This is my favourite chapter in the story so far. I hope you enjoy. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Please keep it up. If I screw up again (Can't believe I spelt Riley wrong...) let me know so I can sort it out. It anyone else wants the answers to Spiked Collar's comments in his review, email me and I'll send them to you. I don't really have any way of putting the answers in the story. Sorry. But thanx for reading, and enjoy this latest chapter of the first in a trilogy of stories. Peace out.

Chapter Ten: The Bigger Picture...

L.A., United States

Buffy looked at the young man standing in front of her. Connor, Angel's son.

"We've been looking for you?" she meekly told the kid.

Connor smirked. "Last I heard, you slayers weren't exactly on best terms with my dad. What changed?"

"He was in charge of Wolfram and Hart back then. We're on the same side now..." Buffy told the kid.

Connor looked hard at Buffy.

He couldn't believe what she had just said.

"That's big of you. I mean, now he's risked his and his friends' lives you forgive him. If I were him I'd have told you to stick it..." Connor looked to the floor.

"Well you're not him. And thank God we did turn up, other wise he would be dead."

The last comment made Connor's head shoot back up. "Some of us already are."

Connor was getting angry.

"I'm sorry about Wesley, and Gunn, and Fred, but we came as soon as we could, and we did as much as we could to help in the fight. But now I need you're help. You have to come with us..."

Buffy stopped as Connor interrupted her.

"And Spike? What about him?" Connor stared at Buffy. "It's great to be sorry for them, but it doesn't change the fact they're dead!"

"Spikes not dead." Buffy muttered the next bit under her breath. "Although if he were no-one would tell me..."

"This guy dusted him, not one hour ago" Connor was pointing at Lindsey.

"No, I think you're mistaken. It was probably just another Billy Idol wannabe vamp..." Buffy trailed off.

"No, I could smell him. It was Spike."

There was silence for a breath moment.

Connor broke the silence. "I gotta find my dad, tell him..."

Buffy didn't hear him though. All she could do was stare at the body on the floor.

'This guy killed Spike?' she thought to herself.

It wasn't fair.

He was always doing this.

Leaving before she could tell him how she felt.

Last time he refused to accept the truth that she loved him.

This time he died believing that she hated him.

It was a horrible feeling to lose someone you love.

It was worse to get them back and have them torn away again.

"Which way?" Connor asked the Slayer.

Buffy looked up. "Huh?"

"To the hotel. I need to take this guy to Angel." Connor told her.

"That's good, cos he's been looking for you," Buffy stopped for a minute, a puzzled look on her face. "Where were you going if you don't know where the hotel is?"

"I was following my nose," Connor explained "But it's not as accurate as actually knowing where to go."

"Oh..." Buffy replied. "Ok. Well we gotta get you back to the hotel so you can help us out..."

"Help you out??" Connor had a hint of surprise on his voice, coupled with a dash of anger. "Dad said I wasn't meant to help, he told me to go away, to get out of here..."

Buffy looked at the boy.

"Well, thanks but no thanks. I'm dropping this corpse that's pretending to be human, and I'm outta here..."

"No." Buffy told the kid. "We need your help."

Connor looked at Buffy.

There was no mistaking it now.

He was Angel's son.

That same look in his eyes.

It made Buffy shudder. "We need your help to stop this. All of this." Buffy motioned around the streets, with the rubble and destruction everywhere.

Connor looked at Buffy. "Which way?"

Buffy pointed towards the Hotel.

"Is it ready yet?" Angel bellowed from what had used to be his office.

"Yes, it's finished, no thanks to your co-ordinates..." Giles yelled back.

Angel walked out of his office, a sword firmly in his grip. "Good, now all we gotta do is wait for Buffy to get back,"

As Angel said this Buffy walked in the door.

"Then we can go find Connor..." Connor followed her carrying Lindsey.

Xander looked at the door. "I want a very naked lady with a million dollars,"

Nothing happened.

Everyone turned to Xander.

"What?!" he defended himself.

Faith and Wood looked at the kid, almost sizing him up, as if preparing for trouble should it emerge.

Angel had told Faith of Connor's past before the spell, and she wanted to be ready for if went all captain insano on them.

Angel walked over to Connor. He could see Lindsey's body.

"Connor, what..." he was cut off before any more words could leave his lips.

"He attacked me, after he had dusted you're blonde vampire friend," Connor explained before Angel could ask. "But, you killed him?"

Angel was confused now. He had told Lorne to kill Lindsey at the end of their assignment.

"No, he was like this when he got to me..." Connor trailed off.

Angel stared at Connor, then at Lindsey, and finally Buffy.

