Chapter 3

A red Ford ute pulled up into Sunnydale early that morning, carrying two mòping and one very angry witch who had abused the power that she had and was now nothing resembling a person. She had heard of what had happened to Willow, and stupidly thought that it couldn't happen to her. After all, Willow was weak where Amy was strong. She thought that she could handle the power, but, she had thought wrong. Her constant misuse of magick had eaten away at her consciousness until there was nothing left, and once the power became too much for her, she let it control her, much like Willow had, except Amy hadn't come back. Granted, Amy knew that she wasn't as much of a threat that Willow was, not having the same amount of power, but that was going to change if she kept the two mòping carrying the two vampire's souls safe and intact. She didn't know what Rack was planning, but she knew that he had power beyond of what she could conceive, he had given her a taste of that power at least a week ago, and it was what she was still running on now. He had 'merged' with her, as he called it, only for a short time. Amy still wanted to know how Rack's spirit was still in this world though, he had not told her of that and she hadn't bothered to ask him about it.

Amy knew where she could keep the mòping safe in town. There she would have to wait until Rack came back to her, so he could tell her what was needed to be done.

He watched the construction crew with a new hunger that he hadn't experienced in what felt like centuries. His earlier feast didn't do much to quell it. In the sewers, below the city of LA, he could feel something inside of him pulling him towards the men, just telling him to drink the blood from their necks. The urge was overwhelming. He didn't mind being in the sewer tunnels of LA, it didn't bother him at all, it wasn't even on his mind. The only thing that was on his mind were the three construction men ahead of him.

He ran at them, and they saw him coming. He didn't mind, none of them would get away. Morphing into his full vampiric features, he grabbed the closest man and began to drink. He could sense the other men coming at him, but he just looked up, knowing that his vampiric features would hopefully scare them off, and they did. The men backed up and ran, leaving their partner to die.

Hot, warm, flowing blood flooded the vampire's mouth like a crimson tide. It ran down his throat, turning his insides warm, giving colour to his face.

A voice behind him startled him, and he dropped his prey, spinning around to see who was behind him.

"Bad puppy. We've got plans for you daddy, yes we do," an image of Druscilla said.

"Dru? What do you want? What are you doing here? How'd you find me?" the vampire asked in rapid fire.

"Everything's coming back together again. Mummy's back, again. Daddy's back to his old self again and soon everything will fall into it's nice little place," Druscilla said while walking closer to the vampire. The vampire went to grab Druscilla's hand, but he passed right through the image of her.

"What are you?" he asked it, looking it straight in the face.

"I'm the one that's going to make you and your's powerful beyond your wildest dreams," the image said, in perfect clarity.

"Me and Mine?" the vampire asked.

"Yes," the image of Druscilla said, while morphing into the form of Darla, and then Spike, and then Angelus. "Angelus. I will."

There was a long silence as Angelus looked at the image of himself. "Who do you think it was that arranged to have your soul taken away?" the image of Angelus said. "Who do you think got you out of that prison under the sea? I did… well, not me specifically, but some helpers," the image said while morphing into the image of Rack. "Yes. I have many, many allies," it said. The image of rack actually looked hurt. The image of Rack then morphed into the image of Jenny Calendar. Then into the image of one of the victims that Angel had killed, and that had shown itself in Sunnydale years ago.

"You're that thing that tried to kill me… Angel," Angelus said correcting himself. "The First."

"Yeah, that's me," the first said, now in the form of Doyle. "Took you long enough to figure it out. Must be getting slow in your old age," it said.

"Hate to interrupt or anything… but, what exactly is it you want?" Angelus said, getting impatient. "You can't do anything to hurt me, so, you must want something ?" he asked, irritated.

"Oh, I can do something to you, of course. That soul of yours… can have that back to you in no time. Then you'll care about the people you've killed," The First said.

"Asking again. What do you want from me?"

"Here's what you've got to do…."

Faith was walking along the streets of LA, not caring where she was going, her mind lost in thought. She had noticed that her hands were in her pockets of her jeans for the whole trip so far, and she had managed to run into a lot of people. Her walk was meant to clear her mind, but it had never happened. She was lost, not knowing what she could do except run. She had found herself walking down and empty street, the early morning air cool and crisp. As she walked down the street, she got the sense that something was there, something evil. The feeling grew and grew until she couldn't dismiss it any more. She looked around, but couldn't see anything, so she kept on walking, thinking that it might have been just her. She rounded the corner, the feeling lost on her now.

"Hey kid. You look concerned," a voice said. Faith spun around to see whistler standing behind her.

"You. What do you want?" Faith asked, almost snapping.

"I've got a suggestion," Whistler replied. "About what you can do about these Watcher types."

