Chapter Nine: The Prophecy, Part Two

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It was midnight, and they were still researching...faster than before now, because Xander had managed to break a peanut-butter jar while attempting to open it, and he claimed he’d barely touched it. Giles and Angel had exchanged a glance, and the research efforts had doubled.

At about one-thirty, almost everyone was dozing over their books. Connor was upstairs in Dawn’s room, asleep with her in her bed since his crib was at the mansion and wasn’t set up yet anyway. Buffy had her eyes still on the book in front of her, but she didn’t really see it. Her head was on Angel’s shoulder, who was one of the three people still fully awake. Giles was sitting at the desk, and Wesley on the couch opposite the Slayer. Cordelia’s head was on his lap, and she was fast asleep.

Suddenly Giles banged his book down. Everyone jumped awake.

Buffy blinked a few times and looked over at her watcher. "Giles?"

"Yes." He turned and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Ah, yes. I think I’ve found it. Just one minute." He pulled out a paper and started copying and making notes while everyone watched.

Finally he stopped, and after referring back to the book a few times, he nodded to himself and stood. Turning to the group, he smiled and held the paper up.

"This is it." He cleared his throat and began to read.

"The Circle of the Slayer begins with Death.

The Strongest of Slayers shall twice lose Breath.

Two Slayers shall follow the teachings not,

Two Watchers ignoring the council, caught.

Two Vampires in love shall turn to the Light,

The Slayer they Love, by her side they will fight.

The Child is born from the peak of True Love,

The Knowledge is carried from the World not above.

One Witch, One Werewolf, One Demon, the Key

The Stronger of Watchers, a Sorcerer is He.

The Seer completes the Council of Light

Two Hunters in lifelong battle shall fight.

The Greatest of Good from this Circle will come

In the strength of the Love that they all feel as One."

Buffy blinked twice and made a face. "Translation, please?"

"Oh yes." Giles turned back to the desk and picked up a second piece of paper. "I think I have this worked out. Feel free to correct me. ‘The Circle of the Slayer begins with Death.’ Buffy, when you died, the first time, you triggered the prophecy." The Slayer hesitated but nodded and Giles continued. "‘The Strongest of Slayers shall twice lose Breath.’" He looked up, but that part was self evident. Buffy died twice. " ‘Two Slayers shall follow the teachings not, Two Watchers ignoring the council, caught.’ That would be Wesley and I, and Buffy and...and Faith." Giles looked at Angel. "You’ve...you’ve spoken with her recently?"

Angel nodded. "I see her every week. She’s doing better. Much better, actually." He smiled. "She’s even joking...not something she did a lot before."

Buffy gave a small smile and rubbed Angel’s arm. He smiled back at her and caught her hand, holding it to him.

Giles nodded and started reading again. "‘Two Vampires in love shall turn to the Light,

The Slayer they Love, by her side they will fight.’" He looked over his glasses at Spike. "Congratulations, Spike. You not only fell in love with a Slayer, you fulfilled a prophecy."

Spike just shrugged, but Angel growled and looked at Buffy, who bit her lip. His eyes darkened. They’d have to talk about that.

Giles kept going. "‘The Child is born from the peak of True Love’, Connor, obviously, and the lost day Angel told us about..."

Buffy’s eyes filled with tears and Angel brushed them away.

"‘The Knowledge is carried from the World not above.’ I don’t actually understand that one...I’ve made a list of everyone here, and I believe it has to refer to Fred and her...her I.Q., I suppose, but I don’t..."

Cordelia raised her hand. "Pylea. Humans were treated as slaves, called Cows. She was in a kind of hell, which is below, not above..."

Giles nodded. "Ah...yes." He sent a sympathetic smile to Fred who grinned brightly in return.

"I’m in a prophecy? Really? Me?"

Gunn grinned at his girlfriend and pulled her onto his lap.

The watcher smiled at them and then resumed his listing. "‘One Witch, One Werewolf, One Demon, the Key’. Well, obviously the Witch is Willow, Anya the Demon and Dawn is the Key, but we lost our Werewolf some time ago..." He glanced at Willow who was looking down at her lap. Gunn raised his hand.

