Authors Note 1: Here's the next chapter. They'll keep coming from now on. I think that this is a relatively good chapter. Read/Review plz.. and thanks to all those who are already reading and reviewing, especially "Just me" I love your comments, and thanks to Queen Bodecia (sorry if I can't spell it), for reviewing a lot.

Darklight, don't worry, Faith isn't gonna let the Scoobies walk all over her, she's gonna have her own shit to deal with, and unless you're psychic or just take a random wild guess that's right, you can't have a clue what that is yet… the stuff that's gonna come up with her might make her leave the scoobies, or at least get forced out. She may not even be involved in The First's direct plan! Don't panic… but she aint teaming up with darla, cause, read the end of this chapter.

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Chapter 17

Congregations

They returned to the Hyperion Hotel four hours after their encounter with the vampires and Syophers near there. They weren't surprised to find that there was no one inside and that the place was abandoned. Out the front there were still SUV's tipped over on their side which the vampires had used as barricades during the onslaught. There were blocks everywhere, left from when the utility truck had crashed through the front wall. Oz and Michaela both noticed the figure lying on the floor at the same time, and they approached it. It was wearing dark hoods and they couldn't see who, or what it was.

"It can't be," Michaela said first.

"It's not," Oz replied. "Doesn't smell like them."

"So, it's not a Syopher," Michaela asked. The figure on the ground was the same size and wore the same robes that the Syophers wore, and what Oz only guessed that Michaela was thinking was that it was dead; that someone had killed a Syopher, but that isn't possible. He watched as Michaela bent down and removed the hood. Under it, it was revealed that it was only a person, and that they were obviously a witch. The girl had jet black hair, and her jet black eyes were staring out into nothingness.

"Hey. Oh, who's that?" Naomi asked from behind them. Naomi was short with shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes. She was perhaps the best fighter in the group, apart from Daniel and Oz when they were in their wolf forms. She and Brett were the only people in their group with no supernatural abilities. Oz and Daniel were both werewolves, and had both learned to control their transformations, while Nicola and Michaela were both witches, although Nicola wasn't a witch in the typical sense. She replied on her innate magickal ability as an extension of her senses, and didn't like to practice magick, unless when Michaela needed help. "Nasty." Brett added while he looked down at the girl. "What happened to her?"

"She let dark magick control her," Nicola spoke up. "It does that to a person. If they don't have the proper training in using their abilities, all kinds of things can go wrong."

"She served The First. Leave her," Naomi said, having no feelings to anyone who was under The First's persuasion. It had led her mother to commit suicide, but not before taking her father and brother with her.

"We don't know that," Michaela said to Naomi.

"From what Oz says, would you think these people would harbour someone like this," Naomi retorted back.

"She's right Michaela," Daniel added. "Leave her. She's not worth it. Let the authorities handle her." With that, they moved on and explored the rest of the Hyperion, in search of any signs of life, or any signs that the group had gotten out of the hotel before any harm could have come to them.

An hour later, they all returned to the Lobby, none of them having found anything that could have said that Angel's crew hadn't made it out of the building alive.

"We have to find them," Daniel said.

"And how are we going to do that exactly?" Brett asked, "This city's huge. Where are we going to start? Why do we even need to find them at all?"

"We came her to help. The vampire army is being raised here, we all agreed to come here and help. Here is where most of The First's plans are being laid out. It is here where we can do the most damage," Naomi said to him, frustrated.

"I know that. I'm with that, really I am. I agree. But we've done fine by ourselves so far. Why do we need to find some people we don't even know," Brett replied.

"Because we need the numbers. We're safer in a larger group, and Angel's one of the best damned fighters you have ever seen. We need to team up with them. Together, we can do far more damage than apart," Oz said.

"This is over. We've already gone through this time and time again. We aren't discussing this any more. We're here now, we've got to concentrate on the events happening around us," Michaela said. "Now, we have to look over here, it looks as if there's been a lot of damage done," she said while pointing towards the back entrance.

They came to the alleyway and at once Nicola stopped dead in her tracks.

