands of different sounds reaching their ears. Anything not useful was blocked out, leaving only the potentially useful information to be considered. It took only a few seconds to edit the input down to a bare dozen or so different sounds, and her lips curved up into a smile.

"There she is, right on time."

Buffy hurled herself up and over the edge of the roof behind Faith, but the dark-haired Slayer was already diving off to the side, rolling and coming to her feet in a series of moves so fluid that they seemed magical. The thing looking out of Buffy's eyes was not impressed.

"Enough." Her mouth was twisted in a scowl of disgust. "You can't destroy me, but this is growing tiresome. Leave me alone, and we can go our separate ways."

Faith shook her head, both her present and future selves in total agreement.

"Not gonna happen, bitch."

Buffy raised her hands, black lightning crackling around them.

"Then I'll keep trying until I find a way to destroy you both. You're not strong enough to beat me, even together."

The older Faith seemed to think differently.

"Wrong. Watch this."

Faith watched as her body moved in on the blonde girl, gliding forward in a combat stance; balanced and ready. Buffy was glaring; she knew now that in hand to hand she was sorely outclassed. Still, she'd thought of something new to try. The costume that had come with the blonde girl's body included a pair of long knives, and she got one into her hand with only a bit of fumbling. She made a series of little stabbing feints, and Faith's future self gave her a sad little smile.

"No, not this time."

She executed a series of three moves, blindingly fast, that resulted in the knife flying off into the night. From deep inside her head, where she was watching all of this happening, Faith hoped that nobody got in the way of that thing when it came down. Buffy looked almost ready to cry in frustration, but the Faith that was in command of the body was having none of it.

"Not so much fun now, being in that body, is it?" She made of show of cracking her knuckles. "Let me show you how much worse it can get."

She hit Buffy, not hard, but right on the point of her chin. She didn't even use the gold force that was still surrounding her body; it was a purely physical blow. Buffy staggered, but wasn't really hurt. She started to speak, and the other Faith jabbed her precisely in the solar plexus, stealing her breath and making her bend forward. Faith's twin casually swept her legs, sending her crashing down to lie there, gasping.

"Your spells aren't going to work, and you can't fight worth shit. What are you going to do?" She was walking around the fallen Slayer, her voice taunting. "There's only one person in this town; or in the world, who could outfight me, you know. And she's not here, anymore, is she?" She swung a foot into the smaller girl's ribs, and not gently, either. "So you're all mine, looks like."

Inside, Faith was confused.

--What are you doing? We're not trying to kill Buffy, remember?--

Her body nodded.

"Just wait for it." She answered, in a barely audible murmur.

Buffy's body lay there for a few moments, and then a shudder went through her. Faith's older self tensed slightly, and she drew back a couple of steps. The blonde Slayer came to her feet suddenly, and there was a smoothness to the movement that hadn't been there earlier. Her eyes bright, she wiped her bleeding mouth with the back of her hand.

"I have a weapon that can kill you, all I need do is unleash it!"

Faith's body, under the control of it's own outside force, smiled.

"Show me."

She glided forward again, and this time Buffy moved forward to meet her. When she fired a punch at the other girl's face, Buffy had a hand up to block it. The movement was rough, even the younger Faith could see that, but it showed more than a hint of real skill. The older Faith pretended dismay, backing away, but Faith could feel her twin's satisfaction through the connections they now shared. This was what she'd been aiming for the whole time, and it began to make sense.

Buffy launched into a series of simple attacks, combining hand attacks with kicks in a predictable pattern. Faith's future self matched her, falling into the pattern and rhythm with her, subtly guiding her into an even more familiar sequence. After a few seconds, they weren't fighting anymore, though an observer might not know the difference. They were sparring. An intricate dance of movements, meant to teach and to challenge; not to cause damage. Strike and block, lunge and retreat, kick and evade, it was a back and forth flow of speed, grace and power. Faith and Buffy had danced this pattern a hundred times in their weeks together, and they danced it again now. It was quickly clear to both of the Faith's that only a fraction of Buffy's ability was free of the entity's control, and that had to be changed.

Faith increased the tempo, pushing the speed and skill past the limit imposed by the spirit-thing's possession. Within moments, she had an opening, and she landed a punishing blow to the other girl's right side. Seeing only that her body was falling behind in the battle, the entity loosened its hold still further, and Buffy caught up with Faith, matching her move for move. The older Faith increased the speed and complexity yet again, and her younger self had to give up yet more of her hold on the body to accommodate it. She was curled up into a tiny ball inside her own mind, now; the older Faith filling her body almost completely. It couldn't be helped; this was the only way to save Buffy.

