Author's Note: The end draweth nigh. A couple more parts should do it.

Then, perhaps, a break from the adventures of Daria and Faith so I can concentrate on Martian Manhunter.

Disclaimer: Except for the plot, Cameron, and Lynette, not mine.

X X X X X

The rest of their stay in Lawndale was brief and, for the most part, restful. (They wanted to get back to Dawn as soon as they could, but they didn't want to leave either Cameron Kim or Anthony DeMartino completely in the lurch. Yeah, they trusted DeMartino, but they'd fought the forces of evil with the guy, so making sure he was okay was fairly important.

In any event, now that they'd kicked the hellbitch's posterior end but good, Dawn wasn't quite as panicked. Thrilled that they'd won, a bit bored hanging around Will Vaughn ("Though I could really spoil Jill of the Forest if I wanted to -- I totally could. When you see what Jill does to that Johanssen bastard in episode 10 --") Of course, Daria hadn't seen Jill of the Forest and had no plans to watch it, but she appreciated the temptation. There was a time she might have done the same for, say, The X-Files.

You couldn't spoil Sick, Sad World, of course. "Of course not," Jane said later. "It's spoiled already."

They gave Dawn a blow-by-blow account -- Buffy, mostly, some Willow, some Daria. ("Because, you know, your sister couldn't handle it. While I was busy kicking Glory's ass, she was lying down on the job." She was smiling as she said it, though that didn't stop both Buffy and Dawn from sticking their tongue out at her.

Dawn actually, said, "You know, I'm sticking my tongue out at you." Daria's response was, "Thank you for the information. Will you be detailing any other gestures you may be making, or is this a one-time thing?"

"I'm sticking my tongue out at you again."

"Option two. Thanks. Now I know."

"And again."

"Okay, Dawn, Fun's fun. One more time and I'm going to start thinking maybe you're swinging more towards Willow's side of the fence. And, just to put you on notice, that's not my side of the fence. And you're too young for me anyway."

"I'm sticking out something entirely different right now."

"And still with the mixed messages."

"Arrrgh!"

"Okay. I'm done teasing." It was good to tease a little sister again. Even if it wasn't her little sister, and the only thing she and Quinn had in common was above-average hair.

She finished describing the fight against Glory. When she got to the part about Anya killing her -- and then Xander's reaction -- Dawn said, "First, yay Anya."

"No arguments here. Believe me."

"Second, you tell Xander for me that if he doesn't get over it I'll hurt him good when he gets back."

"I'll have Buffy do that. I suspect she has greater validity of threat delivery here."

"Fair enough. And, seriously?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Daria knew this wasn't the time to be funny. "You were in trouble. I'm not going to let someone in genuine trouble stay there if I can help it. No matter how much I may tease them about it before, during, and afterwards. I was happy to do it."

She passed the phone back to Buffy after that, and she also promised to "kick Xander's ass" if he didn't get over his upset at Anya killing Glory.

There were other matters. The weirdness at Lawndale High didn't appear as though it was going to be cleaned up. It didn't help matters any that the only surviving witness who wasn't a total whackjob was apparently the only other person on the planet who rivaled those two morons back in Highland for sheer fucking stupidity. If the hospital had any suspicions that Daria or Buffy or anyone else was involved, they seemed to be keeping it to themselves.

The school, meanwhile, was scrambling to find enough replacement teachers to fill out the school year -- and a replacement principal.

They went to visit one of the teachers who didn't need to be replaced at home before they left. The visit confirmed that the man was healing up nice, which was good, because Daria liked that the guy had had the stones to be there at all. It also confirmed, not like they weren't 99 sure already, that he wasn't planning to spill the beans on anything that had happened that night."

"BUT," he said. "It would be APPRECIATED if I might have a PHONE NUMBER I could CONTACT you at if something SIMILAR happens in this town AGAIN."

She and B looked at each other, and finally B said, "Only if you promise not to call us in for minor problems."

HE laughed. "Young lady, I DO know the difference between a swarm of MOSQUITOES and a swarm of HELICOPTERS. Rest ASSURED that I will not be calling you in for something as FRIVOLOUS as a lone VAMPIRE."

B then gave him the number of the Magic Box.