"I don't know, he was carrying him when I found them..." the slayer answered without needing to be asked.

Angel sighed. Life was much simpler when he got drunk had his way with the bar maids.

Although he couldn't remember much of being human, he could remember life was easier.

"We don't have time to deal with this," Angel was looking at Buffy as he said this.

He turned and addressed Illyria. "Get to the bottom of it while we're gone."

Illyria stood up. "You dare to command me?"

"Save it god girl," Xander had interrupted before Angel could address her. "It's the big crunch time. I don't like dead man walking there, but I'm not gonna bring it up now. Neither are you. We're gonna fight. And when the fighting's done, we argue."

Illyria glared at Xander. "I do not like you." She told him.

She proceeded to walk over to Lindsey and pick him up.

As Illyria walked off, Angel acknowledged Xander's contribution, and turned to Connor.

"We need you to come with us, to England..."

"England? Really?" Connor seemed genuinely excited to be going out of the country. "The only time we went any where was when we went to Canada, and there was this whole cross dressing lumber jack incident..." Connor stopped talking. "So why are we going?"

Angel took a strange glance at Connor, and then continued. "We're going to a place called the Deeper Well. It's a burial ground for ancient demons."

Connor looked at his father. "Cool"

"Indeed," Giles commented, with a raised eyebrow.

The Immortal stood next to Illyria.

Lindsey MacDonald sat on the chair in front of them, still unconscious.

The Immortal turned to Illyria. "What are you going to do with him?"

"Torture him until he reveals his secrets to me," Illyria was very matter of fact in her answer.

The Immortal looked at her with wide eyes. "You are incredibly pure," Illyria turned to face him.

"You are tiresome," And with that Illyria turned back to Lindsey, watching him carefully, in case he tried to feign his unconsciousness.

The Immortal walked back into the shadows of the room, a smile on his face.

"Are you ok?" Xander asked Buffy, as he walked into the room Buffy was calling home.

The slayer looked up to her friend. "Yeah, I'm ok Xander. We've faced the apocalypse before." She smiled as she delivered the last line.

"You know what I mean Buff," He moved towards her and sat on the bed, next to her. "It took you a age to get over Captain Peroxide, and then he's alive again, and then he's dead. Are you sure you're ok?"

"I can't be anything but Xand, it's what looks to be the last ever battle, and I'm the slayer-"

Xander cut her off "You're one of the whole army of slayer's we got Buff, heavy emphasis on the plural." Xander looked lovingly at his friend. "You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders,"

Buffy smiled. "You know that's not true. You know I'm the most experienced. I have to lead the girls. We have to fight, and then we can greave. For everyone," Xander looked at his friend and remembered why he loved her.

Riley hadn't seen the creature again.

He was still making his way back to the hotel.

The only problem was he no longer had the equipment to know exactly where he was in the city.

He looked again for a street sign.

Sharp pains made him look back down to his side.

He was bleeding. He didn't know what had caused it, but he had a gash in his side.

He had to get to Buffy soon. He didn't know what use he could be, but he wanted to take that thing down for Sam.

He HAD to take that thing down for her.

Buffy, Angel, Connor and Giles stood in a circle in what had been the reception to the once proud hotel.

Giles looked to the floor and muttered a few words in some ancient demon language that no one but Wesley would have been able to understand, and in a burst of mystical energy the four were gone.

Faith looked at where they had been. She looked back to the girls.

"Right listen up, this isn't going to be like last time I was in charge. We're not going to any nightclubs; we're going to split into patrol groups. I want a four block radius of this building scouted out and made demon free, is that clear?" Silence greeted Faith's question.

The Slayer herself moved so she was standing in front of the girls. The girls looked at Faith, and all slowly nodded individually.

"Good, now lets get to work."

Rome, Italy.

Willow stood up and looked out the window.

Wilkins for the minute was stable.

It still concerned her that she didn't know what had done this to the city. The more she looked around, the more she could see it was crumbling.

She sighed.

"Dawn and Kennedy are out there somewhere..." She muttered to herself.

She looked back to Wilkins. He was moving in his sleep.

Willow moved over to him and felt his brow. He was sweating. It was obviously a nightmare.

Willow wondered what was making him react like this, what nightmare could produce this fear. Wilkins eyes shot open.

"Dragon!" he yelled.

Willow turned to see an enormous beast outside the window, looking in.

"Uh oh," Willow meekly let out.

The Deeper Well, England.

Angel hated coming to England.

He always ended up in a fight.

The Deeper Well had greeted them much like the first time, sending out hordes of warriors to try and take down the visitors.

Angel hacked into another man.

