Chapter 2

"You have got to be kidding me," Angel said, glaring at the man seated in front of him on a chair in the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel. Behind him, Gunn, Fred, Wesley and Cordelia looked at the man with equal amounts of disbelief.

"I'm afraid not, Angel," the man replied. "Believe it or not, Wolfram and Hart do need your assistance."

"I'm leaning heavily towards the 'not'," Cordelia muttered.

"Mr Beaker, what's so big that it exceeds the capabilities and resources of Wolfram and Hart to handle," Wesley asked, curious, in spite of himself.

"Apparently, there's a new power rising," Beaker replied. "He calls himself Voldemort. He's been amassing an army of vampires and demons. Normally, this wouldn't bother us. We would take a few precautions against him and eliminate him if we deem it necessary. However, it appears that we have underestimated him. His reach is longer than we have anticipated and in fact, many of the demons who were under our employ has now joined his side." Claude Beaker, representative of Wolfram and Hart, winced as the said the last part.

The Angel Investigations group looked at one another. They knew that Wolfram and Hart is the main source of organized evil in the world. The birth of another organization with even greater influence than Wolfram and Hart was not a pleasant thought to comprehend.

"And you want us to handle this Voldemort guy and neutralize him?" Gunn asked warily.

"Yes. If you take the job, we'll let you take over the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart as compensation," Beaker replied.

Everyone sat up at that. "You'll let us take over the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart?" Angel asked in a disbelieving tone, wondering if his vampiric hearing had somehow malfunctioned. On second thoughts, seeing the expressions of the other members of his team, it appeared that his hearing was fine.

"Yes," came the simple reply.

The first thought that came to everyone's mind was 'It's a trick'. The second thought was 'What if its not?'

Okay, maybe not the second thought. Not even the third thought. More like the fifth or sixth thought.

Angel abruptly stood up. "You," he said, pointing at Beaker, "stay here. The rest of you, in the office."

The Angel Investigations group went into Angel's office where he picked up a phone. Dialing a familiar number, he waited until someone picked it up at the other end.

"Lorne, its Angel," Angel said quietly. "I was wondering if you've heard anything about a new power in town. Some guy named Voldemort."

"Hey, Angelcakes. What happened to you. You haven't called since yesterday. Don't you love me anymore?" Lorne said cheerfully.

"Lorne," Angel's voice held a note of warning.

"Um... right. So Voldemort eh? From what I've heard, he's what you would term a Big Bad, I suppose. His final goal is to eradicate all humans from the face of the earth. He's recruiting various demons and vampires to prepare for something. There are unconfirmed rumors that he's planning something against Wolfram and Hart. I've also heard that he's planning something at the wiccan's meeting tonight."

"So this Voldemort is a legitimate threat?" Angel asked, as his team clustered around the speaker.

"I'd say so, yeah," Lorne replied.

"Thanks Lorne," Angel said before cutting him off.

Looking around at his team, Angel asked, "So, what do you guys think? Should we help?"

"Look Angel," Cordelia replied. "I'm sure that Wolfram and Hart have their own agenda but this Voldemort creep seems pretty serious as well. If Wolfram and Hart falls, we would be facing this new guy and if he has the resources to take down the main player of evil, I don't think we can do much about him when he gains enough influence such that he doesn't need to operate from underground any more."

"I'd have to agree," Fred said nervously. "Helping Wolfram and Hart definitely does not make me happy but I'd rather that than face up against an unknown that's even more powerful and evil."

"Then we're agreed," Angel said, looking at his team. Everyone nodded firmly. They walked out of the office and focused their attention on Beaker.

"We agree to your terms," Angel said. Everyone could see Beaker relaxing. "But I have one more condition," Angel continued. Beaker tensed up again. Everyone was looking at Angel and wondering what he was up to.

"I want you to get Faith out of jail to help us," Angel said in a tone that told people that he was not in the mood for negotiations.