On their way out, Mr. DeMartino said, "It was GOOD to fight alongside BOTH of you. You both APPARENTLY know how to think AND fight -- not like the MORONS and PANTYWAISTS I normally have to DEAL WITH. But I hope you'll FORGIVE me if I say I hope not to DO IT AGAIN in the immediate FUTURE. I'm not sure my BODY could TAKE IT."

The last part was said with a smile. As such, Daria responded with, "Likewise, Mr. DeMartino, We don't think our ears could handle it either." He was self-aware enough to laugh.

The main problem was waiting for Cameron Kim. Daria and B went in to visit her once, and they got the plan straight. Cameron would go back to LA at the first opportunity, give her final report, and announce that she had lived up to the terms of her contract and considered herself a free agent.

"Might want to do that last part from a safe location," B said.

"Such as?"

B shrugged. "I don't know. Jupiter?"

Daria said, "Heavy gravity. And kind of hard to breathe."

Cameron said, "Still beats Wolfram & Hart." Then, after a second, she said, "One thing my Dad told me in my vision was that in order to protect myself I should remember that Wolfram & Hart weren't the only people who offer contracts. Any idea what he meant by that?"

B laughed, "No, but is a typical thing to hear in a vision. Something that only makes sense after it happens."

Daria said, "Hold on a second."

"You think you get it?" Cameron said.

"I think I do. It's simple. You live up to the terms of your contracts. You want to -- be one of the good guys?"

"It might make a nice change," she said.

"Then you sign a contract with one of the good guys."

Cameron said, smiling slightly, "Yeah. That makes sense. Thanks."

Buffy said, "Of course, we wouldn't be able to pay you much. Or anything. But the hours are long, so that makes up for it."

Shaking her head, Daria said, "I was actually thinking of a contract with an actual company. Or perhaps . . . a private investigation firm. I can think of one."

"So you want me to go from working for Wolfram & Hart to working for their worst enemy?" Daria nodded. "Why not. Assuming Angel will go for it."

"I think Buffy and I working together might be able to convince him otherwise," Daria said.

"Oh yeah," Buffy said.

They'd planned to go back a second time, but the plans were derailed when a Wolfram & Hart response team came in and whisked the shapeshifter away. They got a thirty-second phone call saying they'd see her in Los Angeles, and then she was gone.

On this, she and B were in total agreement: They damn well would see her. They were fairly sure Cameron was smart enough not to say anything while she was still in the hospital, but then part of the point of them hauling her back to LA was no doubt so she could heal quickly out of the sight of doctors who might be inclined to ask annoying questions (Like, "How did your arm go from shattered to healed in two days?" Trivial matters such as that tended to arouse physician suspicion, no hinkety-pinkety intended.)

She and Jane and Willow also took a couple of hours and talked about Watchmen after Daria reread the final chapter. Faith had never read it, and there was some part of her that said that it was kind of cheating to talk about the final chapter when she hadn't read it, even though she had.

Most of the discussion revolved around the ending -- whether Ozymandias' plan was about to be derailed. Jane was sure it was, based on the artistic cues in the book. Willow was just as sure it wasn't, because Ozymandias was so smart he certainly would've factored something like that into it. Daria, now, she could see both sides.

A problem she'd been dealing with a lot since the battle with the hellbitch had left her two, two, two minds in one.

When they weren't busy talking about graphic novels, or to shapeshifters, teachers, or annoyed younger sisters, they were trying to figure this out.

Willow and Tara had been busy hashing out the practical aspects. Too busy with them to think about the philosophical parts, which kind of sucked, because Willow was smart -- as smart as Daria -- and Tara somehow had a strong sense of right and wrong that allowed for shades of gray. Rare.

Still, it wasn't like the practical aspects weren't important here. Without them, they were figuring out whether they should just for the mental exercise.

Willow said, "I have this extra energy inside me I'm still not sure what to do with. I mean, I already have a mental structure, but adding in the mental structure of a hellgod on top of it makes my head feel uncomfortable. I can keep it for a while but eventually I'm going to need to get rid of it. I can't eat it like Glory and I wouldn't even if I could. It would probably give me the ickiness of mental indigestion."

"And, and we left of all our mental Pepto-Bismol back in Sunnydale," Tara said. "I told you we should, should have brought it along, but you said, no."

