The last section in this chapter is something i've been working towards for ages!!!!!!!!!! I rekon it's pretty good, and this is one of the better chapters.

Chapter 38

The Ripple Effect

(Chaos Theory)

Part 3

They had come as fast as possible in Oz's van, a SUV that they had managed to 'commandeer' once everyone had left town, and Gunn's van. Everyone had come except Faith. It had been decided that she needed to stay back and defend the 'base camp'. Giles had thought that it was a good idea. They needed someone who would be enough of a challenge to any attacking force long enough for them to all return if the 'base camp' was attacked, and Faith was that force.

If they had known what they were going into, they would have brought Faith none the less. No one had expected to see what was before them. They pulled up as close as they could to the battle, while ensuring that those within the vans would have enough time to escape if needed. They had originally come to back up the group that had gone on patrol, but that was not going to be the case now. Giles could see that their best option was to get everyone out of the battle and then run like hell, or more accurately, drive.

"Buffy, get everyone in the vans," Giles shouted, and was relieved to see that Buffy had heard him above the combat. They were in luck. While Buffy and her group were gone, Cordelia had come back to them, and not long after, they had received the call from Willow. Giles had gotten out of the van and had opened up the side door, and was retrieving a crossbow. He was glad to see that Wesley and Gunn who had arrived just prior to him were already firing into the crowd. He saw Brett and, Naomi and Nicola pull up next to him and jump out, each pulling out a crossbow except Naomi who had a compound bow, preferring that as she had grown up competing in archery. A multitude of crossbow bolts and arrows entered the crowd of vampires and bringers, some hitting their mark, some just injuring them. He saw one of the potential Slayers emerging from the mass of vampires and bringers, and saw that she was defending someone. Giles's hopes faded when he saw that the Potential Slayer, Crystal, was defending Buffy, who was dragging two bodies behind her.

"Cover them," he heard Brett yell from the van beside him. He looked over to Willow and Tara who were now emerging, and he could see that Willow was using her magick to protect Tara, who was also dragging a body behind her. He aimed his crossbow and shot an arrow towards a bringer that was advancing on Willow and Tara. He looked beside him to Cassia, who was standing still with her eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" Giles questioned. Cassia didn't even move a muscle. He looked to Cordelia, who was standing with her arms outstretched towards the vampires and bringers. Soon, small balls of blue energy emanated from her hands and stuck together in groups of four or five and went spiralling towards the enemy. He fired another crossbow bolt and saw one of the clusters of balls of energy enter into the stomach of a vampire. A moment later, the vampire burst into a cloud of dust, and the balls of energy continued on towards another vampire as other clusters of energy destroyed a number of vampires. Giles could see two werewolves attacking everything around them, and he saw that they realised that it was time to go and they began to rampage their way though the crowd towards them.

"In here," Giles said to Buffy, moving to the side so he could get a clear shot at a Turokhan which was coming towards Buffy. He fired the crossbow and hit the Turokhan in the shoulder, barely slowing it down. It was the other four crossbow bolts and an arrow which hit the Turokhan two seconds later forced it to the ground. Giles noticed that overhead, the sky was quickly becoming overcast, much too fast to be natural. He moved out of the way for Buffy as she put the bodies into the van, Giles not having time to work out who they were, knowing that he'd work that out later. He reloaded his crossbow and could see that Oz was transforming into himself again as he came out of the crowd towards the vans. Giles heard a very loud crack of thunder overhead as the clouds overhead filled the entire sky, eliminating all light that had come from the almost full moon.

"Daniel!" he heard a scream from beside him. Giles turned to see that Naomi was distressed and that she was looking into the crowd of vampires and bringers. He turned to look to see the still transforming werewolf known as Daniel get punched in the stomach by a Turokhan causing him to bend forward. The Turokhan then brought both of it's fists down on Daniel's back, sending him to the ground. Giles saw Buffy turn around and begin to move back towards the crowd of Vampires and Bringers when Cassia's voice seemed to resonate from everywhere.

"Stay back," she said. Another loud clap of thunder could be heard from overhead, and then in the space of four seconds, seven or eight lightning strikes struck the ground in the area around Daniel, incinerating any vampires in their path. It wasn't in time to stop a single lone vampire from driving his sword into Daniel's back before he burst into a cloud of dust.

"No!" Nicola screamed as Brett held her back.

"Go," Cassia said to Buffy. Giles shot his crossbow bolt at another bringer which still remained in the crowd as Buffy ran forward and retrieved the body of Daniel. She picked him up and started running back to Gunn's van, giving Giles the cue to start to leave.

"Everyone in the vans," Giles said as he put his crossbow in the back of the van and hopped in the driver's seat.

