A/N: Well, its been a busy week, but I finally got this chapter finished - and it ended up being really really long. Something like 4500 - 5000 words in fact. So I split it in two, to prevent eye-strain among my readership, and also to make it look like I'd updated with two chapters this week :-) Chapter 8 will be up momentarily...

As always, a HUGE thank you to all who've been taking the time to leave reviews. You guys really make my day. I'd like to take this opportunity to address some of the concerns that havebeenexpressed in the reviews:

I know a lot of you are feeling the loss of the rest of the AI team. I miss them too. I've kinda written myself into a corner in this one - on one hand, I know I needed to kill the team so that Angel's issolation was complete at the beginning of the story. On the other hand,I really wish that I hadn't killed them all off (particularly Spike - Girl version of Chandler, I couldn't agree more, Spike does bring some much needed comedy to the mix). But I don't want to start bringing everyone back from the dead willy-nilly, cuz I don't think it would be true to the story - one ressurection is enough. Hopefully I'll figure something out by the end of the story... watch this space.

AbiSnocom, I understand your concern about Cordy seeming to be too happy about being back. But I didn't want to get into it then, at the end of a chapter. Let me put it this way... remember when the vision headaches were killing her (literally) and she hid it from Angel and everyone else for a whole year... the girl is actually a pretty good actress. It's all I'm saying for now, you'll have to read on to see how she's really feeling...

Disclaimer: As ever, I own nothing, I homage everything...

CHAPTER 7: FIRST WAVE

The streets seemed completely empty, which had become the norm in LA over the past few weeks. Humans no longer went out of their houses after dark. Many had already vacated the city, not willing to stay and face the latest onslaught of evil that had come to town. That made Faith's job easier. If it was out after dark, chances were it was a bad guy.

She did another sweep with her eyes from her vantage point atop the building opposite the garden of the Hyperion. Just then, she saw a flash of bright light coming though the hotel's doors. There's the fireworks, she thought to herself. Willow's spell must have worked.

Then another, less obvious, sight caught her attention. Shadows moving across the street, creeping towards the gates of the garden. She had slayers stationed there, but it wasn't them she saw moving. Her slayer speed brought her across the rooftops and onto street level in a flash.

Vampires. And demons. A lot of them. Faith got around behind them, cutting off their escape route, knowing full well that her girls were between the bad guys and the people inside the hotel.

'Hey guys,' she said in her cocky, street-smart voice. 'Sorry, hotel's all booked up. Try the cemetery.'

The demon posse, numbering around twenty, turned and collectively snarled at her. She raised an eyebrow. 'Man, you guys are U-G-L-Y.'

'Slayer!' one of the vampires hissed.

'Can't you count?' Faith replied as five slayers appeared behind the demons and another three arrived at Faith's side. 'Slayers.'

'Not for long,' a cocky demon replied, lunging at Faith. Without blinking, Faith cut him in half with the sword she been carrying.

'Step on up fellas,' she told them. 'Ass whoopins for all.'

The demons attacked, but the highly trained slayers held their own. Faith almost beamed with pride. After a year of training, her girls were a well-oiled machine. Originally she felt like she didn't have anything to offer these girls. She figured she wasn't cut out to be a teacher. But now, she couldn't imagine doing anything else. Well… except slay the occasional demon, she thought as she decapitated another vampire.

With the Slayers occupied at the back of the building, the second wave of demons made their move on the front door of the hotel. They got within fifteen feet of it, when five more slayers blocked their way.

The two opposing forces met, hand to hand and sword to sword. While the Slayers were occupied, another wave of vampires flooded passed, intent on getting into the hotel. Jessie, a sixteen year old Slayer whom Faith had recruited six months before, spotted them.

'Hey!' she yelled, decapitating the vamp she'd been battling and moving to confront the new vampires.

'Out of the way, little girl,' one of them sneered at her.

Getting into the battle stance Faith had taught her, she stood her ground. She took down one, then another, before two attacked her at once, one of them landing a lucky kick that deprived her of her sword, and another hitting her with a sucker punch. Winded, one of the vamps grabbed her and snapped her arm as he pulled her roughly towards him. As his fangs headed her way, she snapped her head forward, head butting him. Stunned, he let her go, and she kicked him away from her with a roundhouse.

Cradling her broken arm, she fell back towards the front entrance of the hotel, still trying to stop the vamps from getting inside. Now unarmed and injured, she was no match for them, and her comrades were occupied with a dozen vampires of their own. The vampire in the lead beat her down to the ground with a vicious punch. As one of his cohorts moved in for the kill, the leader stopped him.