"It's true," Willow said. "I did."

"Let that be a lesson," Daria said. "Never ignore your girlfriend. I never have and, hey, it's worked for me."

"You're kind of straight," Willow said.

"My point," Daria said, "Stands."

They both laughed. Tara said, "When, when we were working on how to drain Glory's brain, we never quite got around to, you know, figuring out what to do with the energy once we drained it. We were kind of pressed for time."

"I'm not blaming you," Daria said. "That was damn sure what allowed us to kill the hellbitch, so I'm hardly going to go blaming you for not spending the time we didn't have working out the ramifications."

So while they dealt with that part of it, Daria and Doc Vaughn and everyone else were dealing with the should. And she made it clear that while she was asking for advice -- rare enough for her that they should've been ringing up the newspaper -- that the final decision was hers and hrs alone. Everyone was happy to let her make it, even if they did have their opinions.

And by everyone she meant everyone -- even Trent Lane, though his contribution was, "You happy?" Daria said she was. "Then there you go. Don't worry about what 'Daria' and 'Faith' would have said as though they weren't here. They are here. In you. And I doubt they'd have had trouble separately with what you're worried about joined."

Spike simply said, "Far as I'm concerned you should stay together."

"Let me guess," Daria said. "Only one personality means one less person to piss you off."

Grinning, Spike said, "Can't say that ain't part of it. I don't trust you and I don't think I ever will." Daria didn't take it like a shot, and she was pretty sure Spike didn't mean it to be one this time. "But this is mostly about how you handled yourself during the fight. From all I've heard and seen, while Faith was a hell of a fighter, she would've just charged in and started whalin' on her blondeness. You didn't. Not that you didn't hit the bitch hard and fast, but you were thinking about how to beat her."

"So for you it's all about practicality."

"Almost everything is," was Spike's response.

Anya, for her part, was uncharacteristically subdued. For Anya, anyway. "Xander?"

"Xander," Anya confirmed. "He says he's willing to work through it but he's not actually working through it. I don't get what his problem is, I really don't. He knew this about me. Or he should have. It's not like I've ever lied about it. Actually, when I talk about my career they usually tell me that that's 'inappropriate talk.' Like there is any such thing."

"You've had the what-the-fuck moment; maybe now's the time for the quiet and mature conversation."

"How do you do that?"

"Saying 'be yourself' probably wouldn't work. Talk about your past, you know? Maybe try not to sound like you're blowing your own horn. No matter how proud you are of the assassination of James Garfield."

"That was a political vengeance. Not my thing." She then said, "Anyway. You want me to tell you what to do?"

'I'd like your opinion, yes. No one tells me what to do."

"Oh, sure they do. But you're like me. You just ignore them. Unless it's something you were going to do anyway."

"You've discovered my secret," Daria said. "Now I'm going to have to kill you."

"Anyway," Anya said. "I think you're fine as you are. I don't think Daria or Faith as they were before this would have had a problem with it. You were a lot more alike than you think. You both put up with only people you thought were worth putting up with, and to hell with the rest of the world. I like that about you. You're both smart, too. I realize you came off differently, but that was all style."

And, she thought, the ex-demon had a point. The differences were more than stylistic, though. Faith's attitude towards sex and Daria's couldn't have been more different. The blending seemed to have more of Daria's attitude; she didn't think the idea sucked for the future, but it was going to be on her terms, with someone she actually gave a crap about. If an itch came, she would scratch it herself, thank you very much.

Still, that even that attitude had come to some kind of accommodation meant that Anya had a point. "Thanks, Anya," Daria said.

"No problem. Thanks for your advice also. I hope I'm able to use it."

"Trust me. Dawn gave Buffy and me strict instructions to kick some sense into Xander if he persists in being an ass about the whole thing."

"Good."

Buffy refused to take part in the whole debate. "Your call," she said. "I'm not going to say a word either way. Because my opinion? Not so important. Everyone else's? Not so important. Yours is the important one. But I'll tell you this much."

"Yes?"

"Whatever decision you make, I'll back you all the way."

"Thank you," Daria said. Then, smiling faintly. "I've made the decision to take your house."

Buffy said, "Not that one."

"The Magic Box?"

"Not that one, either."

"Liar."