Title: Immortal Miracles

Author: Kristin Hulett Buffy and the Scooby Gang find out about the prophecy about Angel turning human, i.e. 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.

Part Eight

Xander is walking in the door of his basement to the ringing of the phone. He picks up at the tenth ring, idly thinking about needing an answering machine.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Xander? It's Giles. Have you encountered any dilemmas back there since the last time I phoned?"

"No. Where are you?"

"I'm at Cordelia's apartment. We spent all of last night researching. However, we had no success."

"Wait a minute! Cordelia was researching? Now that's something I don't remember happening a lot in high school."

"Actually, Angel and I did the majority of the research. Cordelia and Wesley fell asleep."

"Oh. OK. That's better."

"Back to the motive for my call. I am going to stay at Cordelia's for a bit. If any catastrophe occurs, call me there. The telephone number is 555- 3374."

Xander hears a click on the other end of the line. Giles had hung up. He hangs up the phone while thinking about the conversation. "Wait a minute! I'm supposed to call Cordelia if we have a problem?"

He decides to talk to Willow and see if he could get her to call if they had to.

Willow is packing up her bookbag and talking to Buffy at the same time. "Hey, sorry I couldn't talk to him yesterday. I didn't know where he was since he wasn't at his dorm room. I'll try again today after I bring these things I used for the spell back to Tara."

"You don't have to. He made it well known to me that he was cutting himself off completely from me. I don't want him to get angry at you."

"Don't worry. I can take care of myself. What are you going to do while I'm gone? All I have to say is don't destroy anything valuable. At least don't burn anything down." Willow is clearly teasing Buffy.

"Hey! Anyway, I wouldn't burn anything down. It would only make my life even worse than it is. I'm going to go train a little, get some anger out of my system, and then probably go tell Giles that the spell was positive and I really am immortal."

Willow gets alarmed when Buffy mentions going to Giles's. She tries to stop her best friend. "Wait! You can't go se Giles." She realizes that this tactic will not work, and tries to cover her tracks. "I mean, he's really busy. I'll let him know later, 'cause I'm supposed to see him." She quickly exits the room.

Buffy thinks, "There's something they're hiding. I'll go see Giles anyway." Then she stands up and starts getting ready to leave.

About fifteen minutes later, Willow is standing in front of the door to Riley's room. She knocks, because she can hear people talking inside. A couple seconds later, she hears someone come to the door.

Riley opens the door. When he sees who's there, his face gets hard. Willow, peering around him, can see that he was talking to Graham, who's standing inside the room.

"What are you doing here?"

"Huh? What? Oh, that's a nice way to greet someone who's at your door. I mean, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness or something."

"Well, I want to know what you're doing here."

"I'm here to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you. I told her so. So . . . GET OUT!"

Graham speaks up at this. "Hey, Rye? Get off her back and let her in so she can talk."

"Fine." Riley leaves the door open and walks further into the room.

"Thank you." Willow walks in the door. Riley plops down on his bed, looking angry.

"Well, I guess I'll start talking so you can continue sulking like a two-year-old." This comment was directed at Riley. "I told Buffy I would talk to you, even though she didn't want me to. She is really hurt that you completely cut yourself off from her. She values your friendship a lot, and you just threw it away."

"She didn't decide to tell me what was going on. Someone else had to tell me."

"Buffy didn't want to hurt you. She wanted to find a better way to let you know. And Spike is just sadistic. He revels in hurting other people."

"So?"

"I just think that you should let Buffy back in. She's depressed enough already. She needs you as a friend."

"Why would she be depressed? She gets to be with her 'soul mate,' and it's not me."

"Every time she thinks she can be with Angel, he's ripped away from her. You are the first relationship she's had where she can feel safe. Or, at least, 'could' feel safe. You proved her wrong by not even being willing to talk to her when a problem pops up."

This last statement seems to hit home with Riley. Willow notices this, and glances at Graham, who pretty much looks like he is serving as the referee in the conversation. Willow indicates that she's going to leave, and Graham nods to show that he understood. When she gets to the door, Willow throws one last statement back to Riley.

"Think about it." She leaves.

Buffy arrives at Giles's apartment. When she tries the doorknob, she discovers it is locked. She panics for a moment, thinking the worst, and then silently apologizes to Giles before proceeding to snap the lock. She enters the apartment, calling out Giles's name. When nobody answers, she starts looking for clues.

She checks his weapons chest first. Nothing seems to be missing from there. She turns in a slow circle, scanning the room, and sees the coffee table in front of the couch. Three days earlier, it was strewn with all the books they had used in researching the Council of Miracles. It is empty now.

She strides over to the bookshelf. After noticing that a lot of the books are gone from there too, she starts piecing the puzzle of the last few days together. When she realizes the solution, she gets momentarily angry at her friends.

"Damn! That's what Will was hiding!" Instantaneously, she decides to go and confront Giles. In LA.

Buffy packs up a few days worth of clothes in a bag. She throws some small weapons in the bag afterwards. On the way out the door, she grabs her leather jacket out of the back of the closet, and her wallet off the desk. She takes her keys and leaves.

A few minutes later, she is walking down the street toward the bus station. On the way there, she runs into Xander.

"Hey, Buff. Whatcha doin'?"

"Hey. I was going to go see my mom and warn her about what's up. I might sleep over there, and come back tomorrow."

Xander, being oblivious as usual, doesn't notice her jacket and the bag. "Oh, OK. I'll tell Will, so she won't worry."

"Bye!" Buffy keeps walking. Xander continues on his way, until a thought hits him.

"Wait a minute. That's not the way to her house." He realizes that there might be a problem, so he breaks into a run toward Stevenson Hall.

Meanwhile, Buffy has arrived at the station. She checks the schedule on the wall for the next bus, and heads for the ticket window.

She arrives at the window. "One ticket to LA, please."

The attendant gets a ticket. "That will be $4.50." Buffy gives him the money, gets her ticket, and goes to wait for the bus.

Xander arrives at the dorm. When he gets to room 214, he finds out the door is locked. He collapses against the door to wait.

A minute later, Willow gets back. She sees Xander sitting there, and is puzzled by the sight.

"Xand, what're you doing here?"

Xander looks up. When he sees Willow, he drearily replies, "Houston, we have a problem."

Willow gets worried. She unlocks the door, and they go in.