Disclaimer: I own the name of the Coven, but I own none of its members, its villains, or their allies

Feedback: Very much on the 'must-have' list

Sean Malloy-1: I'll see what I can do, but I might just wait and see what happens at Christmas

LeoLupin: A valid point, but we'll have to wait and see; I'm not even sure what I'd write in the sequel, even if I wrote one…

The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals

"Bloody hell…" Spike muttered to himself, as he slowly blinked his eyes open. "That's the last time I trust anyone I've only just met…"

"Any chance you'd be willing to give me a second chance?" a voice said from above him.

Spike's eyes snapped open to stare into Cole Turner's face.

"You sodding BASTARD!" he yelled at the half-demon as the man reeled back, blood leaking from a split lip. "You bloody BACKSTABBER! We've got enough problems already, and you go and-"

Spike suddenly felt something grab his arm as he raised it to punch Cole again. Looking in the direction of the arm, he saw Angel holding the arm, and looking at Spike with a fixed gleam in his eyes.

"Don't," he said. "It wasn't Cole who attacked you; we're dealing with a future version of him. Taking him out won't accomplish anything."

Spike glared at Angel for a few moments, but then relaxed and stepped back, unclenching his fist as he looked at Cole stagger back to his feet before glancing back at Angel.

"You know, if it's his future self we're tackling, couldn't we just take him out and stop this before it starts?"

"No."

Angel didn't say anything else, but Spike knew that expression on his grandsire's face; it didn't bode any argument.

"Besides, apparently part of the spell that brought him here shifted him into some kind of 'maybe' timeline, as far as we can gather from what Leo told us," another voice said. Spike glanced over in the direction of the speaker, and saw Constantine slumped in one corner, rubbing at a nasty cut over his left eye. "Basically means that, until he gets back to the past, there's no guarantee he's not just an alternate past Cole rather than the past Cole."

He raised his crucifix-shaped shotgun, and shrugged. "Well, we'll manage, I guess; I've outsmarted worse guys than him in my time."

"Oh yeah; you managed to get Satan to let you live again, didn't you?" Spike said, looking back at Constantine.

Constantine briefly looked at Spike in a confused manner, but then realisation dawned and he shook his head.

"Actually, I was referring to managing to stop Mammon coming through; the whole point with the Satan thing was that I wasn't planning it," he said to the vampire. "If I had been trying to get him to heal me, I'd be down in Hell right now; the whole point about Satan healing me was that he didn't want me to get into Heaven."

"Um, excuse me?" Piper said, raising her hand. "As fascinating as it is to hear about what you guys get up to in your spare time, we've got a bad guy to stop right now?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Constantine said, looking over at Piper with a slightly sheepish grin. "Started to tend to jabber a bit when I'm nervous; still haven't quite gotten used to a lack of nicotine to calm me down."

"You used to smoke?" Paige asked, looking over at Constantine. "Didn't the nicotine have a negative impact on your magic?"

Constantine shrugged. "We all have our habits, Miss… Matthews, right?" he said to her. "And magic changes across realities; just because your magic is affected by your physical state doesn't mean mine is."

He shrugged. "'Course, the cancer was a problem near the end, but I got-"

"GAGH!" Angel suddenly yelled, interrupting their discussion as he dropped to his knees, clutching his forehead as though something was trying to blow the head apart from the inside.

"Angel!" Leo yelled, as he dashed towards his old friend, crouching down beside him as he glanced up at Spike. "Does this happen often?"

"No," Spike said, staring at his sire in confusion. "Actually, I don't recall this ever happening since I've known him…"

Then, as suddenly as he'd collapsed, Angel was back on his feet, and looking over at Piper and Leo in horror.

"We have a new problem," he said simply.

There was a momentary pause, and then Spike broke the silence.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" he asked, staring at Angel in confusion. "I thought the bloody Prom Queen wannabe was the one who had the visions; you said you only got the one!"

"Actually, that's not quite accurate," Angel said, looking back at Spike. "I've only had that one until now, yes, but that was only because it was a major vision that would affect the outcome of the world; Cordelia apparently managed to make a deal with the Powers that I'd only have one if it was an absolutely serious problem."

