Author's Note: Sorry for the delay - had a touch of writer's block over this chapter.

I dragged it out WAY too long, but you'll finally find out where the confrontation between good and evil is going to take place (if you haven't already worked it out from the numeous clues I left). A face from the past will also make a welcome, if somewhat brief, return.

Many thanks to LuckyThirteen, angel-cordy, angelfan384, Meg, and CArules for their kind wordsabout the last chapter. Hope I continue to hold your interest.

Not much action this chapter, but don't worry - lots and lots to come. Til then, unlucky for some (but hopefully not in this instance) Chapter 13.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN : THE VISION QUEST

A bright light was shining directly onto her face and, despite the fact that her eyes were closed, it was blinding her. Slowly she raised a hand to shield her eyes, before blinking them open. Somehow, she found herself in the middle of a lush, green clearing, bathed in sunlight. Nearby she could hear the trickle of a stream and the wind whispering through the trees of the woods that surrounded her.

Sitting up and squinting around her, she tried to fathom just how she had gotten here. And where was here? It looked vaguely familiar, but then she supposed all clearings in wooded areas would look similar.

'Where the…?' she started, but she was interrupted by a voice behind her.

'Hey there, Princess.'

At the sound of his voice, her head spun around so fast that she almost gave herself whiplash.

'Doyle?' she asked, staring in wonder at the figure before her. 'Oh my god. What are you…? Oh, no… am I dead again?'

Doyle let out a throaty chuckle. 'What? Are you trying to out-do Angel's personal record?'

'Well, Buffy's is a more impressive record to beat, but… No, seriously Doyle. Am I…?'

'No darlin'. This is more like a 'vision quest'. You're very much alive,' he smiled.

'Good,' she replied, getting up and hitting him, hard, on the shoulder.

'Ouch! And kicking, by the looks of it,' Doyle groaned, massaging his throbbing shoulder. 'What gives with the violence?'

'Always start these things with 'don't worry, Cor, you're not dead'!' Cordelia rolled her eyes. 'Jeez! So, where the hell am I then?'

'Don't you recognize the place?'

Cordelia looked around, still nothing in particularly striking a cord with her. But there was something. A feeling, more than anything else. Then she looked up. And groaned. 'Oh no. Not here! I was hoping I was wrong about the vision.'

Doyle shrugged apologetically. ''Fraid not, Princess. This is where the showdown between the trinity of evil and the three souls of good is to take place.'

'Why here?'

'They have their stronghold here,' Doyle told her. 'A Temple. It's where they're planning to launch their final attack on earth from.'

'So we have to go straight into the lions den?' Cordy asked. 'Great… I need to get back and tell Angel.'

'You will, 'Delia,' Doyle told her. 'But first you need to get control over your powers. They're going to be vital to winning this war.'

Looking up at the two suns in the sky once more, Cordy let out a sign. Then a sudden though struck her. 'Do I still have diplomatic immunity here?' she asked the Irishman.

Doyle sighed. Same old Cor…

Faith had taken a group of Slayers on another recon mission. Buffy hoped that the Scourge's failure might slow down an attack by the rest of the demons, but somehow she doubted it. Now she sat feeling helpless, waiting for Giles to come up with an answer, while she silently mourned the deaths of ten girls she didn't know the names of.

Andrew sat nearby, wiping away the occasional tear. Half the girls had been in his charge. He had been their watcher. Now all he could do was pour over book after book, looking for an answer to a question he wasn't even clear on.

Lorne was still had the post-battle jitters. Deciding to fix himself a drink, he headed into the office where Giles was working. Thank the gods for small mercies, he though to himself, when he discovered a half-full bottle of vodka still hidden in a cupboard beneath the desk. He looked around for a glass to pour it into. To hell with Sea Breezes tonight. He'd settle for vodka neat.

'How you holding up?' Willow asked her friend, handing her a cup of strong coffee.

Buffy merely nodded and refocused her eyes back on Giles as he jotted a few more words down on paper.

'Anything yet?' she asked him.

