Authors Notes: Longer chapter here. Expect more frequent updates, as I have a plan for this story into the foreseeable future. Remember, the more you review, the faster the chapters come.

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Chapter 3

Illyria pulled the Jaffa cargo ship that she had stolen from them out of Hyperspace, seeing that she had only just arrived at the Ionian Nebula. The passage through most of the nebula needed to be navigated in normal-space. Knowing that it would take hundreds of years to do that, Illyria planned on navigating in normal-space, and making a series of hyperspace jumps within the nebula to the next 'waypoint' so to say. Half of her mind couldn't believe that she had been reduced to such trivialities; having to navigate her way into a region of space which had been created by her race to keep lesser creatures out. She immediately dismissed such trivialities entering her mind, deciding to begin the journey through the nebula. She closed her eyes and concentrated, letting the senses of the Old One locked inside her shell expand. In the time since Angel made his stand against the forces of the Wolf, Ram and Hart in the alley that night, Illyria had noticed that her power was returning to her slowly, very slowly. The dimensional walls between her and the pocket dimension Wesley's Mutari Generator had stored her essence were not enough to keep them separated. It wasn't that the dimensional walls weren't strong enough to keep her essence from returning to her being, it was simply that her essence was seeping through the dimensional walls, slowly returning to her. It was bound to her as much as Illyria was now bound to this shell; and her power was returning to her because of that bond.

Illyria now focused on that power which she had within her, and used it to shift her consciousness to another plane of reality. Much like hyperspace, the reality existed along-side the one she was in now, and it could be used for a variety of purposes. She expanded her senses within the reality by a scale of multiple orders of magnitude. Illyria did not need to open the eyes of the shell; she could see the path through the multi-dimensional barrier which had been erected around the local region of space surrounding Kobol. It weaved and twisted like a snake, through a vortex of intense energies which would destroy her if anything tried to enter the region of space from another way. It was then, to Illyria's surprise that she sensed something else within the passage. Someone else was here. Focusing, Illyria began to search for the entity or entities, when she felt a fluctuation in the barrier surrounding the Ionian Nebula. She decided that the presence she felt would have to wait, and used her consciousness to explore the source of the fluctuations. Soon, she discovered an Asgard ship situated not too far away, on a cosmic scale, shooting a variety of instruments into the barrier; one of which managing to puncture the barrier slightly. Instantly, Illyria's consciousness crashed back down into her shell. The other presence which she had sensed within the Ionian Nebula would have to wait. Turning the cargo ship towards the Asgard ship, Illyria entered it into hyperspace. Within an hour, she would emerge from hyperspace alongside the Asgard ship, which needed to be dealt with immediately. Illyria did not know how she would deal with it, with the current restrictions of her shell; the Asgard probably having the means of restricting her now in her physical form; not the other way around.

Cleveland Watchers Council Headquarters

Willow looked at the man in front of her, and was curious towards him. His aura didn't give any indication that he was lying, but there were many ways of masking that. If he could get through the magical wards surrounding the building, he would certainly be capable of masking his aura.

"Wait," Willow said to the two Slayers which were approaching the man.

"Protect me from what?" Willow asked.

"The Government," he replied. "They're coming to get you, and they've got some pretty funky friends."

"Which Government?" Willow asked, seeing as she was registered as a resident in half a dozen countries around the world.

"I don't know. The American government I think," Peter replied.

"I can handle the government," Willow replied, knowing full well that the government was fairly low on her list of 'potentially threatening things to Willow'. "How did you get in here?" Willow asked him.

"I walked in," the man, Peter, replied.

"No you didn't," Willow replied immediately. "I saw you appear out of thin air," she continued, playing dumb. She looked to the remaining two Slayers who had turned up, making a total of four, surrounding the man in front of her. Willow saw the man looking uneasily at the stakes the Slayers were holding. "How did you get past the wards?" Willow asked.

"Wards?" he replied, glancing at her and then glancing at the Slayers around him.

"Yeah, wards. Those things I put up to prevent people from teleporting into this place," Willow replied.

"Look, I don't know how I did that," the man replied. Willow could tell that he was telling the truth, but that still didn't answer the question of how he had gotten past all the wards. "All I know is that I was told to find Willow Rosenberg and protect her," the man continued.

"Protect me from what? I think I'm pretty well protected," Willow replied, eyeing off the four Slayers surrounding the man. Willow was the most powerful witch in the world, who was sane anyway, and she didn't need much protection anymore. She could handle herself, and if not, there were literally hundreds of witches and thousands of Slayers within the new Watchers' Council. There wasn't much anyone could do to touch her, or any of the higher ranking members within the Council these days. "Who told you that I needed protection?" Willow asked further, wondering who had sent this man here. He looked fairly naive, however his eyes and his aura conveyed other things. Willow could tell that his life recently had changed, and had hardened him.

"That's complicated," the man replied. Willow wasn't buying into it though.

"Look. You just teleported into here, which shouldn't be possible. This is one of the most secure installations in the world, and you just appeared here. I think you need to un-complicate it," Willow said, getting frustrated.

