Authors Note. Please Read

This is not a conventional chapter. It is not written in the normal way, because there are so many things happening at the same time, It can't be written in the normal way. Instead, it's got times for every paragraph -When the events in that paragraph start, and when they end - just like the last section of the last chapter.

In my opinion, this is one of the best chapters I've ever written. It's as good as Chapter 8 - Renascence - War Cries (The one where Anita and Cordelia come back), and maybe even better than that. Huge things happen this chapter, so, yeah, enjoy.

Don't forget to tell me what you think too!

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Chapter 19

The Beginning of the End.

Twenty Minutes Earlier – 9:40 A.M. – Sunnydale – California

They had all just heard what Dawn had dreamed about that night, and no one was speaking. There was a heavy tension in the air as everyone in the Scooby Gang sat around the lounge room. Everyone knew that there was a large possibility that Dawn's dream actually meant something. It wasn't often that someone in Sunnydale had a powerful dream that didn't mean something and wasn't a way of communicating that something bad was going to happen. Everyone knew this, but no one was willing to say it. Everyone also knew that if they were the one to say something, and that they were wrong, they would be making a panic amongst everyone and someone would blame them for it, even though they couldn't have known that they were wrong. Finally, it was Xander who broke the silence.

"It could be connected to our ghosts… Whatever is causing mayhem all over the world, it might have something to do with that," Xander suggested.

"Then why would it choose me?" Dawn said. "Buffy's the Slayer… Willow's the Witch. Why would my head be chosen to mess around with?… It might not be whatever is causing stuff to happen. It might be Glory. She might be back. She might be the one causing everything."

"We don't know Dawn," Buffy replied.

"You know, dreams are usually just a way of our subconscious letting itself out," Cassia said. She didn't feel a part of the group, but she liked the topic of dream interpretations.

"But around the Hellmouth, they usually mean something is going to happen," Giles said to her. The tension in the room just rose as Giles said the words that no one wanted to hear.

"Look. How about we stop panicking and we just, wait until we get another sign or something. These things usually come with a lot of signs don't they? So, we wait until we get another sign before we jump to any conclusions," Buffy said to all of them. Giles just snorted.

"Buffy's right… did I just say that? But, yes. She is right. We should all remain calm until we get another sign of something that is going to come. We have our own problems to deal with. We have to start looking out for these potentials and we have to keep researching into the information we already know," Giles said to everyone. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'm going to go and see these potential slayers. Get to know some of them, y'know. I haven't even spoken to any of them yet," Willow said. "It might be helpful if we can tie in any thing that their stories have in common."

"Yes, good thinking," Giles said. Everyone got up to go and do their respective activities. Xander had called in sick for the day, deciding ages ago that he needed a day off, and he had chosen today before anything had even started happening. He figured that there was no better place to hang around than the Summers' all day. Dawn didn't really have anything to do, so she decided to go upstairs to her room, or maybe she would talk to Faith, who she was sure was around somewhere. Buffy and Giles were going to get together to discuss starting to train the potentials. They didn't have any Watchers any more, and Buffy thought it would be a good idea if they learned from the actual Slayer, not a Watcher. Cassia didn't know exactly what to do, so she decided she'd hang around with Xander and get to know him a bit and interrogate him about all the others.

9:56 A.M. – Los Angeles – California.

They were speeding down the streets of LA, careful to avoid any attention from police or crashing the three cars that they were driving. They were heading to a warehouse that was near the medical clinic they were just in. Fred was very nervous in the car that they were in. Wesley was behind the wheel and was driving like a maniac.

"Right. Go Right here," Cordelia yelled. With a sudden jerk of the wheel, Wesley turned the car on a hard right and shifted down gears. They took the corner so fast that the car skidded around the corner and fishtailed when Wesley tried to regain control of the car. They were now on a six lane street; three lanes going each way, and it was obvious that they weren't going to get to the warehouse Cordelia was guiding them to. By the urgency that Cordelia had used, and by what she had said already, Fred knew that there was a large chance that they might not get there in time. She looked across to Cordelia, waiting to hear her instruction for Wesley. Fred saw that Cordelia's eyes were pure white and her pupils had gone, and that her eyes were now made up of white energy. "We're not going to make it," Cordelia said in a solemn voice.

"Yes, we will. We just have to get through this traffic," Wesley replied, thinking of driving along the median strip to get there.

"No we won't. There's no time. Even if we could get there, there wouldn't be enough time to stop the ritual," Cordelia said. Fred saw Cordelia's eyes return to normal. "We'll wait. It's better for me the further we are away from that warehouse when the ritual takes place. If I'm right next to it, I might make matters worse." They had stopped behind the cars waiting at the red light now, and Wesley had turned around to face Cordelia. Behind him, he could see the other car with the potentials and Connor and Anita in it. It was Gunn's car they were driving, and they were lucky to find out that one of the Potentials had a drivers licence and was a very capable driver.

