Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. This basically slows the story right down as things are explained, by Cordelia, once again. The purpose of this chapter is to let everyone in Sunnydale in on what's going on, and let everyone reading this story into what's going on if it's not too clear yet (if what I want to be clear isn't too clear).

There's a bit at the end that's leading the way for something huge.

In my opinion, this chapter aint too good cause I tried to rush it and get it over and done with, but don't take that into consideration.

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Chapter 24

Story Time

She didn't know what was going on. These virtual strangers had shown up with someone who Willow had known she'd lost. The strange thing was though, apart from this girl, was that she did recognise Willow, but not in the way that Willow would have thought so. She had been standing by the door, and she saw a look of recognition cross the girl's face before Cordelia had said that they'd explain everything once they got inside. Willow had looked at the person seeming to be Tara, expecting something to be said to her, but the girl didn't say anything to her, just followed Cordelia inside and stuck to her like glue. It didn't escape Willow that she wasn't freaking out about a girl that looked exactly like Tara being in their presence, but that she was freaking out about the fact that the girl was basically ignoring her. No one that was in the house had said anything yet, and Willow knew that along with herself, Giles, Buffy, Xander and Dawn were in shock. Willow watched as the people who had been standing outside, near the cars, came into the house and then the lounge room, filling it to capacity. Willow watched as Cordelia and the girl who looked like Tara walked into the lounge room and Giles and Dawn got up and gave them their spots on the couch.

"Tara is that really you?" Willow asked from her position next to the doorway, not having moved since the whole thing started. Willow watched as the girl turned in her direction and looked at her, and then looked away again. Willow also noticed that Cordelia looked her way, and invited her to come closer. She willed herself forward, still obviously in shock.

"We'll explain everything once everyone gets settled," Cordelia said while looking at Willow, and then to Giles, and Buffy. Willow looked to Wesley as he stood behind Cordelia and Tara and watched as he surveyed the room, and that his eyes widened at seeing Faith present.

"I think explanations are in order from all sides," Giles said while taking off his glasses and a cloth out of his pocket. "But we'll let you go first." He added while looking at Cordelia.

"Can we get to the more urgent matters first," Willow heard from behind her. She turned around to see a rather spry girl with long brown hair standing behind her, whom she recognised as Fred from the time she had visited LA to give Angel the news about Buffy's death. Willow saw two people come through the doorway, one a male teenager, and another a female teenager, carrying someone between them. Willow could tell that he was hurt, and that he was hurt pretty badly. The two people lay him down on the floor.

"We were hoping that Willow could perform a healing spell on him," Wesley said. Willow just turned to him, wide eyed.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Wesley, but Willow's having some.. Uh, difficulties at the moment," Giles said to him, sticking up for him.

"I can do it," a voice popped up. Everyone turned to look at who had said it, and Willow realised that it was Cassia. "I'm not as powerful as Willow, but I can do it," she said. Willow just gave her a little smile before darting her gaze to the girl who looked like Tara. Everyone made room around the unconscious body as Cassia moved up to it and knelt down beside him.

"What happened to him," one of the potentials that were gathered near Faith asked.

"We had a run in with a Syopher. Gunn got hurt," Cordelia replied (Reference to Chapter 15 - Showdown). It didn't escape Willow that the attention of everyone from Oz's group was directed at Cordelia as soon as she had said the word Syopher. "But we'll get to that." Cordelia added. Willow turned back to Cassia, and watched as she extended her hands out over the wound that was in the man's shoulder.

"He's been in and out of consciousness the whole way here, he's lost a lot of blood," Fred said. A light yellow glow emanated out of Cassia's hands and Willow realised that Cassia was doing the exact same thing that she had done to Michaela. After about half a minute, Cassia opened her eyes and stood up, looking around at everyone.

"His wounds should heal very quickly now," she said. "He should be fine."

"Thankyou." Fred started while looking at Cassia.

