A/N: A REALLY BIG THANK YOU to all those who have review the story so far. Glad you're enjoying it. Hope you continue to do so.

Imzadi: I'm afraid that Lindsey will not be coming back in this story. Sorry about that, but I'm sticking with what happened in the show - he is indeed dead. And Angel and Faith will not be having any kindof romance - trust me, in my angel-verse, Angel is a one woman vampire.

Canababy: I'm not going to say whether or not Cordy will be making another appearance cuz I don't want to ruin any plotlines on you, but I will say that I'm die-hard A/C shipper, so take from that what you will :-)

Anyway, on with the story. I planned to have some action in this chapter, but the exposition ran a little longer than I planned, so there will definately be some action in the next chapter. Hope you like it, let me know if you do...

Giles had spent the past two weeks in LA, when not training the slayers, studying Wesley's diaries. From the latest entries, he gleaned that the scroll was a recent acquisition which Wesley had not had time to translate. So Giles set to work.

The text was dense, in multiple ancient and demonic languages. It also made reference to several other texts that Giles didn't have access to, which made the task of cross-referencing extremely difficult. But not impossible. At least two of the texts mention had already been studied by Wesley and, he being a fastidious record keeper, had been described in depth in his journals.

From the wording, Giles had already figured out that the text was in fact a prophecy. So far he had pulled out references to the apocalypse (to which he didn't bat an eye – when wasn't he finding prophecies about the apocalypse?), along with several mentions of 'the trinity of evil' and the 'three souls of good'. He hadn't figured out who these major players were as yet, but they had something to do with two other ancient texts – the prophecies of Aberjian and the Nyazian Scroll.

Re-reading what Wesley had noted regarding the Nyazian scroll more than two years ago, he cross-referenced the phraseology with what was in the new scroll. The third 'soul of good' appeared to be called 'The Destroyer'. Not a terribly comforting name, Giles thought, but it was something to go on. He decided to speak to Angel about it, to see if Wesley had shared any of his findings with the vampire.

Angel came back into the Hyperion's lobby as dawn was beginning to break. It was empty now, with the exception of Xander, sitting on the couch reading. He yawned and looked up as the door swung shut behind Angel.

'Hey,' Angel said. 'Everyone asleep?'

'With the exception of Research Man,' Xander replied. 'He's still hard at it in the office. I couldn't take all the 'hmm', 'interesting' comments, so I came out here.'

'You couldn't sleep?' Angel asked.

'I don't do a lot of it anymore,' Xander said, setting his book aside. 'Bad dreams.'

Angel nodded and moved to the coffee maker to pour a much needed cup. He raised the pot to Xander. 'Want a cup?'

'God, yes,' Xander answered with a yawn.

As Angel handed him the coffee, Xander cleared his throat as if he had something to say. Angel waited.

'I, uh…' Xander started. 'Look, I'm sorry for getting at you earlier, man. It was just a shock, you know?'

'Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't let you know.'

'Hey, I know a little something about the aftermath of losing someone you care about,' Xander told him. 'After Anya died, I took off for a while. Didn't call Buffy or Will for months. Just traveled, trying to forget. It didn't work. The bad dreams stuck with me no matter where I went.'

Angel nodded. 'I know all about bad dreams. I'm kind of dreading going to sleep. After being in that place, I know they're only going to be worse.'

'So what was it like? Fire? Brimstone?'

'Marriage, kid, normal happy life. Bliss.'

'You poor bastard,' Xander remarked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

'Yeah, well, then they were murdered in front of me. Every night. Like some kind of vicious cycle.'

Xander processed this silently for a moment. 'So, what scares you most? Having dreams about them dying, or having dreams about the happy family you never got to have?'

'That's the problem,' Angel confessed. 'I don't know which is worse. But I guess I'm going to find out.'