"What? What does that mean? What's going on?" Wesley asked.

9:59 A.M. - Los Angeles – California.

She loved this feeling. She was herself again. Sitting in a coffee shop, Amy Madison was delighting in the short time that she had, magick free. She knew that it would come back, that her need for power would overwhelm this feeling that she was currently having. She knew that she wasn't over her magickal addiction and that she had come through it. She knew that it was only because of the spell that was performed on her. She hadn't done anything. She hadn't fought it off. She didn't have the strength to fight it off, and she wasn't a better person because of her little gift. Amy knew that it would all go away, and that the only purpose of this was to keep her sanity. Whatever it was that was controlling her and manipulating her wanted her kept sane, for what reasons, she didn't know, and really didn't care.

Suddenly, she felt a rush of power through the air and herself, so sudden and so strong, she leapt up and knocked the table over that she was standing at. Raw energy crackled down her arms, and wind was racing around the coffee shop that she was in. Everyone who looked at her saw a girl with black hair, pale skin, and pure black eyes with energy crackling and swirling around her.

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Lounge Room - Summers' Residence - Sunnydale – California

Willow, Faith and the three potentials were sitting around and exchanging stories. Faith wasn't really interested in the stories that the potentials were telling of how they and their Watchers had been attacked. All of their stories were basically the same, and once you had heard one, you'd heard them all. Their stories couldn't compare to hers, to the things she had done in her time as a Slayer, and before she had mucked everything up by coming to Sunnydale, the first time. Most of them had only fought a few vampires in their lives, and that was always with their Watchers, but she didn't want to barge in on Willow's information hunting. She'd get to tell her stories to the Potentials sooner or later. She was sure that Buffy wouldn't be telling them any stories of her encounters, so Faith was the one who had to do it. The only reason that Faith was here was that she had decided to get to know the potentials. Faith's senses went on overdrive, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end, which meant that something bad was nearby. She heard Willow mutter something under her breath, and was surprised when there was a strong wind in the room. She looked to Willow, and saw that there was red-black energy crackling all around her and that her eyes were closed. Faith and all of the potentials jumped back and looked at her, and when she opened her eyes, they were completely black.

Faith had never seen anything like it in her life. Energy was swirling all around Willow's limbs, and her hair had now turned jet black. Willow was on the floor, gasping for air, with extremely powerful energy encompassing her. Faith knew that something bad was going down, and somehow, she knew that anyone who was a regular in Sunnydale would know what was going on. She ran from the room as fast as she could into the kitchen, not finding anyone, she yelled.

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn! Anyone!" Faith screamed in exasperation. She looked back into the lounge room and saw Willow, who was now standing up and floating in mid air. Her head was tilted back, looking upwards, and energy had almost completely consumed her body. "Get away from her!" Faith yelled to the potentials, who were slowly backing away towards the front door.

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Dawn's Room – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Dawn was writing in her diary. She was writing about all the potentials, Faith and Willow's return and her dream, trying to get down every tiny detail. She could still hear Glory's words go through her head, just as if she was standing next to her, whispering into her ear.

"I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You." She wrote these words down on the page, and she had a distinct feeling that something was going to happen related to this. Suddenly, the tingle that she felt in her body got far stronger, and she began to feel light headed. Something coursed through her body, something that she had never felt before in her life. It was powerful, and it was her, and it belonged to her. For the first time in her life, she felt complete. All that vanished as a wave of nausea came over her body and she collapsed onto the ground. She managed to pull herself up onto her bed, but it had completely exhausted her and she collapsed face down onto her bed covers. When she turned her head and opened her eyes, she was looking into the mirror, and her eyes went wide. In her reflection, she could see bright green energy swirling around her form, and it was getting stronger and stronger. It became so strong that Dawn could only see the green energy and not herself any more. She screamed as she lapsed into unconsciousness, not sure of what would be there when, and if she woke up; Dawn Summers, High School student and sister of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Key, mystical energy ball which unlocks the gates between dimensions.

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Backyard – Summers' Residence –Sunnydale – California

Xander was telling Cassia about the various things that the Scooby Gang had faced over the years, and the things that they had done. He had only started with the story of Angel and Angelus when suddenly, Cassia moaned and fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" He asked her as she lay on the ground, her eyes now half open. He watched in horror as her eyes closed and green-black energy started to swirl up from the ground around her, and she thrust her head back, hitting the ground hard. Her whole body started to convulse and shake violently, and Xander thought she was having a seizure.