"You mean, there *was* one?"

"Yes, Oz is a werewolf, but I believe he’s in Tibet at the moment..."

"He’s in Scottsdale."

Everyone turned to Willow who was still staring at her lap. She shrugged, picking at her skirt. "After he left the second time, we kept in touch." She lifted her head and met Giles’ gaze. "Do I tell him to come back?"

Giles nodded. "I believe that would be best, yes." He cleared his throat and continued, more to diffuse Willow’s sorrow than anything else. "‘The Stronger of Watchers, a Sorcerer is He.’ That would be me, I assume." He shot a glance at Wesley who nodded. "Yes. Umm.... ‘The Seer completes the Council of Light.’" Giles frowned. "I have no idea what that means. What, exactly is a Seer?"

Angel smiled at Cordelia who was trying not to blush. "That’s Cordy. They’re talking about the visions. I think I’ve heard someone call her that before."

"Ah." Giles smiled and wrote something on the paper. "Very good. ‘Two Hunters in lifelong battle shall fight.’ I’m assuming that’s Xander and Gunn, as we have no other ‘hunters’ here...um... ‘The Greatest of Good from this Circle will come In the strength of the Love that they all feel as One.’ That, obviously, is all of us...as a group it seems." He sat down, took his glasses off and began cleaning them.

Gunn took a deep breath. "Wow. So...wow."

Cordelia smiled wryly. "Yeah." She was quiet for a minute then giggled. They all shot her odd glances and she shrugged. "Of course this would happen the minute we come to Sunnydale, and for a reason completely unrelated. Because nothing like this ever happens in LA."

Angel and Wesley chuckled. Gunn just sat there with a stunned look on his face, and Spike just shook his head and headed to the kitchen for a cup of cocoa.

Chapter Ten: More Answers and a Few Changes

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"So, what exactly does it mean? I mean, we get what it says now, but what does it say about what it says?" Buffy waited a beat, then scrunched up her face. "Was that a sentence?"

Giles snorted. "Only in America. Um...what it means, in the sense you are referring too, we should still research...but I can hazard a guess on a few key points. The Oracles mentioned an Immortal council, so I think we can safely assume that immortality will be given to us, in some way or another. What?" The last was aimed at Wesley and Cordelia, who were exchanging glances.

Wesley cleared his throat. "When Cordelia was, um, ‘demonized’ as it were, I wasn’t sure the effects it would have on her besides making the visions tolerable, so I began to research." He took his glasses off and began to clean them, and the Scoobies made a sincere effort not to giggle.

"It seems that this has happened twice before, and both times, the Seer was rendered immortal. Or, rather, eternally youthful, which adds up to the same thing. They could be killed just as they could before, but as they didn’t age..." He faded off and glanced at Cordelia who was picking at her jeans and trying not to smile.

Xander couldn’t help it. He chuckled and shook his head. Buffy shot him an odd glance and he shrugged. "Oh, come on! Queen C will never age! I bet she made this wish in high school eight thousand times so she could be this great star, and how does she get it? By helping a Vampire with a soul rid the world of evil."

Buffy bit her lip, but Anya started openly giggling.

Giles ignored them. "So, it seems that the process started earlier than we thought." He made a wry face. "A prophecy took place before we knew about it. No, that’s never happened before."

Now the entire high school gang, including Wesley and Angel, were tittering and chuckling. After a moment, Giles joined them. It was just such a fitting way to begin a reunion.

Fred and Gunn sat there smiling. They didn’t get the joke, but they had no doubt that one of the others would explain it later.

After about a minute, Buffy got control of herself enough to tap Angel’s shoulder. "You should call Faith. Can she get calls this late at night?"

Angel shook his head, and Giles shot Willow a look. She nodded, getting back into the feel of doing magiks without guilt.

"I can set it up...kind of like a magical video phone." She bit her lip and looked around. "I’ll have to find Oz’s last letter, though, to get in touch with him. I don’t know where exactly Scottsdale is."

