Here's the next chapter... it's a two parter.

Part Two of this will be much better than part 1, mainly because i've been working towards what's gonna happen in part 2 since about half way through this story, and it's gonna be pretty good.

The title of this chapter says everything, as well as the explanation of Chaos theory below.

Basically, what happens in this chapter (part 1 and part 2) will have drastic consequences on later chapters.

Part two should be up shortly, a day or so.

Chapter 36

The Ripple Effect

(Chaos Theory)

Part 1

Chaos Theory:

The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)

Cassia was lying on the lawn in the backyard of the Summers' house looking up at the night sky. She had snuck out of the meeting that was taking place upon Faith's return. This wasn't where she was meant to be, this wasn't where she belonged. She belonged in the forest with a small group of people, practicing magick and furthering her knowledge in the natural order of ways. Being on the front lines of a fight to keep back the forces of 'darkness'. She wasn't even sure if the people here were the right kind of people to be fighting this fight. They chose the most dangerous methods, placing as many people in danger as possible. The magicks that all of the witches used here were abusive, even if they claimed them not to be. Cassia sensed that the only one who even had the slightest clue about not abusing magick was the girl that they all called Tara. Cassia looked up at the stars and noticed that they seemed to glow a bit brighter here. She could see the faint blur of the barrier that Willow, Giles, Tara and Naomi had erected around the four properties. No one else could see the barrier, it was meant to be invisible, but Cassia knew that anyone who looked hard enough, or had enough awareness of the surrounding world would be able to see the signs. Perhaps that was the most valuable thing that Cassia had learned at the Coven; to trust and use your own instincts and only your own.

Cassia raised her hand and with her mind, asked for the barrier to bend a bit. Above her, where Cassia was looking up to the sky, the barrier bent and a small blob of energy left it and made its way to Cassia's hand. She examined the blob of energy, it wasn't natural and it didn't fit with the way that she had learned to use her gifts. She knew that she wasn't a 'powerful' witch, but she knew that with real magick, power had nothing to do with it. Anyone who had expanded their mind into the natural world was able to do what she was. The ability of every person around the world to use magick was equal. Cassia asked the blob of energy to return to the barrier with her mind, and she watched as it slowly floated up through the air. It reached the barrier, and a series of blue ripples of energy spread out along the barrier until they disappeared.

Cassia closed her eyes and let her mind relax. Slowly, her awareness of the world spread out beyond her physical body and encompassed most of the surrounding area of Sunnydale. Even though her eyes were closed, Cassia could see every single part of her surroundings with perfect ease, including many things she couldn't see normally. She let the perspective of her personality travel around the city, examining the mixture of energies that occurred. She could easily sense the presence of Bringers, Turokhan, Vampires, Syophers and various demons. Her awareness passed over one of The First's magicians, a worshipper of Chaos. He too was like her in more ways than he knew. He worshipped the order of chaos, which was what the universe revolved around. Newton had even got it right in his laws of energy; a system will change to maximum entropy unless acted upon by an external force.

Cassia relaxed her mind once more, and she began to see events which had already occurred in the near past, and she began to see events which would occur in the near future. She briefly saw an image of Willow and hung onto that, and the events which she saw began to reflect upon what has/would happen/ed to Willow. She then saw Tara and hung onto the image of her. She gradually stepped through all the people that she had come to know of in this place. Slowly, she regained her normal awareness and opened her eyes. She looked around to see that everything was as it had been, nothing had changed. She looked up to see that the stars were still blurred due to the barrier surrounding the place. She let out a sigh and decided to go back inside and pay attention to what was happening in the meeting. Cassia was going to need it if she was going to prevent what she had seen in her visions of the near future: her death.

Giles stood behind the chair in the Summers' house, listening to what Faith was telling the group about what she had gone through. It had most obviously been a trap for Faith, one which she had been hurt by, judging from the bruised cheek bone and gashed arms, which were rapidly healing already before their eyes. Giles judged that by morning, there would be no signs what so ever of Faith having ever been in a fight. The new healing abilities of both Buffy and Faith were remarkable to say the least.

The disturbing thought though was that if it had been a trap, as Faith had said it was, and then it meant that they couldn't fully trust Cordelia, or that The First was manipulating them again. It was the next words out of Faith's mouth that really got Giles's attention.

"There was also this huge ass demon. He said he worked for Wolfram and Hart right before I killed him," Faith said to the group. This caused Wesley and Gunn to sit down, being the only remaining members of Angel's crew, familiar with Wolfram and Hart, in the group. Cordelia was 'off' doing other things, apparently organising other people as well as themselves.

"Wolfram and Hart," Wesley said. After a moment, he continued. "Of course. This is the apocalypse, and they have a hand in it… and Angel plays a pivotal role," Wesley said, thinking out loud.

"It would make sense, have the two biggest guns going for the apocalypse, The First and Wolfram and Hart," Gunn added. There was a brief pause as everyone considered the fact.

"Maybe what we need to think about is what are we going to do now?" Oz said from his position sitting on the floor.

"It's all good to be sitting here discussing things, but we need to do something," Nicola added, turning from looking at Oz to the rest of the group. "From what we know, The First is usually always one step ahead, and we've always been playing catch-up. Sure, when we were doing it, the scale wasn't the same as it is now, but it's still the same game plan." Buffy opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Giles saw her look around to everyone, not knowing what to say.

"Where do we start?" Buffy asked. "There's so much going on around this town. Where do we start?"

"I'll start by fixing this house," Xander added with a sarcastic voice, but that was his intention. The house had come under a lot of damage after the last couple of weeks, and it needed to be fixed before rooms started collapsing.