His team looked at one another, then shrugged their shoulders. Gunn and Fred had not met Faith before. Wesley had been tortured by Faith before but he admitted that his handling of Faith in the first place left a lot to be desired. Living with actual people instead of rubbing shoulders with the Council had showed him how stupendously short-sighted and old fashioned the Council was and made him wonder how on earth it had managed to survive thus far. Cordelia did not have much of an opinion of Faith since she did not come into contact with her much. This was Angel's choice and they had no problems with that.

Beaker nodded. "That should not be a problem. Our lawyers can start the paperwork right away and we can have her cleared of all charges and free by this afternoon."

"Good," Angel said in a tone that said clearer than words that this meeting was over. "I'll send Wesley and Cordelia in the car to pick her up."

Claude Beaker rose from the chair and made his way out of the Hyperion while Angel and his team went back into his office to discuss what they were going to do.

"So, your idea is to crash the wiccan meeting tonight and see what's going on?" Faith asked doubtfully.

Initially, Faith had been understandably wary of the team, especially of Wesley. However, when they showed her that they held no grudges, she had become more confident and now participated actively in the discussions.

"Yes," Angel replied. "Lorne says that Voldemort has something planned there and it will give us some idea of what we're dealing with. Apart from that, we also have to break up whatever plans Voldemort has in store for the meeting."

"Just one question," Gunn piped in. "Do we know where the meeting's going to be held?"

"Only in the most general sense," Fred admitted reluctantly. "Somewhere in the middle between LA and Sunnydale."

At the mention of Sunnydale, Angel had to ruthlessly squash the image of a blonde girl that suddenly appeared in his mind.

"The phrase 'Somewhere in the middle between LA and Sunnydale' covers over a few square miles of territory, Fred," Cordelia said unhappily. "Can't you narrow it down a little?"

"I'm afraid not," Fred said. "It seems to me that only wiccans can find the meeting spot. I think that some kind of beacon that only wiccans can sense is set up at the meeting place. Also, I think that all non-wiccans need to have a wiccan vouch for them if they are to attend the meeting."

"I've a suggestion," Wesley said. "Why don't we just ask Wolfram and Hart to provide us with a wiccan to show us the way and vouch for us?"

The expressions on everyone's faces did not seem to indicate a great deal of confidence in Wesley's suggestion.

"Right, stupid idea, never mind," Wesley mumbled.

"Why don't we just go to the general location of the meeting and find a wiccan. Then we can just follow her to the meeting and stay out of sight," Faith suggested.

Everyone blinked. "That's not a bad plan," Cordelia said cautiously. "But its wiccans we're talking about. Don't they have ways to ensure that they aren't being followed? I'm sure that they would take every precaution to ensure that no one follows them to the meeting. With the magic they possess, I think they would be able to know when somebody's following them."

"That's a good point," Angel said. "However, although I'm sure that their precautions can throw off any ordinary human, I don't think I'd lose a person I was following, and I can practically guarantee that I won't be seen."

"So speaks the one who has a couple of centuries of experience in stalking people," Faith said mischievously. "You turn lurking in the shadows into an art form."

Everyone else grinned as Angel glared at Faith who smiled back unrepentantly.

"So does this mean that you're going alone?" Fred asked. "I mean, I don't think any of us are as good in um... lurking as you are."

"I'm going along with him," Faith said immediately. "With my slayer powers, I'm sure I can keep up with any lurking that Angel does and I can watch his back as well."

"Not a bad idea," Wesley agreed. "In the meantime, we can do some research about this Voldemort character that even Wolfram and Hart seem so afraid of."

"So now what." Faith asked her broody partner. They had been searching for a wiccan for almost half an hour and were still coming up empty. Not even Angel's vampiric senses or Faith's hyperactive slayer senses could pick up any human in the vicinity.

As Angel was about to reply, he sensed a rippling of air just in front of him. Faith must have sensed it as well for she glided swiftly to a convenient rock nearby and crouched down behind it. Angel managed to step into the shadows behind a tree before the space where he sensed the disturbance suddenly opened up. To Angel, it seemed as if a black hole had just opened up in front of his eyes, although it was comforting that it wasn't sucking everything within its immediate vicinity into it.