"Um… excuse me?" Phoebe said, looking at Angel curiously. "Are you saying that what just happened to you… was a vision?"

Angel nodded. "But not really the same as yours; I get my visions from the Powers That Be, while you get yours from the Elders of Wicca."

"The difference being?" Paige asked.

"Well, the Powers are basically omnipotent observers that only communicate with vague impressions through their seers, while the Elders take a more active approach at communicating with their chosen warriors," Angel explained, as he looked over at Leo. "Is that about right?"

"Pretty much," Leo replied, before Hellboy interjected.

"As fascinating as this is, maybe we could look a bit more at the how part of this?" he asked, looking over at Angel and Spike. "From what you two said, this only happens when it's something seriously major?"

"Yeah, that's right," Angel said, nodding.

"So, what is it?" the red demon asked. "The evil model got something planned that we don't know about?"

"No, he was mentioned, but he wants nothing that we don't already know about; to alter time so that he can get Phoebe back, that sort of thing," Angel said, as he looked over at Piper. "Our problems are a bit more personal for you two."

"What?" Piper asked, looking at Angel nervously. "What is it?"

Angel swallowed. "Gideon wants to kill Wyatt."

"WHAT!" Leo said, as he walked forward to look Angel directly in the eyes. "You're lying! Why would he do that to my son!"

"As far as I could make out, he thinks that Wyatt's too powerful to be allowed to live," Angel explained, as he looked at the other members of the Coven to make sure they were getting this. "He thinks he's serving the purpose of good by stopping him before he grows up and becomes too powerful to stop."

"Hold on a minute here," Blade said, looking over at Leo and Angel for clarification. "Gideon? As in the Gideon that recruited us?"

"Exactly," Angel said, nodding in acknowledgement at Blade. "That's part of the reason he made Leo a member of the Coven; there are other Whitelighters who can put up a better fight, but he needed Leo out of the way so that Wyatt wouldn't be as well-protected."

"OK…" Hellboy said, nodding slightly as he looked at Angel. "So, basically, he's trying to kill Leo's kid 'cause he thinks the guy's going to be too powerful in the future and might be dangerous?"

"'Guy' is a bit extreme; Wyatt isn't even one year old yet!" Piper said, as she looked over at the hybrid, already starting to get into a panic.

Blade growled low in his throat as he reached behind his back and pulled out his sword before turning to face Angel.

"There's an innocent baby in danger, and we're standing around here, why?" he asked his new friend.

"Because there is no way out of this room; I have been trying every possible means at my disposal to get through this door, including my power to turn into mist, and nothing has worked as of yet," Batman said from where he was standing at the door that marked the only visible means of entry or exit to their cell. "Since this door is obviously immune to magic, otherwise we would not have found the Halliwells still in here when we arrived, I am at a loss as to how we can escape."

"Well, actually, I have an idea about that," Paige said, as she looked over at Angel, Spike, Blade and 'Batman'. "But before I mention it, I need to know something; if you guys bite someone, do they automatically become vampires?"

"Nope," Spike said.

"Definitely not; you'd need to drink some of our blood as well," Angel said.

"Can't happen even if I was a full-vampire; same rule applies for me as well as for them," Blade added, jerking a finger at Angel and Spike.

'Batman' sighed regretfully. "For me, that restriction does not apply. For my victims, my bite is a mixture of two evils; if the victim does not turn into a vampire after I have bit them, it is because they have been decapitated before they could rise."

"Well, that's still three of you; it'll work," Paige said, looking at the relevant three. "You see, this room is magically protected, but it only stops us from using our powers. An incident involving a doctor a couple of years before I met them led to Piper and Phoebe learning that our powers are in our blood, so…"

She looked inquiringly at the three vampires for a moment, until Angel twigged on what she was suggesting.

"You want us to drink your blood so we can use your powers to cast a spell to escape?" he asked. "Isn't that a bit… extreme?"

"He has a point, Paige; I mean, the doctor who got our powers was killed by them because he couldn't handle them," Phoebe put in, looking over at her younger sister. "What if the same thing happens to these guys?"

