Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. Sorry about the wait. The next one should be up already or should be coming really soon. Things are heating up, again. And as for those who are worrying about Faith getting into her role, don't worry. It's coming really soon.

Chapter 25

Set In Motion

Domestic Terminal - Airport - New York City - 11:00 PM

They had landed in America four hours ago, and were now in the domestic terminal, awaiting their connecting flight from New York to Los Angeles, where they would make a brief stop over before continuing on to LA. Amanda hated wasting time like this, waiting for a plane trip. They only had a limited amount of time to accomplish their task, and every hour that they wasted made it harder and harder to reach their deadline. She thought about what they had set out to achieve, and she had her doubts about whether there was enough time left to do it. If there wasn't, they'd just be wasting lives, but if there was, they could ultimately change the balance of things on the face of the earth; or at least for the next generation of people. She looked around at the other people waiting at the same terminal as they were, and she saw the other five members of her group. Two of them, Michael and Jonathan, were splayed on top of their bags on the floor, trying to sleep as it had been a long flight from London. She saw Sandra, Derrick and Carmen sitting in the seats, holding plastic cups of coffee and they looked as tired as Amanda thought she looked. She looked down to her watch and saw that there was still another hour left until they'd be able to board the plane; which wasn't even at the terminal yet. Amanda slouched down in the seat and rested her head against the top of it and closed her eyes.

Amanda was looking on at a circle of figures gathered around a fire in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. She could hear soft whispers coming to her ears from the congregation, but she couldn't make out a word of it. Suddenly, the fire seemed to explode, and it burned with a new ferocity and rage that couldn't be natural. She and her crew approached the group of figures standing around the fire. They felt perfectly at home, and they knew that they were safe. Two people walked up to Amanda and her group from in the centre of the circle and presented them with a necklace with a small medallion attached. It was ovular in shape, and it had a green emerald at it's centre, circled by a golden woven pattern. Amanda looked at it, and then looked to Samantha.

"Nothing will be able to sense your presence once you use these. But, only put them on when the end has started, never before then," Samantha said. "And only put them around your neck." Amanda put her hand out and Samantha put one of the medallions into it. "You will know the right time," Samantha said again. Amanda just looked at Samantha and then down at her hand and the charm that was in it. She looked up at Samantha again, but she didn't see Samantha. She saw a young girl with dark hair and eyes standing before her. Before Amanda knew what was going on, a knife was coming straight towards her heart, and the knife was in the hand of the girl that was before her. The knife hit her chest hard, shocking her and jolting her as the blade entered through the gap between ribs.

Amanda jumped to her feet and knocked the person who was standing in front of her off theirs. She looked around to see bright fluorescent lights and people walking and talking about her. She looked down to her chest to see that there was no knife sticking out of it, and that there weren't any injuries on her.

"It was only a dream," she muttered. She looked down to the ground to see who she had knocked over, and she saw that it was Jonathan. He was fairly tall and lanky, and was much stronger than he looked. He had the same green eyes that they all did, but he had dark, dark brown hair. He was originally from Thailand, but his family had moved to Australia when he was three, and then to England when he was eighteen, so he had a very strange accent compared to the rest of them. Amanda extended her hand and helped him up to his feet.

"Geez, a little edgy are we? I was just trying to wake you," he said.

"Sorry. Bad dream, that's all… what's wrong?" Amanda said to him. Jonathan just looked at her, but then figured out that she wanted to know why he was trying to wake her.

"It's the last call for our flight," Jonathan replied.

"Oh," was all that Amanda said in reply. She looked around and saw that the rest of her team was assembled right outside the gate, all ready to board the plane. Amanda turned around and picked up her bag and walked over to the group. "It's time. Put on your necklaces," Amanda said to the group.

"Are you sure that's wise? We were told not to use them until the end," Sandra commented. Amanda looked at her and thought about what she said. She valued the opinions of all of these people, that's why they were all on her team.

"Yes, I'm sure," she said after a moment's consideration. "We're going to Sunnydale. We can't afford to let the witch, or The First, know that we're coming. We have to use the element of surprise if we're going to succeed," Amanda explained to them all. She reached into the front part of her bag and pulled out a small round green looking object. It was a necklace, with a woven gold pattern circling an oval shaped green emerald. She looked to see that everyone else was doing likewise. She put the necklace over her head, and immediately, the green emerald glowed, but the glow faded away after a moment. She put the necklace under her clothes and moved off towards the gate. She knew that their task wasn't going to be an easy one, they only had a limited time to get to Sunnydale and then get back to England, or they'd come in too late and it wouldn't be enough. That's why as Amanda sat on her seat in the plane, she was sorting through plans that could help them kidnap the Slayer, because she was sure that she wouldn't come willingly.

