Disclaimer: None of the characters in this chapter are mine of course nor am I affiliated with Fox, the WB, and Paramount and other agencies mentioned here.

England, the Cotswolds

Five dark figures enter a tree into the Deeper Well; they reach the bridge that overlooks the Old Ones coffins and begin chanting. From some tombs deep within the well, essences begin to emerge and fly into the sky to their destinations.

"A fool that champion exterminated the guardian," one of the figures spoke.

"Yes a fool."

"Indeed."

"But it makes things easier for us."

"In the end it all works out for us, our gods shall rise again." And then the figures disappeared through a portal.

Lorne laughed, "I suppose that looking or predicting the future when we make choices, and see what they could do in the long run is better than what they could do in the short run." He takes another sip, "Oh and please don't attempt to play with magic at home, it's a bad habit. Trust me, I had experience."

Los Angeles, California

A screeching dragon comes swooping into an alley, "Bit more specific?" A bloody Spike asked Angel, Angel stepped forward,

"Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon," Angel looks at the oncoming army, "let's get to work."

Angel, Spike, Illyria, and Gunn charge into the fray, swords and axes swinging into the mass of demons.

Unknown dimension

Three dark figures watch through a holographic image at the centre of their table, one of them, a dark figure with the head of a wolf speaks up. "Shame, a great loss we have suffered have we not brothers?"

The Ram replies, "Yes, a terrible loss but we can always replace our ranks quickly."

The Hart slammed his fist on the table, "We shall make that vampire pay. We placed so many resources and time into him, and he signs away his shanshu to hurt us. He even has the nerve to eliminate our emissary."

"However," the Wolf points out, "there is still another viable player in the game." The others agree in unison and continue watching. Lilah walks in and clears her throat to grab their attention.

"Excuse me sir?" the demons looked at Lilah.

"This better be important Lilah," the Wolf replied,

"Yes it is actually. We've got a problem; a big one. It's the Deeper Well, the guardian and all those Old Ones?"

The Hart's eyes were in shock, "Wait, the guardian was killed was it?" Lilah nods and once again the Hart smash his fist on the table, "The Old Ones! They're arising! We must do something about it. If there is to be an apocalypse, we should be the ones doing it, not them. Everything would be ruined!"

"That is not our matter brother," the Ram replies, "only the forces of good can handle such a situation."

"I have a suggestion sir," Lilah replies, and the others look at her. "There's only one solution to the problem."

The Wolf cracks his knuckles, "Something tells me we are not going to like this solution."

Lilah smiles.

Lorne continues, "Back in L.A., the battle isn't going well for our fellow champions; Gunn is the first to fall though. Poor guy, he never gave up. What came afterwards though is something I'll never forget."

Los Angeles, California

In the midst, Spike slices through a mess of demons, and looks as Gunn gets ganged up by a hundred demons and they pour over him.

"CHARLIE BOY!" Spike yelled as he tried fighting his way towards him.

Illyria took notice, and tried as well. She knocked one of the demons out, grabbed his leg and began swinging him into the army, dozens of demons fly through the air screaming as Illyria continues making her way to Gunn. 'I lost Wesley, my beloved; I will make them pay!' Illyria thought as tears came down her face, as she continued pummeling the enemy. The memories of her last moments with him have been burned in her mind. Wesley lying in her arms wounded with blood spilling, asking her to lie to him. She wondered if the words that came out of her mouth were actually hers.

Hello there

Oh Wesley. My Wesley.

Fred. I've missed you.

It's gonna be OK. It won't hurt much longer, and then you'll be where I am. We'll be together.

I...I love you.

I love you. My love. Oh, my love.

Angel, still powered up from his fight with Hamilton, was preoccupied with a rather large sword wielding centaur slashing at him. The centaur roared, and brought the sword down hard on Angel's sword, which barely was able to withstand it. Angel countered, and swung the sword into its chest. The centaur screamed, but it wasn't down yet, and smacked him into a wall.

Meanwhile back at Vail's house, a dark essence begins creeping towards a dead body on the floor, and a portal opens above it and enters the five dark figures again.

"Tis strange is it not?"

"Yes, this inferior mortal was loved dearly by our enemy...sad though, he had much potential."

"Do you think he is the right one the master wants?"

"Yes, we have seen what has occurred in the past, memories and illusions are a powerful weapon to have."

"Let's begin...the others are beginning to awaken."

Back at the alley, Spike gets mangled with a group of demons. Illyria manages to reach Gunn as she continues pummeling the demons with the same one she is still holding, and then throws him into the mass, driving them back for the time being.

"Charles!" Illyria spoke as she kneeled down at his body; no, no, no, it...can't be. She was too late for Gunn had given his last breath. Illyria looked down on her hands, filled with Gunn's blood, and something was beginning to spark inside her. She began shaking as a strange voice began screaming inside her, it was not her own; No, first Wesley, now Charles, this can't be happening! Illyria screamed, her voice shattered the ear drums of the demons as they held their bleeding ears including Spike and Angel. Standing firm, Illyria stared into the demon mass; die...die...die...DIE! Gripping her fists she ran into the masses, and smashed every skull she could find, demons screeched and fell before her feet.