**

"Ok, give me that again?" Faith was sitting in the corner of her cell, on her bed. It was three-thirty in the morning when the sphere of light floating in front of her had shocked her out of sleep, but she was a Slayer, so it wasn’t *that* shocking. She was more concerned with getting caught...though *what* she’d tell the guards, she had no idea.

However, the minute Angel started talking about the prophecy, all thoughts of guards left her head. She had to keep reminding herself to whisper.

Angel bit his lip. He’d just given her the entire prophecy, plus all the explanation Giles had figured out. "Which part?"

"The immortal part. Give me that again."

"Right. Uh...supposedly each mortal is somehow going to be given immortality, or, as Wesley puts it, eternal youth." He made a face. "But if we’re going to split hairs like that, I’m only ‘eternally youthful’, so lets go with immortal."

"How?"

In the floating sphere she saw Angel shrug. "I think it’s different for each person. We’ve figured out that Xander got it when he stopped Willow from going over the edge, and that *she* got it when she took all that magic into herself." Faith nodded. She’d had dreams about what had gone on in Sunnydale, courtesy of her connection to her sister Slayer.

"Giles got it, we’re assuming, when he made the commitment to stay with Buffy. They hugged, and he felt something like a jolt. Cordy got it when she was demonized for the visions."

Faith snickered. "Cordy was first? She’ll never let any of you forget that."

"Probably not. Anyway, it turns out that both Giles and Xander got added strength, and Giles’ magic was increased ten-fold. He tested it, and he’s at the same level as Willow, which shouldn’t have been possible, since he avoided using it for so long. We knew the potential was there, but he specifically *didn’t* tap into it, so he shouldn’t be that strong. He is."

"Xander?"

"Has the strength about half what a Slayer gets. But his military knowledge cache somehow got updated. We don’t know how. Also, at about two this morning the military unit in Saginaw, Michigan, successfully tested a new type of rocket launcher."

Faith frowned. "We know that, how?"

Angel shrugged. "That’s what I’m saying. When something big happens, he just *knows*. He knew the model of the rocket, and all the details of the test, along with the officers in charge, etc, etc. It was like watching Cordy have a vision these days. His eyes went out of focus, and whey he came back, he just knew."

"Wow." Faith bit her lip. "So, everyone’s natural or existing powers are being enhanced?"

Angel nodded. "We’re all kind of nervous about Buffy. Giles isn’t even sure how we’d know if she’s already changed, or how strong she’ll be when she does. She’s kind of scared right now." His eyes got sad. "She’s afraid she’ll hurt the baby."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "And *there’s* something else. Connor’s hers? I just like that so much more than ‘I had a baby with my evil Sire.’"

Angel chuckled. "You have no idea." He stopped for a minute and glanced behind him.

"There’s something else you should know, though only Giles, Wesley and Buffy know over here."

Faith just nodded, so he kept going.

"I hugged Buffy earlier, but didn’t notice until after we all took a break. The others went outside, and I finally got a good look at her. She was wearing a cross."

Faith shook her head, not understanding.

"I hugged her, Faith. I hugged her and it didn’t burn me. I’m impervious to crosses."

The Slayer’s mouth dropped open.

"Holy water too, and I show up in mirrors. Buffy wasn’t willing to try a stake, for obvious reasons, but Giles seems to think there’s a good chance that I can go out into the sun, too." He shrugged. "We have no idea when, but Wesley thinks it happened the night I finally accepted that I couldn’t raise Connor alone. It makes sense...when I accepted that I’d need my family, I was given a gift in exchange."

Faith frowned. "What about your Shanshu?"

Angel smiled. "Giles got so excited when Wesley mentioned that. Seems there was a reference to it that he didn’t get. Apparently, this *is* my Shanshu. It’s just not happening the way we thought." His smile got bigger. "It wasn’t saying I’d become human. It said just what it meant. That I would live. Instead of simply existing, I’d start to *live*."

