I have returned from my trip with a new chapter! This one's slightly more original.

Oz is going to back! Haven't quite worked out how but he'll be coming and as for the Scoobies, I've already written their entrance into LA so don't worry. You just gotta wait a couple of chapters, lol. Then the relationships will be blossoming within the departments.

Hope you enjoy. Key word that my beta reader Zoe has given me—Visualize.

I'm gonna have to remember that somehow.

Zoe: Oh and the first one, I really like the back story of Karl. Very cool

Halina: heehee. I love making new characters

Zoe: Don't like the name much but the character is fabbity fab

What's wrong the name Karl??

Where do we go from here: ESCAPING EVIL'S WRATH

Buffy sighed in the morning as she held a cup of hot coffee. She shook her dismally. "Why would he do something like that?" she asked quietly. "Why would Andrew just run off, with that knife? Dawn, what exactly did he say?" She looked at the younger girl waiting for answers. They had decided that that night was too late to anything to do anything about Andrew. They tried tracking him down for a while but he'd disappeared.

Dawn shrugged. "He was crying. He was seriously upset—mega upset. He was talking about how he had killed Jonathan because Warren had made him. That was what wigged him out the most. He was holding the knife that opened the seal."

Giles shook his head. "We had it all along. And we didn't' know. He opened the seal with that knife. He stabbed Jonathan with that knife and we didn't know it. We need that knife."

Principal Wood frowned. "You think it'll help us close the seal."

Buffy sighed again. "If we don't, the Hellmouth will literally overflow. We'll have kids murdering themselves and each other. The First will get stronger from these actions."

Dawn stood up. "Do you even care about Andrew at all? He's out there somewhere. The First could come back to him again and haunt him to do something and we won't be there to protect him!" she shouted. "You know, he was upset because none of us cared about him, that he was here because he had no choice. He could die if the First thought he was indispensable."

Giles nodded again. "Dawn's right. Andrew could be a threat now to the First. He is running with the key to the seal. If it got into the wrong hands…and if Andrew loses any more of his mind, he could be in serious danger."

Xander spread his hands. "Where are we to start looking? We can hardly search Sunnydale asking, 'hey, have you seen a little squirt about yay high, carrying a deadly knife.' I don't know where to start. And what about the potentials?" He looked around.

Dawn frowned. "Well, then I'm going to go and look for him. Not for the sake of the mission but for his own sake. He's not exactly the strongest person. He's armed with a powerful knife." He went to the front door and picked up her jacket ready to out of the door. It was cloudy inside. She took that as a bad sign for a place that was usually bright and sunny.

She shivered and began to walk out. She didn't bother looking behind her until someone shouted, "Dawn, wait!" She looked to find Anya running to catch up with her. "Buffy wanted to come but I said she should wait inside and carry on with the things she can do. I'm not exactly good when it comes to the whole battle thing."

Dawn smiled gratefully. "Thanks." She looked around an isolated street. "Where do we start?" she asked quietly.

*  *  *  *  *

Angel looked beside him and was amazed to find Justine was following them as well. Spike, Wesley, Faith, Lindsey and Gunn had barely noticed her following them on the way to the demon's nest. He stopped and turned her around. "What're you doing here?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be back at the hotel. Do you really think you can fight with a headache?"

"I've got used to the fucking headaches," she snapped. "They're just a stupid throb now and you're not taking me out of this. I'm not a part of your 'crew.' You cannot tell me what I can do or who I can fight. This nest has vampires, I'll take them all out by myself."

Angel rolled his eyes and carried on. Justine had a point. She wasn't really a part of them. She was her own freelance vampire hunter with the soul mission in life to eradicate all vampires from the face of the earth, no matter what their excuse. Angel wondered if it came down to it, would Justine stake him.

The nest wasn't that far away from the Hyperion. It was an abandoned warehouse from long ago. Already Angel could smell the vampires there…at least half a dozen. There were two storeys to the Warehouse they saw, as they went inside. "This place needs more of a redecoration than the last crib," Gunn said, as he pulled a spider's web off his jumper.

"The warehouses closed long ago," Wesley stated. "They've been uninhabited ever since and considering no one goes here for safety reasons, it's ideal for vampires to hide out in."

"I've seen better places for vampires to live in," Angel replied incredulously.

"Shh," Faith said quietly. In the silence it sounded as though there was a chain rattling. In the quietness of the warehouse, the sound seemed almost eerie and distant. Lindsey shivered slightly and looked around with narrowed eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness.

"I can't see or hear anything," he murmured. "Are you sure we have the right place?"

As soon as he said that, a vampire jumped from above them, landing on Lindsey and pinning him to the ground. It caught Lindsey and the rest by surprise and Faith was about to help him when more vampires seemed to appear from nowhere. Lindsey pushed the vampire with his left hand hard so he propelled through the air and slammed against the wall above the entrance of the warehouse.