Spike looked in amazement while Angel continued his fight, but then he noticed something...no, smelled something wrong. He looked around, and saw something swirling around Gunn and entering into him. What the bloody hell? Gunn's body began to shake violently for a few moments then stopped, to Spike's amazement he stood up, looked around, stared at Spike for a second and began laughing...it wasn't Charlie Boy's laughter he knew. Although he never heard him laugh before, but he knew it wasn't him. Illyria turned her back and looked at Gunn, those are not his eyes, something is different...wait...it can't be!

Gunn continued to laugh as he jumped into the middle of the demon army, he began to chant something and threw his hands out, and the demon army flew into the walls, dozens of buildings collapsed from the impact. People began screaming and running. Angel, Illyria, and Spike took cover as Gunn, if it was Gunn, began to slaughter the Demon army with his bare hands. A giant troll swung his battle axe at Gunn, but he stopped it with his hand and jabbed it back into the troll, the troll screamed in pain and fell.

Illyria looked closer at Gunn and realized, it's him...I recognize that aura...Scourge, the Mutilator, one of my murderers! The ripping out of the insides of the demons pretty much confirmed it. Illyria regains her footing as she stares at her friend...no, her murderer but before she could move, the dragon sweeps in, and grabs her in it's claws and takes her into the air.

"BLUE! Bloody hell!" Spike cried out as both he and Angel tried to figure a way to help her. IIllyria tried to free herself but the dragon's grip is strong, too strong, and with her depleted powers she is not strong enough. As Illyria begins to blank out, she sees something running towards her, a figure leaps into the air and snatches her away from the dragon, and falls down to the ground. Illyria looks at his face, and again senses another familiar aura as they descend to the ground. 'I know this aura...Gabriel, my warrior,' Illyria thought as they landed on the ground. Gabriel places her down on the ground, as once again something sparks in Illyria, something not of her own words.

"Handsome man saves me from the monsters..."

Gabriel stares at her with his red eyes, unsure of what to say but nods, and turns around to face the dragon that is coming in for another attack. He removes a hidden boomerang from his shoulder armor, and throws it at the dragon. It dodges the boomerang, and laughs at Gabriel for the near-miss in its crackled voice, but then notices his smile on his face and turns its head to see it slice back at him, removing his head in a quick slink sound.

Angel speaks out, gasping, "Bah, I wanted to slay that dragon!"

"You have more important things to worry about Angel," Gabriel replies. He looks back at the piles of dead bodies as Scourge continuing slaughtering them, "like starting with your killing of the guardian of the Deeper Well."

Angel stared at him for a moment, "Oh yeah right, without the guardian, the Old Ones can arise, but I had no choice. It was the only way to get into the Circle. I figured eventually a new guardian would be selected afterwards."

Gabriel spoke up, "Yes, but something has been waiting for you to kill the guardian to take advantage of that."

Spike replied, "Yeah great job daddy-oh, just what we needed, more problems to deal with," and turns towards Gabriel, "So who's the bloke here?"

Illyria steps forward, "He is my warrior, my champion, Gabriel the Archangel, Prince of Justice and Spirit of Truth."

"Really Blue? You had a champy back in the day? Was he your pet too?" Spike replied smirking, but Illyria just stared at him. Before another word could be said, Scourge jumped into the fray and stood across from the group. Gabriel stood in front of him, "You will not harm Illyria," he said.

"Of course not," Scourge replied in a deep voice, "yet, I have work to do." He looked at Illyria, "He is not the only one we have taken from you!" Laughing Scourge jumped into the darkness. Illyria pondered his words for a second, and then realized what he meant. Immediately, she leaped onto the buildings, and began running back to Vail's house with Gabriel following.

Spike and Angel were left behind, "Now what?" Spike says as he sees the remaining Demon army, now about a hundred, charging towards them and Angel simply replies, "Back to work," and grabs his sword but before he could strike he heard another voice.

"Hold it!" The demon army stopped and retired their weapons. Angel and Spike stood there speechless, and confused until a figure stepped in front of them, "I just need a minute with our former champion boys," the figure said, it was Lilah.

"What's the game here, Lilah?" Angel asked, still holding his weapon firm in his hand.

Lilah smiled, "Hmmm, not something nice to say to someone who's trying to get you out of a sticky situation, huh Angel?"

"You? Help us? You work for Wolfram and Hart." Angel said, "My you are slow aren't you? I've come to you because we got a problem which the Senior Partners can't deal with themselves because well...they're evil and on another plane, and this situation require good to do it. You should've already seen a part of the problem." Angel thought for a second, "The Old Ones."

"Bingo, you'd be surprised at how many loser dimwitted acolytes have waited eons for the guardian of the Well to drop his guard and...since you killed him, well, now the Old Ones are popping out like daisies." Lilah leaned in closer to Angel, "They don't die like we do. There's a reason why we have a jailer, to make sure they stay dead."

"So? What's the deal with the Partners?"

"Well the deal is this: you take it upon yourself to stop the Old Ones that have rose, hopefully by that time a new guardian would be found, and we will withdraw our army. Afterwards we go back to the way things were, back then...except the L.A. branch will no longer be under your control. Oh and we've already placed a strong guard near the Well to make sure no more idiot worshippers cross in for the time being, but it's temporary."

Spike replied, "And if we refuse?"

Lilah turned towards him, "Well then we kill you all, the Old Ones then destroy the world, which also ruins our plans for the human race. So you see, the first deal benefits us both."

The three stood in silence.