Authors' Notes: Yes, it took long. After the umpteenth time reminding Joshua to write a new part, BigHead and 3D Master gave up and wrote a new part ourselves. Although for some weird reason Joshua seems to have gotten inspiration from the new part . . . oh, well, enjoy and send us feedback.

Chapter 5: Inner

(by BigHead)

Whiteness. The floor, the ceiling, the walls – if they existed – were completely white. She could not sense the distance, or the height or anything like that, only the stable ground where she was standing was proof that she was . . . somewhere.

Faith looked around and to herself, noticing her nude state. That's how she usually went to sleep, so she was in doubt if this was a dream or something more Hellmouthy. Since she didn't believe there was one nearby she opted for a dream, so the dark Slayer decided to go with it, and started to walk forward.

She walked for quite a while, in her perception, and nothing changed. She tried to scream, but no sound came from her mouth. This is getting really odd, she thought, and she gave a few more steps, finally noticing that the 'ground' was reflecting her nude body. She smirked slightly, while appreciating her own image.

Then she saw it. A small drop of something blackish, oily-looking, right between her feet. Before she could bend to examine it, another drop fell near it, and they /moved/ towards each other, forming a bigger drop. 'What the fuck?'

She saw another drop, and the situation repeated itself, the small blob getting slightly bigger. Faith then started searching her own body for signs of a wound.

Then, she sensed something /shift/ inside her, and she instinctively moved her fingers towards her nose. It was wet, and when she looked to what it was, her fingers were coated in the black stuff.

That /thing/ was her /blood/?

The oily substance flowed down her hand, dropping to the ground where it joined the enlarging black blob. Then, a searing pain in her gut folded her body in half, and she grabbed her lower abdomen, where the ugly scar from where Buffy had knifed her was located. Her hands and arms were instantly covered in the black ooze, which kept on falling to the ground and growing. In an instant of clarity caused by the pain, she noticed that her 'reflection' was not repeating her actions, instead, it was 'standing' menacingly under her, with a feral grin imprinted in her face.

Then she felt another bolt of pain in her shoulder, where an old wound caused by a demon so long ago reopened, and more of her 'blood' started pouring down. Another old one, this time in her left thigh made her lose her balance, and she fell to the ground, the ooze now pooling between her open legs. In an astounding sequence of pain, almost all of her old wounds reopened, and the black thing poured out in buckets, her mind screaming all the time.

Then, as suddenly as the wounds appeared, they disappeared, leaving Faith down in the ground exhausted, with a pool of black ooze extending in a perfect circle right in front of her feet. The pain receded a little bit, and she managed to lift her upper torso, holding onto her elbows.

Her 'reflection' had vanished, and she was alone once again, except for the black stuff that was her 'blood'. It remained perfectly still, as if it was a giant inkblot in a piece of white paper.

A few moments later, she managed to move a little bit better, so she crawled on all fours to the blob, and with a probing finger, she touched it.

It felt . . . cold. Chillingly cold.

She removed her finger instantly, and looked around, trying to find anything that would make sense to her.

Then, in the exact center of the blob, a ripple began forming as if someone had dropped a stone in it. Soon, the ripple was affecting the entire surface of the black pool, and Faith as well.

She was /scared/

She backtracked as much as she could on all fours, her energy almost at an end.

The blob started changing, the center of it rising like a fountain, twisting, moving, shaping up like something human-shaped. The Slayer's eyes grew like saucers, and she tried to backtrack even more, but failed miserably, landing on her butt.

The blob then finally assumed its final form, and it was . . . her. Or an exact replica of her nude body, only made of the black stuff.

'What the fuck are you?' she asked in her mind.

The Black Faith looked at her and 'smirked', and in a speed far superior than Faith's own powers, grabbed the Slayer's neck and began to squeeze. And she heard in her head a voice that meant the end of everything that she believed in.

'I am you.'