"The Old Ones," Wesley said almost immediately. "They're very powerful, and we must learn more about them, and if they can be persuaded, or manipulated to come over to our side of the fight," Wesley said.

"So, what? We're just meant to trick these Old Ones into fighting for us, when they think we're so little to them?" Connor questioned.

"The world has changed quite a great deal since their departure. They are in new bodies, and I'd imagine they'd be very confused," Wesley answered.

"Yeah, confused enough to be killing vampires for us," Xander said. "That puts them in the yay column in my book."

"I think Illyria is trying to obtain her own army, for her own purposes, if what you, Buffy and the others say is true," Giles added. It was the logical explanation, that the once ruler of a global army of demons, when returned to a world where it has nothing, will try to acquire another army.

"We've got to work out why they were brought here. We know that they were told that the human race is ending, and that's why they were brought back," Wesley said (Reference to War Cries – Chapter 29 – Steps Towards Evolution).

"The Hellmouth," Faith said, silencing everyone. Giles saw that everyone was looking at her. Faith nodded her head, smiled and continued. "The Hellmouth's a pretty good place to start. It's gotta be closed."

Elsewhere in Sunnydale

A black limousine pulled up alongside the "Welcome to Sunnydale" Sign, having come from Los Angeles. The guise of Lilah Morgan stepped out of the limousine and held the door open. A young man, wearing almost all completely black stepped out after her. After him was a demon with a blue head and horns, which had a small resemblance to D'Hoffryn stepped out. After that, a young woman, who was also almost dressed completely in black stepped out of the limousine. The three stood in front of Lilah.

"You know what you have to do. Find Darla and Drusilla, and preferably bring them back alive," Lilah said. The trio of figures moved into the night, away from the Limousine. Lilah Morgan hopped back into the Limo and headed into the town of Sunnydale.

Los Angeles – California

O Ops Operation First Hope

They had made it across the CBD of Los Angeles to the apartment building they were now standing in front of. A report had come that a group of civilians were held up in the building, and there was an immediate order for O Ops to investigate. They had ploughed through a number of groups of vampires and Bringers roaming the streets. O Ops had now adapted their SUV's to have a large bull bar on the front of the vehicle, making it easier to pass through the groups with a minimum of damage to the vehicle and a minimal loss of speed.

Riley entered the building first. There was obvious signs of life in the foyer as it had been cleaned up from an initial struggle. There were also some scorch marks on the wall which Riley couldn't tell what they were from. The entire bottom floor was comprised of functional rooms and the residential rooms started on the second floor. Riley found the stairwell and went up to the second floor. He heard a noise from behind the door directly in front of him and he ordered two of his men to flank either side of the door. He ordered the rest of his team to begin to search other rooms while he took a step back and kicked the door in and went into the room. The room was lit by candle light and two figures sat on the floor, and they were obviously human.

"Come on, we're here to take you to a safe place," Riley said to the two people while offering his hand to help them stand up. One of the people, a young woman in her early twenties looked at him and shook her head.

"We're not going anywhere, we've got a job to do," she replied.

"Come on," Riley replied.

"We were told we were safe here," the young woman said to Riley.

"By who?" Riley almost demanded.

"By Amy, she's two floors up in room 80," The young man who was accompanying the woman said, obviously nervous. At that comment, Riley turned around and headed straight for the stairwell. He raced up the stairs two at a time and came out at the third floor. He quickly looked at the numbers on the door in front of him and was surprised to find that it was room 80. He went to open the door, but the person on the other side beat him to it. The door opened to reveal a young girl standing before him, the room behind her lit easily by many candles. Riley was shocked at the appearance of the young girl.

"You're not welcome here," She almost hissed. She had black hair, black eyes and was wearing completely black. Her skin was unnaturally pale, and dark veins could be seen on her arms and face.

"We're here to help you, you're in danger here," Riley replied, his rifle still raised.

"We're not in any danger," the girl replied, her head bowed towards the ground with her eyes looking up at Riley.

"Do you even know what's happening outside…" Riley started.

"We are not in any danger," the girl replied, interrupting Riley. Riley went to try and convince her to come with him again, but the girl raised her palm up towards him. Before Riley knew what was happening, he was floating above the ground in front of the door to the girl's room. "I can snap you like a twig if I wish, do not give me any reason to. We are not in danger from those outside, and if we were, we can protect ourselves," The girl said to him before she sent him flying backwards through the air, through the door to the stairwell and crashing down a flight of stairs with only the movement of her wrist.

Two Hours Later, A Block Down the Street – Los Angeles – California

Riley's team all sat in their SUV's and waited. Soon they heard the loud thunder of a F16 Hornet flying overhead, identifying it's target. Riley had reported back to the base camp of the events that had occurred in the apartment building. Two of his team members had found rooms full of inscribings talking about the coming revolution of vampires and bringers. Two more of his team members now suffered broken limbs from other people that they had found in the building unwilling to cooperate, and who had resisted much more violently than the girl that Riley had encountered, Amy. They had found one girl willingly being fed on by a vampire, something which shook Riley too close to home, and the base command of O Ops had determined the residents of the building a significant threat, and had ordered an air strike. Riley had tried to oppose the command, but what he thought didn't matter. He knew that they were people in that building, no matter how twisted they may be, but they were still people.

He watched as the F16 lined itself up for the building, and two darts seemed to fly out of it and scream towards the building. Two explosions ripped through the air, the only problem was that they weren't from the building. They originated from a magickal barrier that surrounded the building and now pulsated with energy, absorbing the explosions.

"Looks like we underestimated them," Professor Maggie Walsh said while leaning in the window of the SUV.

Next Chapter

The Ripple Effect (Chaos Theory) Part 2 which is...

3.5 Daysbefore something happens which will blow your mind.