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn!" Xander heard Faith scream from inside the house. He ignored Faith's screams and ignored Cassia's convulsions as a steady line of green energy came at him from Cassia, entering his chest. He had the strongest deja vú he had ever felt, and he remembered the time on the top of King Man's Bluff when he had stepped in the beam of green energy that Willow was directing at Prosepexa's shrine. He felt raw, natural power spread through him, and his brain was overwhelmed with the strength of it and he fell to the ground, clutching his head. Right then, he knew exactly what had happened when he had stepped into that beam of Energy. He had taken the earth's energy inside him and was now a part of it all. (Reference to Chapter 9 – Post Grave; Chapter 11 – Post Grave; Chapter 14 – Post Grave)

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Basement – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Buffy and Giles had just started their plans for how to train the potentials, and where to keep them. The best idea that they had come up with was for everyone to move to Angel's old mansion and live there until the current crisis was over, or until the potentials left. That way, they'd all be in the same place, as opposed to other plans of having half of them at the Summers' Residence and the other half take over Xander's and Giles' apartments. They had been writing it all down. Suddenly, her muscles tensed up and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Her Slayer sense was going off, which meant that something that could cause her harm was nearby. She looked to Giles, who had a completely bewildered look on his face before he fell off his chair and onto the ground, gasping for air.

"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed while jumping off of her chair and bending down next to Giles. "Giles?! What's going on!? What's wrong!?" Buffy panicked. Upstairs, she heard a lot of commotion.

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn! Anyone!" She heard Faith yell above her. She heard Dawn's scream from somewhere, but she didn't know where. Not much of it registered to Buffy as she was bent down, looking at an exasperated Giles on the floor, who seemed to be recovering.

"Go to them, I'll be fine," Giles rasped. Buffy hesitated a second and looked back to Giles, who looked at her, giving her all the affirmation she needed. She turned and bolted up the stairs towards the sound of Faith's voice, while Giles lay on the floor, and the mark of Egyphon carved itself onto his back.

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Room 7 - Stay-the-Night Motel – Los Angeles – California

There were six bodies inside the small room. They had all decided to just get out one room and have everyone sleep in that, considering that it would save money. They were lucky this time, there were two large beds in the room, which satisfied Oz and Michaela and Brett and Naomi, sharing a bed each. Daniel and Nicola got the floor, but even then it wasn't that bad because they had two air beds folded away in their vans and chose to sleep on those. They were all asleep, as the trip to Los Angeles had exhausted them, as well as staying up the whole night looking for Angel and his crew. Suddenly, a large crack resounded which made everyone bolt upright. Oz and Daniel covered their ears as the sound hurt them more than the others because of their increased werewolf hearing. Michaela and Naomi both let out a loud moan as a wave of power rushed over them. Nicola put her hands to her head and closed her eyes as her senses were increased ten fold and the dim light in the room hurt her eyes. Blue-Green-Black energy started swirling around Michaela's arms and it made it's way to her body, swirling all around her. There was a strong wind in the room now, blowing papers and small objects around the room. Suddenly, Daniel and Oz started to morph into their werewolf forms. They fully turned and lost all control of themselves. As one, they turned and looked to the others in the room, snarling as they did so.

10:01 A.M.

9hr:59min:50sec A.M. – Angel's Car – Los Angeles - California

Fred turned and looked at Wesley. She too wanted to know what was going on, and what ever this ritual was meant to do, and what exactly Cordelia meant when she said that 'it would only be worse the closer she was to the warehouse when the ritual was completed.' Just then, there was a loud resounding crack, and right in front of Fred and Wesley's eyes, Cordelia disappeared, a blue-white figure vaguely in her shape sat there. Then, the figure burst into millions of pieces; millions of tiny little balls of blue-white energy that were blasted away from each other and spread out, out of the car. Cordelia Chase, the higher being, had just essentially exploded right in front of Fred and Wesley. In the car behind them, they noticed that there was a disturbance, and saw the door open and the new girl, Anita roll out. There was blue and green energy swirling around her, and surrounding her was a yellow-gold glow that spread itself. The blue and green energy shot out and hit a light post, affectively melting it where the energy struck. The girl was rolling around on the road in agony, screaming something that wasn't even in English. And then, as soon as it had started, it stopped as the Yellow glow turned into a dark red glow laced with green and blue. Anita managed to stand up, energy still swirling around her limbs. She raised her arms, and overhead, the sky instantly clouded over, rain started to pour down. Slowly, the energy subsided around her, and Anita was on the ground on all fours, her head hanging low. When she looked up, her blonde hair had changed to red and her eyes glowed blue and green.

Five minutes later

Everyone had gathered around Anita. They had guided her to the sidewalk. The effects of whatever that had happened had worn off, and she was leaning against a building. Everyone was making sure she was alright. She said that she was, but Fred doubted that after what she had just seen. She hadn't seen anything like it in her life, and she had barely seen anything that scary in her life before either. Their cars were still out in the middle of the street, but no body seemed to mind as everyone else in the street had vacated it in fear once Anita started rolling around on the ground.