'Time for her later. What we're interested in is inside.'

Cordelia looked around the circle. 'Wow. The gang's all here.' Her face fell as she remembered the several faces she did not see before her. 'Well… sort of,' she said quietly.

'Cordy,' Angel said, his voice full of wonder and disbelief. 'Are you…?'

'Really here?' she smiled softly.

'Okay?' Angel replied. 'Are you okay? We didn't…' he stopped, glancing sideways at Buffy and then at Willow.

Cordelia knew what he was thinking. 'Pull me out of paradise?' She shook her head. 'Hanging out on a cloud with the PTB is not my idea of paradise. Now if there was sand, cocktails, and the occasional hunky lifeguard…'

That was good enough for Angel. He immediately went to her and threw his arms around her, gathering her up in a tight embrace. She hugged him back with all the strength she could muster.

'Angel,' she smiled.

Before they could say anything else, several vampires burst through the door. Angel immediately put himself between Cordy and them. Buffy and Xander ran to the weapons cabinet.

'Angel! Catch,' Buffy yelled, tossing the vampire a sword, which he caught easily.

Two vampires were already advancing on Willow, who was nearest the door, having been thrown across the room by her earlier spell. They were within striking distance when Willow muttered an incantation under her breath, sending them flying across the room.

As several of the vampires attacked Angel, the windows by the stairs smashed open, and still more vamps poured into the lobby. There were now at least twenty, and counting. Buffy and Xander met the new comers head on, armed with a scythe and an axe respectively.

Giles and Dawn had now armed themselves and flanked Angel, while Willow began to throw fireballs at the attacking vamps. Three had already burst into flames at the witch's hand.

Connor was fighting hand to hand with several vampires, allowing himself to get swept up in the action. He found that if he thought too much about it, he would begin to lose confidence in his fighting abilities. When he gave into instinct, he found he reacted better and could anticipate his enemy's next move.

He knocked one vamp back with an impressive roundhouse kick, using the space that afforded him to reach into his pockets and draw out two stakes, one for each hand. Blocking a number of kicks and punches sent his way by the attacking vamps, he staked two at once. Several more vamps stepped up to take their place.

Angel decapitated two vamps with one swing, still keeping in front of Cordy. Already she was becoming frustrated with his efforts to protect her. Hadn't he trained her to fight? Hadn't she done this a whole bunch of times? Groaning in frustration, she side stepped her vamp in shinning armor and ducked an attacking vampire, circling the front desk to grab a sword she had spotted on a nearby desk.

Giles was fighting a vampire whom he was fairly certain was a champion fencer before he was turned. His skill was impressive, but Giles was pretty handy with a sword himself. He was beginning to get the upper hand in his fight, when he was hit across the back of the head by an unseen attacker.

Dazed, he looked up to see two vampires now bearing down on him. Before he could defend himself, one exploded into dust when Dawn staked him from behind. The second was taken out by a ball of fire that Willow had sent his direction.

Giles smiled at both girls, before getting to his feet to rejoin the fight.

Buffy was cutting through the attacking vamps with ease, her scythe feeling as natural as ever in her hands. But for ever vamp she slayed, another one came through the window. It seemed like Wolfram & Hart were throwing everything at them. They were good. But she was better.

Xander wasn't doing so badly himself. The weight of the axe felt reassuring in his hands, and he had already used it to bring down a couple of vamps. As ever, he had Buffy's back, and he wasn't about to let her down.

Angel spotted Cordy coming back out of the front office, armed.

'Cordy, lock yourself in the office 'til this is over!' he yelled to her, cutting down another opponent.

'Yeah, right,' she replied, staving an attack from a vamp of her own, before plunging her sword into his stomach. While he yelled in pain, she put a stake through his heart and watched him explode into dust. 'You think just because I've been cooling my heels up in heaven, I'm going to do the same down here? You got another thing coming, buster.'

Letting a grunt of frustration out of him, Angel went to work on two vamps that were between him and the feisty brunette. He made an easy job of them and had soon made his way to her side.

'I just got you back, Cordy,' he told her angrily. 'I don't want you getting hurt…'

Whatever else he was going to say was cut short by the sword that an attacking vampire had plunged through him. As he fell to his knees in pain, Cordy swung her own sword, cutting off the vamp's head. She looked down at Angel, her face panicked.

'Angel! Are you okay?'

'Just peachy,' he replied with a grimace, in pain but obviously not badly wounded, for a vampire anyway.