"How come they arrive so dam fast?" Gunn said. "And why is it always a surprise?"

"Vampires love the whole ambush thing," Spike cried back, kicking one vampire fiercely and staking him as he hit the ground. "They can't seem to find another interesting method of attack."

For a few moments, none of them spoke. There were more vampires here than Angel had originally fought. All of them were too preoccupied but occasionally there was the triumphant sound of a scream and a vampire turning into dust. Faith, Wesley, Gunn and Spike were all preoccupied. Lindsey seemed to be doing very well by himself but he noticed that Lindsey enjoyed using fire from his own new ability than the annoyance of holding a stake.

A vampire from behind pushed Faith into the ground. It took her by such surprise that she didn't have enough momentum to turn over and land back on her feet before the vampire crawled on top of her, already ready to bite. With her arm twisted under her, she couldn't take her stake and stab him in the heart. A scream and a sudden relief of pressure told her that he had been staked.

"Faith, are you all right?" Wesley asked, bending down to help her to her feet.

She nodded. "Five by five." She looked above Wes. "Duck." He did so and Faith put her stake into the other vampires heart that had been advancing towards them.

Over on the other side of the warehouse, where another fight had moved, Angel staked another vampire that had been knocked Spike over. He held out his hand to him to help the younger vampire. Spike looked at it for a moment and then grudgingly took it. "Thanks," he muttered, before brushing past Angel.

Angel grabbed another vampire by the throat and held it up against the wall. He morphed into his game face and growled at the other vampire. "I'm fed up of fighting meaningless bunches of vampires and coming out empty houses. What are you doing here?"

The vampire struggled in Angel's grip. "Fuck you," he spat.

Angel punched the vampire in the stomach. It doubled over in pain but then he reached for the throat again, holding tighter. "I'll ask you again this time, less polite. What are you doing here? Why are you here?"

"Chill, man," it said. "Don't kill me! I'll tell you why we're here. We were called, all the way from Philadelphia. All vampires are being called from everywhere to LA to take part in rituals."

"What rituals."

"I don't know!" the vampire screamed. "I haven't been to one yet. But they're all being called by Karl. They said he's one of the chosen few to lead us into victory." Angel growled. He'd finally found his answer. Karl was the reason behind all of this. "Before you ask, I don't know where Karl is. I haven't been to a meeting, remember?"

 Angel staked him against his word and from the corner of his eye spotted Justine running through another door of the warehouse, chasing another vampire. "Justine! Get back here!" he cried.

If Justine did hear, she didn't do anything about it. She continued running through into the room, her stake in her hand and prepared to fight. The back rooms were dark and dismal. Not a sound seemed to be coming from them. Then the vampire appeared as she walked through the door she'd carefully opened. It grabbed her by the throat, choking her quickly that she dropped her stake.

"You won't kill me," the vampire growled at her grabbing either side of her head.

When Angel burst through the door a few seconds later, the vampire had escaped out of an open window. On the floor beside the door was Justine her neck broken.

*  *  *  *  *

There was silence back at the Hyperion. Justine, although she had not been friendly for most of the time they'd known her, her death had been tragic. She was a lost valued person, a vampire hunter. Her methods were wrong but her intentions, slightly blinded by passions and revenge, were on the right path. What worried Angel was that he had lost his link to the powers. Where would the powers deliver them now?

Wesley came out of the bathroom on the first floor and Faith was still sitting on the bed, cross legged. "Did you hate her?" Faith asked, as Wesley reached for a cleaner shirt.

"Excuse me?" Wesley asked.

"You know, the Justine girl? I mean, you must have had it in for her a bit, right? Bitch slits your throat, you don't just toss away the forgiveness, you know?"

Wesley grimaced slightly. He lightly touched the scar on his throat. "You're right. I did hate her, especially after I woke up in hospital. Justine had not only attempted to take my life, but it resulted in her taking Conner and in the end, the loss of my friends. How would you feel?"

Faith stood up. "Hey, babe, chill out, it's okay. It's all history now. Angel's forgiven you. No one holds that against you anymore."

"Not outwardly, no." Wesley sighed. "I had always hoped Justine would find some sort of peace. She was a very troubled girl. Maybe she found it now. And as for everyone else…" now she shrugged. "I can only live up to expectations and do what I can do for the right reason."

Faith grinned and stood up, putting her arms around his shoulders. "Well, I think the scar's sexy…real manly-like." Her index finger traced the line.

"Really?" Wesley asked.