'I think… yes, I think I've got most of it now,' Giles replied hesitantly. Buffy jumped to her feet and hurried to his side as Giles peered at the prophecy intently. 'Yes… 'The chosen souls of light must journey through… the swirling light?... that translation may be a little off… They must go to the origin… um, the source, perhaps…There in the unholy palace, to do battle with the Trinity of Evil beneath the dual suns.'

At his last words, Lorne's ears pricked up, his drink paused within inches of his mouth as he simple stared at the parchment in the Watcher's hand.

'Where is that?' Buffy asked. 'It still isn't giving us a location.'

'Yeah, Giles,' Xander remarked. 'Can we have the less vague version?'

'That's all it says,' Giles replied, deeply frustrated. 'With the exception of these random consonants I told you about. I simple can't translate them.'

Still shell-shocked, Lorne found his voice. 'That's cause they can't be translated, kids,' the demon told them. He knocked back his drink in one long pull. 'It's an incantation. To open a portal.'

'To where?' Giles asked.

'Home sweet hell,' Lorne replied sarcastically. 'A dimension called Pylea.'

Before he could say anymore, Faith re-entered the hotel. 'They seem to be holding for now. I've left a couple of girls to stand watch, so we get a heads up when they mobilize.' She looked around the serious faces huddled over the prophecy. 'What? You guys make some progress?'

'It would seem so,' Giles replied. 'However, we still have the problem of Cordelia.'

Angel hadn't moved from his vigil at Cordy's bedside, while Connor paced restlessly in the hallway.

As the minutes ticked by, Angel had become increasingly despondent. It was as though she wasn't in her body anymore, and the thought that her psyche was somewhere he couldn't reach terrified him more than any other thought that flooded his tortured mind.

He had lost her once, irretrievably, he believed at the time, but somehow he'd got her back. And now he knew he couldn't bear another parting. He had lost his way the day that Cordelia Chase had been taken from him. The only thing that stopped him going completely over the edge was the fact that he still had Fred, Gunn and Wesley for support. Now they were gone.

He was back on the path, with her at his side. But he knew, deep in his soul, if he lost her this time, he wouldn't be able to find the path again.

'Cordy,' he whispered to her. 'Don't you dare leave me again. I need you.'

Cordelia could have sworn she heard his voice. She looked behind her, then all around the clearing, but saw nothing. 'Angel?' she said, uncertain.

'Focus sweetheart,' Doyle urged her. 'You can't be thinking of the big guy right now.'

She looked at him sharply. 'Why not?'

'Your powers are all tied to your emotions,' he replied. 'If you start thinking about him, you'll be drawn back to him. And you haven't learned all you need to yet.'

'So, you're what? Some sort of swami now?' she asked sarcastically. 'Here to impart great wisdom?'

'Hey, I know you didn't consider me to be wise when I was still alive, but I'm tapped directly into the PTB now, darlin', so you'd do well to pay attention.' He grinned at her. 'Besides, I thought you'd be pleased to see me.'

Cordelia silently berated herself for the sharp tone she had directed at her friend. 'I'm sorry, Doyle. It's just… all of this,' she gestured her hand aimlessly around her. 'It's all a bit much to take in.'

'Well, take a deep breath, Princess, cuz there's a bit more to come,' he warned her. 'So here's the long and the short of it. Like I said, your new powers are tied directly to your emotions. If you panic, you overload yourself. Throw a circuit breaker.'

'That's how I ended up here.'

'Exactly,' Doyle agreed. 'You're packing a hell of a lotta power into that slender frame of yours, Cordelia, and you need to learn to control it. Fast.'

Cordy shot him a worried look. 'How?'

'Be in touch with your emotions, but don't let them overwhelm you. And don't panic. If you can stay calm and focused, you could well be the most powerful weapon us good guys have in this war.'

'Okay. Great. So no pressure or anything…' she remarked sarcastically.

'That's the first thing I had to tell you. Now for the second. Follow me.' Doyle began to walk towards the trees and Cordelia obediently followed.