Faith smiled. "I like that. Like, ‘live your life’, huh?" Angel nodded, still smiling.

"It’s not what I was expecting, but if Buffy’s going to be immortal, and it seems she doesn’t really get a choice, I’m happy. As long as I’m with her."

"Hey, there’s a shock."

"Ha ha. So, the point of all this is, we think that somehow, you’re going to get out of there soon. And we wanted to warn you that if you get stronger, or feel something weird, that’s what it is."

Faith nodded. "Cool. Getting out, huh? Well, if I’m gonna be immortal, I can actually afford to wait, can’t I?"

Angel shook his head. "Giles says no, actually. Because they’ll notice that you don’t age. So, we have to get you out sooner. Willow’s working on it."

"Ok." She smiled. "Hey, tell Red that I said ‘Hi’, ok? And that she came out of it better than I did."

Angel smiled. "I’ll do that."

The Slayer smiled back and waved as the light slowly closed in on itself and went out. Rotating her shoulders, she stood. No way was she going back to sleep *tonight*.

She’d just started doing push-ups when she felt her arms give out and a jolt of energy went through her. After a second she got her bearings back and stood up

Faith looked around her, blinking a few times. Her Slayer sight had been enhanced to the point that she could see as if it was day. Every detail stood out completely clear.

She smiled.

"Cool."

Chapter Eleven: The Cure, and A New Problem

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Giles wandered through the house, checking on everyone. It was five in the morning and no one had slept yet, but no one seemed to want to. He stopped in the living room and watched Willow finish her phone call to Oz. She hung up and looked at the watcher, frowning. He cocked his head.

"What’s wrong? Isn’t he coming?"

"Oh, no, he’s coming. That’s not it. It’s just..."

Giles raised his eyebrows and Willow sighed. "I’m not in love with him anymore, Giles. And he still loves me. What do I do? I mean, I love him...but I don’t *love* him. Not anymore."

Giles nodded. "Well, I’m sure it’ll be more uncomfortable in your head. Just relax. Was it hard to talk to him on the phone?" The hacker shook her head. "Then it shouldn’t be much worse in person. Just relax." She smiled and nodded.

"Ok. I can do that." She nodded again, more for herself than for him, and got up, heading into another room. Giles sat down and started looking for more references to the Immortal Council.

An hour or so later there was a shriek from across the house and upstairs the baby started to cry. As he attempted to follow the sound, Giles barely caught a glimpse of Buffy dashing for the stairs to take care of Connor. He chuckled and looked up to see Angel watching her go with an adoring look on his face.

He glanced at Giles and gave a nod before going back to covering the last window for the rapidly approaching dawn - Spike wasn’t impervious yet, it seemed. Giles came over to help, and the two got the blanket up easily. When they’d finished, Angel shot another glance at the stairway. The baby was quiet.

"She’s going to be a great mother."

Giles nodded. "That she is." He raised his eyebrows. "What was that shriek? Did something happen?"

Angel shrugged. "It came from in there." He pointed at the dining room. Giles nodded and headed in. The vampire watched the stairs for a minute with a small smile on his face before following.

In the dining room Willow was practically bouncing in her chair, and Cordelia was smiling bigger than Giles could ever remember as she flipped through a book, making notes.

"Alright, what’s going on?"

Cordelia didn’t answer, instead simply came over and hugged Angel. He hugged her back and raised an eyebrow at Willow. "The last time I got a hug like this, we all thought we were going to die."

Willow shook her head. "No one is going to die. At least, we never have to worry about it happening because of *you* again."

If possible, Willow could have sworn that Angel paled. "What?"

Cordelia let go of her hold on him and beamed into his face, planting a kiss on the vampire’s cheek. "Happiness clause went the way of staked vamps about the time you started showing up in mirrors."

Angel just stared down at her for a minute, then looked up at Willow. She was nodding.

"We saw a passage in a book saying that the ‘vampire of the Slayer shall earn happiness through his pain. When his reflection is shown him, he cannot lose it.’"

Angel frowned. "But that doesn’t necessarily mean..."