"Cassia," Cassia said to her.

"Cassia," Fred added. Willow turned back to the group, who was now sitting around on the lounge chairs or standing up. The lounge room was filled with people now, and a thought suddenly struck Willow. Someone, probably her, was going to have to sit down with Cassia and explain to her who all these people were, well, all the people Willow knew anyway, because Cassia didn't know anyone here. She looked to Tara again, and Willow's brain both slowed down and quickened it's pace at once. One part of her was made calm, while another part of her tried to scramble for reasons why Tara was acting the way she was. So far, Willow's only logical reason was the theory that everyone had a double in the world; someone who looks almost exactly like them, and this was that person of Tara's. It wasn't very likely, but it was the only thing Willow could come up with at the moment.

"Explanations would be good now," Willow just spurted out, not realising she had said anything until everyone was looking at her. Willow saw Cordelia just nod her head.

"I'd recommend that everyone gets comfortable, because this may take a while," Cordelia said out loud. Willow saw that no one moved and she knew that Cordelia took that as her cue to start. There was a long pause as Willow saw that Cordelia was trying to find a place to start.

"It's obvious that some of you in this room know who this is," she said while placing her hand on Tara's shoulder. "That's a good thing, because, we don't." Cordelia said. "But I'll get to that in a little bit. I'm going to explain this so that everyone in this room who doesn't know me, or many of the people here, will understand what's going on," she said. Willow could now feel an electricity in the air, and she knew that what Cordelia was going to say was going to finally bring answers.

"For a couple of years, I was a seer for the Powers that Be. I received visions of people in distress and who needed help. I was aligned with a vampire called Angel, who has a soul, and who is trying to redeem himself. I was his link to the Powers that Be. For a couple of years, we helped the helpless, as I liked to say. But then, something happened. I ascended to a higher plane of existence. I became a higher being - a being between dimensions. I was allowed to look on, onto this plane to see what was happening," Cordelia started. She left a pause to make sure that this was sinking into everyone. "But, I came back. I am still a higher being.," Cordelia said. She looked around the room, seeing everyone take it in. "My purpose is to act as a guide to everyone in this room... and people who haven't entered this town yet - people who haven't entered this fight yet. I am here to guide you all into the final battles of the apocalypse. Now, I know you that live here in Sunnydale are thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, another one,". But I am not talking about the things you have faced before. This is the apocalypse. This is world wide, the pieces and players are scattered all over the world, and the final battle will be the equivalent of a World War, but for the metaphysical world. Already, plans set out by the other side are well under way." she paused, making sure that this sunk in to everyone and that the significance of it reached everyone. She saw that it had reached most people. "All of you here are major players in this whole series of events. And I come here to you now to explain. I also came back this plane of existence with another purpose, but I do not know much about it. My purpose was to protect this girl here," Cordelia said while looking to Anita, who was sitting beside her. "The night I returned, I was told that this girl would play a major part of the apocalypse, for either side, and that this girl was once dead, but she was brought back to life. Her body was reconstructed, and her soul was replanted into her body, but unfortunately, her memory was totally erased." Cordelia said, and she noticed something pass over many members of the Scooby Gang. "However, her soul contains her memories, and they will return over time. The only thing we know that she remembers is some spell casting, and Willow here," Cordelia said, and she watched a large smile come across Willow's face. She looked to Anita, who looked at Willow and then looked down to the ground. "We were very fortunate, as Fred, Gunn, Wesley and Connor here rescued Anita here in time before Angelus could get to her," Cordelia said. She was just about to continue before someone interrupted her.

"Wait! Angelus?" Buffy exclaimed. "What do you mean Angelus?!"

"Buffy. Angel lost his soul," Wesley said to her.

"What!?" Buffy exclaimed. Cordelia caught onto what was happening and quickly jumped in to explain.