The two Slayers danced back and forth over the flat roof, a double blur of movement that managed to combine grace and ferocity. Faith felt her future self reach for the ultimate extent of her ability, edging her performance up just a fraction higher than the incredible level she and Buffy had already achieved; and a few seconds later a real blow smashed the blonde girl to lie half-senseless on the roof. The axe kick would literally have taken a normal human's head off, and the blaze of gold light that had accompanied it must have been visible for blocks. Buffy looked up at her, confusion plain on her battered face.

"What....?"

Faith's twin leaned over and dug both hands into the air next to the girl's shoulders. With a wrench, she pulled a shimmering, writhing mass of distortion from Buffy's body, raising it high over her head. The thing was trying desperately to escape, but the older Faith didn't waste any time on last words. She ripped it in half, scattering the dissolving remains out into the night sky.

The golden aura around Faith faded, for the last time.

It was over.

At their feet, Buffy was resting on her hands and knees, her head lowered. She was likely very confused about the whole thing, which was just as well. Faith unfolded slightly from where she was huddled inside her head.

--Well. We won, huh?--

Her twin nodded slowly, turning her head to survey the rooftop.

"Absolutely. This is what it's like to win."

--Okay then, could you move over some? It's getting kinda cramped in here--

Another nod.

"No problem. Just let me do three things real quick, first." She folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes.

"First of all; this."

Inside herself, Faith suddenly had the feeling that the entire world had been rotated a hundred and eighty degrees. She would have been tempted to throw up, except she no longer had any connection to her stomach, that she could detect.

"And secondly; this."

She gave a mental grunt as her essence was brutally compressed, squeezed into a tiny corner of her brain and body as the other Faith's lifeforce fully occupied her. She struggled, but it was feeble, and she had no purchase on her own body. During the drawn-out battle she'd given more and more of it to her older self, not realizing the danger in doing so. Now, she wondered just how big a mistake that had been.

"And third; this."

Her foot drew back, and a confused Buffy, the real one this time, looked up just in time to receive a kick to the face that flipped her into the air and slammed her back down over ten feet away.

--What the fuck are you doing?!--

Even her mental voice sounded small and far away, but her older self heard her.

"I'm doing exactly what I came here for, kiddo."

She turned, raising her arms overhead in a long, slow stretch. When she lowered them, she hugged herself, rubbing her hands over her arms.

"This is what I was after; a body. You have no idea what I've had to live with for the last few months. Not seeing, or hearing, or moving. I think I came pretty close to going insane there for awhile." She stared off over the skyline of the town, not seeming to see it. "Then I learned how to 'go out', and tonight I made it back here." She sighed, and this time it was sad. "I'm sorry, I really am. But I'm not going back to that. I'm staying right here, and that means that you're going to be gone, in a little while."

Faith was still fighting to get free, but it was like fighting a mountain; when it was sitting on top of you.

--You can't be serious. You're going to kill me? Take my body?--

"I already took your body. And no; I'm not going to kill you, not on purpose, anyway. It's just that you can't have two spirits in the same body for very long. The stronger one, the better anchored one, stays, and the other one fades away." She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple, slowly. "I'm sorry. But it won't take too long, and it shouldn't hurt, either. But if it's going to be either you or me wandering off into the cosmic void, it's not going to be me."

*******

--I can't believe you're doing this. You lied to me!--

Faith's body gave a weary sigh.

"Get over it, little girl. We both know that lying is something that's okay to do, if you want something bad enough." She laughed. "And I want this like you wouldn't believe." She paced along the roof's edge, peering over the side at the street far below. The view seemed to hold a particular fascination for her. "I'm just sorry I had to be the last in a long line of people who've screwed you over; It's not fun, I know."

From deep in the recesses of her own mind, Faith glared out at the person who'd taken away everything she was. She felt some fear, but her imminent death didn't seem real, yet. Most of what she was feeling was anger, both at her double, and at herself, for being so gullible. She'd known that betrayal was a fact of life, when dealing with people; she'd KNOWN it! But her future self had seemed so cool, so friendly and wise and strong.... Faith had fallen into the trap like a trusting child, and now she was well and truly screwed.

It pissed her off beyond all reason.

--All of this was a lie? From the very beginning?--

Her body nodded.

"Yeah. I would have grabbed you the second I got here, but I was wasted from the trip, and you were too strong, anyway. I had to wear you down, somehow. And if I could get you to let me inside you by your own choice; well, that made things a lot easier." She smiled gently, her gaze turned inward to her younger self. "So when you mentioned that test thing, I went along with it."

Faith was having trouble believing this was happening; despite the ample proof.

--You made all that up as you went along?--

A shrug.

"Hey, I can bullshit people with the best of them; something else I've gotten better at, this last year or so."

