Authors Notes: I got an awesome story arc coming up soon. I had to do a 2 week uni course, and forgot what was mostly to occur in this chapter, but I've adjusted accordingly. New and cooler stuff will be following.

Thanks QueenBoadicea for following this story and leaving plenty of reviews, they're much appreciated.

Chapter 47 Awakening Part 2

The breeze blew gently against her skin, creating an ambient sound of trees rustling in the distance, past the field in which she was standing in. Tara recognised this place, it had been her home since she was little, before she moved to Sunnydale. She was standing in a paddock, in front of a barbed wire fence separating the paddock from the homestead. To her right was a small vegetated creek that ran through the property, while to her left, a large mountain dominated the view in the immediate distance. Her property extended to the foothills of the mountain; to the borders of the National Park. In the distance on top of a small mound she could see a number of cattle which were grazing. The sky overhead was clear of all clouds, and the sun shone down brightly. Tara closed her eyes and just took in the sensations around her, creating good memories, before things had taken a turn for the worse in her home life. When her mother used to take her into the National Park and show her the secrets of the world. Tara could almost hear her mothers' voice emanating from the other side of the field, coming from the National Park. Tara listened closer, and to her surprise, she wasn't imagining the sounds coming to her ears, like whispers on the wind. She could definitely hear something, but she could not make out the words or the voice.

Suddenly, in a moment, the image of her mother's face appeared in front of her, blocking out all other sights. Tara could not believe how lifelike it appeared. She reached out with her hand to touch her mother, but before that could happen, her mother spoke to her;

"You have a destiny Tara," she said, startling Tara and making her withdraw her hand. Immediately Tara thought of what was happening in the world, all the destruction and chaos occurring because of The First. She thought about her and her friends' attempts to stop it. "Your destiny lies on a different path than theirs," her mother said to her.

"But…" Tara tried to start before she was interrupted,

"You were brought back for a reason."

Tara shot up out of bed, panting and covered with sweat. She could feel where the bed sheets were soaked. It took her a while to calm herself down and realise where she was, that she was not back at their family's property, but rather in a room of crowded girls sleeping on the floor in Buffy Summers' house. She found most of her dream had been refreshing, it was nice to get memories of before she passed away, to let her mind acknowledge the fact that she wasn't a freak, and that the images going through her head were real. It had been mightily disorientating after she had come back, but now she was finding comfort and guidance from Willow and Cordelia, both whom had disappeared. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping for, she had only meant to take a short rest and lie down on the bed, and it was obvious that many others had decided to do the same. Tara quickly got up and started to head downstairs, when she heard voices, specifically, Buffy's from her vantage point half way down the staircase.

"I just don't know how we can deal with this situation on the whole," Buffy said. Tara could hear a reply.

"Me either Buffy, and maybe it's just too big for just us to deal with," Giles replied. "Maybe it's up to others, with more pull and influence to handle it, and maybe we'll just play a part," Giles stated.

"I mean, we're the experts, we're the ones who are meant to stop this," Buffy started before Giles interrupted.

"We can't do everything Buffy," Giles replied. There was a long silence before Tara heard Buffy reply,

"We're the experts. The ones fighting, the Government and the average citizen, aren't," Buffy started. "Maybe we need to start teaching them some things," Buffy said. "Send a group to Los Angeles to get in contact with Riley or whoever dropped those supplies," Buffy started. Tara could hear a few noises of recognition and acknowledgement come from Giles before there was a long silence. "We need to find Willow," Buffy stated, breaking the silence.

"Yes we do," Giles replied. "We'd be a lot safer with her around."

"I was thinking about getting a small group and going out again to look for her," Buffy said.

"What about Tara, she'd want to go," Giles replied.

"She needs her rest," Buffy simply stated. It was at that, that Tara made her presence known and walked down the rest of the stairs.

"I'll go," Tara stated. Just after Tara had finished saying the words, there was a sudden eruption of noise from outside, and from what Tara could tell, a large commotion. It sounded like a large number of people were milling around outside, but the strange thing was that it appeared from no where. Immediately they all moved to the window to look outside, but they weren't prepared for what they witnessed. Outside the barrier were literally hundreds of demons, just standing there and milling about, not really doing anything apart from being gathered in a large crowd. Tara sensed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Buffy and Giles were moving to the front door, and she followed closely behind.

As she emerged into the front yard of the Summers' residence, she could see the enormity of the demon population in front of them. She looked to the side to see others of their group coming out of the adjoining houses with weapons, prepared to fight. Tara glanced at a number of demons moving aside to allow a figure push through them, moving to the front. Faith walked up beside Tara, carrying a couple of swords which she threw to Giles and Buffy, while taking a defensive stance next to Tara. As the figure emerged from the crowd of demons however, everyone around her gasped.