"Angel got his soul ripped out by a magician working for The First Evil," Cordelia said. She saw that most people were looking at her with confused looks, and she resigned herself to start explaining. "The First Evil is the manifestation of the evil that is inside every living being. It is it's personification. It is not a living entity, but it is at the same time. It is very hard to explain, but basically it is taking steps to start this apocalypse. It is evil's version of the Powers that Be. It is evil's higher power. It can take the guise of dead people, but It is essentially incorporeal, meaning that it can not manipulate physical things," Cordelia said.

"The ghosts!" Xander said. "We've seen ghosts a lot recently," Xander said.

"That would most likely be The First," Cordelia said. There was a pause as Cordelia saw that everyone was taking this in, but she also noticed that Oz and the people standing around with him looked rather bored. She'd have to find out things about that later on, but for now, she decided that she should continue. "Now, where was I. oh, right. The First's main weapon is manipulation. It manipulates people into doing what it want's them to do. It takes the form of dead people, and it is them, right down to the very core. It knows everything about you, and about these people, and it will prey on that and your relationship with that person. The best way of showing how it manipulates people is to look at Faith here," Cordelia said while directing her hand towards Faith. "The First made Faith believe that the Watchers' Council wanted to kill her in order to get a Slayer that obeys it's orders, and The First set Faith against the Watchers Council, to take it down. The Council didn't actually want Faith dead, but Faith here thought so, and she broke out of jail and set out against the Council. The First was probably making her believe she was doing the right thing by going against them, am I right Faith?" Cordelia said. Faith just sat there, stunned.

"So you mean, all that was just this, Evil thing, manipulating me?" Faith asked.

"Yes," Cordelia replied. "What did the ghosts that came to you tell you, Faith?" Cordelia asked.

"They told me that the Council was corrupt, and that I could take them down and make a better Council, one that treated us Slayers better," Faith replied. "Man, I got played!" She exclaimed. "I hate it when that happens." Faith continued, muttering about something, but Cordelia decided that she needed to keep going.

"From where I left off." Cordelia said, getting everyone's attention back on her. "Angelus is The First's main weapon, at this point in time. The First is getting Angelus to gather vampires to him, to create an army of vampires," Cordelia said. "And so far, it's succeeding. He has at least two hundred and fifty under his rule," Cordelia explained.

"That's one of the reasons we came here. We need help with the number of vampires in Los Angeles," Wesley said.

"We kind of have our own problems," Buffy and Xander said in unison.

"Wesley," Cordelia said, showing her palm to him, hoping that he got the message not to bring it up now. "All over the world, assets of the Watchers Council have been attacked, and the main headquarters was taken out, which I believe, Faith, Giles and Willow were there for," Cordelia said.

"How did you know that?" Giles asked.

"I'm a higher being. I can use remote viewing," Cordelia replied. "Now, this is the tricky bit. The First's main weapon is manipulation, but most of the time, we can't discern the purpose, or reason for The First's manipulation. It manipulated Faith to attack the Headquarters of the Watchers Council, but then took out the main headquarters itself. there may be another reason for manipulating Faith the way it did. The First has an unlimited timeframe, so it's actions usually have other purposes," Cordelia said. Before anyone could say anything, Cordelia continued. "The most deadly of anything under The First's command are Syophers. Not much is known about them, but they are deadly. Their presence invokes a feeling of terror in everything around them, they are deadly in combat, and they are extremely hard to harm. They take the guise of large, dark, hooded figures, but they can take the form of dead people as well, but not for long. They are extremely powerful and if you see one, the best thing you can do is to run," Cordelia said. She saw realisation sweep through the Scooby Gang. "Now, The First's plans are already well under way. The army of vampires is already forming in Los Angeles, and an event took place just the other day which signifies something of great importance, although I don't know what. the barriers between dimensions were brought down, for only a second or so. This was performed as some of the witches under The First's control set up the ritual, and The First managed to steal some of my essence and combine it with that of a Syopher, under the right conditions and with the right ritual. This sent off a shock wave of magickal energy all over the globe, which greatly affected magick users and supernatural beings, which I'm sure most of you saw the effects of," Cordelia said, getting nods from a lot of people. "What The First could have done in those few seconds while the dimensional walls were down is anyone's guess, but it can't be good." Cordelia started, but someone spoke up.

