Author's Note: Here's the Next Chatper, enjoy and don't forget to leave plenty of reviews.

Chapter 33

Bringin in Black Hooded Figures

Sunnydale California – A remote part of town

Amanda and what remained of her team were getting ready to leave and head home to the Coven. The team now consisted of three people after the attack on the Slayers. They hadn't been able to save Sandra from her injuries, which said a lot. All of them had a healing rate three times better than that of a regular human being, and when needed, they could share each other's life force and increase that even further (Reference, War Cries - Chapter 29 – Steps Towards Evolution). They still had Sandra's body, but the other two bodies of her team mates were in the Sunnydale Morgue, and Amanda planned to retrieve them on their way out of town. It couldn't be difficult; they were facing minimal security, if any at all. The only thing that she was worried about was the fact that the remaining Slayer and her friends would be out looking for her team for the killing of Faith. They couldn't afford to run into them, especially with the witch Willow in their ranks. Amanda knew all about Willow through the Coven, and she knew of her power. They couldn't afford to come up against that with their dwindled numbers.

Once Amanda saw that the rest of her team was ready, they got into the van that they had commandeered and set of for the Sunnydale Morgue on the other side of town.

Sunnydale California – Middle of Town

According to Buffy Summers, things couldn't get any worse. They were in the centre of a circle of black hooded figures without any eyes which out numbered them at least six or seven to one. In front of them, was The First in the guise of her younger sister. She didn't want to think about what had happened to allow The First to take the image of Dawn, but one part of her mind did, and another part of her mind argued against it, saying that technically, Dawn wasn't naturally 'alive', but was created, and that there must be a loophole in that somewhere.

"As the leader of your small group Buffy, I've got to say you're doing a real good job," The First said to both Buffy and Faith. "I mean, look at all the dead people you've got," The First said while morphing into the guise of Fred. It then morphed into the image of Tara, and then into the image of Buffy, before moving into the image of Faith. "Gee, this is a new one, haven't tried this one on yet," the image of Faith said.

"What are you going to do? Make us die of old age by talking us to death?" Faith said while stepping forward.

"If you want to get it on, that's fine by me," The First said before disappearing. At once, the black hooded figures advanced on Buffy and Faith, and the pair readied themselves for one hell of a fight to get out of the confrontation alive.

Summers Residence – Sunnydale – California

Willow sat there in shock as Tara told them of the confrontation she had had with the Syophers while they were all apparently frozen. She looked from Tara to the other faces situated in the living room and could see the same look on everyone's face that she suspected was on her own. Finally, Wesley was the first one to speak.

"Well, I've got to say, that is an advantage, having someone other than Cordelia who can come up against a Syopher," Wesley said.

"And yeah, her memories being back is also a good thing," Xander added in, receiving a smile from Tara.

"They're not all back. Sometimes a memory comes, and then goes. It's like they're not all there at once, but that they come and go," Tara said. Everyone digested the fact.

"Well, that's a good thing. I suspect that all your memories returning at once would somewhat overload your mind," Giles said. They were all interrupted as the sound of a car taking the corner too fast and travelling at high speed down the street. They all dismissed it, until another one came, and then another one came. It was Xander who went to the door to look outside. He walked outside, and a minute later, he came back in.

"Everyone's packing up and leaving," Xander said. Willow just looked at him, trying to figure out if she heard him right. "Everyone in the street's packing up their cars and leaving." For a while, no one said anything.

"They're scared," Naomi said out loud. "I can sense it. They don't know what to be scared of, but they're scared and know that they should leave."

"Pity we can't do the same," one of the three Potential Slayers said.

"We have to stay and fight, or else no one else will," Wesley replied. Everyone kept on bantering, but Willow didn't pay any attention. A plan was formulating in her mind.

"This is a good thing," Willow said out loud when she was sure of what she was going to say. Almost at once, everyone turned and looked to her. "I mean, with everyone gone, we can use more things. We can walk through the streets with weapons. There's too many of us here in this one house, so, some of us can move into the house next door, and some can move into the house behind here. Give us a little bit more room," Willow started.

"And make it more difficult to eliminate us all at once," Wesley added.

"Yeah, there's that too," Willow said weakly. There was a moment of silence before she continued, "I was also thinking, that once we're set up, me, Tara and Naomi can set up some magickal defences, like barriers or something for the houses we're all in."

"If we all occupy houses joined to this one, one barrier encompassing all the houses would be quite sufficient," Giles added.

"And we can knock down the fences, and make them all joined together," Xander added. Just then, Willow heard people screaming from outside in the street, and Brett was the first one to go to the door to investigate.

"There's these black hooded dudes attacking everyone in the street," Brett said once he had come back.

"Everyone grab some weapons," Giles said.