"We have to go," Anita said. Everyone stopped and looked at her. "We have to leave here right now. We're not needed here. We have to go to Sunnydale, they need all the help they can get," Anita said softly.

10:06 A.M. – Room 7 – Stay-the-Night Motel – Los Angeles – California

Brett was slumped against the wall. He had no idea what had happened, but it was extremely bad. Straight after the noise woke them up, all hell broke loose in their room. Nicola and Michaela both went hay wire, and Oz and Daniel had turned into their wolf selves, but without their control that they had both managed to master over the years. Brett had managed to strike Daniel over the head with a chair, which luckily hit him just right to knock him out, and Michaela had managed to knock Oz out with magickal energy, but Brett was sure that she had done more damage to him than that. At the time, she still hadn't managed to stop whatever was happening to her, there was extremely powerful energy swirling around her whole body, anyone could tell that. She had reached her hand out towards Oz, and that energy went shooting out towards him, sending him flying across the room and hitting the wall on the opposite side head first. He was snapped out of his thoughts as Nicola spoke.

"We have to leave here. We have to go to Sunnydale. They're gonna need some help," she said from the floor, still slumped across the air bed, barely able to lift her head up.

10:01 A.M. – Basement stairs – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Buffy didn't have a clue what was going on. Panic had overtaken her. She didn't want to know what she'd find once she opened the basement door and looked out into her house. She could tell from Faith's screams that it was urgent and needed. She turned the door handle, but she couldn't open the door fast enough and she rammed it hard with her body, sending it flying open. She saw Faith in the kitchen, moving towards the dining room, a look of pure fear on her face.

"Faith!?" Buffy shouted. There was a lot of noise, and Buffy figured out that it was coming from the living room.

"Buffy! What's happening!?" Faith exclaimed. Buffy immediately took off after Faith and entered the living room. For a second, her eyes didn't know what they were looking at, but then it registered; Willow. Willow was in an upright position, floating above the floor, her head tilted back, red and black energy swirling all about her, her eyes and hair completely black. Buffy could feel the raw power emanating off of the girl, and she could feel it building. For one of the few times in her life, Buffy was terrified. She could easily remember what had happened the last time Willow got like this, but now it was different. There was more power; she had more power. Suddenly, every piece of glass in the house shattered. The front windows shattered, the glass in the front doors shattered, all the light bulbs shattered, and every single window and glass in the house burst into pieces. Buffy took three quick steps towards Willow, but she was sent flying back, sliding along the floor after she landed, into the dining room, which was on the other side of the house. There, she saw the potentials, watching from a safe distance.

"If I say so, run. Get out of this house and run," Buffy said to the potentials while she was still on the ground. She got up, slowly, and made her way back to Faith's side. All they could do was watch, there was nothing that they could do. It had only now sunk into Buffy's mind what was happening. Beside her, she saw movement, and saw that it was Giles stumbling along. He saw Buffy and stumbled up to her, and put his arm on her shoulder and used it for support. He looked up at Buffy, and then looked to where both Buffy and Faith were looking, and Buffy saw his mouth drop open. Suddenly, all the wind in the room stopped, and all the energy enveloping Willow stopped, and she dropped to the floor and collapsed. Instantaneously, Buffy raced forward, followed by Giles and then Faith.

"Willow? Willow, are you alright? Willow? Willow, tell us what happened?" Giles said in an unusually calm voice. Willow's eyes opened slowly and she looked around at everyone. She was gasping for air, and everyone could tell that whatever had happened had a large effect on her.

"The- the- the walls," Willow managed to whisper.

"Yes. What about the walls?" Giles asked her.

"Walls. Between. Dimensions… they're thinned… things are coming through," Willow rasped to them all between breaths. "Buffy?" Willow said.

"Yes Willow, I'm here," she replied while leaning in closer.

"The Hellmouth," Willow rasped again.

"Yes Willow? What about the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked.

"You have to get there," Willow replied. Both Buffy and Giles could tell that she was about to slip into unconsciousness. Buffy had to know what was happening to her friend, and she had to know what she was trying to say.

"Why do I have to get to the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked her, not expecting a reply as Willow's eyes had closed. In a last strain of effort, Willow's eyes opened again, and she said two words that shook Buffy to the core.

"It's open."

10:10 A.M.

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So, that's the chapter. Tell me what you think of it, please. If it came out how I was imagining it in my head, it's F***in awesome, but that might also be because I know what's going to happen next and I'm just setting the scene for it. Tell me what you think please.

Aussie.

Next Chapter - Chapter 20 - Too Late.