"To open the Hellmouth," Buffy said. "The ritual opened the Hellmouth."

"A ritual of that significance and power wouldn't be used to open the Hellmouth," Cordelia said. "A much simpler ritual could be used for that. And the ritual took down the walls between dimensions, where the Hellmouth is just a weak point in those walls."

"And it wouldn't make sense to open the Hellmouth and then put a barrier across it," Willow added. Cordelia was confused at this and looked to Willow. "There's a barrier across it, preventing anything from coming out," Willow said. There was a long pause in the room, as no one said anything and most of the people considered this. "Maybe, opening the Hellmouth was only a side effect of the ritual," Willow said. "And the barrier is this thing's way of stopping the Hellmouth from being open," Willow said.

"Or a way of controlling what actually comes out of it," Cordelia said. She watched as the fact flew through Willow's brain and she considered the facts.

"What about the Turokhan. Do you know anything about those? Buffy and Faith had a rather nasty encounter with them," Giles asked.

"The Turokhan are here already?" Cordelia asked. "Things are going faster than I thought.. The Turokhan are going to be the main foot soldiers of The First's army, along with the vampires that Angelus recruits," Cordelia explained. "They are very old and powerful vampires, most of them are savage. They are deadly, but they can be dealt with," Cordelia said.

"Dealt with? Dealt with!? They kicked both my and Buffy's asses!" Faith exclaimed. "How are we meant to fight against them?" Cordelia just looked at Faith, before starting to explain everything.

"All around the world, Potential Slayers are coming to Sunnydale. They are the people who may become Slayers if you, you know." Cordelia said to Faith. "There aren't many left, The First has already killed a lot of them off, but they will be able to aid you. Also, around the world, people fighting against The First's efforts will help you out. All it will take to defeat the Turokhan is extremely disciplined training and pushing yourselves to your absolute limits. They die the same way as any other vampire, although stakes are a bit hard to kill them with as you will have to use extreme force," Cordelia said. There was a long silence all over the room as everyone took in everything Cordelia had said.

"Like it or not, all of us here are the foundations of the resistance towards The First's efforts. Here, we have everything we need - warriors, magick users, and knowledge. We are all key players in the events that are going to unfold, and unless we succeed, the human race will pay the price for it, because unlike all apocalypse before, this one doesn't result in the end of the world - just a demon paradise on earth, where humans are few and demons are many. We can not go back to LA, that is not where we are needed," Cordelia said to everyone, but spoke mostly to Angel's group. "If we were to return, we would just be wasting time and our lives. If everyone here in this room was to go to LA, we would not succeed in stopping the vampire army, as we are all ill prepared, we would only slow down the increase in numbers. We must gather numbers to our side before we are to worry about the threat from LA, but don't worry, others will come. There are already another five potential slayers that I can sense, right here in Sunnydale, but they haven't made their way here yet," Cordelia said.

Five minutes later, after Cordelia had finished explaining things to everyone and answering all the questions that anyone had, Oz decided that it was his turn to start to explain things. He stood up from his seat next to Michaela and looked around at everyone.

"To everyone who doesn't know me, I'm called Oz," he said. "And I'm a werewolf," he added.

"Man, this sounds too much like werewolves anonymous," he thought, referring to alcoholics anonymous, but for werewolves.