Apartment 512 – Los Angeles Residential Apartments – Los Angeles – California

He was almost packed up and ready to go. Upon receiving the intel that his team had gathered on the underground movement of vampires, one he believed to be the beginnings of an army, Command had ordered his team to move out and report to the coordinates that they had been given. Riley Finn was to pull his team out of the immediate area and go to a temporary base that O Ops had set up on the outskirts of LA. They were recalling everyone on assignment and concentrating their resources on LA. Since then, the sun had never come up in LA, and now, from looking down to the streets below, he could see that things were out of control as black hooded figures roamed the streets. He could hear the screams of people who were butchered by these things. He wished he could do something to help, but at the moment he couldn't. He'd die if he tried to help those people. He suspected that the black hooded figures had appeared across the city, and not just in the local area. He had no way of knowing as the TV stations were all dead, and there was no one he could phone. Riley was dressed in full combat gear, as he doubted that he'd be able to make it to the temporary base alive. His entire team was split up, having taken accommodation at least two kilometres away from each other in order to avoid detection when they had come to the city. At the time, he couldn't have known that it would become a disadvantage. He put the pack on his back, grabbed his assault rifle, and also grabbed his sword that he carried with himself. The Sword wasn't standard issue O Ops Weaponry, but he had learned in Sunnydale that in the Occult world, sometimes a sword was far more useful than a rifle.

Just as he had attached the sword to himself, the building was plunged into darkness as the power to the building was cut. He turned on the spotlight on his rifle and readied it. He left the apartment and headed for his SUV on the ground floor. He had made it to the second floor before he started to encounter the black hooded figures. Three of them had burst around a corner and he had back pedalled while firing at them. He was relieved to know that a bullet killed these things. Just as he was ready to move out, a door slowly opened and a head popped out. The barrel of Riley's gun was already aimed at the head of the man who stepped out.

"Please, don't fire. I own this building," he said. Riley lowered his rifle and looked at the man. He was short and balding, but he held himself tall even in the current situation. "What's going on, what do I tell the people living here?" he asked. Riley thought for a moment.

"I don't know what's happening, but tell them to barricade themselves in their apartments, arm themselves and don't let anything in," Riley said. He took out his handgun and gave it to the man as well as a couple of clips of ammunition after a very brief tutorial on how to use the weapon as well as the laser sight. "Kill as many of them as you can once they enter the building," he told the man before he left him and kept heading to the basement for his SUV.

He had gone without incident the rest of the way to his SUV, and it wasn't until he swiped his visitor card through the card reader, opening the roller-doors to the building's basement, that he gripped the severity of the situation. Power was still on to a couple of Light posts and that was enough. There were bodies littering the street, both human and those of the black hooded figures. Immediately, he put the accelerator to the floor and went flying into the street. He had made it perhaps a block before encountering any signs of life, but he was too late. He saw two vampires feeding on two middle aged men while a third made a run for it, only to come onto the blade of one of the black hooded figures which had rounded the corner in front of him. He kept going, knowing that it was too late. Another three blocks, and he had to drive his way though a large group of the black hooded figures, one of them smashing his windscreen as he did so. He grabbed his rifle and cleared out the remaining shards of glass and kept going. He was heading straight for the coordinates that he had been given according to the GPS system in the SUV, and he was about three kilometres away. He was heading down the streets at eighty miles per hour before he had to slam on the brakes. In the middle of the road ahead there were two overturned police cars, and Riley could see the police officers crouching and firing from behind them. He pulled the SUV up to them, and opened the door.

"Get in!!!" he shouted to them from behind. He smashed out his window with the front of his rifle and started firing over the top of the police men at the group of hooded figures which was coming towards the police cars. He glanced down at the police officers and noticed that they had started to come towards the car. Once they were in the back seat, he put his rifle down and swung the car around and headed around the block in hopes to avoid the group of black hooded figures. "Any of you know how to use this?" He said while pointing to the rifle and looking in the rear-vision mirror.

"I have training in automatic weapons," one of the police officers replied.

"Good, grab it, knock out the window and shoot anything with a black hood," Riley said as he switched his lights onto high-beam.

Covenstead - Exmoor Forest – England

A visible magickal barrier surrounded the entire Covenstead just like a force-field. It had been created when Samantha and Montague had found this location suitable to create their Coven. Now, it's purpose was to keep the ever increasing number of black hooded figures out of the coven. Slowly, they had surrounded the barrier, and their numbers were ever increasing. They were just standing there, either waiting for something to happen, or for their numbers to increase. Inside the barrier, Samantha and Montague had assigned Sentries armed with crossbows and swords every thirty metres or so inside the barrier to alert them if anything were to occur. Unlike barriers that the Coven was fond of, this one was different. The usual barriers allowed one way travel through the barrier. This one was different however, there was no travel through the barrier, meaning that while the bringers were kept out, the Coven was kept in. The only advantage to this was that this barrier was up to ten times stronger than others that the coven used. In addition to that, the most experienced witches patrolled the barrier, strengthening weak points and monitoring the barrier.

