Chapter 4

'I think it best if we all gather together as soon as possible. We

shall need to be er. fully rested and rejuvenated, for once we have been through

everything, some of us will need to start out straight

away.'

- Let's get started then.

'I appreciate your er. enthusiasm, Angel, but even if you don't need

any rest I most certainly do. Now, I seem to recall there's a little room round

here.'

Giles walked briskly across the room and out into the little corridor. He

returned immediately, saying;

'Could somebody tell me exactly what Spike and Dawn are doing sharing a

couch in there?'

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A little later, all were finally asleep. It was getting on for late afternoon

when they were once more disturbed. It started as a gentle knocking on the door,

and grew into a frantic hammering, accompanied by shouts and the odd curse.

Eventually, Willow raised her head.

'Giles. Giles!

She tugged at his jacket.

'Umph.er..um.'

'Giles! There's someone at the door.'

'Oh..Oh.'

With some effort, Giles made his way to the door. Undoing the heavy iron bolts,

he opened it with a flourish to reveal.a rather heated and exasperated Xander.

'Finally! Thought you'd given me the wrong address or something.

Aren't you going to invite me in then? Nice hair by the way.'

'What? Oh, yes, yes of course. Come in.'

Xander looked at the assorted people sprawled across the room.

'Well. This is quite the party isn't it.Angel, hey. And. Faith.'

Only Willow noticed how Xander coloured a little when he saw Faith lying there.

She figured he'd probably noticed she still hasn't wearing a bra. And then she

tried not to think about that any more because it was bad.

'So. what exactly is going on? I mean, must be big if you're going

to happily make a girl who at last count was a crazy extra-powerful body- swapper

and a good-but-sometimes-bad vamp your bedfellows. please tell

me you haven't been being bedfellows in the. literal sense. Spike? You're here

as well?'

I might be. I haven't quite decided yet. Depends what I'm going to

be doing, see.

He stepped aside for Dawn to come into the room.

'Hi Xander,'

she chirped, happily.

'Do you have any food? I'm starving.'

'Dawn, we'd have some food if you hadn't eaten it all yesterday. I

told you you'd be hungry now.am I sounding parental?'

'Don't worry little lady - when I got back from the hospital and found the note

saying, 'Xander, come to this warehouse, bring supplies and weapons', well I

didn't shirk my duties now, did I?'

'Oh - how is Anya?'

'She's not too bad. Making a lot of noise, so the doctors say she should be okay

to leave in a day or two. They may just be trying to shut her up though.'

He went out, presumably to the car, and returned with two huge bags of food.

Dawn grabbed one and began searching through it, making various joyful sounds as

she extracted chocolate, crisps and cakes.

'Xander! Couldn't you have got something a little more than junk?'

'Still sounding parental there, Will.'

'Oh, sorry.'

'Now, everyone, we really must get down to business! Dawn, I think

you had better.'

'No! I'm sick of being told to leave.'

'Actually I was going to say, stay. This involves you too. Now. When I got to

the council, it took me some time to find out first of all what I was going to

ask for. I mean, it was only when Willow mentioned the "Divine Echo" - she did

tell you about this?'

Those that weren't attempting to be aloof (that is, everyone except Spike and

Faith) nodded. Xander sat there looking more than confused, but decided to ask

questions when everyone had stopped looking so serious.

'It rang a bell in my mind, and I looked through a number of books

and diaries pertaining to the early Watchers - I was sure there was a mention of

some such thing in two cases: one in prophecy, and one in an account

of a Watcher's misdemanours. I also read up on a part about inter- dimensional

travel; I believe it should be in one of those books near you,

Tara, it states that if something come to be in a dimension to which it does not

belong, it can called back using a variety of

incantations and procedures. However, this does not appear to me to be what has

happened with Buffy. She has not only travelled from here, she

has simultaneously died in this dimension, as she never reached a further

dimension.'

'Do you mean she's stuck somewhere? Like, between things?'

'Yes Dawn, that's exactly what I do mean.'

'But.is it possible to get her back here - I mean, if she belongs

here, like in what you said before, she's not actually dead at all, is she?'

'This is the problem we have. Technically, she is dead and buried, to all

intents and purposes. Her soul remains in limbo and it may well be that it is

conscious and more than capable of returning to its body, but how to do this. I

doubt that this has ever been the case before, nor ever will be again, for if it

had been Dawn who had been sacrificed, she would have simply ceased to exist

altogether, pulled apart by the impossibility and exertion upon her. But because

Buffy was the Slayer. Faith's visions gave me reason to believe that Buffy is,

as I said, trapped. And it is this that gives us the right to attempt to do what

is in this dimension entirely unethical - attempt to bring the long dead back to

life.'

