Next chapter's here, with a nice little twist towards the end.

Chapter 35

Hide and Seek

Two Days Later

Los Angeles – California

They had pulled up a block away form their designated target. The apartment building that Riley Finn had come from, leaving all the residents inside. This was their first strike team, led by Riley Finn. They had come in three SUV's and the closest truck they could commandeer on the way, in case they found survivors. They were now approaching the main entrance to the building, moving along the walls of the buildings facing the street in order to stay as invisible as possible and to not be an easy target. Six men were on each side of the street, leapfrogging their way down it. Man in each group of six was charged with covering above them, in case any vampires decided to drop in on them from above. These men weren't stupid. Two years of facing vampires and various demons in all environments around the world had taught them to be prepared for every circumstance. They had finally reached the building and slowly made their way inside. Riley gestured with his hand an order to spread out and check every room. Riley himself went straight to where he had left the building's owner and began to search. The first room he entered appeared to be empty with no signs of a struggle, along with the second room, and the third and the fourth. The fifth room however was a different story altogether. Once he entered the room, he picked up large blood stains on the floor directly in front of him with the light attached to his rifle. As he swung his rifle around the room, he saw that nearly everything was turned over or broken. Someone had definitely put up a fight here, and had obviously lost.

"All teams, report," Riley said into his radio. Everyone had reported back saying that they had found no hostiles, and no survivors. Once they had swept the building, he ordered everyone to form up back out the front of the building and to eventually head back to the SUV's and try another area that was located on the map they had received. Riley was waiting for the rest of his team to return. At the current time, there was another team like his, led by his wife Sam, sweeping any buildings that they knew had the chace of any survivors. Hopefully, they would have had better luck.

Almost as soon as he finished that thought, the last one of his team arrived out the front of the building and they began to move back to the SUV's. It was then that they heard a scream from the opposite direction. Riley halted and examined the streets behind him. He heard the scream again and guessed that it was only from the next block up.

"Okay, people, you heard it, let's move," Riley said to his team through the radio, not needing to create a loud noise that way. The team quickly readjusted itself and they leapfrogged down the street.

They had arrived at an alleyway where they could clearly hear the signs of a struggle taking place. Riley risked a look around the corner and saw that it was only a single male vampire attacking a young woman. He also noticed that apart from the struggle, the streets were deathly quiet with not a sound to be heard. He dismissed the thought.

"Sergent Morris, move down the alley and engage the hostile. We'll be right behind you," Riley said into the radio to his second in command. A single figure clad in black camo gear moved down the alley, and Riley motioned for the rest of his team to move in after him.

"Let the girl go," Riley heard Sergent Morris say. The vampire looked up startled to find a whole commando team with their rifles raised at him. He let the woman go and she moved away from the vampire quickly. Sergent Morris wasted no time and fired his rifle, aiming for the heart. The vampire got the shock of his lifetime as wooden tipped bullets passed through his heart and he disintegrated in a cloud of dust. Riley was satisfied that there was no more danger and turned away as Sergent Morris could be heard telling the girl to come with them.

Riley was ripped out of his satisfaction as he heard Sergent Morris scream. He turned around, his rifle raised to see that the woman was a vampire also and was feeding off of Sergent Morris.

"Let him go or we will open fire," Riley said to the female vampire. Suddenly, the doors to the buildings on either side of the alley burst open and figures came rushing out of them. Riley looked behind him to see that vampires were blocking the ends of the alley as well. At once, he ordered his men to commence firing, but the vampires were moving too quickly and it was almost impossible to get a shot through their heart. All the bullets did was incapacitate them for a few moments. He briefly saw a figure moving towards them with blinding speed though the throng of vampires. Before he knew what was happening, his gun was knocked out of his hand, and his arm twisted around behind him.

"Riley Finn, never expected to see you here," the attacker said. Riley looked up into the attacker's face out of the corner of his eye.

"Angel, what a surprise. Or do I make that Angelus now?" Riley replied before twisting around out of Angel's grasp and getting his hand on his knife. As quickly as he could, he swiped at Angelus, but Angelus was always too fast.

"Colonel Finn, get down," Riley heard from behind him. He didn't question the orders of his men and dropped to the ground. A hail of automatic gunfire went flying past his head and into the throng of vampires in the alley. He looked up to see if any had hit Angelus, but as quickly as he had come, he had disappeared again. A number of vampires burst into dust due to the sheer number of bullets flying into them, one or two were bound to hit their mark. The gunfire stopped and Riley got up and grabbed his rifle from the ground. As soon as he had reached his feet, he was shoved into the wall by two vampires. He used the rifle, which was still in his hands to hit the vampires in the head with each end of the rifle respectively. Once they were knocked back, he kicked out at them, knocking them back further. He raised his rifle and with a single shot, killed one of the vampires. He then turned to the other one of the vampires who was moving towards him now, and let of a series of shots. None of them found the heart, but it did enough to incapacitate the vampire enough for Riley to get proper aim and shoot it through the heart. He looked around to his team, and they were dispatching the last of the vampires. He went to the body of Sergent Morris and as he expected, he wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. Another one of his team had a broken arm, and another had a deep gash on his back, where one of the vampires with a knife had got him.