"I know." Willow’s smiled actually got bigger. "So I worked a spell to make sure." She shot a nervous glance at Giles but he just smiled at her, so she relaxed. "It let me see your soul. I did this once before, actually, when Buffy had a dream that you went bad. That time, it was there, but it was kind of...tethered on. Like a string that could be cut. This time, it’s a part of you. Can’t be lost."

Angel gaped at her for a moment. Cordelia stepped back, and Giles just caught her mouth the words "Three, two, one..." before Angel was out of the room. They could hear him pounding up the stairs, and then silence. Cordy shook her head, smiling. She glanced at her watch, held up five fingers and counted down again. At one, they all heard a loud bang as a door closed, and then a thud. Cordelia sighed. "That baby will never get back to sleep if we leave it here. I’ll take it back to the mansion. I need some sleep myself." She hugged Giles goodnight and then headed for the stairs after Connor. She was met at the bottom step by Dawn who was holding the baby and cooing adoringly at it.

She looked up at Cordy and giggled. "I was told to take the baby downstairs and to get ready for my first day of summer school." She smiled at Giles who’d followed Cordy in. "And I was told that ‘Giles will take care of it.’"

Giles nodded and then smirked as they all heard another thud from upstairs. "Yes, well, I think they’ll be rather indisposed for a while. And they’ve both earned it. Ehm..." He looked at his watch. "Do you need me to go in with you, or do you just need a ride?"

Dawn shook her head. "I just need a ride. Buffy took care of everything else last week."

The watcher nodded and was going to say something else when someone knocked on the door. The three in the hallway exchanged glances and Dawn shrugged, still cradling Connor. Giles answered the door.

"I’m looking for Buffy Summers." It was a man in a smart looking three piece suit. Cordelia raised an eyebrow and whispered to Dawn, "Armani." Dawn nodded.

"I’m sorry, she’s umm..." Another bang was heard upstairs and Dawn stifled a giggle. Giles tilted his head a bit. "She’s indisposed at the moment."

The man in the suit raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. "Very well. I’ll come back."

Giles frowned as the man turned to leave. "Who are you?"

Turning back around, the man smiled and held out his hand. "My name is Richard McForell. I’m with Gregory and Hurthing. I’m Mr. Summers attorney."

Giles ignored the proffered hand. "Why does Mr. Summers need an attorney?"

Richard cleared his throat. "I’m afraid I can only serve the papers to Ms. Summers. If you wish to know the purpose of my visit, I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him." He turned and walked back to his car, leaving Giles staring after him.

After the lawyer had driven away, Giles closed the door and turned back to the room. He smiled at Dawn. "You can’t go to school in your pajamas, you know."

Dawn’s face was white and she was on the verge of tears. Cordelia was glaring at Giles. "God, how blind are you?"

"What?"

"Don’t you know why that lawyer was here?"

The watcher looked at the brunette and shook his head. "I’m afraid I don’t." He shrugged sheepishly. "I’m not very well versed in American law. Why?"

Dawn shoved Connor at Cordy and ran into the kitchen. The seer cradled the baby but kept glaring. "Don’t you get it? Hank Summers wants custody of Dawn!"

Giles’ face went white.

Chapter Twelve: More important problems

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Dawn shoved Connor at Cordy and ran into the kitchen. The seer cradled the baby but kept glaring. "Don’t you get it? Hank Summers wants custody of Dawn!"

Giles’ face went white. He stood there for a moment before turning around to watch the lawyer get into his car. When Richard was gone, he spoke, without turning back. "Cordelia, go upstairs, knock on Buffy’s door, and tell her what happened. I don’t care if you have to yell through the door. Just make sure she knows. *Now*."

It was the same tone of voice he’d used on Buffy when he found that she’d been hiding Angel after Hell. Cordelia didn’t argue.

When the pounding stopped upstairs, Giles knew Buffy had heard. He headed into the kitchen to think.

No one was going to take Dawn. Not when they were this close to the Culmination.

No one.

