"And you are?" enquired Angel, eyebrow raised.

The golden woman rounded on him. "You would be so bold as to speak to me so, vampire? I could destroy you in a heartbeat."

Angel looked around at his friends. "Looks like we've got Illyria Junior here." Spike smirked and looked the woman up and down. He could tell she was become increasingly more uncomfortable.

"Hell of a lot more golden, though. What's your name, luv?"

The woman gave Spike a look of disdain. "You may call me Jessica. I am representative of the Almighty Powers, and we have some tasks for you, if you think you're up to it."

Angel narrowed his eyes at her. There was something he had to ask, even though he knew he would not like the answer. "Why didn't they send Cordy?"

Jessica once again turned her unnerving eyes on him. "The being you call Cordelia Chase gave her immortality as a Power to save you. She has crossed over to the spirit world, she will not be returning to you."

The electric blue eyes softened, just for a moment. "She loved you," Jessica said simply. "She was a great warrior, even among our mighty people."

Angel bowed his head. His heart felt close to bursting, cold and dead though it may be. "I cannot let this get the better of me," he thought. "She will sense my weakness and strike". With effort, Angel raised his head and looked at Jessica. "She almost seems…human."

"You were human once, weren't you? Before the Powers took you."

Jessica felt a surge of panic rising within her. "How can he know? He is a mere half-breed. He has no special powers, no great strength or powerful magics."

"Yes. What is it to you?"

Angel looked to one side, the cogs and wheels in his mind already turning. "If we could turn her back, what a weapon we'd have. She would have all of the Powers' knowledge…" "Just curious. What request did the Powers have for us?"

Jessica raised her chin and prepared to launch into a lengthy speech. "The Powers do not request, rather we instruct. It is not your-"

"Cut to the chase love, we don't need a lecture," Spike interrupted.

Her anger and panic rose even higher. Jessica wanted to destroy this swaggering, conceited vampire, burn him until his body was naught but ash… "Stop it!" she thought. "I have to keep up this façade, they must be kept under our thumb. I can't screw up…"

"We have a task for you. The Wolf, the Ram and the Hart are preparing to strike again. You, our champions-" She barely disguised her disgust for the word. Every time she heard it, it brought with it pain and suffering. "-must bring together this rabble you call the human race and mould it into an army."

Fred, still wearing Illyria's suit of leather, opened her mouth to speak. "Why? I-I mean, do we really need to bring the rest of the world into this?"

"Fred's right," Angel concurred. "We have Buffy and her slayer army."

Jessica's face became angry. "Fools!" she shouted. "Even an army of slayers cannot stand against the Senior Partners' evil! Mark my words, if you try to fight alone, you will fall. And your precious Cordelia won't be around to save you. Even as she uttered these words, she thought "Stupid, stupid!"

Spike gave Jessica a speculative look. "There is definitely something going on under the surface here," he thought. "And I'd really like to find out what".

Jessica looked around the tiny room, filled with sparse white medical beds. "I have to get out of here, I can barely even think straight". She once again assumed the role of the imperious deity. "I tire of this idle conversation. We will speak again on the morrow." The autumn-haired Power threw open the doors and swept haughtily out of the room.

Angel and Fred stared wordlessly at each other for a moment. Angel was the first to speak his thoughts.

"Fred, is it possible to build some sort of weapon to make her human again?"

The dark-haired Texan girl turned her eyes upwards, searching her mind for useful information. "Well, I'd need a pretty big surge of energy, which could be produced by tapping into the inter-dimensional void-"

"Fred. Can you do it, yes or no." Usually Angel was reasonably tolerant of Fred's tendency to ramble, but this wasn't something he could afford to make a mess of.

"Yes, I'll get on it straight away."

Angel nodded, and addressed to group. "Good. She knows exactly what's going down, and she's going to enlighten us, one way or another."