"Okay, we need to get back to HQ immediately," Riley said as they left the alleyway and made their way back to the SUV's.

Night - Sunnydale – California

As they crept down the street, in the middle of the night, Xander was sure that he heard something behind them. He clutched the axe he was carrying tighter and risked a look over his shoulder, but he couldn't see anything. Steadily, he turned around and kept pace with the rest of the group, which consisted of Buffy, Willow, Tara, Gunn, one Potential Slayer, and himself. The first part of the plan had gone off without a hitch. Everyone in their team had gone for a raid to the supermarket, hardware store and sports stores to obtain food, building materials, medical materials, weapons and various spell ingredients. They had used all the transport available to them to cart it all back to what was now being called their 'base camp'. Willow, Tara, Naomi and Giles had managed to set up a magickal barrier around the camp which would activate whenever something which wasn't human was near it. They had found out that Connor wasn't technically a human being, and no one knew what he was, and they had somehow made the barrier think he was a human. All of that kind of thing had gone off without a hitch.

It was the second part of the plan that had Xander worried the most. It was the second part of the plan which they were executing at the moment. A group would go out into the streets of Sunnydale and make their way to the Morgue, killing as many Bringers and/or vampires, and/or Turokhan that came in their way. That was the worst part of the plan. Once they reached the mall, they'd have to try and find out what had happened to Faith, as she hadn't returned from the excursion that Cordelia had sent her on.

They were approaching Main Street, and luckily, they hadn't seen anything of the undead or eyeless variety as of yet. Xander was brought out of his thoughts as Buffy crouched lower and raised her hand signalling everyone to stop.

"There's something up ahead, and whatever it is, there's a lot of them," Buffy said. There was a silence as Xander watched Buffy crouching down ready to sprint into action at a moment's notice.

"How do you know?" Tara asked. Buffy turned around, her eyes wide.

"You can't hear that? There's a large crowd up ahead, and something's going on? You can't hear it?" Buffy asked surprised. Everyone turned to each other, getting a blank reply from everyone they looked to.

"Nope," Willow replied.

"Okay then," Buffy replied. She took the lead and started to move to the sidewalk, closer to the buildings. "Stay near the buildings and keep in the shadows," Buffy said.

They travelled about a hundred metres before Xander could hear even the slightest sound of something happening. It sounded like a large crowd, and that a fight was taking place. They travelled another hundred metres, and they could actually see the crowd. There was a mixture of vampires and Turokhan swarming the street, and surrounding a figure in the middle. He was transfixed by the sight and was surprised to see a vampire go flying through the air, over the crowd and land on the street in front of them with a loud thud. He was brought out of his gaze as he heard a slight cracking sound. He looked to see that Buffy had broken the lock on one of the doors to a three storey building next to them and was heading inside. He decided that it was the best thing to do to get out of sight.

They had moved onto the roof of the building, which turned out to be a small apartment building, and Xander couldn't believe his eyes. Before him, the vampires and Turokhan had formed a loose circle at least four thick around this central figure, and they were trying to attack it, but failed every time as they were sent flying. It was only occasionally that the figure killed one of the vampires, ripping it's head off with it's bare hands, or just destroying the neck by closing it's fist. He watched as the vampires moved in again, and were beaten back.

"Follow Me!!!" The voice of Illyria boomed across the streets from the centre of the circle of vampires. Another vampire was sent flying back as it tried to attack the Old One. As one, the vampires and Turokhan attacked Illyria and they were all sent flying back. "You are but vermin to me. I am your ruler. Follow me!!!" The voice of Illyria demanded. Xander saw Buffy motioning for everyone to get down and to stay out of sight. He watched as Buffy grabbed the crossbow off of Willow and crouched down by the side of the building and took aim. Xander couldn't figure out why Buffy hadn't started shooting at the vampires yet. He could see one which was a clear shot straight through the heart, but Buffy hadn't taken it. He looked to the crowd of vampires again and they moved to attack Illyria, again. He heard a twang, and saw one of the vampires which was directly behind Illyria burst into dust. He understood; take out the vampires when there was the most chaos, so they wouldn't notice that something was killing them other than the Old One in the centre of their circle on a power trip.