**

"Ok, so he wants Dawn." Buffy frowned. "He hasn’t been around, *at all*, for the last six years of her life. What kind of judge will give him custody?"

Giles took a sip of his tea. They were sitting in the dining room having breakfast. Dawn had already been dropped off at summer school by Gunn and Fred who’d headed back to the mansion with Connor. Angel was still at the house, basking in the fact that they didn’t have to cover the windows for *him*. He’d watched the sunrise with rapture. Xander and Spike had gone on a blood run (through the sewers...the two were actually getting along...), and Wesley, Cordelia and Willow had gone out for groceries. The snack run yesterday had neglected certain necessities...such as bread. And everyone figured they’d better keep all three places stocked. So, they were shopping for the mansion, the house *and* Giles’ apartment. They’d be gone for a while.

Oz was on the next plane back from Chicago, which was where they’d finally tracked him down to. It’d been a while since his last letter to Willow.

Buffy stared at her watcher and waited for an answer. The long pause did *not* bode well.

"Giles?"

"Well...he’s her father. And, I got the impression, from the rather large ring on his lady friends finger, that he’s getting married. Judges tend to give children to parents more, especially married parents. It’s considered more stable."

The slayer’s eyebrows furrowed. "Ok, but I’m married, too." She turned to Angel. "And, we have a son. Isn’t that a stable household?"

Giles tilted his head. "But...technically, you’re not married...not by law. And Connor is not officially yours. So, you’re twenty-one, engaged to a man who has a son." He chuckled. "I don’t think that’s seen as stable, no."

Buffy frowned for a minute, then brightened and turned to Angel. "Marry me."

He smiled. "And how do you propose to do that? I’m dead. I don’t legally exist."

"What? So? Willow is not just magic girl. She’s net girl. I’ll bet she can make you a past and ID so foolproof..." She turned back to Giles. "It’s a good idea, isn’t it?"

Giles nodded. "It actually is." He glanced at Angel. "Are you going to use ‘Angel’, or ‘Liam Angelus’?"

Angel raised an eyebrow. "I was actually thinking of ‘Liam Angelus McConnell’."

Buffy looked at him strangely. "Your name in life was Liam Angelus, wasn’t it?"

He nodded. "But my mother’s maiden name was McConnell, and I think I’d rather that after all this time."

"Oh." She smiled sadly. "Not to big on using your father’s name?"

He chuckled. "More like, it’ll be easier to explain that I use a shortened version of my middle name, rather than my last name."

"Oh." Buffy made a face. "And here I was trying to be ‘deep girl’ and feel your pain. Phooey on you, then."

Angel smiled and took her hand. "It’s appreciated. More than you know."

Buffy was about to say something else when Fred and Gunn ran in carrying Connor. Angel looked at them strangely. "I thought you two were at the mansion. And Connor is supposed to be asleep."

The baby was wide awake, and the minute Fred started talking, he started to cry. Buffy took him and cooed, trying to calm him.

"There was a dragon. And there is no more mansion."

"What?!" Giles shot out of his chair. "A dragon? Dragons don’t exist in this dimension!"

Gunn nodded. "We know. It had a chatty mouth. Something about being summed to stop the Culmination."

"Dear Lord."

Buffy frowned. "Giles?"

The watcher turned to her, but his eyes were unfocused, trying to work it out in his mind. "It must be closer than I thought. It never occurred to me...I thought we had at least a few months."

"Giles!"

His eyes focused on his slayer and he nodded. "Sorry. But it seems the that problem with your father isn’t going to really be one...not for long."

"*Giles!*" Her voice took on an exasperated edge that snapped the watcher back, finally, from his thoughts.

"Sorry, Buffy. But...alright, well, it’s rather in depth, and I’d only like to say it once, so we’ll wait for everyone to return, alright? I think we’d better wait for Oz as well...he’ll be here this afternoon?"

Buffy nodded.

"Good. We’ll wait. Dawn will be home by then anyway. And I think what happened at the mansion is unlikely to happen here. The mansion is rather...secluded. This house is in a neighborhood. The dragon will have to wait for night."