Buffy upper cutted one running straight for her. The force of her punch plus the warrior's speed factored into how high and how far he went. They didn't see him again.

Connor was like Buffy on speed. His movements were too much for the warriors. He was dodging every blow, and landing one for each he dodged.

Giles was holding one at bay with a sword he had retrieved from one of the warriors Angel had killed.

All in all, the deeper well didn't seem to be that much different than L.A. at the moment to Connor. Sure there were more tree's, but that was the only difference.

Inside the Deeper Well, it's guardian clawed his way back onto the bridge that hovered over the hole.

He had healed himself using the new power he was granted, but they hadn't given him anything useful like teleportation or flying powers.

As he climbed up he could hear a noise. It was coming from outside.

"The warriors!" the man exclaimed. He grabbed his sword and ran for the entrance.

Angel thrust his sword into one of the warriors, killing him instantly.

"How many more are there?" Giles yelled over the din, as he tried to fend off a duo of warriors.

"I'm not sure. I don't think there were this many before-" Angel stopped as a figure emerged from the tree.

"Cease!" the man yelled.

The warriors stopped in their tracks and disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

Buffy and Connor walked over to Angel and Giles, having been separated during the chaos of the battle.

"What happened?" Buffy asked Angel. She followed his gaze to the figure. "Wesley?"

L.A., United States.

"Tell me what you know, or I will send you to death far more permanent than that which the green one did!" Illyria was standing over Lindsey with a hand on each shoulder.

"I can't tell you!" the decomposing man replied.

"You will tell me, or I will-" The Immortal cut her off.

"Why can't you tell us Mr MacDonald?" he asked in his rich voice.

Lindsey looked at the man through his rotting eyes. "You're the immortal, right?"

"Very astute," The Immortal replied, eyeing the young dead man. "How would you know that?"

"L.A. branch of Wolfram and Hart wasn't this dimensions head office for no reason,"

Lindsey coughed up some blood, what little was left in his body.

"Fascinating as that is, why can you not tell us what we wish to know?" The Immortal asked.

Lindsey looked back towards Illyria. "Spell. Stops me telling you anything," The Immortal looked at Lindsey.

"Spawn of Draven are you?"

Lindsey looked up. "Don't say that name."

The Immortal took a slight smile at that statement.

Rome, Italy.

Willow brought up a barrier around herself and Wilkins.

The dragon released a wave of fire towards the witch.

The barrier acted as a rock in a waterfall, breaking the fire so that it curved around Willow and Wilkins.

Willows eyes shot black, and her hair turned white.

Wilkins could make out through the flame a figure engulfed in white light.

The dragon ceased the flame. If it had been human it would have cocked its head in confusion.

As it was it just snorted at Willow.

The witch raised her hands, and whispered a few words.

Suddenly a flash of energy erupted from her hands, engulfing the dragon.

The beast flapped its wings incessantly, trying to break free of the energy.

As it was doing this, Willow raised herself high above the buildings, in an attempt to draw the dragon away the streets.

The beast finally freed itself from Willow's spell, and shook its head.

It finally caught a glimpse of light high in the sky, and headed for it, charging Willow down.

The Deeper Well, England.

Angel looked at a man who he had been told had died during the siege on the Black Thorne.

"I'll ask again, why are you here?" Wesley Wyndam-Pryce stood in front of his former colleagues, dressed in a brown duster, not dissimilar to Spike's leather coat in design. However this was made of fabric, not leather. He held in his hand a very decorative sword.

"Wesley, I thought you were dead?" Angel almost whispered the second part.

Wesley looked hard at Angel. "I am Angel, and I have been for a long time."

"Then how are you here?" Giles stepped forward to address the man who had once replaced him as Buffy's watcher.

"Ironic really," Wesley started as if he hadn't heard Giles. "I'm not clean enough to gain entry to heaven, and I'm not dirty enough to go to hell. So I'm here. Purgatory..."

"Purgatory?" Connor asked out loud.

"It means I continue to exist in this plain while I attempt to atone," Wesley looked at the young man he had once kidnapped. One of the many reasons for his appointment to purgatory. "Not unlike your father."

"So you're the keeper of the well?" Buffy asked.

Wesley nodded. "I was transported here as soon as I agreed."

"So your body isn't in L.A. anymore?" Angel asked.

"No, its right here," Wesley replied lifting up his shirt, revealing a stab wound which had killed him earlier that week. "Death is quite amusing really. It's kind of like when have to give a speech. It's not quite as bad as you imagined it would be."

"I thought purgatory was in a different plain?" Giles asked. "All the books I've ever read have said so..."

"I chose this," Wesley muttered.