Samantha and Montague were in the main building with Skye and the other Potential Slayers. The High Priest and Priestess had put them all in a holding spell to keep the Potential Slayers from killing the pair, and giving the Potential Slayers a while for what Samantha and Montague had told them to sink in.

"We need Amanda and her team back here immediately," Montague said to Samantha.

"I agree," Samantha replied. "We'll need to activate their amulets," She added, referring to the amulets that they had given to Amanda's team before they had left for Sunnydale. They had incorporated a lot of magickal power into the amulets; just enough to open a portal that led back ot the Covenstead for an immediate return, just in case it was needed. Samantha went over to a small set of drawers located against the wall and revealed her own amulet. She put it around her neck, put her hand around it and opened the psychic link to Amanda through her amulet.

Middle of Town – Sunnydale – California

The pair of Slayers stood looking at each other and the sea of the 'black hooded things' dead bodies surrounding the pair.

"How'd you do that…" Faith started.

"I don't know, how'd you do…" Buffy replied.

"I don't know. Pretty awesome though," Faith said between breaths.

"Yeah," Buffy replied.

"You weren't too bad yourself Queen C," Faith said while turning to Cordelia, who had joined the fight half way through, after appearing out of nowhere which she was so accustomed to these days.

"Yeah, I was good wasn't I," Cordelia replied.

"I liked the light show," Buffy added in reference to Cordelia's unique style of fighting.

"So, yeah, what do we do now?" Faith asked both of them while looking around for any more of the black hooded figures.

"Buffy, no offence or anything, but there's nothing you can do for Dawn at the moment," Cordelia said. There was a silence as Buffy slowly nodded her head.

"I know," she replied. There was another silence. "I think we should go back to the house and regroup," Buffy said.

"That's a good idea," Cordelia said. Buffy made to leave, but Cordelia spoke again, "But Buffy, you'll be making that trip alone. I need Faith here to go to the morgue."

"The Morgue?" Faith replied.

"There's something going on there which I need you to deal with," Cordelia explained. "While Buffy goes back to the house, kills as many of these things as she can on the way, and regroups everyone." Without another word, Cordelia burst apart in a mass of blue energy.

"There she goes again," Buffy said. Buffy and Faith looked at each other before they went on their separate ways.

"I'll see you back at the house," Faith said, giving Buffy a nod. Buffy just nodded back. The pair turned around and went their separate ways, both of them reading the knife in each hand that they had commandeered off of the black hooded figures.

Sunnydale Morgue – Sunnydale – California

Amanda couldn't believe how much things had degenerated in so short of a time as they had driven from the warehouse to the morgue. The black hooded figures were running through the streets almost totally unopposed, they had to run over a couple of them just to get here. There was no way that the Coven was on time, they had been too late. They had quickly looked up the records and found their comrades bodies. She had considered staying in the town, but it was only a slight consideration. Currently she knew that they had to return to the Coven and regroup as quickly as possible. They were half way through transporting the body of their second comrade to the van when two things occurred simultaneously. One was that the Crystal hanging around Amanda's neck activated and she heard Samantha's voice in her head.

"Amanda, we need you at the Coven at once. Things are going to get out of hand quickly and we need you. This Crystal will generate a portal which should end up right in the middle of the Covenstead," Samantha's Voice echoed through Amanda's head. The other thing to happen was that the doors burst open and the Slayer Faith came through them.

Faith saw the people moving the dead bodies and recognised them at once. They were the ones who attacked both her and Buffy, and who apparently killed her. She had the feeling that they were up to no good and realised that Cordelia must have sent her here to stop them. Almost as soon as she had come in through the doors, a portal opened in the centre of the room.

"You're dead," one of the two women out of three people said. Faith recognised her as the leader from the last time. From what she knew, she was fast and lethal, and her green eyes sent a chill down her spine.

"Yeah, I was," Faith replied. "I'm Faith version two, improved and more kick ass than the last version," Faith replied sarcastically. Faith saw the woman eyeing the portal in the middle of the room and knew that they were going to make a move for it very soon. As if the woman could read her mind, she and the other two of her team dashed for the portal. Faith ran for them in an effort to stop them, but she was knocked over and forward, and before she knew it, she came to a stop and looked up. The last time she remembered, the ceiling of a morgue wasn't blue sky and trees. She turned and looked to the ground, and found that she was lying on a forest floor. She flipped herself up and looked around to see that she was in the middle of a forest, the woman and the other two members of her team were behind her, and there were a number of other people looking at her.

"Shit," she said.

Well, that was that.

I didn't get the Reference to Tru Calling until Faith was actually inside the morgue... i had set it up so that Faith and Amanda have a confrontation, and then i decided it would be at the morgue where Amanda etc. were picking up the bodies of their frineds... It wasn't until i actually wrote faith commin in the doors that i got it.

Next chapter comin up, chapter 34.. dunno it's title yet.