--Those people, the things inside them?--

Her body made a depreciating gesture.

"Those were real; this is Sunnydale, and Halloween. Shit like that happens here all the time. You really did save that first guy, you killed that bastard and saved his family's lives. You did some good tonight, if that makes you feel any better."

--The only thing that would make me feel better would be for you to get your ass outta my body!--

She was snarling, but it didn't have the same effect when it came in a tinny little mental squeak. Her older self didn't think so, either.

"Listen, that's just not going to happen, so forget it." Even so, Faith could feel the guilt coming from her twin. Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to counter her other self's desire to stay right where she was.

A few feet away, Buffy gave a groan, stirring weakly. Faith's body turned to look, watching silently as the blonde Slayer struggled to sit upright. She walked slowly over to stand over the smaller girl, and when Buffy raised her head she stared into those green eyes.

"Faith?"

It came in a whisper, and her swollen and bleeding lips caused her to slur it a little, too. It still broke Faith's heart. Her twin had a very different reaction.

"Buffy?"

She stressed the word, making it a mocking question.

"Did Buffy fall down? Did she hurt her wittle self?" A cruel smile curved her lips. "Buffy has no fucking idea what it's like to really fall and hurt herself. I think I'll introduce her to the concept."

The older girl didn't seem to be fully conscious. She stared as Faith crouched next to her, her green eyes flicking over the larger girl's face.

"I... I see two of you?"

Faith's body blinked, and Faith herself was also startled out of her growing fear and despair. Buffy could perceive what was happening inside her body? Even in a dim way? Well, she was a Slayer. Still, that didn't seem amazingly helpful at the moment. Her twin ran a hand gently over the blonde girl's cheek; then snapped the back of her fist into that already bloodied face. Buffy collapsed, unconscious, and Faith cried out; or at least she tried to.

--Come on! What are you doing to her?--

Her body scooped up the smaller Slayer effortlessly, turning to carry her across the roof.

"Everything that went wrong for me in this town is her fault. I'm not going to take a chance that she'll do it again." She lay the other girl down gently on the low wall that surrounded the roof, crossing the limp arms across Buffy's stomach. She was lying there helpless, just inches from a five story drop. Faith's twin examined the sheath's strapped to the older girl's forearms. Slowly she drew forth the remaining knife. It gleamed softly silver, and when she tested it, it proved to be very sharp. She nodded.

"If we're going to do things right, then it only makes sense to go the whole nine yards. Whatever that means." She used the point of the blade to trace a line down Buffy's side, then across her waist. Somewhere just a bit to one side of her navel, she poised the knife and tensed her arm.

Inside her prison, Faith was going berserk.

--Stop it you crazy bitch! I fought like hell to save her, and you helped me! Now you're going to kill her?!--

Her other self pressed her lips into a thin line.

"You don't know; you weren't there. You think what I've done to you is bad? Well what she did to me was twice as bad." She took a shuddering breath, her eyes still locked on Buffy's face. "She took away everything I had; everything I was. It was betrayal like I didn't know existed, like no nightmare I could have imagined." She gripped the knife firmly, her eyes flicking to the drop that yawned just beyond the helpless girl. "This is where things get evened up."

--I don't care about any of that! It didn't happen here yet, it probably won't ever happen, now!-- She resumed her struggle to escape, not caring that it seemed hopeless. She'd met hopeless before, and kicked the shit out of it. She could do it again. Her older self paused, watching sadly as the younger Faith fought.

"Let it go, please. I don't want to have to watch you kick and scream all the way down. You're just not strong enough. Nobody who hasn't gone through what I have could ever be strong enough." She paused, considering the girl lying before her. "If it bothers you so much, I'll wait till you're gone before I do her. I can give you that much, at least."

--Well, thanks a shitload!--

She was in a frenzy, now.

Passion, intensity.

The barriers that boxed her in were too strong to break, but there might be a way around them. She narrowed herself down, forcing all her will against her bonds, over and over. Nothing else mattered, nothing. If she didn't fight, she would die.

Buffy would die.

What she was doing to herself hurt, some, but she felt several tiny gaps in her cage, and she flung herself at them with all her might.

Her body swayed, and her twin frowned as she was forced to devote her full attention to what was happening inside her.

"That's not going to get you anywhere, either."

Faith felt the passage ahead of her being closed off, so she backed away and hurled herself down another. That one was promptly closed, too, and she turned to another, and then another. She squirmed and fought, desperate to find escape.

"You're harder to hold onto than a hamster on speed, you know that?" She lowered her head slightly, her voice going soft. "Remember 'Rat'? She was a good little critter. Until dad got drunk and stomped on her, just to show us what a big man he was."

It wasn't working, as soon as she found a