'A portal,' Angel thought to himself. 'Maybe its one of the wiccans,' he hoped, even though he knew that only demons had the knowledge and ability to create portals at places that did not have an unusually high concentration of magical energy, and very powerful demons at that. 'Or maybe it has something to do with Voldemort's plan,' the pessimist and realist in him acknowledged, as he got ready for battle.

As Faith and Angel watched, several figures emerged from the portal. For them, the moon provided enough light to identify the features of the people stepping out of the portal. Both of them were frozen as Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow emerged from the black hole. They saw Willow wave her hands and mutter an incantation. The black hole squeezed in on itself until it formed a vertical line before it vanished completely.

Faith and Angel remained where they were, still unable to react to the familiar faces. Faith was thinking back on all the times where she had hurt Buffy and her friends. Angel was pretty much contemplating the same thing. Both of them tensed up as Buffy suddenly snapped her head up and looked around, her eyes clearly showing that she was looking for something. Finally, she spoke up.

"Angel, I know you're here."

Buffy had felt a strange sensation once she stepped out of the portal Willow had created. 'Willow had come a long way,' she thought fondly. She had worried about her friend when the magic addiction had gotten serious. Fortunately, Willow's friends had rallied around her and all of them, especially Tara, had helped her through that phase.

It was a risky move, she knew. An out of control Willow could hurt any of them at any time. In fact, a time bomb would have been safer than Willow at that time. At least everyone knew what a time bomb was expected to do. Willow had been unpredictable, and coupled with the fact that she was perhaps the most powerful wiccan in the world, it made for a dangerous combination. And yet, instead of shirking away from her, putting a safe distance between them so that they wouldn't be within the blast radius when the Willow bomb exploded, they clustered around her even more than ever, trying to help her in any way they could.

And their efforts had paid off. Willow had successfully beaten her addiction to magic. She had been the raw steel that was thrown into the forging fires. Within the fires, the steel could either break or be tempered into something even stronger. Buffy was delighted that it had turned out to be the second case. Now, having been tempered by the fires of magic addiction, Willow had come through it even stronger than before.

It showed in the way that Willow was now learning more spells than ever, and yet not feeling the urge to use any of them if it wasn't necessary. In fact, some time ago, Tara had agreed that Willow had learned all she could from books and the only way she was going to get stronger at her magical abilities would be to experiment on her own. Anya had been a great help to her in that aspect. Having lived for over a thousand years, Anya knew magics that were thought lost in legends. Anya had explained that the reason those magics were lost was primarily due to the fact that a few centuries ago, mankind had thought that no one would have enough power to even attempt any of those magics and hence, did not bother to record them down.

With Tara and Anya's help, Willow had begun experimenting with ancient, not to mention powerful, magics. One effect from helping Willow was that Tara's wiccan powers had increased enormously in the meantime, although still some levels short of Willow's power. Between the three of them, they had created the portal spell Willow had just cast. It wasn't even a spell that required much magical energy – at least according to Willow – to cast. An understanding of how Anya's teleportation powers worked, combined with Tara's knowledge of magic and Willow's fresh approach and talent towards anything wiccan in nature created that particular spell. Tara could cast it as well but at her level of power, it would drain her magical reserves significantly, so Willow, being the more powerful wiccan, was the one who created the portal.

After Willow collapsed the portal, the strange sensation still did not leave Buffy. Wondering if her slayer senses were acting up because something hostile was nearby, Buffy surreptitiously scanned the surroundings. However, in the moonlight, it was evident that there were too many places to hide around the area. She did not think the sensation she was feeling indicated anything hostile, though. In fact, the only time she had felt like that before was when Angel was nearby.

Her head snapped up at that thought. Angel. Could it be? She scanned the surroundings again more carefully. She noticed that her friends were looking at her, and recognizing the look on her face, had automatically prepared themselves to face anything from harmless goblins to demented hell gods. However, she also knew that Angel was a past master at concealing himself and given the many places available to hide around here, trying to locate him was a lost cause. Finally, she spoke up.

"Angel, I know you're here."