Buffy nodded again and took Connor back up to Dawn’s room. Giles turned to Angel.

"I think we’d better break Faith out. We don’t have time to wait for something better. She’s a sitting duck where she is."

**

Angel was damn lucky he wasn’t stopped. He’d made the two hour drive from Sunnydale to LA in less than one. After Giles had explained, hurriedly, a bit about the Culmination, he’d realized that he needed Faith out of that cell and back in Sunnydale.

Now. Tonight would be too late.

Now, the newly sun-proof vampire was completely oblivious to that fact as he stood outside the prison block. He was focused instead on a single soul inside. A soul who he needed to get out of there.

Faith was the third cell from the end. He could feel her Slayer’s power coming off in waves. She’d already been enhanced, he felt it. It would have to have happened after he talked to her last night. Everything was coming together. Giles was right.

And she was just a sitting duck in there right now.

Angel scaled the wall easily and dropped into the compound. He felt for Faith again and realized that she wasn’t in her cell, but in the yard.

That would just make it easier.

Following her power, the vampire made his way towards the workout area. He hid behind a wall and scanned the grass for her, finding her at a punching bag.

He growled quietly, knowing she could hear him, and watched her look up and move in a slow circle, her eyes narrowed. He stepped out just a bit, enough for her to see him, but still in the shadows.

Faith heard the growl and swung around, scanning for the vampire. Day or not, she knew a vamp when she heard one. Her eyes landed on Angel, in the deep shadow by the cell block, but with her new eyesight, she could make him out just fine. She nodded a bit, and Angel motioned with his head for her to come over.

Faith looked towards the supervisor, but the guard was busy with her clipboard, facing the other way. Faith jogged over quickly and slipped into the small space.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was a whisper.

"Getting you out before a dragon shows up to kill you."

Faith blinked for a minute. "A...dragon. Like, flying, fire breather?"

Angel shrugged as if to say ‘hey, I didn’t make him, I’m just here for you’ and Faith nodded once. "Ok. Well..." She glanced at the still distracted guard. "Now’s the time, I guess."

Angel glanced at the guard and then at the sky. He felt something coming. Grabbing the slayer’s hand, he started running towards the wall he’d come in over just as the dragon appeared on the horizon.

Chapter Thirteen: The Culmination

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Dawn walked into the living room after school and stopped.

Faith and Angel were sitting on the couch, looking slightly singed, but not too bad. (they’d had time to change) Oz was getting an explanation from Giles and Wesley. Willow was studying a spell book, and everyone else, and that meant *everyone* else, was sitting there, just waiting.

Thirteen people, plus Connor. The room was packed.

"Umm...hi?"

Giles and Wesley looked up. Willow didn’t look up, but raised a hand in greeting. Buffy patted the couch next to her and Dawn sat. Her sister smiled at her and lifted Connor from her lap into Dawn’s.

"Right. We’re all here." Giles stood. "I’ve been waiting so I’d only have to say this once." He glanced at Faith and Angel who were looking at him tiredly. Angel had an arm around Buffy, who was holding Faith’s hand across his lap.

They’d had a...talk.

"Some of you know some of what I’m going to say, but I’m going to go through the whole thing anyway."

Angel and Faith nodded.

"As you may or may not know, the prophecy we’ve all heard has almost all come to pass. Only Buffy hasn’t received her new powers, and she won’t until the Culmination. Yes, Dawn." He stopped and raised his eyebrows at the teen who’d raised her hand.

"What are the powers?"

"Oh. Sorry. Gunn has received added strength, though not much...but enough to make him a formidable opponent with his training. Fred seems to have acquired a photographic memory, Faith has vampiric eyesight, Spike can go in the sun, though he can’t handle holy objects, Wesley has advanced hearing and Oz has, somehow, control over the wolf. He can...call on it, and still control the power."

Dawn nodded and Giles went back to his speech. "The Culmination is just that. When it’s happened, Buffy will receive her powers. We don’t know what that will be. Dawn will receive hers at that time as well, since they’re connected." He stopped and took a deep breath.