"There's been a lot of energy expended here," she said while looking around the place. "A hell of a lot." Oz watched as she stood and looked around at everything for a few moments, seeing things that none of the others could, not even Michaela. She was amazing at reading signatures of anything that had been in the area, it came with her great innate magickal ability. "There were Syophers here," she suddenly said. "More than one… and, there was something else…," she said while closing her eyes. "It feels, different, somehow… it feels, the opposite," she said, hope easily detected in her voice. "It feels like… I can't explain it. It feels exactly the opposite. Like something extremely powerful," she described.

"What? Something worse than a Syopher?" Daniel asked.

"No… something better… something for our side," Nicola said in pure wonder. It was a revelation to all of them that there was something powerful on their side. That they weren't alone in this fight, and that there was hope. For the whole time that they had been fighting against The First's efforts, they had been doing it pretty much alone, occasionally with help from outsiders. They only heard about others fighting along side them, like Angel's crew. They had only heard that they were in the city, and that they were trying to slow down the rising number of vampires, even if they didn't know the full impact of their actions. They only heard stories of the Watchers Council's efforts to fight. They never saw it. There was never any evidence that they weren't in this alone; but now there was.

"What else can you sense Nicola?" Brett asked her. She closed her eyes again and let her senses and mind open wide.

"There were people here… They were scared… The Syophers were close to them… Something bad happened… someone was hurt… There was, something dark amongst them… something human, but not human… but it is on our side, I'm fairly sure… There's something else… Something distinctly new, but not new… a baby perhaps… There's something dark in the air," she said while opening her eyes. She looked around at everyone again, before she closed her eyes and opened her mind, stretching her senses and psychic ability to it's maximum. Everyone around her could sense her power, and if anyone was watching from a distance, they would be perplexed as to how naturally it came to Nicola. Her Psychic ability was great, a nice side effect of her magickal ability and years of using natural magicks. "There's something in the air… something very dark… A Syopher! The remainder of it's presence is floating around in the air, and dying!" Nicola said. She opened her eyes and looked at everyone. She saw fairly perplexed eyes looking back at her. Inside, she felt a hope that she had never felt since they had all entered this fight at least three quarters of a year ago, if not more than that. "Don't you get it! A Syopher was killed here! They can be destroyed!" She said in pure elation.

"Killed? Are you serious?" Naomi asked her.

"Yes! Killed. Destroyed. Vamoose. No more. Dead. All gone. Ripped apart. Gone!" Nicola exclaimed while almost jumping up and down. They all took a moment to revel in the news. For all of them, they had almost lost hope. They had been fighting a losing fight for a very long time, and it had taken it's toll on all of them. It wasn't until half an hour later when they finished celebrating and got their minds back on track.

"Okay. There were people here. Probably this guy that Oz speaks about's crew. You say one of them got hurt, right. So, where would they go to? A hospital. We've go looking in all the hospitals close by, and we should probably find them," Daniel said. They walked out of the alley way out to the vans which were parked on the opposite side of the street.

"We split up. Brett, Naomi, you two go east. We'll go west," Oz said. They moved off to their respective vans, but before anyone got into their vans, Brett came running back to Oz and everyone.

"Bad idea," he simply replied. Oz just looked at him funnily. "None of us know what this group of Angel's looks like. You're the only one who can identify them," Brett said.

"Oh. Okay, bad idea. We stick together then," Oz replied before Brett went back to his van and Oz got into his. They headed off west towards the coast while both Michaela and Naomi had the street directories out in their respective vans looking for the nearest hospital.

They had all been standing around in the hospital for a while now, and there was still no word. Gunn had sustained a serious injury, completely severing an artery where the Syopher's knife entered his shoulder, and he had sustained heavy blood loss. The doctors had been operating on him for at least an hour now, and the people waiting outside in the ward hadn't heard a word.

Finally, a doctor came out and approached the group. Wesley, Fred, and Connor got up and went to the doctor.

"What's taken so long?" Fred asked him. The doctor understood their frustration. "Is he alright?"