Four hours after their meeting in the lounge room, Buffy had decided to call everyone back to the room to discuss what they were going to do. She had spent almost the whole time trying to think of what they could do, now that they knew what was happening, and she had come up with a plan. She thought that it was a fairly good plan, but she was relying on some people she didn't even know to be able to pull it off. She looked around to everyone in the room, there was a good twenty or so of them now, and they were all looking to her.

"Okay, so here's the deal," Buffy started, getting everyone's attention. "I've spent a lot of the time since our last meeting thinking of what we can do about the whole situation. I don't know what to do about the big picture, but I do have an idea about what we can do about the Hellmouth," Buffy said. This immediately got everyone's attention, and Buffy noticed that Giles had a keen interest in this. "We need to close it, and we need to have a better look around that area. We have to find out where that other hole leads to, so, I propose that we go to the Hellmouth, today," Buffy said. She saw small looks of shock on various people's faces, but she had expected that. "If all of the witches that are here now go, do you think you'd all be able to find a way to close the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked.

"Uh, Buffy," Willow said, getting Buffy's attention. "I can't go anywhere near that thing. The last time I did, to rescue you, I kind of lost control," Willow said to her. Buffy looked at Willow and Buffy knew that she was scared of what would happen if she went near the Hellmouth again.

"Okay. All the other witches, do you think you'd all be able to figure out how to close it?" Buffy asked. She looked around to all the witches in the room who were all looking at each other uncertainly.

"Probably," Cassia said, speaking up. "If we had Cordelia's help, it would increase the chances greatly," Cassia said, while looking to Cordelia.

"Do you think you'd be able to help them out?" Buffy asked Cordelia. Cordelia looked around at the witches.

"I can probably do something to help them out," Cordelia replied. Buffy looked around to everyone. She hoped that this would work, they needed to close the Hellmouth before any more of the new, old vampires came out of it.

"Then it's set. The witches will go to the Hellmouth, and Faith and I will take the potential Slayers along as protection, just in case any of the Turokhan showed up… We'll need all the numbers we can get," Buffy said, explaining to everyone in the room. She looked to Faith, who she could tell was ready to go back to the Hellmouth. She wasn't sure about some of the Potential Slayers though, some of them looked scared, but Buffy hoped that they'd be able to put aside their fears in case anything happened. "Then gear up, we're going," Buffy said.

"What? Now?" Michaela exclaimed, looking at Buffy.

"Yes, now," Buffy replied before starting to move off.

"We're not ready, we've got to prepare," Michaela replied while getting to her feet.

"There's not enough time to prepare. Right now, more of those things could be coming out of the Hellmouth, or god knows what else. The longer that Hellmouth stays open, the worse things are going to get. If you want to sit around here and do nothing, fine then, don't come… but the rest of us are going," Buffy replied, obviously a little strained. Buffy looked to Michaela, who she didn't even know. It sunk into her head that the girl had arrived in the town only a day before hand, not even that. She took in a deep breath and calmed herself. She looked around to everyone else in the room, seeing looks of surprise and worry on those of her friends, especially Dawn. She took another breath and then spoke again. "Look. As far as I know, I'm in charge here. If anyone else wants to step up and take the reins, do it now," Buffy said, leaving a minute or so for anyone to do so. "I'm only doing what I think is best, and if anyone thinks that this is a bad idea, say so," Buffy said while looking around to everyone in the room. "Giles?" Buffy questioned, knowing that if anyone else had a better idea, it would be him.

"I think it's a reasonable course of action," Giles said.

"What if there's more than three of them?" Dawn spoke up. "I mean, more than three of the super vamps, and what if they turn up." Buffy understood what Dawn was implying, and she knew that they'd need more muscle if they did show up while they were at the Hellmouth.

"Okay, we'll take everyone who can handle themselves," Buffy stated to the group. "Be ready to leave in twenty minutes… and I want everyone to have weapons, the witches included," Buffy said while looking around at the group. She doubted that the vampires would turn up during the day time, but it didn't hurt to be too careful.

Five minutes after their meeting in the lounge room of the Summers' house, Oz was sitting in the back of one of their vans with Michaela, who was still enraged over what was going to happen.

