Disclaimer: I, of course, own none of anything Joss Whedon or anyone else has created. I own my plots, my storylines, and my characters.

Author's Note: This story is littered with flashbacks and/or references to things that have happened earlier on (things that are not told in this story) that are fictitious but fit with the plotline, meant to give some hint to what happened before the start of this. Anything on its own, separated from other text, in italics is a flashback/memory. Sorry in advance to the people who hate flashbacks. :) Please review!

Prologue

The woman moved through the alley, her path dimly illuminated by the glow of nearby streetlamps, the air thick with fog. Her step was certain, as though she regularly patrolled hidden places after dark. Her eyes belied her age, cutting around at her surroundings, alert and impatient. She was acutely aware of the girl's presence; she was waiting for the right time to appear. It was the age. No fear.

There were no footsteps, no noise; but there was a shadow breaking away from the thick darkness that engulfed the walls of the surrounding buildings, moving through the haze. A face came partially into view beneath the few streetlamps, and the striking features caught the woman's eye as they had before. The look of complete fearlessness; confidence, power, strength. She stood ready, firm, conscious of every single thing around her.

The full lips parted. "You're late." Dark hair framed her face, dampening her already murky eyes.

A ghost of a smile. "You're early."

"I'm punctual. It helps." The younger woman spoke in a bold, self-assured voice; she had done this, and probably much else, several times before. "What do you want?"

"I asked you to come because, as I'm sure you are aware," she gave the other woman a wanton look, speaking less as a superior and more as a mischievous accomplice, "you hold a great deal of power within you. You're highly skilled. I know what you're capable of." She paused. "I want you."

There was no impressed or surprised reaction offered, only a cocked eyebrow and an amused, dark grin. "Well I've heard that before. You have to sell me on it first."

"You've seen and done a great deal in your travels, as I'm sure was your intention. You certainly got yourself out of dangerous situations quite frequently. I know that it's honed you into an even more supreme being than you were before." The light in her eyes flicked down to the necklace around the girl's neck for an undetectable moment in time. "I could use you."

"Sorry, I'm a one-man team." She showed no break in her defenses; compliments and praise did not faze her. They were clearly nothing new. This approach would not work.

The older woman laughed deeply in her throat, barely opening her mouth. The sound might have unsettled any average person, but this girl was very far from that. "My dear, I can offer you much more than you have ever even dreamed before. Believe me." The light in her eyes shone brighter.

"I like what I have now pretty well. I chose it." She emphasized her words, her eyes hard and penetrating.

"You're going to find that you will have many choices." She paused. "Can you always choose the best?" Her eyes seemed to bore right through the other woman, but still she did not so much as flinch.

"Is this all you wanted?" Her impatience was clear.

A smile, somehow far more unnerving than the laugh. "I'll see you again."

Without another word, the girl was gone, the shine off her necklace the last thing the woman caught as it vanished into the fog.