Chapter Fifteen

Buffy and Angel got back to the Slayer School looking slightly rumpled; Angel had been close to losing it when Buffy had kissed him, and he was still finding it hard to control his urges.

Giles: Ah, there you are. Angel, did you manage to find anything?

Angel: Just this book, has references to a great battle and the great warriors. I didn't really look, figured that was your job

Giles: Well, yes, I suppose. How about the Powers, did you find anything out from them?

Angel: No. I went to see Hurst but the Powers wouldn't see me. He said they'd told us as much as they were prepared to

Oz walked in at that point with Willow.

Angel: Oz

Oz: Hey, man

Angel: What're doing here?

Oz: Heard you might need some help

Angel: Good to see you again Oz

Oz: You too

Buffy led Willow out of the room.

Buffy: So how you doing?

Willow: I'm okay

Buffy: Must be tough, him being back

Willow: It's actually pretty nice

Buffy: Is there still sparkage?

Willow: I'm not sure, definitely maybe. But I'm not supposed, I mean, girls now

Buffy: Will, I've only ever seen you truly happy with two people, Oz and Tara. So I'm thinking, maybe you're made for both, if you get me

Willow: But would he even want me?

Buffy: This is Oz we're talking about here. He's a one girl werewolf, he'll always want you

Willow: Kinda like you and Angel

Buffy: (smiling) Yeah, exactly

Willow: But I'm not even sure it's what I want

Buffy: So try it. Kiss him

At that point Angel, Oz and Faith walked in. Angel stood behind Buffy and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her shoulder.

Faith: Don't you two ever stop?

At that moment Spike ran in carrying a scroll. An old scroll.

Spike: I found something! I found something!

Angel: Huh?

Spike: Heard a couple of the lawyers talking about the great battle and some scroll. I managed to convince them to hand this over

Buffy: Convince?

Spike: You know me

Giles: What's going on here?

Spike handed over the scroll and Giles' eyes widened.

Giles: This…this will be most helpful! Thank you Spike

Angel: (muttering) I'd have found it eventually

Only Buffy heard and she turned around, grinning playfully at him.

Buffy: Oh don't be such a baby

Angel pouted slightly and Buffy rolled her eyes. Men. So competitive.

Chapter Sixteen

Three Days Later…

Giles called an urgent meeting and as they all sat down at the table, Buffy could tell Giles was agitated.

Buffy: Giles, what's going on?

Giles: I've deciphered the scroll…

Faith: And?

Giles: And it's not good new I'm afraid

Spike: That's a surprise

Giles: This Great Battle that the Powers That Be told you about, Buffy…it's going to be here sooner than we had hoped

Buffy: How much sooner?

Giles: I'm not sure, exactly

Spike: That's helpful

Giles: Spike! (sighs) there's more. This battle won't just be the end of us, it'll be the end of everything. Mankind, the world, everything

Buffy: So your basic sucked into hell deal?

Giles: No. Worse. Hell will come on to earth. The old demons will return; and mankind will never again be where it was. The dimensions will mesh, causing every hell beast in every other world to flood our plains with evil. It'll be eternal torture and death. There'll be no recovering from this

Willow: Oh…

Buffy: But the powers, they said the Great Warriors could fight it

Giles: Yes, there are references in the scroll. But not enough. It doesn't exactly say what we have to do. There's a mention of the Circle of Aramanch, but barely nothing else

Angel: The Circle of Aramanch. I've heard of that

Giles: Yes, it's a Circle of Power. But I have no idea what will happen or what we'll have to do once the Circle is formed. I just hope when Xander gets back tomorrow he'll come back with better news…

They sat in silence for a while, then Dawn stood up.

Dawn: Come on guys. I know this is bad, but it's not like we have nothing. We can research the Circle of Aramanch. It must have been formed before, maybe we can get some clues from what happened then. And Xander's coming back tomorrow, like you said, maybe the Council will have more information

Giles: It's doubtful, seeing as most of their libraries were destroyed by the First's minions

Dawn: But we've got to try!

Buffy: Dawn's right. We can't just sit and brood. We have to do something. You said it's going to happen soon? Well we can't waste time sitting around

Angel: I can have another hunt around Wolfram and Hart. Question the employees again

Spike: We've already questioned them once

Angel: Lorne! I can ring Lorne. They can sing for him and he can tell whether they're telling the truth

Angel walked out to ring Lorne, followed by an excited Spike.

Spike: Then can we convince them to tell us?

Giles: Okay, I'll look more into the Circle of Aramanch. I still need to look through some of those books you brought, Oz

Willow: Well, me and Oz can help you with that, right?

Oz: Sure

Dawn: And me! I wanna be helpful

Faith: What about me and B? Want us to ruffle some feathers down at Marcus' again

Buffy: Sounds like a plan to me

Chapter Seventeen

When Xander arrived back, he did indeed have better news. Much better news.

Xander: The council told me that the Great Warriors were going to be tested

Buffy: Yeah we knew that, that's what the PTB told me

Xander: But did you know it's not just physical strength, it's mental strength too

Buffy: Huh?

Xander: They said something about a circle

Giles: The Circle of Aramanch?

Xander: Yeah, that's the one. They said the Great Warriors would form it and they would be shown things that would test their mentality and their will power. They couldn't say what it'd be, said they didn't know. But I asked the coven and they said it'd be personal

Buffy: So what about the physical strength stuff?

Xander: Well, they think the other Slayers can help out with that outside the circle, but you're all gonna have to do most of the work. They didn't know what the physical stuff involved but said it's linked to the mental test. I'm going with monsters

Giles: Thank you Xander, that's been most helpful. Now we just need to work out exactly when and where this is going to occur…

Then Angel walked in flanked by Lorne and Spike.

Spike: We can help you out with where it's going to happen

Angel: Where's the evil capital of LA?

Buffy: Wolfram and Hart!

Faith: No way…

Giles: How did you find this out?

Angel: Turns out when we defeated the Senior Partners they passed on some of their knowledge to the Associates

Lorne: One of them sung for me. Lovely singing voice. Deep, full emotion, hunger, passion…shame he's evil really…

Angel: Yeah, Spike had to use his methods on him…