"I used to hang with Buffy and Willow and everyone here in Sunnydale, but, I left, because. I couldn't control the wolf inside me," Oz said, carefully skirting around the issue. "Not too long after I left, I met up with Daniel here, another werewolf," Oz said, and Daniel just raised his hand, showing who he was. "And we learnt to control our change. Not too long after, we met up with Michaela, Naomi, Brett, Nicola and Matt," Oz said, referring to someone who wasn't with them at the moment. "They all were in a group, already fighting against The First's efforts and didn't oppose some extra help," Oz explained. One night though, a witch, being manipulated by The First, killed Matt. Michaela and Nicola managed to put her to sleep, and we. questioned her, and we found out about The First and that it was starting to bring about the apocalypse. The short version of it is that for two years now, I have been fighting against the efforts of The First with the people with me here, travelling around the country. We went to LA, to team up with Angel's crew - but we couldn't find them. We went to the Hyperion Hotel, after a fight had taken place there, and Nicola, who is cool and good psychic, sensed that someone was hurt, and we looked in all the surrounding hospitals for you guys, but we couldn't find you," Oz said.

"We were in a medical clinic," Connor said.

"Oh, well, that explains it," Oz replied. There was a long pause as everyone looked to Oz. "We're here to help, however we can," Oz said.

Two hours later, all the discussion had subsided, everyone's questions that were able to be answered, answered. Stories were traded and events of what had happened to each of the groups had been told. Almost everyone had left the room to go out into the town, having agreed that it was safe by daylight, and that mostly everyone who had moved into the Summers' home over the last couple of days needed food and groceries. The only people left in the Summers' lounge room were Willow, Cordelia and Tara.

"Cordelia, can I see you for a minute," Buffy called out from the base of the stairs. Cordelia turned and looked to Buffy, and then got up and went to her.

"What is it?" Cordelia asked.

"It's nothing. I just think that they need some time alone," Buffy said in a soft voice to Cordelia, making sure Willow or Tara couldn't hear. Cordelia turned back to look at Willow and Tara, and she saw that Willow had gotten up off her seat and was now sitting across from Tara. Cordelia saw the weird way that Willow was looking at Anita, or Tara, as she had to correct herself, now knowing the real name for the girl and not having to use their made up name. She turned back to Buffy, about to say something, but Buffy beat her to it. "This is important, for both of them, even if Tara can't remember or doesn't know why," Buffy said. Cordelia turned back to the pair to see that Tara was looking down at the ground and Willow had ducked her head down, trying to catch Tara's eye.

"What? Is there something going on between those two?. Was there something going on between those two?" Cordelia asked as she looked at Willow. The thought had just come across her mind as she watched the way that Willow looked at Tara.

"Yeah," Buffy replied.

"Really?" Cordelia replied, surprise. "Since when was Willow gay?"

"Since the time she met Tara," Buffy replied. Cordelia could feel her eyebrows raise as Buffy said that. "That's the real reason Oz left, for the second time," Buffy added.

"What? You mean, Willow gave up Oz for Tara? She and Oz were pretty close," Cordelia said.

"Yeah. Her and Tara were closer," Buffy replied.

"Really?" Cordelia replied, surprised. There was a slight pause as Cordelia turned and looked at Willow, and Tara, in a new light.

"You know, Cordelia. You're still the same. Even though you're a higher being and all wise and knowledgable, you're still Cordelia," Buffy said before starting to walk into the kitchen, Cordelia getting the hint and following.

As Cordelia got up and left, Willow looked across to Tara. She saw the blonde girl looking at her, but saw her eyes divert to the ground as soon as Willow made eye contact. She decided to get up and move a bit closer to Tara, and she took the seat opposite her, so they were facing each other. Willow saw Tara look up for a brief second at her, and then down at the ground again. She wondered if what Cordelia had said was true, that this was really her Tara sitting in front of her, just with a bit of memory loss, that's all. Willow ducked her head down, trying to catch Tara's eye and let her know that it was alright. She thought that it must be awfully disorientating, being brought back from the dead then having no memory, and then being in a room full of people that she couldn't remember, talking about the end of the world.

