Okay, where were we? *flips through previous chapter* Oh yeah. Haven't updated in a while. Forgotten what I wrote!

Okay Buffy came back, bringing with her Giles, Xander, Anya, Dawn and Kennedy and there was definitely some tension. Buffy was angry Willow, Spike and Andrew were all gone. Angel tries to calm her down as Buffy gets more agitated and eventually breaks down in Angel's arms, saying how tired she is. Tender little Buffy & Angel moment.

Outside, interesting conversations between the remaining members come up as Xander attempts to make idle but unsubtle chit chat. Faith's and Wesley's relationship comes up into the open but no one can seem to stop arguing until Anya comes out and asks what's going on and why they can't keep a level head.

Andrew says it's to do with that they're all scared of the coming battle and they had no one to fight. He gets another  vision and sees Wesley and is taken upstairs by Dawn and Gunn.

There is a cute little Dawn and Andrew moment. She wants him to come back but he believes he's now found his place and has something to do. He has been chosen to do something and he won't go back.

Faith is agitated that Wesley is in Andrew's visions. She admits that she is scared to Wesley who tries to comfort her by saying there are many forces working with them. It doesn't work.

Lorne goes to a bouncer of a clib that used to work at Caritas to get information on these robed men. After much consideration, the demon bouncer finally agrees to tell Lorne his information.

Okay, that about sums it up. My fingers hurt from all this typing lol. Enjoy the chapter!!

Where do we go from here: LAMITHRA

Fred looked over in worry at Willow as they watched the creatures flying towards them. They didn't seem to be very fast flying creatures but as they came closer she could see how menacing they were. They had large wings and looked as though they were ancestors of dragons. Their wingspan was huge and their faces were long and pointed, like a beak. Their eyes were small but glowed yellow like a cat and their sharp clawed feet scratched in the air. As they came closer, their screeching noises all combined together became deafening.

Willow took her hands off her ears and Fred's eyes widened as she saw how they had turned black again and she got a determined look on her face. She extended her hand. "Imperious!" she shouted loudly and several purple like flames came from her hand and headed towards the creatures. Fred watched in amazement as they struck three of the creatures. Screaming in pain, they fell towards the sea.

"It's not enough!" she shouted to the witch. "There's more of them. Can't you shoot anymore?"

"It's hard by yourself but I'll try." Willow took a deep breath and shouted the command louder. This time, the spell was more powerful and struck more of the creatures but they were clever. Beginning to take the hint, they began to dodge to the purple flames. "Oh, this is not good." Some of them began to head back and some of them hung back.

She took Fred's arm. "We have to start running," she said to her. "Maybe they'll be too slow to catch up with us. But we have to run now before they catch up."

Nodding, the smaller physicist got up onto her feet from where she had been sitting with the bags and started running. With all the jars and ingredients it was hard but as she looked further on, when they got out of the headland and past the edge of the cliff there were brambly forests ahead which would be easier to hide. Creatures as large as them would find it hard to hide in all the bramble.

"What are they?" she cried towards the witch.

Willow shrugged. "I don't know. I took the book on Lamithra for me that Wesley had in his files…but I didn't have a chance to read it before we left. Let's try and get out of here first and then we can see what we can find out about this dimension."

They ran and the creatures followed them. But just as Fred thought they were getting away, the wood seemed to be further forward. The creatures were gaining on them. Fred wondered if any laws at all worked in this dimension. If realities could shift then so could movement and alternate universes.

Suddenly, they came to an abrupt halt. The landscape was changing again. This time, the world wasn't so barren and cold. Now, there were fields. There were green and yellow fields and there were colourful flowers. The wind was blowing and the sun, instead of just being there now radiated warmth. The sky was blue and looking up, there were normal birds and no strange winged creatures.

Fred walked forwards. "Wow," she said. "It's like something from a dream." She walked towards the fields and climbed over the fence. "It looks like home. This doesn't look like an alternate dimension." She put her face towards the sun to feel the warmth.

"Yeah," Willow said, a little more uncertainly. She followed Fred into the field and they sat down on the edge. "This is a dangerous place, though. If landscapes keep on changing then people—or creatures—could find themselves caught up in situations. Ground that was there a few million years ago might not be there and they could be falling. Or a tree could appear right where they were standing. It's just asking for trouble."