'Doyle? Where are we going?'

'You'll see.'

'So this Pythian place?' Buffy asked. 'Where or what is it? Exactly?'

'Pylea, honey. If you're imagining beautiful Greek architecture, stop,' Lorne corrected her. 'It's a hell dimension. Bad clothes. Person hygiene not high on a list of priorities there. Horrible dancing. And, worst of all, no music. I'm talking literal Hell.'

'Well, as long as we don't spontaneously burst into song there, it's all good,' Xander quipped.

'I stumbled upon a portal and got the heck outta there eight years ago,' Lorne continued his explanation. 'Then, about three years back, Cordelia was sucked into a portal to my beloved dimension and we had to go rescue her there. That's how we found Fred…' he added sadly.

'Can you think of any reason why the prophecy is suggesting we go there to fight against Wolfram & Hart?' Giles asked him.

Lorne thought for a moment. 'Well, they have offices in just about every known dimension. And the Covenant of Trombli there seemed to have some kinda tie to Wolfram & Hart. Aside from those fun facts, I can't help you.'

A thought occurred to Giles. 'I think I noticed some entries in Wesley's journals pertaining to that dimension. They were dated from a few years ago, and I didn't think they were relevant at the time, so I skipped by them…' He hurried back to the desk and started flicking through the diaries.

The first thing Cordelia saw when they came to the end of the woods was a huge, Gothic structure, looming on the crest of a hill. It was like something straight out of Bram Stoker. The sky around it seemed to darken, as if the evil emanating from the building was polluting the very air. Cordelia shivered involuntarily.

'What the hell is that?' she asked Doyle. 'I don't remember that being here last time.'

'It was well hidden before,' Doyle explained. 'The senior partners have been biding their time. But now they're getting ready to make their move.'

'What about the people here?' Cordelia asked. 'Don't they know what's going on?'

'They're not really in the position to do much about it,' Doyle replied. 'Listen, 'Delia, time is short. The Partners have shipped a hell of a lot of demons into LA for this showdown. They're waiting here in their temple until California is under their control. This is the best time to attack them here. They're forces are down to maybe fifty demon guards and a dozen or so priests. It's you're only chance.'

'To do what?' Cordelia was wide-eyed with both amazement and fear. Sure she knew that it was prophesized that they were to face off against Wolfram & Hart. She just didn't expect it to be on the bad guy's turf. 'Except be afraid and die? I mean, these are the Senior Partners we're talking about.'

'There's a way, Princess,' Doyle assured her. 'Trust me. You'll find it. Just remember what I told you. Focus. Don't panic.'

'Easy for you to say. You're already dead.'

'This is all going down soon. They'll attack in the next 24 hours. Which means you'll already need to have launched your own attack here.'

Cordelia was rendered temporarily speechless. Less than 24 hours? How would they ever be ready in time?

'One last word of advice, Princess,' Doyle said. 'Those books of the Covenant. The one's with the animals on the covers?'

The memory triggered in Cordy's mind. 'The books with the Wolf, Ram and Hart on them?'

'You'll need to get your hands on those,' he told her. 'They're the key to their power.'

His voice had started to grow quieter, and Cordelia blinked several times thinking that her eye-sight was failing her. Doyle appeared to be fading from her sight. 'Doyle?' she asked, confused.

'Time's up, darlin',' he told her sadly. 'You need to get back now. I've told you all I can.'

'Doyle,' she said, tears choking her once more. 'Thank you.'

With that he was gone. And so was she.

She sat up with a gasp, startling Angel out of his misery induced stupor. He blinked in amazement.

'Cordy?' he asked, uncertain whether he was dreaming or awake.

Wordlessly she embraced him. If he wasn't a vampire and imbued with a certain amount of super strength, she probably would have cracked a few of his ribs in the ferocity of her hug.

Finally she pulled away and looked at his handsome face, stained with tears of relief.

'We need to talk to the others,' she told him seriously. 'We just ran out of time.'

To Be Continued...