'The worst for me is when I wake up after dreaming about what life would have been like if I'd married Anya,' Xander told him. 'For a second, I think that it really happened, that my life is like that. Then I remember. And part of me wishes I'd never woken up.'

Angel silently nodded. 'It was Cordy, wasn't it?' Xander asked him.

'What was?' Angel asked, looking up.

'Hey, I may only have one eye, but I'm not blind,' Xander told him. 'And I also know a little something about being smitten with Ms Cordelia Chase. You have that look about you.'

'Am I that transparent? Or do you just see everything?'

'I've been told it's a gift,' Xander replied lightly. 'Dawny was thinking about making me a cape.'

Angel huffed off a light laugh and got to his feet. 'I'd better check in with Giles.'

'Sure,' Xander replied. He paused, his brows knit with a realization. 'Did, uh, did we just have a bonding moment?'

Angel looked back at him with a frown. Then he shrugged it off. 'I won't tell anybody if you don't.'

'Deal,' Xander replied as Giles came out of the office.

'Angel? I have something to show you.'

Three more members of the Scooby circle were having trouble sleeping. Buffy, Willow and Faith had been sitting up long into the night, discussing Angel's sudden reappearance.

'Do you buy it, Will?' Buffy asked her best friend. 'That he was in hell? Again.'

'I don't know, Buffy,' the witch replied. 'Why would he lie? And, if he wasn't there, then where was he?'

'I'm not saying he's lying. It's just… last time he came back from hell, he was more… feral.'

Faith held up her hands as if to wave Buffy's words away. 'Hey, whoa there, B. What you and tall dark and broody got up to in the day is your own business.'

'Feral, Faith. Not virile,' Buffy said with disgust, rolling her eyes. 'Mind out of gutter for one minute, please.'

'It means he was wild, Faith,' Willow told the dark-haired slayer.

'Hey, they both mean that, Will,' Faith replied with a smirk. 'Anyway, B, maybe this was a different kind of hell. He seems pretty shaken up.'

'Wherever he was, Buffy,' Willow said in a serious tone. 'His return was foretold. We need him in this fight.'

'Right. One of the 'souls of good' that Giles keeps going on about.'

'Angel's the champion,' Willow said. 'The prophecy says the champion, foretold in by Aberjian, who is to 'shanshu'. Whatever than means.'

'Doesn't matter, I guess, except that Giles is sure that it's talkin' about Angel,' Faith said. 'Says Wesley left him really detailed notes about that.'

'I still can't believe he's dead,' Willow said quietly. 'And Cordelia. It doesn't seem real, somehow.'

Buffy nodded. 'I still haven't got my head around the fact that she left Sunnydale to get away from all the supernatural goings on, and ended up working for a vampire.'

'I know! Do you remember when she first found out that Angel was a vampire?' Willow said with a laugh.

Sunnydale High, October 1997.

Buffy and Willow were sitting in the girls' bathroom when Cordelia entered. Upon spotting Buffy, her expression became extremely smug.

'So, Buffy. You ran off last night and left poor little Angel all by his lonesome,' she told the slayer as she went to the mirror to touch up her ever perfect make-up. 'But I did everything I could to comfort him.'

'I'll bet,' Buffy replied, insecure and trying desperately to hide it.

'So, what's his story anyway?' Cordy went on, taking out her blusher and getting to work on her cheeks. 'I mean, I never see him around.'

'Not during the day, anyway,' Willow said with a hint of conspiracy in her voice.

Cordelia scoffed. 'Oh, please. Don't tell me he still lives at home. Like, he has to wait for his dad to get back before he can take the car?'

'Cordelia, I think his parents have been dead for a couple of hundred years,' Buffy told her.

Cordelia was now touching up her lip gloss. 'Oh, good. I mean...' she stopped, suddenly realizing what Buffy had said. She turned to face them. 'What?'

Buffy spelled it out for her. 'Angel's a vampire. I thought you knew.'