"Oh, what's that?" Faith asked.

"Take 'em down," Whistler replied. Faith instantly knew that this Whistler person was insane.

"Yea, and how am I meant to do that? I'm only a Slayer. One supernaturally pumped up person against a big powerful organisation. Yeah, I don't like my chances," Faith replied. "And another thing? What makes you think I'm just going to trust you. You might just be some ghost, fooling me around so you can go back to your buddies and laugh about what you got me doing," Faith said in rapid fire. It was obvious she had been thinking about it. There was a slight pause, and Faith could feel that she was probably wrong, and that whatever Whistler was going to say next would prove her so.

"I showed Angel," Whistler said.

"Showed Angel what?" Faith asked, curious now.

"Buffy," he replied simply. There was a slight pause as Faith looked at him. "Buffy was the reason Angel started to seek redemption. I was the one that cleaned him up from sewer trash into the man, or vampire, he is today," Whistler explained. Faith just looked at him, stunned. "Go ask him if you want."

"I can't, he's missing," Faith replied. Somehow, this didn't surprise Whistler at all. Faith walked down the street, Whistler beside her, invisible to everyone else.

"Think about it. If you can take down the council, that leaves room for another one. A new one," Whistler explained.

"Yeah? So?" Faith asked.

"Don't you get it? A new Council. One that treats the Slayer like a person, not a weapon. One that will help the Slayer live past twenty. One that won't come after the Slayer to get a new one," Whistler said. Faith just walked along, seeming like she hadn't heard a word Whistler had said. "You even listening to me?"

"How am I meant to do it? I can't take them all down," Faith said.

"Get your friends in Sunnydale to help," Whistler said.

"Um, y'know, they aren't my friends, and they wouldn't trust me again, ever, and I don't really want to be in Sunnydale, with them," Faith said.

"Yeah, I know all that, but who else is going to help you kiddo? Angel's friends? They're too busy trying to find Angel to give a damn about anything else… and besides, the most powerful of the Sunnydale group is in England already," Whistler said.

"What? Buffy's in Sunnydale?" Faith asked.

"No… the witch… Willow," Whistler said.

"Red's the most powerful? More powerful than Buffy? When did this happen?" Faith asked in rapid fire.

"Well kid, that's a long story. The short one is that Willow, or Red, abused magicks, her girlfriend got murdered, Willow went and killed her murderer, got juiced up on magick, almost destroyed the world until the kid went and stopped her," Whistler explained.

"The kid? You mean Buffy?" Faith asked.

"No, the funny one? What's his name…" Whistler said.

"Xander?" Faith speculated.

"Yeah. Xander… Well anyway, the witch and the watcher are over in England teaching her to use magick properly so it doesn't happen again. I think she's one of the most powerful Wiccans in the world now," Whistler said.

"Wow. And to think I missed it all," Faith said.

"They'd possibly help you. The Watcher might anyway, he hates the council almost as much as you do," Whistler said to Faith.

"Geeves? Never," Faith said. "Although they did fire him…" she trailed off. Faith turned to ask Whistler something that had been on her mind for a while now, but when she turned, he was gone.

Samantha and Montague hadn't cooperated, and Willow knew only one thing left to do. It would test all the new things she had learned in her dreams, and her newly found way of doing magick, and she hoped that things wouldn't go bad. She was standing with Cassia and Giles on either side of her, all their hands joined together. In front of them was the magickal barrier that kept them within the confines of the cabin and the little bit of the surrounding area.

Willow's imagination went back to the dream she had had a while ago. Standing in the middle of the clearing in the forest. She remembered the girl that had come to her, strangely familiar, but different at the same time. Instantly, Willow felt better. She knew that she could do this, and she knew that Giles and Cassia would help her through it if things went bad, again. She could feel everything around her, all the energy. She could feel the power of the barrier around them. She closed her eyes and concentrated. The energy of the barrier was incredibly powerful, but she was more powerful. She drew in energy from herself, Giles and Cassia, and then channelled it outwards towards the barrier. She visualised that energy swarming over the barrier, at every single point in it. She saw the energy form their own barrier inside the outer one, and then start to push against it. She felt the outer barrier start to crack, but then it healed itself. Willow realised that what they were doing now wouldn't be enough to break the barrier. She pushed all the energy that was inside her out into their barrier and could feel the other one breaking.

A loud crack was heard as the outer barrier fell, and Willow collapsed onto the ground. Giles and Cassia grabbed her by the arms. When she opened her eyes, she saw Clifford and James with crossbows pointing at them.

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Just got a good idea for the Faith Storyline that's gonna kick ass… keep tabs on that! About 1/2 way, things along there will be revealed……

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