Rolling her eyes, she offered him her hand to help him back to his feet. 'I think we need to worry more about you getting hurt than me, at the moment. Pay a little more attention to the fight, and a little less to me for now. Okay?'

Angel's eyes went wide. 'Cordy! Look out!'

Cordelia turned to see four vampires lunging at her at once. Raising her sword to protect herself, she felt panic run through her.

Suddenly, she felt the familiar prickling sensation all over her body that usually accompanied her glowing demon powers. Her entire body took on an ethereal glow as light shone from every pore.

'Oh boy,' she muttered.

Faith sent the last of her opponents back to hell and looked around her group of fighters with a smile. Aside from a few cuts and bruises, they were in good shape.

'Good work…' she started to say, when the sound of fighting caught her ears. It sounded like it was coming both from the front of the building, as well as inside it. 'Damn. Kristy, Mandy, Steph, Beth and Jane. Back up the watch at the front of the hotel. The rest of you with me.'

The four remaining slayers standing at the front of the hotel were now backed into a corner, trying to protect Jessie who was unconscious at the foot of the hotel's steps. Ten vampires surrounded them; cockily believing that victory was soon at hand.

They hadn't counted on the five slayers who rounded the building towards them. Or the bus load of them that pulled up seconds later.

'Oh shit!' one vamp exclaimed, as at least thirty slayers, lead by Kennedy, ran towards them.

The glow from Cordelia filled the entire lobby with light. The Scoobies all looked on, squinting from the brightness, completely surprised and amazed.

When the glow faded, the four attacking vampires, along with another six vamps who were nearest to the part-demoness, were nothing but piles of dust.

'Woah,' she breathed.

Xander, rendered temporarily spellbound at the sight of Cordelia's power, didn't see the vamp's fist until it was too late. Next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the floor, trying to raise his axe to defend himself. Willow saved him the trouble, and another vamp met his end at her hand.

The remaining five vamps decided to cut their losses and made for the back door. They ran headlong into Faith and her three fellow slayers, who arrived in time to see the light-show. The retreating vampires were dust in the wind in a matter of seconds.

The assembling forces of good were gathered in the hotel's lobby. Around an hour had passed since the battle and people were finally starting to wind down. Willow and Kennedy sat, wrapped in each others arms, on the couch. Meanwhile, the minor injuries were being tended to by Dawn and, despite Angel's protests, Cordelia.

'Angel, stop fussing,' she had told him. 'I'm fine. And I have had a lot of practice at this. Remember?'

Considering the size of the battle, they had gotten off pretty cheap. Mostly it was just cuts, bruises and some minor flesh wounds. Jessie was the worst injured, with a broken arm and a concussion. After she had patched her up as best she could, Dawn had insisted that Giles take the girl to the hospital. Faith and two other slayers had gone with them, just in case.

Angel, Connor, Buffy and Xander now stood near Willow and Kennedy, discussing the arrival of the slayers, while Angel frequently glanced over at Cordy, half expecting her to have disappeared from one moment to the next.

Kennedy was explaining how her group had flown to Phoenix, Arizona, and had hired a bus from there. 'We were the first wave. I divided the rest of my girls into two teams of 15, going to either Dallas or Vegas to meet groups of slayers coming from Europe,' she told them. 'When I spoke to Andrew, he said he was sending girls to a bunch of different airports, to hopefully stay under the Senior Partners' radar.'

'That's smart,' Buffy remarked on Andrew's plan, unsuccessfully concealing her surprise.

'The rest of the girls from Europe are flying to San Francisco and San Diego,' Kennedy went on. 'Everyone should have arrived by tomorrow evening at the latest.'

'Then what?' Xander wanted to know. 'Do we have a plan yet?'

'Not as such,' Buffy told him. 'But we will… Right Angel?' she asked the brooding vampire, snapping his attention away from the brunette across the room and back to the discussion he was supposed to be part of.

'Sorry. What were we talking about?' Angel asked, looking around the group.

'Just go talk to her, Angel,' Buffy told him.

Angel pretended he didn't hear her. 'So we'll have around 180 slayers here by tomorrow night,' he said. 'And hopefully by dawn we'll have around another 50 on our team.'

'That guy Rondell?' Connor asked.

'Yeah,' Angel replied. 'He's none to fond of me, but he fights the good fight – most of the time. And he was a friend of Gunn's. He won't want Wolfram & Hart taking over this city anymore than we do. I think his team will come on board.' He thought for a moment. 'But I don't know if it's going to be enough.'

To Be Continued... In mere moments, in fact...