Cordelia laughed off the statement, obviously not buying it for a second. She turned back to the mirror. 'Oh, he's a vampire,' she said sarcastically. 'Of course! But the cuddly kind. Like a Care bear with fangs?'

'It's true,' Willow said with a smirk.

The brunette cheerleader walked over to them with confidence. 'You know what I think?' she said, crossing her arms in a self-satisfied way. 'I just think you're trying to scare me off 'cause you're afraid of the competition. Look, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I'm the Slayer.'

She turned on her heel and left the room. Buffy watched her go, her own ego deflated yet again by the extremely confident Ms Chase.

Giles had laid out the scroll, along with his translations, in front of Angel on the desk. He had spent the last ten minutes detailing what he had discovered so far, and was now explaining the specifics of the prophecy.

'As you can see, a large part of the text is about a final confrontation between the powers of good and those of evil. The prophecy speaks of the trinity of evil and the three souls of good.'

'The trinity of evil has got to be the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart,' Angel said. 'But they're eternal. I don't know how anybody could go up against them physically. They're not even on this plane of existence.'

'Well, at the moment, I'm more concerned with identifying the three souls of good. One, I've already identified. You,' Giles told him. 'The scroll speaks of the Champion, the one who it is foretold will Shanshu.'

'The prophecy of Aberjian,' Angel said. 'I take it you've read it, if you know it's about me?'

'I've read Wesley's notes on it,' Giles replied. 'The scroll implies that you will receive your final reward after this final battle.'

'Not anymore,' Angel said. 'I signed it away.'

'You did what?' Giles asked, incredulous. 'You signed away your chance to become human?'

'I had to. It was the only way to get the Circle of the Black Thorn to trust me.'

Giles regarded the ensouled vampire for a moment. He had always underestimated him. He trusted him when he needed to, because of the presence of his soul, because of his love for Buffy, which he never approved of but never doubted. But he never realized the level of Angel's self-sacrifice. What he was prepared to give up in order to fight the good fight.

'What about the other two players?' Angel asked him. 'Buffy and Faith?'

'I'm not sure,' Giles told him. 'References to the second soul are vague. It mentions another prophecy that I don't have access to at present. So far, all I can take from it is the word 'vessel'. But I have translated the reference to the third soul. Does the name 'The Destroyer' mean anything to you?'

Angel jumped to his feet as though a red hot poker had been thrust under him. 'That's definitely what it says?'

'Yes,' he said, picking up the scroll to read the passage. 'Lastly, the holy trinity is complete by the Destroyer. As the Nyazian prophecies have foretold, he will be born out of darkness to bring darkness to the powers of darkness. Swept from this world, his innocence corrupted, restored and ultimately redeemed, he will end the hold of darkness on this earthly plane.' Giles stopped reading and peered at Angel. 'Do you know who the scroll is referring to?'

'Connor,' Angel replied, rushing from the room.

The three girls were coming down the stairs and Angel hurried into the lobby and grabbed his coat.

'Hey Angel, where's the fire?' Faith asked.

'I need to get to Connor,' Angel replied.

'It's kinda sunny out there, Angel,' Willow observed.

'I'll take the sewer tunnels,' the vampire replied. He paused for a moment, considering the situation. 'I might need backup. Faith? You up for it?'

'Five by five, big guy. Let's do it.'

She followed him as he made for the basement. 'Later,' she called over her shoulder to the others.

Buffy and Giles watched them go, matching looks of confusion on their faces. 'Who's Connor?' Buffy asked. Giles shrugged his shoulders, as lost as Buffy. They both looked at Willow, who looked not confused, but somewhat sheepish.

'Um, okay. Kinda meant to tell you this a couple of years ago, but I got side tracked with the whole First Evil, end of the world thing…' she began what would probably be a fairly long story.

To Be Continued... Coming up, Father and Son reunited,a familiar face rejoins the group and Giles works out who the third 'Soul of Good' is...