"Charles Deveaux told me that I needed to protect you. He's dead," the man replied. "I also saw into the future. You were being locked away in some sort of containment cell by the government," the man replied. Again, Willow read his aura, and he was convinced he was telling the truth. Willow was going to take a few moments to consider what they were going to do with him, but then she realised that they didn't have to. He had breached their security, he'd be put in a cell until they figured out whether he was a risk or not, and how he had managed to get past the magical barriers surrounding the complex.

It was at that moment when Willow felt something in the air around them shift and change. She told the Slayers to keep Mr. Petrelli where he was. Her extended senses picked up subtle changes in the energy signature of the entire region around her. Subtle undertones of energy and magic which flowed through everything around them were subtly fluxing and changing beyond their natural fluctuations; whereas a moment ago, it was all normal. Willow closed her eyes and searched out the phenomenon with her mind, and was surprised to see that it was happening more around every Slayer in the complex. Immediately, Willow let herself be immersed in the immense energy of the earth beneath her feet, the air around her, the energy from the sun, and the tiny molecules of water which flowed around her. She used this energy as an anchor, and with her own power, expanded her senses fifty-fold. Willow was connected to the Scythe, and the Slayers were connected to it too. This meant that Willow was indirectly connected to all the Slayers. She used this fact to search for other Slayers in the greater region, and saw that the anomaly was more focused around them as well. An instant after Willow did so, the energy pattern which was focused on each Slayer, all came together and focused on her at once. It was then that Willow was able to realise what it was. The energy was acting as a feeler. Someone, or something, very powerful had been looking for the Slayers, and when Willow interfered, it then readjusted its focus entirely onto her. Summoning up strength, Willow investigate the energy which was now focusing on her. What she found was startling. There were a number of separate consciousnesses, and they were very old, and very strong. How old, she couldn't tell; not Illyria old, but old enough to be stronger than an experienced magic user on Earth. Luckily, Willow was far beyond experienced by this stage. Using her vast experience with magic and fighting demons, Willow feigned an attempt to block them off, while using part of her consciousness to find the beings who were doing this. It was to her surprise when she traced them back to an underground complex in Colorado Springs. The beings which had been seeking out the Slayers were strong, but tactically, they sucked. It wasn't until they were able to sense Willow's successful attempt to find them that they cut her off and repelled Willow's consciousness back into her body; too late to prevent Willow from finding them and finding out a little bit about them.

Willow fell back from the mental and magical repulsion by the three entities which had been tracking them down. Once she got up, she noticed that her nose was bleeding and wiped the blood away with her hand.

"Protect me from the government you say," Willow said to Peter Petrelli, now not doubting him as much as she did a few moments before.

Stargate Command

General Landry found himself trying to digest the information the Nox had recently divulged to himself and SG1. There had been a young girl throughout history fighting monsters of myth and legend, being put through tremendous hardships and seeing things that no young girl should see. It was preposterous. Landry was also concerned that the government didn't know anything about it. Surely if creatures which the vampire myth was based on were present on Earth, someone, somewhere would have heard about it. It was then that Landry realised that someone probably did know about it and that the reason that no one knew about it was because that certain someone was making sure that the truth remained hidden; much like the Stargate was being hidden from the world at the moment. Still, America had to bring in other countries once they got suspicious, and if these creatures had been on Earth since the time of the Ancients, then more than one group of people must have noticed them. The group or groups who were covering this up had to have some serious political pull, and Landry realised that the group may be much more powerful than The Trust ever was or ever could be.

Landry saw Walter approaching. It was no surprise when he said that the Nox had finished their business and were proceeding back to the briefing room. It was surprising that while the Nox conducted their search, by whatever means they did, none of the surveillance equipment which was within the area recorded anything; all of them recording two hours of static. Landry dismissed Walter and headed to the briefing room. Simultaneously, he arrived with SG1 and only a few moments later, the Nox arrived.

"Please, have a seat," Landry said, gesturing towards one side of the briefing room table. The Nox sat down, and Landry could tell that they had found something unexpected.

"General Landry, SG1, we have found something most unexpected," Lya said, almost as if she could read Landry's mind. Landry felt himself nodding, prompting Lya to continue. "When the Slayer was first created, a small fraction of the essence of a demon was combined with a human, and a number of restrictions placed upon that essence. The primary one being that only one Slayer could exist at a time," Lya started. Landry saw a number of the members of SG1 nod their heads in understanding. "When a Slayer was to die, the demon essence would then be transferred to the next possible candidate. This would ensure that one, and only one, Slayer would exist. We searched for the current Slayer, but did not find her," Lya said. She paused for emphasis. "We found thousands of them. Every person who had the potential to become a Slayer at some stage, now is one," Lya said. "We continued our investigations, and found that there was one person who was connected to all the Slayers, but was not a Slayer herself," Lya expressed. "We believe that this person is responsible for changing the Slayer doctrine. We wish to speak with her" Lya concluded. Landry took in the information, but he felt that there was something that the Nox wasn't telling him.

"We will do all that we can to accommodate your request," Landry replied, "however I get the feeling that there's something you're not telling us." He watched as all three Nox looked at each other, before Interprid of the Nox spoke up.

"This person, Willow Rosenberg is her name, is very powerful. One of the most powerful witches we have encountered on this world in recent history. She is more controlled and grounded than most. She was able to trace us back to this facility, and I believe that she will come here, searching for us," Interprid said.