Authors Note: Before reading this chapter, check out the title of it. You should get a general idea of the whole thing…. Also… I've started to do something in this chapter with my way of writing. When I refer to things that have been created in this story, that you need to remember, and if you don't, you should go back and read those bits… after one of these sections, I put in brackets and Italics, which chapter of which story I'm referring to, so then you can get the whole picture of things. Because from now, I'm gonna start calling up tiny little deliberate details which I have wrote, and if you don't get them, or don't remember them, the story won't be too good for you, so I'm gonna referenece them. Ie, Darla had shown her head a long time ago, before a couple of chapters ago, but I don' think anyone remembers that… so from now on, I'm gonna reference those things.

Also, again. The last section of this chapter sent chills up my spine as I imagined it in my head, and I don't know if I've written it down properly. It should send chills up your spine if I have… tell us what you think of it, plz.

Oh, yeah. Take notice of the Times in this and the next chapter. If you know what happens before and what happens after a certain event, it will be really good and would make the reading much better. Unfortunately, I can't do all these events in chronological order, and have to jump around with the time. So, take note of the times towards the end of this chapter, and the entire next chapter.

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Chapter 18

It Starts

Night time wasn't a good time to be outside in Sunnydale, and she knew that. That was why she carried a stake around with her everywhere she went. That, and her sister insisted so. She was just one block away from her house now, but she felt as if something was watching her, and she knew that in Sunnydale, that was probably a fact. Quickening her pace, she reached the footpath out the front of her house, and started to walk up to the front verandah. She thought she saw something out of the corner of her vision, and Dawn stopped and looked down the street, but she didn't see anything. She pulled the stake out of her jeans pocket and held it up in her hand as she scanned the nearby bushes and shadows for any signs of movement, but there was none. Dawn immediately rushed up to the front door of her house and tried to open it, but it was locked. She cursed under her breath, because Buffy knew that she was going over to Janice's house that night, and she had left the house and left the door locked. She pulled the nap sack off of her back and started looking around inside it for the front door key. She found her key ring with every key that she needed on it, and started going through them to find the front door key. When she had thought she had found it, she put it into the lock, and tried to turn it, but it didn't turn.

"Wrong key," she cursed under her breath. Dawn started going through the keys again, when she thought she heard a footstep behind her. She spun around, stake raised, but there was nothing there. She took a couple of steps forward and looked out onto the front lawn, to make sure that there was nothing there, and as far as she could tell, she was alone.

"Key, key, key," she heard from beside her. Dawn spun around to see someone on her front balcony bent over, facing away from her, obviously looking for something on the ground. "Where is my key," The familiar voice said. The figure stood up and turned around and faced Dawn. "Do you know where my key is little girl?" The image of Glory asked as she walked towards Dawn. Dawn couldn't believe it, Glory was back and standing right in front of her. Somewhere in her brain, it registered that Giles, Willow and Faith had said something about Ghosts, but the thought was only a passing thought as Dawn looked at the figure that was standing in front of her. "Do you think you can help me find it?" Glory said again.

"Wha-what-how?" was all that Dawn could stammer out. Glory turned away again, and kept looking on the floor for her missing key.

"Here, key-key-key. Here, key-key-key," Glory taunted. When she turned around again, she looked straight at Dawn and Glory's face lit up. "There it is!" she exclaimed while looking straight at Dawn. "I've found you at last… I'm going to come and get you little key." Glory said. "I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You."

Her eyes bolted open, and she found herself looking at the ceiling and the shadows that were cast on it.

"Only a dream," Dawn muttered to herself between gasps of air. She didn't notice that she was breathing hard or that she was sweating until she had been awake for at least a few minutes. "It was only a dream. No need to panic," Dawn said to herself again, as a matter of reassuring herself, but the last sentence that Glory had said wouldn't stop going over and over again through her mind.

"I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You."

She had just arrived in the city, and she was standing in the centre of the large abandoned warehouse. The sun was just coming up, and the sunlight streamed in through the large overhead windows. Apart from that source of light, there was no other. She had been instructed to come here, but why she didn't know. In the centre of the room was a large penticle engraved into the concrete with a candle at each point of the star. She knew that it was ritualistic, and she knew that she was the one that was to do something about it. She snorted at her blindness. She had been told to come here and she came without even arguing. For all she knew, she might be here to be killed. She certainly thought that the last time she had met up with those things. She remembered being in the ruined high school basement as the large dark things stabbed her, and one of them changed into one of those, vampires. Turokhan she remembered they were called. (reference to Chapter 9, War Cries).