Faith nodded slowly. "Hell, yeah." She learnt forward and licked the scar with her tongue. Before any touch on the scar had scared Wesley. It brought back the painful images and memories. But strange as it sounded, he felt safe with Faith. He captured her mouth for a long kiss.  

Downstairs, though, Angel was feeling slightly more distressed. He stared down at an old picture of Cordy and sigh. With annoyance, he put the picture back on the table and sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "Feeling a bit broody again?" Willow asked, looking at him from the corridor. Angel didn't look down but continued to trace patterns on the ceiling. He merely nodded. "Want to talk about it."

Angel sighed. "Gee, where should I start?"

Willow swallowed and nodded. "Right, sorry." She began to turn around.

"No…No I'm sorry," Angel said, sitting up. "Things are just difficult. That's all. It's getting very complicated. I feel so pressured again. I don't remember having to feel this pressured since…well, since Darla showed up again. Now, everything's roller coasting out of control."

"Like?"

"Well, how about the whole damned apocalypse for one. Our run down is that we have whatever evil that is reminisced of the Beast. I have two evils running a mock, the First and this apparent evil from QuorToth, one of which is going to kill Conner which has been prophesied. Oh, and Conner has run off somewhere with Cordy. I can't track them down. And I can't look after everyone."

"Angel, no one's expecting you to," Willow stated. "People are here of their own free will. Faith and I are, and Spike and Lindsey. Wesley Gunn and Fred are here because this is what they do. They cannot live with the thought of people dying when they knew how."

Angel took a deep breath. "The world is coming to an end and people don't know if. What's even funnier is that the resistance against the forces of evil are a band of people who can't even keep heads straight within their own group. Justine was just killed. Spike still hates me and he has every reason to. I don't know half of the relationship situations here."

Willow smiled slightly. "I don't think that's in your job description."

Angel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And what about Justine? She's dead, we can't bring her back and she was our link to the Powers that Be after Cordy. Where would they send them now?"

Willow shrugged. "That's anyone's guess. You'll just have to wait and see what turns up. Something will. What about that vampire that you killed. You were talking about Karl."

Angel got up. "Yeah." He walked out of the office. "Wes?" he said, looking at Wesley and Faith as they came down the stairs. Gunn was reapplying his axe to the cupboard, Fred was sitting quietly with Spike and Lindsey was off on the other side of the room. Lorne sat on the sofa with another drink. "Karl?"

Wesley smiled slightly. "Standard watcher's training at the academy these days," he remarked. "I thought you'd know more about him. You encountered him I believe, in the early 1950's."

"Yeah, I was kind of going through a redemption thing. I only know the basics."

"Karl is a vampire but he was turned under different circumstances. I believe he was a musician originally—a failed musician—and wanting some kind of fame, he dabbled in the occult and the dark arts. His knowledge of it and desperation for renowned fame led him to selling his own soul and drinking the blood of a vampire."

Spike shrugged. "He's still a vampire. We can still stake him and that's it. Sodding good the information will do."

Wesley shrugged. "Karl may be an ordinary vampire. His soul cannot ever be returned. He willingly gave it up—well, to the devil, you might say. The devil will not give back the soul. Karl is still knowledgeable of the dark arts. As well as physical strength, he has own power."

Lindsey stood up. "I'd like to see him try."

Fred looked up shyly. "I really doubt the Powers gave us this vision to kill Karl."

Gunn nodded. "Yeah, he sounds like an incredibly important player to me. What if he's someone we need to get to find out information?"

"Yeah," Angel agreed sighing and putting his hands in his pockets. "Karl won't give it out willingly. If what I remember about him still stands, he's a stubborn son of a bitch. But that vampire tonight said Karl is the one drawing all the other vampires here so he definitely knows something. He may be working for one our evils."

Wesley sat down. "Maybe Karl is the key. Therefore maybe that was all Justine was needed for by the Powers—to guide us in the right direction. Cordelia was not here so they were given to Justine and as her reward, she receives her own form of piece."

"So…what about your visiony things? Don't you need them?" Willow asked.

Gunn laughed. "Will we? From what I see, there are two options. They either go back to Cordelia and a helluva lot of good that's gonna do if she ain't here. And second, if we use Karl and eradicate evil through him, maybe there will be no need for the visions. Maybe this was what the Powers were building us up to."

Lindsey let out a low sigh. "Sounds very ominous to me."

*  *  *  *  *

Andrew let out a sigh as he landed on LA ground. He had run away from Sunnydale and without much luck had tried to hitch a ride to Los Angeles. Eventually, he managed to scramble enough to get him half way there and the rest he had either walked or actually got rides from unwary people travelling his way. He didn't speak that much and he kept the knife covered at all times. When he finally got to LA, he was relieved.

"Watch out, kid," the driver said to him before he closed the door. "LA can be a cruel place. You don't want to land in the wrong kind of crowd."