Fred went through the bag and looked through the bags they had to find the book. She finally brought out a thick, red leather bound book. No wonder the bag had weighed so heavily when this had been in it. Running her hands over the front, she opened it and looked through the contents, searching for Lamithra. The book was thick and full of details on many dimensions that were known to travellers.

There was silence as Fred read through. "It says here that not many people who had been through Lamithra have made it out, partly due to the reasons you described. Lamithra has no hold on its own universe. It's constantly shifting and tilting but none of our knowledge can explain why. There is no reason to why it changes although, scientists and oculists that made it back have come up with a few solutions."

Willow looked at her. "Such as? I don't think human laws will satisfy this one."

"Well, there's some say that the dimension has its own laws. Because it cannot keep a grip on its own reality it keeps shifting into others to stay around. Others say it has no reality and therefore is constantly borrowing off others. And…"

Willow looked back up from where she was preparing a spell. "What? Fred, what is it?"

"Wow. It's an interesting theory. The others I can understand but this one sounds very far fetched. More out of a science fiction movie. The last idea is that someone is controlling all the realities. A singular person of creature."

Willow frowned. "Hmm," she pondered. "That would take a lot of energy. It would have to be someone incredibly powerful, more powerful than any witch or warlock. It's more like something that Lindsey could do but I'm not even sure Calatine magic would be able to…change realities. That wasn't what it was made for."

"Definitely strange." She slammed the book shut. "But we're here to find some widow. That's what Karl said so…" Fred looked up, seeing a man coming down the dusty road. It was as if he had appeared from nowhere. He looked a like a human, dressed in dusty clothes and carrying a small bag. "Excuse me, she said. Do you know where we can find an old widow? A demon?"

"Old widow? Well, there's plenty of them around. And demons?" The man quirked an eyebrow. "Don't know where you come from but there ain't no demons here."

"Well, where are we? We're in Lamithra…right?" Fred sounded less certain.

The man laughed. "What conked you out, lady? Don't know where that is. You're in Kansas. You know…earth?"

*  *  *  *  *

Kennedy was with Gunn, looking through their weapons cabinet. She was impressed with the amount of axes and broadswords there were and especially interested in the old crossbow Angel had brought back from his voyage in Tibet. But whilst Gunn was cleaning out the weapons, she was staring at the two watchers that were in the office, studying texts. Buffy was downstairs in Angel's training room with Spike. Xander was there, watching. Andrew and Dawn were still upstairs. Faith was with them, beside Kennedy and Lindsey had disappeared as well.

"It's kind of funny," she said.

Gunn looked up. "What is?"

"Them," Kennedy answered, nodding towards the two watchers. "It's like watching two boys playing with some new fire truck or something. They look as though they're enjoying themselves."

"They're watchers," Faith said, hugging her knees and smiling. "That's what they do, kid. You should know. If you're the slayer, you'll get one of them."

"What, an old book reader?"

Faith laughed. "They can turn out to be rather surprising. But if there's anything I've learnt, it's that watchers are in their prime amongst their books and smelly old texts. Kinda like a pig in a playpen, ya know. But they can fight. I'm sure Giles has picked up a few moves the last time I saw him as well."

"I second that," Gunn agreed, putting the axe back.

Angel came up the stairs at the same time as Wesley and Giles came out of their office. "What do you have," he said restlessly, obviously tired out from training with Buffy.

"Well, there isn't that much more on First. We are relying on Willow and Fred for that information," Wesley said. "And there's still no luck with Cordelia and Conner. But I've come to the conclusion that Cordy could never become this evil unless something was inhabiting her, correct."

Angel looked at Wesley sternly. "You know she's not evil, Wes."

"That's not what Wesley meant, Angel," Giles said, taking off his glasses. "The fact is, that, if something is making Cordelia evil then it isn't her. She isn't responsible for her actions, particularly towards Andrew. And if she has…well, seduced Conner enough then it could be potentially dangerous for him too. She could make him do anything."

"She's pregnant as well," Wesley said. "That explains a lot. This baby, if it is even a baby, is probably evil and well…we can all imagine had it got into Cordelia through that form."