Over the past couple of months, she had done things which she didn't even know the effects of, or what they really meant. She knew that she was being used, and the thing that scared her the most was that she didn't care. All she wanted was revenge, and she had the chance to get the ultimate revenge, or at least that was what was promised to her anyway. She remembered the reason why she had been convinced to leave Sunnydale, she could still hear her mother's voice going through her head.

"Leave here. She'll sense you now, you've got that much power. And then she'll come looking for you. Her and her friend, the Slayer. Leave here, and go to Los Angeles where you'll be needed," the ghostly voice of Catherine Madison said. Amy looked down at the penticle, and then looked up as the door to the warehouse opened and someone stepped through the doorway. They came directly for her. It stepped up to her, and Amy could see that it was a girl just like herself. She sensed a bit of power in her, but not much. She looked to what the girl was carrying. She was carrying a moping, and inside it was a small ball of blue-white energy that was no larger than half of Amy's fist.

"Step into the pentacle," the girl said to Amy. "This energy here is pure. All that is going to happen is that you are going to absorb a small amount of this energy. It will keep you from going insane from running too hot on magick for too long," the girl said. Amy nodded and stepped into the pentacle. She knew that it was happening. The power was getting to her head, and she rationalised that whatever was controlling her, actually did want her for something, and that her being sane was something it wanted from her. She looked to the girl, who put the moping into the pentacle with her, and then recited a few words. The ball of energy came out of the moping and Amy was fascinated as it split apart and tried to spread. She realised that this energy had consciousness. It knew what it was doing, and it knew what was happening; it was trying to escape. When it reached the borders of the pentacle, the air shimmered and flickered, stopping the energy in it's tracks. Amy felt the power in the air increasing, and she felt something enter her and take over her. Extraordinary was hardly the word that she could use to describe the feeling. She could feel the uncountable raw power of the energy that entered her, and almost at once, she felt at peace. All the anger and hatred soon ran out of her, and she felt like herself again. Then, she looked to the girl, who was now holding the moping in her arms again, the small blue-white energy ball inside. Amy had thought that all the energy would have entered her from the feelings she had just felt, but there wasn't even a visible change in size in the energy ball. She concluded that only a tiny, tiny fraction of this energy was needed to put her back to her rightful self. She looked to where the girl once was, but she was gone. Amy spun around to where the doorway to the warehouse was, but there was no sign of her. It was if she had just vanished into thin air. It was then that she realised that her skin had gone back to it's normal complexion; there were no veins raised to the surface; her skin wasn't pale any more. She grabbed a bunch of her hair, and pulled it into her vision. It was back to it's normal colour; auburn-red instead of black. She smiled to herself as she hadn't felt this good in a long time. Thinking about it now, she didn't know why she hated Willow so much, and she couldn't think of any reasons for revenge and any reasons on why she would need more power. She was almost perfectly contempt, except for a dark feeling in the pits of her stomach which was so tiny she could ignore it.

She didn't know any of these people. She didn't know what was happening to her. She didn't have a clue what they were all talking about. She could only remember scarce little bits of her life before any of this happened. She had only learnt to speak a couple of days ago. She took it for granted that these people were telling her the truth, they seemed like they wanted to help her, and apparently she was important to something. So important that they were all willing to risk their lives to protect her from it, and so important that vampires were willing to sacrifice their's to try to get to her. Confused wasn't the right word for how she had been feeling ever since she had awoken in the park. They had all had an argument hours ago about what to do now, whether to leave the city or to stay and fight against the vampires. She was all for leaving the city, but she doubted wether her opinion would be taken into consideration because she hardly had any idea on what was going on. To make matters worse, the only person who had spent any time with her, and had tried to treat her like a person had changed into a blue person made of energy, split up into little balls of energy and then disappeared. It was natural that Anita was feeling out of place, scared, and lost. She just hoped that her memory would come back to her, or that she would get a sense of belonging with this group of people. She knew that she had some purpose in the whole balance of things that were occurring, but she didn't know what it was. Anita was startled out of her thoughts by the sudden movement of people. Anita looked up to see that Cordelia was standing at the entrance to the waiting room. Everyone except the potentials rushed up to her and welcomed her back.