"The Culmination in this case is simply a spell. We perform in unison, and..." He sat down. "Once we have performed the spell, a simple chant to link us together, we will be sent back in time to the beginning. To fix what went wrong...and to stop the Master from ever performing the connection with Luke. It seems that the moment the vampire Luke left the Hellmouth, he set off a chain reaction...we have to stop it. Otherwise, the being that called forth the Dragon will simply grow stronger and stronger until we have no chance of killing it."

Buffy stared at him. "Back? How far?"

"The first day you came to Sunnydale."

**

Forty minutes later, the room was still in chaos.

"Giles, I can’t go through high school again!"

"Mom! We can save mom! If she’d gotten to a doctor sooner..."

"What if she doesn’t remember Dawn? She won’t! She won’t remember my sister!"

Giles clapped loudly and everyone settled down.

"I understand your apprehension, but we don’t, really, have a choice. So, we’d better start planning for when we get there, because we’ll all be scattered. Think back to where you all were six years ago."

Fred started to shake. "I was in Pylea."

Gunn grabbed her hand. "We’ll get you out! You won’t be there long."

Wesley nodded. "I’ll get on the first plane from England and Gunn and I will get you out. We’re not really needed that first week, are we?" He looked to Buffy who shook her head.

"No...no, I think we can handle it, as long as we have the people who were here."

Cordy frowned. "So, we all just live in Sunnydale?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, we can split our time between LA and here. That way, Gunn can keep his crew, and we can keep the money coming in a bit."

Angel nodded. "Also, there are things that happen that that we need to stop...not just here."

Giles nodded. "We need a plan..."

No one had noticed that it had gotten dark, but they all noticed when the back of the house crashed in.

Fire started coming in from the kitchen, and Willow shouted, "The magic shop! I need an amulet for the spell!" They all dashed out and climbed into cars, speeding away. The dragon hadn’t noticed they were gone, but they had no doubt it would soon.

**

The doorbell to the Magic Box rang as they ran in. Willow started rooting around for the amulet behind the counter while talking to Buffy.

"We have to say it together! It isn’t much, but..."

She came up, slipping a silver chain around her neck just as the dragon crashed through the entrance. Buffy ducked to avoid flying glass and spotted the stairs to the roof.

"Roof!"

She made a dash for the stairs, dragging Dawn with her, checking to make sure Fred had Connor. She did. They all scrambled up the steps as the dragon started breathing fire into the furnace.

If they didn’t hurry, the building would blow, with them still there.

Gathering together on the flat rooftop, they formed a quick circle and grabbed hands. Linked. Connor was, by a quick decision in the car ride over, lying at Giles’ feet, where they hoped he’d follow the watcher back.

Buffy felt the building start to shake. "Willow!" She screamed it over the crashing and was just audible. "You say a line, and we’ll follow. Hurry!"

Willow closed her eyes and started yelling. "We link together in mind and heart!"

Thirteen voices were just barely heard chanting. "We link together in mind and heart!"

"We never shall fail, if never apart!"

A loud crash was heard and under their feet they felt a drop. The building was collapsing.

"We never shall fail, if never apart!"

"We risk our lives, what was wrong shall not be!"

Another crash, and the dragon was heard trying to get out before the store fell in on itself.

"We risk our lives, what was wrong shall not be!" Buffy felt the rattle under her feet signaling that they were running out of time. "Hurry!"

"We, The Immortal Council, will be all who can see!"

Another crash, and half the roof fell in, just missing the circle.

"We, The Immortal Council, will be all who can see!"

"Take us now! Let it be right! We are ready to relive, to fight for the light!" Willow’s eyes had gone black, and a ball of fire started to form in the middle of the circle.

"Take us now! Let it be right! We are ready to relive, to fight for the light!"

Lighting flashed from each person and they turned their heads to avoid being blinded. The fire in the middle burst...and the building fell in.

**

End of Part One.

:: On To Part Two ::

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