"I can't believe her. She's so stupid. She's going to get them all killed, if not herself. We've been doing this longer than her," Michaela backbit. Oz could see where Michaela was coming from, but he didn't doubt Buffy's motives. "It's obviously a trap or it's going to be an ambush. The First never lets anything go without a cost," Michaela said. Oz knew that Michaela would calm down and that she would come to her senses. She always went on and on whenever she passionately disagreed with something.

"Michaela, hey," Oz said while reaching out and grabbing hold of her hand. "It'll be okay. Buffy knows what she's doing, even if it looks crazy at the time. It's what makes her a good Slayer. She'll be able to handle it, and she needs all the help she can get," Oz said to her. Michaela just looked down at him and then replied,

"I know. That's why I'm going with them."

Faith had made sure that she was the first one to grab some weapons, being able to get her choice at what she was most comfortable with. Once again, she had grabbed two daggers and she had put them inside the inner pockets of her denim jacket, and she had grabbed a short axe and a couple of stakes to go along with them. She was surprised when a rather gaunt teenage boy stepped up in front of her.

"Where are the weapons," he asked her.

"Heh. Get real pipsqueak, you're not coming along," Faith replied to the boy. She could tell that he really didn't like that, and that he didn't know who he was dealing with.

"I can handle myself," the boy replied to her. Faith thought that he was kidding around with her, but she realised that he was serious. It was then that she came up with a plan to tell if he could or not, and she really hoped that she was wrong about him. Faith turned around and walked a couple of paces away from the boy, trying to make him think that she was ignoring him. Then, she spun around, grabbed one of the daggers out of her hand and closed the distance between them. She faked a punch with her right, and swung the dagger with her left hand straight towards his head, and she was surprised when he blocked the blow and delivered and uppercut to her mid section. It wasn't hard, but she was surprised that that blow had got through. She stumbled back, away from the boy.

"You're good," Faith said. She watched as a smirk came across the boy's face. The smirk remained on his face for the same length that it took to form there, as Faith had swept his legs out from under him and sent him to the ground. She stood over him and looked down at the look of shock on his face. She extended her hand down to him, offering to help him up. He grabbed her hand and Faith lifted him to his feet. "The weapons are this way," Faith said while nodding with her head towards the basement. "What's your name kid?"

"Connor," the boy replied.

"I'm Faith, the Vampire Slayer," Faith replied.

"Yeah, so I've been told," Connor replied before heading towards the basement door.

Half an hour later, Buffy and Faith were at the front of a rather eclectic group of people standing just outside the former Sunnydale High School. There were the witches; Michaela, Nicola and Cassia. There was Cordelia. There was Connor. And there were eight potential Slayers with them; five that had come with the group from Los Angeles and three that had made contact with Buffy in Sunnydale. Buffy wrenched out the crossbow bolt from the wall of the High School that she had shot in there on their previous visit as a signal that they had entered the High School. Slowly, she stepped through the wrenched open doorway and into the ruins of the building. She could hear the people behind her follow her footsteps. They slowly made their way to the Library, which was on the other side of the school, making sure that they didn't hit the walls or any beams that had fallen from the ceiling, too hard in case they caused a cave in. The structure of the High School didn't look too stable in some places at all. They were just fifteen metres from the entrance to the Old Library when Buffy knew that she heard a noise.

"Shh. Stop," she turned around and said quietly. She could hear a faint humming noise, she couldn't tell if it was chanting or the sound of something whirring.

"You hear that B?" Faith said beside her. Buffy just nodded her head in response. She started to walk forward, being careful to be as silent as she was able to be. "Come on… quietly," Faith said behind her. She knew that the others would be coming behind her and she was especially glad for that. She reached the entrance to the Library and she could now make out the distinct sound of humming coming from within, and she knew that something was going down. She bent low and stuck her head around the corner, slowly and was met with a sight that she hadn't expected and that she had forgotten about. Standing around the Hellmouth were four vampires, just regular ordinary vampires. She could see one Turokhan circling them, and she could see the red cloaked figure standing off to one side of the room. Those things weren't the things that troubled her though. The things that troubled her was that she saw two large dark hooded figures in the room, and that they were looking straight at her.

"Shit. Seeophers," Buffy said.

___________

There's the next chapter. Ya get the little bit at the end? I think it's Kind of funny.

Next chapter that's coming up

Chapter 26 - A Mystery in the Heart of Danger

Heavily Recommended Reading: Prologue of War Cries. I really really really strongly suggest you go back and re-read this before continuing on with the next chapters. There's something in the Prologue that I KNOW you've forgotten about, and the story aint gonna make sense unless you go back and re-read that section of the story. Pay particular attention to Rhon the Vampire.