"He's fine. He sustained a major injury. The main artery that carries blood to his arm was severed, and we had to stop the blood flow before he lost too much blood. We don't have any blood left in our banks, the large number of blood loss victims we've had over the last few weeks has drained our supplies. He's fine now though, a little groggy. He will be free to leave within the next hour or so, but we recommend that he stays here the night, and that he does no major activity in the next few days. He needs his rest," the doctor replied.

"Can we see him?" Fred asked him.

"Ah, no. Not right now, sorry, he's sleeping and he needs. It would be best if you wait until he wakes up," the doctor replied. They agreed that they'd let Gunn rest before the went to see him, and half an hour later, they were still sitting in the waiting area, when Wesley spoke up.

"We have to leave here," Wesley said. He got looks from everyone in the room, even the potentials. "We can't stay in this city, it's too dangerous."

"What!?" Connor exclaimed. "Why? Why do you think that?"

"We can't stop it what's happening, not by ourselves. Think of it. There were at least fifty to seventy vampires out there tonight, and I have a feeling that there's more in Angelus's army…,"

"And those things… those, Syophers. We can't hurt them. Gunn buried his axe in it's back, and it pulled it out and smashed it against the wall," Fred added.

"We can't stay here. We'll just get killed. The vampire number is still growing. I suggest that we wait until Gunn heals enough for us to move him, and wait until Cordelia returns to us…" Wesley started.

"If she returns to us," Connor interrupted.

"I'm sure she will," Wesley said. "We wait until then, and then leave the city. We go and get reinforcements, and then return and make our stand."

"There's one problem. Where are we going to go? Where are these reinforcements going to come from?" Connor asked.

"Sunnydale. We'll go to Sunnydale. We'll get Buffy and her group on our side. With them, our strengths combined, we should prove a formidable foe," Wesley replied. "And, Anita here remembers something about Willow. Perhaps something will come of that," Wesley said, using the name that they had agreed to name the new girl that they were meant to keep safe. It had been decided that her name should be Anita because they all liked it and the girl took a good liking to it.

"This Buffy that you all have told me about. If she's so great, and if she's The Slayer, why isn't she here already? She's the Vampire Slayer. Here's the place with the most vampires in it. You'd think this would be the place she'd be," Connor argued.

"She has her own problems. They all do. Remember that Cordelia said that all the Potentials were going to her for protection. I'm sure that they've all got their own problems going on," Wesley replied.

"So what makes you think they'll drop everything and come here?" Connor fought back. He wanted to stay in the city and fight against Angelus and not let him get too much of an upper hand. If they left the city for only a few days, Angelus would have the city to himself, unopposed. No one would know what was going on, and no one would stand against him to stop it.

"We just have to hope that we can convince them that Los Angeles needs a cull in the vampire number, which I think should be relatively easy to do," Wesley said.

"I agree with Wesley, Connor. We need reinforcements," Fred said. Wesley looked to her, thankful for her agreement. "But," she said.

"But what?" Connor asked.

"I think we should consult Cordelia on this, when she returns to us. She has a better idea of what's going on that all of us, and she is still our link to The Powers, or whatever it is that's guiding us," Fred said.

"Yes, that seems reasonable," Wesley said.

"Okay, we'll wait for Cordelia," Connor said, finally giving up.

Across town, two female figures stood outside what seemed like a run down building, just looking across at it.

"Is that the place?" one of them asked.

"Yes, I think so. No other way to find out than to go inside," The other replied. They both walked across the street and entered the seemingly abandoned apartment block. The sight that greeted them put both of them in shock for a couple of seconds. In front of them was a large room, filled with bodies, which they could tell were all undead. On the other side of the room, standing on a raised platform was Angelus, looking straight at them.

"Look, it's Daddy," Druscilla said.

"Yes, Dru, it is," Darla replied before moving off towards the raised platform and Angelus.

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A/N 2: Pretty good eh? Now all I got to do is figure out who I'm gonna do the next chapter on, ie, this was about Oz's group and Angel's group, don't know if I'm gonna keep going here, switch back to Sunnydale, or do something all together different for the next one. Keep reading, things are starting to develop, and something that I've had in my head since the beginning of this story (By that I mean Post Grave) is gonna happen soon, and it should be good.