They had searched every hospital in the area, and even then they had gone further than they should have in search of Angel's crew. They hadn't found anything. They had checked at every hospital reception for anyone who Oz knew that was in Angel's group, or for Angel himself, but they had found nothing. In the smaller hospitals, they had even searched the hospital themselves, it not taking too long to do so with six people.

"Nicola. Can't you do something," Brett's voice said over the radio in the van. "Like, can't you do something to try and find them." Oz watched as Nicola picked up the microphone and spoke back into it, waiting to hear the answer.

"No, I can't do anything Brett. This is a city of millions. If I try to find them, I'll go insane, literally… plus, I don't know them. I have to know the person so I can find them psychically," she replied. Oz knew that they weren't going to find them. He shook himself awake as he almost fell asleep at the wheel. Right now, they didn't know what to do. Brett and Naomi in the van ahead were just driving around, and Oz, Nicola, Michaela and Daniel were just following them in the van behind them. Oz grabbed the radio and spoke to Naomi and Brett,

"Yo, Brett man. I vote we head to a motel and get some rest. I don't know about you, but I'm beat."

"Yeah, me too. I think we all are," Brett replied. "I think I saw a motel a while back. We'll circle around and go there." Oz followed Brett and in ten minutes of backtracking, they finally found a motel and pulled up, having given up hope of finding Angel or his group.

Half an hour later, everyone had dragged the chairs into a large circle in the middle of the waiting room, not having to worry about anyone overhearing them as they had been the only people in the room for the whole night.

"I agree with Wesley. We can't do this alone. Sunnydale seems to be our best option, even considering the drawbacks," Cordelia said to everyone. "But we have to make it look as if we aren't coming when we leave here, because then we'll have the element of surprise."

"Yeah. They won't suspect that we'll come back and they'll be unprepared," Fred said. There was a slight pause. "But what about Gunn?" Fred asked.

"We take him with us," Wesley said. "He should be fine in a couple of days… and we can get someone to do a healing spell on him, wether it be Anita, Cordelia here, or Willow when we get to Sunnydale."

"Don't they have their own problems in Sunnydale?" Connor asked. "I mean, isn't it the place where everything's meant to go down, all the time? That's what all you have told me about it. What would make them leave there to come here?"

"I have a way, but I'll explain it once we get there," Cordelia explained.

"So, we can come with you?" One of the potentials asked. "You're all going to Buffy Summers, right. We've gathered that much. Can we come with you?" she asked.

"Yes. It would be better for you if you came with us," Cordelia replied. They looked to the Potential Slayers which were with them, and who had saved them from the vampire attack only two nights ago. "You were going to have to go to her anyway," Cordelia explained. "You might as well come with us."

"W-when are we g-going to go?" Anita asked everyone, speaking for the first time in the discussion.

"As soon as Gunn is awake and can move," Wesley replied, but was cut off by Cordelia.

"No. Before we leave, there's something we have to do," Cordelia said while looking around to everyone. "When I attacked the Syopher. The First, it stole a part of me. It took a part of the energy that I'm created out of. We need to get that back," Cordelia said. "We have to get that back… if we don't, the results could be disastrous."

"Why. What could happen?" Fred and Connor asked simultaneously.

"The First can't use that energy, and neither can anyone else, but the energy can be used as a catalyst… to speed up and empower spells and various other things without being used up itself. We need to get it back before The First decides to use it to do anything," Cordelia said. "I know exactly where it, where I, or at least a part of me, is being held. I can guide you all there, and we should be able to retrieve the moping that it is held in."

"What happens if more of those, Syophers, turn up?" Fred asked.

"There are none around that area at the moment, and if they turn up, we leave, and then come back and try again when they've left," Cordelia replied. "And we have to go now," she said suddenly.

"What about Gunn?" Wesley asked.

"He'll be safe in here," Cordelia replied. "We have to go now," Cordelia pushed on everyone. Everyone got up, trusting that Cordelia's haste to recover the lost part of herself was indeed a top priority.

"What if it's a trap?" Connor said while everyone was getting up. Instantly everyone stopped and looked at him. He looked around at everyone else before he continued. "this, First thing. It want's this girl," he said while pointing to Anita. "What if this is a trap to lure us out and take her," he said. Everyone took in a sharp intake of breath, realising that it very well could be.

"It's not," Cordelia replied.

"How do we know that?" Connor asked, slightly raising his voice.