"Anya?" Buffy and Giles exclaimed surprised. Tara could only remember the name of Anya, and could remember her face, but nothing else about her. The person, or demon, standing in front of her, was pretty much a stranger. Tara could see another figure pushing itself through the crowd, and was startled to see that it was Cordelia.

"Buffy, Giles, Faith, Tara," Anya said to them from the other side of the barrier, civilly. "May I present to you, demons willing to fight for our cause," Anya stated while waving a hand over the large crowd of demons standing outside the barrier. Tara looked over the crowd in detail for the first time, and it appeared that there were at least a hundred demons standing in front of them.

"And what exactly is our cause?" Giles queried Anya.

"To prevent The First from destroying the world as we know it," Anya replied.

"We like the world the way it is now, it works to our advantage," Tara saw a demon say who had stepped up beside Anya. "We like the world that humans' have set-up. If The First wins, that world would stop existing and we'd most likely be hunted down and killed," the demon elaborated after a few minutes.

"Why should we believe you? Any of you?" Buffy queried the demon, then looked at Anya. "What evidence do we have?"

"You have me," Cordelia replied. "I helped Anya do this; I helped her gather these demons together to fight against The First. You know that I wouldn't gather an army of demons to use against you," Cordelia explained. "I helped Anya evaluate each of these demons, they're who they say they are, and they're here to help." Tara saw Buffy nod a few times taking it in while she looked over the hoard of demons standing in front of them. Tara also cast her gaze over the crowd, noticing for the first time that many of the demons appeared human, like Anya did. More memories of Anya drifted back to Tara, the most prominent being her love of money and working in the Magic Shop. It was then that Tara remembered, she used to be a vengeance demon. She put the pieces together and worked out that something must have happened for Anya to revert back to a vengeance demon; maybe the arrival of The First's forces in this dimension and the official start of this whole battle did it.

"Even if we believe you, you can't come in here," Buffy indicated, pointing to the invisible line on the ground indicating the barrier protecting them from the outside world. "Demons can't come in, and we don't have enough room, let alone resources, to supply you all," Buffy replied.

"We'd already thought of that," Anya replied. "Cordelia told me about Samantha and Montague's ability to create medallions which will hide the presence of an individual from The First's reach," Anya stated. "We'll need them to get started straight away. As each demon gets a medallion, they'll find a home all around Sunnydale, some of them may even meld into The First's forces and act as spies," Anya replied.

"And in the mean time?" Giles asked.

"We'll have to make do," Anya replied. It was then that they heard the front door to the Summers' house crash open. Tara turned around to see that Oz had poked his head out the door and was looking at them all. He seemed a little caught for words as he took in the sight of the demons standing before him, but it only took a little while for him to regain his composure.

"Someone come quick…. It's Willow," he stated before turning around and rushing back inside the house.

The Deeper Well

As the sensation flowed throughout her body, fuelled on by her mind, she knew that she had never experienced anything like it: defeat. In her glory days, she had never often fought with the other Old Ones, preferring to stick to herself and those of her kind with a similar mindset, however when she was forced to fight, she always found herself victorious. Defeat was something she had never contemplated, having adequately protected herself from Illyria, Mars and Aeries, the most powerful of the Old Ones. Pain rippled through her body as another Syopher sunk its blade into her leg, sending her finally into the ground. She was still protecting the entrance to the Deeper Well, still between it and the rest of the army which had been brought on by The First. The common demons and humans which comprised the army were too fearful of approaching her, upon seeing what she had done to a number of Syophers which had attempted to take her on. It was then that the remaining Syophers which were within the army had decided to rush her en masse. Thirteen of them had surrounded Inanna, more than she could remember The First possessing in her time, however it was obvious that their numbers had increased dramatically with at least twenty on this island alone, having dispatched seven of them already. Inanna was struggling to keep them off, and she knew that her failure would be imminent and the army of The First would be free to enter the Deeper Well and destroy a large number of her brethren. They had her pinned to the ground now and were repeatedly inflicting injury on her with their weapons. It was then that she heard a thunderous clash, and felt a substantial weight taken off of her. Inanna struggled to her feet, feeling significantly weaker than she had before and witnessed a sight which forced the doubt from her mind. Standing in front of her was the body of the Slayer they had abducted from the Hellmouth, with a light blue tint on its eyes, hair and skin, holding a three pronged sceptre in its hand. It was Neptune.

"Have no fear Inanna, I come to your aid," Neptune said to her while moving to dispatch a Syopher.

"Be wary of the Syophers, their blades will penetrate your armour and skin and cause you harm," Inanna replied back.

"I shall cleave their heads from their bodies," Neptune replied. With Neptune taking the lead in the fight, Inanna moved behind him and retreated to the entrance to The Deeper Well in order to recover and take out any strays which got past Neptune.

Reviews much appreciated... next chapter - "Plan B"