There was an unsettled silence. Angel frowned at the thought but he tried not to imagine it. He knew how the baby had gotten through. He was there on the night after the reign of fire and had seen them in that small little abandoned place. He knew exactly where and when that evil thing had passed from Conner into Cordelia. Their act had given this evil a form and it would come out through Cordelia. The thought angered him but what angered him more was that Cordelia was trapped somewhere inside herself, overthrown by her evil baby. "Why hasn't it come out yet? Andrew said she looked nine months pregnant."

"Well, we are thinking it takes more than natural causes to release this particular offspring," Giles informed. "Possibly…a ritual. The First and this evil have teamed together and both need a ritual to take on their form. That's what Karl was trying to do and their sacrifice was going to be Andrew. He is now unavailable and so….who is left?"

"Conner," Lindsey said from the sides. He walked through to join them. "He's the only answer. He's your son, Angel. They could use him to satisfy both of their rituals. And if they take on a form…"

Giles sighed. "All hell will break lose. We don't even know what their plan is."

"What, apart from destroying the whole world?" Kennedy shouted. Everyone had finally made their way down to the lobby. Spike sat on the bottom of the stairs, Dawn and Andrew watched from the top, their legs dangling from the landing. Xander sat down on the banquet.

"We need to find him," Angel said.

The door closed. "Yeah, well, save your little road runner behinds, kids," Lorne said, coming through. "We have more fish to fry and we have trouble. That's trouble with a capital T and twice the size than your normal self. Buffy, you have to take you and your friends out of here. You are in danger."

Angel frowned. Lorne never usually sounded this frantic. He was hurrying his words, sounding frustrated and if possible, very nervous. This was definitely not his laid back attitude. "Lorne, what's going on?"

"Well, it's not evil, Angel cakes, but it's close enough. I just spoke to a reliable source of mine and there are some more players in town but they have nothing to do with the First…I think. They are more to do with their personal agenda and it's focusing on our brain boxes here. Wesley, Mr Giles, you have to get out."

Faith's head snapped round. "What do you mean?"

"The Council, kids. It's here."

Buffy frowned in confusion. A million ideas tossed through his head as she looked from Lorne to Giles to Angel. Then stood up. "That's impossible," she stammered. "The Council were destroyed. The First killed them all, with their watchers and head staff. Even the people with day's off were killed. Quentin Travers died and everything. No one was supposed to survive."

"Well, honey, they did. But only a small handful. A small, very angry handful and they're planning on setting up the business again but they had a few minor lose ends to tie up. Those being Wesley and Mr Giles. It's what the muffin saw in his vision. They're coming after Wesley first and they don't plan leaving behind a pretty scene so Buffy you have to skedaddle and fast."

"Buffy, go," Angel said immediately.

Buffy's mouth dropped open. "Angel, I…"

"GO!" Angel said, grabbing her shoulders. "Just listen to me this time. It's my town. You have to go. You can't lose Giles or any of your friends and I can't lose you if this insane band of Council members decides they want to play rough. Go or at least hide out in LA until we get rid of them. But I think it would be better if you got back to your Potentials."

From the top of the stairs, Dawn clutched Andrew's arm. "Andrew."

Andrew shook his head. "I don't know what's going on," he said. "I didn't understand the vision but if this is it, then it's dangerous. We have to hide. Go." He kissed Dawn quickly as the commotion ran underway.

Angel led Buffy, Giles, Xander, Dawn and Kennedy to the basement where his trapdoor let to the sewers. Most of them were confused. Not even Angel understood himself what was going on but his priority was to protect Buffy. They all headed down the sewers listening to Angel's instructions of where it would lead to. Buffy went down last. She grabbed Angel's arm before she want down. "Angel, be careful. And take care of them."

Angel nodded and kissed her. "I will," he said as he pushed her down and closed the trapdoor.

He looked up to Spike who was standing in the doorway of the basement looking down at him. "Enjoy your loving reunion, then?"

"Spike, we don't have time for this."

Spike stood on the spot for the moment. "No. Sure you don't." He walked back to the lobby and Angel followed them quickly. When he came to the spot, he stood beside Spike in the scene displayed out before them. He hadn't even smelt them let alone sensed them. He looked towards Lindsey whose eyes seemed to reflect and then towards Wesley who seemed perfectly calm at the situation but the atmosphere was tense. In the back of his mind, Angel was relieved that he had gotten Buffy safely out of the hotel and LA.