They sat there for half an hour, watching Buffy pick off various vampires in the crowd. Illyria eventually got fed up with the vampires and their reluctance to follow her and beat her way through them, making it look like that even Xander or the Potential Slayer could do so. They waited for the vampires to disperse before they made their way down to the street below and eventually to the Morgue.

They hadn't found a thing at the morgue, other than the signs of a struggle, but apart from that everything looked normal. Gunn had pointed out the fact that the struggle could have been because of someone other than Faith, that it could have been one of the employees' fighting against one of the Bringers that had overrun the town. In all likelihood, it was probably Faith though.

They were only about a kilometre from Buffy's house and Xander couldn't believe it. Other than Illyria and the vampires trying to attack her, they hadn't run into a single vampire or demon, which was miraculous on a normal night in Sunnydale. On top of that, they hadn't seen any Syophers, Bringers or Turokhan either. As usual, Xander had spoken, or rather thought, too soon as the bushes on either side of the road rustled and six bringers came out of hiding from behind them.

A Nearby House – Sunnydale - California

Darla had taken Drusilla to the second floor of one of the houses of Revello Drive as they had narrowly missed detection by The Slayer and her group. They had been shadowing the Slayer's movements and observing the ramshackle defences that they were putting up. Darla knew that her son, Connor, was in the group. The report which she had taken a brief glance at under the cover of darkness at Wolfram and Hart said so, and Wolfram and Hart was never wrong. Before she had taken Drusilla and left LA, she knew that Wolfram and Hart would pursue them and had 'acquired' an amulet for Drusilla and herself, allowing them to stay off of anyone's radar. She was sure that the mystics at Wolfram and Hart wouldn't take long to find some way around the amulet's protection, so she was becoming very impatient.

They were now peering out of the second storey window at the fight occurring in the street. They had been very lucky to miss the Bringers which they didn't even know were in hiding in the house next door to the one they were currently occupying.

They watched as Buffy and her crew easily opposed the Bringers' attack and beat them back just as if they were cannon fodder. Darla made a note to never cross paths with Buffy again as she watched and saw some of the moves that she was pulling, and the strength and speed with which she was doing so.

"She's become a nasty one, that Slayer has… wouldn't want to be surprised by her in the middle of a yummy meal," Drusilla commented.

"For once Dru, you're making sense," Darla replied. A minute later, she noticed a faint glow in the room and turned and looked at Drusilla. The amulet around her neck was glowing, and Darla looked down and noticed that hers was as well. "Damnit. Wolfram and Hart's found us."

Above the Hellmouth – Sunnydale – California

He had assembled all the ingredients needed for the spell, and was now above the Hellmouth, feeling very high after another union with The First. Ethan Rayne didn't like to think of himself as The First's magickal lapdog, but rather as a worshipper of Chaos, and on a slight detour to obtain just a little more power. His eyes glowed black, and the red cloak that he now hid himself behind these days swirled with dark purple, red and black energy. In front of him stood the image of Caelecae.

"Nice choice," Ethan commented to The First.

"Just getting in character," The First replied. The image of Caelecae walked up to Ethan and stood directly in front of him, looking straight into his eyes. Ethan was sure that he would be able to reach out and touch her if he wanted, and without thinking, his hand reached out and passed through the image in front of him. "We almost have everything needed for the conjoining ritual," The First said. Ethan looked down to the canister in the corner of the room that had been constructed around the Hellmouth.

"We have the power," Ethan said, referring to the moping which held a part of the essence of Cordelia which they had managed to steal in Los Angeles (Reference-War Cries-Chapter 15:Showdown). "The Wolfram and Hart operative has assured us that the Old One will be here at that specific time, so all we need is a vessel to channel the powers used in the spell," Ethan said, "and I don't know of anyone with that kind of power," he added after a moment. Caelecae turned from looking at the moping to his face and smiled.

"I do, and that's about to be taken care of," The First said before disappearing in a flash.

Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California.

Somehow, the power, water and phone lines had managed to stay operational during the current crisis, and Buffy wasn't anything short of thankful. She was surprised coming back from their investigation though to find that all of the lights in the house were turned on at two o'clock in the morning. She walked up to the front door, opened it and walked in. She was surprised to find everyone in the lounge room, all listening to a familiar figure. The figure turned and looked at Buffy.

"Hey B, have a good trip?" Faith said from the living room.

A lot of questions to be raised in this chapter

What's Illyria up to?

What is Wolfram and Hart, and The First up to, trying to manipulate Caelecae into a certain place at a certain time (reference to the last chapter as well).

What's the ultimate role of Darla and Dru.

Anyway, next chapter.. it's gonna be a long one, maybe a 2 parter.

Chapter 36 - The Ripple Effect