"Because it's not!" Cordelia replied, frustrated. These people were meant to be on her side, and they were fighting her at every step. "Things are happening, right now Connor, that you have no idea of, that you can't feel. We can't let it happen, and to do so, we need to attack! Right now, we don't have any time to lose. I thought we might have a couple of days, but we don't! We have to go right, now," Cordelia replied losing her patience. Visibly, she sighed and looked around at everyone again. "Look, I'm sorry about that. But we have to go. There's no time to explain what's going to happen if we don't move… can we just go please. Can't you just trust me on this," Cordelia said to all of them. They all looked at her, everyone, and then finally gave in and started to head out of the medical clinic to the waiting cars and weapons.

9:50 A.M. - Los Angeles - California

Not too far from the Medical Clinic that Gunn resided in, a group of five people stood in the centre of a large and abandoned warehouse. It was the same one that Amy Madison had visited earlier that day. The sun had now risen in the sky, and it wasn't so dark and full of shadows. If Amy had been here later when there was enough sunlight coming in through the windows overhead, she would have seen spell ingredients in one corner of the warehouse. Together, the group of people moved towards the spell ingredients. They all gathered up a candle and a candle holder and went and placed them on the five points of the pentacle. They all looked around at each other. They all looked into their black eyes, and into the veiny and pale faces and looked at the black hair of the others. They had all been led down the dark path of magickal practices, and unknowingly they had all been manipulated into this place by The First. It appeared to all of them simultaneously as a form that was special to them. For most of them, their story was relatively the same; they had someone special to them, and they had given up on everything they treasured in life and given up in using magick in the correct way, finding a way to escape their despair in the raw power that was within themselves. At the time they all didn't know that it was a self destructive path, and none of them could have guessed that they would be here, about to start a chain of events that would alter this reality forever.

The First, in a different guise to everyone who was inside the warehouse, stepped up carrying a glass canister with a small blue-white ball of energy inside it. It stood in the middle of the pentacle, and faced North. It raised the moping out in front of it, and let it go. It fell to the ground and smashed into little pieces, effectively releasing the ball of energy that was contained inside.

The image of The First began to shift and morph. It was splitting apart into two, and within three minutes, there were two figures standing in the middle of the pentacle. One was incorporeal and the other wasn't. One of the figure's images shifted, and it morphed into the image of a Syopher without it's cloaks and robes on. A tall lanky bald creature with fiery red eyes. (Reference to Chapter 6 – Old Ghosts, New Problems – War Cries). The people standing around the outside of the pentacle started chanting in unison now. The ball of blue-white energy spread around the pentacle, and was met with the same barrier that had contained it in Amy Madison's spell. One by one, energy started to leap from each of the witches on the outside of the pentacle, and it formed a ring of red, black and purple energy swirling around itself around the outside of the pentacle. Slowly, the skin of the Syopher began to fade and disappear, and standing in it's position was a figure of deep red energy mixed with black. The blue-white energy of Cordelia began to spread like a mist around the space that it was enclosed in, and when it came in contact with the red-black energy of the Syopher, the Syopher's energy spread. Only a few beings which resided on the face of the earth had been witness to the same amount of magickal power which was now in the warehouse. The energy of the Syopher continued to grow until it was pushing against the boundaries of the pentacle. The air around the pentacle was constantly shimmering and bolts of energy like lightning were being released along the surface of the barrier as it began to break. Inside of the swirling of red-black energy, stood The First in it's pure form. An image of a large demon with red eyes, orange skin and curled horns on it's head.

The red-black energy was doubling in intensity by the second. The figures standing around the outside of the pentacle were now long dead, no human being, being able to withstand that amount of power. The barrier of the pentacle was keeping the energy in one place and stopping it from spreading and dissipating. The energy was now at it's peak. The energy barrier around the pentacle burst. The energy that it was keeping back however, magickally imploded on itself, and with a loud crack that resonated throughout the whole city of Los Angeles, disappeared into a space that was smaller than the electron of an atom. A wave of invisible energy radiated outwards from the warehouse in Los Angeles and travelled over the whole globe.

10:00 A.M

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There we go…. Next chapter coming soon… Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End.

Oh, by the way… this story is FAR from closing up. I'd say that this is about half way through the story at this point right here, so for those of you who may be thinking that I'm starting to end it, I aint. There's gonna be a lot more stuff happening from here on out, and it's all gonna start tying in together.

Your reviews would be much apprecitated. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed already, and who keeps reviewing.

Aussie.