At the top of the stairs were three men. Angel knew they were human. They were black overcoats, not robes and one of them held a very old sturdy sick in his hand. At the top was a blue sapphire. Lorne laughed nervously. "Oh, Angel, we have guests," he said.

The Council were already here.

*  *  *  *  *

Willow frowned and stood up. She looked at the man who had just stopped laughing at Fred's strange words. To him, it was as though she was speaking garbage. "Kansas? But that's impossible!" She looked at Fred. "We passed through to this dimension. We saw it changing. This can't be Kansas."

"Well, it is," the man said. "Don't know where you came from. But I best be off."

The man didn't say goodbye as he wandered off, leaving a very confused Willow and Fred behind. Suddenly, Fred turned round, putting her glasses on again, looking flustered. "No, no, this is all wrong. This can't be Kansas but I know it is, I went their before I got stuck in Pylea, my cousin has a farm but far away. It looks like Kansas…" She looked at Willow. "You don't suppose we got transported back, do you?"

Willow shrugged. "I don't think that's possible. Not without us feeling it. And we shouldn't have been transported to Kansas. It's a fairly simple spell which locates in one area."

The landscape once again changed. Willow sighed in frustration. "I'm getting very tired of this," she muttered. Quickly, she and Fred collecting the things they brought and started walking.

"Do you have an idea?" Fred asked. "Cause I don't."

"Only one," Willow said. "And I don't know how reliable it is. I mean, it could go squirky on us and in this place, I'm not sure how reliable energy waves are. But…if we can follow the energy, we might be able to get to its source and find out where the widow lives from there."

"Oh ok." Fred smiled. "Better one idea than none."

They continued walking with Fred following Willow. The landscape kept on changing every so often in front of them. Sometimes it was nice and pretty and other times it was dark and barren. Sometimes it looked like New York and sometimes it looked like a farm. Sometimes it looked home and sometimes it looked like a hell dimension. But so far they were lucky and encountered no animals but were wary of strange looking birds of insects and especially for anything that was very much out of the ordinary.

Fred didn't know how long they would be walking for and she didn't ask Willow. She guessed that the witch herself didn't know but she marvelled at her magic. There was this powerful ability about her. Fred knew she didn't have any powers of her own. She had spent five years in a hell dimension and that had pretty much taken away most of any human powers she had. It had taken her this long to regain her composure, strength and nerves again. But she had braved through the battle.

And Willow could see it. Looking at Fred, Willow could see a girl who had been through a lot. They were etched into her face and yet she had come out strong and on top.

"You know," Fred said shyly, "I was talking to Spike earlier. He was telling me how you'd once gone evil…killed people and wanted to destroy the world." Willow lowered her head and remained silent. "Oh, I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it, I was just…you know, saying."

"It's all right," Willow said. "I'm over the evil stuff. Besides, Spike wasn't there."

"He...he wasn't?"

"No, he was off getting his soul." She paused, finding the bag she was holding very interesting. "I…I had a girlfriend, her name was Tara. And I loved her and we'd just got through this whole break up disaster. It was awful. And when I thought it was going to be okay again, she just went. She died whilst I was there when she was shot because Warren…because Warren got all angry."

"This is Warren, Andrew's friend, right?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah. But Andrew was never like Warren. Tara died and I turned evil. I didn't know how much power I had and I used it to destroy the people who hurt Tara, starting with Warren."

"Destroy?" Fred asked, her eyes widened. She blinked. "Wh—what did you do?"

"I flayed him…alive. And then burnt his body." Fred stopped in shock, looking at the witch and Willow panicked. "Oh, Fred, don't worry. I know it sounds awful now and I didn't want to do it. I know killing is no form of justice and…and if it really were me, in me, I would never have killed him. Just sent him to jail with Andrew and Jonathan." She stopped. "But I did, and there's no way to reverse it. It's all in the past now. Andrew's the only one left and he's here to help."

The words seemed to pass right over Fred as she continued staring. This was a whole new side to the witch that she never thought she had to see. Could this loving person really have gone that mad to kill so cruelly? Fred understood, though, how certain events lead to awful actions. Angel was a good example of that and for the love of someone any action would be taken.

"Are you mad?" Fred asked quietly.

"About what?"