Andrew smiled slightly. "Oh. Thanks."

He closed the door and quietly walked away, looking wide eyed around him at the streets of Los Angeles. Here was nothing like Sunnydale. There was more action and life, there were cars on the roads and people everywhere, of all sorts. Andrew swallowed and looked around, now uncertain where to go.

He had his knife, that was all he cared about. Truth be told, Andrew didn't know why he came to LA anyway. His initial idea was just to runaway. It had always been his solution to difficult situations. He didn't want to die in Sunnydale but he didn't want others to die either. Him there with this knife—it was an opportunity for the First.

Then again, if the First was focusing all its energy here, Andrew wondered why he had come here in the first place. It seemed right at the time. It was as if LA was the safest place he could go. The thing was, he had no idea where he was going now. He knew nothing and no one in Los Angeles. All he had was the company of his knife.

He sat on the sidewalk and looked at it for a moment—the sharp blade that he had once plunged into Jonathan. An image of his best friend's face sprung to mind again but he pushed it out of the way. The handle was decorated. It looked wooden but he knew it wasn't. Andrew almost wished that he'd stayed in Mexico. That way he wouldn't be in this position, Jonathan wouldn't be dead and he may have some sort of normal life attempting to speak Spanish.

"Hey, kid, it ain't safe to sit on these streets," someone said. "You could get…" Andrew stood up and pointed the knife at him. "Whoa, buddy, I was only saying…it ain't safe…But I see you have that handled."

The man ran off and Andrew looked around. The streets were dark in LA. This looked like the quiet down now where he had walked into. He sighed and looked around. The air was hot in LA and yet he felt cold in his thin jumper and jeans. He had run out of Buffy's house without much thought of clothing and the small amount of possessions he had.

"What would Buffy do in a situation like this," he said to himself. "Probably slay a couple of vampires or something." Andrew wasn't here looking for trouble. He was here to stay low until the First either won or was defeated. He folded his arms, shivered once and looked around again.

He whistled lightly to himself as he walked down a road into the main part of the town. He looked around at the bright lights and the town itself. Part of him felt excited but that was all the happy part of himself at the moment. Most of him was worried, very frightened and slightly nervous. He was in a big city. He didn't usually have to look after himself. That was either Tucker's job, or Warren's and in the more recent case Buffy.

"I can do things by myself," he said to himself. "I can fight…things. I have a knife. I have a weapon. I can kill a demon…Oh, I don't have a stake, though…"

A hand suddenly grabbed him and spun him round. Andrew shouted for a second but then pulled out his knife again. He didn't even look at his attacker. He could only hope that he would be scared by the knife. Unfortunately, all he did was knock his arm up at the knife flew out of his hand.

"Hey!" Andrew said and he looked at the person opposite him. He couldn't have been much younger than him. He still had youthful features but his face was hard an angry. His hair had grown long and his face was pale. He was aiming a stake at him. Andrew held up his hands. "I'm not a vampire."

"I know, I can smell it," the person said, with almost no expression at all. "You don't look like much of a threat."

Andrew looked down at the ground. "I couldn't even attack you." He looked back. "Can I go and get my knife back now…I promise not to attack you," he added quickly.

The other person nodded. Andrew picked up his knife and put it back in his pocket. There was silence for a moment. "What're you doing out here? It's not safe at this time of night. You know about vampires. They're all coming here. And the demons. It's best you get out."

"I only just got here."

"Why?"

Andrew shrugged. "To hide."

"You're hiding in an open place," he said. Andrew looked back down the road and sighed, wondering whether this had been a wasted trip. The First was right. It had power here if what this boy said was true about all the vampires and demons coming here. "How long have you been running, then?"

Andrew turned round to look at him in amazement. "Two days," he answered. "I'm good at running. Been doing it for a while."

"What're you running from?"

Andrew looked around. "Evil," he answered. "The First Evil. It's been using me. You just get away, I'm a threat to you. I'll—it'll make me do things to people. I don't want to hurt anyone," he pleaded at the end.

The boy held out his hands. "I'm not gonna hurt you." There was silence again. For a moment, the boy was torn between decisions but finally he sighed with defeat when he weighed up his options. "But if there's evil here then you need protection and I know just the people that can give it to you. You can come along with me if you want."

Andrew looked uncertain for a moment. Then he nodded. "All right. You seem nice enough. I'm Andrew by the way."

The other boy lifted his arm and whacked Andrew on the side of the head. Andrew slumped to the ground unconscious, the knife still tucked into his waistband. The boy looked down at Andrew, with an almost apologetic expression on his face. "I'm Conner."

Was it obvious it was gonna be Conner? I hope it shocked some of you, lol! That's my chapter for the moment. More to come!