Tara looked at Willow and smiled, as if to show she felt more comfortable about

the situation for that comment of Giles'.

'But as to the how, as I said, this case appears unique. Which brings me to the

prophecy. After much searching, I found it was mentioned long, long ago in a

diary of a German Watcher of the 1300s. His slayer died in traumatic

circumstances, and he attempted to resurrect her via a number of ancient texts,

claiming she was the one to fulfil the prophecy detailed within them. The

"Divine Echo" was where he fell down - he had no idea what it was or where to

find it, or what he should use it for if he did. When the Council found what he

was up to, he was cast out of the Circle and imprisoned until his death. The

texts were taken from him and kept in the Council vaults, for fear of other

Watchers becoming tempted to use them in similarly hard situations.'

'So why should Buffy be so special? I mean, what's so good about her that she

can spend her afterlife trying to take me there with her?'

'The answer there Faith, is yourself. Never before has it been that there are

two Slayers simultaneously existing. The two of you, through your coma, appear

to have formed some sort of telekinetic bond that Kendra never had time to

create, which enables Buffy to have some kind of anchor, if you will, in her

rightful dimension. The prophecy speaks of the apparently deceased slayer having

three such anchors, one of them being a slayer. Buffy also then has two other

anchors. You, Dawn, are one - kin. You are, despite your er. unorthodox origins,

still Buffy's blood sister. You share genetics and blood types - the very reason

it is her that is lost now. Don't look upset - I didn't mean it was your fault.

I have already said what would have happened if it was you. The other is you,

Angel. You have shared various um. intimacies. and she has greatly impacted your

life. Moreover, you too share a blood link, from the time you were poisoned and

had to drink the blood of a slayer.

When Giles came to say "intimacies", the impact that single word had was

remarkable. Angel hid his face, Faith, Xander and Spike scowled - in varying

degrees, however, and also all for the same reason, although they didn't know

it. Dawn fought to suppress a giggle and Willow looked wistfully at Tara, for

reasons best known to herself.

Dropping a chocolate wrapper onto the ever-increasing pile and pausing to light

yet another cigarette, Spike interrupted.

This is a lovely tale an' all, but where do I come into things? And

what do we have to do? And what's this business about some of us travelling? I

don't want to be traipsing around for something when I don't

know what it is or where to look or all that.

'Well, Spike, I'm not actually sure at all why you're here. No doubt you will

serve some.good purpose.'

- You want someone to look for this Echo, right?

'Yes, it will be necessary. But we already have an idea where to start. The

prophecy states that when the time is right, the Echo will be easily found some

way south of the place in which the slayer was lost.'

- Then I'll travel south tonight.

'That's good of you Angel, and to be honest I had you in mind. But you had best

not go alone.'

- Faith, you'll come with me, won't you?

Faith puffed her chest out a little with pride and gave Angel a smile she

imagined could be defined as sweet-yet-seductive.

'Sure.'

'Good, well that's settled. You shall need to protect each other -

if one of you is lost then the prophecy cannot be fulfilled.'

Hey. Can't I come along? Do all this protecting and all. If I'm not

to be a vital part of anything.

'Spike, if Angel and Faith are leaving us, perhaps your place in this will be

to stay and protect Dawn. I'm sure Tara and Willow and doing are marvellous job

of looking after her, but it may be that a little physical intervention could be

required. You see, there may be others second-guessing our plans. If so, they

would want to do all in their power to prevent the return of a slayer.'

I'm not being a sodding babysitter!

Xander turned to Spike.

'Don't worry Spike, menial jobs seem worthless at first, but you

know, one day you be tagging along behind all these super-people and feel a real

sense of satisfaction at being their minion. Did you sense my

sarcasm at all? I'm just saying, that makes two of us minions.'

Spike got up, swishing his coat in an attempt to be dramatic, and announced he

was leaving. Before he could, however, Dawn jumped up.

'Please don't go. If there are all these things that might be after

me, I might need your "physical intervention". please.

And Buffy would have wanted you to help out.

After all, she didn't kill you loads of times, and.'

When she mentioned Buffy, Spike stopped.

Point taken.

He tried not to look conspicuous and sat back down.

'Willow and Tara, I shall need your help with the incantations.

Xander, you must help us with.something else that needs to be done tonight.

Spike, you might be able to help out there as well.'

What?

'I think it best that we discuss that later. For now, Angel and Faith, it is

past sunset. Angel, I can go through a few places the Echo might be with you

before you.'

- Don't worry. I have a feeling I know just where to go.

'Er.if you're sure. As you will. But, and I can't stress this

enough, be careful. Please make sure you bring the Echo back, in whatever form

it should take, in one piece.'

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