Two Days Later – Base Camp – Sunnydale – California

The last two days had heavily damaged the morale at the base camp. They had to bury three of their own – two Potential Slayers and one Werewolf, while another one of theirs was still severely injured and despite his rapid healing abilities, still couldn't stand up for more than twenty minutes. It had been suggested to get him a blood transfusion, but what kind of blood do you get for a person which is the son of two vampires with extraordinary abilities. You don't get him any blood, that's the answer Willow thought. They had had a memorial service for Shannon, Amanda and Daniel. Shannon and Amanda had died protecting Connor from further injury as he had lied unconscious from his injuries in the middle of the battle.

Willow had spent the majority of the past two days preparing for the spell which she was about to commence. She had originally gotten the idea from the speech that Buffy had given a short while after they had come back, and what she had said was strongly known to everyone now. They didn't have enough numbers, they didn't have enough power, they didn't have a chance of winning. Now, hopefully some of that would change. They now knew that something was going to be going down at the Hellmouth on Friday, two and a half days away, and they needed all the help that they could get if they were to prevent it, whatever it was that was meant to be happening.

For the spell to even have a chance at working, Willow had to have spent the last two days preparing both her mind and her body for the spell, there was no other way it could have been done. There were a large number of parameters that needed to be put in place in the spell, it was almost as if she were designing the spell. Most of her time had been spent in a silent contemplation, gathering her thoughts and thinking of how she was going to do the spell. Now, here she was, about to do one of the biggest spells which she had ever done, even before she had delved down the road of magick abuse. Tara, Naomi and Cassia had offered to help, but Willow knew that this was something that she needed to do herself.

That was the difference now, once upon a time, she would have gone ahead and done the spell almost instantly. Now, she was spending her time preparing.

"Well, here it goes," she said to Tara.

"You'll do great," Tara replied.

"Well if everyone blows up, we'll know I didn't do that good," Willow replied, half joking and half serious. She felt Tara give her hand a squeeze before she turned away and went into their room. She closed the door behind her, and opened up the curtains allowing the evening breeze come into the room and relax her.

Willow opened her only spell ingredient: salt, and poured it in a circle around herself, creating the circle which she had disregarded in her magickal practices long ago. The circle was meant to protect herself and keep her energies inside of the circle until the spell was complete and the energies could be released.

She sat down, cross legged in the circle and took in a deep breath, calming her inner nerves. Slowly, her mind delved into a peaceful state, and opened itself to the world. She could now sense the things around her with her mind, feel their essence emanating out towards her and the rest of the world. Willow stayed in this state for at least another twenty minutes before she even put her mind towards the spell.

Slowly, she went over the parameters that the spell required to work properly. The past two days had formed a small cluster of thoughts in her brain. It was almost as if she had already formed the spell, and just had to push it out into the world. She felt the energies around her, and slowly, she introduced her own energies into the circle and introduced the parameters into it. This spell was so much different than any other she had performed. It had nothing to do with power, and everything to do with control. The thought had occurred to her before that what she was doing was almost exactly the same as a computer virus, but this one operated at a human level, and this one was for the benefit of mankind, if it worked.

Slowly, a small ball of invisible energy formed itself in front of Willow, the parameters being introduced one at a time. This small ball of energy would form the most intelligent spell that Willow had ever heard of being performed, except maybe for the one which governed the rules of The Slayer. The invisible ball of energy in front of Willow slowly gained an artificial intelligence.

Half an hour later, it was done. Willow opened her eyes and looked around. She was sitting in a hemisphere of white energy, the circle, which only she could see, and in front of her, a small ball of transparent energy, almost like a sphere of water, floated in front of her, which only she could see.

"There," she just barely whispered. She took a moment to marvel at her creation, and then she closed her eyes again.

Ten minutes later, the small sphere of energy had replicated itself six times. Seven balls of energy floated around Willow. She opened her eyes again, only to see the white hemisphere of energy around her, the circle, collapse. The spell was now truly complete. With one word, it would be put in motion.

"Go," Willow said to the balls of energy. Slowly at first, they started to move outwards. They moved through the walls of the room, spreading outwards, looking for their targets. Eventually, they became faster and faster as the spheres of energy learned to judge their targets more accurately.

Each ball of energy was 'programmed' to seek out a certain type of individual. Once it had found that individual, it would deliver a message and then replicate itself. Then, both spheres of energy would move on to find another target, and then replicate themselves again once they had reached the target. The result was an exponential growth in the number of invisible magickal spheres looking for their targets.

Their targets were any able bodied fighter, any witch or magick user who was willing and able to use their abilities.

One message was broadcast worldwide to all of these people by Willow Rosenburg.

"Come."

Little did Willow, or anyone else at base camp know, that the majority of their help was already on it's way, and only two days away.

2.5 days remaining until 'it happens'.

I have never read of 'it' being done before, adn i'm pretty sure that no one has had the idea to do 'it' before, whatever 'it' is, which you'll find out soon enough.

I have been working towards 'it' since the story Post Grave (the prequel to this), and i got the idea for 'it' from a scene in Buffy, Season 7- Touched.

Next Chapter - Chapter 39 - Reinforcing Faith. or something like that.

Chapter after that - unkown

Chapter after that - 'It' happens - Title - Coagulation or something like that.