"Hey," Willow said, it coming out a bit softer than she intended. "Hey, it's okay," she said to Tara again. She watched as Tara looked up at her, and then glanced down at the ground again, but then looked at her again. "How's it going?" Willow asked, not sure of what else to say. "How do you feel about all this?" There was a long pause as Tara looked at Willow, and then down at her hands, which were threading between each other.

"Confused. Like I don't know what's going on, but that I should know, you know," Tara answered slowly. There was another long pause as Willow saw that Tara wanted to continue. "It feels like everything around me is going so fast, and I can't keep up," Tara said.

"It's okay," Willow said. "I can help you," she added. "Anything you need to be brought up to speed on, just ask me. I can tell you about all these people and who they are," Willow said. Tara just nodded at her response as she looked at her hands. "I can tell you about you, who you were, before." Willow said, but didn't finish the sentence.

"Before I died, apparently, which I don't even remember," Tara said, finishing the sentence for her. Willow just reached over and squeezed her hand in an act of assurance. There was a long silence between them as Willow thought about what to say to Tara.

"What do you remember? What do you remember, about me?" Willow asked. She just had to know what Tara remembered, so then she knew her limits and what she had to work with. There was a very long, long silence from Tara, as she looked at her hands and threaded them together more. After a while, she finally spoke.

"The first thing I remembered was your name. And then, I remembered you, and then magick, and then us. together," Tara said. "And that's it. That's everything I remember." Willow just squeezed Tara's hand again.

"It's okay. I'll help you figure things out," Willow said to her, hoping that she'd get her memory back, but at the same time, hoping that she wouldn't.

He stood in the small room which had become his over the last couple of weeks. He knew that they needed to move to a new location soon, or get another place for them. Vampires were coming to the city, to his city, from all over the world to join the ranks of his army that was being formed. With it, he was going to move out into the world and make it his. The world would belong to their kind again, where they didn't have to worry about the Watchers Council, or the Slayers. Beside him stood his sire, and on the other side of him, stood his childe; Darla and Druscilla.

"So, about your offer. Who says I should take it?" Angelus asked them both.

"The voices in the earth," Druscilla replied to Angelus's question.

"Take it, or leave it Angelus. It's up to you. But I know that you'd be better off with their help, now don't you," Darla said. Angelus considered what they had said to him just moments earlier, before he made his decision.

"Yes, the resources of Wolfram and Hart would be very good for our cause. But those lawyers always have their own agenda. But, for now, I'm in," Angelus said to them.

"Oh goodie," Druscilla said while clapping her hands together. "Now our army's going to be a real army."

Ten minutes later, Angelus was standing in the same room, minus Darla and Druscilla. He was thinking of the proposal Wolfram and Hart had made to him and his army, and he had just the idea how to use their proposal against them. Even though they were evil, and he was evil now too, he still didn't like them. They only served themselves, no one else; they didn't serve him. He turned around to see an image of Buffy Summers standing in front of him.

"Angelus. I've got something I need you to do," The First said to him. Angelus just stepped closer, acknowledging The First's presence. "I need you to take out your most disciplined vampires into the city, and I need you to begin stockpiling blood," The First said to him. "Go as soon as it is dark. But." The First said, pausing on 'but' to emphasise the importance of whatever it was going to say. "I need you to do it in a way that will not alert anyone to the large numbers of vampires in this city." There was a long pause as Angelus looked at the image of Buffy Summers.

"Done."

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Okay, so there's more people in Sunnydale now, and they're not going back to LA, as of yet. Hrrm.. the drama's going to heat up (which a certain big bad bringing about the end of the world, may or may not choose to exploit), and, we're going to learn a lot about the characters that we don't know (Oz's group), soon, about who they are, their backgrounds, their history fighting The First. We MAY also learn a bit about some of the potentials, but I don't see any point in knowing anything about potentials that aren't important to the story line (give ya a hint on that one), and that are just potentials.

Don't worry though, things are going to really heat up real soon.

Next Chapter - Chapter 25 - Set in Motion