Faith wakes up one hour later

Where am I? thought Faith as she slowly regained consciousness after the massive blast of energy that had hit her after someone -- surely not her -- activated the body swap talisman that Faith and the others had been trying to grab. Am I still in Kathryn's body? Am I in Joyce's? Buffy's? Willow's?

She opened her eyes and saw a man's hand before her. Then she tried to move her own hand -- and saw the man's hand move.

Oh, shit! she thought. I'm in Riley. Oh, well, at least it's only temporary. All I have to do is find the talisman and -- Oh, hell! Where is it?

Then she saw it. Lying there at the floor of the Bronze just a few feet away from her new body. All she had to do was to reach out and grab it. Then she could track down the occupant of her old body and **** yet another swap. And then she would be home free.

But once Faith-in-Riley started to reach for the talisman, a high-heel-clad foot kicked it out of her/his reach.

Faith-in-Riley looked up and saw Kathryn-in-Tara staring down at her/him with a large bruise on her cheek.

"If I had known your girlfriend was such a psycho, Riley, I would have never flirted with you," said Kathryn-in-Tara. "She's even worse than Sonja Blue."

"Sonja Blue?" asked Faith-in-Riley despite herself.

"Oh, that's right," said Kathryn-in-Riley. "You missed that conversation. Apparently, according to Sonja, I'm Wendy the Bad Little Witch and my stepbrother Sebastian is Casper the Unfriendly Ghost. Which I suppose makes CrazyGirl Sonja Blue."

"I still don't get the reference," said Faith-in-Riley.

"Sonja Blue is a character I once read about in a book," said Kathryn-in-Riley. "Apparently she's both a vampire and a vampire slayer and she has mental issues to boot. Just like CrazyGirl."

"Stop calling me CrazyGirl," said Faith-in-Riley. "I'm as sane as you are. And I wasn't a vampire."

"Well, I don't know about that, " said Kathryn-in-Riley. "I have seen my share of shrinks -- and you do seem kinda aggressive for a non-vampire. Anyway, glad to see you come out of hiding, Sonja Blue."

"Whatever," said Faith-in-Riley.

Again she reached for the talisman and again Kathryn-in-Tara kicked it out of reach.

"Do you mind?" asked Faith-in-Riley. "I'll let you swap out your body just as soon as I get back in my old body."

"Sure you will, Sonja," said Kathryn-in-Tara. "But, hey, I don't mind. I kinda like this body I'm in right now. Plus with all the debts I've run up in the past few months -- not to mention the scandal at my stepbrother's funeral -- I could use a new identity anyway."

"Okay," said Faith-in-Riley. "So just let me have the talisman then, Kathryn."

"With pleasure, Sonja," said Kathryn-in-Tara. "But first..."

Kathryn-in-Tara quickly raised her foot and prepared to stomp down hard on the talisman. Faith-in-Riley tried to reach for the talisman before Kathryn-in-Tara's foot came down -- but she was not fast enough.

One final burst of energy came out of the talisman as Kathryn-in-Tara ground her foot on it. Then she took her foot away, leaving the talisman just lying there on the floor, broken and no longer capable of doing anything, no matter how tightly it was squeezed.

"Who's the idiot now, Sonja Blue?" Kathryn-in-Tara asked with a laugh.

Then she turned away from Faith-in-Riley and walked out of the Bronze.