"That…that you never got to Andrew or Jonathan. Do you still hate them as much as you did Warren?"

Willow thought about that for a moment. When she cornered Andrew in the alley back in Sunnydale, did she hate him? And did she feel any amount of sympathy for Jonathan's death. "I suppose…I never hated them. They didn't pull the trigger…and they weren't really bad anyway. Just wannabe super villains. Warren was bad but even then, he was aiming for Tara. He just wanted…"

She stopped. They were in a wood now. Beside them was a steep slop with bramble and it was close to night. Fred thought she heard something too and for a moment, both were silent. Around them were the occasional sounds of crickets. Then out of nowhere came a strangled low laugh and something careered out of the bushes and hit Willow. She was knocked over in surprise and she and the little thing went over the edge, rolling down the slope.

"Oh my God," Fred said, looking as more of them ran out of the hiding of the woods and down the slope. "They're…elves."

"Dwarfs!" Willow shouted.

A blinding flash of light came and then one of the dwarfs hurtled through the air, crashing into a tree and knocked out. Fred watched as they advanced onto Willow. None of them seemed to be coming to her. As powerful as Willow was, Fred doubted she could take on a few dozen little dwarfs armed with knives, clubs and little crossbows.

"Behind you!" Fred cried out and Willow lashed out at the dwarf that had crept up on her, threatening to shoot a bolt into her back.

Fred looked around panicked, not sure what she should do. They didn't much in the way of weapons; most of them were spells and incantations inside books. She looked up again but could not shout again to warn Willow another dwarf was creeping up on her. It jumped onto her back, pushing her over and Willow fell, her head hitting a stone. Fred put a hand to her mouth. "Hey!" she shouted. She hadn't even noticed she'd said anything until after the words left he mouth and she lifted her hands up.

The dwarfs looked up at her. One of them pointed and suddenly Fred found herself watching half of the dwarfs clambering up the slope towards her. Her first instinct was to run to safety and take the supplies with her but she knew she just couldn't leave Willow with the little creatures. She lifted up a book, any book she could find and looked at the contents which referred to anything about death. From the bag, she pulled out two purple crystals as instructed. Fred stole a breath. The dwarfs were getting closer and the remaining ones at the bottom were crowding around Willow, as if discussing what they should do with her. She had never performed anything like this before and until recently; she hadn't believed magic was possible. Then again, neither were demon dimension. There was only one chance at this and she had to get it right…she didn't even know if it would work.

"Spirits of the underworld…guardians of the gate…we call upon thee to shorten the life of these unearthly creatures. We offer gifts, we bear our praises so that you may take the spirits of those who threaten us, and leave us in peace for our duty."

She opened hey eyes and noticed the purple crystals were glowing on their own accord and slowly turned to purple dust in her hands. She was left with a pale purple powder. Fred watched in amazement and let it fall to the ground and as she did so, heart rendering screams tore up in the air. They were so loud and sounded so painful that she had to cover her ears to block out the ever increasing shrieks. But her eyes remained open to see the dwarf's slowly scrunch up in pain, clutching their chests and their heads as they fell to the ground, withering uncontrollably.

Fred realized it was their screams that penetrating through her covered ears. They were dying horribly painful deaths. And as they lowered themselves to the ground, there was a blinding flash of light which knocked Fred off her feet and into a tree. Her head slammed back and she could feel the black spots dancing before her eyes. She guessed the spell had worked and now the dwarf's were dying, their spirits and souls being taken away.

When she next awoke, Willow was beside her. Her hair was messy and she had dark smudges on her face. It was as though she had crawled up the slope to reach Fred. To add to the injuries, a small trickle of blood came from her temple presumably where she had hit her head on the rock.

But she was smiling.

And it was a good smiling. A happy, proud smile as she looked at the confused girl. "Fred, that was amazing." Fred couldn't say anything. She looked around her and noticed the decaying bodies of the dwarf's. "You cast a dangerous spell and survived. You're a witch." With that, Willow smiled once more and collapsed next to Fred, her head in the young girl's lap.

Hope it was a good chapter. Updating is going a bit slowly considering school has started up again and I have exams to revise for. Those are never fun, especially when you're doing English GCSE's. Have no fear!! The story shall continue. Just at a slower pace. Read and Review people! Being some comfort into my stress filled life, lolol.