Title: Immortal Miracles

Author: Kristin Hulett Warning: Probably none, unless some of you haven't seen Buffy season 4 and Angel season 1, since the story is set shortly after those two seasons.

Summary: Buffy and the Scooby Gang find out about the prophecy about Angel turning human (the Shanshu prophecy). Then they get some strange dreams and prophecies of their own.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters on Buffy and Angel. I am only a lowly fan who liked the Angel/Buffy relationship and has my own ideas about the prophecy Wesley found. The only characters that are possibly mine are the members of the Council of Miracles (and Megan, in the epilogue). Meaning, don't sue me because what would you expect to get out of a 23-year-old without a job, driver's license, or anything that could possibly mean my family's rich. All you would get would be a lot of junk and a possibly psycho golden retriever.

Author's note: Any dialogue that is between and is either thoughts, dreams or something that happened before the action in the story.

Part Five

The next morning, Giles calls Willow and Xander. He calls a meeting, but warns them not to tell Buffy about it. The teens think the demand is suspicious, but it's Giles, and they trust him and know he has a reason for the request.

Willow is the last one to arrive. "Hey. What's this about? Do you know how hard it is to keep a secret from a Slayer?"

Xander suddenly turns to look at Willow. In all the years he has known her, she ahs never seemed this forceful or bold. He decides to ask her what's up later, after the meeting.

Giles speaks, "I didn't get any information from Wesley when I called him on the phone. Someone needs to go and ask him in person."

Willow speaks up again. "Why does someone have to ask Wesley? Can't we just do extra research and find the stuff ourselves?"

"Why are you so insistent on us doing this ourselves? I would think that you would want as many people as possible finding a reason for these recent events. You were always so tenacious in your search for ways fro Buffy before. What is stopping you now?" Giles seems genuinely confused at Willow's apparent change of heart.

"I just think that we might hurt Buffy more if we go and let everyone in LA know about what's going on. Who's to say Angel won't come back here again thinking he could help Buffy, when all that will happen is that she'll be even more hurt when he leaves again? I don't think we should put her through that pain again, and anyway, if anything is going to happen, if the prophecies are true, I think that it would be better I few just let whatever will happen, happen then, not now."

Xander is now positive that something's wrong with his best friend. He has never seen her this worked up before and he starts getting worried that she knows something and is not telling anyone, and that pressure is making her insane. Then, in one of his rare moments of enlightenment, he thinks, "Wait a minute. What if Buffy still loves Angel? I mean, I never really liked the guy, but I never saw something make someone as happy as Buffy when she was with Angel. That would explain Willow out too. If she knows this, maybe she really doesn't want to hurt Buffy by shattering her dream."

Giles interrupts Xander's train of thought. "Willow, I appreciate your concern for your friend, but have you ever thought that they might already know? Angel certainly seemed to have a sixth sense in regards to Buffy before now. I don't think he would be completely ignorant now."

Willow concedes sullenly. "OK. Maybe you do have a point there. But I'm not going to be happy if a disaster happens."

At this, Xander seems to realize that plans for LA are back on. "Wait a minute. I'm not going to LA. I really don't wanna see Queen C and I think the feeling's mutual."

Willow adds, "I didn't want to do this anyway, and someone needs to keep Buffy here. I mean, distract her or something so she doesn't suspect, and I really don't think Xander should be trusted with that. I'm sorry, Xand, but I mean it. And I've been talking about some new spells with Tara which I really would like to try out, so I can't go either."

"OK. I will go then. I'll need to leave at once, so try not to tell Buffy where I'm going and I'll try to be back in a day or so," Giles responds, "And try and think of a reasonable facsimile of an excuse. Don't say anything stupid. Actually, you may be right there, Willow; you should probably be in charge."

Giles indicates that he needs to pack, so the two teens leave.

Once they are free of the door, and out of earshot, Xander speaks up. "OK, Will. What's up with you? Something's wrong."

Willow starts getting the deer-in-headlights look. "What? No, nothing's wrong. Why would anything be wrong?" Then, she realizes Xander is giving her a look, and a second later, she realizes she is babbling. "OK. I guess I can't fool you. You've known me for too long. I talked to Buffy last night after she got back from her date with Riley." At this, she stops talking, like she realizes that she is possibly telling secrets.

Xander slowly says, "About?"

Willow snaps back into paying attention. "Huh? Oh, I asked her if she had told Riley about her dream, that's all."

Xander knows she is still holding out on him, but he also knows that he can't force her to tell him something she doesn't want to. But, of course, he speaks before he thinks. "OK. Wait a minute. If that's all you talked about, why were you so bothered by Giles's announcement?"

Willow just answers the question with a look that Xander knew was coming. She walks off in the direction of the dorm buildings.

Xander is mentally beating himself up. He is walking down the main street of Sunnydale, muttering to himself, so he doesn't notice Anya coming down the sidewalk heading in the other direction.

"Oh! Xander, her you are! I was going to Giles's because when I went to your house, your mother said that you had gone there and I wanted to talk to you."

Xander keeps walking for a few steps.

"XANDER!"

At the sound of his name, Xander stops, and slowly turns around. "Oh, hi. I didn't see you there. What's up?"

"Xander. If you had listened to me, you would know already. I said I need to talk to you. Is something going on? I haven't seen you in a few days, and I thought maybe you'd found someone else to have sex with, and then I got worried, so I decided to confront you at your basement, but you weren't there, so I had to walk all over looking for you. OK, actually I knew where you were supposed to be because your mother said you were at Giles's. And I've already said this once before so just answer my question, why are you ignoring me?"

"OK, calm down, Anya. Number one, if I was ignoring you, why would I be talking to you now? And number two, not talking in a few days does not mean I've already found someone new. Besides, where would I find someone?"

Anya starts to pout. "I don't know. At your job? Maybe other people like watching you dig and stuff."

"OK. I do not 'dig and stuff.' And even if people did watch me, what am I supposed to do, say 'Hey. Let's go back to my parents' basement and get funky?' Living with your parents is not generally a turn-on."

"Fine. But I like going to your parents' basement."

"OK. This is getting a little scary even for me, but let's go."

They continue walking towards Xander's basement apartment.

Meanwhile, during this little interlude, Willow has returned to the dorm room. She opens the door to see Buffy doing a little shadow-boxing. She enters carefully, trying not to startle Buffy and end up getting hit. But when the door shuts, Buffy spins to attack and then realizes it's Willow and stops her punch.

"Hey, Will. Where ya been?"

Willow does some quick thinking. "I, um, got a call from Tara. She found a new spell book and wanted me to look at it."

"Oh. OK. Just, with all the weird monsters and things that always attack us, I was hoping you didn't get kidnapped."

"It's morning. Most of the time, the evil attacks at night. You know, kinda like they think it'll make it easier to surprise us."

"Hey, you never know. Anything could happen."

Willow goes to her bed. She picks up her Latin textbook. "OK. I've got class in a few minutes, which I have to get to now. I promise I'll be careful not to get attacked by any day demons."

Buffy realizes that Willow is humoring her, but blows it off as stress. "Hey, I'm probably gonna train for a while, but I'll meet you for lunch. 'K?"

"Yeah. Sure. I'll see you between 12:00 and 1:00. I might be a little late, because I'm not sure when my class ends, but I'll se you at the caf." At these words, Willow goes to the door and leaves.

Once the door shuts, she leans against the wall for a second. "Whew! This is gonna be tough, hiding this from Buffy."