"It wouldn't," Leo put in. "Giving a mortal the powers of a witch is like giving him a virus; the body collapses because it can't support the excess DNA in its system. But for vampires like Angel and Blade, their immune systems would deal with foreign bodies relatively easily; any powers they gain from drinking your blood will eventually dissipate after a brief time, depending on how often they use their borrowed powers."

"So, the plan could work?" Phoebe asked, looking at Leo inquiringly.

"Yeah," Leo said, nodding at his sister-in-law before looking at the three vampires. "So, who gets who?"

"Which one can blow things up?" Blade asked.

"That's me," Piper said, raising her hand.

"I'll take that power," Blade said, trying to sound light-hearted at the whole idea. Only a slight tensing of his muscle revealed to anyone that he was repulsed by the idea of having to drink blood. "You guys?"

Spike and Angel looked at Paige, Phoebe, and each other, before Spike groaned, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a coin.

"Bloody stupid way to settle something like this, but let's toss for it," he said, looking at Angel. "Heads you're Paige, tails I am."

He flicked the coin into the air, grabbed it, slapped it down onto the palm of his hand, and glanced at it.

"Heads," he said, looking up at Angel.

The three vampires turned to look at their respective witches and swallowed.

"Um… you're sure you're OK with this?" Angel said to Paige, as he, Blade and Spike moved up to their chosen 'donors'.

"This is our only option, Angel," Paige said, as she tilted her neck slightly to allow him better access. "Just make it quick, OK?"

Angel nodded as he bent forward, his teeth digging slightly into Paige's neck as he took brief sips of her blood, giving it a few seconds before pulling back; if he'd worked it out right, that should be enough to let him use her powers without leaving her so weak that she couldn't operate at her peak in a fight. Looking over at Blade and Spike, he was relieved to see that they were doing the same; if so many of them had the same idea, it was probably the right one.

"Right then," Spike said, sounding almost forcibly cheery as he tried to put what they'd just done out of his mind, "what now? Any spells in mind?"

"Just this," Phoebe said, passing a piece of paper to Angel. "It's not much, but we've used worse; we've used it in the past."

"Right then," Angel said, as he, Blade and Spike gathered in front of the door, raising their right hands as the three of them read the spell in Angel's left.

"Door unlock,
No magic block."

A bolt of golden energy shot from the hands of the three vampires, and the door vanished.

"It worked!" Piper yelled, hugging Leo in celebration as the other Coven members gave each other high fives, although Spike gave Illyria a brief hug before realising what he'd done.

"OK, let's get moving," Angel said, as he looked around at the Coven. "Spike, Hellboy, Illyria, Constantine; you four are in charge of making sure the remaining demons in this base are kept busy. Leo, you, Piper, Paige and Phoebe have to try and find your way to Gideon and stop him before he kills Wyatt. Batman, Blade, Cole, you're with me; we're going after… well, the other Cole."

"What?" Piper said, looking at Angel in surprise. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? I mean, I've got the best offensive magical power, surely I'd-"

Angel held up one hand.

"No, Piper," he said to her. "You'd be an asset, I admit, but you'd be worried about your son throughout the fight; you need to be where you want to be right now. Blade still has your powers for a short while; he'll be fine."

Then Angel smiled briefly at the Coven, trying to reassure them. "Don't worry; I have a plan."

"Just one minor detail about your team division, Angel," Constantine said, raising his hand.

"Yes?" Angel asked, looking over at the occult detective.

"I think I should go with the Charmed Ones," Constantine explained. "The others should stay where they are, but I'm more familiar with adversaries that use magic rather than brute strength; I'm not very good at dealing with something that uses its brawn far more than its magic."

Angel nodded at Constantine's comment. "Good point, John. Just one question; think you can handle something that's basically a rogue angel?"

Constantine smiled as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a large silver set of knuckledusters.

"Been itching to try these things out for ages," he said, smiling at his new friends. "They were forged from the thirty pieces of silver given to Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus; highly effective against anything naturally good. Got them after my encounter with Gabriel, and I've been waiting for a chance to use them ever since."

Angel nodded. "Right," he said, as he turned to look at the Coven members. "Let's go; we've got some demons to stop."