Angel looked up. "Why, Wes?"

Wesley turned to face his former employer. "Fred,"

Angel looked at the ex-watcher. "What about her?"

"My soul was unclean, impure. But the main reason for the cloud over me was Fred's death. Her soul was destroyed when Illyria took her body. They gave me the chance to save her. If I served my purgatory in this dimension they would re-create her soul, as it was before death. Give her some peace."

"Who are 'they'?" Buffy asked.

"The powers that be? Deities? Take your pick. Whoever or whatever they were they were telling the truth. They can save Fred, and let her have the peace she needs,"

"How do you know they can Wes?" Angel asked.

"These aren't tricksters Angel. If you had spoken to them you would know. They have the power."

There was silence.

Buffy moved forward. "Wesley, I'm sorry..."

"Only person here to blame is myself," Wesley re-assured her. "But I do need to know why you are here?"

Angel cleared his throat. "Don't you know? The apocalypse?"

"Yes, I know, but that's not an answer to my question."

"We were told the new guardian would test me, Connor and Buffy. That you would tell us how to stop it..." Angel could see the lack of knowledge in Wesley's eyes. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"

Rome, Italy.

The dragon came at Willow again.

And again she dodged the attack.

As it turned in mid air again to come around it was greater by chill.

Willow had released some kind of energy at the creature.

It began to ice over.

As the dragon froze it's wings ceased to work, and the beast fell towards the ground.

"That wasn't hard," Willow puffed, completely out of breath.

The Deeper Well, England.

"I can't do anything about the apocalypse Angel, that's not my responsibility. The only person who can stop this now is you, or Spike," Wesley tried to explain.

"But the Immortal told us. He said that Connor was responsible for it all. He had made the human race, impure I guess," Buffy tried to explain.

Connor looked at her. "Its cos of me?"

Angel put a hand on his son's shoulder. "We'll stop it, don't worry."

"And that is true, it is his fault that Draven could gain freedom from his prison and begin the process of returning the world to the old ones," Wesley admitted. "But Connor can't do anything to change that. None of us can. Only you."

"Or Spike," Giles added.

"Or Spike." Wesley confirmed.

"But he's dead." Connor chipped in.

"Then it's Angel." Wesley finished.

"And how is this?" Giles asked his friend, cleaning his glasses at the same time.

"Connor created an impurity in humanity. He's the son of two pure vampires." Wesley re-told them. "If the vampire with a soul redeems himself in the eyes of the powers, that impurity is reversed; a pure vampire returns to being human."

"So you're saying I have to prove myself to the powers," Angel muttered to himself. "Well how do I do that?"

"I don't know." Wesley told him quite bluntly. "I know how Draven's plan works, but not how too stop it. I'm not sure you can."

"And how can it be me?" Angel asked. "I signed away my prophecie..."

"What?" Wesley looked almost horrified.

Buffy interupted Wesley's train of thought.

"What I don't understand in all of this, is why would the Immortal tell us we have to come here if we didn't have to..." Buffy mouthed the word unless, but no sound came out.

"Unless he's got something planned." Angel finished for her.

"What do you mean? What something?" Buffy asked, defending her lover.

"I don't know Buffy I'm not him, but there has gotta be some reason for it."

"This is great Angel, it's the Apocalypse and you decide to get jealous eyes for my boyfriend!"

"That's not it Buffy. I don't want you like that. I moved on, same as you. I'm just saying it doesn't make sense to lie to us, during the Apocalypse if he didn't want us outta the way!"

Buffy was silent.

"The Immortal..." Wesley murmured. "You don't mean The Immortal of Dra'gba?"

Buffy looked up. "No one ever says his second name..."

Angel looked at Wesley. "I didn't even know it."

Wesley's eyes widened. "You stupid girl!"

"HEY!" Buffy stood up, angry at Wesley's tone.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" the guardian asked her. "He is the worst of all earthly evil. He massacred millions in order to attain his immortality. He has sort to rule this world for millennia, and you have been sleeping with him?"

"I said all this before," Angel muttered. Connor elbowed him in the ribs.

"If he has something planned Angel, you can guarantee it isn't good. You have to go!" Wesley was panicked.

"Wes..."

"So little time, so much to do," Wesley started talking to himself. "And i hate other dimensions..."

"Wes?" Angel and Buffy said almost in unison.

"If it's to be undone i have to restore him, have to change the unchangable..."

"Wesley!" Giles snapped.

Wesley looked up.

"GO NOW!" Wesley yelled. A flash of light surrounded the four and the disappeared.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. i loved writing it. only took me five days!! lol. any way give me reviews, cos i have to know if you guys liked it :)